The first human cannonball,
launched on April 2, 1877 at the Royal Aquarium in London, was the
17-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter, going by the stage name
"Zazel". She was launched by a spring-style cannon invented by
the Canadian William Leonar Hunt ("The Great Farini"). She
later toured with the P.T. Barnum Circus. Farini's cannon used rubber
springs to launch a person from the cannon, limiting the distance they could be
launched. Richter's career as a human cannonball ended when she broke her back
during an unrelated tightrope act.
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