rapidity in comparison with which the wild flights of the balloon are
but gentle oscillations. But in a few moments, the air rushing into
the folds of the parachute, forces them open like an umbrella, and
immediately, owing to the wide surface which this contrivance presents
to the atmosphere, the violence of the descent is arrested, and the
aeronaut falls gently to the ground, without receiving too rude a shock.

The virtues of the parachute were first tried upon animals. Thus,
Blanchard allowed his dog to fall in one from a height of 6,500 feet.
A gust of wind caught the falling parachute, and swept it away up above
the clouds. Afterwards, the aeronaut in his balloon fell in with the dog
in the parachute, both of them high up in the cloudy reaches of the
sky, and the poor animal manifested by his barking his joy at seeing his
master. A new current separated the aerial voyagers, but the parachute,
with its canine passenger, reached the ground safely a short time after
Blanchard had landed from his balloon.

Experience has proved that, in the case of a descending parachute, if
the rapidity of the descent is doubled the resistance of the air is
quadrupled; if the rapidity is triple the resistance is increased
ninefold; or, to speak in language of science, the resistance of the air
is increased by the square of the swiftness of the body in motion. This
resistance increases in proportion as the parachute spreads, and thus
the uniformity of its fall is established a minute after it has been
disengaged from the balloon. We can, therefore, check the descent of a
body by giving it a surface capable of distension by the action of the
air.

Garnerin, in the year 1802, conceived the bold design of letting himself
fall from a height of 1,200 feet, and he accomplished the exploit before
the Parisians. When he had reached the height he had fixed beforehand,
he cut the rope which connected the parachute with the balloon. At first
the fall was terribly rapid; but as soon as the parachute spread out
the rapidity was considerably diminished. The machine made, however,
enormous oscillations. The air, gathering end compressed under it, would
sometimes escape by one side sometimes by the other, thus shaking and
whirling the parachute about with a violence which, however great, had
happily no unfortunate effect.

The origin of the parachute is more remote than is generally supposed,
as there was a figure of one which appeared among a co