Page 5 - Demo

the years, gas has remained a viable alternative to hot air. In fact, in 1985, two centuries after Charles%u2019 demonstration, the Soviet Union launched two space probes, Vega 1 and Vega 2, to the planet Venus, with balloons onboard which filled with helium after entering the Venusian atmosphere. Each carried scientific experiments that recorded wind and atmospheric conditions for 46 hours, and sent the data back to Earth. As a young man, Gaspard-F%u00e9lix Tournachon began studying medicine, but had to quit for financial reasons. Soon, however, he established himself as a successful caricaturist and novelist. Then, after changing his name to Nadar, he became even more famous as a photographer, and created photographic portraits for some of France%u2019s most notable personages. Later, when ballooning caught his fancy, he took the world%u2019s first aerial photographs (in 1858). This was a truly remarkable accomplishment since he used a wet-collodion process which required each photographic plate to be prepared and developed while the balloon was aloft.By 1863, Nadar had become so fascinated with ballooning that he had an enormous one built especially for him. It was 196 feet high, and had a capacity of 212,000 cubic feet. He named it Le G%u00e9ant (The Giant). The airborne leviathan%u2019s basket was huge as well, being 13-feet by 8-feet by 10-feet tall. It consisted of an enclosed lower level with 6 separate rooms, plus an upper observation platform. Le G%u00e9ant%u2019s 5-hour maiden flight went very well, and successfully carried 15 passengers along with several crates of champagne.However, Le Geant%u2019s second flight was a disaster. It was meant to be a long-distance voyage from Paris eastward, to perhaps as far as Russia. With only 6 people aboard, Nadar and his passengers sailed smoothly through the night. Then, in the morning, they decided to touch down in Germany. Sadly, their descent was much too rapid, and with the gas bag only partially inflated, they bounced along the ground as the wind pushed them forward. After ripping limbs from trees in its path, the mammoth balloon looked like it was going to be blown into the path of a speeding express train. Fortunately, the engineer saw the wayward balloon and applied his emergency brake. Le Geant successfully made its way across the tracks in front of the engine, but just barely. Next, it plowed into some telegraph wires, uprooted two utility poles, and continued