Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10233
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    Filling a balloon with hydrogen gas

    Date
    1783
    Creator
    Bertault (French) , Printmaker
    Object type
    Library reference
    38890
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 199mm
    width (print): 120mm
    Subject
    Content object
    transport
       > balloon
    Description
    Scene showing the inflation of a balloon by hydrogen gas piped from a barrel. The gas was produced by the reaction of sulphuric acid and iron. A preliminary balloon of this type was flown at the Champ de Mars in Paris, France on the 27 August 1783 an event witnessed by Benjamin Franklin.

    Plate 3 from the book Description des expériences de la machine aérostatiques de MM.de Montgolfier, by Faujas de Saint-Fond (Paris, 1783). Inscribed below : “Bertault sculp.“

    This hydrogen balloon was designed by Jacques Alexandre César Charles (1746-1823) and the Robert Brothers, Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1820).
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > France
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