The first public demonstration of a lighter-than-air machine took place on June 4, 1783, in Annonay, France, when Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier, two brothers who owned a paper mill, sent up an unmanned hot-air balloon. They had observed that smoke tended to rise and that paper bags placed over a fire expanded and also rose, pushed upward by the hot air. They concluded that if they could only capture what they thought was a unique gas inside an enclosed lightweight bag, this container or bag would rise from the ground. Etienne Montgolfier carried out the first experiment at Avignon, France, in September 1782, proving their theory to be sound. They had rediscovered the theory of buoyancy, which the Greek mathematician and philosopher Archimedes had discovered in the second century B.C.E.
Their original test balloon was made of paper and linen and opened at the bottom. When flaming paper was held near the opening, the bag, called a 'balon', slowly expanded with the hot air and floated upward.
The brothers tested balloons ranging in size from 40 cubic feet (1.1 cubic meters) to 650 cubic feet (18.4 cubic meters). The balloons rose from 90 feet (27 meters) to 600 feet (183 meters) in the air. After concluding that their experiment worked, they finally built a large cloth and paper balloon 10 meters in diameter and tested it on June 4, 1783, in the marketplace at Annonay. The balloon, from then on called a Montgolfiere, rose about 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) into the air.
After their success, the brothers went to Paris and built another larger balloon. On September 19, 1783, in Versailles, the Montgolfiers flew the first passengers in a basket suspended below a hot-air balloonâ??a sheep, a rooster, and a duck. The flight, which lasted eight minutes, took place in front of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French court, as well as a crowd of about 130,000. The balloon flew nearly 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) before returning the occupants safely to earth.
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