|
We started by entering "human cannonball" into the search bar. Although Yahoo! does not have a category for this oddity, the search did return several web pages containing the phrase. It took a few clicks, but eventually we discovered, like many things at the circus, not everything is as it seems. About halfway down our search results we found a web page entitled, "The Straight Dope: How do "human cannonballs" survive?" Apparently someone else had wondered how the "live ammunition" emerges relatively unscathed. The Straight Dope offered the answer: Human cannonballs aren't blasted from the cannon with gunpowder. They're propelled
by a catapult. The flash, loud noise and smoke are supplied by firecrackers and such. Mind you, being "shot" out of a cannon, flying 100 feet in the air, and attempting to land in a small area isn't exactly a walk in the park. It's not the blast or flight that injures or kills the human cannonball -- the landing is the hard part. For some video clips of a human cannonball in action, head over to ABC News' "Life on the Road With the Human Cannonball." Jon Weiss, from Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, explains what it's like to be shot out of a cannon night after night.
|
