From: Convoy Magazine (convoymagazine@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Apr 10 2005 - 13:17:35 PDT
Uh boy, yer gonna get it ;-) teehee
Actually I kinda think the Mosquito was the best
fighter, arguably THE fastest prop plane, could carry
almost as much payload as the venerated B-17 but with
a two man crew and twice as fast. Dozens ofsuccessful
variants.. and I guess Brit design
HOWEVER, as for radio, please realize that Canadian
Reginald Fessenden was the first to successfully
create what we know as radio..a voice transmission
without wires..
Fessendan also invented the fathometer and a couple
other things and was granted
Marconi was a great businessman and was, if Im not
mistaken successfully sued by Tesla(?) for
infringement of his patents amongst others..His theory
on sound waves was incorrect and he was still using
Morse when Fessenden was successfully sending voice
and music!
Marc-2 or Mk-II if you will
--- "Mil-Veh Co." <milveh@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On the whole, I think the UK turned out the most
> ingenious designs over the longest period than any
> other country since the 1700's.
>
> The British practically invented modern Naval
> warfare
> tactics, remember Nelson and the ships of the line?
> England's "HMS Dreadnought" made every other
> battleship of the time obsolete due to her
> firepower,
> armour and speed, that was around 1900.
>
> Another first, the British introduce the breech
> loading rifle, a Scot invented that one. Also first
> to use the radio on ships, actually a English
> professor from Liverpool was credited with the first
> design for a radio although Marconi actually built
> the
> first one.
>
> Sir Hiram Maxim test fired the first belt fed
> machine
> gun for the British Army in 1885. That changed a
> lot
> of warfare theory.
>
> British engineer named Lt. Col. Ernest Swinton
> invented the first MBT, in WWI. And that single
> invention also changed tactics!
>
> The British S.E. 5a was considered overall probably
> the best fighter of WWI, although I think the French
> Spad S.XIII was so close in performance it was
> almost
> a tie. The British Spitfire and Hurricane were
> proably the best fighter of WWII in consideration of
> how much they were actually used. Those two planes
> laid the foundation for the best WWII fighter which
> was obviously the Mustang, but only saw a fraction
> of
> the combat the British fighters endured.
>
> The Battleship King George, built around 1934 had a
> pretty remarkable record throughout WWII and many of
> it's design features was copied by several other
> nations. The King George was credited with sinking
> the German battleship Bismark.
>
> Even the famous hovercraft we consider a "state of
> the
> art" landing craft was invented by a British subject
> around the late 1940s, that was Christopher
> Cokerell.
>
> The Ferret Mark 1, 2, etc., were without a doubt the
> best of the armoured scout cars for nearly 30 years.
>
> Landy's are probably the world most
> popular/practical/versitile military 4x4.
>
> Backing up a bit to the American Civil War, did you
> know that it was Capt. Charles Ambrose McEvoy, a
> Brit
> who was the mastermind behind a lot of Confederate
> naval inventions, most notably was the first
> practical
> sea mine, torpedo and the first fuse for shells.
>
> Recently Chobham armour is the state of the art and
> that went onto the Abrams tank. Before that was
> Brigandine armour and a stop gap sort of armour from
> WWII was called plastique (sp?) it was a tar and
> gravel mix with light plate steel, but effective up
> to
> 20 mm rounds.
>
> I might mention just a few more inventions with a
> military bent, like the telescope Isaac Newton,
> Steam
> pump Thomas Savery, Steam engine Thomas Newcomen
> Diving bell Edmund Halley, Marine chronometer John
> Harrison, Steam engine (with separate condenser)
> James
> Watt, Gas turbine John Barber, Hydraulic press
> Joseph
> Bramah, Smallpox vaccination Edward Jenner,
> solid-fuel rocket...but the point being is for a
> little country (size really doesn't matter) Britain
> had more than it's share of remarkable, history
> making, warfare changing inventions.
>
> On balance I should mention that the American's had
> the Brewester Buffalo and petrol powered tanks they
> called flaming coffins... and speaking of flaming,
> ok,
> I'm ready have at it now. lol
>
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>
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