Safety
In the early years of young Mr. Leotard's performances, the flying trapeze did not have the safety net as is typically seen today. He would perform over a series of mattresses on a raised runway to give the audience a better view of his tricks or "passes."
Most modern flyers start out wearing a safety harness, while a trainer on the ground controls the lines and will pull them if the flyer is in a dangerous situation. Pulling on the lines will suspend the flyer in the air, and letting go of the lines slowly will bring the flyer to the ground safely. Once a flyer has mastered a particular trick, they will take off the safety harness. Every safe flying trapeze rig will always have a large net underneath the rig. Many flyers in the circus do not start out using safety belts. Those flyers who are not wearing safety harnesses learn how to fall safely into the net in case they miss a catch or unexpectedly fall off the bar or off the catcher.
Several risky flying trapeze acts have been performed without safety nets in earlier circus days, but it would be rare to find this kind of act today, as most flying trapeze acts are performed between 20 and 40 feet above the ground.
Read more about this topic: Flying Trapeze
Famous quotes containing the word safety:
“Perhaps having built a barricade when you’re sixteen provides you with a sort of safety rail. If you’ve once taken part in building one, even inadvertently, doesn’t its usually latent image reappear like a warning signal whenever you’re tempted to join the police, or support any manifestation of Law and Order?”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions formerly associated with it, they can no longer retreat to the safety of those conventions. The woman who rejects the stereotype of feminine weakness and dependence can no longer find much comfort in the cliché that all men are beasts. She has no choice except to believe, on the contrary, that men are human beings, and she finds it hard to forgive them when they act like animals.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)
“If we can find a principle to guide us in the handling of the child between nine and eighteen months, we can see that we need to allow enough opportunity for handling and investigation of objects to further intellectual development and just enough restriction required for family harmony and for the safety of the child.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)