Eduard Spelterini

Eduard Spelterini (June 2, 1852 – June 16, 1931) was a Swiss pioneer of ballooning and of aerial photography.

Spelterini was born in Bazenheid in the Toggenburg area in Switzerland as Eduard Schweizer. His father, Sigmund Schweizer, was an innkeeper. When he was eight years old, the family reportedly moved to northern Italy, to a place near the Swiss-Italian border in the province of Como. Eduard is said to have attended the schools in Lugano. At the age of eighteen, Eduard allegedly went first to Milan and then to Paris to be trained as an opera singer. During this time, he chose the name "Spelterini", because to him it sound fancier than "Schweizer". His singing career was cut short by a severe case of pneumonia.

In any case, Spelterini turned up in the mid-1870s in Paris, and in 1877 he was licensed by the Académie d'Aérostation météorologique de France as a ballon pilot.

In the 1880s, after having successfully made 17 ascents by himself, Spelterini began to offer commercial rides with passengers. In 1887, he had his first own balloon made by the Surcouf company in Paris, a gas balloon with a volume of 1,500 cubic meters, which he named "Urania". The first voyage with this ballon was on October 5, 1887, starting in Vienna. Subsequently, Spelterini moved to the United Kingdom, where he performed together with an American aerial acrobat going by the name of Leona Dare who would perform acrobatic acts suspended under the basket of Spelterini's balloon during the flights. The spectacle, but also Spelterini's often taking journalists for a ride for free ensured them favourable publicity. Together, they toured eastwards through Europe until Moscow, where they parted. Spelterini turned southwards, making ascents in Bucharest, Saloniki, and Athens, before moving to Cairo. After his ascents in spring 1890 over the pyramids of Giza he continued touring, first to Naples, then to Istanbul.

In 1891, Spelterini returned to Switzerland. By that time, he was famous for his ballooning adventures. On July 26, 1891, Spelterini made his first ascent in Switzerland, starting at the Heimplatz in Zurich. The initial skepticism of the people vanished quickly, and his starts soon attracted crowds wherever he turned up: Zurich, Winterthur, St. Gall, Interlaken, Vevey, ... His endeavours also caught the attention of scientists. On various occasions, Spelterini made ascents with scientists solely for the purpose of conducting experiments: with physicists to study the atmosphere, with physicians to study human blood cells at low atmospheric pressure, with geologists to study the earth from above.

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