One day in 1777 I was relaxing in front of the fire with my laundry drying nearby. After a while I noticed that one of my shirts had started to float upwards. I was curious about what was happening so I threw some small pieces of paper into the fireplace to see it the same thing happened to them. When I saw them coming out of the chimney I came to the conclusion that smoke had the power to lift things up and carry them through the air. I loved science and wanted to become an inventor so I started trying to think of a craft that would be able to capture smoke and lift people off the ground. Along with my brother Jacques I began performing experiments on something that later became the first hot-air balloon.
My brother and I quickly realised that it was heat and not smoke that had the power to lift things. On 19th September 1783 we presented our first hot-air balloon which was made from paper and clot. We burned some staw underneath it and the heat helped the balloon to float. As this was its first trip we were too nervous to go up in the balloon ourselves. So instead we put a sheep a duck and a chicken in the basket that hung below the balloon for the two-mile journey.
The new invention was a great success and the animals landed safe and sound. A huge crowd including some members of the French Royal Family gathered to watch the balloon floating high in the sky. Shortly afterwards we asked the king for permission to send men up the balloon. The king agreed and the first flight consisting of human passengers took place in Paris on the 21ST November 1783 with great success . The balloon reached heights of around 150 metres as it floated over the Paris’ rooftops starting a long a long tradition of hot-air ballooning.
Josefh Montgolfier
