STRONG MEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: THOMAS TOPHAM (died, 1749);
JOYCE, 1703; VAN ECKENBERG, 1718; BARSABAS AND HIS SISTER; THE ITALIAN
FEMALE SAMPSON, 1724; THE "LITTLE WOMAN FROM GENEVA," 1751; BELZONI,
1778-1823.
Bodily strength has won the admiration--I might almost say, the
worship--of mankind from the days of Hercules and his ten mythical
labors, to the days of Sandow with his scores of actual achievements.
Each generation has produced its quota of strongmen, but almost all of
them have resorted to some sort of artifice or subterfuge in order to
appear superhumanly strong. That is to say, they added brain to their
brawn, and it is a difficult question whether their efforts deserve to
be called trickery or good showmanship.
Many of the tricks of the profession were laid bare by Dr. Desaguliers
over a hundred and fifty years ago and have been generally discarded by
athletes, only to be taken up and vastly improved by women of the type
of The Georgia Magnet, who gave the world of science a decided start
about a generation ago. I shall have more to say of her a little
further on.
The jiu jitsu of the Japanese is, in part, a development of the same
principles, but here again much new material has been added, so that it
deserves to be considered a new art.
The following, from Dr. Desaguliers' Experimental Philosophy, London,
1763, Vol. 1, page 289, contrasts feats of actual strength with the
tricks of the old-time performers:
Thomas Topham, born in London, and now about thirty-one years of age,
five feet ten inches high, with muscles very hard and prominent, was
brought up a carpenter, which trade he practiced till within these six
or seven years that he has shewed feats of strength; but he is entirely
ignorant of any art to make his strength appear more surprising; Nay,
sometimes he does things which become more difficult by his
disadvantageous situation; attempting and often doing, what he hears
other strong men have done, without making use of the same advantages.
About six years ago he pulled against a horse, sitting on the ground
with his feet against two stumps driven into the ground, but without
the advantage represented by the first figure, Plate 19; for the horse
pulling against him drew upwards at a considerable angle, such as is
represented in the second figure in that plate, when hN is the line of
traction, which makes the angle of traction to be NhL: and in this case
his strength was no farther employed than to keep his legs and thighs
straight, so as to make them act like the long arm of a bended lever,
represented by Lh, on whose end h the trunk of his body rested as a
weight, against which the horse drew, applying his power at right
angles to the end l of the short arm of said lever, the center of the
motion being a L at the bottom of the stumps l, o (for to draw
obliquely by a rope fastened at h is the same as to draw by an arm of a
lever at l L, because l L is a line drawn perpendicularly from the
center of motion to the line of direction hN) and the horse not being
strong enough to raise the man's weight with such disadvantage, he
thought he was in the right posture for drawing against a horse; but
when in the same posture he attempted to draw against two horses, he
was pulled out of his place by being lifted up, and had one of his
knees struck against the stumps, which shattered it so, that even to
this day, the patella or knee-pan is so loose, that the ligaments of it
seem either to be broken or quite relaxed, which has taken away most of
the strength of that leg.
But if he had sat upon such a frame as is represented in the first
figure, (Plate 19) he might (considering his strength) have kept his
situation against the pulling of four strong horses without the least
inconvenience.
The feats which I saw him perform, a few days ago, were the following:
1. By the strength of his fingers (only rubbed in coal-ashes to keep
them from slipping) he rolled up a very strong and large pewter-dish.
2. He broke seven or eight short and strong pieces of tobacco-pipe
with the force of his middle finger, having laid them on the first and
third finger.
3. Having thrust under his garter the bowl of a strong tobacco-pipe,
his legs being bent, he broke it to pieces by the tendons of his hams,
without altering the bending of his leg.
4. He broke such another bowl between his first and second finger, by
pressing his fingers together side-ways.
5. He lifted a table six feet long, which had half a hundred weight
hanging to the end of it, with his teeth, and held it in a horizontal
position for a considerable time. IT IS TRUE THE FEET OF THE TABLE
RESTED AGAINST HIS KNEES; BUT AS THE LENGTH OF THE TABLE WAS MUCH
GREATER THAN ITS HEIGHT, THAT PERFORMANCE REQUIRED A GREAT STRENGTH TO
BE EXERTED BY THE MUSCLES OF HIS LOINS, THOSE OF HIS NECK, THE MASSETER
AND TEMPORAL (MUSCLES OF THE JAWS) BESIDES A GOOD SET OF TEETH.
6. He took an iron kitchen-poker, about a yard long, and three inches
in circumference, and holding it in his right hand, he struck upon his
bare left arm, between the elbow and the wrist till he bent the poker
nearly to a right angle.
7. He took such another poker, and holding the ends in his hands, and
the middle against the back of his neck, he brought both ends of it
together before him; and, what was yet more difficult, he pulled it
almost straight again: because the muscles which separate the arms
horizontally from each other, are not so strong as those that bring
them together.
8. He broke a rope of about two inches in circumference which was in
part wound about a cylinder of four inches diameter, having fastened
the other end of it to straps that went over his shoulders; but he
exerted more force to do this than any other of his feats, from his
awkwardness in going about it: as the rope yielded and stretched as he
stood upon the cylinder, so that when the extensors of his legs and
thighs had done their office in bringing the legs and thighs straight,
he was forced to raise his heels from their bearings, and use other
muscles that are weaker. But if the rope had been so fixed, that the
part to be broken had been short, it would have been broken with four
times less difficulty.
9. I have seen him lift a rolling stone of about 800 lib. with his
hand only, standing in a frame above it, and taking hold of a chain
that was fastened to it. By this I reckon that he may be almost as
strong again as those who are generally reckoned as the strongest men,
they generally lifting no more than 400 lib. in that manner. The
weakest men who are in health and not too fat, lift about 125 lib.
having about half the strength of the strongest. (N.B. This sort of
comparison is chiefly in relation to the muscles of the loins; because
in doing this one must stoop forward a little. We must also add the
weight of the body to the weight lifted. So that if the weakest man's
body weighs 150 lib. that added to 125 lib. makes the whole weight
lifted by him 275 lib. Then if the stronger man's body weighs also 150
lib. the whole weight lifted by him will be 550 lib. that is, 400 lib.
and the 150 lib. which his body weighs. Topham weighs about 200 lib.
which added to the 800 lib. that he lifts, makes 1000 lib. But he
ought to lift 900 lib. besides the weight of his body, to be as strong
again as a man of 150 lib.-weight who can lift 400 lib.
Now as all men are not proportionably strong in every part, but some
are stronger in the arms, some in the legs, and others in the back,
according to the work and exercise which they use, we can't judge of a
man's strength by lifting only; but a method may be found to compare
together the strength of different men in the same parts, and that too
without straining the persons who try the experiment.
Here follows a long description of a machine for the above purpose.
Topham was not endowed with a strength of mind equal to the strength of
his body. He was married to a wanton who rendered existence so
insupportable that he committed suicide before he was forty years of
age, on August 10th, 1749.[1]
About the year 1703 there appeared in London a native of Kent, by the
name of Joyce, who won the name of a second Samson by a series of feats
of strength that to the people of that day seemed little short of
superhuman. Dr. Desaguliers, in his Experimental Philosophy, gives the
following account of Joyce and his methods.
About thirty years ago one Joyce,[2] a Kentish man, famous for his
great strength (tho' not quite so strong as the King of Poland, by the
accounts we have of that Prince) shewed several feats in London and the
country, which so much surprised the spectators, that he was by most
people called the second Sampson.[3] But tho' the postures which he had
learned to put his body into, and found out by practice without any
mechanical theory, were such as would make a man of common strength do
such feats as would appear surprising to everybody that did not know
the advantages of those positions of the body; yet nobody then
attempted to draw against horses, or raise great weights, or to do
anything in imitation of him; because, as he was very strong in the
arms, and grasped those that try'd his strength that way so hard, that
they were obliged immediately to desire him to desist, his other feats
(wherein his manner of acting was chiefly owing to the mechanical
advantages gained by the position of his body) were entirely attributed
to his extraordinary strength.
But when he had gone out of England, or had ceased to shew his
performances, for eight or ten years; men of ordinary strength found
out the way of making such advantage of the same postures as Joyce had
put himself into, as to pass for men of more than common strength, by
drawing against horses, breaking ropes, lifting vast weights, &c. (tho'
they cou'd in none of the postures really perform so much as Joyce; yet
they did enough to amaze and amuse, and get a great deal of money) so
that every two or three years we have a new SECOND SAMPSON.
Some fifteen years subsequent to Joyce's advent, another so-called
Samson, this time a German named John Charles Van Eckenberg, toured
Europe with a remarkable performance along the same lines as Joyce's.
Dr. Desaguliers saw this man and has this to say of him:
After having seen him once, I guessed at his manner of imposing on the
multitude; and being resolved to be fully satisfied in the matter, I
took four very curious persons with me to see him again, viz. the Lord
Marquis of Tullibardine, Dr. Alexander Stuart, Dr. Pringle, and a
mechanical workman, who used to assist me in my courses of experiments.
We placed ourselves in such a manner round the operator, as to be able
to observe nicely all that he did, and found it so practicable that we
performed several of his feats that evening by ourselves, and
afterwards I did most of the rest as soon as I had a frame made to fit
in to draw, and another to stand in and lift great weights, together
with a proper girdle and hooks.
Dr. Desaguliers illustrates Van Eckenberg's methods in a very
exhaustive set of notes and plates, which are too technical and
voluminous to repeat here, but I will quote sufficiently from them to
make the modus operandi clear. The figures will be found on plate 19.
Figs. 1 and 2 have already been explained.
In breaking the rope one thing is to be observ'd, which will much
facilitate the performance; and that is to place the iron eye L, (Fig.
3) thro' which the rope goes, in such a situation, that a plane going
thro' its ring shall be parallel to the two parts of the rope; because
then the rope will in a manner be jamm'd in it, and not slipping thro'
it, the whole force of the man's action will be exerted on that part of
the rope which is in the eye, which will make it break more easily than
if more parts of the rope were acted upon. So the eye, tho' made round
and smooth, may be said in some measure to CUT THE ROPE. And it is
after this manner that one may break a whip cord, nay, a small
jack-line with one's hand without hurting it; only by bringing one part
of the rope to cut the other; that is, placing it so round one's left
hand, that by a sudden jerk, the whole force exerted shall act on one
point of the rope.
B is a feather bed upon which the performer falls.
The posture of Fig. 4 Plate 19 (where the strong man having an anvil on
his breast or belly, suffers another man to strike with a sledge hammer
and forge a piece of iron, or cut a bar cold with chizzels) tho' it
seems surprising to some people, has nothing in it to be really
wondered at; for sustaining the anvil is the whole matter, and the
heavier the anvil is, the less the blows are felt: And if the anvil
was but two or three times heavier than the hammer, the strong man
would be killed by a few blows; for the more matter the anvil has, the
more INERTIA and the less liable it is to be struck out of its place;
because when it has by the blow receiv'd the whole MOMENTUM of the
hammer, its velocity will be so much less than that of the hammer as it
has more matter than the hammer. Neither are we to attribute to the
anvil a velocity less than the hammer in a reciprocal proportion of
their masses or quantities of matter; for that would happen only if the
anvil was to hang freely in the air (for example) by a rope, and it was
struck horizontally by the hammer. Thus is the velocity given by the
hammer distributed to all parts of a great stone, when it is laid on a
man's breast to be broken; but when the blow is given, the man feels
less of the weight of the stone than he did before, because in the
reaction of the stone, all the parts of it round about the hammer rise
towards the blow; and if the tenacity of the parts of the stone, is not
stronger than the force with which it moves towards the hammer, the
stone must break; which it does when the blow is strong, and struck
upon the centre of gravity of the stone.
In the 6th Fig. of Plate 19, the man IHL (the chairs IL, being made
fast) makes so strong an arch with his backbone and the bones of his
legs and thighs, as to be able not only to sustain one man, but three
or four, if they had room to stand; or, in their stead, a great stone
to be broken with one blow.
In the 6th and 7th Fig. of the same plate, a man or two are raised in
the direction CM, by the knees of the strong man IHL lying upon his
back. A trial will suffice to show that this is not a difficult feat
for a man of ordinary strength.
Wanley [4] enumerates thirty men of might, each of whom was famous in
his time. Notable among them was Barsabas, who first made a reputation
in Flanders, where he lifted the coach of Louis XIV, which had sunk to
the nave in the mud, all the oxen and horses yoked to it having exerted
their strength in vain. For this service the king granted him a
pension, and being soon promoted, he at length rose to be town-major of
Valenciennes.
Barsabas entering one day a farrier's shop in a country village, asked
for horse shoes, the farrier showed him some, which Barsabas snapped in
pieces as if they had been rotten wood, telling the farrier at the same
time that they were too brittle, and good for nothing. The farrier
wanted to forge some more, but Barsabas took up the anvil and hid it
under his cloak. The farrier, when the iron was hot, could not
conceive what had become of his anvil, but his astonishment was still
increased when he saw Barsabas deposit it in its place with the utmost
ease. Imagining that he had got the devil in his shop, he ran out as
fast as he could, and did not venture to return till his unwelcome
visitor had disappeared.
Barsabas had a sister as strong as himself, but as he quitted his home
very young, and before his sister was born, he had never seen her. He
met with her in a small town of Flanders, where she carried on a rope
manufactury. The modern Sampson bought some of her largest ropes which
he broke like pack-thread, telling her they were very bad.--"I will
give some better," replied she, "but will you pay a good price for
them?"--"Whatever you choose," returned Barsabas, showing her some
crown pieces. His sister took them, and breaking two or three of them
said, "Your crowns are as little worth as my ropes, give me better
money." Barsabas, astonished at the strength exhibited by this female,
then questioned her respecting her country and family, and soon learned
that she belonged to the same stock.
The dauphin being desirous to see Barsabas exhibit some of his feats,
the latter said, "My horse has carried me so long that I will carry him
in my turn." He then placed himself below the animal and raising him
up, carried him more than fifty paces, and then placed him on the
ground without being the least hurt.
Barsabas' sister was not unique in her century. I quote from a
magazine called The Parlor Portfolio or Post-Chaise Companion,
published in London in 1724:
To be seen, at Mr. John Syme's, Peruke maker, opposite the Mews,
Charing Cross, the surprising and famous Italian Female Sampson, who
has been seen in several courts of Europe with great applause. She will
absolutely walk, barefoot, on a red-hot bar of iron: a large block of
marble of between two and three thousand weight she will permit to lie
on her for some time, after which she will throw it off at about six
feet distance, without using her hands, and exhibit several other
curious performances, equally astonishing, which were never before seen
in England. She performs exactly at twelve o'clock, and four, and six
in the afternoon. Price half-a-crown, servants and children a shilling.
From the spelling, I judge that the person who selected this lady's
title must have been more familiar with the City Directory than with
the Scriptures.
In Edward J. Wood's Giants and Dwarfs, London, 1868, I find the
following:
A newspaper of December 19th, 1751, announces as follows:
At the new theatre in the Haymarket, this day, will be performed a
concert of musick, in two acts. Boxes 3s., pit 2s., gallery 1s.
Between the acts of the concert will be given, gratis, several
exercises of rope-dancing and tumbling. There is also arrived the
little woman from Geneva, who, by her extraordinary strength, performs
several curious things, viz. 1st. She beats a red-hot iron that is
made crooked straight with her naked feet. 2ndly. She puts her head
on one chair, and her feet on another, in an equilibrium, and suffers
five or six men to stand on her body, which after some time she flings
off. 3rdly. An anvil is put on her body, on which two men strike with
large hammers. 4thly. A stone of a hundred pounds weight is put on
her body, and beat to pieces with a hammer. 5thly. She lies down on
the ground, and suffers a stone of 1500 pounds weight to be laid on her
breasts, in which position she speaks to the audience, and drinks a
glass of wine, then throws the stone off her body by mere strength,
without any assistance. Lastly, she lifts an anvil of 200 pound weight
from the ground with her own hair. To begin exactly at six o'clock.
At present the stunt with the two chairs and the six men is being
exhibited as a hypnotic test.
Giovanni Battista Belzoni, the famous Egyptian archeologist, who was a
man of gigantic stature, began his public career as a strongman at the
Bartholomew Fair, under the management of Gyngell, the conjuror, who
dubbed him The Young Hercules. Shortly afterward he appeared at
Sadler's Wells Theater, where he created a profound sensation, under
the name of The Patagonian Samson. The feature of his act was carrying
a pyramid of from seven to ten men in a manner never before attempted.
He wore a sort of harness with footholds for the men, and when all were
in position he moved about the stage with perfect ease, soliciting
"kind applause" by waving a flag. He afterwards became a magician, and
after various other ventures he finally landed in Egypt, where his
discoveries were of such a nature as to secure for him an enviable
position in "Who's Who in Archeology."
[1] Interesting accounts of Topham's career may be found in Wonders of
Bodily Strength, New York, 1873, a translation from the French of
Depping, by Charles Russell; Sir David Brewster's, Letters on Natural
Magic; London, 1838; Wanley's Wonders of the Little World, London,
1806; Wilson's Wonderful Characters, London, 1821, (but not in the
reprint of 1869).
[2] Or William Joy.
[3] This is the spelling used by Joyce, Eckenberg and others, for the
Samson of the Bible.
[4] Wonders of the little World, by Nathaniel Wanley, London, 1806.
Vol. I., page 76.