23-mile paper chain

Butch Baker of Four Oaks, North Carolina began making a paper chain in 1979. The chain is now 23-miles long, weighs 2300 pounds, and takes up much of his living room. And he’s still working on it. (He knows it's length because he's been measuring it as he makes it.)

The problem is, Butch is 78 and doesn't know what will happen to the chain when he dies.

More info: news observer

image source: Four Oaks Journal - Feb 2016 (pdf)

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 12, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Hobbies and DIY, World Records

Most Cockroach-Infested Home

In early 1997, Combat Insect Control ran a contest offering a $5000 cash prize to the person with the most cockroach-infested home.

The winner, from over 1000 people who entered, was Mary Esposito of Forest Park, Georgia. She complained that she had roaches living in her dishwasher, refrigerator, oven, coffeemaker, VCR, wallpaper, dresser drawers, and bathtub faucet. An entomologist hired by Combat estimated there were 75,000 roaches in her home.

Somehow I don't think that "most cockroach-infested home" is a record that will ever make its way into Guinness.

Orlando Sentinel - June 12, 1997

Palm Beach Post - Mar 16, 1997

Posted By: Alex - Fri Oct 27, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: Insects, World Records, 1990s

Endurance Bowling

Back in 1930, George Kinder of Milwaukee set a record for endurance bowling. He bowled for 50 hours 20 mins, rolling 362 ½ games. He had to quit because "his thumb was badly split, blistered and torn, and he couldn't grasp the ball."

Courier News - Jan 13, 1930

41 years later, Richard Dewey of Kansas City set a new endurance record. He bowled for 98 hrs 45 mins, rolling 1220 games. But Dewey also had to quit because of injuries:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch - May 26, 1971

More recently, in 2010, Stephen Shanabrook of Plano, Texas set a new record, bowling for 134 hrs 57 min. However, he completed only 643 games, which is only about half the number Dewey rolled in less time. Nevertheless, according to Guinness, Shanabrook is the current record holder.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 19, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: Sports, World Records

World’s Largest Corkscrew

I just returned from visiting family in the Northern Neck region of Virginia. One of the oddities I encountered there was the giant corkscrews which stand at the entrance to the Dog and Oyster Vineyard in Irvington. Inside the vineyard, they'll tell you that these, at 40-feet tall, are the largest corkscrews in the world, and also that they're functional. If you bring a giant bottle of wine, they could open it.



I don't think this claim has been officially verified in any way. And since the corkscrews are anchored to the ground, I think they'd have trouble opening anything.

Another claimant to the title of World's Largest Corkscrew is a giant corkscrew that stands outside the Corkscrew Liquor Store in Hurley, Wisconsin. According to the Chicago Tribune it's only 24-feet tall, so the Dog and Oyster corkscrews have it beat.

image source: waymarking.com

According to Guinness, the record for the largest corkscrew goes to one that was only 5ft 8.1 in long that was created for the Watterfaescht festival in 2015. It was actually demonstrated to work, which I assume that Guinness considers to be essential for claiming the title.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 07, 2017 - Comments (1)
Category: World Records

Around the world on commercial airlines

In 1979, two Vancouver businessmen, Orst Perry and Adolf Schiel, set a world record for traveling around the world on commercial airlines. They started in Vancouver and ended up in Vancouver. They did this in 54 hours, 42 minutes. It cost them $7000 each.

I can think of a lot better ways to spend $7000 than sitting on a plane for several days. But it seems that others have pursued this same record. A press release from Nov 2016 says that Brother Michael Bartlett set a new record for flying around the world on commercial airlines by doing it in 57 hours, 17 minutes.

That's slower than the time set in 1979, but I'm guessing that Bartlett must have adhered to stricter rules. It says that he had to "cross the equator and land at points that are approximately 108 degrees apart and roughly on the same north–south longitude."

Notre Dame Observer - Feb 28, 1979

Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 30, 2017 - Comments (3)
Category: World Records, Air Travel and Airlines, 1970s

Longest Sermon Ever

Back in 1937, Rev. A. Earl Lee set a record for preaching the longest sermon ever, preaching continuously for 21 hours. "He ate regular meals, preaching between bites, changed his clothes, and even took a bath while continuing the sermon by talking into a portable microphone."

Bradford Evening Star - June 29, 1937

However, it seems that world's longest sermon has been a hotly contested record. Today the record is up to 53 hours and 11 minutes. That record was set in 2014 by Florida pastor Zach Zehnder. Although it seems that he took some brief breaks for power naps. Is that allowed? Apparently so. In the video below you can watch the last 11 minutes of his sermon — and most of the rest of it is on YouTube if, for some reason, you want to sit through it.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Apr 21, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: World Records, 1930s

Most Pills Swallowed

One of the world records that Guinness no longer tracks is that for "most pills swallowed." But from the late 1970s to the 1990s it consistently awarded this to one C.H.A. Kilner of Malawi (or perhaps Zimbabwe — accounts differ), who apparently took A LOT of pills following a pancreatectomy (removal of his pancreas) on June 9, 1967.

The exact number of pills taken by Kilner progressively increased over time. The 1978 edition of Guinness put it at 280,131 pills. A year later it had reached 311,136. By 1981 it was 359,061. And Kilner finally stopped taking pills on June 19, 1988, having reached a total of 565,939 pills.

Later reports did the math and figured out that this worked out to 73 pills a day, and that "if all the pills he had taken were laid out end to end they would form an unbroken line two miles 186 yards long."

Where exactly was Guinness getting this information from? I have no idea, because they seem to be the only source for it. I can't find any record of this Kilner guy in medical journals.

Guinness Book of Records - 1978 Edition

Detroit Free Press - Dec 4, 1978

Logansport Pharos Tribune - Feb 7, 1982

Guinness Book of Records - 1995 Edition

Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 06, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: Medicine, World Records

World record for using your mouth to catch a grape dropped from the greatest height

Brent Fraser hopes that he is now the official record holder for this achievement after mouth-catching a grape dropped from a balloon 101-feet high. He's submitted all the necessary documentation to Guinness and is awaiting their decision.

He began dreaming of claiming this record after realizing that he had a "natural knack" for catching things with his mouth. He practiced by having grapes slingshot at high speed at his face.

More info at Valley News.



It reminds me of the old fad for catching a baseball dropped from the greatest height. That didn't end well.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 30, 2016 - Comments (2)
Category: World Records

Most continuous time on commercial flights

In 1978, Thomas Crowder set a record for "time spent aboard commercial planes" by traveling back and forth between 91 U.S. cities for 21 days. He never spent more than three hours on layovers between flights.

As far as I can tell, Guinness never recognized this record. Nor can I find evidence that anyone has ever tried to top it.

I know that Guinness tries not to track records that encourage unhealthy or life-endangering acts. So maybe Crowder's record fell foul of this policy. Because spending 21 days sitting on commercial flights seems like a great way to develop deep vein thrombosis.

The Alexandria Town Talk - Oct 27, 1978

Mattoon Journal Gazette - Nov 2, 1978

Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 16, 2016 - Comments (7)
Category: World Records, Air Travel and Airlines, 1970s

Attempts record for fasting

Raymond Tac begins attempt to set world record for fasting

February 1931: Fifty days into a fasting contest, Alf Wilson, of England, had to withdraw from the contest on the advice of his doctor. This left Raymond Tac, of New Zealand, the winner.

However, Tac was eager to keep fasting. So soon after he launched into an attempt to break his personal record of going ninety days and four hours without food — which apparently, at the time, was also a world record.

Tac sealed himself behind a glass wall, through which spectators could view him, having announced that he would live for over three months with mineral water and cigarettes as his only nourishment.

Unfortunately I don't know if Tac succeeded in his attempt to break his record. I haven't been able to find any reports about it. In fact, it's difficult to know what the world record for fasting is since Guinness doesn't maintain an official record for that activity, and there's a number of different claims to the title.

Reno Gazette Journal - Feb 18, 1931

Manitowoc Herald Times - Mar 3, 1931

Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 06, 2016 - Comments (1)
Category: Food, World Records, 1930s