Monday, March 28, 2011

 Largest ball of copper: Rick Fortin sets world record (Video)

NEW BOSTON, N.H., USA -- Rick Fortin, a landscaper and self-described "recycling nut," started making a copper ball 10 years ago because he gets "bored during the winter" and now it measured 3 feet in diameter and weighed in at 922 pounds , setting the world record for the Largest ball of copper .
  Photo: Rick Fortin of New Boston unloads the 3-foot diameter, 922-pound ball of copper wire he created during the last 10 years. Photo courtesy: Bob Lapree
  ( enlarge photo )

  The Guinness world record for the largest rubber band ball weighs 4,097 Kg (9,032 lb) and was made by Joel Waul (USA) and was measured in Lauderhill, Florida, USA.

  Guinness World Records also recognized the largest soccer ball measured a diameter of 15.66 m (51 ft 4 in) and was created by KIA Motors and Emperors Palace Resort and Casino in Johannesburg, South Africa.

  As a landscaper, mason and self-described "recycling nut," Fortin said he often has leftover copper wire after a job, the New Hampshire Union-Leader, Manchester, reported.

   He started putting the ball together, sort of like balls of twine or rubber bands that have become Guinness world records.

   "I had so much wire coming in," he said. "I made trees with it at first. Then I started making this ball and got carried away."

  "I was quite happy with that number," he said after the weighing.

  Fortin said a fire consumed his house in 2003. All that was left to salvage, he said, was the Largest ball of copper in the world .

   The World's Largest Ball of Copper is not his only odd creation, though. He said he also has a 4-foot-tall wax sculpture, made from wax recycled from mostly burned candles. It's a mish-mash of objects, including dinosaurs, bears and grasshoppers.

  "Like I said, I get bored in winter," he said.