UP FAST AND DOWN SLOW! 

By Norris Chambers

             Clifton and I saw our first parachute when we went to the county fair. An airplane with two wings was flying overhead and a fellow walked out on the bottom wing. He performed a few scary maneuvers like almost falling off, etc., and then jumped right out into the space below. The plane moved on and there he was, just up there in the sky.

            “That’s crazy!” was Clifton’s comment. I had to agree. The guy wasn’t too high and it looked like he was going to fall on the race track. Before he got too close a back pack that he was wearing started unwinding and then a big white parasol unfolded and he floated easily to the surface of the horse race area and stood up and waved his arms at the crowd. In those days country folks referred to an umbrella as a parasol. I don’t know when the name changed. It just slipped in without anyone getting upset or confused. But this was the first time that it had occurred to us to use one to descend easily from a high point to the ground at a slow speed. We were anxious to get home and try it.

            Just about everyone knows what happens when a kid jumps off the barn and holds on to an umbrella. The parachute-like top turns upside down, ruining the umbrella and failing to slow the speed on the jumper’s fall. Our trial was a disappointing failure. We were not satisfied with the first failure and were determined to experiment some more with the process. When we took a wagon sheet and tied ropes to the corners like a real parachute it didn’t work any better. The sheet didn’t have time to open before the jump ended. We were determined to try something else.

            Instead of a jumping experiment we decided to try something easier and smaller. We cut a large circle out of a flour sack and tied half a dozen strings of about two feet in length to the outside. We brought the ends of the strings together and tied them to a large steel nut. The nut would represent a person, and in this case either of us could have been the represented nut! After folding it neatly we climbed to the highest peak of the barn roof and Clifton threw the bundle as high in the air as he could.

            This experiment was a real success. The flour sack with its strings and precious cargo unfolded nicely and floated gracefully to the ground. The landing was smooth and uneventful. The only problem we observed was that it all happened pretty fast., leaving very little time to enjoy the beautiful descent. We needed to get it higher for the opening.

            We returned to our thinking office in the blacksmith shop and considered a couple of other experiments. We could build a giant slingshot with heavy spring or inner tube bands. The other alternative was a seesaw like device with a heavy weight. It didn’t take long to decide that the slingshot approach would be easier and would probably work just as well.

            It didn’t take long to find a nearby tree with a forked limb in the right position to send the missile soaring into the sky. The fork was about twelve or fifteen feet above the ground and only required a little tree trimming above it to make an excellent slingshot for sky shooting.  We built a giant slingshot, tying the two inner tube bands to the two branches of the fork and attaching a nice carrier for the parachute that we fashioned out of an old foot tub.

            It was necessary to dig a big hole underneath the sling to install a “dead man” that would give us something to tie to in order to stretch the slingshot. We buried a log with two stakes on each side to hold it firm and brought out a chain from around it directly beneath the slingshot. We connected a Page Jack to the chain and the chain from the jack to the slingshot. A Page Jack is similar to the present day Come Along. The Page Jack used chain instead of cable and was operated with a handle.

            We packed our chute in its carrier and pulled the slingshot down with the jack. When the bands were fully stretched we slashed a short piece of rope that we had connected between the chain and carrier. There was a nice, loud whish and the parachute and its little weight ascended swiftly many feet into the open sky! Our parachute floated gracefully down and provided a beautiful display.

            Of course we began to make plans for attaching some sort of light to let the country folks wonder what kind of strange, unidentified object was dominating the night skies! But this had to come later; at the present time we were too busy congratulating ourselves on launching a parachute to worry about the future. This was the most fun we had found in a week! Some weeks had more fun than others.