Safety Device Saves Flier.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 26, 1912:
Touch of Button Releases W. Irving Twombly from Straps as He Falls.
Special to The New York Times.
    GARDEN CITY, L. I., Oct. 25.— W. Irving Twombly had a narrow escape here this afternoon from fatal injury, when he fell thirty feet in the old Dragon Fly, which Earl Ovington utilized two Summers ago in carrying the mail from the Nassau Boulevard flying field. Parts of the machine were found thrust twenty inches into the ground.
    Mr. Twombly is Vice President of the Columbia Motor Company and a prominent official of the Aero Club, and he received his aviator's license on July 19. He made his first flight this afternoon, selecting Karl Ovington's monoplane. He took the precaution to wear a safety device of straps which fastened him in the machine and could be released by the touch of a button.
    He had risen about thirty feet in the air, when he saw coming toward him Fred C. Helders of Hempstead. Fearing a head-on collision, he made a quick turn. His engine stalled, and the monoplane fell with a crash. Touching the release of his safety device. Mr. Twombly was thrown clear and escaped uninjured. His machine is a wreck.