Garnerin makes first parachute jump

October 22 1797 — André-Jacques Garnerin, 28, makes the world’s first parachute jump at Parc Monceau in Paris. Garnerin, a student of the ballooning pioneer professor Jacques Charles, studied physics as a young man. He worked with his brother Jean-Baptiste-Olivier Garnerin in most of his ballooning activities. During the French Revolution (1787-99) he was captured by British troops, turned over to the Austrians and held prisoner in Buda, Hungary, for three years.

In those many idle hours, he hit upon the idea of using a parachute to leap off the high prison walls and escape. He was unable to test his plan, possibly because he could not lay his hands on suitable materials. After his release, he began to experiment with parachute designs. Based on umbrella-shaped devices, he carries out the first frameless parachute descent with a silk parachute approximately 7m in diameter. The umbrella is closed before he ascends, with a pole running down its centre and a rope through a tube in the pole connecting it to a balloon. Riding in a basket attached to the bottom of the parachute, he severs the rope at a height of approximately 1,000m. The balloon continues skyward while Garnerin, his basket and parachute fall. The basket swings violently during descent, bumps and scrapes when it lands, but Garnerin emerges uninjured. He continues his exhibitions in cities throughout Europe, making a spectacular jump from 2,440m in England in 1802. His first jump is commemorated in a Google Doodle on October 22 2013.