The Washington herald., 1906-12-30

a life more NentureSone than tails %
the lot of most men. That anyone
who attempts it should end his days as
sound in body and health as when he
began is remarkable, and yet one may
find many parachute jumpers at the Aero
Clubs exhibit at the automobile show.
They usually gather around the flying
machines. where they spin yarns and
talk about next season, says the New
York Post
Alexander Wilson. of Bar Harbor, Me,
is dean Of the fraternity despite the
fact that he has given up an exciting
career TO settle down 10 the daily grind
Of an inventor. Wilson is sixty, but sup
pie and strong as when he was leaping
from the clouds as a drawing card for
county fairs and farmers piCniCs.
He took to parachute jumping when
an engineers apprentice, because it Of
fered him more money than he could
make pounding rivets. Besides. he
wanted funds to help him secure n pat
ent for a flying machine That was in
1859, and to-day Wilson has his device
perfected, the papers in his pocket, and
his creation is on exhibition among the
heavier than-air machines. Tt looks like
the skeleton of a square dry-goods box,
with two wings propelled by motor
within the framework
The popular idea OF a parachute jump
er is a spectacular sort of person, loud
in his talk, dress. and manner Wilson
is the opposite. Like many other inven-
tors, he has his eccentricities. He is slow
in his speech, careless as to his clothes
and has the down East drawl One
might easily mistake him for a fisher
man.
Jumping from "a Balloon.
Wilson can fly His longest horizontal
progress through the air has been LOO
feet. PeTpendicularly, he has made sew
eral hundred times that, out this he
doesn't count, for, according to him,
any one can jump from a balloon.
4 began going aloft in 1S69-anyway,
il was about that time" ne said
1t was the year Of the Boston Peace
Jubilee, when they had a captive bal
loon in that city. I stayed with the
balloons until 1873, when 1 made my first
jump out in Iowa, and after that I stuck
TO jumping. More money IN it. When a
town is getting up a show, or a fair, or
d picnic, and wants a crowd you con-
tract TO deliver the goods. That's all
there is 70 it. You're paid TO give the
people a scare, and your job is to keep
your end of the contract
IT'S easy money Sometimes the peO-
pie are unreasonable, and then you have
10 risk your neck or be called a faker
by the local newspapers. If it is bad
weather. or your balloon catches fire. or
the wind is too high and you think you
have a good excuse TO stay down, the
crowd hOllers that you're a coward, the
newspapers say you're playing a shell
game. and that hurts your business.
The next town won't hire you, SO after
you are advertised there is nothing 20
do but go up windstorm, fire. or any
thing else. Give the people their moneys
worth
The most dangerous thing in these
situations is fire. All jumpers balloons
are inflated with hot air, and often catch
fire. But the jumper mustn't back out.
He must cast off and so up with his bag
ablaze, taking his chances on jumping
before the balloon burns enough 20 drop.
Longest Drop of His Life.
cat Buffalo once I was billed TO jump
from d height of LOO feet. and because
I shaved 800 off the first day the man
agement cried fraud and held up the
money Next day there was a mob on
the fair grounds. and those nearest the
est drop in my life that day After !
cast off and went up hung to the bal
loon till I lost sight Of Buffalo, and
then cut loose. The wind carried me be-
yond Tonawanda. I had my mad up that
day, and II there hadn't been a duty on
balloons, I wouI have crossed the lake
and dropped in Canada.
Spectators at fair who come to see
Il parachute jump get the impression that
the man depends entirely upon his hands
10 hold to the trapeze. This IS a mis-
take. The jumper could not afford 10
do this, because he has use for his
hands. I always snapped myself to the
trapeze bar while going up, and then
turned my attention 10 the folds of the
parachute. You see IL is necessary that
they do not become tangled, but are
perfectly free to open the minute the
jumpers weight stretches them out. Then
again the jumper has also TO think Of
his balloon and where it is going TO land
His object is TO tip the bag over and
throw the opening at the bottom up
ward as he leaps so that the smoke and
hot air may escape quickly, allowing the
balloon 10 drop somewhere near himself
and the parachute Otherwise il would
sail off for miles and be lost. Balloons
cost money, and we can't afford TO buy
very many of them
How a Parachute Works.
Every parachute is fastened TO the
side of the balloon with the trapeze bar
tied close 10 the seat of the generator.
There is also a cord by which it NAV be
detached, and when the jumper is ready
10 let go, he sees that everything, is
clear. and then swings to one side so
that he will pull the top Of the balloon
over. Here is where his hands come into
play. AS the balloon turns he pulls
the cord that frees him ana the para
chute. and both shoot downward. The
parachute should open in 100 or 80 feet
but I've known jumpers to drop twice
that distance before the canopy initiates
and checks the descent This check at
times is sudden. and often the force rends
the parachute in twain. Nothing can
save the jumper then. To guard against
such accidents l always had a round
hole seWed in the top of my parachutes
70 serve as a safety-valve. This hole I
think also helped to straighten out the
canvas more quickly.
with the parachute open, the weight
Of your body shoots you through the air
at rate of from eight to ten miles an
hour That is fast enough to jar YOU
when you hit the earth, and. besides.
Jumpers have 10 let go their parachutes
and fall twenty feet with nothing to
aid them-this to prevent them from be- /
ing smothered by the folds of the can
vas. 1 have often hit a house. or a |
barn, or tree, and tumbled thirty or
forty feet, but fortune was always with /
me- Parachute jumpers control their
course by tipping up the edge Of their /
canopy and making a plane, down which 1
fIax- eli q LONGER auoTa