BRAZIL, 1929-30, Gusmão's portrait and monument, Scott C22,
C17
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão was born in Santos, Brazil, then a Portuguese colony. At the age of 15 he entered the Jesuits, but left soon afterward. He attended the Jesuit school in Bahia and the University at Coimbra where he studied physics and mathematics. He took up the idea of a lighter-than-air craft, described by Fr. Francesco Lana-Terzi, SJ, but used hot air rather than the vacuum Lana-Terzi had suggested. His first attempt on 8 August 1709 in the presence of King John V of Portugal was a success although it alarmed the servants who doused the balloon in fear that the house would catch fire. According to an eyewitness the balloon was constructed of thick paper, and fire material was in an earthenware bowl suspended beneath. This is long before the "first hot air balloon" of the Montgolfier brothers in 1783. Gusmão is rumored to have flown in a larger balloon himself, but lacking proof of that credit for manned flight must be given elsewhere.
ST. THOMAS AND PRINCE, 1979, Scott 560A
A stamp and souvenir sheet with a painting of Gusmão's aerostat in
the king's court by Bernardino de Sousa Pereira
BRAZIL, 1944, the Week of the Wing, Scott C60
BRAZIL, 1986, the anniversary of the Gusmão airport, Scott
2094and its FDI cancel
ECUADOR, 1984, Gusmão's workable aerostat is at the lower left,
Scott 1060
BELIZE, 1983, Gusmão's first fantastic design for his "La
Passerole" (Big Bird), Scott 673
ST. THOMAS AND PRINCE, 1983, souvenir sheets commemorating Brazilian
contribution to flight
featuring Gusmão at the bottom center and in the overprinted sheet
the bottom right, Scott 699-700
(KYRGYZSTAN), 2000, Gusmão is one of nine stamps on a mini-sheet
of historical hot air balloons
The Michel catalogue, however, reports that these stamps are not authorized
by Kyrgyzstan and are not postally valid.
PORTUGAL, 1983, Scott 1581, and its FDI cancel
BRAZIL, 1985, the tercentenary of his birth, Scott 2040 and its FDI
cancel
PORTUGAL, 1986, special show cancel
BRAZIL, 2009, special show cancel marking the tercentenary of the first
balloon flight.