As a chemist, he probably had a pretty good idea that there was no special gas with the property of "levity" emanating from a common fire. After all, Charles studied the effect of temperature on air, including that heated air tends to rise. read more
Nuclear-powered airships seemed like a good idea during the Cold War, but for a variety of reasons—some self-evident—they never got off the ground. For the first half of the 20th century, atomic-powered airships were the stuff of science fiction, floating across the pages of pulp magazines that envisioned a future when nuclear energy would be harnessed for the good of all mankind. read more