Even stronger than the Hulk
QUESTION
Who was the first World’s Strongest Man? How did his feats of strength compare with recent winners? THE first World’s Strongest Man competition was held at Universal Studios in California in 1977.
It was the brainchild of two Scotsmen, Highland Games organiser David P. Webster and Dr Douglas Edmunds, a shot put and discus thrower and winner of the Braemar Games Championship and Scottish Gaelic Association World Championship titles in the caber toss.
It was designed to be a ‘friendly display of strength by invited athletes from several sports’. The contestants were picked in part for entertainment value. None had trained for the events, and this led to serious injuries.
The competitors were: Bruce Wilhelm, a shot-putter and Olympic weightlifter; Bob Young, American football player for St Louis Cardinals; Ken Patera, wrestler and Olympic weightlifter; Lou Ferrigno, Mr America and twice Mr Universe, known for his TV role as the Incredible Hulk; Jon Cole, an Olympic weightlifter and a powerlifter with a 408kg squat; Mike Dayton, Kung Fu master and a Mr America; George Frenn, an Olympic hammer thrower; and the only nonAmerican, Franco Columbu, an Italian bodybuilder, Mr Universe and twice Mr Olympia.
Several events from the first show are still used: the car deadlift, barrel lift, tram pull, tyre toss and the good old-fashioned tug of war. The fridge race was downright dangerous. It involved the competitors having 186kg fridges strapped to their backs and racing to the finishing line.
Franco Columbu slipped and fell, dislocating his knee, forcing him to retire from the competition and putting him out of action for three years. Despite this, the fridge race was reintroduced in 2004, with a crossbar added to stabilise two fridges on either side of the athlete.
Two other events were also axed: the wrist roll, hoisting 45kg up a 10ft rope; and the bar bend, using any means necessary to twist a steel rod in half. The bars became increasingly thick, and using the neck and mouth was a legitimate, but dangerous, tactic.
Bruce Wilhelm was the winner of the show. He was not awarded the $20,000 purse until the end of his amateur career, lest his status be revoked. The event was a huge success and later competitions featured popular performers, such as three-time winner Bill Kazmaier, a powerlifter; British Olympian Geoff Capes; and the charismatic Icelandic powerlifter Jón Páll Sigmarsson.
The relative strengths of competitors are hard to compare because the event is so much more professional today.
As a reference, Bruce Wilhelm’s lifetime best deadlift was 340kg, Jón Páll Sigmarsson’s was 427kg and the 2017 champion Eddie ‘The Beast’ Hall has deadlifted a staggering 500kg – half a tonne.
Jared Marsh, by email.
QUESTION
How often are petrol pumps checked to see if they are dispensing the correct amount of fuel? PETROL pumps are checked regularly to see that they are correctly calibrated and dispensing the exact amount of fuel that drivers are paying for.
These checks are carried out by the legal metrology team of the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), which advises all pump operators to check those pumps regularly. NSAI personnel also make regular checks of pumps to make sure they’re dispensing the correct amount of fuel, whether it’s petrol or diesel.
The legal tolerance is between 0.5% and 1%. One of the main reasons pumps fail is because they have been altered or adjusted, while in other cases, seals have been broken or damaged. The accuracy of pumps can also worsen through wear and tear.
If fuel pumps aren’t dispensing petrol or diesel correctly, then the driver gets less fuel than he or she paid for, which means that the retailer is breaking the law.
The NSAI checks most pumps annually and says that its teams inspected 7,692 petrol and diesel pumps in 2017. A total of 270 pumps were found to be dispensing fuel inaccurately.
Altogether, the Republic has around 1,800 service stations, with 22,500 pumps in use, which means that the NSAI is inspecting all pumps every two to three years. But it has just 11 inspectors covering the entire country and they also have to check all weighing instruments used in trade.
All these tests are done under the 1996 Metrology Act. The first successful prosecution of a service station for under deliveries of fuel didn’t come until November 2011.
A service station in Dublin city centre was delivering less fuel to customers than they had paid for, because the pumps weren’t properly calibrated; it was fined €14,000.
But the overall accuracy of fuel pumps means that the vast majority are dispensing correct measures; only a small minority are doing customers out of what they have paid for.
Mairéad O’Keeffe, Co. Galway.
QUESTION
Did John Paul Getty Jr adopt an abandoned dog, which he renamed Bullseye after the bull terrier owned by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist? AMERICAN-BORN Sir John Paul Getty II, was eldest son of billionaire oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty Sr, one of the world’s richest men. By Jez Carlson, London N12. the time of his death in 2011, Mr Getty was famed for his love of cricket, his philanthropy, and friendships with the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Mick Jagger.
Bullseye, a mongrel, was being used as lookout by two burglars who broke into a house in Northumberland, England, on September 21, 1995. When the owner came home the burglars fled, leaving the dog on lookout. He refused to budge and the police began to think he might lead them to the suspects.
Police named him after Bill Sikes’s dog in Oliver Twist, and he led them to his 19-year-old owner’s home and he and his accomplice were jailed.
Bullseye was taken to the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter. Following a report in the Evening Chronicle, the shelter was deluged with offers to adopt him.
They accepted the offer from Mr Getty and his wife Victoria Holdsworth. A Getty staff member was sent to pick the dog up: ‘When the driver turned up, we gave him tea,’ Mrs Getty told a reporter. ‘Bullseye was going crazy in the office next door, and left his calling card on the floor.’
He retired to a life of luxury at the Gettys’ 2,500-acre estate in the Chiltern Hills.
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