Sebastien Lenomand-Inventor of The Parachute





Parachutes were first discovered in 1783 by Sebastien Lenomand (the French), despite being sketched and imagined by Leonardo Da Vinci. Inventor of the parachute folding is Jean Pierre Blanchard, 1793, using silk materials. The first parachute user is Andrew Garnerin who in 1797 jumped from a hot air balloon at an altitude of 8000 feet using the parachute silk and witnessed by many people survived. Captain Thomas Baldwin in 1887 found the parachute straps and in 1890 Paul Letteman and Kathchen Paul created a method for folding parachutes diransel dipunggung people brought before it opened.



Louis-Sébastien Lenormand (May 25, 1757 - December 1837) was a French physicist, inventor and pioneer in parachuting. He is considered the first man to make the descent by parachute and watching is also credited with coining the term parachute and parachute. After making the jump from the tree with the help of two modified umbrellas Lenormand refined odd and on 26 December 17 831 jump from the observation post, Montpellier in front of people that included Joseph Montgolfier, using a 14 foot parachute with a rigid wooden frame. Its use is intended for the chute to help the trapped occupants from a burning building to escape without injury. Lenormand was replaced by André-Jacques Garnerin made ​​the first jump of the plateau with the help of non-rigid parachute.

Early life

Lenormand was born in Montpellier in 1757 as the son of a watchmaker. From 1775-1780 he studied physics and chemistry under Lavoisier and Berthollet in Paris, where he was also involved with the administration of saltpeter. In this position he learned from the use of scientific and mathematical knowledge in the production of gunpowder. After returning to Montpellier he worked in his father's store while immersing himself in the intellectual community of the city and began his experiments with skydiving, acrobatic performance inspired by Thailand that uses an umbrella for balance. Before you make the leap from the observation of public, Lenormand parachute tested using animals.

Career as "professor of technology"


After this public demonstration Lenormand devoted himself to building a science of "pure technology". For this purpose, he first became a Carthusian monk, the monastery in the near Castres Saix allow him to continue the "profane" his study. If during the French Revolution he had left the priesthood and married, he moved to Albi to teach technology at a new college founded by his father-in-law. In 1803 he moved to Paris where he obtained a job at the customs office, part of the Ministry of Finance. During his time at the customs office Lenormand began publishing in technology journals and filed a patent for a rowboat, hours (successfully installed at the Paris Opera) and public lighting systems.


When he removed from his job in 1815, Lenormand more involved in publishing, first set Annales de l'industrie nationale et étrangère (The history of national and foreign industry ") and technologique Mercure, and, starting in 1822 and continued until 1837, twenty-volume Dictionnaire technologique During that time,. he also published a manual on topics as diverse as food and bookbinding. in 1830, Lenormand returned to Castres and, after the alienation of his wife and family, leaving her marriage and return to religious life as "Brother Chrysostom". he died at Castres in December 1837. in his death certificate, his profession was given as "professor of theology" as "technology" is still too new term at the time.Undo edits

Leave a Reply