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American Heritage Dictionary:
tram·po·line |
[Spanish trampolín and Italian trampolino (Italian , from Spanish), from tràmpoli, stilts, of Germanic origin.]
trampoliner tram'po·lin'er or tram'po·lin'ist n.
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trampoline |
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
trampoline |
For more information on trampoline, visit Britannica.com.
Gale's How Products Are Made:
How is a trampoline made? |
Background
A trampoline is an elevated, essentially buoyant webbed bed or canvas sheet supported by springs or elastic shock cords. It is surrounded by a metal frame and used as a springboard for tumbling.
The trampoline is used in the sport of trampolining (sometimes called rebound tumbling). In the sport, the trampoline is used to rebound the athlete, so he or she can perform acrobatic movements in midair. The trampoline is also a training tool for gymnasts, divers, and pole vaulters.
History
Tumbling and acrobatic moves have existed for centuries. Humans have tried to get in the air in many ways. One of the first ways was the springboard. The springboard allowed the performer to leap high with little effort and do acrobatic stunts.
Another device used to get airborne was called "the leaps." It was made of a resilient, rather narrow wood plank supported at both ends by blocks that kept the plank off the floor. Court jesters in the Middle Ages jumped on it when they performed at court.
Circus lore has it that a Frenchman, named du Trampoline, helped develop the basics of the trampoline as we know it. For years, circus performers had used a net under the trapeze so they could rebound. By developing a system of spring suspensions, the Frenchman, a former trapeze artist, moved trampoline development forward. He adapted safety nets and experimented with spring suspension systems to make the earliest form of the trampoline.
The trampoline was not widely popular until the 1900s when circus performers made it a feature attraction. It became a modern sport in 1936 when the present-day trampoline was developed by American gymnast George Nissen. In the United States, trampoline was originally a trademark for the apparatus perfected by Nissen.
Surprisingly, trampolining became popular in the United States when World War II broke out. It was used for recreation and physical education purposes in the armed forces. It was especially important for pilot and air crew training because it helped to instruct trainees in body position and sensations associated with flight.
After the war, physical education teachers introduced trampolining in schools because of its physical benefits as well as its potential for fun. Its use spread to universities and places like the YMCA/YWCA as a competitive sport for students.
Unofficial trampolining contests in the United States first took place in 1947, with official competitions soon following in 1954. International trampolining events began in 1964. An international governing body was formed, the International Trampoline Association, to govern the sport worldwide. In a trampoline competition, each trampolinist performs two routines, one compulsory and one optional. During each routine, the performer can only make eight contacts with the trampoline. Scoring is based on difficulty, execution, and form. The winner of the compulsory and the optional events performs another optional routine to determine an overall champion.
Since the 1950s, trampolines have also been used by visual therapists and special education teachers to improve vision, balance, and coordination in their students. In 1977, however, trampolines were discarded as part of the physical education curriculum in public schools because of a negative report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. It said that trampolines were dangerous and could cause injuries such as broken bones and quadriplegia.
Although in a 1995 Circuit Court of Appeals case, Dea Richter versus Limax International, Inc., the court decided that a trampoline manufacturer can be liable for injuries resulting from repetitive use of the apparatus, the trampoline has remained a popular source of exercise and fun at home. Today, trampolines are used for improving health through cardiovascular exercise. Using a mini-trampoline, called an aerobic rebounder, can improve stamina, strength, and coordination. Rebounders were first manufactured in 1975 and marketed as an indoor jogging aid.
Raw Materials
Trampolines are made of four basic components: the tubing, springs, jumping mat, and safety pads.
The tubing, used to make the frame and legs of the trampoline, is usually made of galvanized steel and is bought at a certain length and width from a supplier. Using galvanized steel protects the frame from rust and environmental conditions as many home trampolines are for outside use.
The springs, which give the trampoline its bounce, are commonly made to the specifications of the trampoline company by another supplier. Usually, the company making the springs specializes in spring manufacture.
The jumping mats are made of woven fibers. Today, mats are made of artificial fibers like polyethylene or nylon. The heavily woven fabric is WV-protected to prevent fading when used out of doors.
Safety pads go over the springs and frame and are made of foam. They have vinyl covers and pie straps to connect the pads to the frame. The manufacture of the foam core of the safety pads is also outsourced and made to manufacturer specifications.
The Manufacturing
Process
(Most trampolines intended for home use are packed to be assembled by the consumer. Therefore, this section will describe the process of fabricating individual components.)
It takes about 80 people working an eight-hour shift in the trampoline factory to make 500 to 600 trampolines.
Quality Control
The American Society for Testing and Materials has established safety and quality standards for trampolines. All materials used in trampoline manufacture are checked at regular intervals to see if they meet established guidelines. The steel frame's bend, gauge, and thickness of galvanization are inspected. Before the mat is sewn, the weaving is checked for flaws. The tension of the thread is subject to durability testing as well. The sewing on the mat is inspected after it is completed. Before the springs are packaged with the rest of the components, they are inspected for flaws.
The Future
Recently in Great Britain, the Inwood Ryan Company designed the "frameless" trampoline. It is supposed to be safer because it prevents children from hurting themselves on the metal frames. Presently, it is uncertain whether it will become a widespread innovation.
Where to Learn More
Books
Griswold, Larry and Glenn Wilson. Trampoline Tumbling Today. A.S. Barnes and Company, 1970.
Hennessy, Jeff T. Trampolining. William C. Brown Company Publishers, 1968.
Other
International Trampolining. 1996. http://www.worldsport.com/sports/trampoline/home.html (July 14, 1997).
United States Trampolining. http://www.geocites.com/Colosseum/9196
[Article by: Annette Petrusso]
The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang:
trampoline |
An incredibly hairy technique, found in some HLL and program-overlay implementations (e.g., on the Macintosh), that involves on-the-fly generation of small executable (and, likely as not, self-modifying) code objects to do indirection between code sections. Under BSD and possibly in other Unixes, trampoline code is used to transfer control from the kernel back to user mode when a signal (which has had a handler installed) is sent to a process. These pieces of live data are called trampolines. Trampolines are notoriously difficult to understand in action; in fact, it is said by those who use this term that the trampoline that doesn't bend your brain is not the true trampoline. See also snap.
Rhymes:
trampolinist |
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:
trampoline |
See crossword solutions for the clue Trampoline.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Trampoline |
A trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines for recreational and competitive purposes.
The fabric on which users bounce (commonly known as the 'bounce mat' or 'trampoline bed') is not elastic in itself; the elasticity is provided by the springs that connect it to the frame.
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Contents
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A kind of trampolining was done by the Inuit, who would toss each other into the air on a walrus skin (see Nalukataq), something like the life nets once used by firemen to catch people jumping out of burning buildings. That trampoline-like device was invented in 1887. There is also some evidence of people in Europe having been tossed into the air by a number of people holding a blanket; Mak in the Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play and Sancho Panza in Don Quixote are both subjected to blanketing – however, these are clearly non-voluntary, non-recreational instances of quasi-judicial, mob-administered punishment. The 19th-century poster for Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal, on which The Beatles' song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" is based,[1] references performance on trampoline, though the device is thought to have been something more like a springboard than the fabric-and-coiled-springs apparatus presently in use.[2]
These may not be the true antecedents of the modern sport of trampolining, but in the early years of the 20th century, some acrobats used a "bouncing bed" on the stage to amuse audiences. The bouncing bed was, in reality, a form of small trampoline covered by bedclothes, on which acrobats performed mostly comedy routines.
According to circus folklore, the trampoline was supposedly first developed by an artiste named du Trampolin, who saw the possibility of using the trapeze safety net as a form of propulsion and landing device and experimented with different systems of suspension, eventually reducing the net to a practical size for separate performance. While there were trampoline-like devices used for shows and in the circus, the story of du Trampolin is probably apocryphal, and no documentary evidence has been found to support it.
The first modern trampoline was built by George Nissen and Larry Griswold in 1936.[3] Nissen was a gymnastics and diving competitor and Griswold was a tumbler on the gymnastics team, both at the University of Iowa, USA. They had observed trapeze artists using a tight net to add entertainment value to their performance and experimented by stretching a piece of canvas, in which they had inserted grommets along each side, to an angle iron frame by means of coiled springs. It was initially used to train tumblers but soon became popular in its own right. Nissen explained that the name came from the Spanish trampolín, meaning a diving board. George Nissen heard the word on a demonstration tour in Mexico in the late 1930s and decided to use an anglicized form as the trademark for the apparatus.[4]
In 1942, Griswold and Nissen created the Griswold-Nissen Trampoline & Tumbling Company, and began making trampolines commercially in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The generic term for the trademarked trampoline was a rebound tumbler[5] and the sport began as rebound tumbling. It has since lost its trademark and has become a generic trademark.
Early in their development Nissen anticipated trampolines being used in a number of recreational areas, including those involving more than one participant on the same trampoline. One such game was Spaceball — a game of two teams of two on a single trampoline with specially constructed end "walls" and a middle "wall" through which a ball could be propelled to hit a target on the other sides end wall.[6]
During World War II, the United States Navy Flight School developed the use of the trampoline in its training of pilots and navigators, giving them concentrated practice in spatial orientation that had not been possible before.[7] After the war, the development of the space flight programme again brought the trampoline into use to help train both American and Soviet astronauts, giving them experience of variable body positions in flight.
One of the earliest pioneers of trampoline as a competitive sport was Jeff Hennessy, a coach at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Hennessy also coached the United States trampoline team, producing more world champions than any other person. Among his world champions was his daughter, Leigh Hennessy. Both Jeff and Leigh Hennessy are in the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
The competitive gymnastic sport of trampolining has been part of the Olympic Games since 2000. On a modern competitive trampoline, a skilled athlete can bounce to a height of up to 10 metres (33 ft), performing multiple somersaults and twists. Trampolines also feature in the competitive sport of Slamball, a variant of basketball, and Bossaball, a variant of volleyball.
There are a number of other sports that use trampolines to help develop and hone acrobatic skills in training before they are used in the actual sporting venue. Examples can be found in diving, gymnastics, and freestyle skiing.
There are two generic types of trampoline, competitive and recreational.
The frame of a competitive trampoline is made of steel and can be made to fold up for transportation to competition venues. The trampoline bed is rectangular 4.28 by 2.4 metres (14 ft 0.5 in × 7 ft 10 in) in size[8] fitted into the 5.2 by 3.05 metres (17 × 10 ft) frame with around 110 steel springs (the actual number may vary by manufacturer). The bed is made of a strong fabric, although this is not itself elastic; the elasticity is provided only by the springs. The fabric can be woven from webbing, which is the most commonly used material. However, in the 2007 World Championships held in Quebec City, a Ross (or "Two-String") bed, woven from individual thin strings, was used. This type of bed gives a little extra height to the rebound.
Recreational trampolines are less sturdily constructed than competitive ones and their springs are weaker. They may be of various shapes, though most are circular, octagonal or rectangular. The fabric is usually a waterproof canvas or woven polypropylene material.
As with competitive trampolines, recreational trampolines are usually made using coiled steel springs to provide the rebounding force. New Zealander Dr. Keith Vivian Alexander of the University of Canterbury designed a trampoline that replaces the springs with cantilevered pultruded fibreglass rods to provide the rebounding force. This Springfree trampoline design allows the steel jumping frame to be placed below the jumping plane, ostensibly improving the user's safety.[9]
Using a trampoline can be dangerous, and in organized clubs and gyms there are usually large safety end-decks with foam pads at each end and spotters placed alongside the trampoline to try to break the fall of any athlete who loses control and falls. The majority of injuries happen on privately owned home trampolines. Bouncing off a trampoline can result in a fall of 3–4 metres (10–13 ft) from the peak of a bounce to the ground or a fall into the suspension springs and frame. There has been an increase in the number of home trampolines in recent years and a corresponding increase in the number of injuries reported, leading some medical organizations to suggest that they be banned.[10]
Authorities recommend that only one person should be allowed to jump at a time to avoid collisions and people being catapulted in an unexpected direction or higher than they expect. In fact, one of the most common sources of injury is when there are multiple users bouncing on the trampoline at one time. More often than not, this situation leads to users bouncing into one another and thus becoming injured; many suffer broken bones as a result of landing strangely after knocking into another user.
Another of the most common sources of serious injury is an attempt to perform somersaults without proper training. In some cases, people land on their neck or head, which can cause paralysis or even death. A famous incident in the 1960s paralyzed pole-vaulting champion Brian Sternberg from the neck down.
Danger can be reduced by burying the trampoline so the bed is closer to the surrounding surface to lessen falling distance, and padding that surrounding area. Burying it too deeply may interfere with bouncing if the base makes contact with the ground. Pads over the spring and frame reduce the severity of impact injuries.
Kits are available for home trampolines that provide a retaining net around the trampoline and prevent users from bouncing over the edge. While these nets do prevent jumpers falling off the trampoline onto the ground, these falls are not the most common source of injury and multiple users bouncing in a netted trampoline can still be injured. This would have a larger benefit for safeguarding solo trampolinists, so long as they avoid falling on their head/neck.
Having some training in a gym may be beneficial in alerting people to possible hazards and provide techniques to avoid bad falls.[11]
A mini-trampoline (also known as a rebounder, trampette, jogging trampoline, or exercise trampoline) is less than 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) in diameter and about 30 centimetres (12 in) off the ground, often kept indoors and used as part of a physical fitness regime. So-called rebounding provides a form of exercise with a low impact on knees and joints. Mini-trampolines do not give a rebound as high as larger recreational or competitive trampolines.
In co-operation with the University of Bremen and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the machtWissen.de Corporation from Bremen, Germany developed the weightlessness demonstrator “Gravity Jumper” based on a trampoline. Due to the acceleration during the jump, an acceleration force takes effect in addition to the usual gravitational force. Both forces add up and the person on the trampoline seems to become heavier. As soon as the jumper leaves the trampoline, he is under a free fall condition. Physically speaking, gravitation and inert force compensate completely, which means that the jumper is weightless. Every person receives a three-axis acceleration sensor, fastened to them with a belt. The sensor transmits the data of the flight path to a monitor; a monitor shows the course of the acceleration, including the zero gravity phase. The interplay of acceleration and microgravity becomes apparent.
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Translations:
Trampoline |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - trampolin
v. intr. - trampolinspring
Français (French)
n. - trampoline
v. intr. - faire du trampoline
Deutsch (German)
n. - Trampolin
v. - akrobatische Kunststücke auf dem Trampolin machen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γυμναστικός αναπηδητήρας (κν. τραμπολίνο)
Português (Portuguese)
n. - trampolim (m), rede de acrobatas (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - trampolín, cama elástica
v. intr. - saltar en trampolín
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - trampolin
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
蹦床, 弹簧垫, 在蹦床上弹跳
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 蹦床, 彈簧墊
v. intr. - 在蹦床上彈跳
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 트램폴린
v. intr. - 트램폴린을 이용하다
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الترامبولين, منصه ألبهلوان, البهلوانيه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - קפצת, רשת-קפיצה, טרמפולינה
v. intr. - השתמש בקפצת
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 | American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Gale's How Products Are Made. How Products are Made. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| The Jargon File's Guide to Hacker Slang. The Jargon File. Copyright © 2007. Read more |
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Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved. Read more | |
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| Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary. Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 HarperCollins Publishers All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Trampoline. Read more |
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