Virginia Beach man's world record gum wrapper chain, 23 miles long and growing, a 60-year obsession
Gary Duschl has always been a collector.
Inside his Virginia Beach residence, small dog and cat statues sit upon most of the surfaces. Dozens of antique glass bottles line some of his shelves. By the time he was 25, he had traveled across the United States to collect all of the Superman comics.
But Duschl's greatest collection sticks out.
For the past 60 years, Duschl has chained together more than 2.9 million gum wrappers into a single chain. Each wrapper is ripped in two, folded six times, and then inserted into another.
The chain, which is held in 21 plexiglass display cases inside its own special room, is just over 23 miles, or 122,066 feet. That's three times longer than the Tide light rail. It's also 407 football fields, four Mount Everests and 83 Empire State Buildings. If walking at a leisurely pace, Duschl estimated it would take about eight hours to cover the chain's length.
Though he doesn't chew gum anymore, Duschl doesn't need to ask friends and family for their post-chew trash. He's often sent wrappers directly from Wrigley, and gum enthusiasts around the world have sent their wrappers, as well.
Now in his 70s, Duschl has no interest in stopping. Duschl weaves about 5½ feet of new wrapper chain — the height of his wife — a night while watching television.
'These are the only tools I use,' Duschl said, wriggling his fingers.
On Tuesday, land surveyors from Precision Measurements Inc. were at Duschl's home to update his world record with the Guinness Book of World Records. The team started at 8:30 a.m. and spent several hours validating the chain's length, measuring 1,000-foot chunks every 19 minutes.
'I've surveyed bridges, tunnels, nothing like this. This is very different,' said Chris Taylor, one of the surveyors. 'It's unbelievable.'
With Taylor on one end of the upstairs hall and Ivan Lineberry, another surveyor, on the other, they used a binder clip to mark every 25 feet of gum wrappers, followed by a pink flag every 1,000 feet.
Specifically, surveyors were only measuring Duschl's last five years of chain, since he had it last measured for the world record in 2020. This year also marks the 60th year of the chain's existence, so Duschl wanted to officially commemorate the benchmark. The previous record, set in 1994 by a Washington woman, was only 7,400 feet, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
'I was just doing it because I like doing it,' he said of folding the wrappers. 'One day, my wife and I went into the Niagara Falls Ripley's Believe It or Not, and they had (a chain) all over the ceiling. It said 'giant gum wrapper chain.' My wife touched me, and she said, 'You better do something about that.''
Duschl said he met with one of the Ripley's administrators shortly after to discuss his own gum wrapper chain. At the time, Duschl said his gum wrapper chain was much more moveable, so he brought it to the meeting to potentially have it displayed.
'I showed it to him, and he said, 'That's impressive, but there is a Guinness record that's longer than your chain,'' Duschl recalled. 'I just went crazy. Now, the work is on.'
Like a tangible timeline, the chain showcases the passage of time for the Wrigley brand. Gum-related posters and Wrigley advertisements cover the wall, and large cases hold cups, buttons and even a pack of Juicy Fruit from 1895. Inside the room's closet, boxes full of gum wrappers directly from Wrigley wait to be added to the chain. Over the years, Duschl said the quality of wrapper has gotten much better for folding, making for a stronger chain.
Duschl's chain has been featured on TV shows and in dozens of record and oddity-related books (another collection of his). He receives partial chains of wrappers from around the world, but he prefers to claim full ownership wrappers.
'I enjoy doing it, and we'll keep doing it until I reach my next goal, which is the marathon length (of 26.2 miles),' Duschl said. 'That's going to take three more miles, and this last three miles took me five years, but I am slowing down. I just don't go as fast as they used to anymore, but the record is in sight.'
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
23-05-2025
- Gizmodo
‘Alien: Earth' Will Explore One of the Franchise's Favorite Questions
The more we hear about Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth series, the more eager we are to start watching it ASAP. Alas, August 12 is a decent chunk of time to keep waiting, but at least we're continuously learning new tidbits about what to expect. Earlier this month, FX and Hulu shared concrete details about the show's plot for the first time; today, we're learning more about its main character, a human-robot hybrid played by Sydney Chandler, and central themes. The latter won't surprise anyone who's watched any of the Alien movies. At the show's heart will be a question that's threaded through all the entries since Ridley Scott's 1979 original: of all the monsters in the universe, are humans actually the worst? 'Sydney's character is someone who's trying to figure out what her role is in this world and, on some level, the age-old question of, does humanity deserve to survive?,' Hawley explained in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. The series creator said he took direct inspiration from Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) wondering 'which species is worse' in 1986's Aliens. 'This idea of the horrible things that we do to each other,' Hawley continues. 'Sydney plays a somewhat innocent character who finds herself trying to navigate two kinds of monsters. One is human and the other is from outer space. We do expand on that idea that it's going to be up to the audience which species is worse.' Chandler's character, who is named Wendy, is innocent because she's literally a child: according to EW, she has 'a child's brain in a bot's body.' That makes her and her fellow hybrids' interactions with the show's Xenomorphs unique. 'Noah took us more into the mindset space,' Chandler told the magazine. 'What is the essence of a kid or a young adult? How do their minds work differently than the adult mind? Kids are so present and they haven't been battered by the world as much as an adult. So they trust their gut and they don't second guess.' Alien: Earth arrives August 12 on FX and Hulu.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Yahoo
Hero rat sets Guinness World Record for detecting landmines
Landmines remain an ever present danger on battlefields. That's for both soldiers in an active conflict and civilians once a war is over. Millions of anti-personnel landmines are buried around the world, and while groups work to remove them safely, in recent years they've turned to a novel tool to help: Rats. And one rat based out of Cambodia has now detected more landmines than any other rat in history. Meet Ronin. Ronin has detected 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since 2021. That's according to both APOPO, the charity that trained the African giant pouched rat, and the Guinness Book of World Records, which declared Ronin the new record holder. He's currently working in Preah Vihear Province in Cambodia, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. The Guinness Book of World Records announced Ronin's achievement on April 4, which happens to be both International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action and World Rat Day — yes that is a thing. Ronin, who works with a handler in the field, set the record for work done between August 2021-February 2025. He's one of dozens of specially trained rodents active in locating landmines for demining efforts. That work, the Guinness Book of World Records said in a statement, 'is making a tangible difference to people who have been blighted for decades by the fear that one misstep while going about their day-to-day lives could be their last.' Rats such as Ronin are trained to sniff out chemicals in the explosives. Their hard work also lets them cover distances at a quicker rate than a human with a metal detector, according to researchers. That sense of smell also means they focus on chemical compounds, and don't get potentially misled by random bits of metal. They're also trained on a grid system, and when in the field, their small size allows them to find and get to the landmines without setting them off. Ronin and other rats work only 30 minutes each day. Cambodia remains one of the most heavily mined locations in the world, with estimates of 4 million to 6 million landmines still buried in the earth from conflicts in the country between the 1960s-1990s. Despite years of effort, and millions already deactivated and removed, they remain a persistence danger, causing injury and death. Ronin's record includes 38 more mines than the previous record holder, Magawa. In a five-year career, Magawa detected 71 landmines and 38 other unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. In 2020, he was awarded a gold medal from a veterinary charity for his efforts. Magawa died in 2022 at the old age of eight. Despite several years of international diplomacy aimed at stopping the spread of landmines, such as the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, and removing them, mines still litter dozens of countries. Many of those are not experiencing active conflicts, but people are still at risk from the mines. Those 'Hegseth bodyguards' are actually there for the Air Force's 'Doomsday' plane Army wants junior officers to fix quality-of-life issues that drive soldiers out '100% OPSEC' apparently means texting military plans to a reporter Ranger School's new fitness test is tougher than ever, but nixes sit-ups This photo of Air Force special ops pool training is chaos. There's a reason for that.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Ronin the rat sets new landmine-sniffing record
A landmine-detecting rat in Cambodia has set a new world record to become the first rodent to uncover more than 100 mines and other deadly war remnants. Ronin, an African giant pouched rat, has uncovered 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since 2021, charity Apopo, which trains the animals, said in a statement. Cambodia remains littered with millions of unexploded munitions following about 20 years of civil war that ended in 1998. The Guinness Book of World Records said that Ronin's "crucial work" is making a real difference to people who have had to live with the "fear that one misstep while going about their day-to-day lives could be their last." Apopo, which is based in Tanzania, currently has 104 rodent recruits, or HeroRATS, as the non-profit likes to call them. The rats are trained to sniff out chemicals that are found in landmines and other weapons abandoned on battlefields. Because of their small size, the rats are not heavy enough to detonate the mines. The rats can check an area the size of a tennis court in about 30 minutes, the charity says, whereas a human with a metal detector might take four days to clear the same land. They can also detect tuberculosis, an infectious disease that commonly affects the lungs, far quicker than it would be found in a lab using conventional microscopy, Apopo says. Ronin's impressive work in Cambodia's northern Preah Vihear province has surpassed the previous record held Magawa, a rat who sniffed out 71 mines and was presented with a gold medal for his heroism in 2020. Since Apopo's work began 25 years ago, the organisation has cleared 169,713 landmines and other explosives worldwide - more than 52,000 have been in Cambodia. The charity also works in other countries affected by war, including Ukraine, South Sudan and Azerbaijan. There are still an estimated four to six million landmines and other exploded munitions buried in Cambodia, according to the Landmine Monitor.
