Thomas inch a fraud?

[Tom of Iowa2]

I guess it just has to be asked.Excuse my candor and NO disrespect is intended(to those who have reproduced them or to those who have lifted them!!!) but WHY did people start reproducing the dumbells?Why did it become fascinationg to LEGITIMATE modern strongmen to lift it?

Was it before so much was known about THOMAS INCH?

It's almost as if his name is kept alive -by reproducing them- and by having them at 'dinners' and at 'shows' and 'contests' that  we are honoring him as a great strongman!? Although apparently he was a fake and a fraud?!(i do not KNOW this..but that is what I am beginning to see)

Obviously when men are attempting to lift the INCH(i'd like to take a crack at it myself someday!!!) they do it with the thought that it is of some historical significance?

The lifting of the INCH dumbells IS a tough task and obviously takes wrist/forearm and hand strength!! but when the INCH dumbell is brought out at a strongman contest or at a Health food expo or(the ARNOLD)or at a great strongman dinner they don't say:"This is the FAMOUS Thomas Inch dumbell that Thomas INCH 'pretended to' lift"or"This is the unliftable INCH dumbell that Thomas INCH used to deceive people"

No it is not introduced like that.

In fact we are led to believe that it was lifted by an extraordinary strongman of the past and that thousands and thousands(of his time)failed...??

I hope this isn't to blunt but WHY?did this become such a grat feat pf strenght?

(again-from a physical point of view it IS a great feat of strength but from a historical point of view

:crazy  :crazy ?)

I don't know what else to compare it too.Perhaps the fake moonlanding that NASA staged and expects us to believe!LOL

  Seriously i hope this isn't too blunt of question but it appears that others are having a little fun with INCH also.(that film was awful)Who else-in the past-was pulling our leg and selling the ILLUSION of strength tomake moeny or to become famous...

[Roark]

Inch was genuinely strong in some movements with

standard size bars. His deception entered in regard

to his thick bells.

The introductions in regard to the replicas may have

been voiced by people who, instead of studying the

history, simply mimed what they had been told.

There are some websites that claim Inch manhandled the

172 at will. It will be interesting to watch now to see

if that text is changed to adapt to truth.

[Tom of Iowa2]

Don't get me wrong.Those Dumbells are an incredible sight and it's awesome that there are more and more of them available.Huge pieces of iron.But maybe they should be renamed?

.Keep it simple.

Maybe its just me but its as if the myth that INCH could man handle em-and that NOBODY else could is perpetuated....everytime a big strong guy try's to lift it and fails...?it continues the 'legend'.

On the other hand -based on photos of the guy plus his height and weight-it was illogical for us to believe it at all?!

How strong was he?Could he power clean 325# when he was 17 years old ???  

[RSW]

Tom,

      Inch could lift the dumbell, and he could bentpress the dumbell.  What he could not do was one-hand clean and press the dumbell.  Read Roark's Ironhistory.

Robert

[ChrisJames]

I don't think that Thomas Inch was a phoney strongman at all ,i believe he could lift the dumbell.The man was 56 years old at the time but he still managed to clean a dumbell that the three other gentlemen couldn't budge.

He didn't hold the dumbell in the hammer curl position , he rested it briefly on the belt like a continental.

That dumbell wasn't the 172 lb challenge dumbell but did he have more than one challenge .I believe being a professional strongman he did.

Do we call Louis Uni a fake , phoney and fraud knowing that he used fake weights in some of his performances.I certainly don't and i still believe he's one of the strongest of all time.

Let's not put him down any longer ,but enjoy the fact that we have had the pleasure of watching one of the masters in action.

[Roark]

Chris,

I respect your strength, so I hope you are joking with

that post.

For one year I have outlined INCH 101 at ironhistory

and will not repeat all that here, but I truly hope you

are unaware of that series. The video substantiates my

research.

Briefly, Inch did NOT allow a continental in the challenge,

he asserted it was clean-all-the-way.

To mention Inch in the same breath as Apollon is

disrepectful to a man who ALWAYS had his weights and his

strength levels at the ready for a challenge. True, he had

various weighted bells, but he never called on others to

fake failure so he would look better.

Inch was genuinely strong in some lifts at a younger age,

but true strength is within, and how weak must one be to

mislead others about lifts, AND to disparage Saxon,

Padoubny, and Deriaz as weaker than himself?

You were not watching a master, you were watching a

past master, who was deceiving viewers. HE IS DISREPECTING

US, by such folly.

The whole matter, were it not so inherently sad, would

be laughable.

[ChrisJames]

Joe, i respect your research and your historian prowess and i agree that he shouldn't have used Arthur Saxon as an example ,when they were in different leagues.But i do believe that he was a good strongman.Reg Park couldn't duplicate his all his lifts and he was no slouch in the strength department.

I did not mean to catagorise Inch and Apollon ,but just to use has an example, Apollons casseroles , etc.

On reflection Inch was wrong perhaps to decieve the way he did and to try and hang on to something he once had at the expense of others reputations.

[Roark]

Chris,

Just a point: What Inch was trying to hang onto,

the image of him one handing the 172, he never

really had in the first place-it was all smoke and

mirrors.

He was a genuine strongman in other ways, but

the factor that gave him decades long recognition

was not genuine.

Anyway, your feats are going to factor strongly into

the present and future of the sport, so let's concentrate

on documenting your achievements!

[Tom of Iowa2]

I hope not to offend anyone.- but Iwas useing sarcasm to make a point that he was (inadvertantly?)disrespectful to ALL strongmen-modern or old?by being deceptive?? .I don't understand why one would belittle others or even deceive others to prove how strong they are.Either you're strong or your not..Sorry I just don't get it. He apparently never manhandled the 172 and at times used the lighter 152 but may?have represented the 152 as being the 172?

Also his age of 56 can't really justify that he was trying to be sort of sneeky? Or that its ok because he was old?

As far as the other 3 gentlemen?(who couldn't budge it?)I guess my thought would be that if INCH was the type of person that would deceive us in one way?why not deceive us in another way?i.e.why couldn't he just have lacky's that would 'attempt' to lift it?

In boxing we have had many fighters 'take a dive',fights HAVE been FIXED(historical facts) but again this is hypothetical -how hard would it be to get somebody to 'try'to lift something?Setting up cameras and getting this documentary was quite an undertaking in those days...probably took some time to organize?how 'hard'would it be to pay someone else off?

Consider that in that era(and it continues to this day) it was very common for fighters to' take a dive' in front of 2 judges and a referee and a huge crowd......strength event would be easier to "FIX"-audiences easier to deceive and there were NO judges?

We have a gentleman at the  gym i work out at-his name is DeEdwyn Shaw and a couple of weeks ago in a sanctioned meet with 3 judges- at the age of 65 he squatted 606 and deadlifted 556 and then(third attempt)got 611# to his knees on the deadlift.He plays by the same rules as everybody else.Odd Haugen at 54 competes fairly in the brutal world of pro strongman without deception against 25 year olds.There are a lot of old dudes out there that don't play tricks on us?

Like i said-I just don't get it?You're either THAT strong or your NOT

:crazy

Perhaps his real contribution to the strength world WAS that he created these huge dumbells which in turn have been reproduced and ARE a wonderful test of strength!

[RiotGrip]

I can't believe we've arrived at this discussion once again.   ???

[mobsterone]

Its ok Greg its all a trick

[Tom of Iowa2]

How can I find the thread where this was discussed?

Obviously this discussion happened before I go here.....and before this latest film clip was found....

[Roark]

Tom,

Run a search on Inch-there should be quite a lot on

the grip board- especially before we moved.

But ironhistory.com ran a series this past year which may

also be of help. If you donate, search by typying INCH101

and all the series should come up.

[Bill Piche]

I can't believe we've arrived at this discussion once again.   ???

Greg, the clip is obviously new and interesting data.

[Roark]

Imagine if film clips existed for Apollon's railcar wheels

lift, or Goerner's deadlifts, or Cyr's one finger lifts, or

Saxon's heaviest bent presses!

Even though we argue these matters, as I have with

Inch, the film clips would certainly help our conclusions.

It's an old argument with new evidence.

Several generations have believed an error of strength

history which can now be corrected.

Sometimes it is too late for justice, but it is never too

late for truth.

[OldGuy]

Joe, can we be certain that the dumbbell now owned ky Kim Wood once belonged to Thomas Inch? Supposedly Dave Prowse tracked it down to a man who had it stored in a shed. Do we know that it  is the same bell that the father of Reg Park kept in his store after Inch had given it to Reg? Are there any very old pics of this dumbbell?

[Roark]

There is no doubt, read that NO DOUBT, in my mind

that the bells Kim Wood owns (and that I showed him

how to lift; okay, I drifted away there for a moment)

is the bell that was the original 172.

There are many reasons, and there are photos of Inch

with it and later photos. AND, there is that puzzling hole

which Inch described in the handle.

Now, Inch is claiming that the nutted bell is the bell

that stopped Saxon, so we have a fifth Inch bell.

Stay tuned.

[ChrisJames]

There's supposed to be film footage of Goerner cleaning  his challenge barbell and doing other feats of strength.That would be a find !!

I'd like to congratulate the resourceful Holle boys on bringing the footage to our attention on the board.

Well done boys !!

PS...get working onthe Goerner film  :p  :p

[OldGuy]

Joe, what do you know about the nutted dumbbells of the type shown in that old 1939 clip? Were they likely also to be hollow and shot loadable? Were the nuts just the means of fixing the globes onto the handle. Notice how Inch did not say how heavy that bell was, only that together with the other dumbbell was equal to 276 lbs. Don't you also feel that anyone who failed to lift the bell would at least try it with two hands to see just how heavy it was? The men in the clip did not do this. Everyone who has tried and failed with my Inch homemade bell has then lifted it off the floor two handed.

[Roark]

The men in the clip appear to me to be either shills or

totally ignorant of how to lift. I suspect shills. Someone

needed to tell them that the beginning of the clean

requires a pull not a push.

I assume the bell was hollow, therefore shot loadable.

In the ironhistory gallery, we posted a photo of one of

Louis Cyr's bells, and if you look closely, you can see

the filling hole is on 'top' of the sphere-much easier to

load because the other parts of the bell could remain

assembled during filling.

I have a loadable 150 lb bell whose globes appear to be

similar in size to the bell in the clip. The globes are less

than half filled with shot, and when my bell is lifted,

and then turned, that shot starts flowing, and balance

becomes difficult. Inch appeared to have no difficulty

in this regard, first when the bell was between his legs, or during the vertical part of the lift, so my guess is that the

bell was hollow. Then the question of sphere-wall thickness

becomes the issue.

Wonder where that bell is now?

[OldGuy]

The bell was last seen floating down the river Thames after Inch's wife threw it from Tower Bridge. It did have a hollow ring to it when the guy struck it with a hammer. I refuse to believe that thousands tried to lift any of Inch's bells.

[Bill Piche]

There's supposed to be film footage of Goerner cleaning  his challenge barbell and doing other feats of strength.That would be a find !!

I'd like to congratulate the resourceful Holle boys on bringing the footage to our attention on the board.

Well done boys !!

PS...get working onthe Goerner film  :p  :p

I agree. That was a BIG time find!

[Tom Black]

I've downloaded quite a few videos from the site.  From news stories on the web it appears that it has only been up since November 19th.  The best search I've done so far has been "Strongman".

Search:"Strongman"

What really got me excited was a video that they have as coming soon:

   “A long haired strongman combs his locks. He puts combs into his hair and then ties a rope to it. He then pulls along a large lorry with people seated on it.”

This sure sounds like the Mighty Atom too me.

Here are two other newsreel sites, but I haven't found any strongman stuff on these:

Movie Tone

Internet Movie Archive

It's exciting to think that in a few years all the old newsreel movies may be available on the net.