The old soldiers pre 1900 must have been huge or weight lifters in their spare time

[Papaclaude]

IIRC, early astronauts could not be over 5'10. The capsules were pretty crowded.

 

[Papaclaude]

Midget wrestlers had it tougher back then too.

And a crowded street smelled very different to them.

 

[mbogo3]

Is this back when dwarf tossing was socially acceptable?

 

[rgbai]

[/IMG]


Shortest Boer in the ABW .Flippie van der Merwe from the Fryheid district born in 1854 and was 3'6"

 

[fingers284]

Ol' John Wayne wouldn't have been a Cavalry trooper in the 1880's as he often portrayed. As with men, the horses were a smaller size, not the 17-19 hand ones he rides in the movies. A smaller horse could carry a smaller man further on less grub....for both of them. You see some tall cavalry men in civil war photo's but they are significantly high ranking and always bean-pole thin

 

[Tudenom]

I wonder what the average fighter pilot height and weight is? I can imagine that smaller framed people have an advantage when pulling high G forces.

 

[fraserdw]

Just fired 25 rnds standing in our military match using my Martini Metford 1889 in .303 with fixed bayonet 9.5 lb rifle plus the bayonet ,It's bloody heavy and tough to hold on target

FNC1 10.5 with loaded mag and bayonet mounted. Carried it as an regular army infantryman for 10 years, shot 1000s of rounds out it.

 

[bearhunter]

OP, the average rifles issued to the troops all were in that same weight range +- a pound. The Martini, without the bayonet may even have been lighter than most.

The AR platform rifles are much lighter by comparison but that didn't really come about until the end of the sixties, even though the platform was first designed in the mid fifties.