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Article: Monsieur Garnerin drops in: John Lucas extols the pioneers who helped develop the parachute, two centuries ago. (Cross Current).(Column)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- September 1, 2002
- Author:
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VISITORS FROM NAPOLEON'S France may not have been especially welcome in England in the early nineteenth century, but thirty-three-year-old Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who dropped out of the sky by parachute over London just 200 years ago this month, qualified as a hero. Early in the evening of September 21st, 1802, Londoners thronged St George's Parade Ground, in North Audley Street, and the surrounding area, to see the Frenchman score a historic `first'. Never before had anyone made a parachute jump from a balloon in Britain.
Below the huge striped hydrogen balloon was what resembled a closed umbrella--or, according to some ladies, a hooped petticoat. Suspended ...