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WW1 Inventions from the British public

Millsman

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
In June of 1918 the Journal of the Ministry of Munitions published some of the ideas sent in by the British public during the war, in the hope these ideas could be used as weapons. Some of the ideas were related to the threat of German aircraft. Here’s a selection (taken from The Times reprint).


  • Clouds could be artificially frozen and guns mounted on them.
  • Heavy guns could be suspended from balloons
  • The moon could be covered by a large black balloon
  • Aeroplanes could be equipped with scissors or scythes like Boadicea’s chariot.
  • Heat rays could set Zeppelins alight.
  • Searchlights could be attached to anti aircraft guns (ignoring the fact the aircraft was moving)

Against troops there were other ideas:


  • Balloons carrying magnets hanging on strings could pull rifles out of men’s hands.
  • Shells could contain vermin or fleas inoculated with disease.
  • A shell with a man inside to steer it to the target.
  • Squirting cement over the enemy to petrify them
  • Sending snakes into the enemy trenches by pneumatic propulsion
  • Firing live wires at the advancing enemy by means of rockets
  • Nets spread in front of trenches to enmesh the enemy
  • A lawnmower as big as a tank to chop up the enemy

Against the German war effort:


  • Employing trained Cormorants to peck out the mortar in factory chimneys

The purpose of the article was to warn off inventors of ‘this sort’. I wonder if the person who suggested a soldier inside a shell to steer it volunteered to test it?

Made me smile

John
 
I quite like the WW2 US project X-ray, incendiary Bat-Bombs against Tokio. This project, the idea of an L.A. dentist, occupied hundreds of highly qualified scientists and military officers. I wonder if there is any of the 1000s of fuses, that were produced and used for testing left in a collection. I really like this small,only 8gr light fuse, on the development of which some highly qualified people spent months of experimentation. The crux is the pointed striker-head and the matchhead igniter. Very small problems that cost months of development work, before the cause of failures was found.
Bellifortis.
 

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Understandable considering the number of wooden buildings there were in 'old' Tokyo.
 
I do not know, why the project was cancelled. Because it was found that it wouldn't work, or that other projects had more political backing. Nowadays, in western countries anyway, a project like this, using live animals as bombs, would politically never be possible.
Regards,
Bellifortis.
Understandable considering the number of wooden buildings there were in 'old' Tokyo.
 
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