Scope and Contents
In 1783, two brother's names Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montogolfier inaugurated the era of human flight with a 3,000-foot
high balloon ride near Paris. The following year, a fellow Frenchman name Jean-Pierre Blanchard invented the dirigible, a
steerable balloon that was a forerunner to blimps and Zeppelins. The twentieth century saw a boom in aviation, from the 1903
historic flight by the Wright brothers to the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The lattice of the sliver-bearing mineral stephanite,
seen here in light blue, is reminiscent of navigational maps.