How Two Brothers Invented the Hot Air Balloon. Back in 1782, in Ardche, France, lived Joseph Montgolfier, a dreamer and an inventor who was curious about how everything worked. Most of all, he wondered how kites stayed up in the sky. When one day a gust of wind blew his papers into the fireplace, he noticed that something lifted the pages into the airand he realized that heat could make things rise. With the help of his brother, tienne, he began to experiment and created a brand new kind of flying machine a hot-air balloon This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of how the...