fëlinç thé Firstby David L Bristowart by Dave Clark

I

On August 27y 1783, a hig, round monster came floating out of

the sky toward the small village ofGonesse, France.

a s k

alloonsThe people were

terrified. They

threw rocks

at it, attacked it with

pitchforks, and when they

had killed it, they used a

horse to drag its carcass

away into a field.

You probably wouldn't

do any of those things

if you saw a big balloon

' landing near your home.

But back in 1783, very

few people had ever seen

such a thing. The villagers

didn't know what it was.

The unmanned balloon

seemed like something

out of a monster tale, or

the moon fallen to Earth.

They soon learned their

mistake, but to keep this

from

happening in

another village, the

French government

issued a proclamation

telling people not to be

afraid of balloons.

In 1783 if you wanted

to go somewhere, you

could walk, ride a horse,

or sail in a ship. Flying

was out of the question.

No one had ever sailed

into the sky, and there

was no reason to think

that anyone ever would.

But that year two

inventors began experi-

menting with balloons.

One inventor filled his

balloons with hot air.

The other filled his with

a newly discovered gas

called hydrogen. Both

men wanted to build

a balloon that could

carry people.

Who would be the

first to fly?

f

a s k

Just keep\ talking.l j

Ir

Hot Air PowerBallooning started with

Joseph Montgolfier, who

was not the sort of ——

person you'd expect

to be an inventor. He

didn't like school,

ran away from home

as a teenager, and

failed in business

as a grownup. He was

very unlike his younger

brother, Etienne, who

was responsible and

successful.

But when Joseph

started reading on his

own, he discovered

that he loved science

and experiments. A

lot of good science

starts with simply

paying attention and

thinking about what

WhyDoes Hot Air Rise?

Air is made of tiny, floating molecules

that are too small to see. As air gets warmer,

the molecules move faster and get farther apart.

This makes hot air less dense than cold air—so it rises.

The Montgolfiers didn't quite understand this at first.

I They thought the fire turned the air into some other kind

of gas depending on what was burned. They tested lots of

\ different fuels, even old shoes and rotten meat. These

smelted awful—though the stink did help keep crowds

\ away from the balloons! Eventually, they realized

• ^ that it didn't matter what they burned as

long as it made the air hot.

you've seen. Joseph made

a common observation

and then did something

amazing with it.

Joseph noticed that

hot air rises. Everyone .

knew that. He also

noticed that rising hot air j

can carry solid objects

with it. If you've ever |

\

watched bits of ash rising

with the smoke from a

fire, you've seen it too.

He wondered, what if

I filled a cloth bag with

hot air? Would the rising

air lift the bag? Only one

way to find out!

Sure enough, bags

filled with hot air rose

like smoke. Soon, Joseph

and Etienne were making

larger and larger cloth

bags, which they called

ballons, the French word

for ball. They held public

demonstrations, filling

the balloons over a fire

pit and letting them go.

The balloons went up and

then came down as the

air inside cooled off.

Soon everyone in the

Montgolfiers' hometown

of Annonay was talking

about balloons. Next, the

brothers went to the great

city of Paris to show off

their new invention.

Up, Up, and AwayJoseph and Etienne

wanted to send people

up in a balloon, but they

didn't want to go them-

selves. They may have

thought it was dangerous.

And the king of France

wouldn't allow it until

one more experiment

was made.

So the first to fly in a

balloon weren't its inven-

tors, but a sheep, a rooster,

and a duck. They went up

together in a wicker cage.

Would there be enough

air to breathe so high up?

Would the balloon come

down too fast?

Tens of thousands

of people watched the

animals ascend. The

animals flew high and

landed without harm 2

miles (3 kilometers) away,

but the king was still

reluctant. Next he wanted

to send up a few crimi-

nals who were already

condemned to death.

"What?" asked a

young scientist named

• • • C

k Jean-François Pilâtre

de Rozier. "Allow

two vile criminals to

have the first glory of

rising into the sky! No,

no—that will never do!"

Rozier was an

energetic man. He had

already founded a

science museum and

invented an early type

of gas mask to protect

workers in sewers. When

he heard about balloons,

he wanted to be part

of the experiments. He

wanted to be the first

person to fly, but who

was he to talk to a king?

He needed help from a

nobleman. So he offered

the Marquis d'Arlandes

a deal: Convince the king

to let me fly, and you can

come along too. The plan

worked, and so, before

an enormous crowd just

outside of Paris, the two

men climbed aboard

a tall and beautifully

decorated balloon.

Unlike the Mont-

golfiers' early balloons,

this one would carry

its own fire. It had a

doughnut-shaped basket

for the men to stand in,

and in the center was a

fire basket where they

would throw bundles of

straw. By tending the fire,

they could control whether

they went up or down—

though they had no way

I to steer, so they would go

in whatever direction the

wind took them.

Lotsofpeopleinthe

• crowd probably thought

the men were flying to

their deaths, but Rozier

wasn't afraid of the sky.

The biggest risk was

accidentally setting fire to

the balloon.

The crowd stood

still and silent as the

great balloon rose slowly

into the air. D'Arlandes

couldn't help but stare

down at the crowd as they

stared up at him. Rozier

was busy tending the fire.

"You are doing

nothing," Rozier scolded,

"and the balloon is

scarcely rising!"

D'Arlandes threw

more straw on the fire,

but he couldn't stop

looking down at all the

places he knew, seeing

them as a bird would.

Then something

made a loud pop, then

another. It sounded

" ' ^ >

Xio o

like ropes breaking.

D'Arlandes saw a place

where the balloon's fabric

was burning.

"We must descend!"

he cried.

But now they were

over Paris itself. With

all the buildings and

chimneys, landing in the

city would be dangerous.

To fight the fires, the

men had only a bucket

of water and one sponge

apiece, but it was enough.

As they rushed to put the

(f.

sparks out, the balloon

sank to rooftop level.

Quickly, they stoked the

main fire and rose out

of danger. They landed

safely in the country 5

miles (8 kilometers) and

25 minutes from their

starting point. So ended

the first human flight.

Meanwhile, back in

Paris, Professor Jacques

Charles was building a

big hydrogen balloon for

his own first journey into

the air.

Rule #17. Pon't 9etyour balloon on fire.

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Higher and FartherProfessor Charles wasn't

the first to fly, but he

wasn't far behind. His first,

unmanned balloon was

the one attacked by the

villagers of Gonesse. His

first passenger-carrying

balloon was ready to launch

less than two weeks after

Rozier's flight.

Charles's balloon was | He didn't need a fire

different from the one the to make his balloon rise.

Montgolfiers made. It was In fact, hydrogen burns,

smaller and filled with a so he didn't want fire

lighter-than-air gas called anywhere nearby.

hydrogen. ^ Without a fire to help

^ ^ ^ ! the balloon go up andMaking ^ ^ ^ ^ down, Charles had to

Hydrogen... with RustHow did early balloonists make hydrogen?

The secret was... rust. Every molecule of water is

made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. If

you could split the molecules, you'd have all the hydrogen

you wanted. And rust can do that splitting for you. Oxygen

is very attracted to some metals. When these metals come in

contact with water, the water molecules split. Oxygen bonds

with the metal to make rust, and the hydrogen goes

free, as hydrogen gas. Early chemists figured out

how to "make" hydrogen by steaming iron

shavings to make them rust really fast. As the

hydrogen floats free, you pump it into your

balloon. Professor Charles used acid instead

of steam to do the same thing.

Today, blimps and party balloons are filled

with helium, a lighter-than-air gas that wasn't

known in Charles's time. It's safer to use than

hydrogen because it doesn't burn.

find other ways

to control it.

He came

up with two clever

devices that have been

used in flying balloons

ever since. First, the

balloon carried bags of

sand. To rise, you just

throw out a little sand to

make the balloon lighter.

Second, the balloon had

a little trap-door valve

at the top, which was

connected to a rope. To

come down, just pull the

rope and let out a little

hydrogen.

The largest crowd yet

came to watch Charles

and a companion go up

in the balloon. The two

men waved flags and

everyone cheered as the

balloon rose quickly into

the sky

Charles flew higher

and farther than Rozier

and D'Arlandes. He

landed 27 miles (43

kilometers) away, and

then—for fun—went up

again by himself. By then

it was after sunset, but

Charles rose more than 2

miles (3 kilometers), and

from his high viewpoint

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„^.'uw-jS"

. -' /v^N

the sun popped back up

over the horizon before

setting again. He figured

he was the first person

ever to watch two sunsets

in one day! He landed

safely a second time.

The first "aeronauts,"

as they would soon be

called, were hailed as

heroes. All of France was

talking about balloons.

Some people thought

they would revolutionize

travel and bring distant

countries together.

Balloons would cross

oceans quickly and carry

mail and passengers.

Some even talked of

flying them to the moon.

But others worried

that balloons would

become a weapon of war.

They feared a time when

one nation could invade

! another through the air.

They predicted future

y

battles in which deadly

armies clashed in the sky

And of course all those

things came true—just

not with balloons. In the

20th century, airplanes

and rockets would do

what balloons could not.

But the dream of flight

and how it might change

the world really started

in 1783, back when a

few people rode the first

balloons into the sky. ^

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