Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Montgolfier Brothers
*** Shopping-Tip: Montgolfier Brothers
Image:Jacques Étienne Montgolfier.jpg thumb|250px|Jacques Étienne Montgolfier
The '''Montgolfier brothers''', '''Joseph Michel Montgolfier''' (
August 26,
1740 –
June 26,
1810) and '''Jacques Étienne Montgolfier''' (
January 6,
1745 –
August 2,
1799),
inventor invented the '''''montgolfière''''', or
hot air balloon.
The brothers were the sons of a
paper manufacturer at
Annonay, south of
Lyon. When playing with inverted paper bags over open fire they found that the bags rose to the ceiling. This led them to experiment further with larger bags made of other materials. During 1782 they tested indoors with silk and linen.
On
December 14,
1782 they succeeded in an outdoor launch of an 18 m³ silk bag, which reached an altitude of 250 m.
On
June 5,
1783, as a first public demonstration, they sent up at Annonay a 900 m³ linen bag inflated with hot air. Its flight covered 2 km, lasted 10 minutes, and had an estimated altitude of 1600 - 2000 m.
The subsequent test sent up the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep, a duck and a cockerel, to ascertain the effects of the air at higher altitude. This was performed at
Versailles, before
Louis XVI of France, to gain his permission for a trial human flight.
An ascent in a tethered balloon took place around
October 15 (on the 12 or 14 according to Montgolfier), to an altitude of 26 m.
On
November 21,
1783, the first free flight by humans was made by
Pilâtre de Rozier and the
marquis d'Arlandes, who flew aloft for 25 minutes about 100 metres above
Paris for a distance of nine kilometres.
(A flight by Karl Friedrich Meerwein in 1781 with his "ornithopter", a flapping device, probably preceded this event, but it never became a generally used viable means of flight.Henry Cavendish had discovered hydrogen gas, by adding sulphuric acid to iron, tin, zinc shavings, and
hot air balloons were superseded by
hydrogen gas balloons. This was followed by further flights, including a crossing of the English Channel on January 7, 1785, by Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries. Balloons using heated air rather than lighter-than-air gasses did not return until the
1960s, when
Raven Industries improved the safety of the classic Montgolfier design by using
ripstop nylon for the envelope and
propane gas as the burner fuel.
External links
-
"Lighter than air: the Montgolfier brothers"
-
"Balloons and the Montgolfier brothers"
-
"Karl Friedrich Meerwein"
Category:Balloonists
Category:French people
Category:Sibling duos
Category:1740 births
Category:1810 deaths
de:Montgolfier
es:Hermanos Montgolfier
fr:Frères Montgolfier
io:Montgolfier fratuli
he:×”×?×—×™×? ×ž×•× ×’×•×œ×¤×™×™×”
nl:Gebroeders Mongolfier
ja:モンゴルフィエ兄弟
no:Brødrene Montgolfier
pl:Bracia Montgolfier
pt:Etiene e Joseph Montgolfier
ru:Монгольфье
sr:Браћа Монголфје
fi:Montgolfierin veljekset
sv:Montgolfier
zh:åŸæ ¼è?²å…„弟
see
Montgolfier brothers
*** Shopping-Tip: Montgolfier Brothers
