Tailor Jumped for the First and Final Time from the Eiffel Tower Wearing Overcoat Parachute.

Alex

From the Darwin Awards:

Monsieur Franz Reichelt with his early parachute - an outstanding example of the way in which early aviators were as spectacular in their failures as in their successes. Reichelt was an Austrian tailor who sought to combine his interests by creating a garment to serve as both an overcoat and a parachute. In 1911 he decided to test his invention. Having told the authorities that he wanted to make a "dummy" drop, at the last moment he strapped himself in, and with sublime confidence stepped from a platform of the Eiffel Tower, and fell to his death.

Link | There's even a YouTube clip [warning: read the last sentence of the quote above] - via WFMU's Beware of the Blog


Comments (9)

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Newest 5 Comments

I love the history behind this, and I've read about it before because I love coin pushers and claw machines. :D I'm kind of addicted to both so thank Bob I'm not around either often... 0_o...
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When I was a kid my Dad would give me a nickel to pay pinball at the fish fry place we ate at on Friday nights. A bit later I played the illegal gambling machines that had no flippers. When I worked for the USFS in Washington they had legal machines with flippers and ability to increase odds and pay outs. Fun stuff. The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas is on my bucket list.
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