Physical strength has been a prized human attribute since prehistory. Here we celebrate some strongmen from bygone times.
Survival
Since prehistoric times, extraordinary physical development and strength have been crucial to the development of the human species: our ancestors had to literally struggle for existence against hunger, savage beasts, and equally savage neighbours. Perhaps it is that basic survival instinct that strong men arouse in us, and make them objects of popular interest. So let us here celebrate some of those men of yesteryear who strove to be strong.
Wrestling
The great Greek philosopher Plato’s first ambition in life was to be a professional wrestler. He twice won the wrestling prize at the Isthmian Games, but never quite made it to the Olympics, so he ended up as a philosopher. The Bible records the exploits of Samson, and Greek mythology gave us Hercules, who in his infancy, killed with his bare hands serpents which had been sent to devour him.
Major Barsaba
In the sixteenth century, it was claimed that Christopher, Duke of Bavaria lifted to his shoulders a stone weighing more than 340 pounds; and in eighteenth-century France, a Major Barsaba lifted an iron anvil in a blacksmith’s forge and placed it under his coat. Barsaba also had powerful hands and fingers, and he could roll a silver plate into the shape of a goblet. Once, when shaking hands with an opponent who had challenged him to a feat of strength, Barsaba crushed all the bones of his adversary’s fingers.
Tom Johnson
Tom Johnson was a strong man and a celebrated boxer, who lived in eighteenth- century London, where he worked as a porter, carrying sacks of wheat and corn from the wharves to the warehouses. It was said that if one of his friends was ill, and unable to provide support for his wife and children, Johnson would do their work too, carrying twice the load. He heard that porters in Paris carried up stairs bags of flour each weighing 159 kilograms (350 pounds) on their shoulders. Johnson duplicated this feat with three sacks.
George Sandow
In the nineteenth century the Englishman George Sandow not only possessed remarkable strength, but exerted extraordinary power over his muscles, and could contract ordinarily invouluntary muscle groups in time to music. Given that the dietary refinements we take for granted today were all but absent when Sandow performed, his physique was doubly impressive.
Jaw Power
Some people can exhibit extraordinary jaw power, and the human adult is said to exert a force of between 45 and 65 pounds between his teeth, with some individuals exceeding this range by as much as 100 pounds. So be careful: ‘ducking for apples’ competitions could be more hazardous than you think.
