TIL 18th century French chemist, physicist, and inventor Louis-Sebastien Lenormand is credited with the first witnessed descent with a parachute, and also with coining the term “parachute,” which literally means “against a fall.”

3 Comments

1. He’s French. I wonder if he was perfecting an escape method from a jilted lover or a jealous rival?

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2. I speak French and never realized this is the origin of the word

   Edit: that’s because para isn’t French but Latin. Okay

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3. This guy was testing his parachute with animals before he did it himself. First of all, that’s horrendous, secondly how many hogs did he have to chuck off a tower before moving to human testing? 😳

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