1. Eduard Spelterini was a Swiss pioneer of ballooning and of aerial photography.
14 Facts About Eduard Spelterini
1. 2.
At the age of eighteen, Eduard Spelterini allegedly went first to Milan and then to Paris to be trained as an opera singer.
3.
Eduard Spelterini's singing career was cut short by a severe case of pneumonia.
4.
Subsequently, Eduard 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 Eduard Spelterini's balloon during the flights.
5.
The spectacle, but Eduard Spelterini's often taking journalists for a ride for free ensured them favourable publicity.
6.
Eduard Spelterini turned southwards, making ascents in Bucharest, Saloniki, and Athens, before moving to Cairo.
7.
On 26 July 1891 Eduard Spelterini made his first ascent in Switzerland, starting at the Heimplatz in Zurich.
8.
On various occasions, Eduard 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.
9.
Geologist Albert Heim had once proposed to Eduard Spelterini to try crossing the Alps by balloon.
10.
Around 1893, Eduard Spelterini had begun to take a camera aboard his balloon and started to take pictures on his flights.
11.
Eduard Spelterini presented his photos in slide shows wherever he went, from Stockholm to Cape Town, fascinating his audiences and winning the general acclaim of the press, who reviewed his presentations favorably.
12.
Eduard Spelterini retired as an independent gentleman to Coppet near Geneva with his wife Emma, whom he had married on 28 January 1914 in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.
13.
The airplane had surpassed ballooning, nobody cared anymore about his pre-war exploits, and Eduard Spelterini was all but forgotten.
14.
Eduard Spelterini returned to Zipf, where he died impoverished and largely unknown in 1931.