ve been suggested
by the easy floating motion with which certain seeds or leaves will
descend from lofty trees, or by the mode adopted by birds of dropping
softly to earth with out-stretched wings. M. de la Loubere, in his
historical account of Siam, which he visited in 1687-88, speaks of an
ingenious athlete who exceedingly diverted the King and his court
by leaping from a height and supporting himself in the air by two
umbrellas, the handles of which were affixed to his girdle. In 1783,
that is, the same year as that in which the balloon was invented, M.
le Normand experimented with a like umbrella-shaped contrivance, with a
view to its adoption as a fire escape, and he demonstrated the soundness
of the principle by descending himself from the windows of a lofty house
at Lyons.

It was, however, reserved for M. Jacques Garnerin in 1797 to make the
first parachute descent that attracted general attention. Garnerin had
previously been detained as a State prisoner in the fortress of Bade,
in Hungary, after the battle of Marchiennes in 1793, and during his
confinement had pondered on the possibility of effecting his escape by a
parachute. His solitary cogitations and calculations resulted, after his
release, in the invention and construction of an apparatus which he put
to a practical test at Paris before the court of France on October 22nd,
1797. Ascending in a hydrogen balloon to the height of about 2,000 feet,
he unhesitatingly cut himself adrift, when for some distance he dropped
like a stone. The folds of his apparatus, however, opening suddenly,
his fall became instantly checked. The remainder of his descent, though
leisurely, occupying, in fact, some twelve minutes, appeared to the
spectators to be attended with uncertainty, owing to a swinging motion
set up in the car to which he was clinging. But the fact remains that he
reached the earth with only slight impact, and entirely without injury.

It appears that Garnerin subsequently made many equally successful
parachute descents in France, and during the short peace of 1802 visited
London, where he gave an exhibition of his art. From the most reliable
accounts of his exploit it would seem that his drop was from a very
great height, and that a strong ground wind was blowing at the time, the
result of which was that wild, wide oscillations were set up in the car,
which narrowly escaped bringing him in contact with the house tops in
St. Pancreas, and eventually swung