The War of the Worlds Part 1

The War of the Worlds Part 1 

 This is part 1 of the famous 1939 Halloween radio broadcast that sent all of New Jersey into a panic...

A Martian stranded on Earth (Tesla Edition)

“I can never forget the first sensations I experienced when it dawned upon me that I had observed something possibly of incalculable consequences to mankind. I felt as though I were present at the birth of a new knowledge or the revelation of a great truth….

It positively terrified me, as there was present, something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night; but at that time the idea of these disturbances being intelligently controlled signals did not yet present itself to me.

The changes I noted were taking place periodically and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause known to me. I was familiar, of course, with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the sun, Aurora Borealis, and earth currents, and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes.

The nature of my experiments precluded the possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric disturbances, as has been rashly asserted by some. It was sometime afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another. A purpose was behind these electrical signals.”

Tesla, Nikola (1901)
In the Collier’s Weekly: “Talking With the Planets”

In 1899 while investigating atmospheric electricity using a Tesla coil receiver in his Colorado Springs lab Tesla observed repetitive signals, substantially different from the signals noted from storms and Earth noise, that he interpreted as being of extraterrestrial origin. He later recalled the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks together. Tesla thought the signals were coming from Mars.

Analysis of Tesla's research has ranged from suggestions that Tesla detected nothing (he simply was misunderstanding the new technology he was working with) to claims that Tesla may have been observing naturally occurring Jovian plasma torus signals. Whatever it might have been, the signal inspired Tesla to reach for the stars.

LINK

Mark IV tank

The Mark IV was used at the Messines Ridge when 62 tanks were used on 7 June 1917. They outran their infantry on the broken up but dry terrain. By comparison, in the Third Ypres from the 31 July when the preliminary 24-day long barrage destroyed all drainage and there was heavy rain, the tanks found it heavy going and contributed little; those that sank into the swampy ground, were immobilized and easy targets for enemy artillery.

Nearly 460 Mark IV tanks were used during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, showing that a large concentration of tanks could quickly overcome even the most sophisticated trench system.

In the aftermath of the German Spring Offensive on the western front, the first tank-to-tank battle was between Mk IV tanks and German A7Vs in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918.

About forty captured Mark IVs were employed by the Germans as Beutepanzer with a crew of twelve. (The German word Beute means "loot" or "booty".) Some of these had their six pounders replaced by a German equivalent.

The last Mark IV to see service was Excellent, a Mark IV male retained by the naval gunnery school on Whale Island, HMS Excellent. In the early years of the Second World War it was restored to operational status and driven to the mainland, where its new career was allegedly brought to an early end after a number of cars were damaged.

Mark V series

The Mark V was first intended to be a completely new design of tank. When however in December 1917 the desired new engine and transmission became available, this design was abandoned and the designation switched to an improved version of the Mark IV, in fact a Mark IV as it was originally intended. The Mark V had more power (150 bhp) from a new Ricardo engine. Use of Wilson's epicyclic steering gear meant that only a single driver was needed. On the roof towards the back of the tank behind the engine was a second raised cabin for a machine-gunner and the tank commander. The machine guns now fired through ball mounts rather than loopholes giving better protection and wider field of fire.

Four hundred were built, 200 each of Males and Females. Several were converted to Hermaphrodites by swapping sponsons to give a single 6 pounder gun for each. These are also sometimes known as "Mark V Composite".

The Mark V was a late participant in the First World War. It was first used in the Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918 when 60 tanks contributed to a successful assault by Australian units on the German lines. A number saw service in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War on the White Russian side. They participated in the British North Russia Campaign. Some saw service with the Estonian forces after Russian forces had to retreat into Estonia and be disarmed and were used until 1941. Mark Vs were also delivered to the French, Canadian and American armies.

Two Mark V tanks, one male, one female, can be seen in several photographs taken in Berlin in 1945 in front of the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). It has been suggested[by whom?] this was a museum piece that had been previously displayed at the Lustgarten and it had been used as a static pillbox to help bolster the city's defences during Nazi Germany's final days. However, there is no evidence this was the case and it is not clear what role (if any) it played in the Battle of Berlin.

The 'Specials'

Mysterious Martian mists defy science--- Gases from Large Planetary Canon?

 

War of the Worlds Martian cylinder-cannon!

Stuart Gary
ABC

Scientists are at a loss to explain strange high altitude clouds found hovering over the surface of the red planet.
 
The massive mists, first discovered by amateur astronomers on 12 March 2012, defy science's current understanding of atmospheric physics on Mars.

At over 1000 kilometres wide, the clouds are far larger than any previously observed on Mars, according to a report today in the journal Nature.

The phenomenon was spotted along the observed edge of the planet at the night day boundary, between 200 and 250 kilometres above the Terra Cemmeria region of the Martian south-eastern hemisphere.

"I first noticed it when processing image data from a session and saw something that looked like an artefact," says amateur Florida astronomer Wayne Jaeschke, who is one of the study's authors.

"After processing the data it seemed to show up on all the images, so I animated some frames and found that we had a real feature, but one I couldn't explain!"

The massive clouds which lasted for at least 11 days, rapidly changed shape going from double blob protrusions to pillars or finger-plumes.

Jaeschke sent the animation to a wider group of amateur and professional astronomers.
On 6 April 2012, a second similar cloud was observed in the same area and at similar altitudes, lasting about 10 days.

The discovery prompted a review of more than 3500 images of Mars from both the Hubble Space Telescope and amateur image databases.

The authors found other images showing the occasional presence of clouds, however none were as massive as the 2012 features, with the exception of a similar abnormal plume in Hubble images from 17 May 1997.

Martian aurora

The research team looked at a range of possible explanations for the unusual plumes, including Martian aurora activity.

Highly concentrated and localised patches of auroral emissions generated by magnetic field anomalies in the Martian crust have been previously observed at altitudes of 130 kilometres, in the same area.

"I think there's still some discussion about the magnetic field as a contributing factor because of the high solar winds at the time," says Jaeschke.

"We saw this feature as several large coronal mass ejections from the Sun were passing by Mars."

However, the authors calculated that the intensity of any auroral activity would have been far less than the degree of brightness seen in the features.

The findings mean aurora activity are not fully consistent with the feature Jaeschke and colleagues found.

Dust and ice

Clouds of both carbon dioxide and water ice crystals are frequently observed in the Martian atmosphere, but always below 100 kilometres in altitude.

Scientists have also detected Martian dust at altitudes up to 60 kilometres during major dust storms.

The authors compared the properties of the mystery clouds with known properties of both carbon dioxide and water ice crystals, as well as Martian dust particles.

They quickly ruled out dust particles for the 1997 event, and found dust was also unlikely to have caused the 2012 clouds.

Getting dust to the clouds high altitude would require unusually strong up-drafts more likely to occur when temperatures are higher around noon rather than when the clouds are seen at dawn.

"Morning was the only time we were able to see the plume," says Jaeschke.
The researchers found either water ice or carbon dioxide ice particles provided the best fit for both the 1997 and 2012 events.

"If it was a condensate [ice] cloud, then it's possible that it dissipated during the day," says Jaeschke. "Or, because of the change in the Sun angle, the cloud may not have been bright enough for us to see against the bright backdrop of the planet's surface."

However, condensation of ice would require unusually cold temperature drops of over 50 degrees for water clouds and double that level for carbon dioxide clouds, say the researchers.
"The most probably reason was a drop in the temperature in the layer from 100-200 km above surface, for unknown dynamical reasons," says the study's lead author Dr Agustin Sánchez-Lavega of the Universidad del País Vasco in Spain.

He says extended monitoring will be needed before this latest Martian mystery can be solved.

The complete sequence of Zveno developments (not all were tried).

In 1930 Vakhmistrov suggested that a cheap glider might be used as an aerial gunnery target, and he quickly perfected a way of carrying such a glider above the upper wing of an R-l reconnaissance aircraft and releasing it in flight. This gave Vakhmistrov the idea of using a large aircraft to carry a small one on long-range flights over hostile territory. The small aircraft could either be fighters to protect a large bomber, or bomb-carrying attack aircraft or camera-carrying fast reconnaissance aircraft which could make a pass over a target while the parent aircraft stood off at a safe distance. In each case the difficult part was hooking on again for the long flight home. After presenting the WS and LII management with calculations Vakhmistrov received permission to try out his idea. This led to a succession of Zveno (link) combinations:

Z-1 This featured a twin-engined Tupolev TB-1 bomber carrying a Tupolev I-4 fighter above each wing. The fighters were of the I-4Z version, three of which were converted for these experiments with short stub lower wings and attachment locks on the landing gear and under the rear fuselage. The bomber was provided with attachments for the Zveno aircraft above each wing: two small pyramids for the landing gear and a large tripod for the rearfuselage attachment.

The first flight took place from Monino on 3rd December 1931. The TB-1 was flown by AI Zalevskii and A R Sharapov, with Vakhmistrov as observer. The fighters, with ski landing gears, were flown by V P Chkalov and A S Anisimov. The take-off was made with the fighter engines at full power. The TB-1 co-pilot forgot the release sequence and released Chkalov's axle before releasing the aft attachment, but Chkalov reacted instantly and released the rear lock as the fighter reared nose-up. The second fighter was released correctly. For a few seconds the TB-1 flew with no tendency to roll with an I-4Z on one wing.

Z-1a First flown in September 1933, this comprised the TB-1 carrying two Polikarpov I-5 fighters. The latter were fitted with a reinforcing plate under the rear fuselage carrying the rear holddown, but had no special designation. The pilots were P M Stefanovskii (TB-1) and I F Grodz' and V K Kokkinaki (I-5).

Z-2 This was the first of the more ambitious hookups using a TB-3 as parent aircraft. The bomber was an early TB-3/4 M-l 7, and it was given attachments for an I-5 above each wing and a third above the fuselage with its wheels on a special flat platform. On the first test in August 1934 the TB-3 was flown by Zalevskii and the fighters by T P Suzi, S P Suprun and T T Al'tnov.

Z-3 This combination would have hung a Grigorovich I-Z monoplane fighter under each wing of the TB-3. It was not flown.

Z-4 No information.

Z-5 This was the first attempt to hook back on. The parent aircraft was again the TB-3/4 M-l 7, and the fighter was an I-Z fitted with a large suspension superstructure of steel tubes, plus a curved upper guide rail terminating in a sprung hook releasable by the pilot (almost identical to the arrangement used on the airship- borne US Navy F9C Sparrowhawks). This was designed to hook on a large steel-tube trapeze under the bomber, which was folded up for take-off and landing. V A Stepanchyonok flew the I-Z on several tests with the bomber flown as straight and level as possible by Stefanovskii. The first hook-on took place on 23rd March 1935; this was a world first.

Z-6 The final combination of the original series was the mating of two I-16 monoplane fighters hung under the wings of the TB-3. The fighters were provided with local reinforcement above the wings to enable them to be hung from sliding horizontal spigots on large tripod links of streamlined light-alloy tube pin-jointed to the bomber's wing structure. Bracing struts linked the bomber to a latch above the fighter's rear fuselage, and one of the fighters (M-25A-engined No 0440) was photographed with a lightweight pylon above the forward fuselage to pick up under the bomber's wing. The first test took place in August 1935; Stefanovskii flew the TB-3 and the fighter pilots were K K Budakov and AI Nikashin.

Aviamatka
Named 'mother aircraft', this amazing test, not part of the original plan, took place in November 1935. The TB-3/4M-17 took off from Monino with an I-5 above each wing and an I-16 below each wing. At altitude it folded down the under-fuselage trapeze and Stepanchenok hooked on the I-Z, making a combination of six aircraft of four types all locked together. After several passes all the fighters released simultaneously. By this time Vakhmistrov had schemes for up to eight fighters of later types all to be carried by large aircraft such as the full-scale VS-2 tailless bomber projected by Kalinin. Instead Stalin's 'terror' caused the whole effort to wither, but there were still to be further developments.

SPB (Russian initials for fast dive bomber) This was a special version of the Polikarpov I-16 equipped with a rack to carry an FAB-250 (bomb of 250kg, 551 Ib) under each wing. Such an aircraft could not have safely taken off from the ground. In 1937 a later TB-3/4AM- 34RN was made available, and two SPB aircraft were hung under its wings. The first test took place on 12th July 1937, the TB-3 being flown by Stefanovskii and the dive bombers by A S Nikolayev and IA Taborovskii.

Z-7 In November 1939 one final combination was flown: the TB-3/4AM-34RN took off with an I- 16 under each wing and a third hooked under the fuselage in flight (with severe difficulty). The I-16 pilots were Stefanovskii, Nyukhtikov and Suprun. In early 1940 the WS decided to form a Zveno combat unit. Based at Yevpatoriya, this was equipped with six modified TB-3/4AM- 34RN and 12 SPB dive bombers. During the Great Patriotic War a famous mission was flown on 25th August 1941 which destroyed the Danube Bridge at Chernovody in Romania, on the main rail link to Constanta. Surviving SPBs flew missions in the Crimea.