What's the reason you don't hear a lot of fondue jokes?
Most of the time, they're excessively cheesy.
Hydrogen balloonIn 1783, the first experimental hydrogen-filled balloon left the Champs de Mars, Paris, unmanned, and reached 900-m altitude. Under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, Jacques A.C. Charles sent up a 13-ft (4-m) diameter hydrogen- filled balloon of rubber- coated silk. One of the spectators was the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin. The gas had been manufactured, beginning on 23 Aug 1783, by pouring 225-kg of sulphuric acid over half a ton of scrap-iron. Able to lift about 9-kg, it traveled 24-km in about 45 minutes. The balloon descended close to the little village of Gonesse, where frightened local farmers attacked it with pick axes and spades, leaving only torn remains. |
