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For teachers · Lesson pack

The tailor who jumped: Franz Reichelt

A ready-to-print lesson about the Paris tailor who jumped from the Eiffel Tower in 1912 in a parachute suit he had made himself. Every fact comes from the checked file.

  • Ages 11 to 16
  • Time About 50 minutes
  • Subjects History, Physics, Working with sources

Watch the Short

For the teacher

By the end of the lesson pupils can:

  • Explain why pilots in 1912 needed a parachute they could wear.
  • Calculate how long a fall lasts, and why that matters for a parachute.
  • Tell the difference between what is on record, what newspapers reported, and what has no reliable source.

A note of care. This is the story of a real death. Our Short and this pack do not show the fall. The 1912 newsreel does show it; watch it yourself first if you plan to use it.

Suggested plan. Watch the Short (2 min). Read the text (10 min). Questions 1 and 2 (15 min). Choose task 3 (physics) or task 4 (sources) (15 min). Sort and discuss (10 min). The answers are on the last page.

The story

In 1912 aeroplanes were new and dangerous. They were made of wood, wire and fabric, and when something broke in the air the pilot had no way out.

Franz Reichelt wanted to change that. He was born in 1878 in Bohemia (today the Czech Republic) and ran a dressmaking business in Paris. His idea came from his own trade: a parachute you wear like a suit. A silk canopy was folded into the clothing, and you opened it by spreading your arms.

His tests did not go well. Experts at the Aéro-Club de France said the canopy was too weak. Dummies dropped in the courtyard of his building hit the ground hard. Newspapers reported that his own low jumps ended on a pile of straw, or with a broken leg. Reichelt had one explanation: the drops were too short, so the canopy never had room to open. For more than a year he asked the Paris police for permission to test from the Eiffel Tower. In the end they agreed, but only to a test with a dummy.

On the freezing morning of 4 February 1912 he arrived at the tower wearing the suit himself. His friends begged him to use a dummy. Another parachute inventor on the platform warned him that the height was not enough for the canopy to open. Reichelt refused a safety rope.

At 8:22 he stood at the railing of the first platform, a little more than 57 metres up, and waited about forty seconds. Then he jumped. Witnesses said the canopy looked only half open, and that it folded around him almost at once. He did not survive. He was 33.

Four weeks later, on 1 March 1912, Albert Berry jumped from an aeroplane over Missouri with a parachute packed in a container, and landed safely.

1. Questions

  1. What problem was Reichelt trying to solve?
  2. What exactly had the police given permission for?
  3. Name two warnings Reichelt got before he jumped.
  4. How did Reichelt explain every failed test?
  5. The tower gave him more height. Why was that not enough to make the jump safe?

2. Fact, report or legend?

Sort each statement: is it on record, only reported by newspapers of the day, or without a reliable source? Put a cross in one box.

StatementOn recordReported by newspapersNo reliable source
The police permit was for a test with a dummy.
He jumped from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower, a little more than 57 metres up.
He broke his leg in an earlier test jump.
On the stairs he called out to the crowd that he would see them soon.
He died of a heart attack before he hit the ground.
His was the first death ever caught on film.

3. Physics: how long is a fall?

If we ignore air resistance, the time t (in seconds) for an object to fall a height h (in metres) is t = √(2h ÷ g), with g = 9.8 m/s².

  1. How long does a fall from 9 metres last? (About the height of his earlier test jumps.)
  2. How long does a fall from 57 metres last? (The first platform of the Eiffel Tower.)
  3. We ignored air resistance. Would the real fall last a little longer or a little shorter? Why?
  4. Use your answers to explain why another inventor warned Reichelt that the tower was not high enough.

4. Working with sources

Two French newspapers described Reichelt's own test jumps in 1911. Here is what each one said.

Report A: a jump of eight to ten metres at Joinville, where a pile of straw saved him.

Report B: a jump at Nogent from eight metres that ended with a broken leg.

  1. In what ways do the two reports agree, and in what ways do they differ?
  2. Can both reports be true?
  3. Historians say these jumps are 'known only from newspaper reports'. Why does that matter?
  4. What kind of source would help you check what really happened?

5. Discuss

  • Reichelt was right that pilots needed a parachute they could wear. Was he a fool, a hero, or something else? Give a reason.
  • One of his friends said Reichelt felt under pressure to find backers before his patent ran out. How can pressure like that change the way people judge a risk?
  • What test did he skip that morning? What would it have shown?

Answers

1. Questions

  1. Pilots had no way to escape when their aeroplane failed in the air. He wanted a parachute a pilot could wear.
  2. A test with a dummy only, not with a person.
  3. Any two of: the Aéro-Club said the canopy was too weak; his dummy tests failed; his friends begged him to use a dummy; another inventor warned that the height was not enough; the wind and freezing weather.
  4. The drops were too short, so the canopy never had room to open.
  5. Height only gives more time. No test had ever shown that the wearable suit opened fully and slowed a weight. A dummy test from the tower would have shown that, without risking a life.

2. Fact, report or legend?

  1. On record. The prefect of police, Louis Lépine, said so afterwards.
  2. On record. Many witnesses saw it, and the newsreel survives.
  3. Reported by newspapers. One newspaper reported it. Another described a different ending.
  4. Reported by newspapers. His last words come from the French newspapers of the day.
  5. No reliable source. Some retellings say this, but we found no reliable source for it.
  6. No reliable source. It is often claimed, but it cannot be proved. 'One of the first' is the careful version.

3. Physics

  1. t = √(2 × 9 ÷ 9.8) = √1.84 ≈ 1.4 seconds.
  2. t = √(2 × 57 ÷ 9.8) = √11.6 ≈ 3.4 seconds.
  3. A little longer: the air pushes back and slows the fall. But this is a calculation, not a measurement, and the real fall still lasted only a few seconds.
  4. A canopy needs time to fill with air before it slows you down. Even from the tower there were only about 3.4 seconds, and the suit had to unfold from a bundle around a falling body.

4. Sources

  1. Both describe a low jump of about eight metres that went badly. They differ on the place (Joinville or Nogent) and the result (saved by straw, or a broken leg).
  2. Yes, possibly: they may describe two different jumps. We cannot tell from the reports alone.
  3. Newspapers can make mistakes or exaggerate, and there is no other record, such as a police report or a photograph, to check them against.
  4. For example: a hospital or police record, a photograph, a letter from Reichelt or a witness, or a third newspaper that was there.

Sources for this pack

  • French newspapers of 5 and 6 February 1912, including Le Figaro, Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien and Le Gaulois
  • Statement of the prefect of police, Louis Lépine
  • Flight magazine, November 1911 and February 1913 (the Lalance prize)
  • The 1912 Pathé newsreel (public domain)

Free to print and copy for classroom use. From theinventorfiles.com/episodes/reichelt/