The First Bullet Man Was Not a Bullet Man: She Was a Woman
Although he did not come from Krypton, nor was he bitten by a radioactive spider or is not a bat-suited tycoon, he is also a superhero: the Bullet Man.
What is a bullet man?
Who was the first bullet man?
How many bullet men are there in the world?
Humans have always longed to fly through the clear blue sky; in some ways, we have succeeded: parachutes or airplanes, among many other technological marvels, allow us to find a way to blaze through the sky.
But human bullets take a unique path into an extremely dangerous wild blue: these reckless subjects penetrate the tight confines of massive cannons that fire them into the air, and, even with a long history rooted in the circuses of yesteryear, it seems that no one has yet mastered the art of becoming the ball of the cannon.
What is a bullet man?
The technical definition of the bullet man contemplates that this is a human projectile of flesh and bone that a cannon expels as a bomb until it lands in a giant net that acts as a stop.
They date from the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it said that initially, it was more of a comedy show than a show of risk or skill and that there were very few members of this guild.
Those who consider themselves professionals and boast a long career in the trade highlight the moment of firing as something hazardous.
Who was the first bullet man?
A woman paradoxically fired the first shot recorded as a bullet man, well, rather a fourteen-year-old teenager, Rossa Matilda Richter, in the city of London, and versions of the distance of the launch range from six to eleven meters in length.
The bullet man show is entirely linked to the circus world and could be considered one of the most dangerous.
Like a giant slingshot, the cannon propels the human projectile through a huge spring mechanism (sometimes also hydraulic).
The shot has no gunpowder or fire; they are part of the show.
It is a way of making it up, of decoration, which makes it even more impressive.
Although you will never hear it from the mouth of a bullet man, it is an open secret that they keep even though they are aware of it.
It is impossible to separate the bullet man from the circus world. He comes from it and continues in it.
Although the circus of our days is television, it used to be a big top.
Around it, for several days, there were a series of shows for young and old to enjoy the different “wonders of nature,” extraordinary things; jugglers, acrobats, animals, clowns, or strange phenomena.
That is the world of our genuine and charismatic bullet man, where he comes from, the universe in which he lives wrapped, and his small and nomadic family in the background.
In general, boys and girls of that time dreamed of becoming, much like today, fantastic characters from the literature of the time. The girls were princesses, and the boys were brave squires.
But Rossa Matilde Richter, stage name Zazel, the first bullet girl, i.e., the first human projectile ever recorded in history, dreamed of other adventures.
She grew up in the circus and imagined working as an elephant tamer from an early age, flying as a trapeze artist, going through the ring of fire doing an acrobatic somersault, and having the bearded lady as her best friend.
Deep down, it was a dream well within her reach. But she never imagined that she would be the first bullet man in history. (Used the attribute man to make it clear that she was the first between men and women)
It is unknown why she chose it, but it is not macabre to think she uses it as a guinea pig. Be that as it may, there it remains.
Zazel performed several times in the shows of the P.T. Barnum Circus and traveled to France and the USA until she suffered a terrible accident in New Mexico where she broke her back and had to abandon her profession as a bullet woman.
History Of A Gunshot
The inventor of the cannon mechanism was Gran Farinni, who took the commission from Phineas Taylor Barnum’s circus and instantly saw the trick of incorporating special effects into the cannon to make the shots more spectacular.
Thus the fireworks synchronized with the sound of the image, and the launching simulated an explosion, and unbeknownst to the audience, the bullet man seemed to dodge death twice in one leap.
Once at the fire of the blast and once at the height of the jump.
But the truth, without detracting from his courage, is that he only did it once because he propelled the launch by a giant spring that drove him into the void but did not burn.
After Zazel’s jump, the Zacchinis, an Italian family settled in the USA, appeared in 1920.
They used two cannons in their performances, something innovative at the time, and the whole family participated, six brothers and two sisters.
The accident that marked the end of this career occurred in 1940 when one of the brothers, Mario, had to retire for good after suffering a tremendous accident, a decisive event for the family group.
Which ended definitively when in 1970, his niece Linda broke her neck when she collided in mid-air with her husband Emanuel in the middle of the performance.
Guinness World Records:
1877: Rosa Richter, known as Zazel, is the first person recorded as a human bullet with a 6-meter shot at the Royal Aquarium in London.
1940: Emanuel Zacchini, born into a family of human bullets, achieved the world record with 53 meters.
1995: David Smith Snr surpasses the feat by flying 55 meters.
2011: His son, David Smith Jr, beats his father’s record by flying 59 meters in Milan.
Today’s most extraordinary team of bullet men formed of two professionals descended from a family in the trade, Robin and Chachi, forever linked by the cannon.
The pair met in Houston, Texas, in 1988 while Robin was watching his cousin, a bullet man, perform.
Then, they formed a team where Robin played the projectile and Chachi the pulsator.
Until 2008, when Robin suffered an accident that caused a severe injury that kept him away for a long time, his partner replaced him.
They say that after the accident, on the way to the hospital, in the ambulance, he told her, “do you think you can replace me as a bullet woman? Could you do it for me?” and so began the career of one of today’s most relevant bullet women.
She uses a cannon with which she flies about 30 meters.
One of her last shows was at the closing of the London Olympic Games while playing Eric Idle’s song. Quite a climax.
Only about ten people work as bullet men worldwide.
The power of the shot launches the projectile at about 100 km/h.
It requires a hardened physical and mental state and a lot of experience.
Sources:
http://www.lasegunda.com
https://choppermonster.com
https://es.wikipedia.org
Thanks for reading!
Rocio Becerra