Balloons in Science & Government
All these early balloonists were NOT entertainers, some were interested in experimenting with balloons for serious purposes including scientific experiments, carrying mail and for military uses.
In 1804, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, a noted French scientist, used balloons to conduct experiments on the Earth’s magnetic field. Armed with a magnetic compass, a thermometer, two hygrometers, a barometer and two empty wine bottles, Gay-Lussac flew to 23,000 feet over Paris. Barely able to breathe, he uncorked the bottles, filled them with the rarified air and returned to Earth. To his surprise, he discovered that the air at 23,000 feet was exactly the same as the air on the ground. From this he wrote “Gay-Lussac’s Law”: “The volume of any gaseous product bears a simple ratio to that of its constituents”.
When Blanchard died in 1809, his wife, Madame Sophie Blanchard, was appointed “official government aeronaut” in France but was killed in a balloon accident ten years later.
During the American Civil War, Thaddeus Lowe commanded a balloon corps with the Union Army. Balloons were used in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) when the French, under siege, sent mail, reports and even people across enemy lines by air. Scientists, also, were beginning to find increased use for balloons as a means for investigating the atmosphere, but lighter-than-air craft had little practical application until they could be controlled and directed.
Early efforts to achieve dirigibility, such as Henri Giffard’s 1852 experiment with the steam engine, produced negligible results. The big breakthrough came with the development of a light- weight internal-combustion engine. Using a gasoline engine, Alberto Santos-Dumont piloted an airship around the Eiffel Tower in 1901 and ushered in the age of the dirigible.
The major figure in the development of dirigibles is Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose rigid airships transported passengers over hundreds of miles both before and after World War I. During the war, German airships conducted reconnaissance missions and bombing raids but made only marginal impact on the German war effort. The United States lagged far behind Germany in dirigibles even after the war. Giant airships such as the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg were the pride of Germany. Then, commercial dirigible service came to an abrupt end when the Hindenburg exploded during landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937.
The use of lighter-than-air craft for aerial exploration began before the turn of the 19th to 20th century. In 1897, Salomon A. Andrée and two companions died during an ill-fated expedition to the North Pole. In 1931, Auguste Piccard made the first stratospheric ascent, reaching almost 15,850 meters (52,000 feet). The development of plastic film balloons together with improved radio and telemetry techniques, led to a series of high altitude ascents that eventually exceeded 45,720 meters (150,000 feet), the maximum limit of balloon ascents. Such flights yielded valuable data about cosmic rays, the Sun and space.