As far as I know, this one-man tank never left the mind of Les G. Scherer.
Scherer designed this personal-sized tank to weigh 7,000 pounds, pack two .30 caliber machine guns, and have 650 ports arrayed around the driver with each port containing a shotgun shell that could be electrically fired. Main selling point of the Turtle Tank was its low center of gravity. Like its terrapin namesake, this tank would have been difficult to turn over.
This was real, not Fifties fantasy: a building heated by atomic energy.
Appropriately enough, the building, located in Harwell, England, was the center for that nation’s atomic research. Waste heat from the nicknamed “Bepo,” one of the atomic piles, was diverted to heat the 330,000 cubic foot/80 office building. The system cost $42,000, but it was estimated that it would save $7,500 per year in heating bills.
Though I’ve lately dedicated this site to cutaway drawings from the golden age of illustration art–1930s to 1960s–certain things come along that are so amazing that they trump my mission. The Hal B. Hays residence in Hollywood, CA is one such thing.
I ran into the Hal B. Hayes residence, which Popular Mechanics described as a House For the Atomic Age. Ever practical, the magazine notes how Mr. Hayes designed the house to withstand or flex against the stresses of an atomic bomb blast. The outer walls are “fluted to resist shock waves” and the large front glass window, pictured above, will sweep away in the same blast. There is an underground concrete-and-steel fallout shelter, as well as another room equipped with bottled oxygen.
Hal B Hayes House Hollywood CA 1953 Exterior Glass Wall
But the house is also whimsical. The magazine says that the car’s parking spot was cantilevered because “space is at a premium.” Perhaps: I don’t know the house’s location, but I assume it’s in the Hollywood Hills. But I really think Hayes cantilevered the car for the drama of it.
This is drama, this is show and fun. How else to account for things like the three-story tree growing in the house and passing through a skylight:
Hal B Hayes House Hollywood CA 1953 Tree Through Skylight
Or the underground sanctuary accessed by swimming underwater:
Hal B Hayes House Hollywood CA 1953 Underground Sanctuary and Pool
L.A. Curbed tells us that the house is located at 1235 Sierra Alta Way Los Angeles, CA 90069 but is so built over that it no longer resembles the original house. It last sold on May 7, 2010 for $8.4 million.
We see from Google Maps that “the tree” mentioned above (or some kind of tree, anyway), is visible in this satellite shot:
1235 Sierra Alta Way West Hollywood CA Satellite View 2013
Even a .22 rifle has a complicated trigger mechanism. This one, a Winchester Model 52 from 1951, is timeless. You’ll find essentially the same mechanism on rifles today.
Despite its fearsome reputation in TV and movies, a hand grenade is a fairly simple and imprecise killing device: a metal container that contains “filler” (as the cutaway says) segmented so that it will split open in predictable chucks.
This cutaway shows what a generic 1950s hand grenade looks like, cut in half. The only difference between the two versions of the hand grenade is that the second one shows the safety pin ring removed and the safety lever raised. Thus, the striker (circled) is allowed to rotate and light the timed fuse.
