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Martyrs Made In The Sky: The Zénith Balloon Tragedy And The Construction Of The French Third Republic’S First Scientific Heroes, Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

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 became the domain of spectacular forms of entertainment and of swindlers trying to defraud public subscriptions. All of this changed after the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War, during which balloons were used to breach the siege of Paris. This essay explores how the aeronautical community, led by the recently established Société Française de Navigation Aérienne, mobilized the memory of the war to …