Fig. 2, in the same plate, supports a weight by means of a hod. This is
filled with balls or stones, of which the weight is known.
The form of the weight is of consequence. A soldier now carries with
ease a knapsack full of articles, and additional weight above it,
because the flat shape that has been lately adopted fits the body, and
lies close to the back, as in fig. 3, and the centre of gravity is thus
very little deranged. But if the knapsack were of the old shape, very
projecting and very round, as in fig. 4, the soldier would be forced
to incline his body forward, and would not be able to carry as great a
weight, nor march as long a time, in consequence of fatigue. It is for
this reason, among others, desirable to extend the knowledge of the
most simple rules of mechanics, because these rules are serviceable in
avoiding many dangers, and diminishing the fatigue and the efforts that
vacillation in the movements produces. We may make use of a hook to
bear boxes or bags in addition, with the weights marked, and thus learn
the carrier’s strength.
Milo, says history, first carried a calf immediately after its birth,
and continued to do so every day till it had reached its full size. It
was said by this means that he was able to carry even the ox itself,
and afterwards throw it on the ground and kill it with his fist.
Augustus the Second, King of Poland, carried a man upon his hand.
A man named Roussel, a labourer in the environs of Lisle, who on a
smaller scale (being but four feet ten inches in height), was formed
exactly like the Farnese Hercules, raised on his shoulders a weight
of eighteen hundred pounds. He cleared a circle six feet in height
with very little spring and one hundred-weight in each hand. When
seated on the ground, he rose up without aid, carrying two men on his
arms. Equally astonishing in the strength of his loins, he took up
two hundred-weight leaning backwards over a chair. “I have seen this
remarkable man,” says Friedlander: “the whole of his family are very
strong: his sister and brother are equally remarkable in this point.”
It is very striking to find in him the characteristic traits with which
antiquity depicted the ideal of bodily strength.
In the Encyclopædia of Krumtz, vol. lxxii., we find instances of some
men similar to Roussel, who lived at the commencement of the last
century. A man named Eckenberg raised a cannon of two thousand five
hundred pounds weight; and two strong men were unable to take from him
a stick that he held between his teeth.
In number 446 of the Bibliotheque Britannique, is to be found a report
of some trials made by a Mr. Shulze, in his manufactory, of the
strength of men of different heights. These trials show what influence
an elevated stature has upon the vertical height to which a man can
raise any weight. A short man is, in his turn, capable of employing
more force in another direction.