Friday, April 26, 2019

TRAPEZE #11


Posted by Chic Silber at 4/26/2019 12:14:00 PM

4 comments:

Roger Smith said...

Her trap looks like it had been a fly bar, but it's the first time I've seen this wrapping.

26 April, 2019 20:14
Roger Smith said...

I had signed on today, thinking all single traps. On 2nd glance, she is likely in a flying act, but I still can't figure that wrapping.

I'm a nuts-and-bolts inquirer, always seeking to know the how of how things are done. Long-time flyers told me they wrapped their fly bars with muslin, then dusted them heavily with rosin. During WW II, muslin was among the many supplies strictly rationed by the war effort, and some flyers wrapped their bars with adhesive tape. They needed to be white so flying returns could find them in a normally darkened Big Top. But the adhesive tape proved dangerously slick, and no amount of rosin made for better grips. Other cloth wrappings also were not the same as muslin, on which there was a run by flying acts at war's end.

26 April, 2019 20:30
Chic Silber said...


Yes Roger this is likely to be a fly bar

There have been many methods & materials

used in wrapping bars both single & fly

An often used style was & maybe still is

an under wrap of friction or hockey tape

then overwrapped with gauze or twill tape

Gauze has a better grip but needs fairly

often replacement

I've wrapped & rewrapped many a bar

26 April, 2019 21:02
Chic Silber said...


Thanks for noticeing Roger

I'll take this girl out of

the single trap category

26 April, 2019 21:08

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