Gino Franceschini didn't need to get taller. He just needed it for a few minutes.
In 1941 his dream was to enter the New York Fire Department, but between him and that uniform there was a seemingly insignificant obstacle: he did not reach the required minimum height.
The expected limit was about 170.2 cm. Franceschini was lower than required and could not exceed the selection.
He could have surrendered to a rule that could not change. He chose instead to work on the only thing he thought he could earn a few millimeters: his body.
He wasn't trying to grow his bones. His reasoning was based on a real phenomenon: the height of a person may vary slightly during the day.
After several hours spent lying down, in fact, we can be a little higher than in the evening, when the weight of the body exerted for hours a pressure on the spine.
Franceschini turned that small change into a strategy.
In 1941 he was photographed while using an unusual traction device built in an attempt to gain the necessary height. The reconstructions of its history also tell of stretching exercises and traction systems used during rest.
Everything for a few millimeters.
In one of the official measurements it was not enough. He remained under the limit, though very little.
Gino continued.
In April 1942 he appeared for a new attempt.
Then it was measured.
Approximately 170.34 cm.
That was enough.
He exceeded the minimum requirement of just 1.6 mm.
This time it was declared appropriate.
On April 18, 1942, the New York Times reported his business: Gino Franceschini had finally passed the height test and had been declared eligible by the Municipal Civil Service Commission to become firefighter.
It is this detail to make that photograph much more than just a curiosity of the past.
That man under an unlikely traction system wasn't following normal therapy. He was trying to overcome a selection in which an almost invisible difference could decide about his future.
Between Gino Franceschini and his goal, in the end, remained just 1.6 mm.
This time on the right side.