Who made the first rubber balloon?
2093702#3
The first rubber balloons were made by Professor Michael Faraday in 1824 for use in his experiments with hydrogen at the Royal Institution in London. "The caoutchouc is exceedingly elastic", he wrote in the Quarterly Journal of Science the same year. "Bags made of it...have been expanded by having air forced into them, until the caoutchouc was quite transparent, and when expanded by hydrogen they were so light as to form balloons with considerable ascending power..." Faraday made his balloons by cutting round two sheets of rubber laid together and pressing the edges together. The tacky rubber welded automatically, and the inside of the balloon was rubbed with flour to prevent the opposing surfaces joining together.
Toy balloon
294860#4
A balloon is an inflatable flexible filled with air and also gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide or oxygen. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as Natural latex rubber, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders . latex rubber balloons are used for children playing amusement it is cheap toys for rural people's children it also use as decorative purposes, while others are used for practical purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation. A balloon's properties, including its low density and low cost, have led to a wide range of applications. The inventor of the natural latex rubber balloon, (the most common balloon) was Michael Faraday in 1824, via experiments with air and various gases.
Inflatable
175610#6
Developed with John Akerman of the University of Minnesota and piloted by Jean Piccard in 1937 in Rochester, Minnesota, the first multi-celled balloon was called "The Pleiades" and was made of 98 latex rubber balloons. In a letter to Robert Gray of the Dewey and Almy Chemical Co. later published in "Time" magazine, Piccard describes how he broke balloons with a hunting knife and revolver to control his descent. A TNT charge released the cluster as he expected but sent burning excelsior down that destroyed the first "Pleiades". He suggested to Gray that rock wool in place of excelsior would prevent similar accidents in the future.
Jean Piccard
2093702#4
Latex rubber toy balloons were introduced by pioneer rubber manufacturer Thomas Hancock the following year in the form of a do-it-yourself kit consisting of a bottle of rubber solution and a condensing syringe. Vulcanized toy balloons, which unlike the earlier kind were unaffected by changes in temperature, were first manufactured by J.G. Ingram of London in 1847 and can be regarded as the prototype of modern toy balloons.
Toy balloon
4180369#33
The silk material balloon used by the Confederates was of a design by Dr. Edward Cheves of Savannah, Georgia. Dr. Cheves had the silk material sewn together by seamstresses and then covered the silk material with a varnish made by melting rubber in oil. The balloon was filled with a coal gas and launched from a railroad car that its pilot, Edward Porter Alexander, had positioned near the battlefield. In late June 1862, Alexander made a few ascents in the balloon and was able to signal his observations of the battlefield to men on the ground using a wigwag system that he had devised. The coal gas used in the balloon was only able to keep the balloon aloft for about three to four hours at a time.
Union Army Balloon Corps
28106412#1
Working at Hood Rubber in the 1920s as a researcher, Tillotson lost his job as a result of the Great Depression. Out of desperation and boredom, Tillotson discovered a way to make latex balloons economically. He founded the Tillotson Rubber Company in 1931 to produce them. His first product was hand-painted balloons in the shape of a cat's head, but he soon branched out into other offerings. In 1931, despite the Depression, Tillotson Rubber made USD $85,000 in sales (equivalent to $1.2 million in 2009).
Neil Tillotson
4435820#2
The first successfully flown balloons were made in France by the Montgolfier brothers in 1782-1783. They were rigid-style spheres made of cotton or silk stretched over a simple light wood frame resembling a large egg. These rigid balloons were held up over a fire so that the smoke billowed well into the cavity of the sphere. It was thought that the smoke made the balloons rise, but actually it was the hot air of the smoke that caused the elevating. The first decisive use of a balloon for aerial observation was performed by the French Aerostatic Corps using the aerostat "l’Entreprenant" ("The enterprising one") at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794. The following year, during the Siege of Mainz an observation balloon was employed again. However, the French military use of the balloon did not continue uninterrupted, as in 1799 Napoleon disbanded the French balloon corps.
History of military ballooning
24858787#0
Les Frères Robert were two French brothers. Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1820) were the engineers who built the world's first hydrogen balloon for professor Jacques Charles, which flew from central Paris on August 27, 1783. They went on to build the world's first manned hydrogen balloon, and on 1 December 1783 Nicolas-Louis accompanied Jacques Charles on a 2-hour, 5-minute flight. Their barometer and thermometer made it the first balloon flight to provide meteorological measurements of the atmosphere above the Earth's surface.
Robert brothers
32777529#2
Tiring of this he made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the London stage, and then took to ballooning. He had a balloon manufactured at the old Montpelier Gardens in Walworth, and made his first ascent successfully from the Rosemary Branch tavern at Peckham in 1848. He made many ascents, the 114th of which was from the hippodrome of Vincennes at Bordeaux, with the Royal Cremorne balloon, on 8 Sept. 1850. He was seated on the back of a pony suspended from the car. Gale descended at Auguilles. When the pony had been released from its slings, the peasants holding the balloon ropes, not understanding his directions, relaxed their hold, and Gale was carried up by the only partially exhausted machine. The car overturned, but he clung to the tackling for a time, and was borne out of sight. Next morning his body was found in a wood several miles away. He was buried at the Protestant cemetery at Bordeaux on 11 Sept. Gale was a man of much courage and very sanguine. For some time after his death his widow, who had frequently made ascents in his company, continued to gain a livelihood by ballooning.
George Gale (aeronaut)
2149923#20
The first human carrying pure solar balloon flight was made on 1 May 1973 by Tracy Barnes in his balloon 'Barnes Solar Firefly Tetrahedron'. This balloon was made from a spiral tube of fabric that was formed into a tetrahedron. Dominic Michaelis is recorded as having owned the first pure solar balloon in Europe. This balloon was flown by Julian Nott across the English Channel. Records compiled for the FAI show that on 6 February 1978 Iranian Frederick Eshoo also made a solar flight in a balloon called Sunstat. This used a standard balloon design, but used clear plastic on one side, allowing the sun's radiation to reflect off the inner surface, heating the inside air.
Solar balloon