The Airship. Montgolfiers Balloon. The invention of the balloon was due to the brothers Montgolfier; sons of a papermaker at Annonay; France; who; in June 1783; inflated a large linen globe with smoke from a fire. The following October; Pilatre de Rozier made several ascents in a captive fire-balloon; and in November 1783; de Rozier and the Marquis dArlandes made an ascent in a free fire-balloon; or as it was then termed Montgolfiers aerostatic machine. Modern Airship. In 1919 the British Airship R34 crossed the Atlantic in 108 hours and made the return journey in 75 hours. Our picture shows the R33 which has a capacity of 1;958;000 cubic feet. Illustration for one of a set of cigarette cards on the subject of Past & Present issued by Wills in 1929.