The "Is This Really Necessary" Department 2: Flying, Sommersaulting Elephants

JF Ptak Science Book LLC  Post 672

Last week I made a post regarding a fish-throwing apparatus installed at a zoo--honestly I didn't anticipate that there would be a follow-up post on another animal-throwing machine, but, well, unfortunately, here it is. 

Eduard Wulff, a circus manager and resident of Bruxelles, was granted this patent in 1904 for a device that would “project horses, elephants, monkeys etc into the air” so that they would perform a sommersault.

Elephants?  Flying, somersaulting, elephants?

The abstract from the British Intellectual Property Office is reprinted below:  

Abstract of GB 190408713  (A)
8713. Wulff, E. April 15. Acrobatic apparatus.-In a device for projecting horses, elephants, monkeys, &c. into the air so that they turn a somersault, the animal is supported by means of a body belt, on revoluble flat hooks 8 at the upper ends of four or more vertical posts 7 on a plate 3, so that its feet are just in contact with the plate. This latter is connected by springs 2 to a rigid base-plate 1, and, when depressed, against the action of arched springs 6, is secured by catches at the end of lever-arms actuated by a handle 5. Upon releasing the catches, the plate 3 is thrown upwards and partially rotated, causing the animal to turn a somersault, the hooks 8 readily disengaging themselves from rings in the body belt.

 

Comments

[Jeff]

They threw a cow on "Northern Exposure." Or was that a piano?

[arizona car insurance]

Can we use this for politicians?