Balloonomania

Balloonomania was a strong public interest or fad in hot air balloons that originated in France in the late 18th century and continued into the 19th century, during the advent of hot air balloon flights. The interest began with the first flights of the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, and quickly spread in France and across the channel in England.

The science of lighter-than-air gasses, and specifically the properties of oxygen, had been discovered as early as 1774 by Joseph Priestley, who noted its lightness and explosive qualities when heated. The chemistry of lighter-than-air and heated gasses was eventually put to the test by the Montgolfier brothers, two paper manufacturers in France, while experimenting with heated air caught in paper bags. Balloonomania saw its true origins, however, in the very first public balloon flight on June 5, 1783, with the launching of a large unmanned paper balloon in the countryside near Annonay. The balloon, which had been constructed by the Mongolfier brothers, was thirty feet tall, made of paper and appears to have been intended as an advertising gimmick for the Montgolfier’s paper manufacturing company. It was effective, as it drew an enormous crowd of onlookers. Later balloonists such as Jean-Pierre Blanchard and Vincent Lunardi exploited this wonder at the novelty of balloons to draw large crowds and gain personal fame, Lunardi going so far as to proclaim himself an “idol of the whole nation [of England]” in a letter to his guardian.

Early ballooning was met with mixed responses. Crowds of hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic onlookers would turn out for a balloon launch, even threatening to riot if the launch was delayed. Some, however, were not quite as impressed, as shown by the events of August 27, 1783 when professor Jacques Alexandre César Charles, who had been commissioned to build a rival balloon to the Mongolfier’s version using hydrogen, launched his balloon from the Champs de Mars before a large crowd including American scientist Benjamin Franklin. The balloon travelled for “forty-five minutes and fifteen miles to the village of Genoesse, where it was attacked by frightened peasants on landing.”

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Wikipedia