Why was the hot air balloon invented?
Since the dawn of time, humans have been intrigued by the mystery of flight and the apparent magic that allows birds to take to the air and soar for hours. Attempts to copy birds by building wings that could be flapped by attaching them to the arms failed consistently through the years, and it wasn’t until these methods were abandoned that ultimate success was achieved. In 1766 in England, Henry Cavendish isolated hydrogen, the simplest of elements and the lightest of gases. Since it was lighter than air, he described it as having “negative weight” and proposed that it could be used to lift objects from the Earth, but be apparently didn’t pursue the idea. In 1782 in France, Joseph Michel Montgolfier filled a silk bag with hot air which, being less dense than the air around it, lifted the bag to the high ceiling of his house. On April 25, 1783, Joseph and his brother Jacques Etienne built a larger, spherical bag, filled it with hot air from a fire and sent several farm animals aloft in
