A dream as old as mankind itself

It has always been man’s biggest dream to be able to fly. He observed the flight of the birds, wondered and experimented. However, many centuries went by and many experiments ended in the graveyard before human flight became reality. And when he at last managed to do so, man didn’t fly like a bird at all, he floated like a cloud.
It’s the invention of the balloon that finally realized the age-old dream of mankind...

The most popular of all Greek legends is the one of Daedalus and his son Icarus.

They were kept prisoners on the island of Crete by the cruel king Minos. Driven by their strong desire for freedom Daedalus devised a plan to escape from Crete. He designed wings made from feathers bound together with wax, which he planned on using to fly away from the island. Icarus however, thrilled with the power of flight, flew too near the sun and the wax melted. The boy fell into the sea and drowned.

Henry Cavendish (10-Oct-1731 Nice – 24-Feb-1810 London) was an English physicist. Being a son of Lord Cavendish he was very wealthy and for that reason able to work independently and to experiment without any restrictions. He discovered hydrogen gas in 1766 and nitrogen in 1772. Hydrogen gas is very inflammable in combination with air. That’s why the gas was handled with the utmost caution. Because of this in flammability the French called it “air inflammable”, the Germans called it “Knallgas”. According to Cavendish the weight of hydrogen gas was only 1/14 of air. Being aware of the explosive nature of the gas he called it “phlogiston”, which in the 18th century was the name of the element scientists thought to be present in all inflammable substances. Even though Cavendish already mentioned the lighter-than-air nature of the gas, no one realised at that time that it would enable aviation using airships.

In 1781 Tiberius Cavallo (1749-1809) filled animal bladders with hydrogen gas but when his tests failed he experimented with soap-bubbles he filled with hydrogen gas. The bubbles mounted quickly and the year after Cavallo described his experiences in an assembly of the Royal Society, amid many marks of sympathy. In the same year a definitive step was taken in the development of the first balloon. Remarkably it was hot air that created the necessary lifting-power and not the new hydrogen gas.