Nellie Bly is often associated with hot air balloons. Joseph Pulitzer attempted to create a news story with a hot air balloon trip between New York City and St. Louis, where he owned his newspapers. Nellie Bly appealed to Pulitzer to be a journalist inside the balloon, but she supposedly never heard back from him. It was probably a good thing.
Jules Verne characters did travel in a hot air balloon in his novel, Five Weeks In A Balloon. Published in 1863, the adventure novel was also known as Journeys And Discoveries In Africa By Three Englishmen. Exploration of Africa was a hot topic that year and the book was a big hit. The book became the first in what became Jules Verne’s series of “Extraordinary Voyages.” In this high adventure story, the characters travel 4,000 over Africa in a balloon.
Jules Verne was definitely not the first to dream of circumnavigating the globe. The idea appeared in writings as early as 100 AD with the Greeks. Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri wrote Voyage Around The World in 1699 (translated to French in 1719). In Verne’s day, so many people had set out to circle the globe that it became part of the zeitgeist. William Perry Fogg travelled around the globe from 1869 to 1871. He wrote a series of articles about his adventures for The Cleveland Leader.
The Jules Verne Trophy is the prize awarded to the team that circumnavigates the globe fastest in any type of yacht with any size crew. Banque Populaire V holds the current record. Under the guidance of skipper Loick Pevron, the yacht circled the world in 45 days, 13 hours, 42 minutes and 53 seconds. The first record was set in 1993. Each time the record is broken, a ceremony is held in which the old record holder hands the Jules Verne Trophy to the new winner.