The Piccards: To the Ends of the Earth

Overview

This is the remarkable story of a Swiss family whose scientific quests compelled them to take perilous adventures into the earth's stratosphere and to the depths of the ocean. Physicist August Piccard built the first pressurized capsule and became the first to pilot a balloon into the stratosphere and live to tell about it. He then built a revolutionary submarine called the bathyscaph, which was capable of descending to the very bottom of the sea. In January 1960, August's son Jacques realized his father's dream when he piloted the craft to the deepest point on earth, 35,800 feet beneath the waves. Rare expedition footage and exciting first-person accounts offer a fascinating look at these genteel and fearless explorers.