VIRAL VIDEO OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY 12/11

Long before anybody thought of the Darwin Awards, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt removed himself from the gene pool in spectacular fashion. He had created a garment that he believed would enable men to fly - or at least glide - through the air.

His creation - which from contemporary pictures appears to be one part parachute, two parts Batcape and seventeen parts IKEA wardrobe - was supposed to allow men to jump from great heights and float gently to the ground. Naturally, he decided to prove his invention's worth by jumping from sixty metres up the Eiffel Tower in front of assembled onlookers - and promptly plunged to his death. Afterwards, helpful officials carefully measured the size of the crater he'd left in the ground.

His misadventure was recorded for posterity by a number of early cine cameras. Obvious warning: while the passage of time has the potential to imbue any tragedy with some bleak comedic value, this is still a film of a man jumping to his death and hitting the ground very hard, and those of a sensitive disposition may not want to watch it.

WARNING DO NOT WATCH IF OF SENSITIVE DISPOSITION