Jackass c. 1912

March 12, 2007 10:25 AM

Every time you hear that people filming themselves doing stupid, dangerous things is a recent trend, consider Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt. He invented a combination overcoat/parachute, and on February 4, 1912 decided to test it himself by jumping off the Eiffel Tower. It didn't work--and there's video.
posted by gottabefunky (38 comments total)

Bit of the snuff, no?
posted by Burhanistan at 10:29 AM on March 12, 2007

And a combination overcoat/parachute would have been so useful!
posted by unSane at 10:38 AM on March 12, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Poor fellow.

(The comment on that video, that the autopsy showed that he died of a heart attack before he hit the ground, is just stupidly wishful thinking.)
posted by darkstar at 10:44 AM on March 12, 2007

Nice. Real nice.
posted by nevercalm at 10:44 AM on March 12, 2007

Flagged (at YouTube) as graphic violence.
posted by DU at 10:49 AM on March 12, 2007

If we're gonna post Faces of Death-style videos, can we post the one where the guy dies while being fucked by a horse?
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:49 AM on March 12, 2007

You would think he might've tested it from a lower height first, no?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:52 AM on March 12, 2007

thing is, if you test from a lower height, it won't have time to do anything. Test from a greater height and it has lots of time to do nothing.

You'd have thought the 'tache would have slowed him down some as well...
posted by twine42 at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm thinking I shall skip over this post. ::shudder::
posted by miss lynnster at 10:57 AM on March 12, 2007

It would have been easier to take if he didn't spend most of his last minute alive standing on a stack of chairs by the railing, hesitating, while somebody in an overcoat was apparently berating him to get on with it and jump already.
posted by ardgedee at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2007

A first for MF - the text of this post is just one big warning NOT to click the link - a warning I've heeded :-)
posted by facetious at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2007

Yep, i woke up this morning wanting to watch someone die.
posted by mr_book at 11:01 AM on March 12, 2007

In all fairness, he probably would have been dead by now anyway.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:04 AM on March 12, 2007 [6 favorites has favorites]

You would think he might've tested it from a lower height first, no?
If you go too low, it's very awkward for the horse.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:07 AM on March 12, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Well at least he made an impression.

(Terrible, I know.)
posted by brassafrax at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2007

Overchute? Paracoat?

The video isn't that bad. An unidentifiable blob falls from the tower, and dust rises when it hits. No doubt he shouted the French for "Hey, y'all, watch this!" before he leapt to his doom.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:13 AM on March 12, 2007

Interesting all the people complaining. The post made it fairly clear what the video would contain, and the video is of such poor quality that it's hard to be upset by it. (The parachuter video from a few weeks back was far more upsetting, with the guy saying "shit, I'm dead. BYE." as he cruises at 80mph into the trees -- and he survived.)
posted by knave at 11:19 AM on March 12, 2007

He had plenty of time to reproduce, unfortunately.
posted by reflection at 11:20 AM on March 12, 2007

Franz and the Amazing Monochrome Nightmare Poofé Jacket.
posted by hal9k at 11:23 AM on March 12, 2007

The best part is when he's standing on the ledge...for a long, long time. You know exactly what's going through his head right then.
One of those "What the fuck am I doing?!" moments.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:39 AM on March 12, 2007

Another MeFi thread where I'm an outlier. Am I escaping the groupthink? This was funny as fuck.
posted by biffa at 11:47 AM on March 12, 2007

Why would anyone do this? If he was clever enough to invent the overcoat parachute, why wasn't he clever enough to think about possibly wearing a harness or having a net below?
posted by gfrobe at 12:13 PM on March 12, 2007

Another great moment in Austro-Hungarian aviation history.
posted by Midnight Creeper at 12:20 PM on March 12, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Why would anyone do this? If he was clever enough to invent the overcoat parachute, why wasn't he clever enough to think about possibly wearing a harness or having a net below

Well, point of fact, he actually wasn't clever enough to invent the overcoat parachute...
posted by Muddler at 12:22 PM on March 12, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

That's a funny YouTube ID: "BepyTSzueno" They're just random letters, but this one ended being nearly pronouncable.

As for the video, I could sware it was a dupe.
posted by delmoi at 12:34 PM on March 12, 2007

Maybe he just wanted psychic powers.
posted by Cyrano at 1:47 PM on March 12, 2007

In all fairness, he probably would have been dead by now anyway.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:04 PM EST on March 12

Astro Zombie, I just spit cookie crumbs.
posted by msali at 3:30 PM on March 12, 2007

Man...if only he'd been successful. I bet his invention would have been featured on Dickie and The Kid's "Monsters of Megaphone Tour".

"Overcoat/parachute...
overcoat/parachute...
overcoat/par-a-chuuuute!!!"
posted by cloudstastemetallic at 4:10 PM on March 12, 2007

This and other would-be flyers.
posted by owhydididoit at 4:30 PM on March 12, 2007

.
posted by nickyskye at 6:24 PM on March 12, 2007

Really interesting and bizarre. Is there a site somewhere showing these old Pathe clips? I'd love to see these minor news stories of the turn of the century.

The comments about "snuff" are utterly ridiculous. This is about as snuff as a plane hitting the WTC. There is nothing to see in the fall, and most people would have trouble identifying those 8 pixels as a human if shown the descent in isolation.
posted by fire&wings at 6:45 PM on March 12, 2007

Wheeeeee!..................
posted by metasonix at 8:37 PM on March 12, 2007

Poor bugger.

It's a bit sad that he didn't try a few dry runs with a test dummy first, but I have to admire that he had the courage of his convictions.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:33 PM on March 12, 2007

_
posted by jamaro at 11:42 PM on March 12, 2007

Really interesting and bizarre. Is there a site somewhere showing these old Pathe clips? I'd love to see these minor news stories of the turn of the century.

Lots of goodness here:

http://www.britishpathe.com/
posted by vbfg at 3:33 AM on March 13, 2007

Or here, if you like your links clickable.
posted by vbfg at 3:34 AM on March 13, 2007

Since reading this post, I was a bit haunted by thoughts of Franz Reichelt's fatal base jump and remembered this other guy with a wing suit, almost a century later, who succeeded where Reichert failed.
posted by nickyskye at 6:34 PM on March 13, 2007

*Reichelt.
posted by nickyskye at 6:35 PM on March 13, 2007