Henri Giffard
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Baptiste Jules Henri Jacques Giffard (8 February 1825Template:Spaced ndash14 April 1882) was a French engineer. In 1852 he invented the steam injector and the powered Giffard dirigible airship.
Career
Giffard was born in Paris in 1825. He invented the injector and the Giffard dirigible, an airship powered with a steam engine and weighing over Template:Convert. It was the world's first passenger-carrying airship (then known as a dirigible, from French).<ref name=Giffard_1/> Both practical and steerable, the hydrogen-filled airship was equipped with a Template:Convert steam engine that drove a propeller. The engine was fitted with a downward-pointing funnel. The exhaust steam was mixed in with the combustion gases and it was hoped by these means to stop sparks rising up to the gas bag; he also installed a vertical rudder.Template:Cn
On 24 September 1852, Giffard made the first powered and controlled flight travelling Template:Convert from Paris to Élancourt.<ref name=SM/> The wind was too strong to allow him to make way against it, so he was unable to return to the start.<ref name=SM/> However, he was able to make turns and circles,Template:Citation needed proving that a powered airship could be steered and controlled.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Giffard was granted a patent for the injector on 8 May 1858. Unusually, he had thoroughly worked out the theory of this invention before making any experimental instrument, having explained the idea in 1850. Others had worked on using jets, particularly Eugène Bourdon who patented a very similar device in 1857.<ref name=Kneass/>
In 1863, he was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.<ref name=Day/>
Death and commemoration
In response to his declining eyesight, Giffard killed himself in 1882,<ref name=Day/> leaving his estate to the nation for humanitarian and scientific purposes.<ref>Template:Cite news, ...Henri Giffard, who bequeathed his large fortune for the endowment of scientific research...</ref>
Gallery
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Balloon of Henri Giffard over Paris rooftops, 1878.<ref name=paris1878>Template:Citation, ...Blank form for passengers to record "observations" (data) during ascents in Giffard's giant captive balloon from the Tuileries courtyard in the Paris Exposition of 1878...</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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A model of the Giffard Airship at the London Science Museum.
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Medal of Giffard's balloon over Paris in 1878.<ref name=paris1878 />
See also
References
Bibliography
- Template:Citation
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- Template:Citation, ...Correspondence, notes, design drawings, broadsides, newspapers, printed illustrations, articles about Giffard, and newspaper clippings relating chiefly to Giffard's exhibition of a large captive balloon in the courtyard of the Tuileries in Paris in 1878. Includes his notes on hydrogen gas and design drawings for balloons...
External links
- Template:Webarchive - discusses Henri Giffard's first powered flight, LiveScience.com, 4 March 2008