(MARC) JACOBS LADDER

JACOBS LADDER.  It was 8:00AM yesterday morning, when I stepped into the fitness room at the Columbus North YMCA and I saw this:

This JACOBS LADDER consists of a series of steps that continue on an endless loop as the 'climber' continues to 'climb'.  Naturally, I had to try my namesake piece of exercise equipment.  I lasted all of 3 minutes.  This could be quite an extreme workout if one could actually last for 30 minutes.  In the 180 seconds (3 minutes) that I was able to maintain equilibrium on the machine, I logged 256 feet 'traveled' and burned 50 calories.  Well....the next time I see one of these machines, and I think I might have seen one of these at my hometown Chicago YMCA, I am going to try to go a bit longer.  After I finished my three minutes I climbed back aboard for some photos....

This YMCA had my new favorite piece of equipment which is the PRECOR 576i CROSS TRAINER for my regular 35 minutes workout.

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 THURSDAY MENU

breakfast   apples/cinnamon instant oatmeal, 2 apples                           680 calories
lunch         HUGE SPINACH SALAD, 2 apples                                    910 calories
dinner        white cheddar rice cakes, sundries tomatoes                        700 calories
SNACK     PROTEIN BAR                                                                    170 calories

calories consumed  2460 calories                                                                 

calories burned
8AM YMCA PROCOR EFX 576I 35 MINUTES   458 CALORIES
JACOBS LADDER 3 MINUTES (256 FEET)          50 CALORIES
total calories burned 508 calories  

THURSDAY NET CALORIES 1952 CALORIES
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Until this morning, I had a far different idea regarding what a Jacob's Ladder was...

Here is the definition of a Jacob's Ladder taken directly from wikipedia.com

A Jacob's ladder is a folk toy consisting of blocks of wood held together by strings orribbons. The Jacob's Ladder folk toy, also known as 'tumbling blocks' dates back to the Pilgrim times in America. When the ladder is held at one end, blocks appear to cascade down the strings. However, this effect is a visual illusion which is the result of one block after another flipping over. Its name Jacob's Ladder comes from the biblical ladder to heaven, mentioned in Genesis 28:12. Because of the Biblical reference, Puritan children were allowed to use the Jacob's Ladder as a Sunday toy.

The earliest known review of the Jacob's Ladder is an 1889 Scientific American article which tells how it is built and works.  Despite the urban myths prevalent on the internet, there is no known documentation dating it toTutankhamun's tomb or ancient Egypt or to the Pilgrims. It has been theorized that its origin is from a Chinese falling-block toy, called "Chinese blocks".

The Japanese polymath Hiraga Gennai (1729–1779) constructed a Jacob's ladder which later came to be called "Gennai's Wondrous Click-clack" (Gennai no fushigina katakata,　源内の不思議なカタカタ).