M. Blanchard, one of the pioneers of ballooning, has the honour
of first using a parachute, although not in person. The first
"aeronaut" to descend by this apparatus was a dog. The
astonished animal was placed in a basket attached to a parachute,
taken up in a balloon, and after reaching a considerable altitude
was released. Happily for the dog the parachute acted quite
admirably, and the animal had a graceful and gentle descent.

Shortly afterwards a well-known French aeronaut, M. Garnerin, had
an equally satisfactory descent, and soon the parachute was used
by most of the prominent aeronauts of the day. Mr. Cocking, a
well-known balloonist, held somewhat different views from those
of other inventors as to the best form of construction of
parachutes. His idea was that a parachute should be very large
and rather heavy in order to be able to support a great weight.
His first descent from a great height was also his last. In
1837, accompanied by Messrs. Spencer and Green, he went up with
his parachute, attached to the Nassau balloon. At a height of
about a mile the parachute was liberated, but it failed to act
properly; the inventor was cast headlong to earth, and dashed to
death.

From time to time it has been thought that the parachute might be
used for life-saving on the modern dirigible air-ship, and even
on the aeroplane, and experiments have been carried out with that
end in view. A most thrilling descent from an air-ship by means
of a parachute was that made by Major Maitland, Commander of the
British Airship Squadron, which forms part of the Royal Flying
Corps. The descent took place from the Delta air-ship, which
ascended from Farnborough Common. In the car with Major Maitland