PARACHUTE 



PARADISE 



a great impetus to pharmaceutical 

 chemistry. Accused of being a 

 necromancer, he had to flee from 

 Basel, and after an adventurous 

 life, died at Salzburg, Sept. 24, 1541. 



Paracelsus is the hero of a work 

 by R. Browning, published 1835, 

 in which he is represented as a 

 philosophical genius with lofty 

 aims, whose pride and ambition de- 

 stroy his sympathy and debase his 

 moral character. See. Lives, F. Hart- 

 mann, 1887 ; A. M. Stoddart, 1911. 



Parachute (Fr. from Ital. 

 parare, ward off; Fr. chute, a fall). 

 Apparatus intended to reduce the 

 speed of bodies falling through 

 the air from considerable heights. 

 In all practical forms a parachute 

 consists of an inverted bowl- 

 shaped fabric surface with sus- 

 pension ropes attached at its 

 outer circumference at uniform 

 and fairly close intervals, all the 

 suspension ropes meeting at a 

 point some considerable distance 

 below the extended fabric. At or 

 below this point the body to be 

 dropped is suspended. When a 

 parachute is released from a 

 height its vertical movement under 

 the effect of gravity produces an 

 upward air pressure on the fabric 

 which retards the fall. 



Parachutes have been used for 

 descents from balloons for many 

 years, but until just before the 

 Great War their use had been con- 

 fined to spectacular exhibitions. 

 During that struggle the use of 

 kite balloons and the liability of 

 these to destruction by artillery 

 and enemy aircraft led to the use of 

 parachutes as life-saving devices 

 for the crews, and over 800 

 British airmen escaped in safety 

 from burning observation balloons 

 by the use of them. In 600 descents 

 from observation balloons only 

 three failures to open occurred. 

 Still later parachutes were devel- 

 oped for use from aeroplanes, and 

 a large number of special types of 

 parachute have been devised to 

 meet the special conditions caused 

 by aircraft getting out of control. 

 See Aeroplane. 



Paraclete (Gr. paradetus}. 

 Word used in S. John's Gospel as 

 a name of the Holy Ghost or Holy 

 Spirit (John xiv, 16 and 26; xv, 

 26 ; and xvi, 7 ). It is also used, in 

 the Epistles of S. John (1, ii, 1), of 

 Christ. From Chrysostom's time, 

 the word has been translated Com- 

 forter, a custom based on Is. xl, 1, 

 and on the fact that paraclesis 

 sometimes means consolation, but 

 modern commentators prefer the 

 translation of " one called in " or 

 " called to the side of another," 

 for the Gospel reference, and that 

 of Advocate in the Epistle. Para- 

 clete is a title of the Holy Ghost in 



Parachute. 1. Method of fastening closed parachute to back of airman. By 

 pulling a ring the parachute is opened. 2. Airman descending by means of a 

 parachute. 3. Method of packing and attaching a parachute in an aeroplane. 

 By moving a lever the pilot actuates compressed air mechanism which ejects 

 the parachute ready for use 



the Roman Breviary. A prayer 

 book used in the modern Greek 

 Church, first printed in 1625, is 

 called Paracletice or Paracleticon. 

 See Abelard ; Holy Spirit ; con- 

 sult also The Paraclete, J. Parker, 

 1876. 



Parade (Fr. from Ital. parata ; 

 Lat., prepared). In a military sense, 

 gathering together of a body of 

 troops for any purpose. The object 

 of the parade may be either drill, 

 inspection, fatigues, or other duties, 

 or for the communication of special 

 orders. See Drill. 



Paradise. Word used as a 

 synonym for the garden of Eden ; 

 for a region of surpassing loveli- 

 ness ; as a place to which the 

 souls of the righteous are trans- 

 planted after death : and some- 

 times for heaven. The Heb. 



pardes, and Gr. parade isos, were 

 borrowed from old Persian pairi- 

 dacza, a park, especially a deer 

 park or garden of the Persian kings. 

 Applied in the LXX, Syriac and 

 Vulgate versions, though not in 

 the Hebrew original, except in 

 Ezek. 28, 31, to the garden of 

 Eden, the word came to be applied 

 by the apocalyptic writers to 

 the heavenly counterpart of the 

 earthly garden. 



The phrase Paradise of Fools is 

 applied to a place midway between 

 Paradise and Purgatory, in which 

 those who have sinned without 

 intention await the Judgement 

 Day. The medieval conception of 

 Paradise is elaborated in the third 

 part of Dante's Divine Comedy. 



The Moslem Paradise is usually 

 spoken of as a place of unsatiating 



