Mixing sawdust with the ice was not to slow down its melting, it was to make the ice stronger. A normal block of ice disintegrates when hit by a bullet, but when mixed with sawdust ice is nearly as strong as steel and the bullets just bounce off. You could imagine the damage caused by a torpedo on a lump of ordinary ice that big.
Related to what Smokes said, the version of the Mountbatten story that I remember reading was that he wanted to demonstrate the strength of Pykrete to a group of skeptical Royal Navy officers, so he pulled out his pistol and shot at a slab of it. The bullet ricocheted around the room and hit an officer in the leg.
Don't know if either or both of those tales are apocryphal, but they both sound in character!
Many years ago, I was traveling with friends and stopped to check out a frozen lake (unfamiliar to us from Southern California). We drove out on the ice, and in a fit of perverse genius, decided to test the thickness of the ice by firing a .44 magnum into it, straight down. The ferocious blast of the "world's most powerful handgun" (at the time)left an insignificant little crater in the ice- after the 2nd round we finally saw what was happening: when we fired into the ice, the bullet would bounce straight into the air (about 6 feet) and then land, still spinning rapidly, but completely undamaged. We gave up after 5 or 6 rounds- we were getting nowhere. Sawdust was not necessary for this result.
"Gordon Freeman, in the flesh - or, rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons. Most of them were government property." --The G-Man
the ice ship is a brilliant idea. absolutely brilliant. the simplest ideas are often the most clever. that would even make a cheap alternative for shipping or personal boating.
The Gerald Pawle (SP?) book _The Secret War_ details the efforts of the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development during WWII. Habbakuk was only one of the projects he writes about.
Some others are The Great Panjandrum, intended to clear obstacles during the Normandy invasion; anti-aircraft flame throwers; and aerial mines.
Though long out of print, this is very much worth looking for in used book stores and eBay.
Mr Anonymous, you *shot* the ice? And after seeing the bullets bounce off the ice, you continued to shoot at it? That's... Well, a darwin award in the making, isn't it?
I'm going to try mixing sawdust with ice, though. Sounds very interesting!
"Gordon Freeman, in the flesh - or, rather, in the hazard suit. I took the liberty of relieving you of your weapons. Most of them were government property." --The G-Man"
I teach a class an undergraduate class in biophysics, and near the end of the term was always start discussing composite materials... with "Pykrete" as one of the in-class demo. Actually we do it outside, but it's instructive to make two identical pieces of material, one from pure water ice and one from pykrete, and then take turns trying to smash them with hammers. The pykrete is remarkable stuff... and yes, it melts significantly slower as well.
The toy robots in that last picture are not vintage Russian. In fact they are of current Chinese manufacture. The one in the back is a reproduction of the Atomic Robot Man, which the original was one of the first toy robots ever made and originated from Japan.
I am missing one particular event wich shaped history: The great tornado that struck the English invaders in France in the 14th century: It eventually led to a ceasefire wich in turn gave french the oppertunity to regain strenght.
Your brief summary on the Dunkirk story leaves out the important bit - the sudden calming of the weather that allowed all the small boats (even canal barges) to safely cross the Channel.
The overwhelming bias seem to be toward for recent and less significant events. In 1588 the Spanish Armada was the most powerful military force in the world. Its invasion of England was unsuccessful partly due to some clever maneuvering on the part of the English. As the Spanish were trying to escape, the decisive blow was dealt from a powerful storm that wrecked many of their ships on the Irish coast. This would be a welcome addition to the Weather Channels's 'history shaping' narrative, one that truly helped shift the balance of power from the Spanish to the English. Or maybe when they said History they meant something else.
The second picture from Salamanca, Spain is not from the cathedral but from the old university facade. The university facade is also well known for its hidden image of a frog sitting on a skull, said to give good luck to students on their finals if they were able to locate it.
I also met and sat with a Lao guy in hospital who had made a barbeque between TWO unexploded bombs using a casing from a third as the barbeque plate. UNFORTUNATELY the bombs on the bottom were NOT cleared and one of them promptly blew up! He survived but in much worse condition than he had previously been in.
Bombs are however used for loads of thing across Laos. Most of them ARE cleared of UXO before being given back to the villagers and the majority of villagers and children are aware that bombs are bad, but some sadly still aren't and get blown up.
Those pictures of chains of transportation vehicles reminded me of my first summer as a camp counselor. The camp had received 30 or so new aluminum canoes to replace the remnants of the previous canoe flotilla. The problem was that there was no road into camp, and canoeing up three miles one at a time was an unacceptible solution. So they tied all of the canoes together, bow to stern, and tied them to the back of a power boat— with the waterfront director in the very last one as a rudder. It worked pretty well, actually.
And that reminds me of when we got the new fridge and freezer to replace the vintage 1950s ones, especially as they arrived on a Thursday afternoon and the entire staff, bar three of us, went across the lake to fetch them. Evening flags had the three of us doing the whole routine, and suddenly looking up to see the missing staff members, saluting— in the backs of tiny little power boats, with a large appliance barely balanced across the front. (They were all standing as far back as possible, so as not to lose the appliance off the front.)
Incidentally, the fridge and freezer wouldn't fit through the front doors. We had to move them into the kitchen through the side shed after removing the stairs.
Ah, memories. Pity I didn't have a camera on me either time.
Those were in fact bombs; the yellow stripe is standard NATO colour coding for high explosives. Besides, external fuel tanks are made of much thinner metal and wouldn't last very long like that.
Ivan Rerbrov is a German Singer. His real Name is Hans Rolf Rippert. Back in the 70s he also was on TV as a commedian. There is even an english Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Rebroff
That 'strange Russian Army unit', as you are calling it, is a simple Bell SK5 Army hovercraft used in the Vietnam war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PACV http://www.quicktechhobby.com/Hovercrafts/Hovercrafts/SK-5%20HOVERCRAFT.htm
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