Jim Logajan wrote:
Greg Farris wrote:
AVIATION

I don't see how "Aviation" is an invention. The word seems to specify a
broad category, not any single machine.

Still, I believe the Frenchmen Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier are
considered the fathers of aviation due to their development of manned hot
air balloons. But they were presumably inspired by the book "Experiments
and Observations on Different Kinds of Air" by the Englishman Joseph
Priestley.

The Motgolfier brothers used hot air produced by a smoky fire but they
thought smoke caused the lift, rather than a density difference. The
reason they always had a bottle of wine to give to the people at the
landing spot was to quell the fears associated with a highly colored,
smoke-breathing monster landing in the fields. So, I don't believe they
really understood what they were doing.

Somewhat later Rosiere (sp?) invented the gas balloon. So, he must have
understood what he was doing. Unfortunately he died in a flight across
the English Channel.

Balloons were the first military aircraft. They were used to observe
battles in the French Revolution.