The Amazing Rusting Aluminum (WWII commandos may have sabotaged Nazi planes with this trick)

periodictable.com | Popular Science ^ | 10/1/04 | Theodore Gray

[techcor]

Bump to read later. Looks interesting.

[ConservativeMind]

I'm surprised that the environmentally hysterical Popular Science editors were willing to waste aluminum for the mere benefit of a demonstration.

[Cvengr]

Better living through modern chemistry.

[LZ_Bayonet]

So you could just fly over parked enemy aircraft and spray them with a mist, instead of dropping explosives?

[catman67]

Thanks PM for upping the threat matrix level from islamofascists!

[Kevmo]

Looks like something for the military history ping list.

[chrisser]

Scans are so last-century...

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-09/amazing-rusting-aluminum

[Hegemony Cricket]

Not to mention all the rusty ol’ Mercurys you see around...

[edzo4]

Hogan!

[Red Badger]

We have our aluminum parts anodized or cad plated or alodined to stop corrosion............

[SkyDancer]

Mercury is extremely heavy - I read where German U-Boats used it for ballast. They would move it forward or backwards to help the boat dive faster. I doubt you could mist it either. At any altitude the droplets would crash through most material. Good point on this is “The Day Of The Jackal” where the guy put mercury in the bullet to increase its shattering power inside the body. Closets thing to that today are Glaser Safeties.

[Dead Dog]

It aint rust.

[stevio]

Well I learned something new today.

[MHGinTN]

Ping-a-ling

[Blood of Tyrants]

I don’t believe the commando story. If they got close enough the spread mercury on the planes, then they would get close enough to put a small bomb in the plane that would explode when the altitude reached 500 feet or so. Killing the pilot with the plane. Or if they feared the bomb would be discovered, just place a bomb in the plane with a timer to explode in half an hour or so.

[alexander_busek]

I'm surprised that the environmentally hysterical Popular Science editors were willing to waste aluminum for the mere benefit of a demonstration.

The aluminum hasn't been wasted; it hasn't "vanished." It's still there, waiting to be recovered chemically.

Regards,

[aruanan]

So mercury filled paintballs could really wreak havoc .

[ConservativeMind]

Indeed, but something that took a fair amount of work to create has been destroyed and made a HazMat zone...

[LibWhacker]

Me, too! Makes me want to go out and break an old thermometer over some tinfoil and see what happens.