Azeredo Coutinho and the physical principles for steering a balloon

Abstract

This paper aims to provide analysis of a manuscript prepared by bishop Azeredo Coutinho – founder in 1800 of the Olinda Seminary, in Pernambuco – in which he is concerned about the physical principles for steering a balloon. This manuscript, offered to Prince D. Pedro, was later published in 1819. The problem of the dirigibility of balloons was only effectively solved in 1901, with the flight of Santos Dumont in his dirigible balloon No. 6, which earned him the Deutsch Prize. Since the public exhibition of a hot-air balloon at the court of King João V by priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão, in 1709, aerostats (lighter than air aircrafts) steering seemed to be an insoluble problem. To support this analysis in order to contribute to the history of physics in Brazil, the text explores the historical development of some physical concepts which contributed to the aerostation, in the context of the rising of modern science in detriment of Aristotelian Scholasticism. The conclusion reveals assumptions of the new natural sciences present in the bishop's thinking, which are consistent with Newton's physics.

Keywords:
bishop Azeredo Coutinho; dirigibility of balloons; history of physics in Brazil; aerostation