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The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

Posted May 19, 2009 11:25 AM

From Gizmodo:

On February 4th 1912 Franz Reichelt attempted to test his latest invention — a parachute jacket — at the Eiffel Tower. He donned his apparatus and tentatively stepped to the edge of the viewing deck. He had multiple primitive video cameras pointed at him to capture this amazing feat. The video shows Reichelt standing on the edge and staring down for a long, long moment. Obviously, he was nervous about what he was about to do, but knew that there was no turning back once he had gone that far. Anyways, what a wonderful publicity stunt it would be! When he leapt off the edge, he plummeted straight to the ground. The jacket was supposed to open up and allow him to float gently to the ground, but it failed to perform as he intended. His parachute jacket turned out to be a failure of an invention. But Reichelt inadvertantly invented something else that day: taking videos of yourself doing something wildly idiotic and hurting yourself in the process. It's something that took a long time to really catch on, but it's safe to say that Franz was truly ahead of his time in this regard.

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#1

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 11:42 AM

the inventor of the reality show...

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#2

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 2:23 PM

Oh yes - how well I remember those old 1912 video cameras....I was always impressed by the quality of the image preserved on simple wax cylinders.

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#3
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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 2:43 PM

have you ever seen Harold Lloyd films..?

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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 2:45 PM

Films? yes, of course.

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#5
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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 2:59 PM

his " Lonesome Luke " series was done in `1916...

there's some pretty wild stuff in those..

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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 3:02 PM

and without a net, IIRC.

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#7
In reply to #2

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 3:38 PM

Back then there were two competing video storage formats. The wax cylinder and stock ticker tape. It was the "Beta vs. VHS" of its day.

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#9
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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 11:58 PM

wax? i thought films were made from camphor? that is why there were many burning cinema accidents in the beginning.

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#8

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/19/2009 9:28 PM

Dear Gizmodo, I myself will now have to look up the history of video cameras. What other inventions did Mr. Reichelt have under his belt? Are you sure that Mr. Reichelt was a volunteer?

Obviously this film is a fake. It was actually shot on the Moon in a Studio.

When played in reverse, and turned upside down, in the then lower right hand corner, real, real small, it clearly says, "Don't try this at home."

In context we have to remember that prior to WWI, all of Europe was extremely bored, and they were desperate for entertainment.

In fact what happened is clearly the result of Russian DeConstructionism being supplanted by Post Modernism.

Franz was a Deconstructionist, and wanted passionately to turn the French away from their silly new painters like Monet.

Actually what really happened was that Monet and Toulouse Laurtrec took away Mr. Reichelts crayons, then he became a Lunatic.

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#10
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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/20/2009 7:35 AM

Stop drinking.

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#11

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/20/2009 9:39 AM

Or start! Heavily!

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Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/20/2009 2:53 PM

My religious training recommended moderation in all things. Of course how do you know the difference if you have not gone to extremes?

Now this particular blog thread was posted on an anniversary day.

It was posted on the 5th year anniversary of a day when I fell a story within a building, and had a bad landing.

Truthfully I had some difficulty watching the film, and it truly upset me.

From personal experience I know such a landing hurts.

I was also reminded of the chapter late in the book by Norman Mailer, The Naked and The Dead, where one of the characters is exorted to jump, when he knows he will not make it.

I do not know a one of us who at some time in our lives has not done something stupid either alone on our own, or at the behest, and due to expectations of others.

Of the authors who were also engineers, Nevil Shute is a great one.

Peppered in his books are some phrases of basic wisdom, like: "I thought better of it.", or "It offended me."

Did this man not have any family?

You know we are headed for a sharing of the Darwin Award.

You know I have lived around and do like to do things in order.

In Manhattan there are bureaucrats to whom you go to get permits to do odd things in the City.

For 15 bucks I got a permit to give a speech in Dag Hammarskold Plaza, and they sent a Cop on a motorcycle to watch, for instance.

Was a really good deal in my opinion. I wondered in my disturbed state how it was to come about that this experiment was allowed. Why didn't we see someone walk up to Mr. Reichart and say, "Hey, you don't have to do this?"

I have a saying, come from respect of others: "It's my plan, and I might change it!" Truly this film depressed me quite a bit.

Forgive me if I tried to find the humor in it.

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#12

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/20/2009 11:15 AM

One incredibly giant step for a man, one very, very small step for mankind.

Apologies to Neil Armstrong.

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#13

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/20/2009 1:21 PM

I nominate Franz for a Darwin_Award.

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#15

Re: The Parachute That Killed Its Inventor

05/21/2009 11:21 PM

We have all had episodes in our lives when we were faced with decisions that were not well thought through from a risk assessment standpoint. I'm sure our thoughts were something akin to "no guts, no glory" but these decisions would not result in certain death if we crapped out.

Reichelt was guilty of two simple errors: lack of impulse control - his sixth sense told him it was not a wise idea to jump (hence his hesitancy) and, ironically, lack of courage - his ego would not allow him to retreat in the face of perceived public ridicule if he aborted the jump.

He was an inventor not an engineer. A real engineer would have tested the parachute first with an early version of the Myth Buster's crash test dummy "Buster" and then lived to to be equated with the brothers Montgolfier and Wright after perfecting the invention.

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