PoleVaultPower.com

When browsing The Illustrated History of the Pole Vault, there's a picture of an vaulter breaking a pole (p198) - it's cited as the vaulter being unknown. This picture appeared in T&F News in the early 90s. He was a German vaulter, however I can't recall his name.

Regardless, what it made me remember was the context of why that picture was originally published. He was vaulting on an experimental pole that was filled with a gas. Did it make it lighter? Improve the performance of the pole? I have no idea. Does anybody remember this or have a clue about this pole?

It could have been a joke by T&F News like when they published a blurb around '90 that Bubka was going to enroll at Blinn Junior College to study Archeology.

achtungpv wrote:When browsing The Illustrated History of the Pole Vault, there's a picture of an vaulter breaking a pole - it's cited as the vaulter being unknown. This picture appeared in T&F News in the early 90s. He was a German vaulter, however I can't recall his name.

Regardless, what it made me remember was the context of why that picture was originally published. He was vaulting on an experimental pole that was filled with a gas. Did it make it lighter? Improve the performance of the pole? I have no idea. Does anybody remember this or have a clue about this pole?

It could have been a joke by T&F News like when they published a blurb around '90 that Bubka was going to enroll at Blinn Junior College to study Archeology.

I remember it has been vaguely alluded to on this site...

I found this:

http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4100

Sometime in the 1970s some German guy (not Von Braun) inflated Helium
in his fiberglass pole to make it lighter. It exploded I think when
the gas was compressed when the flexion of the pole occured.

wow thats kinda crazy, but good for him for trying legal things to get him higher..

Maybe he should have put a one-way valve on the top of the pole to release some of the gas when pressure increased to keep it from exploding. You'd have to fill it up before each jump though.

Ha! Imagine, you get called up by the official, then tell them to hold on since you need a little extra time to pump up your pole...

I read of the possibility of using compressed gas in a general book about track and field back in the early seventies. The suggestion was to use a very thin metal pole with gas that would be compressed more on flexion and return energy.

I tried this with air in PVC. 150 lb is not enough to cause a noticible difference in stiffness in an eight-foot length of PVC (tested by hanging a weight).

What about a vacuum?

I gotta give this guy credit for thinking out of the box...but come on...do you really think air molecules are going to make a difference in the weight of a pole? Terrible idea.

I believe it was filled with helium. Is that enough gas to make a difference in the carry weight of a 5-8 lbs pole?

The pole would be lighter if filled with helium but it would be even lighter if no gas was in it (ie. a vacuum). However, it would not be worth the trouble to evacuate it or fill it with helium since eliminating the air would only decrease the weight by about .0034 pounds. (In case someone was wondering, this is based on a 14' pole with an inside diameter of 1.2")

- master

Sebes wrote:I gotta give this guy credit for thinking out of the box...but come on...do you really think air molecules are going to make a difference in the weight of a pole? Terrible idea.

I think the idea is more likely to stiffen a thin-walled pole by compressing gas in it. The gas compresses as the pole bends, and the return could theoretically be more efficient than from a thicker-walled and heavier pole.

Rhino wrote:

Sebes wrote:I gotta give this guy credit for thinking out of the box...but come on...do you really think air molecules are going to make a difference in the weight of a pole? Terrible idea.

I think the idea is more likely to stiffen a thin-walled pole by compressing gas in it. The gas compresses as the pole bends, and the return could theoretically be more efficient than from a thicker-walled and heavier pole.

Or it could explode...