Death Jump – Eiffel Tower
In February 1912, the inventor Franz Reichelt had gained permission to test his self designed parachute from the Eiffel Tower. The press and Pathé cameras were all invited to witness his jump. The first time Reichelt went up the tower, he actually turned back after getting scared. However, after some persuasion from his manager, he climbed the tower again. The film shows Reichelt teetering on the edge and after hesitating for awhile, he jumps off but plummets straight down to his death.
jamied says
I've left some further information about the 10th photo here. Either hit the "Watch film" link, or got to clip 3084.21 to see it.
RCbeastly says
I find this very sad. In a way it morrors the way the managers where I work expect me to do things they are not prepared to do. Obviously, a man's life was not held in very high esteem in those days.
GaryJ46 says
Daft commentary, she was just a low tech suicide bomber, it was only by luck that no-one else was killed. And World War 1 was the main cause of women getting the vote, not her "brave act"
bigdavebull says
The image you have here is not a DH110 but a Gloster Javelin which does appear in the following film footage but is not the aircraft that crashed.
John Piggott says
I, too, find the death of Reichert terribly sad, not just a subject of ridicule or a trope for social media. The pressure and fear he must have felt as he teetered on the brink of life or death ... his inability to swallow it up and say yes, I can live with the shame of failure.
It\'s not so different from the rest of us if we dig into ourselves deep enough,
The only one I condemn is his manager/death enabler, urging him to go on, go on, you can\'t stop now. May he burn eternally in a special circle of hell,
Bobbill says
It proves the old saying "It isn't what you don't know that will hurt you rather the things you know 'for sure' that aren't so."
smhopkins says
Emily Davison was not 'just a low tech suicide bomber'. Current thinking supports the view that she intended to place a silk scarf saying votes for women [currently on display in Parliament] on the rear of the horse so that it would be flying from the King's horse as a massive publicity stunt at the sporting event of the year. She had not intended to kill herself.
To argue it was a single cause is rather mistaken and simplistic. Only women over 30 got the vote, the ones the Liberals and Conservatives thought would vote for them. The young women who supported the war effort were not rewarded. Asquith no longer was in power, whereas Lloyd George was more sympathetic to their cause. Women had been enfranchised in other countries so why weren't they in the mother country, the home of democracy? The work of the women's suffrage had convinced many, and the government was no longer giving into militancy of suffragettes which was forgotten in the face of their strong support of the war.
smhopkins says
You will be writing next the old but publically accepted and interminably repeated lie that she 'threw herself' under the King's horse. See Claire Balding's analysis of the original footage.
bernie berki says
" The Death Jump " Peaple did not have a clue back then how aero dynamice worked ,so they thought they could fly like a bird if they made wings ,unfortunatly it was a learn by you'r mistakes cenarieo and they did.mnt realise by jumping off the eyeful tower you just do not get a second chance ,we got it in the end but what sacrifices to get there I would surly like those people to see the end result in aviation.to day. :0)).
nationalsecurityguard says
I find this very sad. In a way it morrors the way the managers where I work expect me to do things they are not prepared to do. Obviously, a man's life was not held in very high esteem in those days. :(
http://www.guardstogo.com/personal-protection