fëlinç thé Firs On August 27y 1783, a hig, round monster came floating out of the sky toward the small village ofgonesse, France.

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1 fëlinç thé Firs by David L Bristow art by Dave Clark I On August 27y 1783, a hig, round monster came floating out of the sky toward the small village ofgonesse, France. ask

alloons f The people were terrified. They threw rocks at it, attacked it with pitchforks, and when they had killed it, they used a horse to drag its carcass away into a field.

2 alloons f The people were terrified. They threw rocks at it, attacked it with pitchforks, and when they had killed it, they used a horse to drag its carcass away into a field. You probably wouldn't do any of those things if you saw a big balloon ' landing near your home. But back in 1783, very few people had ever seen such a thing. The villagers didn't know what it was. The unmanned balloon seemed like something out of a monster tale, or the moon fallen to Earth. They soon learned their mistake, but to keep this from happening in another village, the French government issued a proclamation telling people not to be afraid of balloons. In 1783 if you wanted to go somewhere, you could walk, ride a horse, or sail in a ship. Flying was out of the question. No one had ever sailed into the sky, and there was no reason to think that anyone ever would. But that year two inventors began experimenting with balloons. One inventor filled his balloons with hot air. The other filled his with a newly discovered gas called hydrogen. Both men wanted to build a balloon that could carry people. Who would be the first to fly? ask

$Just keep \ talking.l j Ir Hot Air Power Ballooning started with Joseph Montgolfier, who was not the sort of person you'd expect to be an inventor.$

3 Just keep \ talking.l j Ir Hot Air Power Ballooning started with Joseph Montgolfier, who was not the sort of person you'd expect to be an inventor. He didn't like school, ran away from home as a teenager, and failed in business as a grownup. He was very unlike his younger brother, Etienne, who was responsible and successful. But when Joseph started reading on his own, he discovered that he loved science and experiments. A lot of good science starts with simply paying attention and thinking about what Why Does Hot Air Rise? Air is made of tiny, floating molecules that are too small to see. As air gets warmer, the molecules move faster and get farther apart. This makes hot air less dense than cold air so it rises. The Montgolfiers didn't quite understand this at first. I They thought the fire turned the air into some other kind of gas depending on what was burned. They tested lots of \ different fuels, even old shoes and rotten meat. These smelted awful though the stink did help keep crowds \ away from the balloons! Eventually, they realized ^ that it didn't matter what they burned as long as it made the air hot. you've seen. Joseph made a common observation and then did something amazing with it. Joseph noticed that hot air rises. Everyone. knew that. He also noticed that rising hot air j can carry solid objects with it. If you've ever watched bits of ash rising with the smoke from a fire, you've seen it too. He wondered, what if I filled a cloth bag with hot air? Would the rising air lift the bag? Only one way to find out! Sure enough, bags filled with hot air rose like smoke. Soon, Joseph and Etienne were making larger and larger cloth bags, which they called ballons, the French word for ball. They held public demonstrations, filling the balloons over a fire pit and letting them go. The balloons went up and \

4 then came down as the air inside cooled off. Soon everyone in the Montgolfiers' hometown of Annonay was talking about balloons. Next, the brothers went to the great city of Paris to show off their new invention. Up, Up, and Away Joseph and Etienne wanted to send people up in a balloon, but they didn't want to go themselves. They may have thought it was dangerous. And the king of France wouldn't allow it until one more experiment was made. So the first toflyin a balloon weren't its inventors, but a sheep, a rooster, and a duck. They went up together in a wicker cage. Would there be enough air to breathe so high up? Would the balloon come down too fast? Tens of thousands of people watched the animals ascend. The animals flew high and landed without harm 2 miles (3 kilometers) away, but the king was still reluctant. Next he wanted to send up a few criminals who were already condemned to death. "What?" asked a young scientist named C

k Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. "Allow two vile criminals to have the first glory of rising into the sky! No, no that will never do!" Rozier was an energetic man.

5 k Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. "Allow two vile criminals to have the first glory of rising into the sky! No, no that will never do!" Rozier was an energetic man. He had already founded a science museum and invented an early type of gas mask to protect workers in sewers. When he heard about balloons, he wanted to be part of the experiments. He wanted to be the first person tofly,but who was he to talk to a king? He needed help from a nobleman. So he offered the Marquis d'arlandes a deal: Convince the king to let mefly,and you can come along too. The plan worked, and so, before an enormous crowd just outside of Paris, the two men climbed aboard a tall and beautifully decorated balloon. Unlike the Montgolfiers' early balloons, this one would carry its own fire. It had a doughnut-shaped basket for the men to stand in, and in the center was a fire basket where they would throw bundles of straw. By tending the fire, they could control whether they went up or down though they had no way I to steer, so they would go in whatever direction the wind took them. Lotsofpeopleinthe crowd probably thought the men were flying to their deaths, but Rozier wasn't afraid of the sky. The biggest risk was accidentally setting fire to the balloon. The crowd stood still and silent as the great balloon rose slowly into the air. D'Arlandes couldn't help but stare down at the crowd as they stared up at him. Rozier was busy tending the fire. "You are doing nothing," Rozier scolded, "and the balloon is scarcely rising!" D'Arlandes threw more straw on the fire, but he couldn't stop looking down at all the places he knew, seeing them as a bird would. Then something made a loud pop, then another. It sounded

"'^> Xi o o like ropes breaking. D'Arlandes saw a place where the balloon's fabric was burning. "We must descend!" he cried. But now they were over Paris itself.

6 "'^> Xi o o like ropes breaking. D'Arlandes saw a place where the balloon's fabric was burning. "We must descend!" he cried. But now they were over Paris itself. With all the buildings and chimneys, landing in the city would be dangerous. To fight the fires, the men had only a bucket of water and one sponge apiece, but it was enough. As they rushed to put the (f. sparks out, the balloon sank to rooftop level. Quickly, they stoked the main fire and rose out of danger. They landed safely in the country 5 miles (8 kilometers) and 25 minutes from their starting point. So ended the first human flight. Meanwhile, back in Paris, Professor Jacques Charles was building a big hydrogen balloon for his own first journey into the air. Rule #17. Pon't 9et your balloon on fire. ask

Higher and Farther Professor Charles wasn't the first tofly, but he wasn't far behind. His first, unmanned balloon was the one attacked by the villagers of Gonesse.

7 Higher and Farther Professor Charles wasn't the first tofly, but he wasn't far behind. His first, unmanned balloon was the one attacked by the villagers of Gonesse. His first passenger-carrying balloon was ready to launch less than two weeks after Rozier's flight. Charles's balloon was He didn't need a fire different from the one the Montgolfiers made. It was smaller and filled with a to make his balloon rise. In fact, hydrogen burns, so he didn't want fire lighter-than-air gas called anywhere nearby. hydrogen. ^ Without a fire to help ^^^! the balloon go up and Making ^ ^ ^ ^ down, Charles had to Hydrogen... with Rust find other ways How did early balloonists make hydrogen? to control it. The secret was... rust. Every molecule of water is made of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. If He came you could split the molecules, you'd have all the hydrogen you wanted. And rust can do that splitting for you. Oxygen is very attracted to some metals. When these metals come in contact with water, the water molecules split. Oxygen bonds with the metal to make rust, and the hydrogen goes free, as hydrogen gas. Early chemists figured out how to "make" hydrogen by steaming iron shavings to make them rust really fast. As the hydrogen floats free, you pump it into your balloon. Professor Charles used acid instead of steam to do the same thing. Today, blimps and party balloons are filled with helium, a lighter-than-air gas that wasn't known in Charles's time. It's safer to use than hydrogen because it doesn't burn. up with two clever devices that have been used in flying balloons ever since. First, the balloon carried bags of sand. To rise, you just throw out a little sand to make the balloon lighter. Second, the balloon had a little trap-door valve at the top, which was connected to a rope. To come down, just pull the rope and let out a little hydrogen. The largest crowd yet came to watch Charles and a companion go up in the balloon. The two men waved flags and everyone cheered as the balloon rose quickly into the sky Charles flew higher and farther than Rozier and D'Arlandes. He landed 27 miles (43 kilometers) away, and then for fun went up again by himself. By then it was after sunset, but Charles rose more than 2 miles (3 kilometers), and from his high viewpoint ask

^.'uw-js". -' N /v^ y the sun popped back up over the horizon before setting again. He figured he was the first person ever to watch two sunsets in one day! He landed safely a second time.

8 ^.'uw-js". -' N /v^ y the sun popped back up over the horizon before setting again. He figured he was the first person ever to watch two sunsets in one day! He landed safely a second time. travel and bring distant countries together. Balloons would cross oceans quickly and carry mail and passengers. Some even talked of flying them to the moon. The first "aeronauts," But others worried as they would soon be that balloons would called, were hailed as become a weapon of war. heroes. All of France was They feared a time when talking about balloons. one nation could invade Some people thought! another through the air. they would revolutionize They predicted future battles in which deadly armies clashed in the sky And of course all those things came true just not with balloons. In the 20th century, airplanes and rockets would do what balloons could not. But the dream of flight and how it might change the world really started in 1783, back when a few people rode the first balloons into the sky. ^

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Physical Science. Scott Foresman Reading Street 2.1.5

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