Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair

From Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair Website:

HAVASU BALLOON FESTIVAL AND FAIR
JAN. 13 - 15, 2017

French brothers Jacques and Joseph Montgolfier, local paper manufacturers in the town of Alchemy in southern France, noticed that when they burned their paper the ashes floated up in the air. They believed that the heat and smoke from the flame had a special lifting quality and that set their minds to inventing a craft that could capture smoke and heat to lift them off the ground.
On the 19th of September, 1783, the Montgolfier brothers successfully launched a balloon made from paper and cloth. To inflate the balloon they burned a combination of straw, chopped wool and dried horse manure underneath the balloon. As the straw burned it released heat that helped the balloon float.
The wool and manure made lots of smoke and helped keep the burning flame low, which lessened the risk of the balloon catching fire. The brothers were far too nervous to try out their invention themselves so they sent up a sheep, a duck and a rooster to see what happened. The paper balloon floated up into the sky and landed safely after eight minutes.