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Author Topic: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo  (Read 1666 times)

casalino

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Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« on: November 21, 2019, 04:48:50 PM »



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casalino

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top 1.60 h - 90 k - made 1987 still biggest top in Europe spinning for 3 m
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2019, 05:01:27 PM »



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Jeremy McCreary

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Re: top 1.60 h - 90 k - made 1987 still biggest top in Europe spinning for 3 m
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2019, 05:35:38 PM »

Welcome! Very cool top. How is it released above?
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ta0

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2019, 06:26:31 PM »

Welcome to the board Casalino!
Great to have an Italian collector on the board.

So, was that giant top made by somebody called Renzo Gandolfo?
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Iacopo

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #4 on: November 22, 2019, 04:28:23 AM »

Welcome, Casalino !
I live in Tuscany but I knew nothing about it.
I searched for more info and I found these articles:

https://www.ilsecoloxix.it/savona/2016/09/12/news/roccavignale-l-uomo-che-fa-girare-la-trottola-dei-record-1.32082235

https://www.ivg.it/2018/11/roccavignale-edizione-2018-del-presepe-vivente-dedicata-a-renzo-gandolfo-re-dei-trottolai/

http://www.savonanews.it/2015/12/23/leggi-notizia/argomenti/val-bormida/articolo/trottola-da-record-davanti-al-comune-di-roccavignale.html

Renzo Gandolfo was a person with a big passion for spinning tops.
He built tops and he had the Guinness world records for both the biggest functional spinning top, (this one, 1996), and the littlest functional spinning top, (a few mm large).
This giant top was made from a huge poplar log, it weighs 265 kilograms, it is mt. 1.58 tall, and mt. 0.98 large.
The rope for to turn it was 20 mt. long and 30 mm thick.
Its longest spin has been 26 minutes.
Always willing to take part in exhibitions, to explain in schools the secrets about the making of spinning tops and the techniques for to spin tops, Renzo doesn't hide a bit of bitterness: " There are only a few of us left, there aren't successors to whom pass the torch.
Nowadays children prefer tablets and computers." 
In 2015, a replica of this top, 1.80 mt. tall, entirely made of steel, was placed in front of the city hall of Roccavignale, on the initiative of the major Amedeo Fracchia, (third article).  Renzo Gandolfo too was major here, between 1970 and 1975.

Casalino, do you know what is the aim of that rack in the upper part of the frame around the top ?
I suppose that the top was spun with the rope, (by dint of arms ?), while kept in vertical position with the help of the frame, then, when the top was spinning, it was freed from the frame at the upper side, so the top could spin like a real spinning top.   
« Last Edit: November 22, 2019, 05:00:36 AM by Iacopo »
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the Earl of Whirl

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2019, 07:52:35 AM »

Renzo Gandolfo?  I knew nothing about him.  Thanks for sharing that information.
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casalino

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #6 on: November 22, 2019, 08:50:59 AM »

Hello, yes this is Renzo's Top, he died two years ago, the family gave to me to continue the memory of spinning top.
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CUPER

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2019, 12:01:01 PM »

Interesante y una lastima no haber sabido de el antes aya sido genial tenerlo en mundo trompos gracias por compartir
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jim in paris

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2019, 12:45:25 PM »

ciao !

thanx for sharing the story of Renzo Gandolfo and getting his memory alive for us
the BIG top in its "cage" reminds me of Joe Mauk's first experiments
Jorge : could you find the video corresponding to my description ?

arrivederchi

jimù
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"oeuvre de coeur prend tout un homme"

casalino

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2019, 12:51:12 PM »

Hello Jim, sorry I do not know who is Joe Mauk, I haven't idea about video. Gianni Casalino
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jim in paris

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #10 on: November 22, 2019, 10:47:07 PM »

hello again

that ' s the video i was thinking of : it's 3 minutes to wrap around the rope
and then the group of people pull it regularly

https://youtu.be/3pSwF4ri96M

for the giant top video with the cart it's here

https://youtu.be/jLFKPDboPGk

a prestù !

jim

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ta0

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #11 on: November 23, 2019, 01:05:45 AM »

From the articles found by Iacoppo:

The man:



With the giant Guinness World Record top:



The steel top sculpture in Roccavignale:



On the article it says something a little surprising.  Using Google translate:
Quote
In 1996 they entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the world's largest functioning spinning top. "A few years later they warned us that they would have canceled us because from Japan they had built a bigger top - Gandolfo says -. But theirs was not made from a single piece of wood, but from several parts. So we resorted and we won: the record is still ours
Joe Mauk received this email from Guinness:
Quote
A team of 25 from the Mizushima Plant of Kawasaki Steel Works in Okayama, Japan created the world's largest spinning top 2 m. (6 ft. 6.75 in.) tall and 2.6 m. (8 ft. 6.25 in.) in diameter, weighing 360 kg. 793.6 lb., and spun it for a record-breaking 1 hr. 21 min. 35 sec. on November 3, 1986.
Perhaps Guinness divided the record in two: biggest functional top turned from one piece of wood and biggest functional top made by any means  :-\

« Last Edit: November 23, 2019, 03:02:45 PM by ta0 »
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ta0

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Re: Just arrived from Renzo Gandolfo
« Reply #12 on: November 23, 2019, 03:02:04 PM »

Found a photo of the steel sculpture being made:

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