Sometimes, the ways of destiny are strange. The most unexpected things occur in the least expected quarters. People from totally unrelated professions, end up doing things that were never connected with them. The lives of the two Montgolfier brothers seem to be a classic example of this.

Joseph-Michel Montgolfier was born in 1740 and his brother, Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, five years later, in the French town of Annonay. They were born into the home of a paper manufacturer and it seemed that they would carry on the family business. The world of science seemed a fairly remote thing for them.

In fact, the good and gentle Joseph showed all the signs of a businessman and after a fairly uneventful career at college, he joined his father's vocation. He was a man capable of strong feelings and unexpected reactions. He was also a man with tremendous enthusiasm and zest for life. So he was full of all kinds of ideas and tried to make several innovations in his father's mill. However, his more conservative father did not welcome all his ideas.

Peeved at not having a free hand, Joseph left his father's business and decided to launch an independent venture: a paper mill at a place called Voiron. Here again, his basic restlessness and inability to stick to one idea, made him try one scheme after another. He never waited to give a trial its logical end, he was far too impatient. This kind of inconsistent behavior naturally got him into trouble and his new venture was a failure. He suffered heavy losses and ran into debt but his indomitable spirit was never down for long.

There was a settling effect in his life as he got married and tried to put his floundering business back into shape. His fertile brain had already created something novel: a fire-fighting pump, which was an outcome of his keen interest in hydraulics. Next, this many-faceted man turned his attention to aeronautics.

Joseph's brother, Etienne, in the meanwhile had begun his life and found his vocation as an architect. But he did not stick to it for long. However, unlike his elder brother, when Etienne joined his father's paper mill, he put his mind and heart into it and brought about a great deal of changes. He was patient and had a special talent for mechanics.

This was that point in time when Destiny stepped in. Apparently, they were not meant to simply while away their lives in ordinary business; greater name and fame were in store for them. The two of them got together and using their collective intelligence started making forays into the interesting world of aeronautics. Using the principle of floating clouds, they decided that if they were able to enclose vapor-of the kind that clouds are made up of- into a large, light bag, it would possibly rise into the air. In course of these experiments, Joseph evolved the first parachute-of-sorts- having attached a kind of umbrella to a basket. Next, he put a sheep into it and made it come down from a great height. They also made a few experiments that ultimately led to the invention of the balloon.

Everyday events can, at times, inspire great minds and spur them on to ingenious achievements. Such was the case of Joseph Montgolfier who first got the idea of the balloon by happening to watch a shirt drying over a fire. As the air got heated, the shirt swelled and rose into the air! This gave him the sudden insight into the principle of the balloon. He and his brother Etienne made an air-filled parallelepiped of taffeta and heated it. Sure enough, it rose into the air, filling the brothers with exultance. In 1783, before a gaping multitude, the Montgolfier brothers sent the first man-made machine leaping into the skies above! The crowds were awe-struck.

News of this wonderful invention spread like wildfire! In August 1783, they made a balloon with the help of the physicist, J.A.C. Charles. They followed Charles' suggestion of filling the balloon with hydrogen gas and netting a hoop for suspension of the basket. The cover was silk-made and was varnished with a solution of elastic gum. Its diameter was 13 feet. After 3 days of inflatation, the balloon ascended to a height of about three thousand feet from the Champ de Mars, Paris, in a downpour of rain. Regardless of the rainfall the flight was witnessed by a large crowd. The balloon flew for 45 minutes. It finally landed in a field 13 miles from there, terrifying the peasants over there.

The Montgolfier's example started a craze for balloon experiments throughout the world. Italian Count Francesco Zambecarri made the first flight in England in November 1783. He rose from the Artillery Ground in London and landed 48 miles away in Sussex after a journey of two and half-hours in the air. Within 2 years after the first ascent, balloonists had crossed the English Channel! And the two brothers inspired most of these.

As compared to a majority of scientists who get no acclaim or credit during their lifetime and whose genius is recognized only years after they are dead and gone, the Montgolfier brothers got a lot of accolades while they were alive. The Academy of Science, Paris called them and on August 20 1783, the two of them were put on its list of correspondents and were awarded six hundred livres for having triggered "an epoch in the history of human science." Louis XVI decorated Etienne with the ribbon of St. Michel.

A greater honor than this was that, a month later, Joseph Montgolfier had the privilege of demonstrating his experiment in front of none other than the king and queen of France! In Versailles, in the presence of thousands of excited onlookers, a gaily-painted balloon, with a cage containing an assortment of animals (a cock, a sheep and a duck) was inflated and sent up into the air. The balloon rose to a height of 1500 feet and remained in air for eight minutes. This was a major achievement. But a bigger balloon was still to come.

In 1784, the two brothers built their largest balloon. It was called La Gustave and it actually carried seven passengers including Joseph Montgolfier and Madame Tible, the first woman to go up in air.

Although in the years to come, the balloon developed greatly at the hands of other scientists, the Montgolfier brothers are remembered as they were the first in this field.

After this, their business dwindled as Etienne, the more practical of the two, died in 1799. Joseph, the eternal innovator now turned his attention to hydraulics once again. He invented a hydraulic ram that got acclaim from all over. He wen ton to become the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers and was elected a member of the Academy of Science. This was a great honor.

Joseph Montgolfier died of apoplexy in 1810.