World’s biggest ball of twine, Minnesota

Photo © Micah Taylor

In 1950, a farmer spent 644 hours over 23 weeks painstakingly wrapping twine round and round until it became a giant, prickly ball.

As it grew, he was forced to hoist it up with a crane to continue wrapping, until the sphere reached the princely size of 4 meters in diameter and weight of 7,900kg.

Quite why Francis A. Johnson took it upon himself to do such a thing is unclear at best. However, his obsessive undertaking clearly stuck a chord with his townsfolk of Darwin, as they built a museum and gift shop to honour it and every August, the Minnesota town celebrates Twine Ball Day.

The ball is now bundled into a Plexiglas gazebo for all to see. It has even been immortalised in song by Weird Al Yankovic.

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