Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-11
Nrzssoor SESSION.
CIRCUS mAcgINEs,

cuses began to grow familiar to the public /
eye, great endeayors Of skill and daring |
were made to enhance its seeming difficulty |
and danger. Bat human power and agility |
could go just so far, unaided. in defyiDg |
the laws of gravitation, and no further. !
Then opered a new era, that of the utiliza-
ton of mechanical appliances for the |
achievement Of startling gymnastic novel !
ties. Singularly enough, nearly all the
most famous and astonishing of these me-
chanical devices have been the inven- |
ton OF one man--an American named |
w. L. Hunt, himself in former years a !
famous trapeze performer
In 1864 Mr.. Hunt, then. as yet, known |
professionally as Signor G. A. Rarini, was |
giving a season of gymnastic entertain |
ments in the London ALEXANDRA, in which |
he was aided by slender and pretty boy |
named Samuel Wasgatt, billed under the |
name of GEL Nipo Farini. In one of !
their performances Farini was accustomed |
to lay his feet upon one trapeze and his |
neck upon another, holding his body per-
fectly rigid between them, with the boy
standing upon has belly, until, at given
signal, the boy made an upward leap, and,
aided by spring of Farini's body, darted
TO a third trapezs twelve feet above. One
day the happy thought occurred to Farini,
why not employ a springboard instead Of
my body z" He tried it. 1t was an i'm.
provement. Then his inventive faculties
were directed to the discovery OF ways and
means for the propulsion of performers to
hights and distances wholly impossible for
flesh and blood alone.
In Liverpool he made the model Of his
| first machine for jumping up" a per.
former to the height of forty feet, and at
Marseilles built the machine itself and
practiced "EI Nino Farin in its use. In
Marseilles, too, he did something else. He
transformed Samuel Wasgatt into charm.
/ ing young girl, who was advertised in
| Paris, where the thing was first brought
out, as I" Lulu" The feat created pop
ular sensation. although its advent was in
time Of intense public excitement over
far more serious matters, the German army
being juat about to invest the city. In
| performing it "Lulu stood rigidly upon
footplate let into the stage, upon the
same slope as the stage, and not distin-
| guishable from the floor. Suddenly
she was seen darling upward toward a
| spring-board, forty feet above the stage,
where she touched only, and made second
surprising leap to trapeze still further up,
! where she made a performance.
AT the moment of the beginning of her
| flight there was great crash, but no
human eye was quick enough to see what
made it there were, indeed, two crashes,
| but so close together that the ear recog.
nized them only as one. Yet, in the i'm.
| perceptible interval between those crashes,
an iron spindle supporting the foot. plate
shot up five feet above the stage, giving
the impulse for that frightful leap, and re.
/ treated again to its place. India-rubber
| springs were the motive power for both
movements. One set of them, when liber.
ated, fired the spindle upward, and at its
extreme elevation it automatically freed
another set, which ierked it back into
place. On that first machine, when it was
set ready for the feat, there were 100 rub.
Der springs, each with tension of forty five
pounds, total of 400 pounds. No won.
der that Lulu went up like bullet from
gun. No wonder that she ito use the
masculine pronoun Lulu now claims-com-
planned that :" 1t had tendency to tele.
| scope person. Indeed it did telescope
him after a while, when he began to get
heavier, to such an extent that he was
very seriously injured, and had to dimin-
ish the strength Of the machine and shorten
the leap by ten feet. An ingenious arrange.
ment was introduced in connection with this
feat in Paris, by which, at the moment of
| Lulu's flight, net-previously held back
by counter-we ights-was instantaneously
spread by rubber springs, and in place be-
| meath her before she reached the spring
board.
In 76Signor Farini invented the cannon
for firing a performer from its muzzle to
! considerable distance, with much noise and
| smoke, but without any danger to the pro-
| lectiie. The trst cannon was operated by
India-rubber springs, bat Fariri's patents
! have covered two other modes of pro.
pulsion, one by spiral springs and the
other actually by the force of gunpowder,
which in the spring csnnons is simply used
to keep up appearances. When the per.
former is to be literally ''fired out"
heavy barrel in the breech of the sham can.
non is loaded with about twice as much pow.
der as would constitute charge for shot.
gun, and the gases produced by its COM
bustien are set loose in the air chamber at
the base of series of telescoped shells
surrounding the person in the cannon. As
the shells extend toward the muzzle
Ike the frightening of telescope, they
give rapid impetus to the performer.
! Near the muzzle two openings are devel-
oped, through which pours the black smoke
from the explosion, without any danger of
burning or blsckening the fired.out one,
who Is at the moment gyrating through
space. The cannon is 80 arranged that
springs can be used il desired, and in that
case the explosion of smsller quantity of
powder is required, merely to free the
spring. Attempts have been made to get
up the cannon trick in this country, but it
is fully protected by patents, and the modes
by which evasion has been sought have not
been encouraging. In ore case the per.
former was already darted out into the net
when the explosion took plsce-an entire
give away" as showmen say ; and in
the other a rash performer had his legs
driven up into him.
Farini's young woman, whom he called
| Zazel, did the cannon act successfully two
and half years in the Royal Aquarium
IN London. The trick is not in the superior
cannon, however. The performer must
have nerve enough to remain perfectly
rigid in the trying second after giving the
| word go" And that perfect nerve is
exceedingly difficult to find, 80 much SO
that Signor Fariui has never discovered
| anybody but Lulu who could do successfully
the jump-up act. Others became limp
somewhere at the prospect of the awful
chnck before them just as they said eco, "
| and when they went up it was in all sorts
of ways, like rabbit thrown up by its
hind legs. Few Of them ever tried it twice.
philadelphia Telegraph.