I've been reading a book by James Rodger Fleming entitled Meteorology in America, 1800-1870. In it, he describes how mid-19th century scientists were intrigued by the fact that tornadoes seemed to leave barnyard fowl stripped of their feathers. One intrepid researcher, Elias Loomis, saw an opportunity in this anomalous fact. By studying--I shit you not--how fast you have to send a chicken flying through the air in order for its feathers to be pulled off, Loomis figured he could deduce the wind speed of a tornado. And yes, the experiment involved a cannon. Here's Loomis's report:
As the gun was small, it was necessary to press down the chicken [which had just been killed] with considerable force, by which means it was probably somewhat bruised. The gun was pointed vertically upwards and fired; the feathers rose twenty or thirty feet, and were scattered by the wind. On examination they were found to be pulled out clean, the skin seldom adhering to them. The body was torn into small fragments, only a part of which could be found. The velocity is computed at five hundred feet per second, or three hundred and forty one miles per hour. A fowl, then, forced through the air with this velocity, is torn entirely to pieces; with a less velocity, it is probable most of the feathers might be pulled out without mutilating the body.
What a great discovery. Ah, they just don't do science like they used to....
- Log in to post comments
Ah, they just don't do science like they used to....
You don't watch Mythbusters do you?
I am constantly amazed by how researchers in the past managed to come up with ways to do things that one might think could only be done with modern technology. Of course, estimating the wind speed of a tornado is a little less impressive than measuring the speed of light, but still ...
Hmmm...I think I have an idea for a grant proposal...
Fido! Here boy...
An old source of mine describes news stories that emerge every few years not because something new has happened, but simply because some reporter has noticed them anew, as "chicken gun stories."
The root story involves the way the jet airplane people use a cannon similar to the one described above to fire poultry (intact dead birds) into spinning jet engines to determine the damage caused by bird strikes. Every so often a reporter will hear about this, think it's wild, and write a story.
It appears that chicken guns have a longer history than I realized.
Reminds me of Ben Franklin's weekend experiments with electricity...he conducted several trials to figure out how many old-timey batteries (chemicals in jars) he needed to hook together to kill chickens vs. turkeys! It took awhile before he could generate enough voltage to kill a turkey, and almost killed himself on at least one occasion.
Stefan: No, no mythbusters.
John: Yup, long history here. Seriously, though, I doubt those airline types really care about what velocity it takes to pull off the chicken's *feathers*. A poor imitation, it seems to me. Heh.
Jason: Gives a whole new meaning to Franklin's proposal that the turkey be the national bird...
Did Loomis consider the difference between velocity and acceleration? "It's not the fall that kills you, but the sudden stop at the end. . ."
Well, obviously these chicken stories are false because there are no data available for anyone to audit.
And what's the r^2 of the feather-step?
Best,
D
And we all thought The Muppet Show made that stuff up...
They do experiments like that... in materials science, for high-rate deformation. There's the Taylor cylinder test, where you make a cylinder of material and shoot it at a wall, and study the left over shape. My other favorite is taking a block of steel, strapping high explosives to it, and setting up high speed X-ray detectors ~200m away.
Your tax dollars at work at your national laboratories... :)
The wonderful things one can do with chickens.
The Physics Building at the University of Illinois is named after a Loomis, there's a coincidence I like.
It's too bad the poultry business in this country hasn't picked up on this, I'd be much more willing to consider a job at a poultry farm if I got to play with cannons.
I wonder if penguins would take more or less speed? Their feathers and so much smaller and they're so aerodynamically shaped so I'd guess it would be harder to do...