A tapping machine or a tapping machine?

Take three very different things that in no way could be confused but both are thought of as being tapping machines. The first is UK Tapping Machines these are devices of 5 hammers or more that are used to test the acoustics in a building or they are used to create holes in metal. The other is Roy Castle, a world record breaking tap dancer who also, in a way,  tested acoustics by tapping out two quite amazing world records.

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The first record Roy broke was the largest amount of tap dancers in one place. He did this with the help of 500 other dancers in the middle of BBC television centre. The event was filmed for his show Record breakers and it can still be viewed today below. They certainly tested some acoustics there.

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The most impressive record was when he truly proved he was a tapping machine in his own right when he made over one million taps. He’d already set one record in the TV show Record breakers inaugural year by completing the fastest tap dance ever, recording an amazing 24 taps per second.

The million was the big one and in London Piccadilly he tapped the million over almost 24 hrs. He was allowed to take a break every 20 minutes and had a doctor and osteopath on hand to check him out. In typical Roy style every time he did 10,000 taps he played a celebratory tune on his trumpet, whilst still tapping.