(obsolete) A child's hornbook for learning the alphabet. 1802, William Hutton, The History of the Roman Wall, preface You will also pardon the errors of the Work, for you know I was not bred to letters; but, that the battledore, at an age not exceeding six, was the last book I used at school. (obsolete) A bat or beetle used in washing clothes.
The parachute, like the helicopter and the hang glider, dates back to the drawings of mankind's greatest public genius, Leonardo da Vinci.
The word parachute comes from the french words 'para' and 'chute'. Used together, they mean 'to shield a fall'. Parachute had been first imagined and sketched by Leonardo da Vinci. They were reinvented in 1783 by a french chemist, Louis Lenormand, who was the first to make a parachute jump. The material of parachute has changed a lot since it was invented. But the basic design was not changed until the 1930s.