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Balloon flight
(1,122 words)

The invention of balloon flight and experimentation with it caused a worldwide sensation at the end of the 18th century; it broke with attempts to imitate the flight of birds (Aviatics) and relied instead on new scientific knowledge of Aeronautics based on a gas “lighter than air.” Besides demonstrating the physical principle, the the first hot-air balloon ascent by the brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier on June 5, 1783, in Annonay, near Lyon, produced extraordinary fascination with the ostentatious event. Only a few weeks lat…

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Riha, Karl, “Balloon flight”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_017307>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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