On the afternoon of November 21, 1783, in a Paris park called the Bois de Boulogne, an enormous blue-and-gold balloon nearly seven stories tall began to tug at its ropes. A crowd of nearly 400,000 people, including the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin, was watching. Inside the wicker gallery at the bottom of the balloon stood two brave Frenchmen: a science teacher named Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier and an army officer named the Marquis d'Arlandes. At about 2:00 p.m., the ropes were cut. For the first time in history, humans floated freely off the ground.
The balloon was the invention of two paper-maker brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, who had figured out that hot air rises and could lift things skyward. To keep it inflated, the two passengers had to feed a small wood-and-straw fire that hung beneath the opening of the balloon. They drifted across Paris for about 25 minutes, rising as high as 3,000 feet - high enough to see the city's rooftops, the Seine river curling like a ribbon, and the gardens of Versailles in the distance. They had to slap out sparks landing on the balloon's silk with wet sponges so it would not catch fire.
They landed safely in a vineyard a little over five miles from where they took off. Witnesses ran up in shock - some thought a monster had fallen out of the sky. Benjamin Franklin, watching it all, was asked what use such an invention could possibly have. He famously replied, What use is a newborn baby? Within a century, hot air balloons would lead to airships, then airplanes, then jets and rockets. It all started with a paper-maker's idea and a brave 25-minute float over Paris.
