HISTORY II |
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| THE
PORTUGUESE PRIEST - 1709
From the website of the Air Museum - Alverca Portugal |
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HISTORY II |
||
| THE
PORTUGUESE PRIEST - 1709
From the website of the Air Museum - Alverca Portugal |
||
|
HOME | PREVIOUS | NEXT | AUSTRALIA | WORLD | EVENTS | LINKS | SOLAR | ABF | FAQs | BOOKS | SIMULATORS |
Bartolomeu de Gusmão, a Jesuit priest, was a major figure in
aerostatics and is renowned for the bird-shaped balloon he built and
which was named "Passarola". Gusmão was born in 1685 in
Santos, Brazil, then property of the Portuguese crown. He attended the
Jesuit seminary of Bahia and soon showed an interest and a talent for
Physics; he invented and patented a machine to elevate water up to 100 m
high. Having completed his studies in Brazil, he embarked to Portugal in
1705, and joined Coimbra University in 1708 where he studied Physics and
Mathematics. Soon he started working on a "lighter than air"
device, and in 1709 King João V granted him a patent for his
"air-walking object". The crown also decided to help him out
with the expenses to build the machine and the king graciously granted
him an allowance for life. Free from financial worries, Bartolomeu was
then able to dedicate himself completely to his endeavours with the
technology available at the time, and there is evidence that wire-braced
paper balloons were used in his experiments.
On
8 August 1709, in “Casa da India”, Gusmão made a hot-air filled
paper balloon ascent 4 meters in the presence of the court, the
Ambassadors, and religious dignitaries, among whom was Cardinal Conti
(later Pope Innocent XIII). The hot
air was produced by “fire burning in a clay bowl nested in a wooden
tray at the bottom of the balloon.” Fearing that the curtains would
catch fire, the servants destroyed the balloon, but the experiment was a
success.
Bartolomeu
de Gusmão proceeded with his experiments with larger balloons and the
legend has it that eventually he himself flew a balloon which was
launched from St. Jorge Castle, on top of one of Lisbon’s seven hills,
covered 1 km, and crashed in Terreiro do Paço. This bird-shaped balloon
was to become known as the “Passarola”, but following this feat,
Gusmão’s fortunes seemed to have waned. Intrigue and jealousy made
him fall from grace and, when he was black-listed by the Inquisition, he
found sanctuary with the Jesuits who sent him to Spain in 1724, where he
eventually died in total destitution.