Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-09-12
THE BITING POWER OF MAN.
a scientific Test of the Pressure OF
the Human Jaws In Eating.

New York World.
Inc man with the iron jaw used to
be a prominent figure in the travelling
rural shows. He did all sorts Of won
deriul things with his teeth-picked
up barrels full OF water, bent iron bars
ana held his wife in the air while he
himself hung head downward from a
trapeze by his toes. All this time the
Jaws OF the audience were wide OMEN
favorite rural manifestation Of aston
ishment.
IL they had only read OF the recent
experiments of DIR. G. v. Black thew
might not have been so overcome with
wonder. DR.. Black has been measuring
the biting power of all kinds Of persons
men, women and children-and he
finds that in muscular strength the Jaw
compares favorably, for its size, with
any other part OF the body. And no
wonder. II has plenty of practice.
A man may reduce his biceps to fab
biness by inaction; he may cause his
calves to dwindle by always patronizing
the street cars instead of walking, but
unless he feeds entirely on Cruel
he must exercise his Jaw muscles
thrice a day or starve. And the
strength he must exert in chewing is
by no means contemplate, either. To
crush piece of steak, according to DIR.
Black, bite Of 40 to 40 pounds is
necessary That is, IL the proper ma
chine were SC, rugged that by seizing a
double lever between the Jaws an OBJ
ject could be lifted from the floor, a
l0-pound weight could be so raised by
the force necessary to crush a biz Of
steak. Repeat this effort every time
you chew, and you get an idea Of how
much exercise is required 10 eat one s
dinner. The idea of doing work with
ones jaw, has generally been regarded
as fiction of the humorist, and is the
subject of countless funny paragraphs
about boarding house fare, but really
there is nothing funny about it. It
IS real downright hard work, for DIR.
Black says 80, and his statistics back
him up.
4, And what makes it harder still is
that most people habitually use much
more force than is necessary in chew
ing their food. For instance, in chew
ing steak whose crushing point is at
40 to 40 pounds, the persons tested by
DIR. Black used force of 60 to so
pounds-from 10 to 40 pounds more
than was necessary. All this extra
force, of course, is worse than wasted,
but probably the generality Of man
kind will keep on wasting strength Just
so till a more systematic method Of
eating is adopted.
In the year 1000 the up-to date man
will ask his butler as he sits down to
dinner:
James, what have we hereP All!
steak (consults tabular statementl.
Crushing force, 431a pounds. Kindly
adjust the dynamometer to my lower
jaw and watch the index. Let me know
the, moment ! am exceeding "A and
will put on less force. Gently! the
clamp has caught on my lip. Yes,
that's right, Thanks"
And the worthy man will begin to
eat happy in the consciousness that
he is outstanding his strength in the
most scientific way, and thereby pro.
longing his useful and valuable life.
We do very differently now II every
chew, how much wasted power is there
in restaurant full of New York bust.
ness men at lunch? II it could all be
utilized and turned into electric en-
ergy , il would run the fans and the in
candescent lights, cook the meals, and
do any number of other things. The
Harvesting of Niagara" would not be
in it compared to the Harvesting of a
restaurant full of power wasting chew
ers.
But DIR. Black did not confine him
self to steak in his experiments He
tested all kinds of meat, and found
mat mutton chops may be crushed with
an expenditure. of 35 to 40 pounds of
strength. Boiled ham and roasted beef
require the greatest amount-4O to
60 pounds-while pork chops may be
chewed with force of 90 TO % pounds
and the choicest parts Of cold boiled
tongue with three to five pounds.
These, OF course, are averages Tough
meat of any kind is still harder TO
crush; for instance tough beef and
mutton tested by Dr. Black required
IN some cases a crushing force of
OF W pounds. The smallest pressure
recorded on DIR. Blacks gauge, that
OF little girl years old. was 30
pounds. This was with Ter front teeth
which are not used for the crushing
processes of mastication. With the
molars, which do the chewing, properly
so CALLED, she could exert force of S.
pounds-quite enough to crush all but
the toughest parts of tough meats
Several persons exceeded 100 pounds
WITH the front teeth or insisors, and 200
with the molars One man physician
Of 35 years has such strength Of law
that it must for the present remain a
mystery, for it exceeded the test
ing power of the instrument. The
gauge registered only go pounds and
when this remarkable chewer shut his
4 teeth on il, he closed it with no APP
parent effort. How far above go
pounds he could have gone is therefore