The Revolutionary wars were also responsible, indirectly, for the invention of the parachute. It will be recalled that even as early as the fifteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci had conceived the idea of a kind of parachute; and that Blanchard had a spread-canvas arrangement to produce a similar effect attached to some of his balloons. It was not until 1799, however, that the folding umbrella-like parachute was invented, the inventor, Garnerin, having developed the idea in trying to devise some means of escape from the fortress of Buda, Hungary, where he was being kept prisoner after one of the battles in the North between the Revolutionary forces and the Austrians and Prussians. Although he did not actually effect his escape in this dramatic manner, he finally proved that he had not dreamed in vain during his imprisonment by demonstrating the entire practicality of the parachute.
Garnerin's first practical test of his invention was made in October, 1797, when he ascended to the height of six thousand feet in a balloon to which was attached a parachute of the ordinary umbrella type still used. At that altitude he cut loose the balloon which rushed upward until it exploded, while the parachute, dropping rapidly at first, finally settled slowly and gently to the earth, without injury to the inventor.
The attempts at navigating a balloon having proved thus far so unsuccessful, many inventors now returned to the idea of producing a flying-machine which was independent of the inflated balloon. It was evident that the resistance presented by the great surface necessary in a balloon of sufficient size to have the required lifting power was such that no known efforts of propulsion could overcome this resistance even in the face of a slight breeze, to say nothing of a strong wind. The balloon was by no means abandoned, however, and two definite schools of aeronauts gradually came into existence, each having ardent advocates.
As early as 1784, the aeronaut Gérard had proposed a flying-machine which was to be made with body, wings, and steering apparatus, in which propulsion was to be accomplished by the use of escaping gas and gun-cotton. The inventor himself was so sanguine of the results, and so many contemporary inventors were of the same opinion, that when this machine proved to be an utter failure, the blow to the advocates of the flying-machine was so great that they did not rally from it for something like a quarter of a century. In 1809, however, a Viennese watchmaker named Degen revived interest in attempts at mechanical flight by inventing a flying-machine which consisted essentially of two parachutes. These were worked by hand, and the inventor was said to have been able to rise to a height of over fifty feet from the ground "moving in any desired direction."