Pogo stick
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A pogo stick is a form of toy.
The pole on the stick juts down some distance below the footpads and has a rubber cover at the bottom end for traction. The operator places his feet on the footpads while balancing on the pole, then jumps or presses down on the footpads to compress the spring. When the spring has been fully compressed, the operator lifts his weight, aided by the recoil of the spring, being launched several inches or feet into the air. This process is repeated to create a hopping action. The pogo stick can be steered, with some difficulty, by shifting one's weight; thus becoming an interesting form of locomotion.
Later, improvements on this concept have been made, including the Vurtego, Flybar, and BowGo,[1] which allow operators to jump much higher than with a regular pogo stick. These Pogo sticks have made the new sport of Stunt Pogo possible. Backflips are also possible now with these newer sticks.
The name is allegedly derived from the name of a manufacturer "Pohlmann & Goppel" from Springe in Lower Saxony, thought to have produced pogo sticks exported to the United Kingdom. This is doubted in Deister since the sources are missing and the firm's name is not known in Springe.[2]
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[edit] Video games
Video games featuring pogo sticks or pogo-action include:
- Pogo Stick Olympics
- Pogo Joe
- The Commander Keen series
- DuckTales and DuckTales 2 have Scrooge McDuck using his cane as a pogo stick.
- Tekken's demonic samurai of the woods Yoshimitsu uses his sword as a pogo stick.
- In the Super Smash Bros. series, the Hylian Link has an attack where he comes down with his sword, and bounces up again if he hits an opponent, mimicking a pogo stick. He also has this move the Gamecube version of Soulcalibur II.
- Also in the Soulcalibur series, the character Yoshimitsu is capable of bouncing on his sword repeatedly. This attack is aptly called "Sword Pogo."
- In Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel and the sequel Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir, the player can transmute material into a pogo stick.
- In the SNES game Earthbound, there are enemies near the beginning named Pogo Punks who ride pogo sticks and attack you with them. They tend to fall down a lot.
- Hasbro released a pc game "Dog on a Stick" about a pogo sticking dog.
- In Mega Man II and Mega Man V for the Nintendo Game Boy, there's a boss named Quint which fights using a pogo stick.
- In Crash Bash, One of the levels/mini games uses pogo sticks.
[edit] Related terms
In rocketry and aerospace design, there is a type of hazardous oscillation named pogo oscillation, in reference to the motion of a pogo stick being used. Large rocket propulsion systems are especially prone to it.
A device used in electronics called a pogo pin is used to form a connection between two circuit boards.
[edit] Songs
- The UK band Supergrass has a song "Late in the Day" which features the band pogoing around.
- The US Band System of a Down has a song "Bounce", which features a pogo stick.
Pogo stick is a term often used in the field of hospitality and human care. A Pogo stick, representing a recurring up and down motion, is used to describe a person receiving intensive electric shock. As a result, the body of the person receiving this pogo stick treatment, constantly vibrates up and downward.
[edit] Famous Users
Enoch Powell
Andrew Roberts, respected historian
Patrick Kitz, well known comedian
[edit] See Also
[edit] Patents
- Pogo stick — U.S.U.S. Patent 2,712,443 — H. H. Hohberger
- Pogo stick — U.S.U.S. Patent 2,793,036 — G. B. Hansburg
- Combustible gas powered pogo stick — U.S.U.S. Patent 2,929,459 — G. Spitzmesser
- BowGo — U.S.U.S. Patent 6,558,297 — Brown, Jr.; H. Benjamin (Pittsburgh, PA); Nourbakhsh; Illah R. (Pgh, PA); Zeglin; Garth John (Pittsburgh, PA)
Google Patent Search [1]
[edit] References
- ^ The Bowgo Project
- ^ [http://www.ndz.de/Neue_Deister-Zeitung/show_article.php3?zeitung=Neue_Deister-Zeitung&area=Lokales&ressort=Suche&id=462052 Ullrich Manthey "Pogo Legende: Eine Erfindung voller Sprünge"], Neue Deister-Zeitung vom 22. September 2007
