Hermann Lattemann (September 14, 1852, Gebhardshagen near

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

– June 17, 1894,

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

balloon pilot and inventor who experimented with an early prototype of a parachute. Together with his wife Käthe Paulus, Lattemann designed a parachute prototype in an attempt to make

balloon A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...

flights safer. The main invention was to have parachutes folded and packed in bags. Lattemann died during a test.Soden, Garrett (2005). ''Defying Gravity: Land Divers, Roller Coasters, Gravity Bums, and the Human Obsession With Falling'', New York: W. W. Norton & Company. At age 42, his parachute failed to open, although his wife's parachute did open, when they both jumped out of a balloon named "Fin de Siècle", and she watched his fall in horror. Little or no money was made from this invention following his death, but during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

improvements made by his wife and sold as ''Paula's parachute'', made her a fortune, lost later on due to

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

.Early Parachutes
including images of the ''Paula's Parachute''. She had patented the improvements in 1910, and in 1912 opened a company in Berlin manufacturing 7000 parachutes. (South African Military History website)

References

External links

History of parachute mentioning Lattemann's work

(German) include
an image of Lattemann
an
a depiction of the accident
in the newspapers of the time. 1852 births 1894 deaths People from Salzgitter Parachuting German balloonists {{Germany-engineer-stub