One day in 1777, joseph montgolfier was relaxing in front of the fire with his laundry drying nearby. after a while, he noticed that one of his shirts had started to float upwards. the young man was curious about what was happening, so he threw some small pieces of paper into the fireplace to see if the same thing happened to them. when he saw them coming out of the chimney, he came to the conclusion that smoke had the power to lift things up and carry them through the air. joseph loved science and wanted to become an inventor, so he started trying to think of a craft that would