Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles was a French inventor, scientist, mathematician, and balloonist.
18 Facts About Jacques Charles
2.
Jacques Charles's law, describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was formulated by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he credited it to unpublished work by Jacques Charles.
3.
Jacques Charles was elected to the Academie des Sciences in 1795 and subsequently became professor of physics at the Academie de Sciences.
4.
Jacques Charles married Julie Francoise Bouchaud des Herettes, a creole woman 37 years younger than himself.
5.
Jacques Charles outlived her and died in Paris on 7 April 1823.
6.
Jacques Charles conceived the idea that hydrogen would be a suitable lifting agent for balloons having studied the work of Robert Boyle's Boyle's Law which was published 100 years earlier in 1662, and of his contemporaries Henry Cavendish, Joseph Black and Tiberius Cavallo.
7.
Jacques Charles designed the craft and then worked in conjunction with the Robert brothers, Anne-Jean and Nicolas-Louis, to build it in their workshop at the Place des Victoires in Paris.
8.
Jacques Charles was accompanied by Nicolas-Louis Robert as co-pilot of the 380-cubic-metre, hydrogen-filled balloon.
9.
Jacques Charles then decided to ascend again, but alone this time because the balloon had lost some of its hydrogen.
10.
Unlike the Robert brothers, Jacques Charles never flew again, although a hydrogen balloon came to be called a Charliere in his honour.
11.
Also present was Joseph Montgolfier, whom Jacques Charles honoured by asking him to release the small, bright green, pilot balloon to assess the wind and weather conditions.
12.
Jacques Charles himself was eager to ascend but had run into a firm veto from the King, who from the earliest reports had been observing the progress of the flights with keen attentiveness.
13.
Jacques Charles developed several useful inventions, including a valve to let hydrogen out of the balloon and other devices, such as the hydrometer and reflecting goniometer, and improved the Gravesand heliostat and Fahrenheit's aerometer.
14.
Jacques Charles's law, describing how gases tend to expand when heated, was first published by natural philosopher Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, but he credited it to unpublished work by Jacques Charles, and named the law in his honour.
15.
Around 1787 Jacques Charles did an experiment where he filled five balloons to the same volume with different gases.
16.
Jacques Charles was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1786 and to the Academie des Sciences, in 1795.
17.
Jacques Charles subsequently became a professor of physics at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers.
18.
The Coupe Jacques Charles et Robert was an international ballooning event that was run in 1983 in parallel with the Gordon Bennett Cup.