What concept did the Montgolfiers eventually recognize as the true agent of lift, superseding their initial focus on visible smoke?
Answer
The hot air itself
A critical pivot in the experimental process involved discarding the initial hypothesis that smoke was the active lifting component. Through controlled testing, particularly when observing that simple heating of common air produced lift regardless of the specific material combusted beneath it, the brothers refined their understanding. They embraced the physical reality that the lifting agent was the heated air, which, being less dense than the surrounding ambient air, provided the necessary buoyancy. This acceptance required experimental discipline to prioritize scalable, consistent results over initial visual evidence.
Related Questions
What did the Montgolfiers initially hypothesize was the active lifting agent based on early smoke containment tests?Which material reportedly offered better containment than paper for a given weight during larger, significant experiments?What specific substance was used by the brothers to join the sheets of paper together in the construction of the envelope?During the critical public unmanned flight in Annonay in June 1783, what weight capacity did the large bag successfully demonstrate?Which three living creatures were included as passengers during the September 1783 tethered biological experiment overseen by the Académie des Sciences?What prevailing, yet ultimately incorrect, scientific concepts did the brothers initially try to align their smoke observations with?On what specific date did Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier conduct the first untethered flight in a Montgolfier balloon?What combination of materials was famously used when constructing one of the Montgolfiers' larger balloons for structural integrity?What concept did the Montgolfiers eventually recognize as the true agent of lift, superseding their initial focus on visible smoke?What was the primary experimental focus during the final, crucial phase involving the manned flight on November 21, 1783?