peashooter85:A Terrifying Monster in France,In the late 18th century French scientists and aviators
peashooter85:A Terrifying Monster in France,In the late 18th century French scientists and aviators first expirmented with flight by developing the first lighter than air craft, such as hot air balloons and balloons filled with lighter than air gasses such as hydrogen or helium. In 1783 Professor Jacques Charles the Robert brothers conducted an unmanned test flight of a hydrogen filled balloon named “Le Globe”. The balloon successfully ascended 20,000 feet, traveling 16 miles from Paris to Gonesse. The test flight of Le Globe was a great success for the French aeronauts, however for the people of Gonesse it was one of the most terrifying of ordeals in generations.Before crash landing the hydrogen of the balloon, a highly combustible gas, burst into flames creating a magnificent fireball that crashed in a field outside the village. Flight was unknown to the simple peasants, and the sight of such a thing was certainly terrifying. Falling to the earth with blazing fires and giving off a potent chemical smell, two monks declared that the strange object was certainly a demon from Hell. Gathering their courage, the people of Gonesse banded together and assaulted the still half inflated “demon” with stones, pitchforks, and flails. When at last it seemed the demon had been vanquished, a local priest sprinkled it with Holy Water, it was harnessed to a horse, then dragged 6,000 yards away from the town where it was unceremoniously discarded. -- source link