The Heroes of the Air: Versailles A Duck, A Rooster, and A Sheep Start the Ability for People to Fly in 1783

Written By Monica Michelle

The first 'aerostatic' flight in history was an experiment carried out by the Montgolfier brothers at Versailles in 1783. At long last, man could leave the surface of the earth below.

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A duck, a Rooster, and a sheep wander into a wicker basket. This is not a joke it is the start of our podcast and the beginning of the ability for humans to fly. 19 September 1783 at 1 PM a cannon blasts and our Heroes of the air walk and waddle their way into history in the courtyard of Versailles in front of 130,000 people including the Queen, Marie Antoinette and King Louis.

Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier had spent the years earlier experimenting with hot air and in the beginning, laundry to develop their hot air balloon.

Take a listen and find out how we began flying.

Show Notes

0:00

At 01:00 p.m. There? S a Cannon blast and a sheep, a duck and a Rooster. Enter a round Wicker basket in front of over a hundred thousand people at the Court of Versailles. 1s This is not a joke. This is the start of our podcast. I can't believe that happened. A ten minute history podcast for kids and curious grownups. I am so excited to talk to you about this. Flying is a fascination of mine. And if you go back into some of the other history podcasts, you'll hear more about some of the historical figures that are very interesting in the field of aviation. And today we're going to find out how that all started. And it all began with a sheep, a duck and a Rooster in the court of Versailles. Now, balloon flights are nothing new at this time. There's been hundreds of years of balloons being flown for various reasons, but they have never been flown before with any people or animals. As far as my knowledge goes, this is a first. And this is what allows everyone to start really seeing the positive possibilities of flight. 1s Now, please forget my translations. I'm so sorry. My 1s pronunciations. I've been studying French for years. I'm still terrible at it, but Joseph and Ethan Montgolfier, fingers crossed. That was right. We're two brothers that were born into a family that was famous for paper making. 1s The official story is that in 1782, one of the brothers was watching the laundry be done, and it was over a fire, and he was watching the smoke billow up and lift the fabric upwards. Quick note. Please don't try this at home, please. This was something that was done hundreds of years ago. I promise you, it works. If you absolutely insist on testing this, please get a responsible person to watch you and to help out. So in 1782, they really start to expand on these experiments using bigger heat sources, using bigger fabrics, and they're using tethered flight, not untethered. And this catches the excitement and the interest of the Academy Royale de Saint. 1s My pronunciation is terrible, but I'm hoping to get the general idea. They were asked to repeat the experiment in Paris and then in Versailles. 2s So the balloon was built. It was 1320. 8 meters across, 1840, 7 meters long and it weighed over 400 kg. Now in 1783, the Tethered attempt was supposed to be in front of the King and it was a disaster. After multiple successes, the fabric tour and they did do a quick sewing job on it to make it work. It was called the Le Reville after and please go to my show notes. It will all be Typed out. I promise it will be better than my pronunciations. 2s It was named because of a friend, John Baptiste Reveille. He designed the appearance of the balloon. It was sky blue background and it was decorated with two intertwining elves. For Louis, it was his initials in gold and there was zodiac signs and Golden Suns. I will be putting as many of the etchings as I could find. And you know me, I love to paint and draw. So I do have a few of my own drawing interpretations of this as well. I do find it fascinating that in a scientific experiment they did take a minute to make it truly beautiful. It was exquisite looking. Now over 1300 people gathered to watch this experiment. It was a huge crowd. I had to go back and research just to make sure I got the number right. It's mind boggling to think of that. Many people, the entire court and all of the Sciences experts were there, including some very interesting names will discuss later. 2s There are multiple discussions about who would go up in this flight. It was going to be untethered, meaning it was not going to be attached to the ground. At first there was a discussion of using convicts. There was a discussion of using some of the scientists who really wanted to give it a try. At the last minute, it was changed and the three heroes of the air waddled and click hop their way towards Infamy. 1s It was quite a sight, if you can imagine it. 130 people cheering and excitedly awaiting this thing that had only been daydreamed for centuries. And in walks a children's story of 2s a sheep, a duck and a Rooster. And I'm going to spoil this for you all really quickly, in case there are people who are concerned and I totally get it. We love our animals and they really didn't get much of a choice about becoming heroes of the air. They all were fine. I promise you, we'll get to their actual fate at the end. But in case this is worrying you, I promise you, everyone ends up being just fine. One of the things I truly love and I feel this is not the wrong fact. I always put one in July to find it and tell me all about it, but this one wasn't and I really had to search to find out about it. But the sheep's name was Mosfeel, which would translate to climb the Sky. 1s The flight last eight minutes and it went 600 meters up into the air. Now, you remember that rip in the beginning? Yeah. That's going to come back. The fabric ripped and the balloon descended after 3.5 km in the woods of of Voiceon. If I was smart, I would have made that my lie in the middle of this. But I didn't. I swear I'll be in the genes, properly written, if not properly pronounced. Now, this is super cool. A doctor rushes onto the scene. Pelletre de Rosier. He becomes a future flyer himself. If I do another episode, you'll hear about him. He is one of the first humans to ever

do an untethered flight. But he rushes into the forest to see how the animals fared and he proclaimed the animal safe. There were some reports that the Rooster didn't get a hurt wing, but I promise you, everything turns out okay. So the King and his gratitude named some of the heroes of the heir and they are all given places of honor in the Menageria Versailles. And some say that Marianne's Finet took the. 2s Sheep to Petitrianon, where he lived the longest and happiest sheep life. And if you know anything about Petitrion, you will know that that sheep probably went through a whole bunch of colors on his little fur because there was lots of reports of perfume and dying the sheep variously of colors. This scientific discovery didn't just stay with scientists. It inspired the entire country and most of the world, to be

honest. You saw a bunch of fashion arriving from balloon skirts to balloon fans, balloons and wigs. There's a huge rash on sheep. Everyone had to have a sheep. So the hot air balloon became a huge piece of design. There were even reports of people saying, we speak of nothing but flying here. 2s And for the next flight that takes place with the veterinarian, none other than Ben Franklin was there to witness it. All right. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry this is late this month. There's been a lot going on. If you can find the one wrong fact, please be sure to email it over to me and with what the correct fact was and my pronunciation does not count. I'm very sorry about that. Please go over the show notes. I will have my own drawings as well as the original, etchings. And lots of links so you can kind of get more of an idea of what was happening. We are brand new podcasts. We do not advertise, so we rely entirely on your kindness of sharing this podcast with your community and friends, and we deeply appreciate it. There will also be some new stuff happening very soon with the podcast. I am very excited that a school reached out to me and the students did their own research, and I'm really hoping that I can convince some of them to do their own episodes, which I can publish here. So please stay tuned. And if your school wants to be a part of a program I'm trying to set up, please email me. I am so excited about the idea of helping anyone learn how to research better and how to get their ideas out to the world. All right. Thanks so much, everyone. Have a great week. And if you liked this podcast, please do not hesitate to like and subscribe. And to quote one of my favorite people, Glenn and Doyle, if you don't, don't worry about it. It's all good bye.

Monica Michelle
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