October 15, 2026: When the Sky Became a Stage

Podcast: bsnsHistory · bsnsBasics

Opublikowano: 2026-10-15

Two brothers with no scientific training turned a chimney fire observation into the most talked-about spectacle in France. On October 15, 1783, in the garden of a Paris wallpaper factory, science teacher Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier made the first tethered human ascent in a Montgolfier hot air balloon, following a shorter test flight by Étienne Montgolfier himself earlier that same morning. The Montgolfier brothers, papermakers from Annonay, had already proven the concept safe with an earlier flight carrying a sheep, a duck, and a rooster at Versailles, and within weeks of the October ascent, Pilâtre would go u...