Bizarre Military Inventions That Never Saw Service

[@kilotun8316]

Could you imagine Puckle in something like World of Warships: So what kind of ammo you want to fire, High Explosive? Armor Piercing? Semi-armor Piercing? Puckle: Anti Turk!

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

Wonderful idea. The rifling would be a b1tch.

[@ferociousgumby]

I was honestly hoping it was a gun that fired pucks.

[@allangibson2408]

Anti-Turk also covered the Barbary pirates… It was a very serious problem at the time for sailing ships attacked by oared galleys.

[@geodkyt]

The US Navy Marine Mammal Program is ongoing, has been udeclassified since the 1990s, and have deployed them to combat zones since Vietnam (including clearing harbors by detecting mines in Iraq in 2003), and the US Navy openly runs the program in San Diego.

[@That_Bender]

When I was based at Coronado Island, my roommate was going into the program when he finished schooling.

[@SevCaswell]

@@That_Bender That's cool, and it is no more bizzare than training dogs to sniff out bombs if you think about it for a moment...

[@joelhall3820]

In all fairness the AR-18, like the puckle gun, was not adopted by any major military but it’s design elements influenced pretty much all subsequent designs. Not seeing service or working on the first try doesn’t mean it was a flop, especially when it can influence men like Gatling…who’s design lives on in the Vulcan cannon used by most western fighters. The Puckle is like the great great great granddad of a weapon still in service.

[@MrSniperfox29]

Depending on who you believe, the Puckle Gun was actually the influence for the Colt 45. Of course, Americans refuse to believe their great gun god stole the idea from someone else and instead insist that he thought of the idea all by himself. This is the same chap who funded his gun by selling soft drugs.

[@donaldhill3823]

The gun at the start is only bizarre in its use of square ammunition. Given development it had potential considering the time of its inception and the progress of firearms up-to today.

[@legomancb12]

8:38 Jeesus, the absolute _balls_ of that cameraman! Guess he wagered the setup and cost of equipment would have been worth his life regardless lol

[@BatCaveOz]

I won't hear a bad thing about the Puckle gun. Also - Expect a strongly worded e-mail from Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons.

[@TimeSurfer206]

Now, there's a possible project for his crowd: A recreation with better machining and metallurgy.

[@Depositron]

Gun Jesus don’t mess around

[@JarthenGreenmeadow]

Dude is one of the most annoying KZbinrs on this site.

[@rexredmonwalkingintheword9892]

I freaking love Ian from forgotten weapons

[@reecerose625]

haha big fans of both😂

[@oscarstaaf4003]

I found Simons channel a bit over a year ago, or was it two? Damn pandemic messing with my sense of time. But it was a random find nonetheless. Instantly hooked. Simon seems like a good guy, videos are well made, edited and easy to watch on a Lunch break or while cooking good. Awesome stuff on each of his channel. Never disappoints. So yes, beardblaze order for xmas. For myself, a friend or my father. Just want to support this guy.

[@Sideprojects]

Thank you :). I appreciate the support and the kind comment :)

[@ferociousgumby]

Does anyone else now measure time according to BP (Before Pandemic) and AP (After - or should I say DURING - Pandemic)?

[@jacobl6714]

@@ferociousgumby no no we're absolutely in After Pandemic lol and have been for quite some time. Despite the best efforts of folks in power to scare everyone into believing we're staring extinction in the face : p

[@ferociousgumby]

@@jacobl6714 🙏

[@DavidGarcia-oi5nt]

Yeah sure the videos are well made in almost every single way except one : whenever the script requires Simon to go look up how certain words/names are pronounced. Which you know is pretty important if all you have to do is read a fkn script properly.

[@StoneInMySandal]

Square projectiles are really cool. They make a reappearance every few years in trials because they are superior at supersonic speeds. But they can’t form a gas seal without secondary manufacturing processes or a carrier of some kind. Discarding carriers add a lot of weight and reduce portable quantities of ammunition. Heckler & Koch had an experimental rectilinear round that used a driving band for the seal, like tiny naval rounds. But they had all kinds of problems.

[@rbleisem]

Something for you to think about, Garret & Mallet locomotives, especially the more oddball versions.

[@kreshar]

"Dolphins aren't technically inventions." how can we be sure though?

[@gregraines1599]

“So long and thanks for the fish”.

[@Sideprojects]

Touche.

[@ferociousgumby]

WE are the inventions. Dolphins invented US.😶 (no surrealist emoji!)

[@victorwaddell6530]

Octopi are maybe the most intelligent species of aquaritc life , equal to whales, dolphins , and porpoises . They have eight prehensile tentacles capabile of manipulating tools and weapons .

[@twocvbloke]

That trench digger could be useful for digging canals, well, assuming we were allowed to build more canals in the UK, cos canals are nice... :P

[@jacobl6714]

"so long, and thanks for all the high explosives, comrade" -dolphins probably

[@cascadianrangers728]

Jesus bro, you're really doing well, I remember watching your top tenz videos, you make so much content so you deserve your success

[@Sideprojects]

Thanks :)

[@gordonlawrence1448]

The Panjendrum is right up there with whatever loony designed an armor plated pogo stick to cross minefields. Does make for one of the best "Dads Army" episodes though.

[@randalthor741]

How is it that I already knew everything this video has to say about the Puckle gun *except* for the fact that it never saw service? How did that (fairly significant) fact about it completely slip past me until now?

[@InvestmentJoy]

The pickle gun was certainly a flop, but boy did alot of inventors credit it later for their designs, the gating being one.

[@nunyastockson5901]

many current inventions have a bedrock of failure. its crazy to look back on. i bet that trench digger had a huge contribution too.

[@dialaskisel5929]

It looks pretty interesting, but I don't see what the big dill is.

[@bgriffininsd]

@@dialaskisel5929 yeah it doesn't seem kosher to me either.

[@bgriffininsd]

The Puckle gun's problem, as absurd as it sounds, was the fact it was ahead of its time. With better metallurgy and machining it would have worked a lot better as we see with the Gatling gun and Colt revolver.

[@Khalrua]

Puckel

[@Caderynwolf]

Ok, so what about the bat-bombs, and the tidal-wave bomb? - New Zealand attempted to develop using tidal waves/tsunamis as a weapon - the idea being to clear areas/beach heads of military positions and installations prior to an assault.

[@gordonlawrence1448]

The bat bombs actually worked. They escaped and burned down the buildings of the airfield they were being tested at. As far as the Tsunami bomb is concerned that exists too. All you need is a line of conventional nukes detonated at the right point a few miles offshore.

[@Caderynwolf]

@@gordonlawrence1448 neither of these worked.

[@the_retag]

@@Caderynwolf the russians are making a crossover between nuclear sub and nuclear tipped torpedo for creating tsunamis

[@davidbenner2289]

There are two puckle guns still in existence, as far as I know.

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

Ian has a video with one Jonathan probably has access to another.

[@timbrwolf1121]

Simon they are using dolphins and similar creatures to this DAY. Do you not remember the news from a few years ago when the beluga wearing some sort of harness rolled up to a boat and it was theorized to be a russian project?

[@jwenting]

The US program was shut down, but it was found the animals couldn't survive in the wild so they're still cared for by humans (I think some ended up in places like Seaworld, others not). Who knows what the Russians and Chinese are up to... Probably nothing good of course.

[@JoshSweetvale]

Heh. Finland.

[@jmeyer3rn]

I can see Sir Winston eagerly wringing his palms and ordering, “do it again!! Cmon boys! Go again!!”

[@Bronco46tube]

Good storyteller of particularly good stories. More please!

[@Big_Tex]

When I was in San Diego in the Navy in the 90s, one of the San Diego bases had a dolphin pen and trainers, and it wasn’t any particular secret. Have no idea if they could actually do anything, but the Navy didn’t go to the expense of keeping Dolphins on the base just for entertainment.

[@andrewgillis3073]

I know of two unclassified programs involving dolphins. The first was to locate stricken submarines. It failed because the dolphins couldn’t dive to the depth a submarine would be. The second was to locate underwater mines. This had the problem of once to mine was located, the dolphin had no way to communicate it’s location. It was suggested the planting of a transmitter, but that would involve the dolphin actually touching the mine (BOOM!). In the end, underwater drones proved more expedient. And dolphins are smart enough to know a raw deal when they see it.

[@jwenting]

@@andrewgillis3073 yeah, but remember that program for dolphin mine detection predates the availability of (semi) autonomous UUVs by several decades. For the longest time the only way to detect mines under water was to blast active sonar from your ship or submarine and hope you get a ping, then send in a diver to disable the thing. If a dolphin could both detect the mine AND plant a demolition charge on or near it that'd be so much more handy.

[@andrewgillis3073]

@@jwenting True. The use of UUVs was a huge step forward for underwater mine detection, and logistically a lot easier. I hope who ever came up with the idea got some credit.

[@Caderynwolf]

forget brain blaze, business blaze is where it's at!

[@binaway]

The Panjandrum looks startling on the film clip which is probably why it's remembered. Anybody with even basic mechanical knowledge can see this will never work. It's amazing it is was actually built. Desperate times; maybe.

[@geodkyt]

Far more plausible it was a maskirovka intended to lull the Germans into a false sense of security. I mean, the Allies had no problems finding beaches that *weren't* teeming with civilians for pretty much every *pther* test involving a coastline.

[@johncox2865]

Puckle actually sold TWO guns to a rich shipping magnate. Only two.

[@TimeSurfer206]

Simon, you forgot one drawback of not having a tight seal on firearms with revolving cylinders: A face-full of powder flash. Which is also the reason revolvers and rifles never had offspring.

[@davidhanson4909]

Colt had a revolving rifle and shotgun and Remington long barrelled and stocked version of their revolver (something not too uncommon in the 19th and early 20th centuries.) You can buy reproductions today. What killed the design's advantages is the self-contained cartridge: for long arms, lever-, slide-, and eventually auto-loading actions just were better. And you don't get a face full of powder or bullet shavings from a badly timed cylinder.

[@jimurrata6785]

The South African striker revolver shotgun was put into service in 1993.

[@kevinmartin8272]

Rossi makes the circuit judge

[@TimeSurfer206]

@@davidhanson4909 TIMED? No. But, you certainly can, from misadjusted Cylinder Gap. And in the Days of the rifles you mention, guess what was common? It doesn't take a face-full of powder to take an eye out. I shot one of those recreations. The friend who bought it, promptly sold it. He was not impressed. Having my face sit ON the cylinder gap was not comforting. Imnsho, THEY ARE A CUTE TOY. But, for any caliber you might want a Revolver Rifle for, I myself would much prefer as a Pump-Action. Or Lever.

[@bdillon3747]

@9:20 I'm pretty sure the Soviets tried building a drill version of this on steroids. It's in one of Dark5's videos

[@johnthomas2485]

Also, the CIA did actually fund some dolphin research, which led to a woman having an affair with a male dolphin. Yup you read that right.

[@alexsmith7801]

There was definitely LSD involved....ALLEGEDLY.

[@longfellow7271]

Wasnt she ' doing ' the dolphin? Then when they were separated the dolphin killed itself? Or am I confusing a couple stories? 🤔

[@nicholasfeiock7873]

snl did a bit on this, and it was. Odd. But funny I guess.

[@mergru6371]

In places like Seaworld there's someone appointed to jack off the dolphins from time to time. Imagine how they put thát in a job description

[@Chris.Pontius]

@@mergru6371 Guess they are looking for "hands-on type of mentality".

[@billydoyle7415]

"... the past was the Worst..." - truer words rarely spoken!

[@bradcalton1701]

Business blaze will never die!

[@drcovell]

You missed the “Pigeon-driven Smart Bombs!” (Those actually seemed to work-not sure why the project was cancelled.). Yankee Doodle Pigeon as an action hero. 😉

[@userequaltoNull]

They worked *too* well, an accidental release caused significant damage to a USAAC base.

[@jmanj3917]

So just how in the hell did they expect to have the ability to set up their ridiculous contraption in combat? If you have to have the wheel lined up Directly in line with your target and all the other stupidity associated with those things, you'll probably end up dead somewhere in the process... What the Hell, People?!

[@andrewgillis3073]

The people in charge of this had an idea that out of ten ideas, one would work. They did invent a lot of useful equipment and weapons. It was also noted that they had several ‘shadow’ projects that were there just to fool or confuse the enemy. The myth about carrots improving night vision is a good example. It was started to hide the fact that the British had radar on its night fighters.

[@harrisonberlin3969]

Put it in a landing craft and aim it that way

[@robertburden7033]

I was in the U.S. Navy in the early 1980s and remember seeing a film on the Navy's dolphin training project as part of a training course. As I recall they were primarily talking about training the Dolphins to attach Limpet mines to enemy shipping. I also seem to recall being told set it was pretty much a dead end program as a dolphins just didn't want to cooper.ate. it's been quite a while so I may have some of the specific details confused.

[@davidh5903]

The russians have dolphin pens near Chrimea, I understand they are there to counter frogmen. They also protect their arctic ports with trained whales, one even defected to norway during the cold war.

[@Yuzral]

My personal favourite for bizarre weapons remains the pigeon-guided bomb. No, really: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

[@jimcappa6815]

What about incendiary bat bombs?

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

This was at least a guided weapon. Probably more clever than an AIM9L

[@Shad0wBoxxer]

What about the nuclear mine that was also a chicken coup?

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

@@Shad0wBoxxer Thermal nuclear rather than thermo nuclear. Hey someone has to keep it at or above room temperature. You' have just been voluntold. cluck cluck cluck. is chickin for well at least I don't need to try to get the Chieftain to start again.

[@Shad0wBoxxer]

@@ABrit-bt6ce thermo caused it was insulated LOL

[@JoshSweetvale]

7:00 The Iron Horde from World of Warcraft used these things. Good fun. The aliens from the _Battleship_ movie used a drone version, one programmed not to kill noncombatants. _(Yeah._ It was the _Battleship_ movie, what did you expect?!)

[@lolmao500]

The rolling explosive wheels were an interesting idea... but really hard to make it work back in the 1940s. Today we might have been able to make it work... but its way easier to just launch cruise missiles.

[@tatepultro]

No no no. Only the Allies weaponized Dolphins. The Soviets went with Giant Squids. :P

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

Ooof that Red Alert throwback

[@jimurrata6785]

The soviets (or Russians) went with belugas.... according to the Norwegians.

[@PHelsing]

10:26 this guy is thinking...."i'm not payed enough for this" 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@dominicwaghorn6459]

What if the rockets were in the centre, and they fired into exhaust tubes which came out on different points of the wheel?

[@francisboyle1739]

You want to put a rocket inside a bomb! I like your thinking. - the ghost of the original inventor.

[@jjbode1]

My beard . . . never mind. Nicely curated presentation of a series of wasteful military "intelligence" and weapon projects. Thanks!

[@markb1764]

if they are military dolphins they would need stripes so they would know who outranks who

[@stevedownes5439]

I didn't see a single PT belt either...

[@hashgeek929]

Preposterous. Who outranks _whom_.

[@Frogmood]

the panjandrum has HUGE besiege vibes. especially with how poorly it worked

[@garyjordan3914]

You slay me , it's pronounced Bu- cy- russ . Today you learned the name of the county seat of Crawford County Ohio . Lucky you !

[@Cool-Tina]

"Bucker - us" 😂

[@rogersheddy6414]

Flipper actually "rehabilitated" his female trainer, quite often. In fact, it was because she was caught with him "rehabilitating" that they canceled the TV series... And yes, she aggressively defended her actions in being "rehabilitated"... Well, you've got to remember this was the 1960s.

[@jacobl6714]

ohhhh, are you referring to the terrance mckenna experiments of trying to communicate with dolphins while on ketamine in deprivation tanks lol

[@rogersheddy6414]

@@jacobl6714 No, talkin about the television show Flipper. There was a female trainer who was very fond of her dolphin.

[@TK2692]

@@rogersheddy6414 Can you provide a source for this? Based on everything I could find, the main dolphin who played Flipper was a female and her trainer was a man. I think Jacob L is right, you seem to be confusing Peter with the one who played Flipper.

[@KaytaRaven]

I think they’re referencing a psychology experiment where a female psychologist waterproofed her house and lived with a male dolphin in an attempt to see if she can teach it to understand human language. It became a huge ethical nightmare after she was caught pleasuring it - I learnt about it during undergrad

[@00goop43]

wait, was that a clash-a-rama reference at 4:36? Legendary.

[@VisibilityFoggy]

Not sure why there is a question regarding whether dolphin programs existed or not. The U.S. Navy has very openly discussed its marine mammal program in recent years. There were multiple news features done on dolphins deployed to Iraq in 2003 that were trained to "sniff out" mines. They were most notably used in a southern port where the Royal Marines secured the surrounding city, then held it until the U.S. Navy dolphins could sweep the waterways before USN/RN vessels could access it.

[@tommycater5749]

You guys should do one about the Indiana Bell Building. Apparently they did the move with everyone still in the building

[@annconover1277]

Can you do an episode on the Smithsonian here or on Megaprojects?

[@ferociousgumby]

The Mutter Museum! Or has he already done that one?

[@ferociousgumby]

What HASN'T he done? It's getting to be a real problem. He will soon run out of information, having covered everything in human history.

[@chrisyanover1777]

Churchill early on didn't realize the efficiency of the air force and how a single bomber could wipe out an entire battalion in a trench

[@andrewgillis3073]

The problem was that bombing wasn’t very accurate until the mosquitoe. It would take a flight of a hundred planes to destroy one factory. The fact that the ‘dam busters’ required weeks of training shows this.

[@chrisyanover1777]

@@andrewgillis3073 wasn't some bombing still done by hand by pilots and copilot?

[@andrewgillis3073]

@@chrisyanover1777 For WW II, I'm not aware of that happening. There were cases of pilots and crew chiefs strapping unauthorized weapons to airplanes. In the case of the de Havilland Mosquito, the co-pilot/navigator released the bomb most of the time. One of the reasons that 613 squadron so effective was that they kept the aircrews together as much as they could. The airmen of this unit specialized in low level precision bombing. This was also true of 617 squadron, who flew Lancaster bombers.

[@jehoiakimelidoronila5450]

I am envious of you having such a beautiful beard right now...

[@t0mn8r35]

Very entertaining. You are the best presenter.

[@_i_am_unceded]

Beer Blaze ❓ If Whistler says 🆗 then I am in 🍺🔥🍺🔥🍺🔥🍺🔥🍺🔥🍺

[@ericasarat1834]

Id be in for that. But what? Drinking games, History of alcohol, crimes committed while drunk?

[@johnniewalker8410]

@@ericasarat1834 crimes committed while drunk would be the biggest history book ever. He'll you could fill a large magazine just covering the 35 years I've been alive

[@ferociousgumby]

@@ericasarat1834 Beard pong?

[@batticusmanacleas510]

I just remember the Puckle as a fun gun from AC Rogue

[@davidmetlesits972]

The Soviets designed and built a tank-mounted laser cannon. It was indended to destroy enemy missiles, radar equipment and similar. The lasers were focused by 30 kilograms of artificial rubies, a.k.a. a metric arseload of money. The project was scrapped when they realized that the heavy, cumbersome and expensive tank can be destroyed by any conventional anti-tank weapon.

[@Jaysin412]

Simon, you should do your own "grooming/beauty" show, you know like all the other youtubers! Hahaha!! The show should just be a 10-15 minute bit about amazing/famous facial hair from history, the history of grooming ones facial hair, the history of barbers/groomers, the tools and techniques of facial hair grooming, and things like that, ALL WHILE, Simon shaves his head and grooms his beard and mustache for the day! Call it "BEARD BLAZE" after his line of grooming products! It's perfect!!!

[@ferociousgumby]

A time lapse of his beard growing over a period of, oh, say, seventeen days.

[@GoodVideos4]

That second contraption reminded me, to an extent, of Leonardo Da Vinci innovations. It could have had a motor, like an electric motor, instead of rockets.

[@AaronSmith-kr5yf]

Simon kills me for being the tiniest dude with the most epic beard, perfect product placement, got me to buy some.

[@Sideprojects]

Lol, how tiny do you think I am?? I'm 5' 11" :D

[@ferociousgumby]

So how tiny IS he? There is plenty of speculation.

[@ferociousgumby]

Emoji makes no sense, just wanted to try it out.

[@jacara1981]

Can you do an episode on the WWII bouncing bomb?

[@gwynyvyr]

Just got the notification...my Venus Flytrap perfume from Rotting Turtle is out for delivery! You can feel the excitement...AM I RIGHT, PETER?

[@jeffernoodle8652]

Eew

[@theodoredionne9537]

I need some Rotting Badger

[@JohnDoe-vf2yo]

I need some Rancid Polecat No.2. aftershave.

[@jeffernoodle8652]

@@JohnDoe-vf2yo lmao

[@jamesslick4790]

"The Weaponized Dolphins" is a good name for a band.

[@bjornodin]

All of these are hilarious 😂

[@donchernoff2856]

Yet another great and informative video, but I love the way you often mispronounce American names. You weren't close with Bucyrus 🤣

[@ferociousgumby]

The Puckle gun looks vaguely like a weenie.

[@StefanMedici]

Fact Boi brought to you by Fact Boi, referencing another Fact Boi channel. Legend

[@rogersheddy6414]

I spoke with someone who actually was in the brown Water Navy and said about how the bay in which he was stationed actually did have these Dolphins trained to attack enemy sappers when they were released into the bay. He said that, after they were successful in killing just about every sapper who tried to get anywhere near the American craft, word got around. In the Vietcong stopped making any such attempts.

[@zaccuskelly4016]

Did everyone miss that he called the puckle gun a flintlock, it's a matchlock

[@daltonwright490]

You should do a video on the RAH-66 Comanche

[@sirridesalot6652]

You could add the USA M-247 Sgt. York Air Defense Weapon to this list.

[@joestephan1111]

As someone with a beard, I often retort, "Boy, I'll tell ya, a man with a beard has no secrets!"

[@userequaltoNull]

Except his jawline

[@LeifEriccson43]

BUSINESS BLAZE FOREVER!

[@MiscMitz]

Did 2021 make Simon admit the the past wasn't the worst?

[@MiscMitz]

Nope. Guess not

[@dialaskisel5929]

The Panjandrum looks quite ridiculous. They would have been better off hauling explosives by Foote.

[@BigBlueJake]

The US Navy has dolphins and the US Marine Corps has sea lions in a marine mammal program for much the same reason as all service branches have military working dogs.A smart and trainable animal that has a physical advantage a human lacks that would be useful for certain missions. Reconniasance, patrol, detection but also being able to attach retrieval devices or explosives to underwater items. As far as "attack dolphins" goes, the dolphins and sea lions can be trained to clamp a device to a diver's arm or leg that will either float them to the surface, sink them, make them trackable, or otherwise interfere with whatever the diver is trying to do. The dolphin and sea lion handlers work from a boat so the animals are probably recalled from an area before Navy divers would go in, or the animals are being used because depth/danger/visibility/etc. prevents human divers from doing the mission.

[@RobeonMew]

Do a Brain Blaze about Brandon Lee and Alec Baldwin

[@dmdrosselmeyer]

I dunno why it feels like I'm being supportive, but I never fast forward thru your Beard Blaze plugs lol

[@raccpootonsuijuris6949]

Don't act like the U.S. Navy just now started using fish based sonar. We used it in WW2, The Incredible Mr. Limpet.

[@JohnSmith-eo5sp]

2:17 The Puckle Gun wasn't a machine gun because its action wasn't motorized. Its actuation was a hand crank

[@ethanorange3705]

the grat panjandrum is actually not a bad idea: if you replaced the wheel rockets with a single rocket on the midsection and made it wider I believe it could work

[@JC-ks3yk]

They call him Flipper, Flipper, armed with a laser....

[@MrPizzaman09]

Bucyrus = pronounced "buuh -ceye - russ". Another mega projects video of Bucyrus Erie making the largest earth moving drag-line shovel called Big Muskie. The bucket was big enough to fit two Grey Hound buses.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@zaubermaus8190]

hmmm... the first use for those militarized dolphins i could think of was in fact finding and clearing out enemy underwater minefields.... wouldn't that have been easier than all the other applications? X_x

[@xx4248]

I have a bottle of argan oil I've been using in my beard for over a decade. It cost nothing really. 100mm and I've nearly finished it.

[@pauleveritt3388]

How could you have left out CIA experiments in "Remote Viewing"?

[@garydevine605]

The panjandram thing would have been technically possible and extremely effective during the Napoleonic wars.

[@jwenting]

it kinda worked, it was just too unstable and used the wrong type of propulsion. Those problems could have been solved, but by that time it was no longer a priority.

[@Cupid-Stunt]

awesome beard dude

[@dragonsnail3298]

I'm pretty sure the CIA has had Dr. Evil on retainer.

[@nanofate4118]

My favorite is the Great Panjandrum, which makes me question the sanity of the creator

[@ferociousgumby]

Great name, though! Like some sort of steampunk magician.

[@mikemullen5563]

The creator was Nevil Shute, author of 'on the beach' and many aviation novels, and a highly respected aviation engineer. The project was apparently started before the nature of the 'atlantic wall' was known. it was thought the Germans would build a physical, continuous concrete wall along the coast.

[@jwenting]

@@mikemullen5563 and it could probably have been made to work using wider wheels and a different propulsion system that didn't rely on rockets that'd fizzle when they got soaking wet from being submerged in sea water.

[@trixrabbit8792]

Love the use of Dr Evil.

[@bradlevantis913]

Here is a possible subject. NASA has a fleet of rail cars and one time a maintenance worker found a cracked weld. Apparently it was not isolated to one car and could have caused a derailment of fueled booster rockets. Some background is on Magellan TV in the series Disasters in Space, episode 5

[@benjaminbauer2947]

They still have attack dolphins today in the US. They are stationed at Coronado Island, San Diego USA. And yes I have pictures....

[@justinakers3196]

We all know what Simmons favorite shirt is and I don’t blame her

[@nealhoffman7518]

Beard blaze needs a complimentary moustache wax for epic lip hair

[@goldfish2289]

Beard oil on nut hair is a game changer

[@MrMcGreed]

"*Some of you might have heard it before".... SOME OF US MIGHT HAVE HEARD IT FACT BOIII!!!?!?! - If people are not subscribed to BB, well then, what are they doing here - so much glory awaits!!! FLEE YOU FOOLS!!

[@terrancestapleton3859]

"Riiight.... " - Dr. Evil

[@android8666]

Now I have to watch Austin Powers 😆🤣

[@peterjf7723]

A fictional version of the panjandrum was in an episode of Dad's Army.

[@bjornodin]

Was the fictional part that it actually worked?

[@peterjf7723]

@@bjornodin No it was shown as being useless. The fictional part was that it was radio controlled and locked on to a radio the Home Guard were using and started following them. The episode title was Round and Round goes the Great Big Wheel.

[@brucelee3388]

The Great Panjandrum DID have another effect that lasted well after the War. One of the 'drivers' on the trials was Lt. Neville Shute Norway RNVR - better know as the author Neville Shute. He operated a brake on a steering cable attached to the side of the device (one each side) and one of the spectacular capsizes was due to the cable drum seizing. You also missed one of the better film (video) clips from the trials of the terrier (pet of one of the brass hats) chasing flying rockets up and down the beach (40 pounds of cordite in a cast iron rocket casing).

[@ferociousgumby]

So did Neville SHUTE lots of people?

[@dave_h_8742]

Wonder if it would work now ?

[@hehoosmeltitdeltit]

So, is the long tube on the Puckle gun called the Puckle Barrel?