Human cannonball
Template:Short description Template:Other uses
The human cannonball act is a performance in which a person who acts as the "cannonball" is ejected from a cylinder that has been specially designed to resemble a cannon. The human cannonball lands on a horizontal net or inflated bag placed at the predicted landing point. Outdoor performances may aim at a body of water.
History
.jpg)
William Leonard Hunt, known in the circus world as "The Great Farini", conceived and designed the basic act in the early 1870s, filing a patent for launching a human projectile in 1871.<ref name=SciZone>Template:Cite web</ref> Hunt's cannon used rubber springs to launch a person from the cannon, limiting the distance they could be launched. His adopted son, Samuel Wasgate, was the first to perform as the human projectile, dressed in female clothing and billed as "Lulu" in an 1873 act referred to as the "Lulu Leap".<ref name=SciZone/>
The first act billed as a "human cannonball", launched in 1877 at the Royal Aquarium in London using the same contraption used for the "Lulu Leap", was the 17-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter, going by the stage name "Zazel". Richter is often erroneously credited with being the first performer of the act.<ref name=huffpo>Template:Cite web</ref> She later toured with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Richter's career as a human cannonball ended when she broke her back during an unrelated tightrope act.
During World War I, Ildebrando Zacchini proposed using spring-loaded cannons to shoot Italian soldiers across enemy lines, but the Italian government considered the plan too risky. In Cairo in 1922, Zacchini invented a cannon that used compressed air to launch a human. He first tested his new cannon with his son Bruno Zacchini, and after traveling back to Italy, Ringling Brothers scouts invited the Zacchini family to the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Members of the Zacchini family were later inducted into the Ringling Brothers Circus Hall of Fame.
Cannon mechanics
The impetus in the cannon is provided either by a spring or jet of compressed air. This makes the device work more like a catapult, where the cylinder propelling the human stops at the mouth of the cannon.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Some cannons utilize nitrocellulose, specifically the dinitrate ester, cellulose dinitrate (pyroxylin).
In a circus performance, gunpowder may be used to provide visual and auditory effects unrelated to the launching mechanism. Fireworks and smoke may also be used to increase the visual effect.
The largest retailer of these human cannons is located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. This supplier provides approximately 80% of all human cannon catapults.Template:Citation needed
World record
There is a claim that the current world record for the longest human cannonball flight is Template:Height,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> established by David "The Bullet" Smith Jr. on the set of Lo Show dei Record, in Milan, Italy, on March 10, 2011. The distance was measured from the mouth of the cannon to the farthest point reached on the net. Smith was launched by an Template:Convert long cannon. It was estimated that he traveled at a speed of Template:Convert, reaching a maximum altitude of Template:Convert.
There is, however, a contradictory claim that Smith's father, David "Cannonball" Smith Sr., set a record of Template:Height,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> on August 31, 2002, at The Steele County Free Fair, in Owatonna, Minnesota. It is estimated that Smith Sr. traveled at over Template:Convert during the flight.
<ref>Chatting with an aerialist and the human rocket before the Carden Circus comes to LAX on Monday</ref>
Risk
More than 30 human cannonballs have died during the performance of this stunt. Among the latest was that which occurred in Kent, United Kingdom on April 25, 2011, where a human cannonball died as a result of the failure of the safety net.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Landing is considered to be the most dangerous aspect of the act.<ref name=":0" />
Special forces
The human cannonball principle is the subject of a patent application by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, whereby a rail-guided chair driven by compressed air is brought to a sudden stop, propelling the special forces member, police officer or firefighter onto the roof of a tall building.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
- Frank "Cannonball" Richards
- William Leonard Hunt
- Ildebrando Zacchini
- Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co.
- Cannonball ride – a plot device used for example in the tales about Baron Munchausen and in the 1911 film The Adventures of Pinocchio
- 'Human Cannonball' by Butthole Surfers from the album Locust Abortion Technician
References
Further reading
- Shane Peacock. The Great Farini: The High-Wire Life of William Hunt (1995), Template:ISBN.
- Richard Hooper. Flight of the human cannonballs, BBC News Magazine, BBC World Service, 3 September 2013 (with photos).