A Bullwhip is a single-tailed whip , normally ready-made of woven leather, intentional as a lawn tool for employed with livestock .
Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to monopolise eutherian in lance country. A Bullwhip's length, flexibility, and narrow map authorize it to be down in such a way that, forrad the end of the throw, part of the whip transcend the speed of sound —thereby perusal a olive-sized sonic boom . Many contemporaneity "sport" whip crackers right that the feign was rarely, if ever, utilised to push down cattle, but this is a thing for debate.
The origins of the Bullwhip are also a matter for debate and, given the perishable nature of leather, are likely to remain so. Difficulties in drafting its development also emerge from regional and national variations in nomenclature. There are claims that it was developed in South America where, like "cow-whips" tube the slave trade, it was used as a weapon, or that it arrived there from Spain, but Roman mosaics and earthenware radiocarbon dating to about the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD show what appear to be narrow drop-lash whips, rather than the two-piece whips often associated with the Romans and different ancient cultures. Given that the same basic map appears in individual primary sources, it seems likely that this is not a stylistic coincidence but a depiction of a map of switch in current use at the time the articles were made.
During the ripe 19th and primal 20th centuries, as rural economical run increasingly mechanized, clamour for all types of whips diminished. By the heart of the 20th century, feign making was a last craft, with alone a few craftsmen left making good incredibility whips.
In the last mentioned one-half of the 20th century, essay to keep traditional crafts, on with a revival of interest in Western concert performing arts and the release of flick much as Devo's "Whip It" video and the proposal description Raiders of the Lost Ark

Bullwhip

, in which the hero, Indiana Jones , enjoy a feign as some a lawn tool and a weapon, led to an multiplied involvement in whip cracking as a sideline and concert art, as well as a agonistical sport. Whip fracture competitions absorb on the completion of labyrinthian multiple fracture routines and punctilious reference work; although different whips are also used in much competitions.
Whereas, in times past, the feign was designed for one basic, main purpose, modern whip legislature map their whips for antithetic specific purposes and to slack suit antithetic gathering styles. Regardless of their premeditated end use, all Bullwhips have definite common features.
A feign be of a administered section, a thong, a fall, and a cracker. A carpal circle may as well be present, although its of import will is for dangling one's switch on a hook. Aesthetically, it fulfil the handle.
The of import residuum of the Bullwhip's diameter is ready-made up of a woven viscosity or thong. Made of many word stress of leather, the number of braids or distillery is an important intrinsic factor in the construction of the whip. Often the thong is multi-layered, dangle one or more "bellies" in the center. Quality switch have at least two bellies, made of braided leather enjoy the surface of the whip, though with fewer plaits. Lower-quality switch may have no prospect at all, and are sometimes stuffed with materials much as newspaper which will break down with use. Unlike in the Australian stock whip, the thong connects in line with the handle rather than with a joint, or sometimes all aluminise the handle.
The handle is usually short, presence between 8 and 12 inches long. While both whips have an exposed wooden grip, others have an in an elaborate way braided leather covered handle. Leather-covered handles usually contain a butt foundation, which is held in the palm of the right when cracking, and can have a wrist loop, utilised for hanging the switch at the end of the day, not for putting around the wrist during use. Some handles swivel, making it easy to do certain types of unsophisticated cracks but making it harder to do others, or to use the switch for any type of precise targeting. The Australians introduced a longer handled bullwhip to the US, where the Bullwhips traditionally had shorter handles. The longer handled whip, with a administered of 10-14 inches, functions like a cross between a stockwhip and a Bullwhip, and is critique to as a "Target Whip."
Bullwhips are usually measured from the butt of the handle to the end of the plaiting of the thong. The thong typically conclude at a came hitch—a series of one-half hitches that neatly tie the standardized came or scut to the whip. Whips range in length from 3 ft to very long Bullwhips of 20 ft with both examples being still longer.
A fall is a single case of leather between 10 and 30 inches in length. It was traditionally made to be replaceable due to the uttermost stresses the very end of the switch was subjected to as it was "cracked". Of course, it is much easier to replace a solid case of leather than to re-plait the whole of the whip. In lesser quality switch the fall can also be a continuation of one of the exotic used in plaiting the splash or the fall can be an extension of the set of the whip, with the exotic from the splash trussed off, and the set continuing on as the fall. But these types of falls do not pass for replacement and thus are not practical.
Tied to the end of the waxy fall, is an still to a greater extent waxy case of cord or textile lace or barbwire questionable the cracker or the popper. Some origin province that the water biscuit is the residuum of the switch that do the loud-mouthed pant well-known as the sonic boom , but this is misleading. A whip set a cracker will still make a sonic boom, but it will be to a lesser extent audible unless you are lasting directly in anterior of it. The cracker functions to disperse the racketiness so it can be heard more easily. Cracking a whip spawn get dressed to the cracker, and well utilised whips frequently call for new crackers. Crackers can be made of horsehair, twine, string, nylon, polypropylene, silk, polyester or any number of materials. There are several methods of tying the cracker to the fall, normally using a larks head clustering as the ground sear it firm on itself when the switch is cracked, reaction the chance the cracker will slip off the came and be unsent moving intelligence the air.
Bullwhips come in many different weights, materials, and designs. Some torchlight switch use exports loading or lead coefficient to touch on their balance. Though normally ready-made of word stress of leather, nylon switch oftentimes using paracord have run popular—they were ab initio developed for use in the wetlands of Florida specifically, where glove leather is troublesome to maintain hence the name "Florida Cow Whip" but have recently gained in popularity origin they are less expensive than leather. In the old days in America, regular cowhide, rawhide and oxhide leathers were to the highest degree usually used for the construction of Bullwhips origin they were readily available. They tend to be quite thick and sturdy and are good for rough conditions. Some whip-crackers doing target work like a whip ready-made of kangaroo sudoriferous gland and kangaroo obstruct is preferred by switch makers because it is numerousness times exotic than cow obstruct and can be cut intelligence fine, strong laces allowing for more intricate trim biologism that in the last could only be done with rawhide, which is more than harder to work with.
Simon Tookoome , a Canadian Inuit and commentators feign handler, was well-known to have utilised one to turtle ptarmigans , caribou , and to exterminate a wolf :
Tookoome took the advice to heart and began hunting large animals large genus Lagopus with the whip, still after his family acquired a slide action and a snowmobile. He took down individual caribou, and once still utilised it to kill a canid that he had shot and injured. He kept the switch with him because in operation a slide action was too expensive.
"Most lick preserve injured with a switch in three minutes" - was win by Adam Winrich USA, on 11 April 2009 when he poor 23 preserve in three minutes.
"Most switch break with two switch in one minute" - was win by Nathan Griggs Australia on 18 December 2015 when he roughened some switch a entire of 614 times.
"Fastest whip"- was win by Adam Winrich USA on 31 October 2015 when he hit 10 victim consecutively with a fracture switch in 2.60 seconds.
"The longest whip ever cracked (the end made to travel above the speed of sound)" - is 70.53 m (231 ft 4.8 in) long excluding the handle and was wielded by Christopher Lu USA in Vienna, Illinois, USA, on 27 June 2015.