What happened to the rest of Charles G Stephens body?
During his attempt to conquer Niagra Falls in a barrel, Charles
G. Stephens anchored himself to an anvil for ballast. Falling 170
feet the barrel was traveling at 63 mph. The abrupt deceleration
upon contact with the water caused a stress factor of 4600lbs psi.
This was more than 100 times more force than was needed to pull Mr.
Stephens' entire head and body through the 8x4 square hole in the
bottom of the barrel caused when the anvil burst through the
bulkead. Mr. Stephens' right arm remained strapped into the safety
harness inside the barrel. Though his body was never recovered, the
anvil was found by MIT graduate students working on the hydro
magnetic imaging in exreme turbulance study for the US Navy. The
Anvil is on display at the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum at
Horsehoe Falls Mall.