Charles was born on November 12, 1746, in Beaugency, Loiret, France
His first occupation was as a clerk at the Ministry of Finance in Paris
On August 27, 1783, Charles launched the first hydrogen-filled balloon
During the winter of 1787 Charles studied oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide and found that the volume of all these gases increased identically with higher temperature
The law governing the thermal expansion of gases is sometimes called Gay-Lussac's law