human
Isn't a parachute pretty long when it hangs down?
gpt
Certainly. It's thirty-five feet from where she hitches on t' the balloon to where you sit on the bar. That's length o' ropes and length o' cloth both.
human
Then, how can you cut her loose from 'way down on the bar?
gpt
I'll tell you, put in Mrs. Stevens.
human
You just pull a tape that hangs down inside the parachute from a cutaway-block at the parachute head. The holding-rope passes through that block, and there's a knife-blade in the block over the rope. The tape pulls the knife-blade down, and away you go. It's one of my husband's inventions.