Charles Broadwick

Born in the 1870s as John Murray, Charles Broadwick grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan in a poor family. He developed aeronautical interests early in life. At age 13, he had his first ride in a hot air balloon. When the balloon caught fire, Broadwick climbed up the balloon and extinguished the fire. ==Personal life==

John Murray married Jennie Ringold in 1897 and their daughter, Marie Sadie Murray, was born in 1899. As Charles Henry Broadwick he was married to Maude Broadwick, Georgia Anne "Tiny Broadwick" Thompson, and actress Ethel Lillian Knutsen. Both Maude and Ethel died in parachuting accidents. ==Balloon drops==

By the age of 16 Broadwick (using his new name) was performing at fairs and exhibitions, parachuting from underneath a hot air balloon. Upon ascent, the parachute was suspended beneath the balloon. A trapeze hung beneath the parachute, and Broadwick held onto the trapeze. After the balloon ascended to a sufficient height, Broadwick would release the parachute. He fell for a distance, thrilling the crowd, until his parachute filled and he floated to earth. Hanging below a parachute during the balloon's ascent was hazardous. For example, winds or turbulence could cause the aeronaut to be swung into nearby trees or buildings. To reduce the risks, by 1906 Broadwick had developed a new type of parachute. The parachute was folded into a pack which was strapped to his back. The parachute was opened by a static line attached to the balloon. During ascent Broadwick was directly below the balloon and less susceptible to being swung into obstacles. When Broadwick jumped from the balloon, the static line drew taut, pulled the parachute from the pack, and then snapped. Similar methods for carrying and deploying parachutes later became standard. In 1908, after seeing Broadwick jump from a balloon at a fair in Raleigh, North Carolina, a 15-year-old single mother named Georgia "Tiny" Jacobs convinced him to allow her to join the performance. She later adopted the name Tiny Broadwick and was variously described as Charles Broadwick's daughter or wife. Tiny Broadwick became famous for her many parachute jumps. ==Promotion of parachuting==

Advances in, and greater use of airplanes created new opportunities for parachutes, including saving people in disabled aircraft. Charles and Tiny Broadwick moved to Southern California in 1911 to be near a nexus of aviation development. Shortly after the war, there was an effort to combine the best aspects of the parachute designs. The resulting parachute, the Airplane Parachute Type-A, incorporated Charles Broadwick's coatpack, a ripcord that allowed a pilot to manually deploy the parachute instead of depending on a static line connected to a plane, and a small pilot chute that pulled the parachute from its pack. The Airplane Parachute Type-A was widely used and saved a number of people, including a young Charles Lindbergh. As the U.S. Army prepared itself for World War II, staff realized that to effectively drop paratroopers from a low altitude required a parachute that was opened by a static line, which would automatically open the parachute upon exiting the plane. At the time, though, the Army did not have a parachute that opened that way. All of its standard parachutes used a ripcord that a parachutist had to pull. To quickly address the need, the Army turned to the World War I-era Broadwick parachutes it had acquired. The Army added a reserve chute and some other modifications to produce its first standard parachute for paratroopers. Static line parachutes are still used by paratroops. By 1940, Broadwick had retired. He died in 1943. In 1964, Tiny Broadwick donated a Broadwick coatpack to the Smithsonian Institution. ==References==