A DANGEROUS FEAT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1083, 15 March 1883, Page 3

A DANGEROUS FEAT.

The Philadelphia Times gives the following description of the dangerous and daring act of Signor Leonati. who is daily running the risk of breaking his neck in making a series of ascents and descents on an elevated spiral roadway on an ordinary bicycle : —“ The track is just 12 inches wide, without a railing or a safeguard of any kind. It rises ten inches in thirty-six, and describes a circle of only twelve feet in diameter. The distance he has to travel from the ground to the top of the canvass is some 250 leet. This act is certainly the most wonderful and dangerous performance ever accomplished, and Leonati was the first to attempt, and the only one ever able to accomplish it. Only a few clays ago a daring gymnast attempted tu imitate it in the city of Boston, and before he had reached one quarter of the way up the spiral he fell

and broke his neck, despite the arrange-

meats he had made to save himself by means of a guard rope, a thing Leonati does not use. He rides upon a spider bicycle, with a 40 iuch wheel and a 15 inch trail wheel. In going round the constant curve of the spiral the wheels are spread apart six inches, so that he has only three inches on either side to ride upon. That is, if either wheel should go one side or the other but three inches it would leave the track and the daring rider would be daslnd to the ground beneath, and could only be saved from serious injury or death by a miracle, and it is safe to assume that the day of miracles is passed. Anyone, thou who has seen a person ride upon a frail, unsteady, wriggling bicycle can appreciate, perhaps, the hazardous nature of the performance, even if it were done cu an elevated straight track, with but three inches of room on either side of the wheels ; but when it comes to a track that is not only a small circle, but ascends at a ratio of ten to thirty-six inches, it passes the comprehension of possibility. Still more marvellous than the ascent is the decent. First of all is the start. All bicycle riders know the difficulty of mounting a bicycle and retaining equilibrium without first giving it an impetus ; that it is next to impossible to mount a bicycle while it is standing still and start off. Well, this is just what Leonati has to do. At the top of the spiral the track is level about the length of the machine, and widened about a foot. Arriving at the top he lifts his machine round. The wheel stands facing—nothing—empty air, with nothing below it but the ground some 6d feet below. When he mounts his bicycle he starts it from a dead standstill, and instantly turns the wheel to the left. There is no chance to remedy a mistake, or to start over again. The start is to be accuracy itself or it is the last of Signor Leonati, and once started, the same supreme control of nerve and muscle must be maintained throughout the perilous journey. It is, indeed, the mest sensational performance before the public. It has been the reigning sensation in Reuz’s circus, at Berlin for the past year.