science · 30 March 1844 · 180 years ago
In 1844, the 30 Mar issue of the Illustrated London News reported the construction in Paris of a “vast balloon of copper, which is so far completed as to be exhibited to the public.” Some facts were given: it was about 10-yards diam., of copper sheets 1/200-inch thick, weighed 800-lb, would contain 100-lb of hydrogen, and the Parisian journals stated that a French aeronaut would ascent with it. The copper skin would retain gas better than varnished silk. The builder, M. Marey-Monge, proposed scientific investigations of electrical and magnetic phenomena. Floating in the atmosphere, as a paragréle, could it conduct electricity from the clouds (via a wire tether to the ground) and prevent hail? The article concluded: “we fear this Copper Balloon will prove another 'Aerial Machine,'—a very negative merit.”
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