Arthur F. Scott, in Scientific American (Jan. 1984),
Man's First Flight P.0.Box 5969, New York, N.Y. 10017.
On November 21, 1783, the first men ever to fly without tethers to the ground went aloft in a hot-air balloon over Paris. The featwas the work of two paper manufacturers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Mont- golfier, who were encouraged by-and woefully misinformed about -recent breakthroughs in chemistry.
The two revolutionary developments of the day were the overthrow of the phlogiston...