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How 'bout a coupla whatziss' for ya this weekend?

By The Armorer on February 9, 2008 | | Comments (7)

They might both be simple, they might both be difficult, depending on what you already know.

But heck, I have the most fun when you guys give up and start making stuff up, anyway.

This one, you might have seen before, in a couple of places.

Whatziss?

This one, while I know what it is - I'd never seen a picture of, before I stumbled across this one.

Whatziss?

You may commence.

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7 Comments

By Casey Tompkins on February 9, 2008 10:40 AM
At first I thought the top photo was a target getting hit by a bullet photographed by a very fast camera. Then I noticed the light reflecting off of the ground below, which gave me a better scale. I'd say it's a nuclear explosion shot by a very fast camera. Maybe a UV or IR photo, cuz that thing looks really freaky. The second one is evidently WW2 German. That looks like some sort of towing connector at the top-left, with what appears to be electrical connection wires right below. Narrow tracks, and doesn't look like a full-sized AFV, so I'll guess it's a ammo trailer for a self-propelled gun. Probably way off-base for the second one, though. :)
 
By Maggie on February 9, 2008 10:50 AM
I am not getting caught up in this nonsense. You are not going to drive me crazy all weekend.
 
By Fred on February 9, 2008 11:14 AM
Top photo is by Harold Edgerton. More here: http://www.nevadasurveyor.com/atomicbomb/ Bottom photo is the original TOW or Tank On a Wire guided missile system.
 
By WS on February 9, 2008 1:41 PM
The Germans called that a "Goliath" Tracked Mine. I think it carried around 200 lbs of high explosives, was guided by wire from a joystick control box. It was mostly used by their combat engineers or "Pioniere" auf Deutsch. Good concept, but they weren't very effective.
 
By WS on February 9, 2008 2:56 PM
#2 isn't a Goliath....It's a Minenräumpanzer III - mine clearing/mine destroyer tank, a prototype based on the Panzer III chassis.
 
By jim b on February 9, 2008 4:46 PM
"I am not getting caught up in this nonsense. You are not going to drive me crazy all weekend." Too late.
 
By Pogue on February 9, 2008 9:19 PM
I believe that was one of the "Snapper" shots done in May and June of 1952. From the nuclearweaponarchive.org web site: "Cause of the surface mottling. At this point in the explosion, a true hydrodynamic shock front has just formed. Prior to this moment the growth of the fireball was due to radiative transport, i.e. thermal x-rays outran the expanding bomb debris. Now however the fireball expansion is caused by the shock front driven by hydrodynamic pressure (as in a conventional explosion, only far more intense). The glowing surface of the fireball is due to shock compression heating of the air. This means that the fireball is now growing far more slowly than before. The bomb (and shot cab) vapors were initially accelerated to very high velocities (several tens of kilometers/sec) and clumps of this material are now splashing against the back of the shock front in an irregular pattern (due to initial variations in mass distribution around the bomb core), creating the curious mottled appearance."
 
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