Henri Lachambre, Alexis Machuron

Andreé and His Balloon (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Andrée and His Balloon is a captivating chronicle of human ambition, scientific endeavor, and tragic heroism, centered on the ill-fated 1897 Arctic expedition led by Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée. Henri Lachambre, a French balloon manufacturer and aeronaut, played a key role in the story by constructing the hydrogen balloon Örnen ("The Eagle") that carried Andrée and his companions into the Arctic skies. The book provides both technical insight and dramatic narrative, tracing the dream of polar conquest through the lens of 19th-century optimism in the power of science and exploration. Through vivid descriptions and meticulous documentation, Andrée and His Balloon captures the spirit of an era marked by daring innovation and national pride. It reflects the broader fascination with air travel at the dawn of aeronautics, while also foreshadowing the limits of human control over nature. The account sheds light on the collaboration between visionaries like Andrée and experts like Lachambre, whose ballooning expertise was critical to the ambitious, yet ultimately doomed, enterprise. Celebrated for its blend of scientific precision and human drama, the work invites readers to reflect on the risks of exploration and the tension between technological ambition and environmental unpredictability. Andrée and His Balloon endures as both a historical document and a cautionary tale, offering timeless reflections on the pursuit of knowledge, the allure of the unknown, and the fragile boundary between triumph and tragedy.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Lebooks Editora
• Seitenzahl: 70
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Juli 2025
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9786558948643
• Artikelnr.: 75032699

Autorenporträt

Henri Lachambre (1846-1904) and Alexis Machuron (1854-1901) were French ballooning pioneers whose contributions to the development of aeronautics in the late 19th century were crucial to the progress of both scientific exploration and public fascination with flight. Though not widely known outside the field of early aviation, their work-particularly the construction and launch of the balloon used in S. A. Andrée's ill-fated Arctic expedition-stands as a testament to the ambition and ingenuity of an era obsessed with conquering the skies. One of their most significant undertakings was the construction of the hydrogen balloon Örnen (The Eagle), commissioned by the Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée for his 1897 North Pole expedition. Built in Lachambre's Parisian workshop with Machuron overseeing several technical aspects of the balloon's mechanics and envelope design, the project represented the ambitious spirit of the time. Lachambre and Machuron were not only builders; they personally accompanied Andrée to Svalbard, Norway, to supervise the final preparations and inflation of the balloon, ensuring that all procedures were correctly executed. Though the expedition ended in tragedy, with the deaths of Andrée and his companions, the balloon itself was a remarkable technical achievement. It was designed to remain aloft for an extended period and included innovations such as a drag-rope steering system and a carefully sealed gas envelope. Their work demonstrated the increasing sophistication of balloon technology at the end of the 19th century and marked an important step toward more systematic and scientific approaches to aviation.