The Heaviest Man | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 22, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 20.

The Heaviest Man.

It is generally considered when speaking of people remarkable for flesh, that Daniel Lambert leads the list. He was an Englishman by birth, born in 1770. Up to the age of 19 he was merely a muscular fellow, able to lift great weights and carry 500 pounds with ease. He succeeded his father as keeper of a prison, led an easy and sedentary life, which soon told upon his bulk. In 1793 he walked from Woolwich to London to reduce himself. He weighed at the time 448 pounds. He grew so fat that he could no longer attend to the duties of his office, and the magistrate retired him on a pension of £200 a year. Fat as he was, he was an excellent swimmer, and opened a swimming school, where he gave lessons with great success. So great was his bulk that he could swim with two men on his back. Retiring, he determined to exhibit himself, and, being unable to travel in an ordinary vehicle, had one made for him. In London he was quite the center of attraction, from the king down. In June, 1809, he weighed, and tipped the beam at 737 pounds. His measure around the waist was three yards four inches, and he was one yard four inches around the leg. Each suit of clothes cost him $100, and were, of course, made to order. Seven ordinary men could be buttoned under his coat at a time. He died June 20, 1809, and his coffin was six feet four inches wide, two feet four inches deep, and required 112 superficial feet of plank to make it. It was built on two axletrees and four wheels. Twenty men worked half an hour to get this monster into the grave, and at last slid the coffin down an inclined plane.