Johann Caspar Horner was a Swiss physicist and astronomer.

In 1805 Johann Caspar Horner visited Japan with the Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, as a scientist to the Kruzenshtern

Adam Johann von Krusenstern

Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern , was an admiral and explorer, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe.- Life :...

 mission that also brought the Russian ambassador Nikolai Rezanov

Nikolai Rezanov

Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California. One of the ten barons of Russia, he was the first Russian ambassador to Japan , and participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe ,...

 to Japan.

Horner made a hot air balloon out of Japanese paper (washi

Washi

is a type of paper made in Japan. Washi is commonly made using fibers from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub , or the paper mulberry, but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat...

), and made a demonstration in front of about 30 Japanese delegates. This followed the first flight of a hot air balloon

Hot air balloon

The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...

 by the brothers Montgolfier in France in 1783.

Books and publications

• Otto von Kotzebue, Ivan Fedorovīch Kruzenshtern, Johann Caspar Horner, Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz, Adelbert von Chamisso (1821) A voyage of discovery into the South Sea and Beering's [sic] Straits, for the purpose of exploring a north-east passage. undertaken in the years 1815-1818, at the expense of His Highness the chancellor of the empire, Count Romanzoff, in the ship Rurick, under the command of the lieutenant in the Russian Imperial Navy, Otto von Kotzebue.
• Johann Caspar Horner (1822) Remarks on the specific gravity of sea-water in different latitudes, and on the temperature of the ocean at different depths
• Elisabeth Schoeck-Grüebler, Johann Caspar Horner, Felix Donat Kyd (1831-1834) Der freundeidgenössische Rechenschieber : der Briefwechsel zwischen Felix Donat Kyd aus Brunnen und Hofrat Johann Caspar Horner aus Zürich
• Jürgen W Koch; Johann Caspar Horner; Johann Georg Repsold, Der Briefwechsel zwischen Johann Caspar Horner und Johann Georg Repsold : kommentierte Übertragung der Brieftexte