Mystery Booms Solved – Buy Your Own!

In the Southern Virginia town of Chesterfield, mysterious explosions have rattled windows and residents for the past several weeks. Always occurring during the day, authorities received over 20 complaints but their investigations turned up little—until now. It turns out that the explosions were caused by a product designed to go boom.

Justin Watkins, a 28-year old resident, says that he’s responsible for the booms, and that it’s completely legal. He’s been purchasing a product called Tannerite, a an explosive target. When shot with a bullet, it explodes with a deafening boom and a cloud of smoke.

Authorities agree that this activity is legal as there are no ordinances prohibiting loud noises during the day. Watkins says that he and his friends love their guns and explosions, and that the town is just going to have to get used to his choice of lifestyle.

Could this “lifestyle choice” also explain this mystery in Oklahoma?

Local Station NBC 12 Reports on the Story.

YouTube: Video explanation of Tannerite.

Why are Tanks Called “Tanks”?

If I say “It’s a movie about tanks” you mind will most likely conjure up images of heavily armored tracked vehicles romping over the landscape. But it was not always so. Pre-World War One, most people would have thought of, well, tanks. That is, the type that store water or other liquids. And this is exactly what the British forces wanted.

The vehicles were thought of as “landships,” but in order to thwart spies, they government needed a cover story to explain why factories were building large metal containers. Various versions of the story are out there, but they all point to the idea that “water tanks” or “Russian water tanks” were being constructed. On maps, “landships” would be called “Russian water tanks” so as to avoid suspicion and explain away the strangeness of the design—they’re Russian, of course they look different.

As the vehicles entered the battlefield in 1915, the word “tank” stuck, and that’s why your brain thinks “landship” when someone says tank, most of the time.

Wikipedia: Tank Etymology.

World of Tanks, an online game devoted to tanks of all kinds.

Caterpillar Tracks

One of the key features of tanks is how they move: on treads, or caterpillar tracks, which have a surprisingly old history. It’s thought that ancient monuments such as the pyramids in Egypt used a similar form of locomotion when large blocks were moved on a series of greased logs. In their current form, they can be traced back to 1770, where they were thought of as a “universal railway,” a train that carried its own track.

Why use them instead of wheels? Because they distribute pressure evenly over a large ground area, making it more difficult to get stuck. Many early tractors employed them as work in muddy fields would often be too much for traditional wheels. For tanks, they were the obvious choice not only because of the uneven terrain but also due to the sheer weight of these vehicles.

Though several different versions existed, it wasn’t until 1905 that they got their most common name, supposedly from a British solider who observed a tractor “moving like a caterpillar.” The tractor happened to be of Holt manufacture, and Holt later changed their name to Caterpillar when they merged with Best. Caterpillar still makes construction equipment today, though it is often abbreviated as “Cat.”

Magnetohydrodynamic or “Caterpillar” Drive

Fans of the film The Hunt For Red October will remember the “caterpillar drive” which allowed the Red October to move silently through the water. Such devices are real, though not as depicted in the movie.

The idea is that if you can electrify gases, you can then move them with electromagnets and cause propulsion with no moving parts. This could provide a great advantage on vehicles susceptible to breakdown such as naval vessels and spacecraft.

The problem is, though the method does work, it’s much more expensive and actually slower than modern engines. In order to create a large magnetic field, a large engine is needed—much larger than what would normally propel a ship. For spacecraft, the challenge is the medium. The craft would have to carry its own supply of gasses, though the possibility of an ion drive exists.

Wikipedia: Magnetohydrodynamic Drive

Wikipedia: Yamoto 1