hat he obtained Mr. Green's co-operation in the
attempt he now undertook, and, though this ended disastrously, for Mr.
Cocking, the great professional aeronaut can in no way soever be blamed
for the tragic event.

The date of the trial was in July, 1837. Mr. Cocking's parachute was
totally different in principle from that form which, as we have
seen, had met with a fair measure of success at the hands of early
experimenters; and on the eve of its trial it was strongly denounced
and condemned in the London Press by the critic whom we have recently so
freely quoted, Mr. Monck Mason.

This able reasoner and aeronaut pointed out that the contrivance about
to be tested aimed at obviating two principal drawbacks which the
parachute had up to that time presented, namely (1) the length of time
which elapses before it becomes sufficiently expanded, and (2) the
oscillatory movement which accompanies the descent. In this new
endeavour the inventor caused his machine to be fixed rigidly open, and
to assume the shape of an inverted cone. In other words, instead of its
being like an umbrella opened, it rather resembled an umbrella blown
inside out. Taking, then, the shape and dimensions of Mr. Cocking's
structure as a basis for mathematical calculation, as also its weight,
which for required strength he put at 500 lbs. Mr. Monck Mason estimated
that the adventurer and his machine must attain in falling a velocity of
some twelve miles an hour. In fact, his positive prediction was that one
of two events must inevitably take place. "Either the parachute would
come to the ground with a force incompatible with the safety of the
individual, or should it be attempted to make it sufficiently light to
resist this conclusion, it must give way beneath the forces which will
develop in the descent."

This emphatic word of warning was neglected, and the result of the
terrible experiment can best be gathered from two principal sources.
First, that of a special reporter writing from terra-firma, and,
secondly, that of Mr. Green himself, who gives his own observations
as made from the balloon in which he took the unfortunate man and his
invention into the sky.

The journalist, who first speaks of the enormous concourse that gathered
to see the ascent, not only within Vauxhall Gardens, but on every
vantage ground without, proceeds to tell of his interview with Mr.
Cocking himself, who, when questioned as to the danger involved,
remarked that none