These early experiments of the Montgolfiers and de Rozier fired the imaginations of scientific men in every part of the world, and it was only a very short time before a safer and more reliable type of balloon than the fire balloon was developed. Stephen Montgolfier's invention was based on the idea that smoke and clouds rise in the atmosphere. "If," said he to himself, "it were possible to surround a cloud with a bag which did not permit it to escape, then both would ascend." Of course this was a rather childish explanation of the cause of a balloon ascension, but it was the best that the Montgolfiers or any of their learned friends knew at that early day.
Now it was only a little while before this that an Englishman had discovered the gas which is now known as hydrogen, but which was then called "inflammable air." This gas, of which the Montgolfiers apparently knew nothing, is exceedingly light, and therefore rises very quickly in the air. The year before the Montgolfier balloon was invented, this Englishman, Cavallo, tried to fill small bags with hydrogen gas, on the theory that they would rise in the atmosphere. He failed merely because he did not hit upon the proper material of which to construct his bags. The fabric he chose was porous, and the gas escaped through it before the balloon could rise. Cavallo did, however, succeed in blowing hydrogen into ordinary soap bubbles, which arose with great velocity and burst as they struck the ceiling.
The problem of the material to be used in balloon construction had been fairly well solved by the Montgolfiers. Their balloons were of linen fabric, varnished and lined with paper, to render them as nearly as possible air-tight. This set the philosophers of Paris thinking how they might construct a globe which could be successfully inflated with hydrogen.
The brothers Roberts and M. Charles made the first hydrogen balloon. It was fashioned of very fine silk, varnished with a solution of gum elastic. This made it impossible for the hydrogen to leak through. The balloon was filled through an opening in the neck, which was fitted with a stopcock, so that the gas could be poured in or allowed to escape at will.
The funds for constructing this first hydrogen balloon had been raised by popular subscription, and the whole French people were alive with enthusiasm over the success of the experiment. Even at that early day France was the ardent champion of aerial conquest.