Oftentimes I dream of flying, of soaring high over tree tops and mountains, to be at the mercy of an internal mechanism which renders me lighter than air. But I’m not so special, dreaming these dreams.
It was 1766 England when Henry Cavendish isolated hydrogen, the simplest of elements and the lightest of gases. Lighter than air, in fact, and could be used to lift objects from the Earth. But it never was, until 1780’s France.
Filling with Gas: D3000 f/5.6; Exposure Time 1/30sec; ISO-400; Aperture Priority
The clever brothers Montgolfier built a large bag, filled it with hot air from a fire and sent several farm animals – a sheep, a rooster and a duck – flying yon high, in a basket hung beneath it. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the French court watched in awe. After this success, the brothers launched a 70-foot high balloon carrying Jean Francois Piltre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Artandesn over Paris. Viola! Hot Air Ballooning was born.
Lift Off: D3000 f/6.3; Exposure Time: 1/80sec; ISO-400; Aperture Priority @ 6:30AM
However it was Frenchman Jacques Charles who invented the first hydrogen balloon.
Two weeks after the Montgolfier flight, the French physicist Jacques Charles and Nicolas Robert made the first untethered ascension with a gas hydrogen balloon. The winning combination of hydrogen with rubber-coated silk made it a triumph.
Gas Lift: D3000 f/6.3; Exposure Time: 1/60sec; ISO-400; Aperture Priority 6:30AM
With its wicker gondola, netting, and valve-and-ballast system, the Charlière hydrogen balloon became the definitive form of the hydrogen balloon for the next 200 years.
Hydrogen overcame the limitation of using hot air which when cooled, forced a descent of the balloon. If a fire was kept burning to warm the air constantly, sparks were likely to reach the bag and set it afire. Hydrogen was the answer.
Propane Burners: D3000 f/5.6; Exposure Time 1/100sec; ISO-100; Aperture Priority
Now in order to work, the actual balloon (called an envelope) has to be huge as it takes a large amount of heated air to lift it off the ground. To lift 1000 pounds worth of weight you would need almost 65,000 cubic feet of heated air. To help keep the balloon in the air and rising, hot air needs to be propelled upwards into the envelope using the burner.
The burner uses propane gas to heat up the air and to move the balloon off the ground, and the pilot keeps firing the burner at regular intervals throughout the flight to ensure that the balloon continues to be stable, floating above the earth as this one is.
Magic happens when flying, when floating, at over a kilometre above the Abu Dhabi sand dunes…
Airborn: D3000 f/5.6; Exposure Time 1/500sec; ISO-400; Aperture Priority
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