Balloon Travel and Photography

Almost any member of the American public will tell you that air travel first took flight in the early 1900s with the journeys of the Wright Brothers in North Carolina. However, surprisingly to me, and perhaps many other people, as early as 1783, innovators were taking to the skies in air balloons. In "Aloft . . . with Balloon and Camera", Robert Doty explains the early implementations of this new technology.

Ballooning gained popularity as a carnival attraction, but this was not its primary use in the decades of its prevalence. What was particularly notable to me was that the vast majority of balloon voyages undertaken at this time were used for numerous scientific, cartographic, and intellectual purposes. Many atmospheric and barometric experiments were performed, but the expeditioners seemed to be predominantly interested with the documentation of the aerial view they were enjoying in order to better understand the land in which they lived. While admittedly this inevitably was not the primary interest of the general public, the members of the scientific community were consumed with charting the land from the sky.

In our modern age, we have access to countless maps, photos, and other resources, depicting nearly every inch of our globe from nearly every angle. It is incredible to imagine a time where not only did people have limited access to information about other parts of the world, they were without any perspective of their own lands from above! However, thanks to the intrepid work of these early scientists, the path has been paved over time of gathering more and more cartographical data and knowledge, and we are fortunate to live in an age where this knowledge has truly become universal.

By Kalen Kasraie - AMS 30 Sec 02