War Ideas
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Title (Dublin Core)
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War Ideas
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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War Ideas
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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A DETACHABLE DECK SECTION that can float by
itself and on which a high-caliber gun has
been mounted, has been suggested by Ber-
trand Dickinson, of Yardley, Pa., as a sur-
prise weapon in fighting enemy submarines.
The deck section would be held to the after-
deck of a ship by means of clamps. In the
event the ship was torpedoed, the section
could be quickly released to stay afloat and
to shell the unwary submarine when it sur-
faced. Equipped with food stores, the sec-
tion could later be picked up by a passing
friendly ship.
REINFORCED OVERSHOES have been invented by
R. W. Jennings, of Cambridge, Mass., to
protect paratroopers from ankle sprains and
foot injuries which might render them in-
capable of action after they had floated to
earth. These “parashoes” are strengthened
by vertical fiber ribs at the sides and by
a protective fiber disk over the ankle joint.
They are laced up in the conventional man-
ner, but a slide fastener at the side provides
for quick removal on a “hot” landing.
RETRACTABLE PONTONS have been
patented by B. W. King, of Brook-
lyn, N. Y., to replace fixed pon-
tons which impose a considerable
reduction in speed and maneuver-
ability on seaplanes. The inven-
tion provides for the pontons to
be drawn up into the fuselage of
the plane, but because pontons
sufficiently large to support a sea-
plane would be too big to be
easily retracted, the new floats
are designed so that they can be
collapsed to one third of their
distended diameter. The diagram
at the right shows the ponton as
it appears when filled out, and, at
far right, when retracted.
DIVE-BOMBER PILOTS are promised protection
against “blackouts” by a Los Angeles in-
ventor, F. P. Dillon, who has patented a
seat that automatically lowers the pilot
to a supine position as he begins to pull
out of a steep dive, and then gradually re-
turns him to an upright position. It is dur-
ing the change from a dive to a climb that
the blood is drawn away from a pilot's
head, and he is liable to lose consciousness.
By being in a supine position, the pilot
avoids any such circulatory disturbance.
Another feature which is in- 7
corporated in the invention is a
mechanism that automatically
takes over the flying of the ship
at the instant the pilot releases L
his bomb, and continues to fly it
until the pilot is well past all
danger of blackout and can again
assume control of the ship. |
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1943-05
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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54-55
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google Digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Matteo Ridolfi
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Marco Bortolami (editor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 142, n. 5, 1943
