Footage From The Failed 1912 Eiffel Tower Parachute Attempt

The man who invented the first variation of the parachute wanted to prove that his design would work, and this newsreel shows how badly that went.

Franz Reichelt was an Austrian-born French inventor who wanted to invent something that pilots could wear if they had to abandon their craft or were for whatever reason ejected.

His tests had been done with dummies off of the roof of his six-story apartment building, but he needed more space.

To prove that his apparatus worked, he replaced the apartment building with the Eiffel Tower, who gave him permission to toss another dummy from the tower.

GRAPHIC: MAN FALLING FROM EIFFEL TOWER TO HIS DEATH

The parachute didn't work, and he hit the ground and died. He left a crater reportedly nearly 6 inches deep in the frozen earth below the tower.

Apparently, when you try to parachute off of the Eiffel tower, you look like some Chinese spy balloon wreckage.