The Big Bang In Theory

And In Practice

What? You were expecting a riff on some television sitcom? Pshaw, as if, although CJ at work did once compare my crossword-solving skills to Sheldon, which Conrad thinks is a compliment and will take as one regardless.

Shelled off and shelled -

  How does that phrase go - "Each step is the inevitable consequence of the preceding one" and that was proved true yesterday evening, because Lo! we are back on that much-debated subject, "The 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun used in a ground role", and there's more to this than you, the unfamiliar and uninitiated, might have thought.  First of all, I had to go dig out my copy of "Firepower" by Bidwell and Graham, as they definitely had input on this topic.  But first -

JIM CARREY!

    Because yesteryon's post blew up enormously and I can only attribute it's success to - well, either Jim Carrey or Roger Corman, with perhaps a tip of the hat to Edgar Allan Poe, because it was a poster for the film adaptation of his "The Masque of the Red Death" that cropped up in the previews -

     Where were we?  O yes, the 3.7 inch AA gun.  I can hear those questions tripping off your tongue even as I type, principal amongst them being "Why didn't the British use it as an anti-tank gun in North Africa?"

     B&G point out that the 3.7 was a monster of a gun, coming in at 9 tons, a lot bigger and heavier than the supposedly rival 88 mm AA gun, which was a mere stripling at only 7 tons.  Nor is that all.  The 3.7 lacked optical sights, as it was supposed to operate with separate sighting and ranging equipment.  Plus it wouldn't have done to only operate it in ones and twos - S&G proposed two regiments with fifty percent spares, meaning 72 guns total, all of which would require crews and completely different training from the anti-aircraft role.  Art?

   S&G also point out that the guns were performing a vital role in keeping the rear areas of Egypt free from annoying Axis aircraft; shift 72 of these guns, or one third of the total in the Middle East, and you'd have to pull squadrons of aircraft back from winning air superiority to stooge around the Nile delta.
     Nor is that all.  O no!  Look at that photo above; the gun is elevated, as it was normally expected to be, since this is how you shoot down enemy aircraft.  If the gun was horizontal then it's trunnions and recuperators would be subjected to stresses they simply weren't designed for.

    Having a one-ton gun barrel fly backwards off it's mounting when fired is not what you want, is it now?  The neighbourhood would look so messy.
     There is more, O yes believe me there is so much more, to come, though I think we'll leave this here for the time being because I can see your brains starting to glaze over.

     Motley!  Bring me the fly-swatter, for there are some airborne intruders I intend to see to myself.

Cruel And Unusual Punishment

To you, at least.  To Conrad - well, we shall see.

     I did mention how one thing leads to another, didn't I?  And so it does, for I was looking at the Bibliography in "Firepower" and thinking 'Wow, so many books I do not have!' - you can tell where this is leading, can't you? - and so I sat down and listed twenty of them.  Art?

     The next step was to cost them on Abebooks, Amazon and Naval & Military Press, to see 1) If they were still available and 2) If so, how much they cost.  The most eye-watering one was Berdinner's "With The Heavies In France And Flanders",notching up a cool £120 as it's only available in the first edition from 1922.  And I've only gotten up to number 7 so far!

One of the heavies, with puny human for scale

     I think that's enough banging for a while*.

A Trans-Thames Tunnel, Hoorah!

I steal without remorse from Harry Harrison's alternative-history opus, "A Trans-Atlantic Tunnel,  Hurrah!" which I've read only once and that decades ago - allow me to nick a bit of the blurb "If the project is a success, the credit will belong to Captain Augustus Washington, the most brilliant engineer of our age. It is Washington's greatest hope that his success will at last erase the family shame inspired by that other Washington, George, traitor to his King, who was hanged by Lord Cornwallis more than two centuries ago."

     I like it already!

     Back to reality <makes rueful face>and the Thames Tunnel as attempted by Marc and then Isembard Brunel.  We left it in 1827, when construction had begun, and there had been a serious flooding incident. There was an even more serious one in 1828, when six men were drowned, as almost was Isembard himself.  Then along came financial problems and the whole thing went into a seven year hiatus, the tunnel as excavated being sealed off with brickwork, just in case.  Art?

A Work In Progress

     This might have put a lesser person off; not Marc Brunel! (because he was half-English, thanks for asking) who managed to raise more finances, create a better shield and get boring again**.
     More to come about the Thames Tunnel, Vulnavia, watch this space!

     Not this exact space.

Finally -

Conrad read a headline on the BBC's website with a touch of incredulity, about an un-named South Canadian dying from an overdose of -

     Liquorice.

     Yes, you read that correctly, and no, I didn't mis-type "Liquor" and "Ice" which is what I'm going to have after finishing BOOJUM! in a short while: liquorice, the soft black chewy stuff they make Pontefract cakes out of.  Art?

     He was in the habit of eating a whole bag and a half of the stuff every day <Conrad silently gnashes his diabetic teeth> which is a Very Bad Thing, thanks to the glycyrrhizic acid present in liquorice (itself being a corruption of the Latin "Glycyrrhizia"), which causes all sorts of alarming effect, to quote: "hypertension, hypokalemia, metabolic alkalosis, fatal arrhythmias, and renal failure" all of which caused matey to simply drop dead of a heart attack one day.

     Wow!  Watch out, folks, that sweet tooth may have nasty sharp jagged edges.

And with that, we are done done done!

*  WASH OUT YOUR DIRTY MINDS!

**  Obvious pun ignored.