skreamer 1 #1 February 12, 2003 Dunno if this is common knowledge but I was quite surprized to find out that the inventor of the parachute made his first jump from a building (41 floors) in Washington D.C. on June 03 1914. Stefan Banic then later went on to jump from a plane. This guy must have had balls made of titanium! So, if the first BASE jump happened before the first skydive, does this mean that BASE is an older sport than skydiving? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites evilivan 0 #2 February 12, 2003 Quote So, if the first BASE jump happened before the first skydive, does this mean that BASE is an older sport than skydiving? Umm..... bit of a no brainer, don't you think Skreamer? "If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation." David Brent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites PhreeZone 20 #3 February 12, 2003 I thought jumps were made from hot air balloons previous to this.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites sangiro 25 #4 February 12, 2003 I think Andre-Jacques Garnerin was first to jump. (22 October 1797) As for the inventor of the parachute, we may have to look as far back as Leonardo da Vinci or maybe even earlier. Here's some more history.Safe swoops Sangiro Share this post Link to post Share on other sites skreamer 1 #5 February 12, 2003 Yeah, I suppose Banic was the inventor of the modern day parachute (like Patric de Gayardon was with the wingsuit). Still, first skydive (ie freefall from a plane) was in 1919, according to this the first successful BASE jump took place in 1595. Obviously not that related seeing as planes wouldn't be invented for another 300 years. I just found it a bit weird, thinking that BASE *grew* out of skydiving, yet predates it by so long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Skinflicka 0 #6 February 12, 2003 Only a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. Semantics I guess. True nonetheless. I'm also up for some antics. I intend to be the first user of the "mind shield" by summoning my psychic powers to protect my cat whilst attempting to blow it away with my 12 guage. Anyone take a wager on the outcome? $kin. Prizes to anyone who gets to read my posts before Mr Aiello's son, Tom deletes them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites skreamer 1 #7 February 12, 2003 QuoteAnyone take a wager on the outcome? Pussycat goes pussysplat? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites skypuppy 1 #8 February 13, 2003 Quote Dunno if this is common knowledge but I was quite surprized to find out that the inventor of the parachute made his first jump from a building (41 floors) in Washington D.C. on June 03 1914. Stefan Banic then later went on to jump from a plane. This guy must have had balls made of titanium! So, if the first BASE jump happened before the first skydive, does this mean that BASE is an older sport than skydiving? I hope this doesn't bore people, but I love parachute history - this is my take on early BASE jumps. Actually some people do say that the first parachute jumps took place before the Montgolfier brothers invented balloons - some sources claim that European Faustus Veranzio made a jump from a tower in or around Venice in 1617 - certainly he included drawings of a rigid-frame parachute in his 1595 book, Machinae Novae, and was the first to write that the weight of the jumper would impact on the size of parachute necessary to land safely... Other people claimed to jump from towers in Europe and certainly live drop tests were made with animals, but as many people here correctly pointed out, the first person to make a verifiable jump was Garnerin in 1797. Throughout the early 1800's more jumps were made from balloons using large rigidly-framed parachutes, sometimes with a basket underneath, or a trapeze bar type seat, but gas for the balloons was expensive or difficult to manufacture, so sometime around the Civil War people began to experiment with hot-air or 'smoke' balloons which could be more economical... Because smaller balloons were easier to heat, the aeronauts did away with baskets under the balloon and began to make parachutes that didn;t have a rigid frame to hold them open - they just hung limp under the balloon until a cutaway from the balloon (which usually had a weight suspended from the top so that it would be pulled upside down when the load was released, empty itself of the hot-air in a thick smudge of black smoke and then come down closer to the crowd, rather then drifting off for miles). A person who did much to develop and popularize the non-rigid parachute in the 1880's, American Thomas Baldwin, is known as the 'Father of the Modern Parachute'. With the advent of the smaller, cheaper and simpler smoke balloons, balloons and parachute drops became much more common, and after a few years lost some of the drawing power (and profit) that they had in the first few decades. Perhaps because of this some experienced parachutist started jumping off things instead of from balloons as a more exciting or marketable stunt. One such was Bobby Leach who jumped the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls in 1907 before thousands of on-lookers. In the 1890's I read somewhere that a jumper in London England was doing regular jumps 'inside a building' from about 80' - I picture him using an already inflated parachute such as the armed forces used for parachute training from their training towers. I think two factors had an impact on the proliferation of BASE jumping in early parachuting of the 1900's - the competition between various inventors and manufacturers of parachutes as they strove to interest the governments in parachutes for their growing air forces, and also the advent of motion pictures... As you pointed out Banic was trying to interest the government in his new parachute when he jumped a building in 1914, before going on to airplane jumps. What better way to demonstrate low-opening possibilities as a life-saving device then by jumping from a man-made or earth-bound object? Even before Banic, Rodman Law demonstrated the Stevens Life-Pack (with a 16-ft round) by jumping off the torch of the Statue of Liberty on Feb 2, 1912. (He was also paid $1500 by the Pathe film company for the stunt). Law's jump was written up in the newspapers at the time along with photos of his jump - I remember Phil Smith included a copy of one article in his BASELINE magazine one month, but I lent my old mags to someone and when he died falling off a building I never got them back... If someone in New York is motivated enough perhaps they could look at the local library and get a copy of the article to post here. Incidently only a couple of days after Law's jump, Franz Reichelt jumped to his death from the Eiffel Tower in his 'wingsuit' type overcoat in an effort to win a reward offered by a Frenchman for a successful life-saving parachute. On Feb 16, 1912, only 14 days after his Statue of Liberty Jump, Law jumped of the Brooklyn Bridge, again for the movies, and later he also did the Banker;s Trust Building in New York, before becoming the first person to jump from a hydroplane on April 13, 1912. He continued to demonstrate Steven's Life Pack until the beginning of the First World War. In England, Calthorpe's Guardian Angel parachute was demonstrated to the admiralty from Tower Bridge in 1917. I am attaching a picture of this jump, note the single parachute attachment point to the jumper... John Tranum was later said to duplicate this jump with an Irvin chute as a test and show jumper for Irvin Parachutes (probably early 1930's). He also did a jump from a bridge in San Bernardino, California. Almost all these jumps were done by laying the parachute out on the rail and then jumping - ripcords had not been invented yet (except in Tranum's case, but they were not used on those jumps anyways). skydivingmovies.com has several clips showing BASE jumps demonstrating various parachutes with live jumpers. There is also one showing Shorty Osborn riding off a 300 foot cliff near San Diego on a motorcycle in the 20's. The parachute fouled on the fender of the bike and Shorty crashed into the powerlines below, suffering grievous injuries and burns, but living to continue in the aviation business as a mechanic and stunt technician... John Tranum later repeated that stunt from a higner cliff in Colorado, and I believe that footage is shown as an add-on on Norm Kent's 'From Wings Came Flight' movie. While many people seem to think that BASE is unique to the late 20th century, early adventurers and parachute manufacturers were doing it long before that in an effort to win lucrative government contracts. SkypuppyIf some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone Share this post Link to post Share on other sites sangiro 25 #9 February 13, 2003 QuoteOnly a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. That was Jean Pierre Blanchard. Different guy.Safe swoops Sangiro Share this post Link to post Share on other sites TomAiello 26 #10 February 13, 2003 QuoteQuoteOnly a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. That was Jean Pierre Blanchard. Different guy.Actually, I believe the world's foremost experts on Canine BASE are both Australians (no offense D-Dog, but it only counts if you're not personally the dog in question).Rocket the wonder dog, anyone?I wonder if Frasier will be getting a BASE number while D-Dog is in Lauterbrunnen attending to business?-- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites SkyFlyer 0 #11 February 13, 2003 Thanks for the history Skypuppy, definitely cool to see how long people have been tossing themselves from fixed objects. Hope the ankle has healed and you get back to the Perrine this Summer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites mac266 0 #12 February 13, 2003 Quote I'm also up for some antics. I intend to be the first user of the "mind shield" by summoning my psychic powers to protect my cat whilst attempting to blow it away with my 12 guage. Anyone take a wager on the outcome? You Cruel b4stard Jase - do it on something lower down the food chain - errmm - I know a woman!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Kinaa 0 #13 February 13, 2003 Quotesome sources claim that European Faustus Veranzio made a jump from a tower in or around Venice in 1617He (Faust Vrancic) was Croatian scientist, inventor, writer, humanist, physicist etc. and he was one of the greatest Croatian minds ever. He among other science project published first ever printed scheme of parachute in his project Homo volans (Flying man) He tested successfully his parachute from some towers in Venice and from some cliffs in Hungary. Blue sky I.P. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Dd0g 0 #14 February 28, 2003 Quote I wonder if Frasier will be getting a BASE number while D-Dog is in Lauterbrunnen attending to business? I asked him, and he says that he is more interested in sampling Swiss cuisine than he is in trying out the exit points. Lazy mutt! Peace, D-d0g+~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites 0
evilivan 0 #2 February 12, 2003 Quote So, if the first BASE jump happened before the first skydive, does this mean that BASE is an older sport than skydiving? Umm..... bit of a no brainer, don't you think Skreamer? "If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation." David Brent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PhreeZone 20 #3 February 12, 2003 I thought jumps were made from hot air balloons previous to this.Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sangiro 25 #4 February 12, 2003 I think Andre-Jacques Garnerin was first to jump. (22 October 1797) As for the inventor of the parachute, we may have to look as far back as Leonardo da Vinci or maybe even earlier. Here's some more history.Safe swoops Sangiro Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skreamer 1 #5 February 12, 2003 Yeah, I suppose Banic was the inventor of the modern day parachute (like Patric de Gayardon was with the wingsuit). Still, first skydive (ie freefall from a plane) was in 1919, according to this the first successful BASE jump took place in 1595. Obviously not that related seeing as planes wouldn't be invented for another 300 years. I just found it a bit weird, thinking that BASE *grew* out of skydiving, yet predates it by so long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skinflicka 0 #6 February 12, 2003 Only a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. Semantics I guess. True nonetheless. I'm also up for some antics. I intend to be the first user of the "mind shield" by summoning my psychic powers to protect my cat whilst attempting to blow it away with my 12 guage. Anyone take a wager on the outcome? $kin. Prizes to anyone who gets to read my posts before Mr Aiello's son, Tom deletes them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skreamer 1 #7 February 12, 2003 QuoteAnyone take a wager on the outcome? Pussycat goes pussysplat? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skypuppy 1 #8 February 13, 2003 Quote Dunno if this is common knowledge but I was quite surprized to find out that the inventor of the parachute made his first jump from a building (41 floors) in Washington D.C. on June 03 1914. Stefan Banic then later went on to jump from a plane. This guy must have had balls made of titanium! So, if the first BASE jump happened before the first skydive, does this mean that BASE is an older sport than skydiving? I hope this doesn't bore people, but I love parachute history - this is my take on early BASE jumps. Actually some people do say that the first parachute jumps took place before the Montgolfier brothers invented balloons - some sources claim that European Faustus Veranzio made a jump from a tower in or around Venice in 1617 - certainly he included drawings of a rigid-frame parachute in his 1595 book, Machinae Novae, and was the first to write that the weight of the jumper would impact on the size of parachute necessary to land safely... Other people claimed to jump from towers in Europe and certainly live drop tests were made with animals, but as many people here correctly pointed out, the first person to make a verifiable jump was Garnerin in 1797. Throughout the early 1800's more jumps were made from balloons using large rigidly-framed parachutes, sometimes with a basket underneath, or a trapeze bar type seat, but gas for the balloons was expensive or difficult to manufacture, so sometime around the Civil War people began to experiment with hot-air or 'smoke' balloons which could be more economical... Because smaller balloons were easier to heat, the aeronauts did away with baskets under the balloon and began to make parachutes that didn;t have a rigid frame to hold them open - they just hung limp under the balloon until a cutaway from the balloon (which usually had a weight suspended from the top so that it would be pulled upside down when the load was released, empty itself of the hot-air in a thick smudge of black smoke and then come down closer to the crowd, rather then drifting off for miles). A person who did much to develop and popularize the non-rigid parachute in the 1880's, American Thomas Baldwin, is known as the 'Father of the Modern Parachute'. With the advent of the smaller, cheaper and simpler smoke balloons, balloons and parachute drops became much more common, and after a few years lost some of the drawing power (and profit) that they had in the first few decades. Perhaps because of this some experienced parachutist started jumping off things instead of from balloons as a more exciting or marketable stunt. One such was Bobby Leach who jumped the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls in 1907 before thousands of on-lookers. In the 1890's I read somewhere that a jumper in London England was doing regular jumps 'inside a building' from about 80' - I picture him using an already inflated parachute such as the armed forces used for parachute training from their training towers. I think two factors had an impact on the proliferation of BASE jumping in early parachuting of the 1900's - the competition between various inventors and manufacturers of parachutes as they strove to interest the governments in parachutes for their growing air forces, and also the advent of motion pictures... As you pointed out Banic was trying to interest the government in his new parachute when he jumped a building in 1914, before going on to airplane jumps. What better way to demonstrate low-opening possibilities as a life-saving device then by jumping from a man-made or earth-bound object? Even before Banic, Rodman Law demonstrated the Stevens Life-Pack (with a 16-ft round) by jumping off the torch of the Statue of Liberty on Feb 2, 1912. (He was also paid $1500 by the Pathe film company for the stunt). Law's jump was written up in the newspapers at the time along with photos of his jump - I remember Phil Smith included a copy of one article in his BASELINE magazine one month, but I lent my old mags to someone and when he died falling off a building I never got them back... If someone in New York is motivated enough perhaps they could look at the local library and get a copy of the article to post here. Incidently only a couple of days after Law's jump, Franz Reichelt jumped to his death from the Eiffel Tower in his 'wingsuit' type overcoat in an effort to win a reward offered by a Frenchman for a successful life-saving parachute. On Feb 16, 1912, only 14 days after his Statue of Liberty Jump, Law jumped of the Brooklyn Bridge, again for the movies, and later he also did the Banker;s Trust Building in New York, before becoming the first person to jump from a hydroplane on April 13, 1912. He continued to demonstrate Steven's Life Pack until the beginning of the First World War. In England, Calthorpe's Guardian Angel parachute was demonstrated to the admiralty from Tower Bridge in 1917. I am attaching a picture of this jump, note the single parachute attachment point to the jumper... John Tranum was later said to duplicate this jump with an Irvin chute as a test and show jumper for Irvin Parachutes (probably early 1930's). He also did a jump from a bridge in San Bernardino, California. Almost all these jumps were done by laying the parachute out on the rail and then jumping - ripcords had not been invented yet (except in Tranum's case, but they were not used on those jumps anyways). skydivingmovies.com has several clips showing BASE jumps demonstrating various parachutes with live jumpers. There is also one showing Shorty Osborn riding off a 300 foot cliff near San Diego on a motorcycle in the 20's. The parachute fouled on the fender of the bike and Shorty crashed into the powerlines below, suffering grievous injuries and burns, but living to continue in the aviation business as a mechanic and stunt technician... John Tranum later repeated that stunt from a higner cliff in Colorado, and I believe that footage is shown as an add-on on Norm Kent's 'From Wings Came Flight' movie. While many people seem to think that BASE is unique to the late 20th century, early adventurers and parachute manufacturers were doing it long before that in an effort to win lucrative government contracts. SkypuppyIf some old guy can do it then obviously it can't be very extreme. Otherwise he'd already be dead. Bruce McConkey 'I thought we were gonna die, and I couldn't think of anyone Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sangiro 25 #9 February 13, 2003 QuoteOnly a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. That was Jean Pierre Blanchard. Different guy.Safe swoops Sangiro Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomAiello 26 #10 February 13, 2003 QuoteQuoteOnly a frenchman could claim to be the first user of a parachute by dropping a dog in a basket. That was Jean Pierre Blanchard. Different guy.Actually, I believe the world's foremost experts on Canine BASE are both Australians (no offense D-Dog, but it only counts if you're not personally the dog in question).Rocket the wonder dog, anyone?I wonder if Frasier will be getting a BASE number while D-Dog is in Lauterbrunnen attending to business?-- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SkyFlyer 0 #11 February 13, 2003 Thanks for the history Skypuppy, definitely cool to see how long people have been tossing themselves from fixed objects. Hope the ankle has healed and you get back to the Perrine this Summer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mac266 0 #12 February 13, 2003 Quote I'm also up for some antics. I intend to be the first user of the "mind shield" by summoning my psychic powers to protect my cat whilst attempting to blow it away with my 12 guage. Anyone take a wager on the outcome? You Cruel b4stard Jase - do it on something lower down the food chain - errmm - I know a woman!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kinaa 0 #13 February 13, 2003 Quotesome sources claim that European Faustus Veranzio made a jump from a tower in or around Venice in 1617He (Faust Vrancic) was Croatian scientist, inventor, writer, humanist, physicist etc. and he was one of the greatest Croatian minds ever. He among other science project published first ever printed scheme of parachute in his project Homo volans (Flying man) He tested successfully his parachute from some towers in Venice and from some cliffs in Hungary. Blue sky I.P. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dd0g 0 #14 February 28, 2003 Quote I wonder if Frasier will be getting a BASE number while D-Dog is in Lauterbrunnen attending to business? I asked him, and he says that he is more interested in sampling Swiss cuisine than he is in trying out the exit points. Lazy mutt! Peace, D-d0g+~+~+~+~ But this, surely, was the glory that no spirits, canine or human, had ever clearly seen, the light that never was on land or sea, and yet is glimpsed by the quickened mind everywhere. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites