Historic Balloon Experiments

19th-century engravings of experimental balloon designs and uses, showcasing innovations in air travel and scientific exploration.

Balloon steering project by Tessiore in 1845 pulled by a tame vulture, France. Old 19th century engraving from La Nature 1887
Balloon steering project by Tessiore in 1845 pulled by a tame vulture, France. Old 19th century engraving from La Nature 1887
139 assets in this story
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Observatory. George's Hill. International exhibition, Philadelphia 1876. 27. still image. Stereographs, Photographs. 1876. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection. Pennsylvania, Exhibitions, Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.)
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Abbe Soumille's seed drill. From ''Encyuclopedie'' by Diderot and d'Alembert, Paris 1751.
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The Annihilator rocket leaves Earth for Mars Date: 1910
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Jules Verne (1828-1905). French writer. Illustration from the work From the Earth to the Moon, written in 1865. Engraving by Gerard, 19th century. Colored.
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General view of a gas works, showing retorts being charged. From Charles Partington 'The British Cyclopaedia', London, 1835. Copperplate engraving.
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Children watching an outdoor scene through a camera obscura. From A Ganot 'Natural Philosophy' London, 1887
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Engraving depicting the Canadian Eclipse Expedition preparing to observed the total eclipse of 1869 from Jefferson City, Iowa. Dated 19th century
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French scientist GAY-LUSSAC makes one of his ascents at Paris - the first instance of a manned aerial device being used for scientific purposes. Date: 9 September 1804
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Johannes Hevelius, Selenographia by Hevelius, Johannes (1611-1687) Yale University 1647 Germany Woodcut Graphic arts Portrait,Genre,History
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Engraving depicting Ernest Pétin's flying machine: Pétin, a Paris milliner r 'designed this machine in 1850 and, although it was never built, it had many features of later actual airships, such as air screws, gas bags, and a frame to accommodate passengers and engineers. Dated 19th Century
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Jean-Dominique Cassini (c1670-1756) Italian-born French astronomer. Headpiece from his tables Astronomiques du Soleil de la Lune Paris 1740 showing telescopes being used at the Paris Observatory to observe Saturn, the moon, etc,
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Jean-Pierre Blanchard's balloon ascent from the Champ-de-Mars, Paris, 1784. Woodblock engraving by H. Rousseau after Delang from Louis Figuier's "Les Merveilles de la Science: Aerostats" (Marvels of Science: Air Balloons), Furne, Jouvet et Cie, Paris, 1868.
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Engraving depicting the total solar eclipse of 1870. British Eclipse Expedition at Oran, unloading instruments and equipment. Team led by William Huggins. William Huggins (1824-1910) an English astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy together with his wife Margaret Lindsay Huggins. Dated 19th century
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Representation of the aerostatic globe, which has risen from above one of the basins of the royal garden of the Tuileries, on December 1, 1783 ... (IT)
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Machinery used in China for irrigation. Coloured engraving by J. Pass, 1811.
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MOY AND SHILL'S PROJECT An elaborate machine with massive propellors and relatively small wings Date: 1874
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Corliss engine. still image. Stereographs, Photographs. 1876. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection. Pennsylvania, Exhibitions, Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.)
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The 'scow' - an alien spacecraft from the planet Clarion, with whose occupants Truman Bethurum became quite friendly Date: 1952
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Engraving depicting the siderostat of the horizontal telescope. Dated 20th Century
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Design for The Magic Flute: The Hall of Stars in the Palace of the Queen of the Night, Act 1, Scene 6. Artist: After Karl Friedrich Schinkel (German, Neuruppin 1781-1841 Berlin); Karl Friedrich Thiele (German, 1780-1836). Dimensions: image: 9 x 13 3/4 in. (22.8 x 35 cm)plate: 11 3/16 x 15 3/4 in. (28.4 x 40 cm)sheet: 13 13/16 x 20 3/16 in. (35.1 x 51.2 cm). Publisher: Published by Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich (German, 1773-1832). Date: 1847-49.Schinkel, the most prominent and prolific German architect of the nineteenth century, also worked for Berlin's major theatrical stages. His designs for a 1816 production of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte remain his best known. Inspired by the Masonic themes incorporated in the opera's libretto, most of Schinkel's sets are in a resolutely Egyptian style.The pair shown here at left evokes the land reigned over by the evil Queen of the Night; the two at right are for the opera's second act, when the princely pair Tamino and Pamina progress through the rea
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The Art of Cloud Analysis - How the United States Navy Uses Balloons to Gain Weather Information.The art of cloud analysis has been highly developed in America. particularly by the United States Navy which, with the aid of helium balloons, sends aloft delicate instruments which climb into the upper atmosphere at a speed of about 1,200 ft. per minute. The basic part of the cloud analyser. which with the aid of a transmitter sends to earth details of the height and density of clouds, is a piece of string saturated with a salt solution. As electricity passes through it a resistance reading is given, indicating the liquid-water content of a cloud. If the balloon passes through a dense cloud the string picks up moisture and becomes a Netter conductor of electricity. A low resistance indicates rain. An increase in resistance indicates a decrease in the amount of liquid water in the air. These same balloons of polyethylene, a fragile, plastic substance, are used by the United States Navy in
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Engraving depicting Reuben Jasper Spalding's method of an electrically driven ornithopter
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Engraving depicting Tissandier crashing his balloon. Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899) a French chemist, Meteorologist, aviator and editor. Dated 20th Century
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Dumont Atmospheric Turbine. Old 19th century engraved illustration from La Nature 1883
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'THE WAR OF THE WORLDS' Dead London, devastated by the Martian attack Date: First published: 1898
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(also known as Capitaine Bord's project) - a brave attempt at maximising lift, M. Dorand's multiplane is one of many projects of this era which never leave the ground. Date: 1908 - 1909
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Exploring the upper air with a weather box kite. The kite was released at Drexel Aerological Station and continuously read temperature, wind velocity, pressure, altitude, and time. From: 'The Boy with the U.S. Weather Men', 1917
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Goddard with Rocket
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'TO MARS VIA THE MOON' (Mark Wicks) A spacecraft from Earth overflies Mars : it bears a remarkable resemblance to the flying saucers of the 1940s. Date: 1911
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French scientists GAY-LUSSAC and BIOT conduct scientific observations in a balloon at 4000 metres altitude ; later they went even higher, up to 6500 metres Date: 20 August 1804
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The experiment in full operation | Library of Congress
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Gas balloons from the Gordon Bennett Cup, Paris, 1906, France, from L'Illustrazione Italiana, Year XXXIV, No 1, January 6, 1907.
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Engraving depicting a mammoth skeleton in the Museum of Natural History, St Petersburg, with, centre and left, skeleton and model of modern elephant for comparison.
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Lhomme dans la Lune (The Man on the Moon) from the frontispiece of novel by Gonzales. Man uses two ropes to guide his aircraft powered by flying birds. From Histoire des Ballons by Gaston Tissandier, Paris, 1887. Aviation
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French locksmith Le Besnier and his flying wings of wood and muslin, 17th century. Woodblock engraving from Louis Figuier's "Les Merveilles de la Science: Aerostats" (Marvels of Science: Air Balloons), Furne, Jouvet et Cie, Paris, 1868.
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Photograph of an aperture synthesis, a type of interferometry that mixes signals from a collection of telescopes to produce images having the same angular resolution as an instrument the size of the entire collection. Dated 20th century
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Flying machine by Jacob Degen, hand-colored copper engraving from Friedrich Justin Bertuch picture book for children, 1807, Weimar, Germany, Europe
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K. E. Tsiolkovsky in his workshop with models of airships. (Photo).