Imagine standing in a dusty field in Annonay, France. It is 1783. You see two brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, messing around with a giant silk bag. It looks ridiculous. People are whispering. Then, they light a fire. The bag swells, strains against its ropes, and suddenly—it’s gone. It’s up there. For the first time in human history, something man-made is conquering the sky.
The first hot air balloon invented wasn't just a quirky experiment; it was the "Moon Landing" of the 18th century. It shattered the psychological ceiling of what humans thought was possible. Before this, if you wanted to see the world from above, you climbed a mountain or a very tall ladder. That was it.
The Paper Mill Connection You Probably Didn't Know
Joseph and Étienne weren't aerospace engineers. There was no such thing. They were paper makers. This is the part people usually gloss over, but it’s the most important bit. Their family ran a successful paper business, which gave them two things: money and a deep, nerd-level understanding of lightweight materials.
Joseph was the dreamer. Legend says he watched laundry drying over a fire and noticed the chemises billowing upward. He thought he’d discovered a new gas—he literally called it "Montgolfier gas." He was wrong, of course. He didn't realize it was just the basic physics of thermal expansion (hot air being less dense than cold air). But hey, sometimes you don't need the right math to get the right result.
They started small. They built a 1.3-cubic-meter box out of thin wood and paper. It worked. Then they built something bigger. By the time they got to the public demonstration on June 4, 1783, they had a massive envelope made of sackcloth lined with paper. It stayed in the air for 10 minutes and traveled about 2 kilometers. People lost their minds.
Why a Duck, a Sheep, and a Rooster Were the First Pilots
King Louis XVI wanted to see this for himself. But there was a problem. Nobody knew if humans could survive at high altitudes. Scientists back then (who were basically just guys with a lot of free time) worried that the "upper atmosphere" might be toxic or that the pressure would make a human's head explode.
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The King suggested using criminals. If they died, no big loss, right?
Étienne Montgolfier hated that idea. He wanted the glory to be pure. So, they compromised. On September 19, 1783, at Versailles, they loaded a basket with a sheep named Montauciel ("Climb-to-the-sky"), a duck, and a rooster.
Why these three? It was actually a controlled experiment.
- The sheep was the human proxy.
- The duck was the control (since ducks already fly high).
- The rooster was a bird that doesn't fly high, meant to check for respiratory issues.
The flight lasted eight minutes. The animals landed safely. The sheep was found casually eating grass. The only "injury" was that the sheep stepped on the rooster. This proved that the air up there wasn't poisonous. The path was clear for humans.
Pilâtre de Rozier and the First Human Flight
The first hot air balloon invented to carry people finally took off on November 21, 1783. The passengers were Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes. They rose about 3,000 feet over Paris.
It was terrifying.
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They had to keep the fire going in a brazier hanging beneath the balloon. Sparks kept hitting the fabric. They were literally slapping out small fires with wet sponges while floating over the rooftops of Paris. It was incredibly dangerous and totally unauthorized in the way we think of "safety standards" today. But it worked. They landed five miles away, and suddenly, the world was different.
The Physics: What the Montgolfiers Got Wrong
Here is the kicker: the Montgolfiers still didn't really understand why it worked. They were convinced that smoke contained a special electrical property that caused levitation. They went out of their way to burn "stinky" things like damp straw and old wool because they thought the thick, foul-smelling smoke was the secret sauce.
In reality, they were just heating the air.
Around the same time, Jacques Charles was working on a hydrogen balloon. Hydrogen is naturally lighter than air, regardless of temperature. For a long time, there was a massive rivalry between "hot air" (Montgolfière) and "gas" (Charlière) balloons. Hot air was cheaper, but gas balloons stayed up longer.
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Eventually, hot air balloons fell out of fashion for nearly 150 years. They were too hard to control and the fuel was too heavy. It wasn't until the 1950s, when Ed Yost invented the modern propane burner system, that the hot air balloon became a practical hobby again.
Why This Matters Today
When you look at a hot air balloon today, you’re looking at the ancestor of the space shuttle. It was the first time we broke our connection to the earth.
It changed warfare (reconnaissance), it changed science (measuring weather), and it changed art. For the first time, painters could see what a city looked like from a bird's-eye view. Map-making became an actual science instead of just guesswork.
Honestly, the sheer guts it took to climb into a wicker basket attached to a giant paper bag filled with fire is hard to wrap your head around. It was the ultimate "hold my beer" moment in scientific history.
Take Action: How to Experience This Today
If you’re fascinated by the history of the first hot air balloon invented, don't just read about it. The technology is remarkably similar today, just with better nylon and safer fuel.
- Visit Annonay, France: Every June, the town holds a massive festival where they recreate the original 1783 flight with period costumes and a replica balloon.
- Go to the Smithsonian: The National Air and Space Museum has incredible exhibits on early flight that show just how flimsy these early "ships" really were.
- Book a Flight: To truly understand the Montgolfier experience, take a sunrise flight. Pay attention to the silence. Unlike a plane, you move with the wind, so there is no breeze. It is perfectly still.
- Check the Weather: If you want to see balloons in person, look for "Hot Air Balloon Festivals" near you. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the biggest in the world and is a direct descendant of that small paper bag in France.
The next time you see a colorful balloon floating lazily across the sky, remember the two paper-makers and the sheep. They didn't have GPS, they didn't have parachutes, and they didn't even have the right physics. They just had enough curiosity to look at a fire and think, "I bet I can ride that into the clouds."