In his letter, Adams stated that the bat was the "lowest form of animal life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexplained".
This implies the reasons for the creation of other forms of life have been explained. Delusional nutcase must be talking about the Bible, which by my understanding would frown upon burning up women and children in a firestorm inferno..
uated by delay timers to burn down Japan.
ife", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexplai ned".
n explained. Delusional nutcase must be talking about the Bible, which by m y understanding would frown upon burning up women and children in a firesto rm inferno..
There were all sorts of deluded idiots around at the time.
My first industirial job was at Plessey Pacific in Melbourne and my boss wa s
who'd had the insane idea of putting a short range radar unit in an anti-ai rcraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the radar u nit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damaged, a nd set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) even if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
He called it a proximity fuse. He was working in England, and everybody kne w he was nuts, but the idea was plausible enough to pass on to the American s, who were silly enough to take it seriously and even made it work.
There was also a scheme to convert icebergs into air-craft carriers - appar ently if you froze a mixture of water and wood-chops (and called it Pykrete ) you could make an adequate landing strip on a big-enough iceberg.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
ctuated by delay timers to burn down Japan.
life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexpl ained".
een explained. Delusional nutcase must be talking about the Bible, which by my understanding would frown upon burning up women and children in a fires torm inferno..
was
aircraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the radar unit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damaged, and set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) eve n if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
Proximity fuse ended up costing U.S. more than the Manhattan Project, so, y eah, it was completely out of reach of GB's resources at the time.
new he was nuts, but the idea was plausible enough to pass on to the Americ ans, who were silly enough to take it seriously and even made it work.
arently if you froze a mixture of water and wood-chops (and called it Pykre te) you could make an adequate landing strip on a big-enough iceberg.
We have a similar case with this DuPont engineer who proposed floating stee l airstrips, first for commercial travel, and then during the war for milit ary purposes. The dull- heads shot him down. Post war he about singlehanded ly got the floating oil drill industry off the ground.
Yes, all that effort gave us the electronics industry we know today - it showed electronic equipment didn't need skilled technicians to constantly nursemaid finnicky fragile erratically performing gear instead they could be mass produced by the million using advanced mass production techniques then be stored for years in harsh environments and still work after being fired from a gun. Proximity fuzes demonstrated long life dependable operation of electronic devices was possible. Component manufacturing was transformed, statisical quality control, automated assembly, printed circuitry, encapsulation, all sorts of things we now take for granted were born then.
piglet
ss was
ti-aircraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the ra dar unit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damag ed, and set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) even if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
o, yeah, it was completely out of reach of GB's resources at the time.
Butement didn't have anything to do with that. His Wikipedia page doesn't h ave any mention of his man-pack portable two-way radio, which was first use d in action in Operation Market Garden - the airbourne attempt to capture t he bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem in the Netherlands.
Their frequency control wasn't stable enough to let them work in the field, and Butement seems to have missed this. I got onto the idea of tolerancing my circuits early, and I certainly didn't learn it from him.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
On Tuesday, January 26, 2021 at 4:11:31 PM UTC-5, piglet wrote:
ss was
ti-aircraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the ra dar unit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damag ed, and set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) even if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
o, yeah, it was completely out of reach of GB's resources at the time.
Originally the U.S. Army absolutely refused to use anything made out of gla ss, and that meant tubes! Glass on the battlefield was oxymoronic. The deve lopment of the fuse drew from just about everything known in applied physic s at the time. Miniaturization was not a nicety, it was absolutely necessar y to make a device that could withstand the incredibly harsh treatment due to acceleration and heat, things like 10,000g for a mortar shell. There wer e also considerations of final form factor affecting existing delivery syst ems and bomb/projectile ballistics, something to be avoided at all costs. T he circuitry was powered up by some noisy vane driven generator, which was also a major problem.
"The size limitations for ra.dio proximity fuzes were fixed by military necessity. One might think that in the case of a 500- or l,OOO-pound
2 bomb, a few extra cubic inches or an extra pound or two would not be important, but bombs and bomb bays were already designed and in use. A fuze projecting so far as to prohibit loading a fuzed bomb into the bomb bay would be useless. Ballistic tables for all bombs were available, and if the radio fuze affected the trajectory and changed the bombing t.ables appreciably, use of the fuze would be prejudiced. For the smaller projectiles, such as the trench mortar, size and weight limitations were even more severe. One of the 81-mm mortar shells weighs approximately 8 pounds, and unless the radio fuze is light and fairly well streamlined, the range of the mortar is reduced-a severe handicap to its military effectiveness. Other basic difficulties are readily apparent. Mortar fuzes must withstand acceleration of 10,000 g. In the fuzes for bombs and rockets, the projectile vibrations caused by flight velocities approaching or exceeding the speed of sound required great rigidity in the design of the fuzes ~ and their components. Some idea of the energy producing these vibrations may be had by considering conditions at terminal velocity. Air friction and turbulence prevent further acceleration and do work on the bom b, which work ' appears as vibration and heat. For a 1,000-pound bomb at a terminal velocity of 1,000 ft/sec, the rate of energy dissipation is 1,000,000 ft-lb/sec, or 1,356 kilowatts. Taking into account the desirable requirements of low cost and small size, an,d with the further realization that an extraordin,ary degree of electronic stability is needed for satisfactory operation, it is evident that the performance requirements for these"'l electronic devices are very strict. These restrictions required the development of new, very small and strong components. It is fortunate that "small" and "strong" go together. Weight is proportional to the cube of the linear dimension, while the supporting area is proportional to the square of the l inear dimension. Thus, dimensional reduction by a factor of 10 results in an object whose strength under acceleration is increased by 10. Resistance against centrifugal forces and bending moments is also greatly increased by a reduction in size . This is the reason that electronic components, generally considered delicate, can be constructed so as to withstand the high vibratory and accelerating forces which are developed in the various projectiles."These complications were just the first hurdle. The performance of the circ uits was equally complex, things like detonation at a fixed distance regard less of angle of attack of the projectile, while working with a very sensit ive Doppler detection, were not easy. Looks like the fuzes were customized in accordance with the kind of targets they were used against, as this affe cted the return signal.
ctuated by delay timers to burn down Japan.
life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained unexpl ained".
een explained. Delusional nutcase must be talking about the Bible, which by my understanding would frown upon burning up women and children in a fires torm inferno..
War is more interesting than peace (as long as you are only an observer or you are one of those deluded idiots that only rise to the top during times of war)
was
aircraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the radar unit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damaged, and set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) eve n if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
new he was nuts, but the idea was plausible enough to pass on to the Americ ans, who were silly enough to take it seriously and even made it work.
arently if you froze a mixture of water and wood-chops (and called it Pykre te) you could make an adequate landing strip on a big-enough iceberg.
ss was
ti-aircraft shell, so that - after it had been fired a an aircraft - the ra dar unit could detect when the target aircraft was close enough to be damag ed, and set off the explosive charge (in the space left over in the shell) even if the shell wasn't going to hit the target.
o, yeah, it was completely out of reach of GB's resources at the time.
Those mass production techniques still required point to point wiring.
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