This contrivance has been considered by some a very important adjunct to the balloon; whether it be so or no, we do not pretend to determine, but certainly it is an interesting and curious machine, which merits notice.
The parachute may be described as a species of gigantic umbrella attached to the balloon below the car, which hangs in a loose form while ascending3, but expands, of necessity, when cut adrift and allowed to descend4. As the balloon has a car hung beneath it, so in like manner the parachute has a small car or basket, capable of holding one person, suspended from it. The word signifies a guard against falling—from the French parer, to ward5 off, and chute, a fall, and is allied6 to parasol, which means literally7 “a warder off of the sun.”
The parachute was introduced some years after a terrible accident which occurred to the celebrated8 aeronaut Rozier, who, desirous of emulating9 Blanchard and Jeffries by crossing the channel from France to England in a balloon, made an attempt, which cost him his life. Rozier’s balloon was about forty feet in diameter, and had attached to it, beneath, a smaller balloon on the Montgolfier principle. On the 15th of June 1785, he entered the car with Monsieur Romain, and ascended10 to the height of above three thousand feet, when it was observed by the spectators that the lower balloon had caught fire. With horror they saw that the fire spread—the whole apparatus11 was in a blaze—and in another minute it descended12 like a shattered meteor to the ground with a terrible crash. It fell near the sea-shore, about four miles from Boulogne, and of course the unfortunate voyagers were killed instantaneously. At a later period a Venetian nobleman and his lady fell with their balloon from a great height and were killed. It must be remarked, however, that cases of this kind were very rare, considering the rage which there was at that period for ballooning.
In order to provide aeronauts with a means of escape—a last resource in case of accident—the parachute was invented. It may be regarded as a balloon’s lifeboat, which will (perhaps!) bear the passengers in safety to the ground in case of balloon-wreck.
Doubtless the umbrella suggested the parachute. Every one knows the tremendous force that this implement13 exerts in a high wind if the unfortunate owner should happen to get turned round in the wrong direction. The men of the east have, it is said, turned this power to account by making use of an umbrella to enable them to leap from considerable heights. In particular, a native of Siam, who was noted14 for his feats15 of agility16, was wont17 to amuse the King and his court by taking tremendous leaps, having two small umbrellas with long slender handles attached to his girdle. These eased him down in safety, but he was occasionally driven by the wind against trees or houses, and sometimes into a neighbouring river.
In case any adventurous18 individual should be tempted19 to make trial of the powers of himself and his umbrella in this way, we think it right, by way of caution, to tell him that the French General Bournonville, who was imprisoned20 in the fortress21 of Olmutz in 1793, became so desperate that he attempted to regain22 his freedom by leaping with an umbrella from his window, which was forty feet from the ground. He hoped that the umbrella would break his fall. Doubtless it did so to some extent, and saved him from being killed, but being a large heavy man, he came down with sufficient violence to break his leg, and was carried back to his dungeon23.
The chief differences between a parachute and an umbrella lie in the great size of the former, and in the cords which stretch from the outer points of its ribs24 to the lower end of the handle. These cords give it strength, and prevent it from turning inside out. There is also a hole in the top of the parachute to allow some of the air to escape.
The first parachute was constructed by Blanchard in 1785, and a dog was the first living creature that descended in it, and reached the earth unhurt. Blanchard afterwards made a descent in person at Basle, and broke his leg in the fall.
The bold aeronaut Monsieur Garnerin next ventured to make the perilous25 descent. He visited London in 1802, and made several ascents in a balloon. During one of these, on the evening of the 2nd November, he cut himself adrift in his parachute when at a vast height. The parachute was made of white canvas, having thirty-two gores26, which, when not in use, hung with its cords from a hoop27 near the top of the machine. When expanded, it formed a vast umbrella of twenty-three feet in diameter, with a small basket about four feet high, and two and a quarter wide, suspended below it. Monsieur Garnerin stood in this basket when his balloon mounted into the air from an enclosure near North Audley Street. The parachute hung like a curtain over his head, above it towered the balloon, beneath stood the anxious multitude.
Well might they gaze in breathless expectation! After floating for some time in the upper regions of the air, as if he dreaded28 to make the bold attempt, he cut the cord that fastened him to the balloon when at the height, probably, of about half a mile. At first the parachute remained closed and descended with frightful29 violence; then it burst open, and for some seconds tossed about to such an extent that the basket was sometimes thrown almost into a horizontal position. The wind carried it over Marylebone and Somerstown; it almost grazed some of the houses of Saint Pancras in passing, and finally came to the ground in a field with such violence that poor Garnerin was thrown on his face and severely30 cut and bruised31. No wonder that we are told he received a terrible shock. He trembled violently, and blood flowed from his nose and ears. Nevertheless, the accident did not deter2 his daughter from afterwards making the descent several times—and in safety.
The cause of the irregularity and violence of Garnerin’s descent was the giving way of one of the stays, which had the effect of deranging32 the balance of the apparatus.
In 1837 Mr Cocking invented a new parachute, which he hoped would be free from the faults of the other. It may be described as being the reverse of that of Garnerin, being made in the form of an umbrella blown inside out. The resistance to the air, it was thought, would be sufficient to check the rapid descent, while its form would prevent the tendency to oscillate.
This parachute was 34 feet in diameter, and was distended33 by a strong hoop to prevent its closing. There was also a hole in the middle of it, about 6 feet in diameter. Mr Cocking started from Vauxhall Gardens on the 24th of July, and after ascending to a considerable height, cut himself loose from his balloon when over Blackheath. The parachute descended rapidly and vibrated with great violence; the large hoop broke, the machine collapsed34, and the unfortunate aeronaut was killed, and his body dreadfully mutilated.
Fatal accidents of this kind were to be expected; nevertheless it is a fact that the disasters which have befallen aeronauts have been comparatively few, considering the extreme danger to which they are necessarily exposed, not only from the delicacy35 of the materials with which they operate and the uncertainty36 of the medium through which they move, but, particularly, because of the impossibility of giving direction to their air-ships, or to arrest their progress through space. Parachutes, however, are not so absolutely incapable37 of being directed as are balloons. Monsieur Nadar writes on this point as follows:—
“Let us consider the action of the parachute.
“A parachute is a sort of umbrella, in which the handle is replaced at its point of insertion by an opening intended to ease the excess of air, in order to avoid the strong oscillations, chiefly at the moment at which it is first expanded. Cords, departing symmetrically from divers38 points of the circumference39, meet concentrically at the basket in which is the aeronaut. Above this basket, and at the entrance of the folded parachute, that is to say closed during the rise, a hoop of sufficient diameter is intended to facilitate, at the moment of the fall, the entrance of the air which, rushing in under the pressure, expands the folds more easily and rapidly.
“Now the parachute, where the weight of the car, of the attaching cords, and the wrigglings of the aeronaut, is in equilibrium40 with the expansion—the parachute, which seems to have no other aim but to moderate the shock in falling—the parachute even has been found capable of being directed, and aeronauts who have practised it, take care not to forget it. If the current is about to drive the aeronaut over a place where the descent is dangerous—say a river, a town, or a forest—the aeronaut perceiving to his right, let us suppose, a piece of ground suitable for his purpose, pulls at the cords which surround the right side, and by thus imparting a greater obliquity41 to his roof of silk, glides42 through the air, which it cleaves43 obliquely44, towards the desired spot. Every descent, in fact, is determined45 by the side on which the incline is greatest.”
That these are not mere46 theoretical opinions or conjectures47 is certain from the fact that Mademoiselle Garnerin once wagered48 to guide herself with a parachute from the point of separation from her balloon to a place determined and very remote. By the combined inclinations49 which could be given to her parachute, she was seen in fact, very distinctly, to manoeuvre50 and tend towards the appointed place, and succeeded at length in alighting within a few yards of it.
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1
ascents
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| n.上升( ascent的名词复数 )；（身份、地位等的）提高；上坡路；攀登 | |
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deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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6
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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7
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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8
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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emulating
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| v.与…竞争( emulate的现在分词 )；努力赶上；计算机程序等仿真；模仿 | |
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10
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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12
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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implement
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| n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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19
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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20
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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24
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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25
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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gores
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| n.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的名词复数 )v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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27
hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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28
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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29
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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30
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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31
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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32
deranging
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| v.疯狂的，神经错乱的( deranged的过去分词 )；混乱的 | |
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33
distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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35
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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36
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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37
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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38
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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39
circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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40
equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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41
obliquity
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| n.倾斜度 | |
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42
glides
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| n.滑行( glide的名词复数 )；滑音；音渡；过渡音v.滑动( glide的第三人称单数 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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43
cleaves
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的第三人称单数 ) | |
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44
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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45
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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46
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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47
conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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48
wagered
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| v.在（某物）上赌钱，打赌( wager的过去式和过去分词 )；保证，担保 | |
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49
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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50
manoeuvre
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| n.策略，调动；v.用策略，调动 | |
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