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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that gives you a bird's eye view of

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Speaker 1: history every day of the week. I'm Gay Blusier, and

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Speaker 1: in this episode we're talking about a landmark day in aviation,

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Speaker 1: the one when human beings took to the skies for

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Speaker 1: the first time with the help of a balloon and

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Speaker 1: a lot of hot air. The day was November one, three.

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Speaker 1: At a public demonstration in Paris, two volunteers embarked on

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Speaker 1: the first free ascent in a hot air balloon. The

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Speaker 1: fearless passengers were French aristocrat Francois Laurent Darlande and physicist

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Speaker 1: Jean Francois Pilatre de Rosier. The pair took off in

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Speaker 1: a cloth balloon and traveled roughly five and a half

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Speaker 1: miles through this enter of Paris to the suburbs. They

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Speaker 1: were in the air for about twenty five minutes, completely

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Speaker 1: untethered from the ground below. The age old dream of

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Speaker 1: human flight had finally become a reality. The historic event

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Speaker 1: was organized by Jacques at the End and Joseph Michele Mongolfier,

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Speaker 1: a pair of brothers who ran a successful paper business

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Speaker 1: in southern France. They were inspired to invent the world's

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Speaker 1: first successful hot air balloon after observing how heated air

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Speaker 1: caused paper in fabric to rise. According to some historians,

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Speaker 1: that realization came in sevent two when Joseph Michelle was

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Speaker 1: watching his wife's laundry dry over a fire. He noticed

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Speaker 1: how her undergarments would billow and rise as the fire

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Speaker 1: grew hotter. That led him to wonder whether a big

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Speaker 1: enough sack of air could lift a human being in

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Speaker 1: the same way. He told his younger brother about the idea,

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Speaker 1: and together they began experimenting with lighter than air devices.

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Speaker 1: After a bit of trial and error, the Mongolfieri's succeeded

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Speaker 1: in creating their first functional hot air balloon, something they

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Speaker 1: described as quote a cloud and a paper bag. The

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Speaker 1: brothers gave the first public demonstration of their invention on

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Speaker 1: June fourth, three. It was staged in the city of

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Speaker 1: Annone in southern France, not far from the Mongolfieri's paper

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Speaker 1: making business. Although the paper and sackcloth balloon was theoretically

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Speaker 1: capable of carrying passengers, the brothers played it safe and

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Speaker 1: sent it up unmanned in a testament of their smart design,

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Speaker 1: The five pound balloon rose nearly six thousand feet in

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Speaker 1: the air and remained aloft for ten minutes. It was

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Speaker 1: an impressive achievement, especially since the brothers were amateur scientists

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Speaker 1: at best. For example, they actually thought it was the

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Speaker 1: smoke from the fire that made the balloon rise, rather

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Speaker 1: than air heated by the fire. That's why when the

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Speaker 1: Mongolfieri's launched their balloon that summer, they made sure to

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Speaker 1: build the biggest smokiest bonfire they could. They chucked in

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Speaker 1: piles of wool, rabbit skins, straw, even old shoes. The

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Speaker 1: resulting fire was way smokier than it needed to be,

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Speaker 1: but it's still got the job done. The brothers misunderstanding

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Speaker 1: didn't hinder their future successes either. After the unmanned flight

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Speaker 1: and annon, a word of their inventions spread across the country,

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Speaker 1: and arrangements were quickly made for another demonstration, this time

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Speaker 1: in the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles in Paris.

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Speaker 1: By the day of that second flight, September nine, the

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Speaker 1: Mongolfiers had perfected their shoe burning technique and felt confident

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Speaker 1: enough to send up a few passengers. However, the effects

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Speaker 1: of altitude on humans were still unknown, so no one

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Speaker 1: was exactly eager to volunteer. King Louis the sixteenth was

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Speaker 1: one of the one hundred and thirty thousand or so

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Speaker 1: spectators in attendants that day. He offered to provide two

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Speaker 1: condemned prisoners to use in the test flight, but thankfully

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Speaker 1: the Mongolfier's were able to talk and out of it.

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Speaker 1: In lieu of human passengers, the brothers suspended a little

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Speaker 1: cage beneath the balloon and loaded it with a sheep,

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Speaker 1: a rooster, and a duck. The crowd watched with delight

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Speaker 1: as the enormous blue balloon lifted the animals high into

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Speaker 1: the air and traveled two miles before touching down again

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Speaker 1: with all its passengers unharmed. Remarkably, the decision to send

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Speaker 1: barnyard animals on a balloon flight over Paris wasn't as

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Speaker 1: silly as it sounds. In terms of physiology. Sheep have

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Speaker 1: many similarities to humans and are susceptible to many of

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Speaker 1: the same medical conditions, so if the animal had been

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Speaker 1: hurt by its exposure to high altitudes, then there was

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Speaker 1: a strong chance a human would be as well as

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Speaker 1: for the duck. In the rooster. They were included in

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Speaker 1: the experiment as controls a bird that was capable of

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Speaker 1: flying at high altitudes and a bird that was not.

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Speaker 1: The altitudes effect on those animals, or in this case,

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Speaker 1: the lack of effect, provided further proof that a human

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Speaker 1: could endure the same conditions. Speaking of which, the Mongolfier's

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Speaker 1: managed to get a human airborne for the first time.

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Speaker 1: On October fifteenth, seventeen eighty three, Jacques himself became the

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Speaker 1: first human to ascend into the sky when he made

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Speaker 1: a tethered flight from the yard of his workshop. Later

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Speaker 1: that same day, local physicist and eager volunteer Jean Francois

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Speaker 1: Pilatre de Rosier became the second person to fly when

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Speaker 1: he also made a brief test flight while tethered to

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Speaker 1: the end of an eighty foot rope. In the weeks

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Speaker 1: that followed, de Rosier and his pilot, Francois Laurent d'arlanday,

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Speaker 1: made several more tethered test flights to get the hang

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Speaker 1: of controlling the balloon him. Then, on November one, seventy three,

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Speaker 1: they were finally ready for the real thing. The men

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Speaker 1: appeared before a large excited crowd on the grounds of

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Speaker 1: a royal hunting lodge on the western edge of Paris.

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Speaker 1: The daring aeroknots took their places on a circular wooden

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Speaker 1: platform attached to the bottom of the balloon. Then they

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Speaker 1: began feeding the fire by stuffing handfuls of wool and

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Speaker 1: straw through openings on either side of the balloons skirt.

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Speaker 1: As the air inside grew hotter, the balloon gradually began

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Speaker 1: to rise into the air, and the first humans to

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Speaker 1: experience free flight rose with it. American statesman Benjamin Franklin

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Speaker 1: was among the many who witnessed the balloons historic takeoff.

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Speaker 1: He later recalled the event in his journal, writing quote,

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Speaker 1: we observed it lift off in the most majestic manner.

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Speaker 1: When it reached around two hundred and fifty feet in altitude,

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Speaker 1: the intrepid voyagers lowered their hats to salute the spectators.

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Speaker 1: We could not help feeling a certain mixture of awe

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Speaker 1: and admiration. De Rosier and Darlande flew the balloon without

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Speaker 1: incident for nearly half an hour, but had to cut

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Speaker 1: the trip short when burning ash set fire to the

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Speaker 1: balloon's fabric. Still, even with a hasty landing, the flight

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Speaker 1: was a resounding success. The Mongolfier brothers were honored by

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Speaker 1: the French Academie des Science for their achievement, and the

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Speaker 1: pilots earned eternal bragging rights as the first human beings

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Speaker 1: to fly. Unfortunately, De Rosier also earned a far less

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Speaker 1: prestigious title. Less than two years later, on June fifteenth,

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Speaker 1: seventeen eighty five, the physicist turned daredevil was attempting to

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Speaker 1: fly across the English Channel and a balloon filled with

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Speaker 1: the deadly combination of hot air and hydrogen. De Rosier

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Speaker 1: died in the resulting explosion, making him the first flight

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Speaker 1: fatality in human history. Other aeronauts learned from the tragedy

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Speaker 1: and began making improvements to the design, controls and fuel

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Speaker 1: source of their balloons. In no time at all, people

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Speaker 1: were taking to the skies and droves, some for thrills,

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Speaker 1: some for leisure, and many for science. Atmospheric chemists especially

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Speaker 1: made full use of the practical applications of hot air balloons.

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Speaker 1: They used them in all kinds of experiments, measuring dew

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Speaker 1: points and magnetic fields, and testing the properties of various gases.

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Speaker 1: In that way, humans gradually expanded our understanding of the

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Speaker 1: miles and miles of air above our heads. That new

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Speaker 1: perspective led to a firmer grasp of air currents, geography,

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Speaker 1: weather patterns, and aerodynamics considerations. They would be crucial to

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Speaker 1: the later development of airplanes. For now, though, we'll let

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Speaker 1: them Mongolfieri's enjoy their moment and save the right brothers

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Speaker 1: in their story for another day. I'm Gabe Louisier, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today

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Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. If you have a second and

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Speaker 1: I heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History

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Speaker 1: class