(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.
1 The 'Show Me State' expression may have began in 1899 when Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver stated, I'm from Missouri and you've got to show me..  The first successful parachute jump to be made from a moving airplane was made by Captain Berry at St. Louis, in 1912.