Chapter IX: Balloons

The remarkable lightness of hydrogen early suggested the fitness of that gas for the inflation of balloons. From the earliest ages men have desired to navigate the air. The drudgery of land travelling over hills and mountains, over marshes and streams, through jungles and forests, has led men to prefer voyaging even by sea. Thus the people of the United States crossed the stormy Atlantic in large numbers long before they traversed the wilds of the American continent to the Pacific coast; and the early voyagers from New York to the Golden Gate of San Francisco preferred the water way, though it led them through an enormous distance and around the perilous Cape Horn, rather than undertake the shorter course over the Rocky Mountains. Even at a later date, the sea voyage to Panama, and across the Isthmus, and again by water way to San Francisco was the ordinary course until Pacific railroads created a land pathway from one side of the continent to the other. So men, envying the bird in its flight through the mobile air, have desired yet more to conquer its smooth courses, just as their keels have found a sliding pathway in the watery main. But no truly successful air-voyaging was possible until about one hundred years ago.

Invention of the Balloon.

In the year 1783 two brothers named Stephen Montgolfier and Joseph Montgolfier, succeeded in sending up into the atmosphere the first air-ship worthy of the name. They lived in France at a little town named Annonay, situated about forty miles south of Lyons, and at the junction of two small streams whose clear waters flow into the river Rhone. Here the brothers carried on with increasing skill and success the manufacture of paper, a business which their father had conducted there before them, and which in fact is carried on by their descendants of the same name even at the present day. The brothers, Stephen and Joseph, were skillful mechanics, and one of them, it is said, had studied Dr. Priestley’s work on “Different Kinds of Air.” This seems to have led him to the idea of aerial navigation. However that may be, it is a matter of history that on the 5th of June, 1783, the two brothers sent up from Annonay a balloon about thirty-five feet in diameter. Naturally it was made of paper, though lined with linen. The ascensional power of this balloon was due to a proportional lightening of the air within it by the influence of heat. The heat was produced by the combustion of a large quantity of chopped straw, and also from burning wool previously saturated with a little alcohol. Probably the Montgolfier brothers did not then fully know why their balloon ascended: they appear to have thought that it arose because of the volumes of smoke that filled it. It is hardly probable that either Stephen or Joseph Montgolfier thought at that time of using hydrogen for their air-ship, notwithstanding its extraordinary lightness had been a matter of public scientific knowledge for six or seven years. This may seem the more strange in view of the admitted fact that as early as 1767 Dr. Black, of Edinburgh, had publicly demonstrated that a suitable vessel filled with hydrogen would ascend in the atmosphere as cork does in water. Of course they did not think of employing illuminating gas, because that substance was not then in public use.

The First Balloon Ascension in Paris.

The news of the wonderful and successful experiment at Annonay was quickly sent to Paris, where it produced a profound sensation. The interest extended from scientific men to the royal family and the court, and indeed to the entire population of the capital. For the French people—perhaps even more than other nations of Europe—seem to have been particularly interested at this time in the study of chemical and physical science. The king instantly issued a summons for the Montgolfiers to come to Paris. But the Parisians could not even await their arrival. The scientists of the capital, though but partially informed as to the character of the experiments performed at Annonay, at once set to work. They decided upon hydrogen gas as probably the best fitted for their purposes. Whereupon they filled a globular balloon with this gas, and prepared to try it in public upon the Champ-de-Mars. It is said that three hundred thousand people—that is, nearly half the population of Paris—gathered together, crowding every adjacent avenue, to witness the unparalleled undertaking. The liberation of the aerial messenger was announced to the public by a salvo of artillery. The balloon immediately shot upward and, piercing the clouds, was soon lost to view. When afterward it slowly descended it reached the ground some fifteen miles from Paris. Here a troop of peasants who detected the strange apparition, were at first struck with alarm but quickly rallied, attacked the strange monster and of course soon reduced it to shreds. The whole chain of circumstances created so much excitement that the Government thought proper to issue a proclamation upon the subject. A copy of this interesting document is here presented in its original form. Perhaps some readers will find the accompanying translation acceptable:

French Proclamation Respecting Balloons.

_Avertissement au peuple sur l’enlèvement des ballons ou
globes en l’air._

On a fait une découverte dont le gouvernement a jugé
convenable de donner connaissance, afin de prévenir les
terreurs qu’elle pourrait occasioner parmi le peuple. En
calculant la différence de pesanteur entre l’air appelé
inflammable et l’air de notre atmosphère, on a trouvé
qu’un ballon rempli de cet air inflammable devait s’élever
de lui-même dans le ciel jusqu’ au moment où les deux
airs seraient en équilibre, ce qui ne peut être qu’ à
une très grande hauteur. La première expérience a été
faite à Annonay, en Vivarais, par les sieurs Montgolfier,
inventeurs. Une globe de toile et de papier de cent cinq
pieds de circonférence, rempli d’air inflammable, s’éleva
lui-même à une hauteur qu’on n’a pu calculer. La même
expérience vient d’être renouvelée à Paris, le 27 août à
cinq heures du soir, en présence d’un nombre infini de
personnes. Un globe de taffetas enduit de gomme élastique,
de trente-six pieds de tour, s’est élevé du Champ-de-Mars
jusque dans les nues, où on l’a perdu de vue. On se propose
de répéter cette expérience avec des globes beaucoup plus
gros.

Chacun de ceux qui découvriront dans le ciel de pareils
globes, qui présentent l’aspect de la lune obscurcie, doit
donc être prévenir que, loin d’être un phénomène effrayant,
ce n’est qu’une machine toujours composée de taffetas ou de
toile légère recouverte de papier, qui ne peut causer aucun
mal, et dont il est à présumer qu’on fera quelque jour des
applications utiles aux besoins de la société.

_Lu et apprové,
ce 3 septembre, 1783._ DE SAUVIGNY.

_Notice to the public relative to the ascension of
balloons or globes into the air._

A discovery has been made to which the government considers
it advisable to call public attention, with a view of
preventing alarms which it otherwise might occasion among
the people. Upon calculating the difference of weight
between the gas called inflammable air and the air of
our atmosphere, it has been discovered that a balloon
filled with this inflammable air ought to rise of itself
to a height in the sky such that the air within and that
without will be in equilibrium, a condition which will
not be reached except at a very great elevation. The
first experiment of this sort has been made at Annonay,
in Vivarais, by the Messrs. Montgolfier, the inventors.
A globe of cloth and paper one hundred and five feet in
circumference and filled with inflammable air rose of itself
to a height which the observer could not calculate. The
same experiment has just been repeated at Paris on the 27th
of August at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, in presence of a
vast number of persons. A sphere of taffeta coated with gum
elastic, thirty-six feet in circumference, ascended from the
Champ-de-Mars even to the clouds, in which it became lost
to sight. It is contemplated repeating this experiment with
very much larger globes.

Anyone who discovers in the sky globes of this sort which
present the appearance of the moon when slightly obscured,
may therefore be warned that, far from being an alarming
phenomenon, this is nothing but a machine always constructed
of taffeta or of light cloth covered with paper, which
cannot do any injury, and which it is thought will assume at
some future time a form that will prove useful to the public.

_Read and approved,
September 3, 1783._ DE SAUVIGNY.

The enthusiasm created by the original experiment of the Montgolfier brothers led soon after to the election of both of them to the Academy of Sciences. Moreover their invention was not allowed to rest long in its original form.

As early as November of the same year, 1783, two French gentlemen had the courage to risk their lives in an ascension from Paris in a balloon of the Montgolfier construction. They floated freely away and made their landing in safety. One of them, however, De Rozier by name, on a later occasion attempted to cross the Channel in a double balloon, one part containing hydrogen, the other heated air in the Montgolfier style. But at a great altitude the hydrogen balloon took fire from the other, and De Rozier and his companion were dashed to pieces on the rocks of the French coast. Since that early rash attempt thousands of interesting and safe balloon ascensions have been made, and increased knowledge of the scientific principles has largely contributed to the pleasure and comfort of the aeronaut. Yet the contrivance has been in most cases little more than a scientific toy.

The atmospheric air has thus far baffled the inventive power of man to such an extent that the balloon as a mechanical contrivance has been subjected to but few decided improvements since the Montgolfiers’ first experiments, and ascensions have afforded comparatively meagre scientific or other results. Indeed the most of them have been conducted for personal gratification or popular entertainment.

Of course there are marked exceptions. Thus on the 24th of August, 1804, two of the youngest but most distinguished of French physicists, Messrs. Gay-Lussac and Biot, made an important ascension. Their voyage was upon the suggestion of the French Academy of Sciences, and they were well equipped with apparatus for making observations. Their results, particularly in magnetism, showed the same laws prevailing in the higher air as upon the earth. But as there were afterwards expressed some doubts as to the accuracy of these observations, Gay-Lussac made a later and higher ascent alone. On the 16th of September he attained an altitude of twenty-three thousand feet, the greatest reached up to that date. His experiments on this occasion verified those made before. Of particular interest was his test of the composition of the atmosphere. The bottle of air collected at this great height was found upon analysis to possess the same proportional amounts of oxygen and nitrogen as that collected at the surface of the earth.[3]

[3] Of Gay-Lussac and this ascension there is told a pretty tale, which I will not mar by making a translation:

“Parvenu à la hauteur de 7000 mètres, il voulut, dit-il, essayer de monter plus haut, et se débarrassa de tous les objets dont il pouvait rigoureusement se passer. Au nombre de ces objets figurait une chaise en bois blanc, que le hasard fit tomber sur un buisson, tout près d’une jeune fille qui gardait les moutons. Quel ne fut pas l’étonnement de la bergère!—Comme eût dit Florian.—Le ciel était pur, le ballon invisible.—Que penser de la chaise, si ce n’est qu’elle provenait du paradis?—On ne pouvait objecter à cette conjecture que la grossièreté du travail: les ouvriers, disaient les incrédules, ne pouvaient là-haut être si inhabiles. La dispute en était là, lorsque les journaux, en publiant toutes les particuliarités du voyage de Gay-Lussac, y mirent fin, en rangeant parmi les effets naturels ce qui jusqu’ alors avait parut un miracle.”—_Arago: Eloge de Gay-Lussac._

The height of this ascent has since been surpassed by Messrs. Glaisher and Coxwell, of England, who on Sept. 5, 1862 attained an altitude of about thirty-seven thousand feet.

Recent Use of Balloons.

Hydrogen is the lightest substance known, and this consideration tends to make it a particularly favorable one for the inflation of balloons. But we have seen that it was not until after the Montgolfier experiments that hydrogen came into considerable use for this purpose. Hydrogen is still occasionally prepared for purposes of this sort. It is then produced by the action of sulphuric acid upon zinc. The equation already given explaining this action is as follows:

=Zn= + =H₂SO₄=

One atom of One molecule of
Zinc, Sulphuric acid,
65 98
parts by weight. parts by weight.
\___________________________________/
|
163

= =ZnSO₄= + =H₂=

One molecule of One molecule of
Zinc sulphate, Hydrogen,
161 2
parts by weight. parts by weight.
\_____________________________________/
|
163

In case zinc is not at hand, iron turnings have been made to answer the same purpose; and the chemical change in this event is represented by an equation of very similar form:

=Fe= + =H₂SO₄=

One atom of One molecule of
Iron, Sulphuric acid,
56 98
parts by weight. parts by weight.
\___________________________________/
|
154

= =FeSO₄= + =H₂=

One molecule of One molecule of
Ferrous sulphate, Hydrogen,
152 2
parts by weight. parts by weight.
\_____________________________________/
|
154

Both of these methods of producing hydrogen are still somewhat used where balloons have to be inflated at points distant from a city gas supply. But the manufacture of illuminating gas is now so general, even in small towns, that this substance is oftener used at the present day. The superior convenience with which it may be obtained makes it preferred to hydrogen, notwithstanding the greater ascensional power of the latter substance.

Balloons have been used somewhat in recent wars. Thus they were found of considerable service during the siege of Paris, particularly from September 23, 1870, to January 28, 1871. During these last four months of that siege sixty-two balloons left the city, and they carried out above two million letters and a great many homing pigeons. Some of the birds returned, escaping the Prussian sharp-shooters, and brought with them letters and despatches, printed upon the thinnest of paper, in the form of microscopic photographs. The balloons also took out of Paris during the siege two especially notable passengers, the one, Leon Gambetta, head of the provisional government, who left the city for the purpose of conducting the public business in the provinces; the other, Prof. Janssen, who had the courage to venture out in the darkness of early morning so as to escape the rifles of the beleaguring forces. His voyage was for the purpose of reaching the station in Algeria from which he was to observe the total eclipse of the sun, to occur a few weeks later, December 22, 1870. Readers who are interested in the use of balloons during this memorable siege will find a most interesting account in Mr. Glaisher’s book, _Travels in the Air_. It contains a description of the manufacture of air-ships in Paris, together with a list of the passengers and an account of the freight of those leaving the city when other means of communication with the outside world were cut off.

The Centenary of Ballooning.

It is worthy of note that in August, 1883, the centenary of the experiment of the Montgolfier brothers was celebrated by their descendants and others at Annonay by a modern balloon ascension and other fêtes. These included the dedication of a monument to the two inventors. This monument is soon to be surmounted by a group in bronze representing the two brothers inflating their first balloon.

READING REFERENCES.

Balloons, Their Early History.
=Figuier=, L.—Les Aérostats et les Aéronautes.
Revue des Deux Mondes. Oct. 1, 1850. p. 193.
[This interesting article will well repay the reader.]

=Blerzy=, H.—La Navigation Aérienne. Revue des Deux Mondes.
Nov. 1863. p. 279.
[Claim is here made, in a general way, that the original invention
of the balloon was made at the close of the 17th century by a
Portuguese named Gusmao.]

Balloons, Their Recent Uses.
=Glaisher=, James, and others.—Travels in the Air. London. 1871.
=Hofmann=, A. W.—Chem. News. xxxii, 231, 241, 255, 265.

Balloons, Centenary of Their Invention.
=London= Graphic. Aug 25, 1883.

Balloons, Popular Account of.
=Harper’s= Magazine. ii, 168, 323; xxxix, 145.
=Scribner’s= Monthly. i, 385.

Gay-Lussac.
=Arago=, D. F. J.—Oeuvres Completes. Paris. 1854-59. iii.
[The Boston Athenæum library has this work.]