The Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation by Gillispie. Charles Coulston,

Hard back book with colour pictorial cover, 210 pages, 5 chapters illustrated with colour and B/W plates, bibliography, notes, index.

Charles Coulston Gillispie introduces the readers to the brothers Montgolfier, who launched the first hot-air balloon in Annonay, France on 4 June 1783. Drawing on previously unexploited family papers, he portrays the innovativ Montgolfiers not only as important contributors to technology and to the beginnings of aviation but as characters in an entertaining tale. The Montgolfiers' story includes the application of Joseph's ideas on the expansive force of heat to the improvement of the steam engine by his nephew, Marc Seguin, who designed and built the first cable suspension bridges in the world and the first railroad in France.

Professor Gillispie also tells of other inventors and adventurers who rushed into the air partly in imitation of the Montgolfiers and partly in competition with them. The physicist Jacques-Antoine Charles experimented with hydrogen as a lifting agent, pouring sulphuric acid into barrels of iron filings and contriving to fill a balloon with the puffs of in-flammable gas produced an operation almost as risky as the manned flights that ensued.