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N0KFQ > TODAY 21.11.14 17:59l 75 Lines 3356 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 21
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Sent: 141121/1556Z 40547@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.61
Nov 21, 1783:
Men fly over Paris
French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François
Laurent, the marquis d' Arlandes, make the first untethered
hot-air balloon flight, flying 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25
minutes. Their cloth balloon was crafted by French papermaking
brothers Jacques-Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventors
of the world's first successful hot-air balloons.
For time immemorial, humanity has dreamed of flight. Greek
mythology tells of Daedalus, who made wings of wax, and Leonardo
da Vinci drew designs of flying machines and envisioned the
concept of a helicopter in the 15th century. It was not until the
1780s, however, that human flight became a reality.
The first successful flying device may not have been a
Montgolfier balloon but an "ornithopter"--a glider-like aircraft
with flapping wings. According to a hazy record, the German
architect Karl Friedrich Meerwein succeeded in lifting off the
ground in an ornithopter in 1781. Whatever the veracity of this
record, Meerwein's flying machine never became a viable means of
flight, and it was the Montgolfier brothers who first took men
into the sky.
Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier ran a prosperous paper business in
the town of Vidalon in southern France. Their success allowed
them to finance their interest in scientific experimentation. In
1782, they discovered that combustible materials burned under a
lightweight paper or fabric bag would cause the bag to rise into
the air. From this phenomenon, they deduced that smoke causes
balloons to rise. Actually, it is hot air that causes balloons to
rise, but their error did not interfere with their subsequent
achievements.
On June 4, 1783, the brothers gave the first public demonstration
of their discovery, in Annonay. An unmanned balloon heated by
burning straw and wool rose 3,000 feet into the air before
settling to the ground nearly two miles away. In their test of a
hot-air balloon, the Montgolfiers were preceded by Bartolomeu
Lourenço de Gusmao, a Brazilian priest who launched a small
hot-air balloon in the palace of the king of Portugal in 1709.
The Montgolfiers were unaware of Lourenço's work, however, and
quickly surpassed it.
On September 19, the Montgolfiers sent a sheep, a rooster, and a
duck aloft in one of their balloons in a prelude to the first
manned flight. The balloon, painted azure blue and decorated with
golden fleurs-de-lis, lifted up from the courtyard of the palace
of Versailles in the presence of King Louis XVI. The barnyard
animals stayed afloat for eight minutes and landed safely two
miles away. On October 15, Jean-François Pilßtre de Rozier made a
tethered test flight of a Montgolfier balloon, briefly rising
into the air before returning to earth.
The first untethered hot-air balloon flight occurred before a
large, expectant crowd in Paris on November 21. Pilßtre and
d'Arlandes, an aristocrat, rose up from the grounds of royal
Chßteau La Muette in the Bois de Boulogne and flew approximately
five miles. Humanity had at last conquered the sky.
The Montgolfier brothers were honored by the French Acadßmie des
Sciences for their achievement. They later published books on
aeronautics and pursued important work in other scientific
fields.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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