It was not a “perfectly good balloon,” as the sky divers put it – it was leaking, and he’d run out of ballast to eject in order to slow the balloon’s descent. So, to save his young fiancee’s life, he ejected himself.Thomas Harris is primarily known for his spectacular death, but he’s also remembered as the guy who invented the gas-discharge valve, which is a device that gets gas out of balloons quickly so they don’t drag on the ground.
And yes, it was a stuck valve that the hydrogen was leaking out of. The perils of invention.
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3 comments:
This information will come in handy at my next pub quiz.
Very chivalrous. How many guys would do that today?
I am embarrassed to say that if she was closer to the edge I might have made another decision. What a doof. She is going to leave him when he is all dead and broken so his gesture was wasted - which also makes me suspect he was pushed.
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