Andrée and his Balloon

Salomon-Auguste Andrée was born on the 18th of October, 1854, at Grenna, a little town in the province of Smoiland. His father was a chemist. The rather severe training received at the hands of their father, imbued the children of the Andrée family at an early age with the spirit of obedience and punctuality. Their father died some years ago, and their mother, a distinguished lady, died in the spring of 1897.

After finishing his educational course young Andrée entered the technical school, an institution exclusively intended for civil engineers,—artillery and army engineers’ officers having a separate Higher School. He chose the mechanical engineering section of the school, and left it an engineer. He thereupon worked for some time (as is frequently the custom in Sweden) as a simple mechanic in a workshop, sharing in every respect the life of an ordinary workman. Later on, he travelled abroad for purposes of study.

The knowledge he thus acquired, both theoretical and practical, procured him the distinction of being appointed, at the early age of twenty-six, assistant professor of pure and applied physical science at the technical school.

At the age of twenty-eight, in 1892, he took part in a Swedish meteorological expedition to Spitzbergen. He wintered there until the next year, directing the experiments and observations on atmospheric electricity.

In 1884, Andrée was appointed chief engineer to the Patent Office,—being a newly created post,—and from 1886 to 1889 he occupied, at the same time, a professor’s chair at the technical school of Stockholm.

However, his position at the Patent Office, being a post of the highest importance, claimed all his time and energy, and Andrée found himself obliged to resign the professorship.

But he could not give up the idea of scientific aerostation, a problem which had always haunted his mind since his early youth.

The Swedish Academy of Science, which counts among its members famous men like A. Nordensjold, G. Retzius, G. Mittaz-Leffler, the mathematician, H. Hildebran and O. Montelius, the antiquarians, and others known and esteemed by the learned world, turned their attention to Andrée’s projects, and in 1892 he received from the Academy and the “L. J. Hjerta Memorial Foundation,” a subvention for the purpose of undertaking scientific aerial navigation—an honour which was unprecedented in Sweden.