# Playground swings with hand pumps
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 7, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446 "2006-07-07T01:47:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/1 "2006-07-07T01:47:32Z")
Does anyone remember the swing sets with hand pumps? They were everywhere in the 1960s to mid-1970s then they disappeared. Are they still made? Is there a specific name for them?
For those who haven’t seen them, you sit on a flat base. There were bars behind & in front of you so you couldn’t fall out the back or front. To swing, you would grab two vertical bars and pull them toward you.
The only negative thing about them was that they need to be greased & if you didn’t occasionally check, a bit of grease would drop on you (or be in a gob on the seat waiting for you to sit in it.)
Was there a safety issue with them?
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/2 "2006-07-07T02:10:24Z")
I remember those! I was born in '77, so there must have still been some around in the mid-'80s.
I imagine there were probably some concerns with kids getting their heads or arms caught in the pull-bars. (IIRC, they retracted when you went backwards even if you weren’t pulling on them. A kid could be choked by that.)
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/3 "2006-07-07T02:37:25Z")
Do you mean **swingboats**
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/images/2005/07/18/swingboats\_470x350.jpg](http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/images/2005/07/18/swingboats_470x350.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/4 "2006-07-07T06:34:24Z")
> [@Obeseus](#):
>
> Was there a safety issue with them?
At the points where the 2 pullbars attach to the seat assembly, there is a movable pivot. If you stuck a finger in there, it could easily be trapped and squeezed or crushed by the movement of the bars. Depending on the weight of the kids and the speed they were moving at the time, this could certainly result in serious injury.
As a kid, I had a friend get most of a fingernail crushed in such a case. It fell off, and took weeks to grow back, and for all those weeks was very painful to him if it was touched.
The ones I recall were called swing seats (or horsies). They were 2 seats facing each other across the poles, with handholds on the poles, and foot pedals at the bottoms of the poles. (This design would put the pivot points right up near the kids hands, easily accessable to stick fingers in, and thus could be more risky that the swing boat design Peter Morris showed.)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/5 "2006-07-07T21:21:48Z")
The playground at Lakewood Park (Lakewood, OH) had those at least until the late 1980s, and possibly still do (I haven’t been there in years). We called them “cage swings”, and they didn’t particularly resemble the two-kid devices **Peter Morris** and **[t-bonham@scc.net](mailto:t-bonham@scc.net)** referenced.
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### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/6 "2006-07-13T17:20:08Z")
No, not ‘horsies.’ These were one-person swings, not two people facing each other. (Though two could squeeze in together.)
I also think there was plenty of clearance, so you couldn’t get pinched in the pull bars.
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### Author:  [@Runestar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runestar)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/7 "2006-07-13T17:32:36Z")
The playground nearest us when I was growing up in Philadelphia in the '60s and '70s had swings much like you’re describing **Obesus**.
I always enjoyed them, although even then they looked pretty old (of course, that could be said of most of the playground equipment in Philadelphia at that time).
They disappeared (along with much of the rest of the equipment) when the playground was renovated in the 80s. They were probably removed for safety reasons - much like all the other playground equipment from those times, it was probably thought to be ‘too dangerous’ for the pwecious wittle kiddies.
Having taken away all the fun stuff, people then wonder why children don’t go outside and play anymore. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/8 "2006-07-13T18:03:40Z")
I was born in '87, and I have vague memories of the swings you’re talking about existing at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach. They took them out (along with just about everything else in the park that was fun) probably in the late '90s.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/9 "2006-07-13T18:04:02Z")
My town growing up in the 70s (Neenah, WI) had “horse swings” in almost all of its parks, alongside the conventional swings, baby-swings, teeter-tooters, slide, etc. They were made for a single user. What I remember most was that once you got up high enough make the swing “fun”, the chain in the rear dug into your back pretty hard. Plus, why swing high if you can’t leap off and see how far away you can land?
They basically looked like this the wooden swing seen [here](http://www.thetoymaker.biz/horseswing.shtml) but the head was made of metal and the seat was plastic and naturally it was hung by chains like the normal swings.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [July 13, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/10 "2006-07-13T18:17:59Z")
Forgot to check Flickr for an example before I posted. [Here’s](http://www.flickr.com/photos/melomane/124987234/) basically what my town had in all its parks. I guess they’re still around in some places…
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### Author:  [@trinityAZfun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trinityAZfun)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/11 "2011-06-28T17:41:06Z")
How funny that there is another person curious. I am also looking for the name and/or pics of that 80s 1-man, metal roll-bar, 2-hand-pump cage swing sets (for lack of the name - ha!). I was raised in Phx AZ and went to an elementary school from 1977-1984 that had this most enjoyable & fun swing set ever invented!!! The Straight Dope site/blog and sites like this [Plaid Stallions Archive of the Seventies : 1970s: Fashion : Toys : Decor : playgrounds : Toy store pictures : Polyester](http://www.plaidstallions.com/psindex.html) are getting me closer to the answer, I believe - ha! Let me know what you all come up with! Thanks!
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### Author:  [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/12 "2011-06-28T18:15:36Z")
Just in case you didn’t notice the date stamp, this is a zombie thread
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### Author:  [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/13 "2011-06-28T19:57:52Z")
> [@Sigene](#):
>
> Just in case you didn’t notice the date stamp, this is a zombie thread
Zombie or no, I want to know the answer. I had an awesome swingset when I was a kid that had one, and it was a blast!
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### Author:  [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/14 "2011-06-29T19:01:01Z")
I remember those swings, too. I went to elementary school in Phoenix from '76-84…hmmmm. Our school had a whole bank of those swings. Plain unpainted metal, single seat, and two vertical poles that you pulled back and forth to get the swing to move. The first couple of pulls were hard until you got going.
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### Author:  [@Lightlystarched](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightlystarched)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/15 "2011-06-29T19:08:09Z")
We called them “pump swings”. I can’t find a good picture, nothing posted yet looks like them
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### Author:  [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/16 "2011-07-06T18:05:55Z")
> [@Runestar](#):
>
> The playground nearest us when I was growing up in Philadelphia in the '60s and '70s had swings much like you’re describing **Obesus**.
>
> I always enjoyed them, although even then they looked pretty old (of course, that could be said of most of the playground equipment in Philadelphia at that time).
>
> They disappeared (along with much of the rest of the equipment) when the playground was renovated in the 80s. They were probably removed for safety reasons - much like all the other playground equipment from those times, it was probably thought to be ‘too dangerous’ for the pwecious wittle kiddies.
>
> Having taken away all the fun stuff, people then wonder why children don’t go outside and play anymore. :rolleyes:
Well said, Runestar!
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### Author:  [@loves2sparkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loves2sparkle)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/17 "2011-09-13T22:42:59Z")
> [@trinityAZfun](#):
>
> How funny that there is another person curious. I am also looking for the name and/or pics of that 80s 1-man, metal roll-bar, 2-hand-pump cage swing sets (for lack of the name - ha!). I was raised in Phx AZ and went to an elementary school from 1977-1984 that had this most enjoyable & fun swing set ever invented!!! The Straight Dope site/blog and sites like this [Plaid Stallions Archive of the Seventies : 1970s: Fashion : Toys : Decor : playgrounds : Toy store pictures : Polyester](http://www.plaidstallions.com/psindex.html) are getting me closer to the answer, I believe - ha! Let me know what you all come up with! Thanks!
Hey! I’ve been looking for these too! I went to school in AZ and this was the only place I"ve ever seen them! What school did you go to? I went to Sunset Elementary in Glendale.
I believe this is what you guys are talking about…? I could only find this pic..
[ ](https://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/Liquidrubies/Never%20Never%20Land/122441266_459aaa7bbf.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/18 "2011-09-14T00:09:18Z")
Yes, that is it. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2011, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/19 "2011-09-14T07:59:13Z")
Good lord, that’s a horrible design for a swing! You can’t lean back until your head almost touches the ground, you can’t leap off the front, you can’t twist it into a spiral… It’s like mounting a shark cage to a crossbar.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/playground-swings-with-hand-pumps/363446/20 "2011-09-14T10:21:12Z")
There was a home hand pumped swing, with two sets of seats, one facing each other.
We had em in Chicago, in our backyard, in the 60s.
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