Jump to content

Talk:Biggest ball of twine

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Quote section

[edit]

The twine ball article had a quote section which consisted of an unattributed lyric snippet from "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota". I'm a WAY fan, but I didn't think those few lines added much to the article.DLTR -- Ventura 22:55, 2005 Jun 2 (UTC)

Other balls

[edit]

According to both World's Largest Things and the Roadside America article, there are at least two other giant twine balls, but not sisal twine. Anyone care to research those? -- Ventura 22:55, 2005 Jun 2 (UTC)

Somewhere I read about another ball of twine which was even larger than the two listed here, but was disqualified because it was made by a machine rather than by hand. (No idea what kind of twine it was, or even why that matters...) Wish I remembered where - some magazine or something. Must be referenced somewhere. --Lurlock 22:33, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In the late 1970's Art Professor Goerge Bucher, Susquehanna University (PA), constructed what was at the time the largest diameter "twine ball" known. Alas, while it was a 14-foot diameter "twine ball," it was hollow, so twine ball enthusiasts rejected it for the record. However, it is probably the only twine ball that ever made it to the pages of Playboy Magazine which featured a photo of the professor and his ball under a headline, "He's Got balls." The ball was a work of art which students participated in creating. It was made in the photo studio of the New Holland farm equipment division of Sperry Rand Corp. in New Holland, Pa., the famous New Holland hay baler manufacturer, which contributed the twine and the studio space for its construction. Bucher laboriously wound the twine over a framework of plaster lathing (the students revolved the frame set on spindles)using a fishing pole and running back and forth as the ball turned. It was coated with polyurathane after each inch layer of twine. I was public relations superbisor for New Holland and we filmed the entire process for The New Holland Agri-Newsreel. More than 1,000 newspaper and magazine clippings resulted from this story. The twine ball was displayed when New Holland opened its new world headquarters building soon after the ball was completed. Bucher ultimately took the twine ball on tour to several east coast universities. As a follow up, I later "discovered" Francis Johnson at a "Steam Days" event in Minnesota while I was filming there. He was displaying a giant pair of scissors he had carved and invited me to film his "giant twine ball" At the time it was 12-feet in diameter. He "wound" the ball under a tree from which he had a series of ceramic electric wire insulators threaded with twine and used a pole similar to what Bucher had used to guide the twine onto his art ball. I provided Charles Kuralt with some of our footage and he visited Johnson for his "On The Road" tv show. Charles later told me it was one of his most fascinating segments and included in his "Special" where Charles Johnson was a guest. Johnson had several quanset huts for his various collections. One was filled with what he cliamed were more than 100,000 advertising ballpoint pens. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Some Guy in Arizona (talkcontribs) 21:21, 18 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cultural references

[edit]

I may have my roadside attractions mixed up, but didn't the archangel Michael insist on stopping to see one of these balls in the film Michael? --Mothperson 30 June 2005 00:48 (UTC) There are too many cultural references to visiting a giant ball of twine for wikipedia to reasonably include most of them.128.101.70.121 19:40, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Size Discrepancy

[edit]

This article claims that Stoeber's ball is now the world's largest and heaviest ball of sisal twine, at 17,000 lbs. and over 7,000,000 feet. However, Johnson's ball is listed it as weighing 17,500 lbs. Either these numbers are incorrect, or Johnson's ball is bigger - or at least heavier. A total length is not given for Johnson's ball, and a total diameter is not given for Stoeber's. By the measurements that are given, Johnson's ball is the biggest.

XKCD

[edit]

This page is currently referenced in today's XKCD comic. There might be some minor vandalism incoming to try to influence today's xkcd comic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.226.68.3 (talk) 17:22, 1 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah... I recommend putting in a special spot at the top of the article so people can play there but not alter the actual meaningful information.

Cawker nonsense

[edit]

So this article claims the diameter of the Cawker ball decreased by 3 feet from 1974 to 2014?! --Espoo (talk) 01:26, 25 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There's references. Prove the references aren't correct. • SbmeirowTalk05:26, 25 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]
[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Biggest ball of twine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 01:45, 20 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]