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The balloon craze can’t be stopped
anymore…
The
19th century was entirely dominated by the balloon rage. In
1864 the largest balloon in the world even came to Belgium. Photographer
Félix Tournachon, nickname Nadar, flew his “Géant” from Brussels
to Ieper. His giant balloon was made of 20.000 square meters of silk and
contained 25.000 cubic meters of gas. It could transport 13 people. As
they were extremely popular, balloon ascents kept attracting vast crowds
of people.
For
many years the gas balloon dominated the hot air balloon, which
disappeared almost entirely. People had to wait until 1960 to see hot
air balloons in the sky again, because in that year the American Yost
constructed the modern type of gas burner.
Today
only one hundred gas balloons can be found worldwide, while there are
thousands of hot air balloons.
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