First hydrogen balloon History of ballooning

passarola, bartolomeu de gusmão’s airship



the balloon built jacques charles , robert brothers attacked terrified villagers in gonesse.

following robert boyle s boyle s law had been published in 1662, , henry cavendish s 1766 work on hydrogen, joseph black proposed if gaseous element filled balloon, inflated object rise air. jacques charles, study of gases led namesake law of volumes, had studied works of cavendish, black, , tiberius cavallo, , thought hydrogen lift balloon.

jacques charles designed balloon, , robert brothers constructed lightweight, airtight gas bag. barthélémy faujas de saint-fond organized crowd-funded subscription finance brothers project. roberts dissolved rubber in solution of turpentine, varnished stitched-together sheets of silk, make main envelope. used alternating strips of red , white silk, rubberising varnish yellowed white silk.

jacques charles , robert brothers began filling world s first hydrogen balloon on 23rd of august 1783, in place des victoires, paris. balloon comparatively small, 35 cubic metre sphere of rubberised silk (about 13 feet in diameter), , capable of lifting 9 kg. filled hydrogen had been made pouring quarter of tonne of sulphuric acid onto half tonne of scrap iron. hydrogen gas fed envelope via lead pipes; not passed through cold water, gas hot when produced, , contracted cooled in balloon, causing great difficulty in filling balloon completely. daily progress bulletins issued on inflation, attracting crowd became great, on 26th balloon moved secretly night champ de mars (now site of eiffel tower), distance of 4 kilometres.. on august 27, 1783, balloon released; benjamin franklin among crowd of onlookers.

the balloon flew northwards 45 minutes, pursued chasers on horseback, , landed 21 kilometres away in village of gonesse reportedly terrified local peasants attacked pitchforks , knives, , destroyed it.