Category:
War
War
Bicycles in War
I had heard about Vietnamese soldiers using bicycles to transport supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail, but other than that I was completely unaware of the role that bicycles have played in the history of war. Martin Caidin's book tells the story. You can read it at archive.org.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 16, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, War
The Blonde Brigade
Apr 1938: Actress Jean Colwell came up with a sure-fire way to end all wars. Her idea was that if a group of beautiful, blonde women stood in between the two opposing armies, in the "no man's land," then the soldiers on each side would refuse to attack because "No soldier will shoot at a good-looking blonde." Peace would be achieved!To make her vision a reality, Colwell placed an ad in a New York newspaper:
Are you blonde, beautiful and ready to join men in the trenches in the next war? It's the last chance to save this idiotic man's world. Jean Colwell, 124 West 55th.
The response was enthusiastic, and within a month she had enough volunteers to form a "blonde brigade," all wiling to risk their lives for peace.
Wisconsin State Journal - Mar 29, 1938
Los Angeles Times - Apr 27, 1938
Owensboro Messenger - Apr 2, 1938
Women of other hair colors didn't want to be left out. So there was soon also a "red-headed regiment" and a "brunette battalion."
San Bernardino County Sun - Apr 30, 1938
Of course, none of these women were ever shipped to the front line to serve as a human shield. Colwell herself spent the war in Forth Worth, Texas performing in plays. After the war she moved to Japan as a civil service worker. When she died in 1986, she was back in Fort Worth. I haven't found any info on what she did between 1946 and 1986.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 14, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: War, 1930s, Women, Hair and Hairstyling
The Deadly Tombstone of John Rogers Vinton
From his Find-a-Grave site:
After some time spent at Monterey and Saltillo, He was then ordered to join Gen. Scott in the attack on Vera Cruz. In the evening of 22 Mar 1847, he had just returned to his post when a large shell, hit the top of a parapet, glanced and struck his head, fracturing his skull, and killing him instantly. The shell did not burst, and it is supposedly that very cannon ball, that now adorns his grave.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 05, 2021 -
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Category: Death, Regionalism, War, Cemeteries, Graveyards, Crypts, Mortuaries and Other Funereal Pursuits, Nineteenth Century
Square-Wheeled Tank
In 1957, Albert Sfredda secured a patent (No. 2,786,540) for a square-wheeled tank. He explained:A vehicle equipped with square wheels of the type contemplated by my invention gives better traction and a smoother ride when used on rough terrain than one having circular wheels. Following are the reasons: the sides of a square wheel constitute large flat surfaces for bridging ruts and cavities in the ground whereas a circular wheel follows the surface of the ground and enters many ruts; and the sides of a square wheel provide a large contacting area with the ground when they lie parallel thereto, and, hence, afford better pushing effect, whereas a round wheel affords only a small pushing area, which often results in causing a digging effect.
Sfredda was correct that square wheels would provide better traction on rough terrain than circular wheels would. The video below explains why. But the problem, of course, was that his tank would have difficulty moving on a regular, flat road.
Along similar lines, Macalester College has had a square-wheeled bicycle on permanent display since 1997. More info: macalester.edu
image source: StanWagon.com
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 21, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Motor Vehicles, War, Weapons, 1950s
Manicure with gas masks
Even in the middle of a gas attack, nails still need to be manicured.
Honolulu Advertiser - Nov 13, 1938
Compare this to the gas mask for typists we posted about a few months ago. Also the gas-proof pram. And the London chorus girl with gas mask. It was all part of the effort to reassure the public, during the 1930s, that poison gas attacks wouldn't interrupt everyday life.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 07, 2021 -
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Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, War, 1930s
Atomic Survival Jacket
Source
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 17, 2021 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Inventions, War, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s
Work continues during gas attack
"So business will not be interrupted if enemy airplanes should loose gas bombs on Rome before quitting time, a new transparent gas mask that enables a typist to see clearly while enjoying protection from noxious fumes has been introduced into the war-minded Italian capital."
Elmira Star-Gazette - Feb 4, 1935
Posted By: Alex - Sat May 01, 2021 -
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Category: War, 1930s
Walt Builds a Family Fallout Shelter
Posted By: Paul - Tue Apr 20, 2021 -
Comments (2)
Category: Domestic, Technology, War, Twentieth Century
Operation Cornflakes
1945: Toward the end of World War II, the American OSS cooked up a scheme to use postage stamps to demoralize the German people. The idea was to create fake 12 Pfennig stamps on which Hitler's profile was replaced by an image of Hitler with his jaw eaten away.The Operation had no discernible effect on German morale. But it's a favorite topic among stamp collectors, who are flattered to think that anyone in the OSS ever imagined that stamps might have had such an effect.
More info: wikipedia
Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 10, 2021 -
Comments (1)
Category: War, Spies and Intelligence Services, 1940s, Stamps
Predicting war by mathematics
At an August 1938 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor Lewis F. Richardson attempted to use mathematics to predict the likelihood of war:The professor reduced to beautiful differential equations general tendencies common to all nations — resentment of defiance, the suspicion that defense is concealed aggression, response to imports by exports, restraint on armaments by the difficulty of paying for them, and, last, grievances and their irrationality.
He concluded there was "no chance of war," which proved to be a somewhat inaccurate prediction.
The Alexandria Town Talk - Sep 27, 1938
Encyclopedia.com offers some more info on what Richardson was up to:
Richardson viewed war instead in Tolstoyan fashion, as a massive phenomenon governed by forces akin to the forces of nature, over which individuals have little or no control. Accordingly, he ignored all those intricacies of diplomatic-strategic analysis usually pursued by political historians and turned his attention to quasi-mechanical and quantifiable processes which, he assumed, govern the dynamics of the international system of sovereign states.
Despite the eccentricity of his mathematical war-prediction model, Richardson was apparently quite influential in the history of mathematics. Wikipedia notes that he did pioneering work in mathematical techniques of weather forecasting, as well as in the study of fractals.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 10, 2021 -
Comments (8)
Category: Science, War, 1930s
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