Early on, the Montgolfier family realized that the French papermaking industry needed to modernize and go beyond certain traditional practices that were hindering quality. In 1750, with modernization in mind, Pierre Montgolfier took an interest in the Hollander beater, the newest means of beating fiber, but was unable to convince his workers to accept this new technology. Thirty years later, with the help of his sons, he decided to try again. This time, the Languedoc state government aided his efforts. Determined to encourage the French papermaking industry, the Languedoc state government set out to select the most skilled paper mill in the province and to fund the construction of Hollander beaters to replace the antiquated stampers at that mill. Pierre Montgolfier and his sons were chosen for this endeavor and in 1781 the new machines were in place; but all of their workers went on strike! Four years earlier, in 1777, the Montgolfiers had already distinguished themselves by producing the first wove paper in France. This paper imitated highquality parchment. These two innovations led to the knighting of Pierre Montgolfier and his family by Louis XVI, king of France. Of Pierre's sons, his twelfth child, Joseph (1740–1810), preferred hands-on practice to theory. He left school early in order to devote his time to experiments. Joseph was constantly involved with some new invention, and spent a lot of time in his own world. He was as likely to forget his wife, if not his horse, at the tavern. The hot-air balloon was only one of his inventions. Many others bear his name as its sole or co-inventor: the hydraulic ram pump, the Argand lamp, The Montgolfiers, Papermakers Who Conquered the Skies marie-hélène reynaud, phd translated by Eléonore Lee Plaque at the museum entrance noting "In this house were born Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier, inventors of the aerostat in 1783." The Museum of the Canson and Montgolfier Paper Mills located in the birthplace of the Montgolfier brothers. All photos courtesy of the Museum of the Canson and Montgolfier Paper Mills, Annonay, France. left: Regional map of the North Ardèche region in France. - hand papermaking the hydraulic press, and the fire pump, among others. In 1800, Joseph was awarded a position as "demonstrator" at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers \[National Academy of Arts and Industry\]. At the opposite end of the spectrum was Etienne (1745–1799). He was Pierre's fifteenth child and a highly educated man. A student of the renowned architect Soufflot, Etienne reluctantly left Paris and returned to Vidalon at his father's request to head the family paper mill. Towards the First Balloon In the evenings the Montgolfier brothers—not only Joseph and Etienne, but also Jean-Pierre, Maurice-Augustin, and Alexandre- Charles, a priest—left behind their papermaking activities to discuss the scientific studies of the time. They were very interested in hydrogen and had even tried to manufacture it. They were passionate about conquering the skies and had read everything pertaining to it. In November 1782, Joseph was in Avignon on business. In the room a fire burned warmly. As Joseph read the newspaper about the siege of Gibraltar, he stared into the fireplace where he noticed the smoke rising. Suddenly he perceived the solution for penetrating the besieged city: Could one not enter the city by means of the air? Smoke rises in the chimney; why could one not gather up this smoke in such a way as to harness its power? 1 Joseph immediately beckoned his landlady, demanding needles, thread, scissors, and silk taffeta. On the spot, he cut out a parallelepiped \[a prism whose faces are all parallelograms\], sewn on five sides. He crumpled up the newspaper he was reading, threw it into the fire, held the sixth open side above the flame and the little cube rose into the air. Joseph had an epiphany. He wrote to Etienne, "Promptly prepare provisions of taffeta and rope. You will see one of the most amazing things in the world." He then left for Annonay on foot, 180 kilometers (112 miles) away. During his journey, he considered the shape of his future flying machine. Joseph sensed that he was close to success. A few weeks earlier, Etienne had tried to set aloft balloons made of thin, high-grade handmade paper using steam from a kettle, but his attempts were foiled by the humidity of the steam. Joseph envisioned a solution by creating an artificial cloud loaded with static electricity. As soon as Joseph arrived, the Montgolfier family began to design a small balloon, one meter in diameter: a cubic "chamber" made of very light silk taffeta from Florence used in making waistcoats. The test balloon ascended to the ceiling, so the Montgolfiers decided to build a larger one. Using their own paper, they created the envelope of the balloon. Joseph applied himself to serious calculations in order to develop a heating technique for filling the balloon. On December 14, 1782, in the garden behind their paper mill, the Montgolfier family sent up to the sky the very first aerostat \[lighter-than-air aircraft\]. Two days later, the brothers sent a report to Nicolas Desmarest of the Académie des Sciences \[Academy of Sciences\] in which they outlined many future applications of their invention. They described their first launch: You know the layout of our property; we started our machine in the new garden. Before we had a chance to fully get it going, it broke free of the ropes with which we had it tethered; it rose up 100 to 150 fathoms \[600 to 900 feet\] and fell back down on top of one of the hills that border our valley…We believe that we can leave gravity and take advantage of the buoyancy of air in order to lift a machine into the air. Joseph Montgolfier (1740–1810) Etienne Montgolfier (1745–1799) summer 2006 - The Montgolfiers now knew that man would fly even if some fine-tuning remained necessary. As early as December 1782, they could imagine how hot-air balloons would eventually be used in the Battle of Fleurus,2 the siege of Paris,3 and for weather experiments: …We do not yet propose to make it travel; one must first roll an empty barrel on the water to ensure that it will not sink before designing the oar and the sail…This machine, despite our precautions made quite a stir; we are surrounded by hornets who do not hesitate to appropriate the fruit of others' labor and take the glory. Therefore, I beg you to please announce to the Academy the construction of a machine that, as proven in our experiments, can rise up to 150 to 200 fathoms \[900 to 1,200 feet\] at least, and perhaps ten times higher, with a 30-pound weight, and very inexpensively too, which could be useful to send signals on land, convey announcements over the battlements into a besieged city, perform experiments on the electricity in clouds, etc. Immediately, the Montgolfiers planned a public demonstration and built a large balloon out of wrapping canvas reinforced with three layers of handmade paper. Indeed, they found that taffeta, which is very porous, allowed hot air to escape easily. Being papermakers, only they could devise a way to use paper to create an effective thermal barrier. However, the balloon was made heavier by these many layers of added paper. To connect the gores \[panels for the balloon's envelope\], they cut 1,800 buttonholes for the rigging. In the spring of 1783, various private demonstrations confirmed the feasibility of their techniques, at times causing panic among the locals. Then it was time to officially present their invention. Contrary to what we may imagine, their balloon was not a haphazardly constructed bag; serious mathematical calculations were made to define the shape of the gores. A great number of measurements were made to determine fuel consumption and lifting force. The Montgolfiers chose June 4, 1783 for their first public demonstration, the day that the States of Vivarais assembled in Annonay, not to meet again for another twelve years. A report from the States' meeting officially documented the momentous launch of the Montgolfiers' flying machine. On the main square in front of the convent in Cordeliers, two masts were raised to hold the envelope in place for the inflation. It was a dreary late afternoon, with a light drizzle, and the Montgolfiers feared that the rain would cool down the balloon and thwart the flight. So they immediately devised a small burner, which they attached to the base of the envelope at its opening, and filled the burner with straw and vine shoots. Setting the burner alight right at lift-off, they would be able to maintain the heat level in their flying machine. Finally it was time for Lachez tout \[the release\]. The balloon headed northeast, flew for 9 minutes and 30 seconds and landed about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) away on a small stone wall near a vineyard at Pourrat, in the parish of Davézieux. The balloon collapsed over the burner and went up in flames. Terrified, the local peasants did nothing to stop the blaze. After the States of Vivarais established, on June fifth, their detailed report on the flight of the aerostat, the renowned publication Mercure de France \[Mercury of France\] reported the news on June twenty-sixth, and Louis XVI assigned the Académie des Sciences to study the process. Etienne Montgolfier left for Paris to demonstrate the invention in the capital city while his brother Charles prepared the flight of a small hydrogen balloon. The first public demonstration in Annonay on June 4, 1783. The first balloon launch on the Montgolfier property in Vidalon on December 14, 1782. - hand papermaking From the First Inhabited Flight to the First Manned Flight September 12, 1783: Etienne Montgolfier supervised the construction of a balloon for the demonstration for members of the Académie des Sciences. September 19, 1783: In Versailles, Etienne launched his montgolfiere which carried the first passengers into the sky: a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. Louis XVI and his family were in attendance. November 21, 1783: Two months later, the first manned flight took place. Built by Etienne, this splendid hot-air balloon, named Le Réveillon,4 flew from the Château de la Muette carrying the physicist Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. The event was a success. Like a bird, man had flown. The Montgolfiers, papermakers of Vivarais and men of the Enlightenment, opened the skies and the heavens to humankind. ___________ notes 1. Quoted from correspondence held in the registry of copies of letters at the Archives of the Canson and Montgolfier Paper Mills. All quoted correspondence in this essay are from this source. 2. Translator's Note: In the Battle of Fleurus in June 1794, the French balloon corps stayed aloft during the entire ten-hour engagement. They received written questions from the ground by means of a cable, and the general sent his orders and observation reports down the cable in a bag. Ground operations were entirely directed from the air. In addition to providing a tactical advantage, the balloon also demoralized the enemy troops. The Austrians feared the balloon and looked upon it as an agent of the devil that was allied to the French Republic. The Battle of Fleurus was the first battle in history where aerial reconnaissance contributed significantly to the victory. (Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org.) 3. Translator's Note: Bismarck's Prussian troops had Paris under siege in September 1870. One reason Paris managed to withstand the siege for five months was the use of balloons to continue mail delivery. In all, 66 balloons left Paris carrying information to France beyond the German lines. Most flights were made at night. The balloons delivered a total of 102 passengers and 11 tons of mail. The mail amounted to 2.5 million letters. The balloons also delivered 400 carrier pigeons for return mail. (Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org.) 4. Editor's Note: Jean-Baptiste Réveillon (1725–1811) was a leading manufacturer of wallcoverings and a friend and former client of Etienne Montgolfier. (Source: http://fr.wikipedia.org.) Launch of the Flesselles in Lyon on January 19, 1784. Launch of the first manned flight at Chateau de la Muette on November 21, 1783.