Riding the First Balloons

The people were terrified. They threw rocks at it and attacked it with pitchforks. When they had killed it, they used a horse to drag its carcass away into a field.

You probably wouldn’t do any of those things if you saw a hot-air balloon landing near your home. But back in 1783, very few people had ever seen such a thing. The villagers didn’t know what it was. The unmanned balloon seemed like something out of a monster tale, or the moon fallen to Earth. They soon learned their mistake, but to keep this from happening in another village, the French government issued a proclamation telling people not to be afraid of balloons.

In 1783, if you wanted to go somewhere, you could walk, ride a horse, or sail in a ship. Flying was out