Montgolfier Brothers

Brothers Montgolfier
Joseph Montgolfier was born in August 1740 and Étienne Montgolfier born five years later, they grow up in a family of sixteen children. Their father was a paper manufacturer,owner of a factory at Viladon-les-Annonay, south of Lyon, France.
Throughout history, humankind has looked at the clouds and dreamed of what it would be like to be among them, looking down. Josephobserved the sky, too, and had the idea to get some paper from the factory, made a large bag, filled it with steam, and produced a sodden mass of paper.
Étienne's imagination was also stirred. Fromscientific reading, he had the idea of making a bag float in the air with hydrogen gas obtained from sulphuric acid and iron filings.
Experimenting indoors, in November 1782, Joseph achieved asmall-scale success using a taffeta envelope filled with hot air rise to the ceiling. Now the dream of the Montgolfier brothers seemed in reach. With more taffeta, rope, and high hopes, they prepared alarge-scale experimental balloon.
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Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier saw their hopes becoming reality with the first public demonstration on June 4 1783. Their first step was taken when theirhot-air balloon took off from Annonay, France. The 800 cubic meters balloon rose to a height of 1,000 meters, and traversed a distance of two kilometers. It was made of cloth, lined with paper, coatedwith alum as fireproofing, and its several segments held together by about 2,000 buttons.
The balloon flight was a success even though the physics was not well understood by the brothers. They believedthat smoke provided the lift for the light fabric balloon. Thus, the balloon was filled by smoke from a fire of straw, humidified wool and even of old shoes! Later they knew that the hot air providedby the fire that mattered, not the smoke.
For a second intent, a new balloon of 1,400 cubic meters was built. The demonstration took place in Paris in the presence of King Louis XVI on September...