Inventing<br >the Balloon<br > For centuries， humans have been fas-<br >cinated with the idea of flying. Some<br >people designed wings to be attached<br >to a person s arms. Others watched<br >smoke rise from fires and thought there<br >must be a way for them to rise with it.<br >These people tried to build balloons.<br > Finally， in 1783， two brothers in<br >France successfully built and launched<br >a balloon. Joseph Montgolfier and his<br >younger brother， Jacques-Etienne， were<br >paper makers in Annonay， France. They<br >often talked about constructing a large，<br >paper globe that would float passengers<br >above the earth. The Montgolfiers<br >thought that smoke was a kind of<br >lighter-than-air gas， so they decided to<br >raise their balloon with smoke from<br >burning rags. Actually， smoke rises be-<br >cause air warmed by fire is lighter than<br >the surrounding cooler air. Therefore，<br >a balloon full of hot air will rise until<br >thinner air at higher altitudes can no<br >longer push up on the balloon or until<br >the balloon s hot air cools enough to<br >make it too heavy to stay aloft.<br > Although people in earlier centuries<br >tried to construct balloons--and the<br >Incas or Chinese may have succeeded<br >in launching them--the Montgolfiers<br >are credited with inventing the balloon.<br >They received a good deal of public<br >attention because both they and their<br >rival， Jacques Charles， wanted to be<br >the first to send up a balloon. The<br >Montgolfiers won the race to fly on<br >June 5， 1783， and their balloon s flight<br >--without passengers--was officially<br >witnessed and documented by the<br >Academy of Sciences.<br > On September 19， 1783， the Mont-<br >golfiers flew their invention--later<br >called a motztgolfier or a hot-air bal-<br >loon-before King Louis XVI and his<br >court in Versailles. On this second flight，<br >the balloon carried three passengers--<br >a sheep， a duck， and a rooster. The<br >balloon measured 41 feet (12 meters)<br >in diameter and was 86 feet (26 m)<br >high. Floating to a height of 1，450 feet<br >(435 m)， the balloon stayed in the air for<br >about 10 minutes. After the balloon s<br >