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Sarah Palin's image already appears on the newer nickels.

calendar   Friday - March 28, 2014

meanwhile, here in Hunterdon

My post on Barnes Wallis, “Winning the war with weeds and seawater: the geodetic airframe” is taking far longer than expected. Just too darn many links and too many interesting side tracks. Like why the Pidgeon Process for isolating magnesium is so bad for Climate Change.

So here’s a picture  of Islamic Rage Boy with a pancake on his head  of the new bridge going up 3 hills over here, the new white bridge on White Bridge Road.

image

Pretty neat, huh? It’s a half connected Warren pony truss. But what makes it super neat is that the bridge was designed to carry modern loads while still looking like an old time bridge. So note the lacing between the beams, and the extensive use of rivets on the gusset plates. Cool. Because the folks in the neighborhood really really loved their old iron bridge (ca 1898), but it was just too beat up, too rotted away, and too weak to do the job any longer. 

If the rain lets up, I’ll run down to the job site today and get some fresh pictures. For now, here’s a link.

And Barnes Wallis? What a genius. What an amazing natural engineer. If Wallace, from the claymation films featuring Wallace and Gromit wasn’t named in his honor, he ought to have been. Cracking toast, what a brain he had.

Never heard of him? Actually, you probably have. He’s the WWII Dam Busters guy, but that was one of his lesser accomplishments.

image

On May 16, 1943, 19 aircraft took off from RAF Scampton, Lincs, to fly to Germany’s industrial heartland and destroy the heavily-defended Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams on the River Ruhr.

The Lancasters were carrying 9,000lb of ­“glorified dustbins” – bouncing bombs designed by Sir Barnes Wallis, the “wizard boffin” immortalised in the gung-ho 1955 film The Dambusters.

Almost half of the 113 airmen who took off on that historic mission never made it back.

Hopgood and Byers were among the 53 British, American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand airmen killed.

Three others were shot down and taken prisoner while 1,294 people on the ground in Germany were killed – many prisoners in forced labour camps.
,,,
“When Barnes Wallis heard about the losses he broke down and cried. He said ‘I’ve killed all those young men’.”

But, Johnny [Sqdr Leader John “Johnny” Johnson] says, Guy Gibson told him: “No Barnes, you didn’t. Without you that raid could never have taken place.”

image
Dr. Barnes Willis, pictured in front of a Lancaster bomber, perhaps one used in Operation Chastise.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 03/28/2014 at 09:51 AM   
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