War
Death Sand
Radiological warfare is the use of radiation as a weapon. "Death Sand" is a variant of this — the use of irradiated sand as a weapon. Details from Popular Science, Feb 1951.Airplanes for "death-sand" attacks could resemble those used for crop dusting and spreading fertilizer from the air. A British plane for the latter purpose has dropped five tons of chemicals in a single experimental flight.
To protect occupants from the cargo's radioactivity a death-sand plane would need heavy shielding. (After calculating its weight, one scientist suggested dropping the shielding instead of the RW agent on the enemy!) But shielding could be omitted if crewless planes, under radio control from accompanying aircraft, laid the sand.
Troops in an area sprinkles with death sand will have no choice but to get out. Those who remain will receive a fatal dose in anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the intensity of the radioactivity. Like victims of A-bomb radiation, they will suffer nausea, loss of hair, anemia, and hemorrhages. But those who flee at once will suffer no ill effects.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 14, 2023 -
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Category: War, Weapons, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters
Naked women lure soldiers to death
1970: A strange "military-psychoerotic" stratagem was reported from Cambodia.Apparently there was less concern about the soldiers succumbing to the lure of the women, and more fear that the naked women would render useless the Buddhist talismans that (so the soldiers believed) made them bulletproof.
Sydney Morning Herald - Sep 6, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 06, 2023 -
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Category: Military, War, Nudism and Nudists, 1970s
“Lucky” Fluckey: The Only Submarine Commander Ever to Blow Up a Train
So long as submersible vessels are in the news...His Wikipedia page.
In one of the more unusual incidents in the war, Fluckey sent a landing party ashore to set demolition charges on a coastal railway line, destroying a 16-car train.[4] This was the sole landing by U.S. military forces on the Japanese home islands during World War II. Fluckey ordered that this landing party be composed of crewmen from every division on his submarine. "He chose an eight-man team with no married men to blow up the train," Captain Max Duncan said, who served as Torpedo Officer on the Barb during this time. "He also wanted former Boy Scouts because he thought they could find their way back. They were paddling back to the ship when the train blew up."[5] The selected crewmen were Paul Saunders, William Hatfield, Francis Sever, Lawrence Newland, Edward Klinglesmith, James Richard, John Markuson, and William Walker. Hatfield wired the explosive charge, using a microswitch under the rails to trigger the explosion.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 24, 2023 -
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Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Military, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, War, 1940s, Asia
Hitler’s Peace Pudding
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 23, 2023 -
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Category: Dictators, Tyrants and Other Harsh Rulers, Food, War, Cartoons, 1930s
Conquer by the Clock
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 09, 2023 -
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Category: Propaganda, Thought Control and Brainwashing, War, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1940s
Finnish Floating Trees
A bizarre image, but not an optical illusion or some kind of darkroom trick. It shows trees in Finland strung by a cable over a road as camouflage during World War II. As explained by PetaPixel:
More info: Finnish Defence Force's photographic archive
Posted By: Alex - Sun May 14, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Photography and Photographers, War, 1940s
Device for attracting submarines and the like
Submarines were a new menace during World War I, but Louis Schramm figured he had a way to defeat them. His invention (Patent No. 1,143,233) involved powerful electromagnets that would pull submarines to the sides of a ship where they could be electrified, killing their crew.Critics pointed out that the magnets would attract anything metallic to the side of the ship, including mines.
Posted By: Alex - Mon May 08, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Boats, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, War, Patents, 1910s
“Chicken Sam” to “Kill the Jap”
An arcade game where one tried to shoot a chicken thief was repurposed, after Pearl Harbor, to a game where one sought to nail a Japanese soldier.
Posted By: Paul - Wed May 03, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Ethnic Groupings, Games, Stereotypes and Cliches, War, 1940s
The Morrison Table Shelter
The Morrison Table Shelter was a steel bomb shelter that could double as a dining room table. During the Blitz, the British government distributed thousands of them.The idea of your dining room table also being a bomb shelter seems a bit odd nowadays, but apparently they saved many lives. So they were weird, but practical.
More info: No Tech Magazine
London Daily Telegraph - Feb 12, 1941
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 23, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: War, 1940s
The Mole Torpedo
Weapon tunnels through the earth to the enemy. Why is this not in constant use today? Too easy nowadays to sense seismic activity?Full patent here.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 10, 2023 -
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Category: Death, Inventions, Patents, War
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |