Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => Famous Scientists, Doctors and Inventors => Topic started by: Vcoolspice on 17/04/2008 16:48:46
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Information on people who influenced or created hot air balloons would be much appreciated!!!
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/223262.stm has a history of dates relating to balloons, but does not mention which are hot air and which are gas balloons.
The first balloon, flown by Montgolfier, was a hot air balloon.
http://www.eballoon.org/history/history-of-ballooning.html gives some history that does focus on the distinctions between hot air and gas balloons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgolfier#Competing_claims
Some claim that the hot air balloon was actually invented some 74 years earlier by the Portuguese priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão.[8] A description of his invention was published in 1709, in Vienna, and another one that was lost was found in the Vatican (circa 1917).[9] However, this claim is not generally recognized by aviation historians outside the Portuguese speaking community, in particular the FAI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_air_balloon#Premodern_Balloon
Unmanned hot air balloons are popular in Chinese history. Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom, in the Three Kingdoms era, used airborne lanterns for military signaling. These lanterns are known as Kongming lanterns (孔明灯).
There is also some speculation that hot air balloons were used by the Nazca Indians of Peru some 1500 years ago as a tool for designing vast drawings on the Nazca plain.
A method of making objects float in the air on their own accord by means of hot air is discussed by the 11th century C.E. Jewish scholar Rashi in his commentary on the bible "Even were you to fill an eggshell membrane with dew and close up its opening and place it in the sun, it will, on its own, rise into the air"
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Thank you for the useful information!!