**************************************************Week 1, Nature, the maestro..(3.5 billions years to a few millions years)

Week 2, Pre-historic and Ancient (Up to 500 AD)

Week 3, Medieval to WW I (500 AD to 1914)

Week 4, WW I (1914 to 1918)

Week 5, WW II (1939 to 1945)

Week 6, Post war, Present, Future.. (1945 to present and future)

From Clubs and Spears to the Invisible Cloak, the Role of Technology in Weaponry

Looking at the historical development, usage and technology related to weapons from 3.5 billions years ago till present.

Last week’s business

• True or False:

–The spiral stairways in castles are all built clockwise.

Question of the week

TRUE:A clockwise staircase would put attacking swordsmen at a disadvantage as most swordsmen were trained to carry their sword in their right hand.

Also..

• They were designed with very uneven steps.

• Can you guess why?

• Heating potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate in a metal pan to make it emit oxygen.

• ********************************

• Potassium nitrate decomposes on heating, producing potassium oxide and gaseous nitrogen and oxygen.4 KNO3(s) = 2 K2O(s) + 2 N2(g) + 5 O2(g)

• Also sodium nitrate decomposes into Sodium nitrite and Oxygen.

2NaNO3 --> 2NaNO2 + O2

Korean Turtle ship

Week 4, WW I (1914 to 1918)

Recommended place

• Liberty Memorial (National World War I Museum)

• Kansas City, MO

If you are there, don’t forget

• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

• Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

• Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

• And see their Fountains.

For comparison

• Remember Toyota Corolla has about 130 Horse Power.

Weapons used for the 1st time WW1

• Armored Tanks

• Portable Flamethrowers

• "Trench" mortars

• Poison gases –

–the first military use of Chlorine, Phosgene, Cyanide, and Mustard gas

• Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR)

• ASDIC & Hydrophones

–ASDIC is Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee that invented Hydrophones, microphone designed to be used underwater.

–Invented by British, American and French scientists.

Weapons used for the 1st time WW1

• Depth charges

–an anti-submarine warfare(ASW) weapon intended to destroy or cripple submarine by the shock of exploding near it.

Weapons used for the 1st time WW1

• Aircraft

very minor experiments in aerial bombing had occurred prior to WW1.

• Lightweight machine guns

guns which could be used on the move, rather than require a fixed firing position.

Weapons used for the 1st time WW1

List of weapons which had their first significant use during the ww1

• Submarines

• Hand grenades

• Modern steel helmet

• Amphibious infantry assaults

How did it start and why

• World War I was also known as

–the Great War,

–the War of the Nations

–the War to End All Wars.

•But it didn’t…WW2

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll

Event Highest

estimate

Location Date Percentage of

the world

population

Taiping

Rebellion 100,000,000 China 1851-1864 8%

World War II 72,000,000 Worldwide 1939-1945 3.10%

World War I

(High estimate

includes Spanish flu

deaths) 65,000,000 Worldwide 1914-1918 3.60%

Mongol

Conquests 60,000,000

East Asia,

Eastern

Europe,

West Asia 1207-1472 17.10%

An Lushan

Rebellion 36,000,000 China 755-763 15.30%

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll

Event Highest

estimate

Location Date Percentage of

the world

population

Taiping

Rebellion 100,000,000 China 1851-1864 8%

World War II 72,000,000 Worldwide 1939-1945 3.10%

World War I

(High estimate

includes Spanish flu

deaths) 65,000,000 Worldwide 1914-1918 3.60%

Mongol

Conquests 60,000,000

East Asia,

Eastern

Europe,

West Asia 1207-1472 17.10%

An Lushan

Rebellion 36,000,000 China 755-763 15.30%

• During WWI, the Spanish flucaused about 1/3 of total military deaths.

• In 1918, an especially virulent H1N1 influenza struck creating an explosive pandemic that killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people worldwide.

• Four empires collapsed after WWI:

–Ottoman,

–Austro-Hungarian,

–German,

–Russian.

• In early 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram encouraging Mexico to invade U.S. territory.

• The British kept it a secret from the U.S. for more than a month. They wanted to show it to the U.S. at the right time to help draw the U.S into the war on their side.

–Pearl Harbor?!

Tanks

Tank facts

• Tanks were initially called “landships.”

• In an attempt to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to code name them “tanks”.

• “Little Willie” was the first prototype tank in WWI. Built in 1915

• It carried a crew of three and could travel as fast as 3 mph (4.8 km/h)

• During WWI, British tanks were initially categorized into “males” and “females.”

• Male tanks had cannons, while females had heavy machine guns.

Tanks

Submarines

• All World War I-era submarines were propelled by diesels on the surface and by electric motors submerged.

• But, British Swordfish and K class submarines intended to operate as scouts for surface warships, required the high speeds then available only from steam turbines.

• The K-boats steamed at 23.5 knots on the surface, while electric motors gave them a 10-knot submerged speed.

Knot?• 1 knot is approximately 1.15 mph

• A "knot" is one nautical mile per hour,.

• A nautical mile originally being 1 minute of a latitudinal meridian, 1/60th of a degree.

• By this definition, the Earth's circumference would be 21, 600 nm.

• The current SI conversion is 1 nm = 1,852 meters.

How does a submarine work?

Periscope

Used in Tanks and Submarines

Submarines and WW1

Torpedoes• Historically, it was called an

automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo.

• Torpedo is a kind of fish: an electric ray.

• Device is named called crampfish and numbfish.

• They are known for being capable of producing an electric discharge up to 200 volts.

• The name comes from the Latin torpere, to be stiffened or paralyzed, referring to the effect on someone who handles or steps on a living electric ray.

Torpedoes

• A torpedo is essentially a guided missile that happens to "fly" underwater.

• A torpedo has a propulsion system, a guidance system and some sort of explosive device.

• Torpedoes can travel several miles on their way to the target, and therefore they need a propulsion system that can run for 10 to 20 minutes.

• Earlier models were impact torpedoes.

• Nowadays they are designed to explode very close to the target boat and create a "void" in the water.

• This causes the ship to buckle under its own structural pressure.

Machine Guns• Puckle gun

– Also known as the Defense gun, was invented in 1718 by James Puckle, a British inventor, lawyer and writer.

Machine Guns• The Agar Gun,

– Also known as a "coffee-mill gun" because of its resemblance to a coffee mill, was invented by Wilson Agar at the beginning of the US Civil War.

Machine guns

• Shell shock was the reaction of soldiers in World War I to the trauma of battle.

• Shell-shock and shell concussion cases should have the letter 'W' prefixed to the report of the casualty, if it was due to the enemy– In that case the patient would be entitled to rank

as 'wounded' and to wear on his arm a 'wound stripe'.

• If the man’s breakdown did not follow a shell explosion, it was not thought to be 'due to the enemy', and he was to [be] labeled 'Shell-shock' or 'S' (for sickness)– In that case he was not entitled to a wound stripe

or a pension.

• Some men suffering from shell shock were put on trial, and even executed, for military crimes including desertion and cowardice.

• In World War II and thereafter, "shell shock" was replaced by that of combat stress reaction.

• The term "Soldier's Heart" was first coined in the post-Civil War era.

• Some experts believe Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), "Soldier's Heart" and “shell shock” are the same thing.

• During WWI, people of German heritage were suspect in the U.S.

• Some protests against Germans were violent, including the burning of German books and killing of German shepherd dogs.

• During WWI, American hamburgers (named after the German city of Hamburg) were renamed Salisbury steak.

• Frankfurters, which were named after Frankfurt, Germany, were called “liberty sausages”.

Question of the week

• In 2003 Congress officially renamed the menu item in Congressional cafeterias in response to France's opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq.

• What was the new name for FrenchFries?

Prize of the week

Two theatre tickets

Planes

FROM: http://www.wright-brothers.org/default.htm

Sir George Cayley•conceives a craft with stationary wings to provide lift and "flappers" to provide thrust.•builds a miniature glider with a single wing and a movable tail mounted on a universal joint.•builds a man-sized version of a glider with a wing surface of 300 feet.

Experiments prove the feasibility of a flying craft with fixed (instead of flapping or whirling) wings to generate lift

Planes

•Jean-Marie Le Bris, a French sea caption, tests a glider modeled after an albatross.

•Felix Du Temple and his brother Louis, France, fly a model monoplane whose propellers are driven by a clockwork spring.•Jules Verne publishes Five Weeks in a Balloon, describing an aerial trip across Africa filled with danger and adventure.

Designers begin to test various types of engines to propel their airplanes.

Planes

•Otto Lilienthal, an engineer from Germany, with his brother Gustav, the two begin a series of experiments aimed at gathering the engineering data need to build a successful glider.•Siegfried Marcus from Austria, patents the low-tension magneto, the first practical electrical ignition system for an internal combustion engine.•John J. Montgomery of California builds a monoplane glider and makes the first gliding flight in America.

Should airplanes be balanced in the air by skilled pilots, or should designers create craft that are inherently stable?

Planes•Alexander F. Mozhaiski, Russia, builds a steam-powered monoplane.•Horatio F. Phillips, England, experiments with cambered wings in a wind tunnel and lays down the scientific foundation for modern airfoil design.•Charles Parsons, England, invents the steam turbine.•Lawrence Hargrave, Australia, builds the first radial airplane engine.

Planes

world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.

For more info:

• Visit

http://www.wright-brothers.org/default.htm

Zeppelin

• Zeppelin is a type of rigid airshippioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

• It was patented in Germany in 1895.

• First flown commercially in 1910.

• By mid-1914, Zeppelin carried over 34,000 passengers on over 1,500 flights.

• Blau gas (German: Blaugas) was an artificial illuminating gas similar to propane, named after its inventor, Dr. Hermann Blau.

• It has the highest specific energy of all artificially produced gases, but unlike coal gas, it was free from carbon monoxide.

• During WWI, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts.

Zeppelin

Another war poster from

England*********

The end of “BABY-KILLER”

Graf Zeppelin• 1928 to 1937

• Crew: 40

• Capacity: 20 passengers

• Length: 236.53 m (776 ft 0 in)

• Diameter: 30.48 m (100 ft 0 in)

• Power: 5 engines, 410 kW (550 hp) each

• Maximum speed: 128 km/h (80 mph)

• The Hindenburg disaster in 1937 was the beginning of the end for Zeppelin.

Zeppelin

Planes

Gear Interrupter

Strange but true: story of John Hedley

Artillery

• Any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons (cannons, shell-firing guns, howitzers, mortars, and rockets).

Artillery

• In the Napoleonic Wars, World War Iand World War II the vast majority of combat deaths were caused by artillery.

• In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was "the God of War“.

• Big Bertha was a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in WWI.

• It was named after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp.

• It could fire a 2,050-lb (930-kg) shell a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km).

• However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble.

• Germany had 13 of these huge guns or “wonder weapons”.

Cannons and WW1

Artillery

Trench Warfare

• The construction techniques to build the trenches evolved with the war. To make the 250 m trench approx. 2700 of man-hours at night were required.

• 140,000 Chinese laborers served on the Western Front over the course of the First World War (40,000 with the French and 100,000 with the British forces).

Trench Warfare

• The wars in the trenches were so intense that 10% of the fighting soldiers were killed in the trench warfare and around 50% would get wounded.

• Over 200,000 men died in the trenches of WW1, most of who died in battle, but many died from disease and infections brought on by the unsanitary conditions.

Trench Warfare

• German trenches were built to last and included bunk beds, furniture, cupboards, water tanks with faucets, electric lights, and doorbells.

Trench Warfare

Did we learn anything from WW1?