From: J. Forster (jfor@quik.com)
Date: Sun May 23 2004 - 11:25:42 PDT
>From another list:
Subject: [Microscope] Re: Beach Sand
Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 17:43:21 -0000
From: "John Odom" <jodom25@comcast.net>
Reply-To: Microscope@yahoogroups.com
My favorite teacher, Dr. Walt McCrone used to tell about how the US
countered the Japanese balloon bombs of WWII. These balloon-bombs
reached Washington and Oregon. While they caused no serious damage
the potential was there for a real panic. The whole thing was done
in secrecy, of course so as to not panic the population or give the
Japanese any inkling of success.
Each of the balloons carried several bags of sand to be used as
ballast, dropped by automatic mechanism as they lost altitude. The US
government had a USC&GS scientist, who was a world-wide sand
collector by hobby, examine the sand. He told them it was unique and
came from a certain spot in northern Honshu. We sent bombers and
found a small, but new industrial type building and bombed it. There
were no more balloon bombs. After the cessation of hostilities they
checked the sand and it was a perfect match! Dr. McCrone showed us
slides of both the balloon sand and the post-war comparison sample.
John Odom
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat May 07 2005 - 20:30:00 PDT