On 4 June 1783, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier captured the imagination of the world with their first balloon flight at Cordeliers Square. There were no passengers, but the Regional Council and the whole town population saw the machine go up and stay aloft at 500 meters for ten minutes. The scientific world raced to make use of the Montgolfiers’ discovery, and all accomplishments made since then by aeronauts, aviators, and astronauts can be traced directly to this site.
France
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Image Caption: Physicist Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis d’Arlandes take flight in the Montgolfier-style balloon on November 21, 1783, 5 months after the initial launch.
2001
Pleumeur-BodouCountry: FranceWebsite: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:First_Transatlantic_Reception_of_a_Television_Signal_via_Satellite,_1962
On 11 July 1962 a station in Pimsleur-Bodou received the first transatlantic transmission of a TV signal from a twin station in Andover, Maine, USA via the TELSTAR satellite. The success of TELSTAR and the earth stations, the first built for active satellite communications, illustrated the potential of a future world-wide satellite system to provide communications between continents.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Nicholas Lannuzel (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: The Radome in Pimsleur-Bodou.Era_date_from: 1962
2002
The discovery of the radioconduction is a phenomenon which revolutionized the means of communication. It is at the origin of the development of the TSF (Télégraphie Sans Fil, or wireless telegraphy). As a member of the French Academy of Sciences (it gains vis-a-vis Marie Curie), Branly received international recognition. No more than about fifteen years separate the first wireless transmission across a few meters (1890) from the first transatlantic communication (Marconi, December 1901).
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Image Credit: Courtesy WikipediaImage Caption: Edouard BranlyEra_date_from: 1890
2010
The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, Gustave Eiffel's was unanimously chosen. At 300 meters and 7,000 tons, it was the world's tallest building until 1930.
The elevators ascend and descend within the curved legs of the tower, starting at an angle of 54 degrees from horizontal at the base and leveling out to 78 degrees at the top. The elevator cars are built with seatbacks that rotate to adjust to the varying angle.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Flickr/Sean MacEntee (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: Eiffel TowerEra_date_from: 1889
1986
Late in life, the renowned structural engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) embarked on aeronautical research. Reliable data and repeatable research methods were rare in the early 1900s, but Eiffel brought an engineer's discipline to the field. In the process, he produced the most accurate aeronautical data of the time, confirmed a long-held theory about fluid flow that had never been unequivocally proven, and established a laboratory that became a model for future practice.
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Image Caption: Floor plan of Eiffel's 1912 laboratory at Auteuil, Paris, with two open-return wind tunnelsEra_date_from: 1903, 1912
2005
Inventions credited to the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees and its graduates include: prestressed concrete, lighting gas, and the optical lens. The school and its graduates also have been central to research in the diffraction of light, the applications of concrete, and the measurement of the strength of materials.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/MagnusTheGreat (CC BY-SA 3.0)Image Caption: Ecole Nationale des Ponts et CheusseesEra_date_from: 1747
1988
The introduction of steam-powered forging hammers by French and British engineers of the 1830s led to the building of this impressive hammer at Creusot that delivered blows to shape and strengthen iron and steel objects before forging. It was for years the most powerful steam hammer in the world. Yet in 1878 a writer observed that "this formidable mass is capable of ... corking a bottle without breakage."
With a striking capacity of 100 tons and a stroke of 5 meters, it worked massive iron and steel shafts, piston rods, and other forgings for fifty-four years, until its retirement in 1930.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Christophe Finot (CC BY-SA 2.5)Image Caption: Creusot Steam HammerEra_date_from: 1876
1981
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier studied at the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France (then "Collège Mazarin") from 1754 to 1761. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1768, where he presented his important studies on oxygen in chemistry. These began with a "pli cacheté" of Nov. 2, 1772, and, after he experimentally proved the chemical composition of water by the quantitative method, culminated in his abandoning of the phlogistic theory in 1785.
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Image Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Exp.)Image Caption: An early line engraving of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, made sometime in the early 19th century by Louis Jean Desire Delaistre, after an original piece by Julien Leopold Boilly.Era_date_from: 1789
1999
Innovations
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier studied at the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut de France (then "Collège Mazarin") from 1754 to 1761. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1768, where he presented his important studies on oxygen in chemistry. These began with a "pli cacheté" of Nov. 2…
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The introduction of steam-powered forging hammers by French and British engineers of the 1830s led to the building of this impressive hammer at Creusot that delivered blows to shape and strengthen iron and steel objects before forging. It was for years the most powerful steam hammer in the world.… Read More
Inventions credited to the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees and its graduates include: prestressed concrete, lighting gas, and the optical lens. The school and its graduates also have been central to research in the diffraction of light, the applications of concrete, and the…
Late in life, the renowned structural engineer Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) embarked on aeronautical research. Reliable data and repeatable research methods were rare in the early 1900s, but Eiffel brought an engineer's discipline to the field. In the process, he produced the most accurate…
Read More
The Eiffel Tower was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889 commemorating the centenary of the French Revolution. Of the 700 proposals submitted in a design competition, Gustave Eiffel's was unanimously chosen. At 300 meters and 7,000 tons, it was the world's tallest…
The discovery of the radioconduction is a phenomenon which revolutionized the means of communication. It is at the origin of the development of the TSF (Télégraphie Sans Fil, or wireless telegraphy). As a member of the French Academy of Sciences (it gains vis-a-vis Marie Curie), Branly received… Read More
On 11 July 1962 a station in Pimsleur-Bodou received the first transatlantic transmission of a TV signal from a twin station in Andover, Maine, USA via the TELSTAR satellite. The success of TELSTAR and the earth stations, the first built for active satellite communications, illustrated the…
Read More
On 4 June 1783, Joseph Michel and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier captured the imagination of the world with their first balloon flight at Cordeliers Square. There were no passengers, but the Regional Council and the whole town population saw the machine go up and stay aloft at…
Read More