arrested, and the aeronaut falls gently to the ground, without
receiving too rude a shock.

The virtues of the parachute were first tried upon animals.
Thus, Blanchard allowed his dog to fall in one from a height of
6,500 feet. A gust of wind caught the falling parachute, and
swept it away up above the clouds. Afterwards, the aeronaut in
his balloon fell in with the dog in the parachute, both of them
high up in the cloudy reaches of the sky, and the poor animal
manifested by his barking his joy at seeing his master. A new
current separated the aerial voyagers, but the parachute, with
its canine passenger, reached the ground safely a short time
after Blanchard had landed from his balloon.

Experience has proved that, in the case of a descending
parachute, if the rapidity of the descent is doubled the
resistance of the air is quadrupled; if the rapidity is triple
the resistance is increased ninefold; or, to speak in language of
science, the resistance of the air is increased by the square of
the swiftness of the body in motion. This resistance increases
in proportion as the parachute spreads, and thus the uniformity
of its fall is established a minute after it has been disengaged
from the balloon. We can, therefore, check the descent of a body
by giving it a surface capable of distension by the action of the
air.

Garnerin, in the year 1802, conceived the bold design of letting
himself fall from a height of 1,200 feet, and he accomplished the
exploit before the Parisians. When he had reached the height he
had fixed beforehand, he cut the rope which connected the