WEBVTT - How Hot Air Balloons Work 0:00:00.800 --> 0:00:10.920 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know Fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.000 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.320 Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry. We are up, Up and away. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.400 They're Beautiful Are Beautiful podcast. Uh. You know what I 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.360 was disappointed to learn today. I've never read it, but 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.280 around the World in eighty days. Apparently it wasn't like 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.080 a balloon race story. I thought it was like this 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.479 balloon on the cover of the VHS cassette tape. Well, 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.400 the movie changed it, and I looked up today the 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:44.120 original Jules Verne book. Uh, they said that he entertained 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.360 the balloon thing, but then kind of disregarded it, saying 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:49.879 like it's not feasible. So it was like trains and 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:52.959 other modes and chips and other modes of transportation in 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:56.240 the book. Yeah, and apparently the movie version took it 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.160 and ran with it with a balloon and even such 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:00.640 that a balloon is on the cover of a lot 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.640 of the books now, so in the movie it's balloon centric, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.000 they do, I think, But I haven't seen the movie, 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.119 so I don't. I haven't either, But whenever I think 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.560 of that, But jeles Burn is like, this is preposterous. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:15.480 We couldn't just do it in a balloon. I think 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.320 that's the case. I mean, I just skirted through this research, 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:22.200 so I'm sure fans will hold me to the fire 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:23.960 for this. Well. I think we should both go see 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.840 that movie because I want to see it too. Go 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.600 see it. Go go to a television and see it. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.800 It's where it's streaming. Yea. I was like, I didn't 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.120 know was playing. Yeah, it's at all the cineplexes. I 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.520 didn't know when Wilson remake it too, somebody did. I 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:46.800 accidentally ran across that one and before I could like click, no, no, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.400 close the tablet, I saw like Jackie Chan was in 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.680 it and Steve Coogan, Oh, I love. Yeah. It doesn't 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:55.200 mean that it was a good remake, you know what 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.880 I mean? Uh so hot air balloons you have a 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.720 been in one? You don't know, and I never will 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.920 ever in my whole life, I won't. It seems like 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.800 something that would not be Joshy No, no, I I 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:12.800 think it's one of one of the things. One of 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.640 my great joys in life is looking at pictures of 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.040 hot air balloons on the ground. Yeah, I just realized 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.280 with your feet sitting on the ground in your chair 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:24.639 button a chair. Yeah, but it's true. I do love 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.680 looking at pictures of hot air balloon Have you ever 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:32.200 seen a race going on or a gathering like my dad? 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.760 My dad went on a hot air balloon ride. I've 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.880 seen them out like around Callaway Gardens. I've never been to, 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.840 but there's like a really big hot air balloon expo there. Yeah. Um, 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:47.240 it's coming up actually in September, like the beginning. I 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:52.480 think like September, maybe Labor Day weekend, I believe. Why 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:54.800 did you sound disappointed? Just that? Well, I have plans 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.720 labor the weekend. Well, so no ballooning for me. No, 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.280 but you can look at pictures of it afterward. Your yah? 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.919 So um? But no, I I have never been in one, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.040 will you? I mean I would, but I'm not like 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.640 it's not on my bucket list or anything like. If 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:15.480 someone like if a fan brow in and said I'm 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.000 a balloon pilot, I'd like to invite you on a 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.480 free trip, then I would totally do it. I'll be 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.400 by your house to pick you up and stand on 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.560 your roof at six pm or I maybe somewhere close 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.960 by because you never know where we'll land. There's probably 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.200 fans at Callaway Gardens. You should go down there with 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:38.680 the stuff you should know t shirt on out. So yeah, uh, 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.240 and that was a teaser slash spoiler. By the way, 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:44.760 that was not just a joke. I don't get it 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.920 that you never know where we're gonna land. I don't 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.400 get that at all. They don't know where they're gonna 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.000 land necessarily. Didn't you read the article? Oh yeah, I 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:54.800 thought you were talking about us. No, no, no, I 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.240 thought you're making like a reference to tour or something 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.080 like that. Oh no, no, I mean the hot air 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:02.320 pilot will air balloon pilot would say, I may land 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.080 at your house to pick you up. And I maybe 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.480 a got it. I would put to you, Chuck that 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.840 no podcast has ever gone this far off the rails 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.760 this early in. I think we're right on the rails, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.080 do you. We're talking about hot air balloons. See, we 0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.800 can't even agree on whether we're off the rails. All right, 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.479 let's let's talk about this. Hot air balloons they actually have, 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.200 uh not the longest history you would think usually when 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.039 we do something like this, for like, you know, hot 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:34.039 air balloons are actually thousands of years old ancient China. 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.960 Not the case. No, No, the ideas that, um that 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.680 the understanding of the principles of how hot air balloons 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.520 work have been around for a couple of thousand years, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.880 but hot air balloons themselves and actually the first human 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.479 to ever fly didn't happen until the eighteenth century. Util 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.760 I think seventeen the seventeen eighties, right, h for the 0:04:55.800 --> 0:05:01.680 hot air balloon three with Joseph and Etienne mont gulf Yer. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.680 Not bad names if you're gonna be born in France, 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:08.640 those are good names to half, that's right. And uh 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:11.640 they worked for their uh for a paper company, their 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.760 families paper company. And then on the side, like you 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.920 know the little floating Japanese lanterns. I think they made 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:23.440 those for fun out of paper. They had leftover paper 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.240 and um, and that we should have I didn't look 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.000 into that too much, by the way, for this, did 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.520 you the monk Golfier brothers No, the lanterns no? And 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.520 I meant to be I always think of what was 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:41.800 that movie about them, the tsunami? Oh yeah, there's like 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:43.839 a scene in there, isn't there where they released like 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.440 a bunch of those was the one with Naomi Watts 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.800 and yeah, oh boy, that was a tough movie. I 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.520 never thought you should check that out. Yeah, it was 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.320 very realistic and tough to get through. Which one should 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.920 I watch first? That? Or Around the World in eighty Days? 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.520 The one I can't think in the name of what 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.520 was it called. It's like the Great beneath there they're 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.320 the Great the I don't know, I can't remember. It's 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.080 something like that. Are you gonna look it up? Because 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:18.039 if so, I'll start talking about balloon history while history. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:23.400 So anyway, the brothers mont golf Yer, they started fashioning little, 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:27.720 basically model um hot air balloons out of paper from 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.120 their their family's mill, like you said, and they said, 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.360 this works, this works conceivably, if we make a big 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.160 enough balloon, we could float livestock in the air if 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:42.400 we wanted to. And they did. They ran a test, 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.080 and they were so sure of this test that they 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.840 actually invited the King Um Louis the Six to come 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.080 check it out. And they ran a test that involved 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.360 the sheep, a duck in a chicken which they put 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:58.760 into a basket attached to a hot air balloon and 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:03.680 said what and they I'll bet they did and the 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:08.040 king went. They did, and they actually those weren't random 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.320 selections of animals. Um. They chose the sheep because it 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.440 was similar to humans as far as being a land 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:20.760 mammal having hair. Sheep is represented with hair. Well. One 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.840 of the worries was, wouldn't be able to duck have feet. Yeah, 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.120 they wouldn't be able to breathe up there. So uh, 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.160 that's why they said, we'll listen to mammal up there 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:30.920 to see if it survives. Yeah. That was one of 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:33.720 the first things hot air balloons proved was that humans 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.080 or living things can breathe in the atmosphere. No I 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.520 knew that before because no one had been into the 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.679 atmosphere before. That's right. And the duck and the chicken 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.120 the rooster were chosen because they can both fly, um, 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:47.920 so they were the control but they can both fly 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.880 at different altitudes. So they didn't just randomly throw three 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.480 farm animals in there. There was a purpose behind each one. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.400 I'm sure the sheep is like, what are you two 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.200 worried about? You're the ones who can fly. Is that 0:08:00.240 --> 0:08:05.040 a friend? Sheep? Okay, it sounded like droopy a little bit, 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.040 but it was a little bit. It was from the 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.840 Burgundy region. That's what they saw in like down there. Okay, 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.920 And by the way, the Impossible was the name of 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:17.640 that movie, The Great Underneath the Impossible, virtually the same thing, agreed, 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.920 so they floated it up there. In the beginning, they 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.480 thought that the smoke was what provided left because they 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:30.520 were just silly eighteenth century goons, and um, the smoke 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.360 was the only thing they could see, so they figured 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:34.280 it had to be that. Yeah, and this they were 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.720 definitely producing a lot of smoke because they were using 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:41.360 like straw, manure, whatever they could get their hands on 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.520 to fuel these hot air balloons. Yeah, and their balloon 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.480 was it was a rigid frame. It was a framemate 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.839 of lightwood, and the balloon was cotton or silk. And 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:56.040 so it wasn't like the non rigid balloons that we 0:08:56.040 --> 0:09:00.280 have today, the non rigid canopies. Maybe more specific so 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.520 the mont calf Yer's Um, we're feted by King Louis. 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.760 They all ate some lamb's legs together, I would assume. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:14.080 And yes, And then two months later, uh, they're like 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.240 it's time for human trials, and they put two people 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:23.480 not themselves in a balloon and sent them up Yeah. 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.200 The King wanted convicted criminals at first to pilot it 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.280 because they figured that's just what you do back in 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:33.520 those days. Let's just use these criminals for something. Hey, 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:38.280 that's what connects this episode. The next one convicted criminals spoiler, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.280 but they were He was talked out of that and said, 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.000 now we should probably get some people that kind of 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:45.680 know what they're doing. So they got a major in 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:54.200 the infantry name Marquis Francois de Lard. That's not bad, Darland, Darland, Yeah, yeah, 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.280 and uh, you do the second one, uh, a physics 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:05.480 professor pill a Tree de Rosier, Yeah, very nice. De Rosier. Yeah, 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.760 and uh de Rosier became not only the first human 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.679 to pilot a balloon, but he became the first human 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.840 to die piloting a balloon. Yeah. Um, not in that flight. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.400 A couple of decades later he did, right, Yeah, he 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.439 tried to fly with the English Channel and he had 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.760 a great, bad idea that was to put a hydrogen 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:26.959 balloon inside of the hot air balloon. Yeah, why do 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.120 this use air? Use something lighter than air. And that 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.440 didn't work out so well because about thirty minutes into 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.880 the flight, Uh, you apply fire to a hydrogen balloon. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.120 It blew up, Yeah, and he died. Had he been 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.000 a chemistry professor, this might have never happened. But he 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:46.320 was a physics professor, so he did right. Um, But 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.960 those two actually were the first human beings on the 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.640 planet to fly as far as we know. That's right, 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.360 the whole world round in the history of humanity, those 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:56.960 two did the first Oh what do you mean, fly? 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.760 Like you consider that flying? Yeah? Pretty right? Brothers, Yeah, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:04.439 and right brothers are usually turned are given them the 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:08.520 title of the of the first manned powered flight. Yeah, 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.200 because it's a little bit different than floating. Apparently they're 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.960 not even that somebody else beat the Right Brothers to it. 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.640 Of course that's a whole other podcast if you ask me. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.920 But this is the first flight of any sort as 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.880 far as anybody knows. Although it didn't like the ancient 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.679 Chinese hang glide, I don't know. I feel like they did, 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.480 and we talked about it. Maybe we'll find out. I 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.559 feel like the ancient Chinese did almost everything way before 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:35.640 everyone else. Yeah, they just didn't tell anybody about it 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:42.440 because they were isolationists. Uh, and look where it got him. Yeah, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.480 they're on the rise in the twenty one century, So 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.160 balloons fell out of fashion for a number of years 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.840 because the dirigible, which we did a podcast on blips 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.400 came into fashion because you can steer those and you 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.120 can take more people. Yeah, that's a big plus. You 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.720 can steer them. Yeah, you're you're not at the uh 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:03.960 the mercy of the vagaries of the winds. And then 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.079 there was something called the smoke balloon. Um, did you 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.160 this sounds like fun? The thing about the flying Allan's No. 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.800 Are we talking about them in the circus family of No, 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:17.120 but we should have because they were a circus family. 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:19.240 And that's where a lot of the smoke balloon activity 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:22.080 took place was in circuses and fairs in the late 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:26.319 eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. And that was it 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:31.120 was an act this I would possibly do. No, you wouldn't. 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.880 I might go look at the footage because it would 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.760 be it would be over fairly quickly your death. To 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:40.640 tell him about what we'll tell him. What to smoke 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.640 balloon is, well, that's basically a balloon that's lifted from 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.400 the ground with the fire, but it's not attached to fire. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.960 They basically just hold you to the ground until this 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:54.320 thing is full. And then they let you go and 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.680 you shoot up in the air and you're attached the balloon, yes, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:02.160 and you are hopefully wearing a parachute and everybody's holding 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:03.920 them balloon down. And then when everybody let's go, like 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:05.880 you said, you shoot up into the air and then 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.440 once you hit your apex in the balloon like loses 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.120 heat and starts to come back down to earth. Um, 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:16.079 you get away from it and parachute down. It sounds great. Well, 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.120 the Flying Alan's did all kinds of stuff. Like they 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.560 it was a family of you know, like teenagers kids 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.080 who like they were all teenagers. Well no, they were parents, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:28.679 but they were sending their teenage kids up like three 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.120 at a time, hanging and doing like trapeeze work under 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.880 these balloons. Uh. Like one of them brought a cannon 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.080 up and was shot out of a cannon because that's 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.680 what you do. And uh, I mean it's just crazy. 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.160 There's actual footage of them trapeezing under a balloon and 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.800 then dropping and parachuting and it's like a static line deal. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.160 There's no free fall. Really, you don't see that these days. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.400 What smoke balloon acts, all right, it's because they're probably 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.559 I would say they're dangerous. It sounds a little dangerous, 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:04.120 but thrilling. Yes, I'm sure it was so. Um. This 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.240 was in the late nineteenth century, right is the smoke 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:11.120 balloon the early nine hundreds. So by the time this 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.240 had happened, By the time smoke balloons were like a 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:18.360 popular carnival attraction, hot air balloons had been basically totally 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:23.160 abandoned in favor of dirigibles, right, um. And it wasn't 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.920 until the nineteen fifties that they started to experience a revival. 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.960 Apparently the US military, I think the Navy, the Office 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.520 of Navy Research to be exact, from what I understand, Um, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.040 they said, Hey, we need to figure out a way 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.280 to ferry sheep and ducks and chickens from point A 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.640 to point B, but we don't want to spend a 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.600 lot of money or put a lot of effort behind it. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.640 So you, Mr ed Yost, come up with an idea 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:54.920 for us. How are we going to move our sheep 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:59.120 and chickens and ducks. That's what he said. Yeah, he 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.120 found in ray Then Industries, and they in the mid 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.840 nineteen fifties started designing these hot air balloons for the Navy, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.880 and uh that I think he's the one that kind 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.000 of I don't know if he patented it literally, but 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.960 he he got on board with that lightbulb shape. Well, 0:15:16.120 --> 0:15:19.560 I think he. I think he came up with it 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:22.920 because this is his original designs were spheres were round, 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.720 perfectly round balloons. No, we figured out that like the 0:15:27.200 --> 0:15:30.200 way that the hot air heated up inside the balloon, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.880 the top of the balloon would be fully inflated, but 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.240 the bottom wouldn't be. And that's not good. You want 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.080 it pretty much uniformly inflated. So he just got rid 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:41.040 of the bottom of the sphere and tapered it in 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:43.440 to make what you like, you say, the light bulb design. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:45.760 I'm pretty sure it was him, or at least his company. Yeah, 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.600 he's I mean basically said you don't need this extra material, right, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.440 So this is that what you think of when you 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.160 think of a hot air balloon is from as recent 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.280 as the nineteen sixties, that's right. And uh, he started 0:15:56.320 --> 0:16:00.400 in the sixties selling them. After the Navy he said, 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.600 I'm not so interested anymore. And he says, well, I 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:09.160 think their civilian applications like fun. They're like, um, we 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:12.240 have no problem with that, Just please stop corresponding with us. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:16.360 That's right. So that's uh, it's a bit on history, 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.240 and when we come back, we will get into how 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:41.720 these crazy looking things work. Right for this, all right, Josh. 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.680 Hot air balloons are based on one principle. And even 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:49.560 though this article has four pages of incomprehensible science, it's like, seriously, 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:54.840 we're saying earlier, it's like it's describing alchemy. Yeah, it's magic. 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.240 It doesn't make sense, and will we will get into 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.760 the science more, but very simply, how air is lighter 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.880 than cool air because it has less mass, and so 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.000 hot air rises. You've all heard that it's gonna be hotter. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.119 Your ceiling in your bedroom is at the floor. If 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:12.359 you're trying to cool off, do not stand on a 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.360 chair and put your face towards the ceiling. Is why 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.600 you reverse your ceiling fans in the winter to bring 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.399 that hot air back down. That's exactly right, Chuck. But 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.000 a cubic foot of airways about twenty eight grams, which 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.359 is about an ounce, and if you heat that by 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.280 a hundred degrees fahrenheit, it's gonna weigh seven grams less. 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.240 So essentially each foot of that cubic air, and a 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.679 hot air balloon lifts about seven grams, which is not much. No, 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:40.919 it's not. And that's why they're so huge to carry 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.440 just that little basket with two or three people in it. Yeah, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.600 because if you can capture enough air and heat at 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:51.320 all by a hundred degrees, each cubic centimeter will lift 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.680 its own seven grams, and all those cubic centimeters put 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.760 together will lift a lot of weight. So, for example, 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.360 if you have sixty five cubic feet of hot air, 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.719 you can lift a thousand pounds. That's pretty great. Like 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.400 you said, that's why those balloon envelopes, is what they're called, 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.840 are so big. Right, So, like you said, we're gonna 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.280 we'll we'll talk a little more about the science in 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:13.440 a minute. But um, let's talk about the parts of 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.000 the balloon, right, parts as parts. I just gave away 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.240 the name of the balloon itself, the envelope. The envelope 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.200 the most beautiful part of the balloon because wickers ugly, frankly, 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.760 but the balloon itself is not really I would figure 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:31.480 with your macromay obsession, you would be a way into wicker. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:35.600 I'm obsessive Macromay because it's horrid, you know what I mean. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.800 But Wicker doesn't. It's too pedestrian to be horrid, you 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.000 know what I mean. Boy, the Wicker Association is gonna 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:45.760 I'm sorry. I know they've got a very strong lobby, 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:47.720 but I'm not afraid of them. They're gonna put a 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:53.760 Wicker foot up your butt exactly. How Yes, the envelope 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:58.480 is made up of nylon triangles called Gore's a bunch 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.040 of them, and those gores are even made up of 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:06.040 smaller parts sewn together panels panels if you will. Yeah, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.119 like the this strip, you know how like a balloon 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.359 has lines usually going down it. Those in between the lines, 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.440 the whole thing from top to bottom. That's the gore, right, 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:16.959 But the gore itself is made up of smaller panels 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:20.920 that you can't see unless you're close to it. That's right. Also, 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.639 together nylon is what they use because it's light and uh. 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.600 It also has the nice feature that it's um it's 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.000 not as flammable. No, it has a high melting point. Yeah, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.800 so you can get it kind of hot before it 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:41.240 starts to melt, like tooth from Writers of the Lost Dark. 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:47.720 That's right, What they use as their fuel, and they're propellant, 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.240 is heat brought on by propane, but not not the 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.360 kind of propane gas that you use in your backyard. 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.399 This is liquid compressed liquid propane, which means that it 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.480 takes up a lot less space, so you can use 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:09.440 smaller canistores called canisters, which is important because you are 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:11.879 carrying them aboard the hot air balloon with you in 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.959 the basket, So you want more space for paying customers 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:18.240 than you know propane canisters, so you probably want the 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.359 right mix of both. That's true, but if you can 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.000 get a smaller and more propane and a smaller canister, 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.920 that's ideal. Hence why they use liquid propane. The problem 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.800 is is that if you just burn liquid propane, it's 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:35.920 not going to burn as efficiently as say, gas propane. 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.360 You'll just burn through it. Well, they have figured out 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.200 a way around this chuck with these burners. The things 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:45.760 that are at the bottom of the envelope in the 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:50.280 little room that's called the skirt um. Those are the burners, right, 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:52.879 and they're connected by host to the propane canisters in 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.399 the basket that's right, and on the burner itself is 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:00.439 a coil that the propane comes into and there's a 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.240 pilot light that heats that that propane. It burns some 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:05.480 of it as it's coming in, and then the heat 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.960 from that that burn off heats the coil, so it 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.680 turns that liquid propane into gas propane at the burner. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.439 Then it ignites it and that's what burns into the 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.120 hot air within the envelope. So it's pretty clever, correct. 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.280 So it it converts the liquid propane to gas propane 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:25.320 at the burner so that you have a much more 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:29.119 efficient burn right. And sometimes let's say, if they're flying 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:32.199 over a field of cattle, that things pretty loud when 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.399 they're burning the gas. Yeah, and they they're they're like, 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:37.080 we don't want to disturb the cattle, so they can 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:38.920 actually there's another valve where they can burn just a 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.040 straight liquid like we were talking about, much quieter. It'll 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.119 keep you aloft, keep you a offt for a little while. Um. 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.600 I think it's a very nice thing to do because 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:49.719 they don't want to scare the livestock. Well, and I 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.399 imagine as a passenger it's much more uh you know, 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:56.679 user friendly, right or friendly if you just hear that 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.840 little sound and not that big do it again? Oh yeah, 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:04.720 that would annoy me at a certain point. I don't 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.800 think it would annoy me. You're having a nice conversation, 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.679 oh man, right, and the pilots like, sorry, I'm just 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:12.879 trying to keep us alive. Do you want to float 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:18.080 or not? Or fly? Excuse me? I think floats than 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.920 curate too. So the skirt that we mentioned is um. 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:23.919 It is a nylon as well, but it is coated 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.200 in a fire resistant material, which is very key because 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.440 that's where the hot stuff is. And so the basket 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.600 is traditionally wicker, not for any kind of throwback purpose. 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:38.879 I don't always figured it was thrown back. I always 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:41.679 thought they were just trying to annoy me, like a 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:46.000 beautiful hot air balloon then like the world's ugliest little box. Right. 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:50.000 It turns out that wicker plays a role in um 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:53.280 absorbing the impact of landing. Yeah, it makes sense. I 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.600 still have a hard time believing they can't build something better, right, 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.719 something out of like like this same stuff they make 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:03.600 super balls out of. Yeah, or something with with shocks 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:06.920 or springs or you know, that's like kevlar. I don't know. Well, 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:09.479