August 5, 2021 • 34 mins
These days hot air balloons are often thought of as anachronistic novelties -- but in the early days of aeronautics, they were considered fascinating, dangerous and deadly. In today's episode, the guys explore a strange story about a genuine riot during the dawn of ballooning, when an angry crowd protested the balloon they came to see... by literally tearing the balloon apart.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. That's our super producer, the
one and only Max Williams. Give it up for folks.
And Uh, my name is Ben. I'm a I'm a
fan of a balloons snol. It's it's kind of birthday
season for you and me, isn't it Leo season s
(00:48):
z n as the kids say on the internet. Uh,
and I am no. I don't think I introduced myself
in the last episodes. If anyone's confused, it's me no.
And yeah, my birthday is August eight, And I think
you're just right around there. Matt Frederick, our compatriots from
Stuff that It Wants you to Know, also has one
like I think we're in like a three or four
day span of each other. Yeah, yeah, I don't know
if Matt wants me putting his birthday out on the airways,
(01:11):
but I have the same birth whole Colgan has the
same birthday as me, August eleven. That's been a sore
point for him in our relationship. And Hulk Hogan is
from my hometown of Augusta, Georgia. So it all comes
back around. It always goes back back to Hogan, except
for today's episode, which is, yeah, he has nothing to do,
he has nothing to do with. But it's kind of
(01:31):
birthday related because you know, when you're when you're celebrating,
uh you on many parts of the world, just celebrating
a birthday or some important event, you get a balloon.
And nowadays we see balloons in general as something innocuous,
is something fun and interesting, whether we're talking about a
little helium balloon that says happy Birthday on it, or
whether we're talking about a hot air balloon, which I
(01:54):
can't I can't wait to get in one once I
feel safer about the steering, right, Yeah, I think they're
still working on that. It's pretty rudimentary still to this day,
if I'm not mistaken, Like a lot of it has
to do with ballasts and you know, getting rid of
sandbags and all of that. I I don't know that
just maybe they've made advancements in in hot air balloon technology,
but it used to be the absolute height of exploration technology.
(02:17):
Um when yeah, not even on purpose, But thank you
for pointing that out, because back in you know, the
early days the nineteenth century, the air the sky was
a total mystery, in the same way that like the
deepest depths of the ocean, you know, were for a
long time, and now we would probably make it a
(02:37):
little more akin to like the deepest reaches of outer space.
As far as they were concerned, it was a weird
bizarro land out there. They there was a pretty widespread
belief that there were sky monsters, massive like pterodactyl type
birds that could, you know, swoop a man up with
his talents and drop him from great heights, like the
(02:57):
weird dragons at the Ring Wraiths ride and Lord of
the Rings. That's always a cool flex when you pick
somebody up and fly them up him and drop them
to their death, or the rock like the ro oc
It goes on and on, it sure does. But we
are talking specifically today about the early days of not astronauts,
but aeron nots. These were some super intrepid people that
(03:19):
were kind of putting themselves on the line, their lives
on the line for the at the time really more
entertainment purposes. It wasn't even really considered to be a
scientific pursuit until a little bit later, And there certainly
was that exploratory spirit, but it really became this thing
that people would like mob around to check out the
latest hot air balloon um flight because chances are someone's
(03:44):
probably gonna fall to their death, Yeah, exactly. And there
was a common belief that even if they didn't fall
to their death, they would die in the atmosphere because
the sky was also thought to contain disease causing vapors,
so folks and folks also validly feared that the aeronauts
(04:04):
would die of oxygen deprivation. But there were two French
brothers and s where our story really begins, who bucked
those common misconceptions are common beliefs. Joseph Michelle Montgolfier and
Jacques Etienne mount Golfe. These are the folks who on
November one three launched the first piloted hot air balloon.
(04:29):
And this a lot of this comes to us from
our pals over at Mental Floss over the BBC and
excellent little article in Lyster Mercury dot co dot UK.
Also Smithsonian mag there's a fantastic article the true History
of the Aeronauts who transformed our view of the world above,
and that was written by Jennifer Tucker for the Conversation.
(04:54):
So this has already started out on a really weird
note with an opinion from the French monarch Louis the sixteenth,
because he had a concern He said, you know, I
don't want to be responsible for fatalities when these aeronauts
go up into the sky, because they're obviously gonna die, right.
(05:15):
And he looks around at his court and he's like,
they're gonna die, right, and nobody's like, yeah, they're gonna die.
Probably are good. Yeah, And so they had to they
had to figure out who could pilot the balloon knowing
that they might die, and how how to make sure
that this wouldn't be a pr disaster when they inevitably
passed away. So what what did he go with? Noel,
(05:37):
you know, criminals? He just figured, hey, why not? You know,
their their lives are forfeit anyway. Uh, these are talking
we're talking about ones that were, you know, likely scheduled
to be executed. But thankfully some of the more science
minded individuals in uh Louie's entourage talked him out of
the idea of taking completely you know, skill less at least,
(05:57):
and I'm sure they had some skills, you know, certain
set of skills just criminals, probably not piloting murder, petty larsony,
all of that stuff, but definitely not piloting hot air balloons,
which is a very cutting edge technology. So uh, it
turned out that a scientist by the name of Jean
Frescois Pelote de Rosier and uh an aristocrat named Francois
(06:19):
Lauren dr Lands were chosen by the Mongolfayer brothers to
pilot a balloon, and on November twenty one three, they
did just that, and they flew for twenty minutes and
became the first people to experience sustained flight. So the
Mongolfier brothers, what was their deal? They launched a hot
(06:41):
air balloon, but it was it didn't like the flight
didn't last for very long. Well, they first did a
series of animal experiments similar to what we seen space exploration.
They launched, Uh, they launched the hot air balloon with
a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. That's right, ridiculous historians.
There should be a Pixar movie on the way. And
they did that just like just a few months earlier,
(07:03):
September night three. Uh, and they thought they had a
logic to it, they thought cheaper similar enough to people
that will see how altitude affects land lover and ducks
and roosters can already fly to what degree or another,
and so we'll see, we'll see how they do when
they're not flying on their own power. And that balloon
(07:24):
was only it was tethered, so it wasn't flying free
and was only up for about what eight minutes? Yeah,
and I think because I mean, we talked about this briefly.
This is the idea of the spectacle because the technology
was very rudimentary and oftentimes the balloons would spontaneously deflate
and air. Uh, they would drift over the ocean and
(07:45):
deflate in the air. They would occasionally catch fire for
various reasons. But the duck and the sheep were unharmed.
It gives me serious like monkeys and space kind of vibes,
you know. Yep, and the rooster made it through as well.
They forgot about the it's uh yeah, you know, maybe
the crowd was there chanting here they come to snuff
(08:05):
the rooster. Alison Chains album is based on this story. Yeah,
total facts. Um. So again, there there was this sense
of danger. Um. So there was a an absolute kind
of almost bread and circuses vibe to these events because
these aeronauts and their passengers often did fall to their
(08:27):
death if the balloons were untethered, and people wanted to
hang out and see if anything would go horribly horribly wrong.
In fact, the Smithsonian mag points out that Charles Dickens
felt like this was an absolute hideous form of entertainment.
He compared them to public executions. Yeah, I kind of
like the people who would go to watch motorsport race
(08:49):
purely waiting for an accident to occur. So the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in eighteen sixty two
they say, we're gonna We're gonna fund this, We're gonna
see us We're gonna have a series of flights to
study the upper atmosphere, which means these balloons are going
to have to fly as high as they possibly can
(09:11):
and we're talking airplane commercial flight light heights. Uh. Yeah,
the closest they could get to it. I think they
managed to. They get over twenty thousand feet pretty quickly.
There's a guy who who have founded the British Meteorological
Society named James Glacier who volunteered to perform these flights
(09:32):
between eighteen sixty two and eighteen sixty six. This dude
alone made twenty eight cents and uh, you know these
were funded by the association, not him. He had a pilot,
so he's kind of a long for the ride to
monitor stuff. And this pilot is a guy named Henry Coxwell,
at this point with this, you know, with the age
(09:52):
of this technology, he's automatically a world class expert. Their
first flight, they reached the height of twenty six thousand
That's insane. It gives me vertigo just reading that on
a page. Yeah, can you imagine being in that little basket.
And they certainly wouldn't have had any like oxygen support,
you know, masks or anything at the time. And as
(10:13):
we know, you know, the air gets very thin up
there and and he and also very very very cold.
They made another ascent on September five in a balloon
that was dubbed the Mars Chickin a lot of this
gives me kind of precursor to space travel type bub um. Yeah,
and they got up to thirty thousand feet, but it
was an absolute disaster. Glass Year went blind for a
(10:34):
time while he was up there due to the atmospheric pressure,
I imagine, uh, and he lost consciousness and coxwell due
to like some sort of issue with the rigging. Had
to climb up into the bat into the balloon area
and free a tangled valve line. And he wasn't even
wearing gloves, and his hands were so cold they were
(10:56):
essentially borderline hypothermic that he had to rip the valve
court free using his teeth, his bare teeth. The valve lines,
you know, again, like I was talking about, it would
measure barometric pressure and be able to detect when they
had reached a certain height and then would start to
ease down their descent. But with a malfunction and that equipment,
(11:18):
they would have just continued to rise and rise and rise. Thankfully,
he got it free and they did descend. But if
he hadn't, they absolutely would have died from freezing to
death hypothermia or from lack of oxygen. They would have
just suffocated and in the atmosphere. Yeah, it's absolutely true. Specifically,
they we believe they reached the height of about thirty
(11:40):
seven thousand feet and just for comparison, Smithsonian in those
magnificent and dot CO Dot you can make a great
comparison here, thirty seven thousand feet is eight thousand feet
higher than the summit of Mount Everest. So they have
literally gone higher into the atmosphere than any human being
(12:02):
ever before throughout the span of history. And they, like
you said, old, they barely came back to tell the tale.
It's interesting because you would think there there are a
couple of different responses to this. If you survive, you
(12:22):
might say, Okay, that's enough air for me. I have
feet and I will keep them on the ground. Or
you might think how much further can I push the envelope?
Henry Coxwell was the latter. He decided that he would
doubled out, he made another highly publicized flight, or he
prepared for another highly publicized fight. In eighteen sixty four,
(12:46):
he was gonna launch his balloon, like we said, in
front of a crowd. This was publicized. Dickens was not
exaggerating when he said. This drew lots of crowds. So
because he had had that close brush with death, he
was kind of like an evil Kinevil character, you know,
kind of like a stunt man, like is this the
time he dies? Probably by some considered to be a hero,
(13:10):
a real pioneer, you know, of of the air, but
by many also probably seemed as being an idiot who
was destined for doom any second, and they were hoping
to maybe witness that firsthand. And this took place in
Leicester in the United Kingdom, and uh it got a
little rowdy, go a little rowdy. Around fifty people showed
(13:32):
up to see this launch and some things went some ways. So, yes,
this reminds me. This feels like a Tim Robinson sketch
from I think you should leave now. So Coxwell is
giving a million balloon together. He's working, he's doing his best,
you know, he's he's good, his ballue together, he's good,
ready to launch. There's some guy in the back who's like, hey,
(13:55):
it's small blue. Was that sure about that? That's the
reason why sure about that? That's the reason why. Yeah.
So he's like, we get ripped off, we get ripped off. Sure,
that's the ripe balloon. I thought it would be the big,
big balloon. And then everybody else is like yeah, yeah,
(14:15):
see when it was there's a mini balloon. Yeah. And
so not to like neg the British people, that's not
what we're here to do. But I mean this was
these were largely working class, you know, soccer hooligan types,
you know, who were very much getting riled up, and
we're there to see a show, and they felt i mean,
presumably it was free. So it's sort of to me
(14:37):
is sort of the equivalent of like why people get
so cranky and podcast reviews about like ads or whatever
for your free podcast. You know, I don't fully understand.
I've never left a review for anything, let alone something
that was free. Um, so I'm confused as to how
they felt so entitled as to what the show should
be or would be. And again, this guy was approaching
(14:58):
it very scientifically, and he was approaching it, you know,
with the expertise of a seasoned aeronaut, a seasoned balloonist.
Right yeah, yeah, And so later Coxwell says that someone
mentioned the balloon that he was using was not his
largest and newest balloon, and that's how the rumor kind
(15:19):
of spread, and that's how people, uh, that's how the
conversation got primed. And he said this was this was libel,
and that people were saying that he was somehow swindling
them from the spectacle they expected. So the crowds getting sour.
The they're gathering closer and closer to the balloon. There's
maybe like a couple of cops on duty. They have
(15:41):
no chance to control this, and people break into his space,
his launch space, and they're like, well, at least take
off now, at least take off now. And uh, he's
Coxwell is freaking out because some people had paid to
sit in the balloon with him and fly the friendly skies.
But there were so many people my you know, and
he thought, uh, rightfully, I would think that those that
(16:04):
paid the money would maybe be a little more civilized.
But that wasn't true either. They were. They were like
clamoring to get in there and actually held up his
launch even further. We have some really amazing quotes from
Coxwell himself from the BBC article of Victorian Strangeness the
Great Balloon Ride of eighteen sixty four. It's a it's
(16:24):
just a collection of blog posts. It's not credited to
any one individual writer, but we have these were great quotes,
and one of them goes like this, I'm not gonna
do a voice. I'm just gonna go for it. Those
who had paid their money and obtained tickets pounced into
the basket in such a rude and unceremonious manner that
all operations were stopped, and the passengers themselves were preventing
their own departure. One person seated in my car was
(16:45):
a disgrace to his town, as by his gestures and
foul language, he excited the mob and induced the belief
that there existed on my part a disinclination to ascend.
The pressure of the mob was now so great that
my car was damaged, the network broken in several places.
I'm assuming you're talking about the hatchwork of literal lines
(17:06):
and all of that exactly broken in several places, owing
to persons hanging onto the lower meshes, and a bottle
was thrown into the balloon. These people were just starting
off in a bad mood. Uh, animals. Yeah, let's let's
let's jump forward here. Coxwell says. He tries to reason
with the crowd and then threatens them with the idea
(17:29):
that he'll release the gas in the balloon if they
will turn this car around and take you home right now, children.
If they don't calm down, and uh, that doesn't work,
they just start saying, you know, like a pox on you,
you fiddle stick or whatever, and so he as he says,
I forthwith executed my threat. So the balloom collapses. Uh.
(17:52):
This made people think that Coxwell wasn't punishing them, that
they had somehow exposed the big secret that he had
a crap balloon, and the Lyster Chronicle reports reports the
moment in a contemporaneous style. They say, to the astonishment
of everyone, the canvass, which a few moments before appeared
every inch of it to be well filled with gas,
(18:13):
began to hang loose and flapped in the wind so
much that it was soon apparent that the gas was
fast escaping. All doubt on this point was soon dispelled,
more especially in regard to those people immediately surrounding it,
for the stench became intolerable, and every moment the size
of the balloon became less and less, the wind filling
its loose folds and causing it to pitch and toss
(18:34):
about considerably and threatening every moment to fall upon the
heads of those who stood near it. Finally, the whole
structure fell into a shapeless mass on the ground. The
crowd who stood around immediately seized upon the net work
and material of the balloon and tore it into a
hundred shreds, and then they set the they set the
basket the car. They call it on fire man. People
(18:57):
shu it right, good back then, didn't they You really
see it, You can really picture the scene now, it's
really well, well, well they're well written. Um, it's true.
And again there were very few security officers on site,
so they had to actually call in the heavies at least,
you know, as many as they could get their hands on.
And that was too and Inspector Hayes Haynes rather and
a sergeant Chapman who got there to try to do
(19:19):
some crowd control. But if I'm not mistaken, then that
we're talking about fifty people here. Yeah, how are you
how are you gonna do? How are you gonna do
crowd control with like two two cops? That doesn't make
us very poorly planned? Well, they thought people would be
better behaved, noal, I guess so. Well, anyway, they very
quickly realized they couldn't control this throng, so they just
decided we gotta get coxwell the hell out of here
(19:41):
because they're gonna tear him limb from limb like they
tore his poor balloon basket. Yeah, yep, and uh this
they finally the sergeant Chapman leads Coxwell away while the
crowd is screaming for his blood and literally tearing his
clothes off of him, and they're yelling stuff like rip
(20:01):
them up, finish him, just like Immortal Kombat, which is
also him on the head like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And so they're on the run. Coxwell hides out in
the town clerk's house, which is nearby. And while just
to give you a sense of how chaotic this is, folks,
some of those people who had ripped parts of Coxwell's
(20:24):
clothing off immediately turned around and start selling pieces of
that and pieces of the torn balloon as souvenirs of
this this disastrous riot. It's like, uh, I, I just
I don't know about people selling riot memorabilia mid riot.
I think that takes that takes some hustle, for real. Yeah,
(20:45):
it's a special kind of awful. And again, from that amazing,
amazing BBC collection of you know, reports from this event,
there is a quote from a letter writer who wrote
into the chronicle kind of describing the scene and you know,
complaining about almost being trampled to death. I never witnessed
such barbarous ignorance, baseness and injustice in my life. I
(21:06):
feared Mr Coxwell would be killed. I was knocked down
thrice myself simply for endeavoring to defend him. So this
points out about something I think we shouldn't mention. Obviously,
of that fifty thousand, surely there was a decent contingent
of people who were just fans of the guy and
did not distrust him. It was obviously like a certain
element that was getting people all riled up, and maybe
(21:29):
there was alcohol involved. I I don't know, but it
sure sounds like it because I don't understand what they're that.
You're right, it is such an absurd ist thing, like
from one of those Tim Robinson sketches, like the balloons
too small kill him, you know what I mean? It's
like absurd And then probably smaller balloon is what you want.
I bet like it's more nimble, right, A smaller balloon
(21:50):
is probably what you want. Well, there there are you
sure about that? Sure about that? But I'm not. They're not.
I am not. They're really they think that's a weird
to man is they're demanding the balloom be launched and
then they started attacking the balloon, and they've tried a lot.
It's very weird, it's very strange. But we we know
that the town of Leicster got a really bad name
(22:13):
and the press for this, the London Review of Politics, Society, Literature,
Art and Science, characterized them as a horde of savages,
is fierce and untamed as south Sea Islanders. This was
the racism common at the time. And yeah, and then
they also said, uh, it's humiliating to think that, after
(22:34):
all the civilizing influences they've been exerted upon them, so
much of the savage should still linger in the blood
of our working classes. So you can kind of see
that who this who this review is aiming to communicate with. Uh,
so classism goes in in their own way. They're being
just as trashy, I would argue, as the mob and Leicester.
(22:56):
But over in Leicester Town if you if you walk
over there afterwards, you would hear a lot of the locals,
some of whom were doubtlessly tearing out this balloon earlier.
You'll hear them say no, that was all from out
of town ers, or maybe those jerks from what was
it Nottingham, which I love that idea. They're like anything
bad that happens in this town, it's those those monsters
(23:18):
from Nottingham, those fiddlesticks, the town brass like you said
that was blaming the folks from Nottingham. Referred to them
as excursionists. And then we're gonna get into some nicknames now.
It's kind of fun. People from Leicester, by the way,
are known as les tri Ends. That's not a term
of abuse, but one that was hurled at them. But
(23:41):
you know, the greater public was Chisetts don't have an
etymology behind that. I'm not quite sure that's referring to.
But in eighteen sixty four Punch magazine, which is a
fantastic satirical magazine that ran for a very long time
if it's not still running, if I'm not mistaken, but
they called them balloonatics love It, which sounds like a
punk band. They're like a kind of a synth wave
(24:01):
kind of tongue in cheek synth wave band. Really cool,
the balloonatics. I did. I did find one speculative guests
at the etymology of chiset its. Apparently it refers to
the phrase how much is it? As one word, as
in their cheap as in their low class. Because if
you're like upper class and you don't ever ask how
(24:22):
much something is, you know that you can either afford it,
or you can if you know how to wlask shop. Yeah,
so this this, this is uh, this is ludicrous, but
it is instructive. And we're happy to report that over
time technology improved in the world of ballooning and aeronautics,
(24:43):
and as it improved, hot air balloon pilots or aeronauts
became more skilled because they have word of an opportunity
to gain experience, and then soon enough you could take
passengers with you on longer excursions as long as they
would pay for the trip. We believe at the time
that around the time Glacier himself was just sending the
(25:07):
guy who went so many times during that short year period.
He was that early balloon evangelists, right, yeah, yeah, the
parlamentier of the balloons there at that time. It cost
it would cost you about six hundred pounds, which we
estimate is somewhere north of nine dollars today to just
(25:27):
to build a balloon. So if you wanted to ride one,
you would have to pay fifty pounds to hire a
pilot and just to rent the balloon and to pay
for the gas for a single trip. So this was
this was expensive. This was not yet something the middle
or working class could do. And people loved people loved it.
(25:51):
People love exclusive stuff, right, so they would just It's
kind of like reporting the taste of pineapple during the
pineapple craze. There was amazing. You don't know how to
describe it. I guess you've just got to go, you know,
but you just had to. You just had to have
been there. It's had to have been there, and you know,
been rich. But thankfully, I mean, yeah, like you said,
(26:11):
this really did turn much more towards scientific pursuits. We
start to see more scientific reports about the atmosphere, the
Earth's atmosphere. In eighteen seventy three, we have one scientist
describing it as a quote splendid world of colors which
brightens the surface of our planet with a lovely azure
tent and changing harmonies of various hues that lighten up
(26:34):
the world. This is also from that Smithsonian mag article
about the balloons and the aeronauts that transformed our view
of the world. Absolutely, yeah, and this does help the
human species advance understanding of various meteorological phenomena. Scientists get
new insight into meteors. They understand more about the relationship
(26:55):
between altitude and temperature. A ka, it gets really freak
cold if you go up too far. Uh. And they
understood how hail and snow and rain formed. They were
able to get up into the clouds literally, which people
had wanted to do for millennia and uh, totally. And
(27:16):
today you can ride a hot air balloon and you
have to think of how transformative this would have been.
You know, you always hear about astronauts reporting. I mean,
maybe not well. Jeff Bezos is officially not an astronaut,
but you know, most of his commentary for his brief
space flight we're about like how he wants to build
factories on the Moon or whatever. But uh, in general,
astronauts typically say things like, when you see that view
(27:38):
of the planet, you know, disconnected from you know, being
on the ground, uh, and you see this disembodied kind
of floating or but it really gives you this perspective
on your place in the universe and all that. And
that would have been true too if people's viewing the
Earth to the surface of the Earth from the air.
I know every time I take a flight, I still
haven't gotten jaded to like looking out the window and
(27:59):
seeing like, you know, flying over say Utah for example,
seeing all the salt you know, deposits, and just like
it looks like you're literally seeing the surface of an
alien planet. I still very much am taken by that,
and so for this to be very very new, it
would have been really really exciting. Yeah, that's a good point, Noel,
because I see what you're saying. What what people must
(28:20):
have been experiencing is a version of what's known as
the overview effect. That's what astronauts are experiencing. And I'm
with you. I like a good window seat anytime I
can get it. It's just amazing, especially you're flying over
like the Grand Canyon or something. It never loses its
luster today. If you are someone who wants to ride
(28:41):
a hot air balloon, you might be surprised by how
close some hot air ballooon festivals are to a town
near you. And Noel Max here in Georgia at Callaway Gardens,
which isn't too far away. There's a hot air balloon
festival this September. If you guys want to go awesome.
I think we can probably expense that. Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it. Well, we'll sell those suits. It's it's
(29:04):
for research. Max. Are you down you want to go
in a hot air balloon with us? Definitely? I'm not
going up in the balloon. I'll watch them from the ground. Uh.
But y'all, y'all go with God. I wish you the best.
Absolutely absolutely not. I'm afraid of heights. I will not
get in a hot air You guys are gonna make
me go solo. Okay, I'll wear like a row prow
or something and and relay the footage down to you.
(29:25):
Is that is that? Will that work? I wish you
the best, Ben, Thanks God. I wish I could do
it with you, Ben, but you would not enjoy it.
If I went with you, I would be like a cat,
like cling like like you know you're when you see
a dog come in and the cats just like back
arched and like claws digging into the guy. Would be
like that, but like on the basket, just like flattened,
like a cartoon character like Bugs Bunny and that one
(29:47):
with the Gremlin where he's on the plane. And I
think at one point he gets pushed outside the plane.
You see his like heart pumping in his chest and
he's literally like clutching the side of the plane. That
would be me. I'm fine with flights, I have no
problem with that, but but an open bucket in the sky.
I barely like riding like ski lifts and things like that.
So yeah, I'm sorry, I know, no worries it all
(30:10):
I got, I got your back, guys. Here's what we'll do.
We're still gonna tell the network that all three of
us are going up, and then we're gonna we're gonna
use that other two thirds is just you know, walking
around pocket money for our our adventure. Gotta gotta yes, sir,
for Max on that one. Um, maybe we could bring
a chicken and a goat and a rooster, yes, just so?
(30:31):
Can we expense that as well? Oh you know we can? Yeah, yeah,
we got we got a rooster guy, don't we know?
Do we do? We get a rooster guy? Steve? Oh Steve,
that's right, Steve, Steve, the rooster guy. Sheep guys, different guy.
But I would I've always wanted to go in a
hot air balloon and we'd be glad to relay footage
of you. Let me ask you this, Let me ask
you this. I know we're at the end of our
(30:53):
show here, but where are we at as a group
on blimps, dirigibles, airships? Does it matter? I'd be cool
with that because it's in close, you know, uh, and
there's probably like craft services and stuff, you know, Like
I'd be good with that. There's probably like a you know,
sleeper car type situation. But I think blimps have largely
outlived their usefulness. I think we did a story about
(31:14):
blimps how they used to be used for low altitude surveillance,
but I think there are probably better ways of doing
that a k drones um. Obviously, the good Year blimp
will always be a thing, but that's really more just
like you know, a visual during sporting events. But I
think it would be awesome to go up in the
good good Year blimp. I would I would love that.
I love the vision of the future that you see
(31:34):
sometimes in these stories where it's like everything's you know,
everyone's gonna be flying by blimp and they're all tethered
to buildings and you have to shimmy down some sort
of line to get to the you know, landing pad.
I don't know, interesting stuff. It's very Sky Captain in
the World of Tomorrow. Yeah, or like Fringe. Oh wait, spoilers. Okay, well,
the Rigibles are in that show. It's a good show.
Check it out. Uh. So with this we have to say, uh,
(31:57):
we can't wait to hear from any Boddy who is
a balloonist or an aeronaut who has explored the friendly skies.
In this way, it sounds like it sounds like my patriots. Uh.
Noel and Max are maybe not on board to fly
with you, but we're probably welcome hearing the story. I
wish everyone could see just how Max, I'm sorry, I
(32:19):
didn't know that, Like I didn't know. I can see
how hard you're noping going up there. This reminds me
a little bit. No Max's reaction reminds me a little
bit of um when we've talked about you being in
the open ocean, which is also not your vibe. I believe,
I mean, I'm fine if I'm close to you know, sure,
I'll swim in the in the ocean if I'm close
(32:40):
to the beach. But I do have some pretty big
fears of deep, deep, deep water ocean because of the
massive you know, uh Leviathan type beasts that dwell just
beneath the placid surface, similar to the way people originally
felt about the sky. What's up there? We brought it back.
We did it were out of back. We did. We
(33:01):
did on a Friday, no less um. Huge thanks to
Max you super producer you um and uh Casey Pagram
super producer as well Alex Williams who composed our theme. Yes,
and big thanks of course to the balloonist of of
our hearts. I don't know we'll work out it, but
we're talking about Jonathan strictlandk quister. Big thanks to that guy,
(33:23):
Christop Brocotis big, big thanks to everyone, honestly everyone who
braved those mysterious skies because inspiration aside, they provided some
priceless insights to our understanding of science. I can't believe
no balloons. Huh. Okay, well, I'm gonna cancel plans. I
(33:44):
had the Sunday conclure. We'll see you next time, folks.
For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. That's our super producer, the
one and only Max Williams. Give it up for folks.
And Uh, my name is Ben. I'm a I'm a
fan of a balloons snol. It's it's kind of birthday
season for you and me, isn't it Leo season s
(00:48):
z n as the kids say on the internet. Uh,
and I am no. I don't think I introduced myself
in the last episodes. If anyone's confused, it's me no.
And yeah, my birthday is August eight, And I think
you're just right around there. Matt Frederick, our compatriots from
Stuff that It Wants you to Know, also has one
like I think we're in like a three or four
day span of each other. Yeah, yeah, I don't know
if Matt wants me putting his birthday out on the airways,
(01:11):
but I have the same birth whole Colgan has the
same birthday as me, August eleven. That's been a sore
point for him in our relationship. And Hulk Hogan is
from my hometown of Augusta, Georgia. So it all comes
back around. It always goes back back to Hogan, except
for today's episode, which is, yeah, he has nothing to do,
he has nothing to do with. But it's kind of
(01:31):
birthday related because you know, when you're when you're celebrating,
uh you on many parts of the world, just celebrating
a birthday or some important event, you get a balloon.
And nowadays we see balloons in general as something innocuous,
is something fun and interesting, whether we're talking about a
little helium balloon that says happy Birthday on it, or
whether we're talking about a hot air balloon, which I
(01:54):
can't I can't wait to get in one once I
feel safer about the steering, right, Yeah, I think they're
still working on that. It's pretty rudimentary still to this day,
if I'm not mistaken, Like a lot of it has
to do with ballasts and you know, getting rid of
sandbags and all of that. I I don't know that
just maybe they've made advancements in in hot air balloon technology,
but it used to be the absolute height of exploration technology.
(02:17):
Um when yeah, not even on purpose, But thank you
for pointing that out, because back in you know, the
early days the nineteenth century, the air the sky was
a total mystery, in the same way that like the
deepest depths of the ocean, you know, were for a
long time, and now we would probably make it a
(02:37):
little more akin to like the deepest reaches of outer space.
As far as they were concerned, it was a weird
bizarro land out there. They there was a pretty widespread
belief that there were sky monsters, massive like pterodactyl type
birds that could, you know, swoop a man up with
his talents and drop him from great heights, like the
(02:57):
weird dragons at the Ring Wraiths ride and Lord of
the Rings. That's always a cool flex when you pick
somebody up and fly them up him and drop them
to their death, or the rock like the ro oc
It goes on and on, it sure does. But we
are talking specifically today about the early days of not astronauts,
but aeron nots. These were some super intrepid people that
(03:19):
were kind of putting themselves on the line, their lives
on the line for the at the time really more
entertainment purposes. It wasn't even really considered to be a
scientific pursuit until a little bit later, And there certainly
was that exploratory spirit, but it really became this thing
that people would like mob around to check out the
latest hot air balloon um flight because chances are someone's
(03:44):
probably gonna fall to their death, Yeah, exactly. And there
was a common belief that even if they didn't fall
to their death, they would die in the atmosphere because
the sky was also thought to contain disease causing vapors,
so folks and folks also validly feared that the aeronauts
(04:04):
would die of oxygen deprivation. But there were two French
brothers and s where our story really begins, who bucked
those common misconceptions are common beliefs. Joseph Michelle Montgolfier and
Jacques Etienne mount Golfe. These are the folks who on
November one three launched the first piloted hot air balloon.
(04:29):
And this a lot of this comes to us from
our pals over at Mental Floss over the BBC and
excellent little article in Lyster Mercury dot co dot UK.
Also Smithsonian mag there's a fantastic article the true History
of the Aeronauts who transformed our view of the world above,
and that was written by Jennifer Tucker for the Conversation.
(04:54):
So this has already started out on a really weird
note with an opinion from the French monarch Louis the sixteenth,
because he had a concern He said, you know, I
don't want to be responsible for fatalities when these aeronauts
go up into the sky, because they're obviously gonna die, right.
(05:15):
And he looks around at his court and he's like,
they're gonna die, right, and nobody's like, yeah, they're gonna die.
Probably are good. Yeah, And so they had to they
had to figure out who could pilot the balloon knowing
that they might die, and how how to make sure
that this wouldn't be a pr disaster when they inevitably
passed away. So what what did he go with? Noel,
(05:37):
you know, criminals? He just figured, hey, why not? You know,
their their lives are forfeit anyway. Uh, these are talking
we're talking about ones that were, you know, likely scheduled
to be executed. But thankfully some of the more science
minded individuals in uh Louie's entourage talked him out of
the idea of taking completely you know, skill less at least,
(05:57):
and I'm sure they had some skills, you know, certain
set of skills just criminals, probably not piloting murder, petty larsony,
all of that stuff, but definitely not piloting hot air balloons,
which is a very cutting edge technology. So uh, it
turned out that a scientist by the name of Jean
Frescois Pelote de Rosier and uh an aristocrat named Francois
(06:19):
Lauren dr Lands were chosen by the Mongolfayer brothers to
pilot a balloon, and on November twenty one three, they
did just that, and they flew for twenty minutes and
became the first people to experience sustained flight. So the
Mongolfier brothers, what was their deal? They launched a hot
(06:41):
air balloon, but it was it didn't like the flight
didn't last for very long. Well, they first did a
series of animal experiments similar to what we seen space exploration.
They launched, Uh, they launched the hot air balloon with
a rooster, a duck, and a sheep. That's right, ridiculous historians.
There should be a Pixar movie on the way. And
they did that just like just a few months earlier,
(07:03):
September night three. Uh, and they thought they had a
logic to it, they thought cheaper similar enough to people
that will see how altitude affects land lover and ducks
and roosters can already fly to what degree or another,
and so we'll see, we'll see how they do when
they're not flying on their own power. And that balloon
(07:24):
was only it was tethered, so it wasn't flying free
and was only up for about what eight minutes? Yeah,
and I think because I mean, we talked about this briefly.
This is the idea of the spectacle because the technology
was very rudimentary and oftentimes the balloons would spontaneously deflate
and air. Uh, they would drift over the ocean and
(07:45):
deflate in the air. They would occasionally catch fire for
various reasons. But the duck and the sheep were unharmed.
It gives me serious like monkeys and space kind of vibes,
you know. Yep, and the rooster made it through as well.
They forgot about the it's uh yeah, you know, maybe
the crowd was there chanting here they come to snuff
(08:05):
the rooster. Alison Chains album is based on this story. Yeah,
total facts. Um. So again, there there was this sense
of danger. Um. So there was a an absolute kind
of almost bread and circuses vibe to these events because
these aeronauts and their passengers often did fall to their
(08:27):
death if the balloons were untethered, and people wanted to
hang out and see if anything would go horribly horribly wrong.
In fact, the Smithsonian mag points out that Charles Dickens
felt like this was an absolute hideous form of entertainment.
He compared them to public executions. Yeah, I kind of
like the people who would go to watch motorsport race
(08:49):
purely waiting for an accident to occur. So the British
Association for the Advancement of Science in eighteen sixty two
they say, we're gonna We're gonna fund this, We're gonna
see us We're gonna have a series of flights to
study the upper atmosphere, which means these balloons are going
to have to fly as high as they possibly can
(09:11):
and we're talking airplane commercial flight light heights. Uh. Yeah,
the closest they could get to it. I think they
managed to. They get over twenty thousand feet pretty quickly.
There's a guy who who have founded the British Meteorological
Society named James Glacier who volunteered to perform these flights
(09:32):
between eighteen sixty two and eighteen sixty six. This dude
alone made twenty eight cents and uh, you know these
were funded by the association, not him. He had a pilot,
so he's kind of a long for the ride to
monitor stuff. And this pilot is a guy named Henry Coxwell,
at this point with this, you know, with the age
(09:52):
of this technology, he's automatically a world class expert. Their
first flight, they reached the height of twenty six thousand
That's insane. It gives me vertigo just reading that on
a page. Yeah, can you imagine being in that little basket.
And they certainly wouldn't have had any like oxygen support,
you know, masks or anything at the time. And as
(10:13):
we know, you know, the air gets very thin up
there and and he and also very very very cold.
They made another ascent on September five in a balloon
that was dubbed the Mars Chickin a lot of this
gives me kind of precursor to space travel type bub um. Yeah,
and they got up to thirty thousand feet, but it
was an absolute disaster. Glass Year went blind for a
(10:34):
time while he was up there due to the atmospheric pressure,
I imagine, uh, and he lost consciousness and coxwell due
to like some sort of issue with the rigging. Had
to climb up into the bat into the balloon area
and free a tangled valve line. And he wasn't even
wearing gloves, and his hands were so cold they were
(10:56):
essentially borderline hypothermic that he had to rip the valve
court free using his teeth, his bare teeth. The valve lines,
you know, again, like I was talking about, it would
measure barometric pressure and be able to detect when they
had reached a certain height and then would start to
ease down their descent. But with a malfunction and that equipment,
(11:18):
they would have just continued to rise and rise and rise. Thankfully,
he got it free and they did descend. But if
he hadn't, they absolutely would have died from freezing to
death hypothermia or from lack of oxygen. They would have
just suffocated and in the atmosphere. Yeah, it's absolutely true. Specifically,
they we believe they reached the height of about thirty
(11:40):
seven thousand feet and just for comparison, Smithsonian in those
magnificent and dot CO Dot you can make a great
comparison here, thirty seven thousand feet is eight thousand feet
higher than the summit of Mount Everest. So they have
literally gone higher into the atmosphere than any human being
(12:02):
ever before throughout the span of history. And they, like
you said, old, they barely came back to tell the tale.
It's interesting because you would think there there are a
couple of different responses to this. If you survive, you
(12:22):
might say, Okay, that's enough air for me. I have
feet and I will keep them on the ground. Or
you might think how much further can I push the envelope?
Henry Coxwell was the latter. He decided that he would
doubled out, he made another highly publicized flight, or he
prepared for another highly publicized fight. In eighteen sixty four,
(12:46):
he was gonna launch his balloon, like we said, in
front of a crowd. This was publicized. Dickens was not
exaggerating when he said. This drew lots of crowds. So
because he had had that close brush with death, he
was kind of like an evil Kinevil character, you know,
kind of like a stunt man, like is this the
time he dies? Probably by some considered to be a hero,
(13:10):
a real pioneer, you know, of of the air, but
by many also probably seemed as being an idiot who
was destined for doom any second, and they were hoping
to maybe witness that firsthand. And this took place in
Leicester in the United Kingdom, and uh it got a
little rowdy, go a little rowdy. Around fifty people showed
(13:32):
up to see this launch and some things went some ways. So, yes,
this reminds me. This feels like a Tim Robinson sketch
from I think you should leave now. So Coxwell is
giving a million balloon together. He's working, he's doing his best,
you know, he's he's good, his ballue together, he's good,
ready to launch. There's some guy in the back who's like, hey,
(13:55):
it's small blue. Was that sure about that? That's the
reason why sure about that? That's the reason why. Yeah.
So he's like, we get ripped off, we get ripped off. Sure,
that's the ripe balloon. I thought it would be the big,
big balloon. And then everybody else is like yeah, yeah,
(14:15):
see when it was there's a mini balloon. Yeah. And
so not to like neg the British people, that's not
what we're here to do. But I mean this was
these were largely working class, you know, soccer hooligan types,
you know, who were very much getting riled up, and
we're there to see a show, and they felt i mean,
presumably it was free. So it's sort of to me
(14:37):
is sort of the equivalent of like why people get
so cranky and podcast reviews about like ads or whatever
for your free podcast. You know, I don't fully understand.
I've never left a review for anything, let alone something
that was free. Um, so I'm confused as to how
they felt so entitled as to what the show should
be or would be. And again, this guy was approaching
(14:58):
it very scientifically, and he was approaching it, you know,
with the expertise of a seasoned aeronaut, a seasoned balloonist.
Right yeah, yeah, And so later Coxwell says that someone
mentioned the balloon that he was using was not his
largest and newest balloon, and that's how the rumor kind
(15:19):
of spread, and that's how people, uh, that's how the
conversation got primed. And he said this was this was libel,
and that people were saying that he was somehow swindling
them from the spectacle they expected. So the crowds getting sour.
The they're gathering closer and closer to the balloon. There's
maybe like a couple of cops on duty. They have
(15:41):
no chance to control this, and people break into his space,
his launch space, and they're like, well, at least take
off now, at least take off now. And uh, he's
Coxwell is freaking out because some people had paid to
sit in the balloon with him and fly the friendly skies.
But there were so many people my you know, and
he thought, uh, rightfully, I would think that those that
(16:04):
paid the money would maybe be a little more civilized.
But that wasn't true either. They were. They were like
clamoring to get in there and actually held up his
launch even further. We have some really amazing quotes from
Coxwell himself from the BBC article of Victorian Strangeness the
Great Balloon Ride of eighteen sixty four. It's a it's
(16:24):
just a collection of blog posts. It's not credited to
any one individual writer, but we have these were great quotes,
and one of them goes like this, I'm not gonna
do a voice. I'm just gonna go for it. Those
who had paid their money and obtained tickets pounced into
the basket in such a rude and unceremonious manner that
all operations were stopped, and the passengers themselves were preventing
their own departure. One person seated in my car was
(16:45):
a disgrace to his town, as by his gestures and
foul language, he excited the mob and induced the belief
that there existed on my part a disinclination to ascend.
The pressure of the mob was now so great that
my car was damaged, the network broken in several places.
I'm assuming you're talking about the hatchwork of literal lines
(17:06):
and all of that exactly broken in several places, owing
to persons hanging onto the lower meshes, and a bottle
was thrown into the balloon. These people were just starting
off in a bad mood. Uh, animals. Yeah, let's let's
let's jump forward here. Coxwell says. He tries to reason
with the crowd and then threatens them with the idea
(17:29):
that he'll release the gas in the balloon if they
will turn this car around and take you home right now, children.
If they don't calm down, and uh, that doesn't work,
they just start saying, you know, like a pox on you,
you fiddle stick or whatever, and so he as he says,
I forthwith executed my threat. So the balloom collapses. Uh.
(17:52):
This made people think that Coxwell wasn't punishing them, that
they had somehow exposed the big secret that he had
a crap balloon, and the Lyster Chronicle reports reports the
moment in a contemporaneous style. They say, to the astonishment
of everyone, the canvass, which a few moments before appeared
every inch of it to be well filled with gas,
(18:13):
began to hang loose and flapped in the wind so
much that it was soon apparent that the gas was
fast escaping. All doubt on this point was soon dispelled,
more especially in regard to those people immediately surrounding it,
for the stench became intolerable, and every moment the size
of the balloon became less and less, the wind filling
its loose folds and causing it to pitch and toss
(18:34):
about considerably and threatening every moment to fall upon the
heads of those who stood near it. Finally, the whole
structure fell into a shapeless mass on the ground. The
crowd who stood around immediately seized upon the net work
and material of the balloon and tore it into a
hundred shreds, and then they set the they set the
basket the car. They call it on fire man. People
(18:57):
shu it right, good back then, didn't they You really
see it, You can really picture the scene now, it's
really well, well, well they're well written. Um, it's true.
And again there were very few security officers on site,
so they had to actually call in the heavies at least,
you know, as many as they could get their hands on.
And that was too and Inspector Hayes Haynes rather and
a sergeant Chapman who got there to try to do
(19:19):
some crowd control. But if I'm not mistaken, then that
we're talking about fifty people here. Yeah, how are you
how are you gonna do? How are you gonna do
crowd control with like two two cops? That doesn't make
us very poorly planned? Well, they thought people would be
better behaved, noal, I guess so. Well, anyway, they very
quickly realized they couldn't control this throng, so they just
decided we gotta get coxwell the hell out of here
(19:41):
because they're gonna tear him limb from limb like they
tore his poor balloon basket. Yeah, yep, and uh this
they finally the sergeant Chapman leads Coxwell away while the
crowd is screaming for his blood and literally tearing his
clothes off of him, and they're yelling stuff like rip
(20:01):
them up, finish him, just like Immortal Kombat, which is
also him on the head like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And so they're on the run. Coxwell hides out in
the town clerk's house, which is nearby. And while just
to give you a sense of how chaotic this is, folks,
some of those people who had ripped parts of Coxwell's
(20:24):
clothing off immediately turned around and start selling pieces of
that and pieces of the torn balloon as souvenirs of
this this disastrous riot. It's like, uh, I, I just
I don't know about people selling riot memorabilia mid riot.
I think that takes that takes some hustle, for real. Yeah,
(20:45):
it's a special kind of awful. And again, from that amazing,
amazing BBC collection of you know, reports from this event,
there is a quote from a letter writer who wrote
into the chronicle kind of describing the scene and you know,
complaining about almost being trampled to death. I never witnessed
such barbarous ignorance, baseness and injustice in my life. I
(21:06):
feared Mr Coxwell would be killed. I was knocked down
thrice myself simply for endeavoring to defend him. So this
points out about something I think we shouldn't mention. Obviously,
of that fifty thousand, surely there was a decent contingent
of people who were just fans of the guy and
did not distrust him. It was obviously like a certain
element that was getting people all riled up, and maybe
(21:29):
there was alcohol involved. I I don't know, but it
sure sounds like it because I don't understand what they're that.
You're right, it is such an absurd ist thing, like
from one of those Tim Robinson sketches, like the balloons
too small kill him, you know what I mean? It's
like absurd And then probably smaller balloon is what you want.
I bet like it's more nimble, right, A smaller balloon
(21:50):
is probably what you want. Well, there there are you
sure about that? Sure about that? But I'm not. They're not.
I am not. They're really they think that's a weird
to man is they're demanding the balloom be launched and
then they started attacking the balloon, and they've tried a lot.
It's very weird, it's very strange. But we we know
that the town of Leicster got a really bad name
(22:13):
and the press for this, the London Review of Politics, Society, Literature,
Art and Science, characterized them as a horde of savages,
is fierce and untamed as south Sea Islanders. This was
the racism common at the time. And yeah, and then
they also said, uh, it's humiliating to think that, after
(22:34):
all the civilizing influences they've been exerted upon them, so
much of the savage should still linger in the blood
of our working classes. So you can kind of see
that who this who this review is aiming to communicate with. Uh,
so classism goes in in their own way. They're being
just as trashy, I would argue, as the mob and Leicester.
(22:56):
But over in Leicester Town if you if you walk
over there afterwards, you would hear a lot of the locals,
some of whom were doubtlessly tearing out this balloon earlier.
You'll hear them say no, that was all from out
of town ers, or maybe those jerks from what was
it Nottingham, which I love that idea. They're like anything
bad that happens in this town, it's those those monsters
(23:18):
from Nottingham, those fiddlesticks, the town brass like you said
that was blaming the folks from Nottingham. Referred to them
as excursionists. And then we're gonna get into some nicknames now.
It's kind of fun. People from Leicester, by the way,
are known as les tri Ends. That's not a term
of abuse, but one that was hurled at them. But
(23:41):
you know, the greater public was Chisetts don't have an
etymology behind that. I'm not quite sure that's referring to.
But in eighteen sixty four Punch magazine, which is a
fantastic satirical magazine that ran for a very long time
if it's not still running, if I'm not mistaken, but
they called them balloonatics love It, which sounds like a
punk band. They're like a kind of a synth wave
(24:01):
kind of tongue in cheek synth wave band. Really cool,
the balloonatics. I did. I did find one speculative guests
at the etymology of chiset its. Apparently it refers to
the phrase how much is it? As one word, as
in their cheap as in their low class. Because if
you're like upper class and you don't ever ask how
(24:22):
much something is, you know that you can either afford it,
or you can if you know how to wlask shop. Yeah,
so this this, this is uh, this is ludicrous, but
it is instructive. And we're happy to report that over
time technology improved in the world of ballooning and aeronautics,
(24:43):
and as it improved, hot air balloon pilots or aeronauts
became more skilled because they have word of an opportunity
to gain experience, and then soon enough you could take
passengers with you on longer excursions as long as they
would pay for the trip. We believe at the time
that around the time Glacier himself was just sending the
(25:07):
guy who went so many times during that short year period.
He was that early balloon evangelists, right, yeah, yeah, the
parlamentier of the balloons there at that time. It cost
it would cost you about six hundred pounds, which we
estimate is somewhere north of nine dollars today to just
(25:27):
to build a balloon. So if you wanted to ride one,
you would have to pay fifty pounds to hire a
pilot and just to rent the balloon and to pay
for the gas for a single trip. So this was
this was expensive. This was not yet something the middle
or working class could do. And people loved people loved it.
(25:51):
People love exclusive stuff, right, so they would just It's
kind of like reporting the taste of pineapple during the
pineapple craze. There was amazing. You don't know how to
describe it. I guess you've just got to go, you know,
but you just had to. You just had to have
been there. It's had to have been there, and you know,
been rich. But thankfully, I mean, yeah, like you said,
(26:11):
this really did turn much more towards scientific pursuits. We
start to see more scientific reports about the atmosphere, the
Earth's atmosphere. In eighteen seventy three, we have one scientist
describing it as a quote splendid world of colors which
brightens the surface of our planet with a lovely azure
tent and changing harmonies of various hues that lighten up
(26:34):
the world. This is also from that Smithsonian mag article
about the balloons and the aeronauts that transformed our view
of the world. Absolutely, yeah, and this does help the
human species advance understanding of various meteorological phenomena. Scientists get
new insight into meteors. They understand more about the relationship
(26:55):
between altitude and temperature. A ka, it gets really freak
cold if you go up too far. Uh. And they
understood how hail and snow and rain formed. They were
able to get up into the clouds literally, which people
had wanted to do for millennia and uh, totally. And
(27:16):
today you can ride a hot air balloon and you
have to think of how transformative this would have been.
You know, you always hear about astronauts reporting. I mean,
maybe not well. Jeff Bezos is officially not an astronaut,
but you know, most of his commentary for his brief
space flight we're about like how he wants to build
factories on the Moon or whatever. But uh, in general,
astronauts typically say things like, when you see that view
(27:38):
of the planet, you know, disconnected from you know, being
on the ground, uh, and you see this disembodied kind
of floating or but it really gives you this perspective
on your place in the universe and all that. And
that would have been true too if people's viewing the
Earth to the surface of the Earth from the air.
I know every time I take a flight, I still
haven't gotten jaded to like looking out the window and
(27:59):
seeing like, you know, flying over say Utah for example,
seeing all the salt you know, deposits, and just like
it looks like you're literally seeing the surface of an
alien planet. I still very much am taken by that,
and so for this to be very very new, it
would have been really really exciting. Yeah, that's a good point, Noel,
because I see what you're saying. What what people must
(28:20):
have been experiencing is a version of what's known as
the overview effect. That's what astronauts are experiencing. And I'm
with you. I like a good window seat anytime I
can get it. It's just amazing, especially you're flying over
like the Grand Canyon or something. It never loses its
luster today. If you are someone who wants to ride
(28:41):
a hot air balloon, you might be surprised by how
close some hot air ballooon festivals are to a town
near you. And Noel Max here in Georgia at Callaway Gardens,
which isn't too far away. There's a hot air balloon
festival this September. If you guys want to go awesome.
I think we can probably expense that. Yeah, let's do it.
Let's do it. Well, we'll sell those suits. It's it's
(29:04):
for research. Max. Are you down you want to go
in a hot air balloon with us? Definitely? I'm not
going up in the balloon. I'll watch them from the ground. Uh.
But y'all, y'all go with God. I wish you the best.
Absolutely absolutely not. I'm afraid of heights. I will not
get in a hot air You guys are gonna make
me go solo. Okay, I'll wear like a row prow
or something and and relay the footage down to you.
(29:25):
Is that is that? Will that work? I wish you
the best, Ben, Thanks God. I wish I could do
it with you, Ben, but you would not enjoy it.
If I went with you, I would be like a cat,
like cling like like you know you're when you see
a dog come in and the cats just like back
arched and like claws digging into the guy. Would be
like that, but like on the basket, just like flattened,
like a cartoon character like Bugs Bunny and that one
(29:47):
with the Gremlin where he's on the plane. And I
think at one point he gets pushed outside the plane.
You see his like heart pumping in his chest and
he's literally like clutching the side of the plane. That
would be me. I'm fine with flights, I have no
problem with that, but but an open bucket in the sky.
I barely like riding like ski lifts and things like that.
So yeah, I'm sorry, I know, no worries it all
(30:10):
I got, I got your back, guys. Here's what we'll do.
We're still gonna tell the network that all three of
us are going up, and then we're gonna we're gonna
use that other two thirds is just you know, walking
around pocket money for our our adventure. Gotta gotta yes, sir,
for Max on that one. Um, maybe we could bring
a chicken and a goat and a rooster, yes, just so?
(30:31):
Can we expense that as well? Oh you know we can? Yeah, yeah,
we got we got a rooster guy, don't we know?
Do we do? We get a rooster guy? Steve? Oh Steve,
that's right, Steve, Steve, the rooster guy. Sheep guys, different guy.
But I would I've always wanted to go in a
hot air balloon and we'd be glad to relay footage
of you. Let me ask you this, Let me ask
you this. I know we're at the end of our
(30:53):
show here, but where are we at as a group
on blimps, dirigibles, airships? Does it matter? I'd be cool
with that because it's in close, you know, uh, and
there's probably like craft services and stuff, you know, Like
I'd be good with that. There's probably like a you know,
sleeper car type situation. But I think blimps have largely
outlived their usefulness. I think we did a story about
(31:14):
blimps how they used to be used for low altitude surveillance,
but I think there are probably better ways of doing
that a k drones um. Obviously, the good Year blimp
will always be a thing, but that's really more just
like you know, a visual during sporting events. But I
think it would be awesome to go up in the
good good Year blimp. I would I would love that.
I love the vision of the future that you see
(31:34):
sometimes in these stories where it's like everything's you know,
everyone's gonna be flying by blimp and they're all tethered
to buildings and you have to shimmy down some sort
of line to get to the you know, landing pad.
I don't know, interesting stuff. It's very Sky Captain in
the World of Tomorrow. Yeah, or like Fringe. Oh wait, spoilers. Okay, well,
the Rigibles are in that show. It's a good show.
Check it out. Uh. So with this we have to say, uh,
(31:57):
we can't wait to hear from any Boddy who is
a balloonist or an aeronaut who has explored the friendly skies.
In this way, it sounds like it sounds like my patriots. Uh.
Noel and Max are maybe not on board to fly
with you, but we're probably welcome hearing the story. I
wish everyone could see just how Max, I'm sorry, I
(32:19):
didn't know that, Like I didn't know. I can see
how hard you're noping going up there. This reminds me
a little bit. No Max's reaction reminds me a little
bit of um when we've talked about you being in
the open ocean, which is also not your vibe. I believe,
I mean, I'm fine if I'm close to you know, sure,
I'll swim in the in the ocean if I'm close
(32:40):
to the beach. But I do have some pretty big
fears of deep, deep, deep water ocean because of the
massive you know, uh Leviathan type beasts that dwell just
beneath the placid surface, similar to the way people originally
felt about the sky. What's up there? We brought it back.
We did it were out of back. We did. We
(33:01):
did on a Friday, no less um. Huge thanks to
Max you super producer you um and uh Casey Pagram
super producer as well Alex Williams who composed our theme. Yes,
and big thanks of course to the balloonist of of
our hearts. I don't know we'll work out it, but
we're talking about Jonathan strictlandk quister. Big thanks to that guy,
(33:23):
Christop Brocotis big, big thanks to everyone, honestly everyone who
braved those mysterious skies because inspiration aside, they provided some
priceless insights to our understanding of science. I can't believe
no balloons. Huh. Okay, well, I'm gonna cancel plans. I
(33:44):
had the Sunday conclure. We'll see you next time, folks.
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