In 1870, France and the powerful German state of Prussia got into a war, and Prussia

walloped France. In mid-September, just two months after the war began, the Prussian military

had already surrounded Paris. Then they laid siege to the 2.5 million people there. No one was allowed in or out, except for one person.

Of those 2.5 million people, the Prussian army offered one of them free passage to leave.

Astronomer Jules Jansen. Jansen wanted to observe a solar eclipse in Algeria that December, and the Prussians

magnanimously put science above the fray of politics and told Jansen that he was free to travel.

So you can imagine the Prussian's shock when Jansen told them to kick rocks.

After months of suffering in solidarity with his countrymen, he refused to accept

the easy way out. Instead, with typical French flair, he informed the Prussians that he would take

to the air instead. He would soar over the siege in a hot air balloon. This rejection enraged the Prussians.

Through gritted teeth, they wished Jansen luck.

Then they warned him that they planned to shoot his balloon out of the sky

and shoot him as a spy when he landed.

But Jansen was not about to sit home and let this important eclipse pass him by.

One way or the other, he was determined

to escape Paris.

From the Science History Institute, this is Sam Keene and the Disappearing Spoon, a topsy, turvy, sciencey history podcast,

where footnotes become the real story.

Jules Jansen sported a full beard and a waterfall of gray curls off his bald plate.

His determination to observe the eclipse in Algeria had its

roots in two things, childhood adversity and a need to follow up on some observations from another

eclipse two years earlier. When Jansen was a baby, a nursemaid dropped him and broke his foot.

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