Baldwin’s Parachute Descent.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 866, 5 October 1888, Page 9

Baldwin’s Parachute Descent.

(The Field.) I formed one of a crowd on Saturday last of some 20,000 persons who had assembled at Alexandra Palace, Muswell Hill, to witness the descent of an American aeronaut named Baldwin from a balloon by means of a parachute. Owing to the fact that the performance was under the management of Mr Farini, facile princepa of showmen, and that « f or the safety of the performer ’ no examination of the apparatus was permitted previous to the ascent. I had at first some suspicion that the performance would be of a similar character to that of the female acrobat who, some short time since, astonished and horrified the public. They nevertheless flocked in crowds to see her holding on only by her teeth, carried into the air suspended some distance below the car of a balloon, the deluded spectators being ignorant of the fact that she was securely attached to the car by fine wires, that were not visible to them at the distance at which they were placed. Accordingly I examined the balloon and apparatus very closely with the aid of my field glass, and am free to confess that my first suspicious were entirely removed. The performance was perfectly genuine, and, as I differ from most of the critics in believing that the proceedings mark a new departure in ballooning, I should like to describe exactly what I saw, which, however, will be found not in accord with the. general descriptions that have appeared. The balloon, which was as nearly as may be globular, and not pyriform as it had been figured, was the smallest that I have ever seen used to take up a human being, although still smaller balloons, made of several thicknesses of goldbeater’s skin cemented together, and inflated with pure hydrogen, are used in the military service. When fully inflated, the paiachute, by the aid of which Baldwin was to descend, was attached an one side to the netting about half-way up the side of the distended globe. In this position neither its construction nor its shape could be discerned ; it looked like a large*sail suspended from the centre, or as a handkerchief does if held by the middle between the finger and thumb, but with this difference that it had no corners, ’fhe parachute, in faot, is a large circular sheet made of tussore silk, which is at once light and very strong. To the edgo of sheet a number of cords were attached, which were fastened to a ring, hanging down as low as that which formed the substitute for the car below the balloon. Shortly before the ascent, Baldwin, who was clothed in the usual tight-fitting acrobatic costume, placed a loop within the loose folds of the parabeing ready, the balloon, with the parachute hanging on one side, was liberated, when, as it rose, the aeronaut was seen Standing on the ring below, and holding in one hand the small ring and cords attached to the parachute. On reaching a height of certainly not more than 600 or 700 feet, at which his actions were perfectly visible, he let go the cords of the balloon, and for an instant hung perpendicularly under the still folded parachute. His weight tore it away from the balloon, which ascended into a low cloud, and was immediately lost sight of, whilst the man, the long cords, and the silken rag fell in one straight line towards the earth. I doubt whether, of the vast multitude present, there was one whose breath was not arrested as the man passed rapidly • through the air ; but the painful tension of the nerve 3 was as soon terminated, for the air through which it was dragged by the weight of the man caught the folds m

the margin of thd silk, kept partly open by the hoop placed within ; tii« parachute then spread out to its full size of about thirty feet in diameter; aud descended in a field between the P»!ace -racecourse and Hornsey, so gently, than Bald a in-after leaving it vaulted over 'the intervening fences, and in five minutes was back in the building, the hero of the hour. . Tne statement that the balloon ascended 1100 ft or 1200 ft is an sous exaggeration. The aeronaut’s action? were always perfectly visible, which tuCy .would nut have been had lie ascended three limes the height of the cross of- St; Paul’s, on which a workman looks, v. ben seed from the street, not much larger than a blowfly. That he fell 300tfc before he opened the parachute is also a fiction. Ordinary bodies falling through air descend in round numbers I6ft in the firsfe second of time, and, if they continue to.fall, they descend sixteen times the square of the number of seconds they areialling. Hence in two seconds they fall iour times 16ft, or 64ft, in three seconds, nine times i6ft, or 144 ft; and they, require four seconds to fall 256 ft, and of necessity, a longer time to fall 300 ft. To those who are any judges of time, and who saw the. descent, the assertion that Baldwin fell four seconds before the parachute opened is an absurdity ; it was fully expanded before it reacln d a quarter of the alleged distance. 'the statement is as absurd as that which credits him with opening the umbrella, as it has been misnamed, by bis own power. lb is haidly necessary to say that the figure to be seen in the placards on the London hoardings, of the performerdesoauding with an ordinary umbrella, is but a fiction emanating from Mr FariDi’s fertile imagination. It may be asked, what is the use of such exhibitions, danterous as they doubtless are ? Similar questions were put in the.infaucy of ballooning ; but at the present time balldous^ani-utilised for scientific meteorological observations, and are indispensable in modern warfare and the survey of dis tricts. Hislieiio-the descent from balloons has only been practised by heavy ponderous paraobutes, made either with extended frames like tbo-e of umbrellas, or shaped like flattened inverted cones, like the one I saw dragged up. into the sky by the great Nassau balloon some half a century ago, that collapsed in its descent with fatal results to the experimenter. The flexible parachute of Baldwin weighs only a few pounds, can figuratively speaking be carried in the pocket, and is so ligkfc that the balloon necessary to raise it is of the smallest size. In military service the power to drop a messenger in a beleagured town or district may be of the utmost importance. At the Beige of Paris men got away in balloons, but with the new parachute they might have arranged to have returned to the city from outside the ene- . mies’ lines. Noi is it difficult to see that such a contrivance may be modified and arranged so as to facilitate descent from elevated buildings when on fire. But, whether of immediate utilisation or not, Mr : Baldwin has.shdwn us the mode of employing a new parachute. He has given us.so to speak, a new scientific appliance, which in due time is certain to be employed for the practical benefit of mankind. , ; . W. B. Tegetmeier.