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Some designs for nuclear bombs included live chickens which would produce enough heat to keep the electronics active: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3588465.stm

Some designs for nuclear bombs included live chickens which would produce enough heat to keep the electronics active: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3588465.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3588465.stm

lukan 2y ago
That is one of the most weirdest (and messed up) thing I have read in a while. And they say it is not a fools day story despite it surfaced on 1.April, but I am not convinced. But they also don't say how serious that plan was. It was never more than a theoretical concept it seems, after all.
- rtkwe 2y ago
  There was a fringe-y program in WW2 run by Skinner to try to train pigeons to act as primitive guidance computers for glide bombs. It only got minor funding and AFAIK was never tested with actual birds in actual bombs but they were able to train the birds and it seems like it could have worked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
  - benjiro 2y ago
    Let me trump that with the bat (fire)bomb! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
    - grvbck 2y ago
      Also, trojan rats: > During WWII, British Special Forces considered stuffing dead rats with explosives and dispersing them over Germany. They hoped that the Germans would gather the rats and dispose of them in industrial furnaces, producing tremendous explosions that would cause catastrophic boiler failures. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontaylor https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontayl...
    - rtkwe 2y ago
      Which inadvertently proved it's own effectiveness when some of the buildings at the base being used for testing were burnt down because some bats flew outside the intended test range and roosted in random buildings. Pretty grizzly story and I'm glad it didn't go to wide spread adoption but that part has always been hilarious to me.
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    I've always figured the birds would probably lose focus once in freefall. They'd surely know they were.
    - rtkwe 2y ago
      It was for glide bombs which don't free fall. They're, as the name implies, gliders so fly further from the release point and don't fall ballistically. No idea if they got as far as actually strapping the guidance device onto an actual bomb though to see if they would work under stress.
  - shaftway 2y ago
    Fun fact, this is the same Skinner that eventually wrote the book on modern autism treatment, aka Applied Behavior Analysis.
    - positr0n 2y ago
      FYI ABA, even modified for modern times, is still heavily criticised in most autism circles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis#Criticisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis#Crit...
      - shaftway 2y ago
        Yeah, I've heard that ABA is for the parents, not for the children with autism.
BJones12 2y ago
Birds and bombs are a popular combination: https://www.military-history.org/feature/pigeon-guided-missiles.htm https://www.military-history.org/feature/pigeon-guided-missi...
- p3rls 2y ago
  It's interesting how we're sorta circling back to these concepts with drones today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog
- perihelions 2y ago
  Bats too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb - "Tests were used to determine how much napalm an individual bat could carry, determining that a 14 g (0.5 oz) bat could carry a payload of 15–18 g (0.53–0.63 oz)..." Similar ideas were (perhaps apocryphally) used in the medieval ages, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising ("Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising") - "Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once."[22]"
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  Birds, bombs, fire, and vengeful Kievans as well: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising>

lukan 2y ago

That is one of the most weirdest (and messed up) thing I have read in a while. And they say it is not a fools day story despite it surfaced on 1.April, but I am not convinced. But they also don't say how serious that plan was. It was never more than a theoretical concept it seems, after all.

rtkwe 2y ago
There was a fringe-y program in WW2 run by Skinner to try to train pigeons to act as primitive guidance computers for glide bombs. It only got minor funding and AFAIK was never tested with actual birds in actual bombs but they were able to train the birds and it seems like it could have worked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
- benjiro 2y ago
  Let me trump that with the bat (fire)bomb! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
  - grvbck 2y ago
    Also, trojan rats: > During WWII, British Special Forces considered stuffing dead rats with explosives and dispersing them over Germany. They hoped that the Germans would gather the rats and dispose of them in industrial furnaces, producing tremendous explosions that would cause catastrophic boiler failures. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontaylor https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/oct/27/richardnortontayl...
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    Which inadvertently proved it's own effectiveness when some of the buildings at the base being used for testing were burnt down because some bats flew outside the intended test range and roosted in random buildings. Pretty grizzly story and I'm glad it didn't go to wide spread adoption but that part has always been hilarious to me.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  I've always figured the birds would probably lose focus once in freefall. They'd surely know they were.
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    It was for glide bombs which don't free fall. They're, as the name implies, gliders so fly further from the release point and don't fall ballistically. No idea if they got as far as actually strapping the guidance device onto an actual bomb though to see if they would work under stress.
- shaftway 2y ago
  Fun fact, this is the same Skinner that eventually wrote the book on modern autism treatment, aka Applied Behavior Analysis.
  - positr0n 2y ago
    FYI ABA, even modified for modern times, is still heavily criticised in most autism circles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis#Criticisms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_behavior_analysis#Crit...
    - shaftway 2y ago
      Yeah, I've heard that ABA is for the parents, not for the children with autism.

BJones12 2y ago

Birds and bombs are a popular combination: https://www.military-history.org/feature/pigeon-guided-missiles.htm https://www.military-history.org/feature/pigeon-guided-missi...

p3rls 2y ago
It's interesting how we're sorta circling back to these concepts with drones today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog
perihelions 2y ago
Bats too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb - "Tests were used to determine how much napalm an individual bat could carry, determining that a 14 g (0.5 oz) bat could carry a payload of 15–18 g (0.53–0.63 oz)..." Similar ideas were (perhaps apocryphally) used in the medieval ages, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising ("Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising") - "Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: "There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once."[22]"
dredmorbius 2y ago
Birds, bombs, fire, and vengeful Kievans as well: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising>