While historians may approach the subject of aeronautics through the necessary technological changes needed to launch balloons or through the cultural response to this new invention, at heart the history of ballooning is a history of balloonists and their audience. Aeronauts practised this new science and formed relationships with spectators who, whether as customers paying for a new form of entertainment or as witnesses to a scientific experiment, played a crucial role in ascensions. The very size of the audience for some launches, such as the 400,000 people, approximately half the city of Paris, who turned out to watch Charles and Robert ascend from the Jardin des Tuileries in 1783, clearly indicates the social breadth of the people willing to engage in this activity. Even smaller launches often drew crowds of thousands of people, some of whom had paid for the privilege of attending although most simply found suitable spots – rooted in gardens, perched on roof tops, and straddling atop walls – from which to enjoy a free view of the balloon once it had left the earth. Balloonists also came from many social backgrounds and included some savants but also a large number of scientific amateurs. Thus, aeronautics threw together men and women from mixed social and economic circumstances, disparate educational backgrounds, and extremely varied understandings of how this new invention worked and why it might be important.