Word: ballast
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When the sun set, the balloon cooled and dropped to 68,000 ft. Commander Ross dumped 300 lbs. of "sunset ballast" (mostly steel shot) to boost it up again. Though the gondola was insulated, it soon grew deathly cold. Both men shivered so hard that they literally shook the whole gondola. When Venus finally rose at 3:30 a.m., Moore started to turn the telescope toward it. But whenever the men moved, the gondola corkscrewed and rotated, vibrating all the time from their shivering. "It was very hard to point in a given direction," says Moore. "It showed that Newton...
Another mineral is a rich reality. In 1941 a trader picked up a big black stone to ballast his canoe on the Amapari River, later had it analyzed. It turned out to be 60% pure manganese, and today the mine is the Amazon's biggest enterprise, shipping out 75,000 tons a year...
Chief sea-serpent man is Biologist John D. Isaacs, who is working out ways to catch the inhabitants of the depths of the ocean. One under study is a disk several hundred feet in diameter, with floats around the edge and ballast in the center. When it reaches a predetermined depth, the ballast will be detached, and the floats will pull the net upward. As it rises, it will inflate with water just as a parachute inflates with air, scooping up any giant squid and sea serpents...
...anchored at sea, and queried by radio for oceanographic and meteorological data. Other buoys sink to the bottom, where they can record currents, take pictures of their surroundings. They will be brought to the surface months later by a small charge of TNT exploded near by, which triggers their ballast-release mechanism...
...place on such a list would go to Author Condon's second novel, an almost complete catalogue of humanity's disorders, including incest, dope addiction, war, politics, brainwashing and multiple murder. The book carries a superstructure of plot that would capsize Hawaii, and badly insufficient philosophical ballast. Yet Condon distributes his sour, malicious humor with such vigor and impartiality that the novel is certain to be read and enjoyed...