FIRST BALLOON ASCENSION
a.d. 1783
HATTON TURNOR
Few problems of invention have ever engaged more students and experimenters than those which bear upon aërial navigation. The history of early experiments in this direction has a peculiar interest at present, in view of the numerous recent trials by aëronauts in different countries.
At the time of the first balloon ascension, described by Turnor, interest in the possibilities of aërostatics was very active and widespread, especially among the scientific mechanicians of Europe. Many experiments with "aërostatical globes" and the like had been made in Great Britain and on the Continent. Leonhard Euler, to whom Turnor refers, was a famous Swiss mathematician who had given much study to these things. He was in Russia, and about to die, when in France the first aërostat, or balloon, was sent up by the inventors, the brothers Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, French mechanicians, who were made corresponding members of the Academy. This form of air-balloon—the first successful one—is known as the "Montgolfier."
A shout of joy rang through Europe, and reached the ear of the aged Euler, on the banks of the Neva, who, between attacks of vertigo, which were soon to carry him from this scene to a better, dictated to his sons the calculations he had made on aërostatical globes. It is said he ceased to calculate and live at the same instant.
The cause of so great enthusiasm had better be given in the accurate description that immediately circulated among the peoples:
"On Thursday, June 5, 1783, the States of Vivarais being assembled at Annonay (37 miles from Lyons), Messrs. Montgolfier invited them to see their new aërostatic experiment.
"Imagine the surprise of the Deputies and spectators on seeing in the public square a ball, 110 feet in circumference, attached at its base to a wooden frame of 16 feet surface. This enormous bag, with frame, weighed 300 lbs., and could contain 22,000 feet of vapor.
"Imagine the general astonishment when the inventors announced that, as soon as it should be filled with gas—which they had a simple means of making—it would rise of itself to the clouds. One must here remark that, notwithstanding the general confidence in the knowledge and wisdom of Messrs. Montgolfier, such an experiment appeared so incredible to those who were present, that all doubted of its success.