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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
The casual reader might think that there is a mistake in the title of this paper, but the first authenticated descent by parachute was made in 1797 by Andre Jacques Garnerin in Paris. Subsequently, M. Garnerin also made the first parachute descent in England, in 1802, and some thirty-five years later Mr. Robert Cocking, then sixty-one years of age, made a descent in a parachute of a very different design. This descent resulted in his losing his life.
In the interim period between the two descents in England, considerable speculation arose about the designs. The authorities in “Aerostation” of the day put forward some remarkable hypotheses about the problems involved and it might perhaps be of interest to the many people who are now familiar with parachutes to read about them. It is no accident, of course, that the parachute first made a positive appearance at this time. Man had just learnt to free himself from the earth by means of hot air and gas balloons and thus the need for a means of escape was born.
page no 464 note* The Irving parachute which is a regular polygon is referred to by its diameter when laid flat. In this country, parachute drag co-efficients are based on the flying diameter, which is roughly two-thirds the flat diameter. This difference of terminology occasionally causes confusion, as it obviously did with Dixon. Fig. 1 shows the two conventions clearly.
page no 464 note † The values obtained range from 20 ft to 64 ft.
page no 466 note * Although a print published by Spooner gives the figure as 36 ft.
page no 466 note † Although a print published by Spooner gives the figure as 36 ft.