Up in the Clouds | Page 6

minds led
them to apply in new fields of speculation. They were associated in
business with their father, a man who passed his quiet days like a
patriarch amidst a large family and a numerous body of dependants,
until he reached the advanced age of ninety-three.
Stephen devoted himself chiefly to the study of mathematics, Joseph to
chemistry; and they were accustomed to form their plans in concert. It
appears that they had long contemplated, with philosophical interest,
the floating and ascent of clouds in the air, and when they heard of or
read Cavendish's theories in regard to different kinds of air, it at once
struck them that by enclosing some gas lighter than the atmosphere in a
bag, a weight might be raised from the earth into the air.
The brothers Montgolfier were men of that vigorous stamp who act
promptly on receiving their convictions. At once they set about
experimenting, and constructed large bags of paper,--the substance
which naturally came readiest to their hands, and which appeared to
them to be best suited to their purpose. These were filled with hydrogen
gas, which raised them to the ceiling; but, owing to the escape of the
gas through the pores and cracks of the case, those embryo balloons
descended in a few minutes. Instead of varnishing the paper to prevent
the escape of the gas, and supposing, erroneously, that the fault lay in
the latter, they sought about for a new gas more suitable to the paper.
This they found, as they supposed, in the gas which resulted from the
combustion of wet straw and wool, which had an upward tendency,
they thought, on account of its electrical properties, which caused it to
be repelled from the ground. It is scarcely necessary now to point out
that the true cause of the upward tendency lay in the rarefaction of the
air by the heat of the fire, and that hot air has a tendency to rise because
its bulk is greatly increased beyond the same quantity of the
surrounding cold air.
Although wrong in assigning the cause of the result, they were right in
the application of it. While on a visit to Avignon Joseph Montgolfier
procured a silk bag having a small opening at its lower end, and a
capacity of about fifty cubic feet. Under the orifice some paper was

burnt; the air inside was heated and expanded so as to fill the bag,
which, when let go, soared rapidly up to the height of seventy or eighty
feet, where it remained until the air cooled and allowed it to descend.
Thus did the first balloon ascend in the month of November 1782.
Delighted with their success, the indefatigable brothers resolved to
make further experiment on a larger scale. They procured a quantity of
packcloth or coarse linen, formed it into a globe about ninety feet in
circumference, lined it with paper, and lighted a fire under it in an iron
choffer. This balloon went up with a force which they estimated as
equivalent to 500 pounds.
After this the Montgolfiers appeared to have become ambitious of
accomplishing greater things, and giving to their discoveries publicity;
for we are told that, "they invited the members of the provincial
meeting of the states of the Vivarais, then assembled at Annonay, to
witness the first public aerial ascent. On the 5th June 1783, amidst a
very large concourse of spectators, the spherical bag or balloon,
consisting of different pieces of linen, merely buttoned together, was
suspended from cross poles. Two men kindled a fire under it, and kept
feeding the flame with small bundles of chopped straw. The loose bag
gradually swelled, assuming a graceful form, and in the space of five
minutes it was completely distended, and made such an effort to escape
that eight men were required to hold it down.
"On a signal being given the stays were slipped, and the balloon
instantly rose with an accelerating motion till it reached some height,
when its velocity continued uniform, and carried it to an elevation of
more than a mile. All was admiration and transport. Amidst the shouts
of unbounded applause, the progress of the artificial cloud retiring from
sight arrested every eye. It was hurried along by the wind; but its
buoyant force being soon spent, it remained suspended only ten
minutes, and fell gently in a vineyard at a distance of about a mile and a
half from the place of its ascension. So memorable a feat lighted up the
glow of national vanity, and the two Montgolfiers were hailed and
exalted by the spontaneous impulse of their fellow-citizens."
This event created a sensation not only in France but over the whole of

Europe. In Paris, particularly, the effect on all classes was so great that