One of the Scouts brought a book to our practice last night that had an
interesting reference to unicycling. The book was “Why Buildings Stand
Up”, by Mario Salvadori.
In a section on the Eiffel Tower there is this piece:
"The Life of the Tower
“Since 1889 tens of Millions of visitors have been up the Tower, but not
all have used the elevators. In 1906 a race was run up to the first
platform and won by a man in three minutes flat. A slower time was
clocked for a Mr. Dutrieux in 1959, but he did it on one leg. Going
down, of course, is an easier task, and some one did on a bicycle in
1923 only to be beaten by another cyclist twenty-six years later, this
time on a unicycle.”
There is no name given for the unicyclist, nor any indication of what
type of event it was part of. I can deduce that it happened in 1949, but
that is about it. Have any of you unicycle historians heard of this
feat? Any idea who it was? It happened two years before I was born, so I
don’t think it was me. Was it John Foss? Greg Harper?
Hoping for further information,
John Hooten
