Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles Quotes


All was glorious - a cloudless sky above, a most delicious view around. . . . How great is our good fortune! I care not what may be the condition of the earth; it is the sky that is for me now.


Citations

Charles, Jacques Alexandre César. Qtd. in Fulgence Marion, Wonderful Balloon Ascents; Or, The Conquest of the Skies, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1870, p. 61.

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Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles
Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles
  • Born: November 12, 1746
  • Died: April 8, 1823
  • Nationality: French
  • Profession:

Jacques Alexandre César Charles was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist. Charles wrote almost nothing about mathematics, and most of what has been credited to him was due to mistaking him with another Jacques Charles, also a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, entering on May 12, 1785. He was sometimes called Charles the Geometer. (See J. B. Gough, Charles the Obscure, Isis 70, #254, pgs 576–579) Charles and the Robert brothers launched the world's first unmanned hydrogen-filled gas balloon in August 1783; then in December 1783, Charles and his co-pilot Nicolas-Louis Robert ascended to a height of about 1,800 feet (550 m) in a manned gas balloon. Their pioneering use of hydrogen for lift led to this type of balloon being named a Charlière (as opposed to a Montgolfière which used hot air).