“Here on October 22, 1797 the Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin made from a free balloon the first parachute descent in history.” This sober inscription on a commemorative plaque hides an exploit that took place in Paris, at the location of the current Parc Monceau. That day, at an altitude of about 700 m, Garnerin jumped with a parachute of his manufacture and landed without damage. Among the admiring crowd, Jeanne Labrosse is unaware that her destiny is being played out...
A pupil of the physicist Jacques Charles, inventor of the hydrogen balloon, Jacques Garnerin, born in 1769, was interested very early in the work of Blanchard, another father of parachuting. He wants to be an aeronaut, but the events of the Revolution thwart his project. Commissioner of the Republic to the army of the North, he took part in the war. After three years of captivity in Hungary, he returned to Paris in 1796. Appointed “aerostat pilot of public celebrations”, he then chained long-distance records (395 km in a balloon between Paris and Germany) and parachute performances in front of an enthusiastic audience.
Now a pupil of Garnerin, Jeanne Labrosse (1775-1847), despite official reluctance for "reasons of decency", made a solo flight aboard a balloon in 1798. She did not stop there: by launching in turn in a vacuum from a balloon in 1799, she became the first woman parachutist in history. She married her mentor in 1802 and the same year filed a patent in the name of her husband. They will make many demonstrations together and will multiply balloon trips in France and Europe. Garnerin died accidentally in 1823, his widow survived him by 24 years.
Skydiving owes a lot to these pioneers. Through their observations, they improved the safety of parachutes: all balloons were equipped with them in the 19th century. Garnerin had anticipated its military use: the 20th century proved him right.
