How Did We Get Trampolines?

did you know the way the trampoline was invented? We have all types of stories about the invention of stuff like the Post-It Note, but ever heard the tale of the invention of the trampoline? Probably not, which is a shame, as it’s an awfully good story.

In 1930, George Nissen was a young boy in Iowa. When the circus came to the city, he went with his folks, like most of the boys in his city. He was entranced by the trapeze and aerial acts-but typically by the net they dropped into at the end of their performance.

George did some tumbling and diving in high school, and learned to do some acrobatics in both gymnastics and diving. The problem was, he always hit the floor or the water. When he graduated from high school at 16, he started tinkering with the idea of a bouncing’table’ that he could land in, instead of the floor or the air.

George got help from buddies to help him weld a big frame and stretch heavy tent canvas across it. This’bouncing rig’ was the first trampoline. Over the next years, as he pursued his school education, George also messed around with his idea. One summer he took one of his bouncing tables to the summer camp where he worked. As you can imagine, the rig was a big hit. George Nissen was surprised that kids would rather play on his rig than go swimming in the middle of the summer. It isn’t surprising to us now, but no one had ever seen a trampoline before, and failed to know what should be expected.

Nissen and three friends formed a tumbling act called the Three Leonardos, and traveled the country demonstrating and selling trampolines. By the time the US entered world war ii, Nissen had purchased his partners and started selling trampolines himself. He sold about a hundred to the army for coaching purposes.

But the big break came when Nissen had a photo of himself taken with a kangaroo, in mid-jump, on the same trampoline. Trampolines became famous and the rest is history.

George Nissen put an extreme amount of work into building and perfecting the trampoline, and then into promoting and marketing it. But it was his genius idea of posing on a trampoline with a kangaroo that made the difference. Most of the people who’ve seen the photo do not know that Nissen was holding the kangaroo’s arms as they jumped, to avoid being hit or kicked by a frightened kangaroo on a trampoline.
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