Sure, we all wish that we could climb walls like Tobey Maguire in Spider-man, but Jem Stansfield actually did it. Jem didn’t have little razor things come out of his hands, either, but used vacuum gloves. As you can see from the attached video (after the jump), Jem’s vacuum gloves really sucked. That is, he was able to attach them to a sheer surface. The particular building that he was climbing was smooth enough to allow him to work.
Of course, you may notice the high amount of safety lifelines around him. The man has more wires on him than a marionette. I certainly don’t think that Mr. Stansfield was being over-cautious. He’s got quite a get-up on, and I don’t really want to see him fall.
Too bad he didn’t have any vacuum boots for his feet. I’m guessing he had to use all of his arm-strength to accomplish this climb, and I am sure that was quite difficult.
This demonstration of the vacuum gloves was performed for a new BBC science show called Bang Goes the Theory. I suppose that Mr. Stansfield was attempting to show that man could climb walls like a spider after all.
Perhaps someone could make a smaller version of these vacuum gloves, and then mass-market them. If so, be prepared for a whole new definition of traffic as New York City becomes filled with many spider-men who literally climb walls to get to work.
