"parachute", 1793, interdates OED3 1784--1796; "falling screen" not in OED

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote
> I can't find the precise words but unless I'm crazy, a twentieth-century
> author of the existentialist-absurdist school (if there is one) once
> insisted that "Obedience to the law of gravity is the greatest crime of
> all."

Here is a thematically related quotation from the noted philosopher
Homer Simpson:
In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vxHkAQRQUQ

Garson

> If I'm wrong, then I must be that author, and I want acknowledgment in YBQ.
>
> JL
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 9, 2013 at 9:45 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      "parachute", 1793, interdates OED3 1784--1796; "falling
>> screen"
>>               not in OED
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> "Mr. Brown, ...whilst preparations are making for my 46th ascension
>> already announced, I propse to give an experiment of natural
>> Philosophy with the parachute or falling screen ... The attraction
>> and acceleration of heavy bodies towards the centre of the earth,
>> will be evidently demonstrated according to the system of Newton. The
>> parachute which I have invented, will prove that it is easy to evade
>> this destructive law, and to secure any person against the fatal
>> effects of the fall, by arresting the acceleration."
>>
>> Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Daily Advertiser, 1793 May 23, 2/3.  EAI.
>> -----
>> "Advertisement, on THURSDAY the 30th day of May inst. ... at the
>> CIRCUS of Mr. RICKETTS, THE FIRST EXPERIMENT OF Natural Philosophy,
>> WITH THE PARACHUTE or FALLING SCREEN, That ever was made on the
>> Continent of America, will be made by Mr. Blanchard."
>>
>> Same issue, 3/4.  EAI.
>> -----
>> "parachute" interdates OED3  sense 1.a.  1784 (earliest) -- 1796.
>>
>> "falling screen" not in OED.
>>
>> Joel
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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