Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Submarines

From Wikipedia.

In the last two blog entries I have written about Charles Sanna who was very involved with submarine construction and upkeep during World War II.  He also invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.

And, Portsmouth Naval  Shipyard played a huge role in the U.S. submarine service in World War I and after the war right up through nuclear submarines in 1969.  One of the submarines launched there was the Thresher which was lost with all 129 aboard in 1963.

From 1942 until he left in February 1944, probably 35 submarines were built and launched at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Other ships of note launched at Portsmouth:  USS Congress (sunk by the CSS Virginia) and USS Kearsarge (sank the CSS Alabama).

--GreGen

Deaths: Charles Sanna Built Submarines and Invented Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix

CHARLES SANNA  (1917-2019)

Best known for inventing Swiss Miss Cocoa Mix.  You can read about him in several posts I made in my Cooter's History Thing blog which you can get to in the My Blog List section to the right of this.

Graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1939 with a degree in mechanical engineering.  During World War II he joined the Navy and rose to become superintendent of submarine construction at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine.

But his thoughts after the war always returned to the submarines he built and the men who served and died on them.

"These men had to be utterly perfect, particularly mentally," he wrote near the end of his life.  "I would ask that anything said on my behalf would include a statement of tribute to the 3,505 valiant, unheralded submariners of the United States Navy who lost their lives in World War II."

--GreGen

10 Wacky Experimental Nazi Weapons

From the Sept. 22, 2013, Listverse.

10.  HEINKEL He 162-- 116 made, unsuccessful
9.  PANZER VIII MAUS--  Largest tank ever built
8.  JUNKERS Ju 322 MAMMUT--  Replacement for cargo planes

7.  ROCKET U-BOAT--  Sub with rockets to attack the United States.  The U-511 was the first one.
6.  FIESLER Fi 103R--  A piloted rocket where the pilot parachuted out at the last minute.

5.  FLIEGERFAUST--  Portable ground-to-air rocket launcher.
4.  ZEPPELIN RAMMER--  A plane to be towed by another plane.

3.  TAIFUN--  A rocket for use against bombers.
2.  KRUMMLAUF--  Allowed a rifle to fire in many directions and, for infantry, could fire around corners.

1.  THE SUN GUN--  A giant mirrot sent into orbit to boil seas and burn cities down.

Those Germans.  --GreGen

A World War II Failure Becomes a Popular Kids' Toy

Don't fear failure!  While experimenting in search of a rubber alternative during World War II, the General Electric Company invented a stretchy, bouncing putty.

Kids and older kids like me, real old, today refer to it as Silly Putty.

Till Mom Threw It Away.  --GreGen

Silly Putty Developed During World War II

From Yahoo! Games Unplugged "Five Things You Didn't Know About Silly Putty" by Mike Smith.

1.  Silly putty is/was a rite of passage for kids and developed as a result of a World War II accident.  In 1943, rubber was in short supply in the U.S. and its armed forces.  The War Production Board had engineer James Wright developing synthetic rubber.

He tried mixing boric acid with silicone oil into a soft polymer.

As a toy, it was first introduced at the International Toy Festival in 1950 and has since sold over 300 million units, weighing in at 4,500 tons of the silly stuff.

2.  It probably can't lift newsprint off newspapers anymore and they have moved away from petroleum based inks.

3.  Silly Putty has been to space.

4.  You can make your own Silly Putty with two parts of Elmer's white glue and one part liquid starch.

5.  Sometimes a liquid, sometimes a solid.

As I Recall, It Used to Come in a Little Plastic Egg for Storage.  Don't Leave It Sitting Out, As I Found Out.  --GreGen.