Record-Breaking Stainless Steel Wire!
Recent editions of the BS Stainless blog have been centered squarely on stainless steel wire, one of the most versatile and useful formats of the ubiquitous alloy. We continue on the topic in this article but, instead of focusing on the industrial and commercial uses for the material, we look at some of the times that stainless steel wire has made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
World's Longest Pendulum
This is one of the oldest records in the world famous book, having been set over a century ago way back in 1901. It was in this year that a team of researchers from the Michigan College of Mines, led by Professor Fred McNair, decided to carry out a scientific experiment to determine how two pendulums behave at extreme lengths. Two lengths of steel piano wire, each measuring a massive 1,353 metres in length, were lowered into the deepest shaft at Tamarack Mines in Michigan. The experiment proved that the bobs of each pendulum were further apart at the bottom of the mine than at the top.
World's Largest Dental Caps
Stainless steel, with its extraordinary strength, light weight and innately high level of hygiene, is used for numerous medical applications from fashioning custom implants to creating precision surgical tools. Measuring 13cm in diameter and 50cm in length, the world's largest dental caps were created by engineers from Canada's Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. After completion, the caps were used to help repair the cracked tusks of Spike, an Asian elephant residing at Alberta's Calgary Zoo.
World's Longest Chinese Dragon
Volunteers from Markham in Canada and Zhongshan in China worked in a collaborative project to build the world's longest fully-operable Chinese dancing dragon, which was officially measured to be the whopping length of just over 5,568m! To construct the head, a frame was made using stainless steel wire to which was attached papier-mâché, foam and faux fur elements.
The dragon was operated by over 3,000 people for a period of 11 minutes to set the record. Incidentally, stainless steel was also the material of choice to craft the poles which were held by operators to make the impressive dragon dance.
World's Largest Flower Structure
Stainless steel wire is a popular material used by sculptors, as is well evidenced by the artists and BS Stainless customers Robin Wight and Candice Bees. The largest flower structure, which is in the shape of a castle, is made from over 120 tonnes of stainless steel wire and took 70 days to complete.
The structure can be found at the Jin Xiu Anren Flower Park in China, where its dimensions (37.66 metres in length, 23.45 metres in height and 26.06 metres in width) absolutely dwarf the spectators that flock to the attraction to see it. 74,000 flower pots adorn the stainless steel wire frame, containing a wide range of different flowering plants including ivy, rhododendrons and chrysanthemums.
BS Stainless is the UK's premier supplier of stainless steel wire in all of its forms and grades. Whatever purpose it is used for, our stainless steel wire is guaranteed to be of the very best quality and made available at the most competitive price.
Please browse the BS Stainless website for more information about our stainless steel wire and do not hesitate to contact our technical team if you have any further questions or need expert advice.