19
th September 1783, Lyons, France, preparations were being made for a journey, a journey that will eventually take man from his secure environment of terra firma into the hostile environment called atmosphere.
The vehicle to be used was a hot air balloon. The brainchild behind this trek was a wealthy paper maker named Joseph Montgolfer. There has been much speculation over just how Montgolfer made the discovery of the hot air balloon. The most commonly believed legend has it that his wife was standing too close to a fire and that the smoke caused her skirt to be inflated and lifted above her knees. This caused Montgolfer to wonder, if the smoke, and its magical lifting powers, could be captured in a large container, it my rise and lift a person along with it. So Montgolfer went about building the first hot air balloon and the first flight passengers in this balloon were a chicken, a sheep and a duck. The balloon attained an altitude of 518 meters above main sea level and fell to the ground a mile and half away. Upon examination of the occupants for any ill effects, it was discovered that duck had a broken wing, could this be due to atmospheric effects, was the question. Actually many observers had noticed that the sheep in anxiety had kicked the duck.
Montgolfer had reasoned that it would be safe for human beings to ascend to altitude. Thus, on November 21, 1783, the first manned balloon flight carried Pilatre de Rozier, a young scientist and physician from Metz. Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard, a great balloonist, considered balloon flight because of purer air (rarefied air).
