On January 6 it marks 280 years since the birth of Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier.

On January 6, it marked 280 years since the birth of Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier), a French entrepreneur and inventor, co-creator of the first hot air balloon. On that day in 1745, he was born into the family of Pierre and Anne Montgolfier, whose paper manufacturing business was renowned far beyond France.

Jacques-Étienne was the fifteenth of sixteen children in a large family. From an early age, he was fascinated by mathematics and physics. His parents’ wealth allowed him to receive a quality home education and later move to Paris to study architecture. However, before completing his studies, Étienne returned to his hometown of Vidalon-lès-Annonay (75 km from Lyon) to help manage the family business. He proved to be a talented engineer, introducing Dutch papermaking technologies that utilized water mills into the production process.

Étienne and his elder brother Joseph became deeply involved in scientific research, particularly experimenting with small paper envelopes filled with hot air. Initially, these envelopes were cubic, but later they were made spherical. Several such envelopes flew far away, carried by the wind over the city, causing mixed reactions among the locals, who began spreading various rumors about the brothers.

In 1782, the brothers built their first model of a hot air balloon with a silk envelope and an opening at the bottom. Under the opening, they burned paper, filling the balloon with hot air, causing it to rise. Gradually, the brothers increased the size of the envelopes. The first public demonstration of an unmanned hot air balloon with an envelope made of paper-covered linen took place on June 4, 1783, in Annonay. The balloon ascended to a height of approximately 1,800 meters.

On September 19 of the same year, they held a demonstration at Versailles before King Louis XVI and his court. The balloon traveled 3.5 km, carrying the first passengers: a sheep, a rooster, and a duck, all of whom safely survived the flight. On November 21, humans flew for the first time in a hot air balloon. Physicist Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis François Laurent d’Arlandes successfully traveled nearly 10 km over Paris and the Seine.

The Montgolfier brothers were elected to the French Academy of Sciences. The hot air balloon they invented is still referred to as a “Montgolfière.”

Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier passed away on August 2, 1799.