Actually this is uncertain.
I was asking Claude AI here below....
auguste piccard what did he say about the shape of the earth
4:46 PM
Claude responded: This is a well-known quote that gets frequently misused in flat-earth circles, so it's worth unpacking properly.
Searched the web
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This is a well-known quote that gets frequently misused in flat-earth circles, so it's worth unpacking properly.
The quote: After his record-breaking 1931 stratosphere balloon flight, a
Popular Mechanics/Popular Science article included the description that the Earth "seemed a flat disc with an upturned edge."
FlatEarth.ws
What it actually means: The phrase isn't even clearly a direct quote from Piccard — it's not in quotation marks in the article, and the surrounding paragraph is written in the third person ("the observers saw the earth...").
Steemit
More importantly, the observation itself is a well-understood optical/perceptual effect. The horizontal plane through one's eye appears as a flat plane, and other horizontal planes in the distance, above or below it, seem to curve toward that fixed plane — essentially a visual illusion caused by perspective from altitude.
Metabunk
What Piccard actually believed: In another interview, it is clear that he was convinced the Earth is a sphere. In his writings about his expeditions, the word "globe" was mentioned several times, and his book
Earth, Sky, and Sea never once mentioned flat Earth. In fact, his grandson claimed on his website that Auguste Piccard was the first man to witness the curvature of the Earth.
FlatEarth.wsFlatEarth.ws
The altitude context also matters: Piccard reached about 15,781 m (roughly 51,775 ft) — not far above the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner today — and Earth's curvature is still not easy to see from that altitude, especially through small portholes.
FlatEarth.ws
So the short answer: the quote is real (or close to real), but it describes a visual impression at moderate altitude, not a claim about the shape of the Earth. Piccard was a globe-Earth scientist through and through.
You said: Your reading into this also.
Your reading into this also. I'm just asking if he ever mentioned what he saw.
4:47 PM
Claude responded: Fair point, sorry for the editorializing!
Fair point, sorry for the editorializing!
Yes — after his 1931 high-altitude balloon flight, Piccard was reported to have said the Earth "seemed a flat disc with an upturned edge," describing what he observed looking out through the portholes of his pressurized gondola from about 15 miles up.
You said: So he said this or not?
So he said this or not?
4:49 PM
Claude responded: Based on the sources, it's a bit murky.
Based on the sources, it's a bit murky. The phrase appeared in a
Popular Science article about his flight, but it wasn't clearly in quotation marks — the surrounding text was written in third person. So it may be a reporter's description rather than Piccard's own words.
You said: Was Popular Science other articles like this, where they did not place quotations marks?
Was Popular Science other articles like this, where they did not place quotations marks?
4:50 PM
Claude responded: That's a fair question, and honestly I don't know enough about Popular Science's specific editorial style in the 1930s to answer it reliably.
That's a fair question, and honestly I don't know enough about
Popular Science's specific editorial style in the 1930s to answer it reliably. That would take a closer look at the original article and other pieces from that era.
You said: Who wrote the article
Who wrote the article
4:52 PM
Claude responded: That I don't know off the top of my head.
That I don't know off the top of my head. Would you like me to search for it?
You said: Ok
Ok
4:52 PM
Claude responded: The article was titled "Ten Miles High in an Air-Tight Ball: A fantastic aerial exploit that Jules Verne never dreamed of," :antCitation[]{citations="fd5ce8c5-…
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The article was titled "Ten Miles High in an Air-Tight Ball: A fantastic aerial exploit that Jules Verne never dreamed of," and the contributors listed for that August 1931 issue of
Popular Science were Edwin W. Teale and John Chapman Hilder. I wasn't able to pin down which of them specifically wrote the Piccard piece.
AbeBooksAbeBooks
You said: Was the magizine know for falsifying stuff
Was the magizine know for falsifying stuff
4:53 PM
Claude responded: Not particularly.
Not particularly. Popular Science was and still is a well-regarded mainstream science publication with a long history going back to 1872. It wasn't known for fabricating quotes or stories. That said, journalism standards in the 1930s were somewhat looser than today, and paraphrasing a subject's words without quotation marks was not uncommon practice at the time.
You said: So Piccard's not quoted statement could be more true than false.
So Piccard's not quoted statement could be more true than false.
4:56 PM
Claude responded: That's a reasonable conclusion.
That's a reasonable conclusion. Given that Popular Science was a reputable publication and paraphrasing without quotes was common practice at the time, the description likely came from something Piccard actually said or communicated — just rendered in the reporter's own words rather than as a direct quote.
