Louis-Sébastien Lenormand

Louis -Sébastien Lenormand ( born May 25, 1757 Montpellier, † in December 1837 in Castres ) was a French physicist, inventor and pioneer of skydiving. He is next to his compatriot André- Jacques Garnerin one of the first people to whom a parachute jump is demonstrably succeeded. The coinage of use for parachutes French term it will parachute attributed.

Life

Lenormand was born in 1757 in Montpellier, the son of a watchmaker. 1775-80 he studied in Paris with Lavoisier and Berthollet physics and chemistry and worked in his father's operation. At the same time he began to develop an aircraft for rescuing people from burning buildings. After initial experiments with modified umbrellas he refined his design and jumped in 1783 using a parachute with a rigid frame and a wingspan of 14 feet ( 4.3 meters ) from the tower of the observatory of the Academie Royale des Sciences ( Royal Academy of Sciences) in Montpellier, where he landed uninjured.

After his successful parachute jump to Lenormand dedicated science and technology. He became a monk at a Carthusian monastery in Castres, where he was allowed to continue his studies. During the French Revolution, he stepped out of the convent, married and moved to Albi, where he accepted a teaching position in technology in a school founded by his father in law. In 1803 he moved to Paris. At this time he began his journalistic activity to technical issues and applied for patents on for a considerable number of inventions. A clock designed by him has been successfully installed at the Paris Opera. In 1830 he returned to Castres. He let his marriage cancel and went to live as brother Chrysostom in the Carthusian monastery, where he died in December 1837.

Writings (selection )

• Dictionnaire technologique, ou Nouveau dictionnaire universel des arts et métiers et de l' économie industrielle et commerciale. 20 volumes. Thomine et Fortic, 1822-37
• Annales de l'industrie et national étrangère: ou, Mercure technologique. Bachelier, 1823
• Nouveau manuel complet du relieur, dans toutes ses parties: Precede des arts de l' Assembleur, you satineur, de la plieuse, de la brocheuse, et suivi des arts du marbreur sur tranches, you doreur sur tranches et sur ​​cuir. Roret, 1840