The Sublime Invention: Ballooning in Europe, 1783–1820 (review)

Michel Lynn has published on popular science and consumption culture in eighteenth-century Europe and France. Thanks to the major studies of C. C. Gillispie and recent works by J. M. Hunn (1982), L. Robène (1998), and M. Thébaud-Sorger (2009 and 2010), the history of early ballooning has been extensively investigated, though Lynn seeks to go beyond these works by extending his study beyond France and Britain. Although earlier studies have considered the decades between the invention of the Montgolfier brothers up until 1820, Lynn’s aim is to enlarge the scope, attempting a sketch of the phenomenon on a general European scale and to provide a more global understanding of ballooning in European culture at the end of the Enlightenment and the beginning of romanticism. He has accordingly chosen a cross-disciplinary and thematic approach in six parts, based on information gathered mainly from printed sources (journals and short essays). Lynn begins by examining the emergence of aeronautics and moves on to consider the relationship between Enlightenment ideals and the utility of ballooning as well as the relationships among audiences, states, and balloons. Finally, he devotes the last two chapters to consumption.

The book provides an enjoyable and general overview of examples for each well-known topic, including gender, fêtes, military uses, deaths and disasters, and material culture. It remains, however, almost impossible to draw conclusions, as the methods employed yield neither broad statistical data nor precise case studies. Why did ballooning appear in some places and not in others? How did it develop and/or spread?

The answers to these questions are somewhat blurred by the author’s approach. For instance, the general description of funding processes, such as subscription, lumps dissimilar practices together. Different cultures associated with ballooning emerged in different places, which could have been highlighted by an analysis of the different ways that resources were mobilized in support of ballooning in different countries. There was little in common between the circle of amateurs who undertook flights in provincial towns for no financial gain and the new category of showmen who aimed to make a living from it. Clearly distinct from small-scale experiments, these complex and expensive performances made the involvement of a wider audience, who were both consumers and experts, necessary. This symbolic investment consequently played a huge part in the integration of this invention in society. Later, while it was entertaining the masses in Britain, the “French invention” became a superior tool at the disposal of the French Revolutionary Army, which is interesting considering the fact that British aerostation would lead the field during the first half of the nineteenth century.

To examine its popularity, the author explores ballooning under the rubric of “popular science” rather than exploring technological issues. Yet one could argue that the exhibition of technical knowledge was all part of the enthusiasm of the audiences. Indeed, challenges following the discovery of gases—such as hydrogen—for the construction of these machines fostered changes in processes and materials, such as fabric, varnish, and pipes. The fascination in performance came as much from the fact that the flight embodied the progress of the Enlightenment as it did from the result of the skills and know-how of human hands.

Occasionally, some flights would fail and Lynn rightly stresses the interest in these. Even though some expectations remained unfulfilled, which is, according to the author, where the romantic shift occurs, the vast majority of attempts were successful, achieving what was once believed to be impossible. So, some points raised in the book complete the various monographs on the subject, while proposing new assumptions. As Lynn points out, the sublime emerges from the beginning of the flights; the sublime as well as the technological progress go hand in hand, and change according to human advance in the mastery of the elements.