'Zenith' balloon ascent. 19th-century illustration of the journalist Joseph Eustache Croce-Spinelli (1845-1875), naval officer Henri-Theodore Sivel (1834-1875), and French author and scientist Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899) in the basket of the balloon 'Zenith' ascending to an altitude of nearly 28,000 feet (8600 metres) near Paris, France, on 15 April 1875. Croce-Spinelli and Sivel lost consciousness and died during this ascent. Tissandier survived, but became deaf. Artwork from 'Aerostation - Aviation' (1911) by French civil engineer Max de Nansouty (1854-1913), part of the 'Les merveilles de la science' series of 1867-1891 by Louis Figuier.