Home
cover of episode A Leap of Faith From the Eiffel Tower

A Leap of Faith From the Eiffel Tower

2022/9/23
logo of podcast Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Chapters

Franz Reichelt, a tailor fascinated by flight, invents a parachute suit to save aviators' lives. He plans to test it from the Eiffel Tower, despite previous failed attempts with a mannequin.

Shownotes Transcript

Inventor Franz Reichelt wants to test his novel "parachute suit" from as tall a structure as possible - and the Eiffel Tower seems ideal. Previous trial runs used a mannequin strapped to the chute and have not ended well. Despite this, his plan is to make the Eiffel Tower jump himself. Can he be persuaded to see sense?

Self-experimentation - particularly in the field of medicine - has a long and checkered history. Can we learn anything useful from such unorthodox experiments, or are they reckless acts of egotism and hubris? 

For a full list of sources go to timharford.com).  

See omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.