Thursday, April 19, 2012

More Gizmos



This week I post the pictures, and you have to explain the story that goes with them. So, what is this guy up to.

Yesterday's picture was a weather balloon being launched to test a new radio-transmitter.
Posted by at

15 comments:

  1. He's testing baseballs.

    ReplyDelete

  2. The US Military is shown here testing the use of high powered potato cannons to shoot baseballs.

    It motto was "Let'um know what hit'um".
    With the idea that nothing is more American that getting killed by a baseball.

    ReplyDelete

  3. That is Babe Ruth's uncle Archie using one of the first baseball throwing machine to lob baseball to Babe as he practices playing in the outfield for the Yankees in the declining years of his career

    ReplyDelete

  4. My guess is this thing launched baseballs into the outfield for fielding practice. Its pneumatic, hence the pressure gage mounted on the barrel. They can set the distance that the baseball will travel by increasing or decreasing the pressure. I think if you lift up on that lever that has the rope tied to it the pressure is lowered and thus the baseball won't travel as far.

    ReplyDelete

  5. Obviously it's shooting baseballs...perhaps at the weather balloons from yesterday's photo.

    ReplyDelete

  6. It is William Hulbert attempting to prove that it is physically impossible for a batter to hit a ball hard enough for a home run, explaining why the Cubs still can't win.

    ReplyDelete

  7. This was MLB's first attempt to distribute t-shirts into the crowd. Unfortunately the cannon's muzzle velocity was horribly underestimated.

    John

    ReplyDelete

  8. Wow, I'm supprise you have a photo of this. It is actually a photo showing the governments first attempt at solving the global warming issue. The idea was to shoot baseballs to the sun to knock out it's warming rays.

    ReplyDelete

  9. Our goverment money at work again. Herman Worth is a tester for the USA Goverment and he is testing to see if humid baseballs fly farther than dry baseballs. He also tested to see if teams in the mountains (like Colorado) had an edge over teams in the lowlands (like the Yankees)

    ReplyDelete

  10. This was also a test to see if it could be used to throw a ball for your dog to retrieve when your arm got tired.

    And a benefit from the testing was, they thought it could be used to throw hand grenades at enemy troops. But they found out that the time it took to get it set up to be used, the enemy had either overrun the position or left, and they would have to tear it down and move it to and new place where it waas to late to be used again.

    ReplyDelete

  11. DADD is correct. This is Babe Ruth's Uncle Archie conducting one of his many early sports science experiments. Archibald J. Ruth was one the first to test the effects of alcohol on sports fans. He used this contraption to launch baseballs into the bleachers. The milk drinkers sat on the left in the photo, beer drinkers on the right. (See seating signage on back of grandstand). Reaction time for catching fly balls was carefully measured and documented. The milk drinkers caught many more balls, sustained far fewer injuries, and were always chipper at early morning testing times. Unfortunately their sponsors had a much smaller advertising budget and till this day beer sales outweigh milk sales at ballparks.

    ReplyDelete

  12. This is not really an innocent contraption to test baseballs,but something rather more sinister. The device really is a secret ray gun built by enemy spies to destroy America. It is being tested in a stadium avoid detection. We can tell he is a spy because he is wearing a black trench coat and a fedora hat. His diabolical plan came to an ignominious end when the groundskeeper, who was a counter spy, realized half to occupants of the bleachers vanished in the wink of an eye. The brilliant gruondskeeper then subdued the enemy spy with the baseball and saved the country.

    ReplyDelete

  13. A North-Korean made missile launcher.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)