This might work for Keith to get rid of those old broken Rodek- Chevys. Or
even better he could toss them at real rocks and see if they can bust them
into fake rocks.
Glen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Albaugh, Neil" <albaugh_neil@ti.com>
To: <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 9:06 AM
Subject: Don't Go for Speed, Go for Distance!
> I thought you all might get a kick out of this.
> Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
>
> Buick Trebuchet
> by Dave Barry
> Today we have a heartwarming human-interest story about some guys in Texas
> who are fulfilling a dream -- a dream that all of us have dreamt, but, for
> one reason or another, have had to abandon. That's right: These guys are
> building a device that will be capable of hurling a Buick 200 yards.
> Needless to say, the origin of this idea involved beer. A lot of great
ideas
> originated this way. Take the electric light. One night in 1879 at a bar
in
> a little town called Menlo Park, N.J., some men were drinking beer, when
> suddenly one of them announced that he was going to invent an electric
> light. The others laughed, but that man got up, put on his coat and hat,
and
> accidentally walked into the fireplace, thereby setting his coat on fire.
> This gave Thomas Edison, who was at another table drinking coffee, the
idea
> of using carbonized cotton as the filament in his light bulb.
> So we see that beer, if used correctly, can be a tremendous force for
good,
> which brings us back to the Buick-hurling device, which I found out about
> thanks to a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article written by Paul Bourgeois and
> sent in by alert reader Robert Grimm. The beer consumers in this case were
> Richard Clifford, an engineer and artist; and John Quincy, a dentist. One
> day they were snorking brewskis, and, as guys often do when they're
getting
> in touch with their feelings, they got to talking about medieval war
> weapons.
> As you recall from dozing off face-down on your history textbook, medieval
> cities were surrounded by high stone walls with massive iron gates that
> would not open unless you punched in the secret digital Roman-numeral
> passcode. Thus the only way that an invading army could get inside was to
> knock holes in the wall by hurling large objects at it. Originally
catapults
> were used for this, but they were eventually replaced by a more-powerful
> device -- the atomic bomb of the medieval era -- called a "trebuchet."
It's
> basically a long arm with a big weight attached to one end; the weight is
> raised, then dropped, which whips up the other end of the arm, causing it
to
> fling the projectile.
> According to an article in the January issue of Mechanical Engineering
> magazine (alertly sent in by reader Bob Goetze), some trebuchets could
throw
> 300-pound boulders as far as 300 yards. They also were used to throw DEAD
> HORSES. I am not making this up. The idea was to spread disease. This
would
> be a real morale-breaker:
> HUSBAND: Hi honey! I'm home from my medieval job in the field of crossbow
> sales! What's for dinner?
> WIFE: Your favorite! A nice big mutton ...
> (A DEAD HORSE COMES CRASHING THROUGH THE CEILING, SPEWING MAGGOTS
> EVERYWHERE.)
> HUSBAND: Actually, I'm not hungry.
> WIFE: I cannot WAIT for the Renaissance.
> Yes, the trebuchet was an awesome weapon, and the more Richard Clifford
and
> John Quincy thought about it, while drinking beer, the more they realized
> that they had to build one. And so they did. They used it to try to hurl a
> brick. It was not a major success.
> "We never knew which way the brick was gonna go," Quincy told me, in a
phone
> interview.
> At this point, most guys would have quit. But Clifford and Quincy are not
> "most guys"; they are an artist-engineer and a dentist. And so they did
some
> serious trebuchet research. They read books on military history. Then they
> went to England to consult with the world's leading trebuchet expert, a
> historian named Hew Kennedy. Kennedy is generally considered to be
> "eccentric" in the same sense that the sun is generally considered to be
> "warm." He has built a large working trebuchet at his home in Shropshire,
> and he regularly invites his neighbors over to watch him hurl stuff across
> the fields. According to Mechanical Engineering, he has hurled small cars,
> dead pigs and grand pianos.
> He hurled a piano for Clifford and Quincy.
> "It went almost 200 yards," Quincy told me, with awe in his voice.
> Clifford and Quincy returned home inspired. They printed up some official
> stationery (It says PROJECTILE THROWING ENGINES, Texas Division: "Hurling
> Into the 21st Century"). They hooked up with a welder, Don Capers, and
> together they developed and built an improved trebuchet, for test
purposes.
> They've been using it to hurl bowling balls. "We're throwing bowling balls
> now somewhere between 400 and 500 feet," Quincy said.
> But that is small potatoes. What they plan to do is build -- get ready --
> THE BIGGEST TREBUCHET IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. The one that will hurl
> the Buick.
> Here is how serious they are: When I spoke with Quincy, he had just
> purchased 80 acres of land adjacent to his property JUST SO THE BUICK WILL
> HAVE SOME PLACE TO LAND.
> "Wherever it lands," said Quincy, "it's going to stay there."
> Quincy said they'll use The Big One to raise money for charity by holding
> several major hurlings per year. And we're not talking just Buicks. Quincy
> sent me a ballistics chart listing detailed technical data on the hurling
> characteristics of -- among other items -- a toilet, a case of Spam, a
> recliner, an Airstream trailer, a cow, and a mime ("silent, night
hurling,"
> notes the chart).
> I don't know about you, but, as a journalist and as an American, I am
REALLY
> excited about this. I'm going to keep you readers informed. I'm going to
> stick to this story the way Connie Chung stuck to Tonya Harding. And, yes,
I
> intend to be there when the Buick goes up. When it does, I know that I'm
> going to have a very special feeling inside me. It will go away when I
burp.
///
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