Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association (Quad A)

Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers began filling the world’s first hydrogen balloon on 23 August 1783, in the Place des Victoires, Paris. The balloon was comparatively small, a 35-cubic-metre sphere of rubberized silk (about 13 feet in diameter), and only capable of lifting about 9 kg. It was filled with hydrogen that had been made by pouring nearly a quarter of a ton of sulphuric acid onto half a ton of scrap iron. The hydrogen gas was fed into the envelope via lead pipes; as it was not passed through cold water, the gas was hot when produced, and then contracted as it cooled in the balloon, causing great difficulty in filling the balloon completely. Text from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ballooning