| Description: | The First Balloons: 1783-84
"Here in the space of one sheet of paper, are six superbly rendered pictures of five classic balloons, all of them collector's pieces.
(top left) The inflation of the small Charles hydrogen balloon, built of rubberised fabric by the brothers Robert, and sent up as a test vehicle from the Champ de Mars on August 27th, 1783, with no animals or instruments attached. It was this little balloon which was beaten to death by the country- folk when it landed; and it was also this balloon which was referred to in the famous remark by Benjamin Franklin; when asked what use a balloon could be put to, he replied "And what is the use of a new born baby?"
(top centre) This is the "animal ascent", with another test vehicle, sent up by the Montgolfières from Versailles on September 19th, 1783, carrying in a basket a sheep, a duck and a cock, all of which landed safely.
(top right) Here is a "portrait", so to say, of the great Montgolfière which was first sent up tethered in October 1783 with a man on board; and, on October 19th, with two men, Pilâtre de Rozier (who had been the first to ascend) and Giroud de Villette-shown here on this occasion, but without the tethering ropes: this was the balloon which was to make the world's first aerial voyage (see below).
(bottom left) Quite the finest and most accurate representation of the first aerial voyage in history, when Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes flew in a Montgolfière for some five miles over Paris on November 21st, 1783.
(bottom centre) An equally accurate and finely rendered view of the first hydrogen voyage, with the inventor, Professor J. A. C. Charles, setting off with one of the Robert brothers from the Tuileries Gardens on December 1st, 1783; they landed at Nesle, 27 miles away; whereupon Charles went up again alone.
(bottom right) The largest of the Montgolfières was the splendid balloon named "Le Flesselles" which, on January 19th, 1784, ascended at Lyon carrying no less than seven people, among them Joseph Montgolfier, whose only flight this seems to have been. At first there were six who went aboard; then the officials tried to force three of them to get out, as they thought it would be dangerous: the three having successfully refused, yet another man jumped on board at the last minute, and up went all seven to some 3,000 ft. without any difficulty."
C H Gibbs-Smith
One of 12 prints from the Collections of the Royal Aeronautical Society reproduced by the Society
to mark its Centenary in 1966 -No. 6 |
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