The RAF’s Typhoon was termed an “Engine With Wings” by Popular Science because of its 2,200 horsepower, 24 cylinder power plant–a massive engine at the time.
The Typhoon carried four 20 mm cannon. With its capacity for carrying two 500 lb. bombs, one under each wing, the Typhoon could be a fighter-bomber as well as a fighter only.
At a loaded weight of 11,300 lbs., it was fairly heavy compared to its sister, the Hurricane, which weighed in at 7,290 lbs. loaded.
The R.A.F. Mosquito was a zippy, nimble aircraft, its fuselage built of plywood on a balsa wood core and its wings made of spruce and birch. Other than mechanical working parts, this made the Mosquito nearly all wood.
The Mosquito’s crew of two could take the 18,500 lb. craft to relatively low altitudes to whisk into position, drop its load, and whisk away.
This cutaway drawing was pieced together from a December 1943 issue of Popular Science.
What to call these men who, in decades past, did fearsome things for a purpose and did so with utter aplomb? While dangerously close to yes men, the term yestermen works for me.
He’s the man who saves the woman from falling off of Mt. Rushmore–all without taking off his tie. The polar opposite would be the Jackass pussies who do purposeless things with complete vanity.
F. Bert Farquharson is one such yesterman.
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Is Ready To Collapse
On November 7, 1940, the Tacoma Narrows, south of Seattle, Washington, was beset with gale force winds. According to the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), by early morning the Tacoma Narrows Bridge began
undulating, “galloping,” with several waves 2 to 5 feet high. At 7:30 a.m. the wind measured 38 miles per hour. Two hours later, engineers clocked the wind at 42 miles per hour near the bridge’s east end.
Because “Galloping Gertie,” as it was nicknamed, was a suspension bridge, it had the ability to flex, bend, and ripple, all without breaking–for the moment, as least. Galloping Gertie was the world’s third largest suspension bridge.
Tubby the Dog is Trapped
By now, spectators, bridge officials, and newsmen had begun to gather on both ends of the bridge, with a number of them still cautiously driving across the bridge.
One such newsman, Leonard Coatsworth, of the Tacoma News-Tribune, was actually there not as a newsman. He was driving toward his summer cottage on the Olympic Peninsula. In the back seat was his black cocker spaniel, Tubby.
Coatsworth did not complete his trip across the bridge. The bouncing bridge threw his car against the curb, and Coatsworth managed to crawl from the window and stumble back toward the East Tower, a good 480 yards away. Coatsworth later said of his escape from the bridge:
On hands and knees most of the time, I crawled 500 yards or more to the towers…My breath was coming in gasps; my knees were raw and bleeding, my hands bruised and swollen from gripping the concrete curb…Toward the last, I risked rising to my feet and running a few yards at a time…
One problem: Tubby was still trapped in the car.
Enter Frederick Bert Farquharson!
F. Bert Farquharson (1895-1970), a professor of engineering at the University of Washington, had been involved with fixing wind-related engineering issues on Gertie prior to this gale. When he heard about the problems with the bridge, he hopped in his car and drove an hour south from his home in Seattle.
When he reached the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Farquharson began filming the bridge from various angles. After hearing about the predicament with Tubby trapped in the car, Farquharson decided to walk out onto the bridge and save Tubby.
Two huge problems. First, by this time, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was shaking so wildly, one edge of the bridge was often as much as 28 feet higher than the other side. Second, concrete chunks of the bridge had already begun to fall off.
Another problem that no one knew at the time: the bridge was only 6 minutes from collapse.
Prof. Farquharson Tries To Save Tubby
Farquharson ventured over 1,000 feet to Coatsworth’s abandoned car. But when he tried to grab Tubby, the dog bit his finger. Realizing that this was a lost cause and that his own life was at stake, Farquharson wisely retreated. WSDOT tells us:
Farquharson ran from the East Tower toward the Toll Plaza, covering the 1,100 feet of the side span length as fast as his legs could carry him. He followed the centerline, where he knew there was least motion. Twice, the roadway dropped 60 feet, faster than gravity, then bounced upward, finally settling into a 30-foot deep sag.
But here’s what propels Farquharson to true titanium-balls status. When he arrives at the end of the bridge, he is still dressed in his tie and trenchcoat, and holding his pipe.
If you didn’t catch that: wearing his tie and holding his pipe.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapses
By 11:10am, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge–good ol’ Galloping Gertie–had fully collapsed, into the cold waters of the narrows.
A video of the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The section with Farquharson, aplomb intact and pipe in hand, begins at 2:05. Be sure to mute the sound, so you don’t have to listen to the nasty New Age music that the YouTuber put on this video.
One of the great things about the old Fortune magazine was how it often treated extremely mundane subjects with great wonder and awe. Not only would they profile the high-level anticts of John D. Rockefeller, William Randolph Hearst, and Henry Ford, but they would take things down to the opposite end of the spectrum and highlight things like the inner workings of an oil well in one of Rockefeller’s fields or the daily routine of one of Hearst’s low-level stringers.
This office building cutaway actually calls itself an “X-ray” of an air conditioning system, and I am not completely certain of its original source in Fortune. I’d guess that it came with some kind of profile of a giant, national air conditioning company, perhaps Carrier.
This great cutaway originally comes from a July 5, 1947 Saturday Evening Post ad for Armstrong’s Industrial Insulation. For an extra-sized view, click here and then click a second time on the magnifying glass.
The ad says, in part:
When you look behind the scenes, a modern hotel is an astounding place. Few guests appreciate that their comfort demands such a complex and highly mechanized institution. The men (1) who ordered ice probably don’t know that there’s a complete ice-making plant (12) hidden away in the basement. The dancers in the ballroom (5) don’t stop to think what it takes to provide air conditioning (11). Touch a spigot (2) and ice water spurts out. Turn a valve (4) and heat is waiting. Heat and cold flow through the hotel like lifeblood in its veins. Insulation on the pipes makes it economically possible to put heat and cold where they are needed.
Cutaways don’t get any better than this one. I’m trying to be an upright and honest Web citizen, but I cannot find the attribution for this photo. Here is the original source.
