Joseph Michel Montgolfier
(1740-1810) and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier (1745-1799) were the
sons of a paper manufacturer in Annonay, France. The two brothers
became interested in science and in 1782 they constructed an air
balloon that was lifted by lighting a cauldron of paper beneath
it, and therefore heating and rarifying the air it contained. On
4th June, 1782, this hot air balloon reached a height of about 6,560
feet (2,000 m).
The brothers now moved
to Paris and on 19th September, 1782, their balloon carried a sheep,
a goose and a rooster. The following year the Montgolfier brothers
managed to persuade Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes
to became the first people to take part in a manned balloon flight.
In November, 1783, the two men travelled 7 miles (12.1 km) in less
than half an hour at the height of 3,000 feet (915 m).
The outbreak of the French
Revolution brought these experiments to an end. In later life Joseph
Montgolfier developed an early parachute, a calorimeter and a hydraulic
ram.
