|
( Montgolfier brothers)
Joseph-Michael Montgolfier (26 August 1740 – 26 June 1810) and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (6 January 1745 – 2 August 1799) were the inventors of the montgolfière style hot air balloon, globe aérostatique or airship. The brothers succeeded in launching the first manned ascent, carrying a young physician, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, and an audacious army officer, François Laurent d'Arlandes, into the sky. Later, in December 1783 in recognition of their achievement, their father Pierre was elevated to the nobility and the hereditary appellation of de Montgolfier by King Louis XVI of France. The brothers were born into a family of paper manufacturers in Annonay, in Ardèche, France. Their parents were Pierre Montgolfier (1700-1793), and his wife Anne Duret (1701-1760), who had sixteen children. Pierre established his eldest son Raymond Montgolfier, later Raymond de Montgolfier (1730-1792) as his successor. Joseph, the 12th child, possessed a typical inventor's temperament -- a maverick and dreamer, and impractical in terms of business and personal affairs. Étienne had a much more even and businesslike temperament. As the 15th child, and particularly troublesome to his elder siblings, he was sent to Paris to train as an architect. However, after the sudden and unexpected death of Raymond in 1772, he was recalled to Annonay to run the family business. In the subsequent 10 years, Étienne applied his talent for technical innovation to the family business; papermaking was a high-tech industry in the 18th century. He succeeded in incorporating the latest Dutch innovations of the day into the family mills. His work led to recognition by the government of France as well as the awarding of a government grant to establish the Montgolfier factory as a model for other French papermakers. Of the two brothers, it was Joseph who first contemplated building "machines" . Gillispie puts it as early as 1777 when Joseph observed laundry drying over a fire incidentally form pockets that billowed upwards.[1] Joseph made his first definitive experiments in November of 1782 while living in the city of Avignon. He reported, some years later, that he was watching a fire one evening while contemplating one of the great military issues of the day -- an assault on the fortress of Gibraltar, which had proved impregnable by both sea and land.[2] Joseph mused on the possibility of an air assault using troops lifted by the same force that was lifting the embers from the fire. He believed that contained within the smoke was a special gas, which he called 'Montgolfier Gas', with a special property he called 'levity'.
|
Montgolfier brothers Subcategories
Montgolfier brothers Articles
|
|
