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- June 19th, 2007
- 5 Comments »
- Innovation
Innovation history: the bouncing bomb
One highlight of my research in innovation history is the story of Barnes Wallis and the bouncing bomb of WWII.
In short: The Allies needed a way to destroy Nazi dams and no ordinance of the time was sufficient for the purpose. Barnes developed a way to drop a bomb, on water, several hundred yards from the dam, and have the bomb, weighing several tons, bounce (that’s right) it’s way on the surface until it reached the dam wall.
It’s an amazing story of technology, inspiration, frustration, politics, persistence and eventual success.
I watched it first on the PBS Special Secrets of the Dead, but you can watch parts of the Dangerous Missions series about the bomb on Google Video here. There’s also a feature film from 1954, and rumors of an upcoming Peter Jackson produced remake.
5 Responses
- Ishmaeel - June 20, 2007 at 9:23 pm #
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You mean dam (not damn), of course, but reading the “until it reached the damn wall” part was fun.
- chuggle - June 22, 2007 at 2:44 pm #
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The theme music to the film is a classic – sung at every England soccer match
- Bernard Farrell - August 7, 2007 at 2:42 pm #
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That movie was excellent, with lots of proper British accents – what!
Unfortunately the Google link you posted doesn’t work anymore.
If Peter J. turns it into a movie, I might well watch that. It has to be better than his remake of King Kong.
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I heard that it was politically effective as Churchill used it when he toured America. But as a use of resources it was a waste as the Germans had their power plants up and running again in a week or so.