The Great Escape

The Great Escape

This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 3 November 2019 at 13:00 by Nick Clarke 3.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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3 November 2019 at 01:38 #435740
Robin Graham
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@robingraham42208
I listen to audiobooks while pottering in my workshop. Today it was the 'The Great Escape' by Paul Brickhill. I'd seen the film, but never read the book, which goes into much more detail about the various escape plans. What struck me was the enormous ingenuity of the would-be escapees – double action air pumps constructed out of stuff to hand, wire cutters made from soft iron sprinkled with sugar, heated and quenched, did the job.

I'm never going to read a tool catalogue again.

Honest. Almost. Perhaps. Maybe.

Robin.

Edited By Robin Graham on 03/11/2019 01:39:47

Edited By Robin Graham on 03/11/2019 01:42:19
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3 November 2019 at 01:38 #35658
Robin Graham
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@robingraham42208
3 November 2019 at 07:20 #435745
Mike Poole
Participant
@mikepoole82104
I suppose using sugar to case harden steel you will go through the caramelisation stage.

Mike
3 November 2019 at 08:20 #435750
not done it yet
Participant
@notdoneityet
Sugar is basically water and carbon, so no spare elements to interfere or surplus oxygen to oxidise the metal. As Mike says, caramelisation occurred and enough to completely char the sugar to carbon after all the water was driven off.
3 November 2019 at 12:34 #435773
Circlip
Participant
@circlip
However did they manage without Carbides, souperglooo ……..

Regards Ian.
3 November 2019 at 12:43 #435774
Neil Wyatt
Moderator
@neilwyatt
I remember reading about someone cutting through iron bars using thread wetted and dipped in sandy dust off the floor. Took ages so the cut was disguised with more dirt.

Hmm. May have been Robert Redford in a movie…

Neil
3 November 2019 at 12:50 #435775
Neil Wyatt
Moderator
@neilwyatt
IN times of war, the ingenuity of those seeking to survive knows few bounds…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Cock

Another story was a Phillipino scientist Maria Orosa who invented some concentrated, powdered food supplements (and banana ketchup). The powders were smuggled into Japanese POW camps in lengths of bamboo in WW2.

Neil
3 November 2019 at 13:00 #435779
Nick Clarke 3
Participant
@nickclarke3
Posted by Neil Wyatt on 03/11/2019 12:43:28:

I remember reading about someone cutting through iron bars using thread wetted and dipped in sandy dust off the floor. Took ages so the cut was disguised with more dirt.

That was how jade carvers cut the extremely hard jade.
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