Race to the Stratosphere

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 633 Race to the Stratosphere: Manned Scientific Ballooning in America. By David H. DeVorkin. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1989. Pp. xiii + 406; illustrations, notes, index. $39.50. David DeVorkin has produced a scholarly and provocative book on the history of scientific ballooning in the first half of the 20th century. Race to the Stratosphere focuses on manned scientific ascents into the stratosphere, particularly the technical role of Jean and Jeannette Piccard in promoting manned ballooning. DeVorkin charts their frustrations and small triumphs as they are buffeted by the pressures of military and corporate patrons and the university scientific estab­ lishment. The tale he weaves is a complex technological adventure, undergirded by serious historical analysis. DeVorkin examines both the rhetoric used to justify funding for manned ballooning and its real motivations. He argues that manned balloon ascents, touted as the means to solve the origins of cosmic rays, in fact were not necessary in terms of their scientific payoff. Better data could be and were garnered from unmanned balloons, particularly improved ballons-sondes sent aloft by the German physicist Erich Regener. The rivalry between two American scientific heavy­ weights, Robert Millikan and Arthur Holly Compton, heightened public interest in the debate within the scientific community. Were the mysterious cosmic rays charged particles or photons? Only flight beyond the earth’s atmosphere could solve this scientific conundrum. Although scientists were unconcerned whether human beings or automatic instruments took the required readings, the balloonists of the 1930s capitalized on the myth of the scientist explorer. To the public, the aeronauts were the nation’s brave new frontiersmen in the otherwise drab years of the Depression era. In the 1930s, both the first American flight sponsored by the “Century of Progress” World’s Fair and Exposition in Chicago and the record-breaking ascent backed by the National Geographic Society and the Army Air Corps capitalized on the rhetoric of service to science. Although the latest scientific instruments were carried aloft, the scientific agenda was often compromised by the priorities of ensuring the safety of the aeronauts. Scientific ballooning was more a race than a rational program to enlarge the bounds of human knowledge. Flight into the stratosphere tested hardware and human endurance. It created an opportunity for corporate and military sponsors to try out new designs, materials, and potential military applications. The documentation for DeVorkin’s history is impressive. He quotes liberally from letters and other documents to bring personalities and motives to light. He also untangles the changing technology of ballooning, illuminating it with judiciously chosen illustrations. The narrative continues through the period after World War II, where it becomes rather tedious, possibly because DeVorkin devotes little 634 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE attention to the changed political and social environment of the late 1940s and 1950s. DeVorkin concludes his book with a provocative chapter that suggests parallels between scientific ballooning and the Apollo pro­ gram. In the 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administra­ tion (NASA) claimed landing on the moon would reveal the origin of the solar system, but, like scientific ballooning, the Apollo program was essentially a technology program that used science and scientists to win patronage. In both eras, science was compromised. Landing on the moon was more a stunt in the prestige race with the Soviet Union than the dispassionate quest for knowledge. Unmanned Voyager probes, DeVorkin points out, could have provided scientists with the data they desired. Apollo was an expensive means to demonstrate America’s technical prowess. DeVorkin has combined a mastery of technical detail with sophis­ ticated analysis to make Race to the Stratosphere a solid contribution to the history of technology. He has explored a facet of the sciencetechnology relationship to reveal the pattern of American cultural values implicit in what gets funded. He has clearly demonstrated that science and technology often have distinctly different aims and priorities. “Big science” in the United States can be a euphemism for large-scale technology programs. DeVorkin has demonstrated that analysis of the rhetoric used to promote science and technology is an important means to evaluate past achievements and test future promise. Virginia P. Dawson Dr. Dawson, an adjunct professor at Cleveland

Atmosphere (unit) · Ballooning · Meteorology · Physics · Stratosphere · History · History and Developments in Astronomy · Polar Research and Ecology · Space exploration and regulation