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[[start page]] THE PENNY MECHANIC and the CHEMIST [[date bar]] No. XLVII.] SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 16, 1837 [Vol.II [[/date bar]] Parachutes [[image - diagrams of five parachutes; inverted cone COCKING'S umbrella type GARNERIN'S umbrella type labeled PARKE's and WILSON one with slack cords labeled ASCENDING one with taut cords labeled DESCENDING]] COCKING'S GARNERIN'S PARKE'S WILSON'S ASCENDING DESCENDING Vol. II -- No. XLVII. Holloway Press: D.A. Doudney [[end page ]] [[start page]] Cocking's parachute Garnerin's parachute [[image - same two parachutes as above]] Descent of Garnerin's parachute in 1802 In this age of ballooning and at a time when the fatal experiment of Mr. Cocking forms a subject of general conversation, we think the following account with which we have been favored of M. Garnerin's descent in a parachute in 1802, as given in his own words, cannot fail to be acceptable. The parachute used by Garnerin on the occasion of his ascension in London, on the 21st of September 1802, was of cotton, and expanded in the manner of an umbrella. At the top of it ran round a hoop eight feet in diameter. In this part also was a circular aperture, where the cylinder terminated the cord by which the parachute was to be fastened to the balloon. The sides of the parachute, when it was expanded, were about fifteen feet long, and formed a sort of curtain. Garnerin placed himself, with a flag in his hand in the basket suspended from the parachute. The cords by which this basket was fastened to the cotton stuff were tied just above his head in a knot, and from this knot ran cords to the extremities of the cotton. The cords and basket were about twenty feet long, reckoning from the end of the stuff. This parachute, which was attached to the balloon, hung at a considerable distance beneath it. As the balloon rose, the parachute followed, and it was impossible to view the aeronaut dangling in it at such a prodigious height without shuddering. At length Garnerin cut the cord by which the parachute was fastened to the balloon. At this sight many of the spectators were filled with the greatest alarm, fearing lest they should see him fall every moment. The balloon rose with extraordinary velocity, and the parachute descended with equal rapidity for half a minute, and then sunk slowly to the earth. As there was not sufficient ballast in the parachute, Garnerin swung backward and forward like the pendulum of a clock, but with much greater violence; at length he alighted in safety. The following is Garnerin's account:-- The experiment of my 31st ascent, and of my fifth descent in a parachute, took place on a very fine day, and in the presence of an immense crowd of spec- [[/end page]] [[physical item - length of white cord]] [[start page - middle column]] landed, and quitted the parachute, without any shock or accident. The first person that came to me pressed me in his arms; but, without losing any time, I employed myself in detaching the principal circle of the parachute, anxious to save an instrument that so well guaranteed me; but a crowd soon surrounded me, laid hold of me, and carried me in triumph, till an indisposition, the consequence and effect of the oscillation I had experienced, obliged the procession to stop. I was then seized with a painful vomiting, which I usually experience for several hours after a descent in a parachute. The interval of a moment permitted me to get on horseback; a numerous cavalcade approached me to keep off the crowd, whose enthusiasm and transports incommoded me not a little. The Duke of York was among the horsemen, and the procession proceeded with great difficulty in the midst of the crowd, who shouted forth their applause, and had before them the tri-coloured flag which I had thrown down, and which was carried by a member of Parliament. Among the prodigious concourse of persons on foot I remarked Lord Stanhope, from whom I received the counsels of a scientific man, and who penetrated through the crowd to shake hands with me. "GARNERIN." According to M. Garnerin's calculation, he had been to the height of 4,154 French feet. The balloon fell on the next day, near Frindsham-mill, three miles beyond Farnham, in Surrey. Much wonder was excited by the first ascension of a man in a balloon; but surely the descent of a man from an exalted balloon to the earth, without harm, is far more wonderful; it is, however, an experiment as daring as it is terrific. --- Madame Garnerin, the daughter, we believe, of the celebrated Garnerin, has announced her intention to make a descent in a parachute, in the vicinity of the Parisian metropolis, in the course of the ensuing week.--Times [[end page]] [[start page]] In October, 1797, M. Garnerin ascended from Paris, for the purpose of descending in a parachute. When at the height of 2000 feet, he disengaged it from the balloon: at first, the motion was slow and steady, it afterwards assumed an oscillatory motion, but reached the earth without injury. In 1802, he visited England, and ascended from Ranelagh Gardens, London, accompained by a naval officer: such was the rapidity of their voyage, that in less than an hour they reached Colchester, having suffered greatly from the boisterous state of the atmosphere. In July and September of the same year, Garnerin repeated his experiments and on the latter occasion descended in a parachute*; the result of this voyage was similar to the one mentioned above. [[different images of the parachute]] DIFFERENT POSITIONS OF THE PARACHUTE. [[end page]] [[start page]] *The Parachute is an aparatus with an expanding top, somewhat similar to a large umbrella, and with a small deep basket attached to it in which the aeronaut sits. It was suspended to the ballon by ropes, so contrived as to be loosened at the pleasure of the voyager, while sailing in the air. When this was done, the balloon rapidly ascended, and the parachute, on the contrary, dropped downwards, with a frightful rapidity, until the top was forced open by the power of the air. In this form the parachute was blown about in various directions, as shown in the cut, and zigzag ans perilous descent was effected. [[end page]]
