Sophie Blanchard
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Sophie Blanchard
Sophie Blanchard (; 25 March 1778 – 6 July 1819), commonly referred to as Madame Blanchard, was a French aeronaut and the wife of ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard. Blanchard was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist, and after her husband's death she continued ballooning, making more than 60 ascents. Known throughout Europe for her ballooning exploits, Blanchard entertained Napoleon Bonaparte, who promoted her to the role of "Aeronaut of the Official Festivals", replacing André-Jacques Garnerin. On the restoration of the monarchy in 1814 she performed for Louis XVIII, who named her "Official Aeronaut of the Restoration". Ballooning was a risky business for the pioneers. Blanchard lost consciousness on a few occasions, endured freezing temperatures and almost drowned when her balloon crashed in a marsh. In 1819, she became the first woman to be killed in an aviation accident when, during an exhibition in the Tivoli Gardens in Paris, she launched firewor ...
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Kingdom Of France
The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from the High Middle Ages to 1848 during its dissolution. It was also an early French colonial empire, colonial power, with colonies in Asia and Africa, and the largest being New France in North America geographically centred around the Great Lakes. The Kingdom of France was descended directly from the West Francia, western Frankish realm of the Carolingian Empire, which was ceded to Charles the Bald with the Treaty of Verdun (843). A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, when Hugh Capet was elected king and founded the Capetian dynasty. The territory remained known as ''Francia'' and its ruler as ('king of the Franks') well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself ('King of France') was Philip II of Fr ...
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Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Paris. It is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, fourth-largest city in France after Paris, Marseille and Lyon, with 511,684 inhabitants within its municipal boundaries (2022); its Functional area (France), metropolitan area has a population of 1,513,396 inhabitants (2022). Toulouse is the central city of one of the 22 Métropole, metropolitan councils of France. Between the 2014 and 2020 censuses, its metropolitan area was the third fastest growing among metropolitan areas larger than 500,000 inhabitants in France. Toulouse is the centre of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, the SPOT (satellites), SPOT satellite system, ATR ( ...
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Lake Bracciano
Lake Bracciano () is a lake of volcanic origin in the Italian region of Lazio, northwest of Rome. It is the second largest lake in the region (second only to Lake Bolsena) and one of the major lakes of Italy. It has a circular perimeter of approximately . Its inflow is from precipitation runoff and percolation, and from underground springs, and its outflow is the Arrone. The lake owes its origin to intense volcanic and tectonic activity from 600,000 to 40,000 years ago, which created many small volcanoes in the ''Sabatino'' territory. The main magma chamber was situated under the present lake of Bracciano. Its collapse created the depressed area now occupied by the lake, which is not a crater lake. Some small craters and calderas are still recognisable around the lake and in the immediate vicinity (Martignano, Baccano, Sacrofano). Three towns border the lake, Bracciano, Anguillara Sabazia and Trevignano Romano. The lake is an important tourist attraction. As it serves as a ...
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Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career of Napoleon, a series of military campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He led the French First Republic, French Republic as French Consulate, First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then ruled the First French Empire, French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815. He was King of Italy, King of Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Italy from 1805 to 1814 and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine from 1806 to 1813. Born on the island of Corsica to a family of Italian origin, Napoleon moved to mainland France in 1779 and was commissioned as an officer in the French Royal Army in 1785. He supported the French Rev ...
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Francis Maceroni
Colonel Francis Maceroni (sometimes known as "Count Maceroni"), born Francis Macirone (1788–1846), was a soldier, diplomat, revolutionary, balloonist (as recorded by Sophie Blanchard), author and inventor. "Maceroni" was the original version of his family name, the variant spelling of Macirone having been adopted by his grandfather to distance himself from an unsavoury relation. Francis opted to resume the original spelling, but is sometimes listed with the variant spelling. Early life Born in 1788 the son of Peter Augustus Macirone (''Pietro Bonaventura Augusto Macirone''), an Italian merchant and former school teacher living in England, Maceroni was sent in 1803, aged fifteen, to live in Rome with one of his uncles, Giorgio, who was then Post-Master General to Pius VII. On his father's wishes, Maceroni was there apprenticed in the counting-house of the Torlonia banking family. Being clearly unsuited to copying and book-keeping work however, he was soon more usefully empl ...
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Hot Air Balloon
A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries passengers and a source of heat, in most cases an open flame caused by burning liquid propane. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant, since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere. The envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air inside the envelope is at about the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric, and the inlet of the balloon (closest to the burner flame) is made from a fire-resistant material such as Nomex. Modern balloons have been made in many shapes, such as rocket ships and the shapes of various commercial products, thou ...
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Gas Balloon
A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air (such as helium or hydrogen). When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent the escape of gas. A gas balloon may also be called a '' Charlière'' for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small latex party balloons. For nearly 200 years, well into the 20th century, manned balloon flight utilized gas balloons before hot-air balloons became dominant. Without power, heat or fuel, untethered flights of gas balloons depended on the skill of the pilot. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can stay up for much longer than hot air balloons. History The first gas balloon made its flight in August 1783. Designed by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, it carried no passengers or cargo. On ...
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Hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter. Under standard conditions, hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules with the chemical formula, formula , called dihydrogen, or sometimes hydrogen gas, molecular hydrogen, or simply hydrogen. Dihydrogen is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and highly combustible. Stars, including the Sun, mainly consist of hydrogen in a plasma state, while on Earth, hydrogen is found as the gas (dihydrogen) and in molecular forms, such as in water and organic compounds. The most common isotope of hydrogen (H) consists of one proton, one electron, and no neutrons. Hydrogen gas was first produced artificially in the 17th century by the reaction of acids with metals. Henry Cavendish, in 1766–1781, identified hydrogen gas as a distinct substance and discovere ...
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Élisa Garnerin
Élisa Garnerin (1791 – 1853) was a French balloonist and parachutist. She was the niece of the pioneer parachutist André-Jacques Garnerin, and took advantage of his name and of the novelty of a woman performing what were at the time extremely daring feats. She was a determined businesswoman, and at times got into trouble with the police for the disturbance her performances caused, failure to pay all taxes due and failure to deliver all that her advertising had promised. She toured the provinces of France, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe, making 39 descents in all between 1815 and 1835. Family Élisa Garnerin was born in 1791. She was the niece of André-Jacques Garnerin (1769–1823). Her uncle made his first parachute jump from a balloon in the Parc Monceau on 22 October 1797. He was not the first to use a parachute, since Louis-Sébastien Lenormand had descended by parachute at Montpellier in 1783, but his jump from a balloon caused so much public excitement that fro ...
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The Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and has been described as the country's ''de facto'' capital since the time of the Dutch Republic, while Amsterdam is the official capital of the Netherlands. The Hague is the core municipality of the COROP, Greater The Hague urban area containing over 800,000 residents, and is also part of the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, which, with a population of approximately 2.6 million, is the largest metropolitan area of the Netherlands. The city is also part of the Randstad region, one of the largest conurbations in Europe. The Hague is the seat of the Cabinet of the Netherlands, Cabinet, the States General of the Netherlands, States General, the Supreme Court of the Neth ...
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Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, northeast of Saint-Étienne. The City of Lyon is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city in France with a population of 522,250 at the Jan. 2021 census within its small municipal territory of , but together with its suburbs and exurbs the Lyon Functional area (France), metropolitan area had a population of 2,308,818 that same year, the second largest in France. Lyon and 58 suburban municipalities have formed since 2015 the Lyon Metropolis, Metropolis of Lyon, a directly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of most urban issues, with a population of 1,424,069 in 2021. Lyon is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region and seat of the Departmental co ...
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