More on the Inch Bell - "...one of the sports greatest fraudulent claims..." - By Joe Roark

Originally posted on NaturalStrength.com on 06 July 2003

Hi Bob,

I read the piece about the Inch bell that mentions me in regard to whether
Saxon could lift the bell.

There are several points in the piece with which I draw variant conclusions,
and these have been covered in detail at ironhistory.com in the INCH 101
series.

Saxon had his own replica made, and mastered it, but Inch claimed Arthur
still could not get his, Tom's, off the floor.

Inch had five bells he referred to as his unliftable, including one that was
shown in a 1930s film that was a nutted, not solid bell, which he called the
famous unliftable, and it most certainly was not that bell.

There are several other points which are covered in detail in my series,
that at least to me, prove Inch was a manipulator who may have been able to deadlift the 172, but most certainly could not clean it and put it overhead one-handed once, let alone the hundreds of times he claimed. There was a time when his maximum clean on a 1" bar was about the same as the weight of the thick-handled Inch 172, so he most certainly would not have been able to lift the 172 during that time frame.

The chronology of events I outline disproves some other claims also, such as
when the bells were manufactured, when Inch took the bell for Padoubny to
try (during Apollon's time-off at the venue so
Apollon would not have a chance at it) and other matters.

Anyway, how I feel about one of the sports greatest fraudulent claims can be
found by those who care at ironhistory.com

Best regards,

Joe Roark


Joe, Thank you so much for the input. Bob


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