Martyrs made in the sky: The Zénith balloon tragedy and the construction of the French Third Republic’s first scientific heroes

• Main Author: DE OLIVEIRA, Patrick Luiz Sullivan
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: history of science; history of France; scientific martyrs; ballooning; Franco-Prussian War; aeronautics; French Third Republic; European History; Intellectual History; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3436; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4693/viewcontent/rsnr.2019.0022_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Following the balloon's invention in 1783, the French greeted the technology with enthusiasm, speculating extensively about its potential scientific and practical applications. However, the lack of progress in navigating against the winds discredited ballooning, and in the following decades it...