Existing comment:
French, 1783
Inspired by reports of the Montgolfier flight, Parisians commissioned chemical experimenter Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles (1746-1823) to provide a balloon demonstration for the capital. He filled his balloon with the lightweight gas, hydrogen, rather than hot air. Charles sent his first small gas balloon aloft from the Champ de Mars on August 27, 1783. The chest in the foreground contained dilute sulfuric acid and metal filings, used to generate hydrogen to fill the balloon. |