From Here to There: Inventions That Changed the Way the World Moves

by Vivian Kirkfield Narrated by Pete Cross, Zoe Cross-Nelms

Overview

In a time when people believed flying was impossible, Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier proved that the sky wasn't the limit. When most thought horseback was the only way to race, Bertha and Karl Benz fired up their engines. From the invention of the bicycle and the passenger steam locomotive to the first liquid-fuel propelled rocket and industrial robot, inventors across the world have redefined travel. Informative and celebratory, this collective biography tells the story of the experiments, failures, and successes of visionaries who changed the way the world moves.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A Junior Library Guild Selection "These innovations in transportation should inspire readers to go far....Educators will also delight in the hefty amount of supplemental backmatter." —Kirkus "Kirkfield has a knack for finding elements of human interest as well as historical significance in each account. The colorful, dynamic illustrations help readers visualize the times as well as the challenges faced by the inventors. While this may not be the most comprehensive introduction to transportation history, it’s surely one of the most enjoyable."—Booklist  "Each tidily crafted tale is flexible as a read-alone or -along, and the heavily illustrated volume also functions like a collection of stand-alone picture books. Kirkfield is relentlessly optimistic regarding invention as a force for good."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books "The narrative emphasizes inventors' perseverance and ability to learn from mistakes. Copious cartoon illustrations help set the time period, add humor, and break up the narrative."—The Horn Book  —

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2020-09-29
These innovations in transportation should inspire readers to go far.

Sure, readers may know about Henry Ford or Katherine Johnson, but have they heard about Raye Montague and her computer-designed guided-missile frigate? What about Bertha Benz and her fateful test-drive of her husband’s invention? Or what inspired Herbert Everest and Harry Jennings to redesign wheelchairs? They will, in this nonfiction tribute to 12 inventors and innovators who changed the ways human travel, influencing nine different forms of travel, from hot air balloons to rocket ships. The text is supported by full-color cartoon illustrations that enhance the text. Additional facts appear on the bottoms of various pages, supplementing the narrative without distracting from the main text. While the stars of the book (all White except for Montague, a Black woman) are clearly the inventors and innovators, educators will also delight in the hefty amount of supplemental backmatter. Source notes guide readers through quotes included, and a selected bibliography offers both print and web-accessible fodder for curious readers hoping to learn more about each inventor. Historical illustrations in the bibliography welcome readers to explore. A timeline that runs across the endpapers helps anchor the subjects and their inventions in history.

Will inspire as it educates. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177591063
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	02/18/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Boys Who Dream of Flying

Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier and Manned Balloon Flight

At a time when most of the world believed human flight was impossible, one boy thought differently.
      When Joseph Montgolfier gazed out the window at school, his teachers told him to stop dreaming. Why couldn’t he pay attention like his brother Étienne? But Joseph was paying attention—to a bird soaring in the sky. Joseph was wondering if he could fly too.

Born in 1740 in Annonay, France, Joseph had fifteen brothers and sisters. He was best friends with only one of them—his youngest brother, Étienne. Étienne spoke eloquently, dressed elegantly, and had a good head for business. Joseph was the exact opposite. But the brothers shared a love of science.

One cold November day in 1782, Joseph watched cinders dance in the fireplace. They floated up the chimney. Joseph wondered if soldiers could be lifted into the air and transported to a battlefield using the same force that lifted the cinders.
      Grabbing sticks and string, Joseph built a small A-frame. He covered it with thin fabric. Then he twisted papers, lit them on fire, and pushed the tiny torches under the little tent.
      Whoosh! Up it floated, until it bumped into the ceiling!
      Joseph raced to show his brother the floating tent.
      Together, Joseph and Étienne built a larger model of the experiment: a big ball made of paper and covered with silk.
      In a meadow, they secured the balloon with ropes. They lit a fire under it.
      Whoosh! The ropes broke. The balloon shot up. It sailed over the trees. Joseph and Étienne couldn’t wait to build an even bigger balloon.
      They made calculations, drew diagrams, and gathered supplies. Fabric filled every room as they measured and cut. Thread littered the hallways as they sewed. Two thousand buttons sparkled and shone as friends and family fastened them with needle and thread to connect the segments of the balloon.
      Finally, the balloon was ready. This time, Joseph and Étienne built a bonfire in the center of town.

Joseph believed that a mysterious gas in the smoke, which he called Montgolfier gas, lifted the balloon. He thought that if the smoke was dark, thick, and smelly, the balloon would go higher, so he added damp straw and shredded wool to the flames. He didn’t realize that the balloon rose because the heated molecules of air in the balloon spread out and were less dense and lighter than the cooler air outside the balloon. Molécules, or “minute particles” in French, were discussed by Daniel Bernoulli in Hydrodynamica, published in 1738. Bernoulli said that gases consist of great numbers of molecules moving in all directions and heat is simply the energy created by their motion.

“Lachez tout!” Étienne shouted. “Let go!”
      Whoosh! The balloon shot up. It floated across a field. The brothers chased after it. The townspeople chased after the brothers. And by the time they found the balloon more than a mile away, Joseph and Étienne were already planning their next demonstration.
      Not every launch was successful. Some of the balloons burned up. Many failed to lift off because of bad weather conditions. Still, the Montgolfier brothers never stopped trying.
      Word spread to King Louis XVI. He summoned the brothers. But Joseph did not like speaking in front of people and would not go. Though Étienne didn’t know if he could make the balloon fly without Joseph, he knew he had to try.
      On a sunny September day in 1783, in front of the palace at Versailles, Étienne built a fire, adding old boots and rotten meat to it. The smoke was thicker, darker, and smellier than ever. The king watched from his balcony as into a woven wicker cage stepped . . .

Building huge balloons costs a lot of money. Fortunately, the Montgolfiers’ father owned a successful paper factory, and he promised to fund their experiments—on the condition that they promise never to go up in one of their balloons if it was untethered.

. . . a duck, a rooster, and a sheep.
      Eyes watered.
      Noses wrinkled.
      People retched.
      Whoosh! Wide-eyed, the crowd watched as the menagerie ascended into the sky, over the palace spires, and out of sight.
      Members of the Academy of Science recovered the balloon. The animals were unharmed. The king was impressed. But he had a new challenge for the brothers: Could they build a balloon that would carry a person into the air?
      Étienne told the king they could build a balloon that would carry two!

The king originally wanted to send condemned criminals up in the balloon in case of mishap. But Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, a science teacher, and Marquis François d’Arlandes, a soldier, appealed to the king. They felt that the honor of being the first person to soar into the air should not go to someone who had broken the law. The king agreed.

Étienne and Joseph worked day and night. It wasn’t long before the new balloon was bigger than a house.
      On November 21, 1783, in Paris, a blazing fire roared in an iron furnace. Two brave men stepped into a basket beneath an enormous tent of fabric.
      The balloon tugged at the ropes.
      Fear tugged at Étienne’s heart.
      What if it rained? What if there was too much wind?
      What if the aeronauts got hurt?
      Étienne could wait no longer.
      He cut the ropes!
      Whoosh! The balloon rose.
      The crowd cheered. The aeronauts tipped their hats. The king waved a royal salute. Étienne thought of Joseph back home and smiled. They had done it!
      For the next two hundred years, scientists and inventors developed aircraft that flew higher and higher, faster and faster, until finally, on July 20, 1969, men walked on the moon. And it all started with Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier, two brothers, as different as could be, who worked together to take the first step in that starry direction.

Benjamin Franklin, who happened to be in France to negotiate the Treaty of Paris between the United States and England after the American Revolution, watched that first manned hot-air balloon flight. He wrote in his journal, “We observed it lift off in the most majestic manner. When it reached around 250 feet in altitude, the intrepid voyagers lowered their hats to salute the spectators. We could not help feeling a certain mixture of awe and admiration.”

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