On October 15, 1783, a science teacher named Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier climbed into a wicker basket dangling beneath a giant blue-and-gold balloon in Paris. The balloon, designed by two brothers named Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier, was bigger than a house. A fire of straw and wool burned in a small grate at the basket's mouth, sending hot air up to fill the balloon. Ropes held the balloon to the ground. The Montgolfiers had been testing their invention by sending up a duck, a sheep, and a rooster a month earlier. Now it was a human's turn.
Rozier rose 85 feet into the air, hovering above the cheering crowd while the ropes kept him tethered to the ground. He stayed up for just over four minutes, tossing extra straw onto the fire to keep his balloon afloat. Then he was hauled back down, safe and beaming. He was officially the first human ever to leave the ground in a flying machine. A few weeks later, on November 21, Rozier and a friend made the first untethered free flight, soaring across the rooftops of Paris for 25 minutes.
Balloon fever swept Europe. People painted balloons on dishes, tied bows shaped like balloons in their hair, and crowded fields to watch every launch. The Montgolfier brothers and the bold teacher in the basket had cracked open the sky. From their wobbly four-minute hop came every blimp, every weather balloon, every hot-air balloon festival, and the dream that eventually carried humans to the Moon - all from straw, silk, and warm air over Paris.
