Ascent of Piccard's altitude research balloon, 1931, (1932). On 27 May 1931, Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) and his assistant Paul Kipfer took off in a balloon from Augsburg, Germany, and reached a record altitude of 15,781 metres (51,775 feet). The spherical, pressurised aluminum gondola permitted ascent to great altitude without requiring pressure suits. Piccard gathered data on the upper atmosphere and measured cosmic rays. From "Die Eroberung Der Luft", (The Conquest of the Air), cigarette card album produced by the Garb?ty cigarette factory, 1932. Eugene and Moritz Garb?ty, who were Jewish, were driven out of business by the Nazis in the late 1930s, and forced to sell their factory which lay empty for over 70 years. [Garbaty Cigarettenfabrik, Berlin-Pankow, 1932]