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pegkerrWork tonight was more research reading, in Ice Palaces. Ran across a fascinating tidbit, where the authors were explaining that much of what is known about construction using ice and snow is as a result of research by the military. Apparently in 1942 a chap named Geoffrey Pyke, an Englishman, submitted a proposal to the Allied forces that giant aircraft carriers constructed out of icebergs.
What if the idea hadn't been abandoned, though? Or wouldn't it be a cool idea for a short story set on an alien world?
I do not have time to write it, however. Still: way cool idea.
I should finish up Ice Palaces tomorrow, I expect, and then will move on to two other books I have on the history of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Am intrigued by accounts of ice mazes, which were sometimes incorporated into the courtyards of ice palaces. Perhaps I could use that idea.
Research reading is a great sop to my conscience. I can feel virtuous, that I'm doing something to move the book forward--but it doesn't feel like real work, the way that sweating out words over the keyboard does. Instead, if feels like a guilty indulgence. I'm certainly enjoying Ice Palaces very much. It's a good sign that I actually like the research I'm doing for this book.
The plan was appealing for a number of reasons: larger carriers would allow the use of faster and better-armed planesp massive air support would be needed if Japan was to be invaded; even an artificial iceberg would be cheaper than metal or wood, which were in short supply; and an airbase of ice never could be sunk. Winston Churchill gave research on the "Bergship" the highest priority.From Ice Palaces by Fred Anderes and Ann Agranoff.
Ice was systematically and intensively studied for the first time. Navel engineers decided that natural icebergs were too small; they envisioned a huge floating beam of manufactured ice, 2,000 feet long. (Two thousand feet was the minimum length of runway required for bombers at that time). Artificial refrigeration would keep the ice at a constant low temperature.
The main problem the engineers discovered was that ice was unreliable as a structural material--particularly when bombarded by explosives! The average ice beam was strong enough to use, but individual beams sometimes ruptured under relatively low stresses. The scientists solved this problem by reinforcing the ice with wood pulp. Ice frozen from water mixed with a small amount of wood pulp is stronger and much less erratic than ordinary ice.
As the design progressed, the engineers puzzled over other questions. What could they use for the giant rudder? Could the hollow interior of the Bergship be compartmentalized? Where could they build a plant large enough to turn out millions of tons of reinforced ice? They probably could have solved these problems eventually, but new developments made the whole project obsolete: the range of aircraft increased so much that it became possible to cover most of the Atlantic from existing land bases, and the Americans captured enough islands in the Pacific to support the eventual invasion of Japan. Early in 1944, the Bergship was abandoned.
What if the idea hadn't been abandoned, though? Or wouldn't it be a cool idea for a short story set on an alien world?
I do not have time to write it, however. Still: way cool idea.
I should finish up Ice Palaces tomorrow, I expect, and then will move on to two other books I have on the history of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Am intrigued by accounts of ice mazes, which were sometimes incorporated into the courtyards of ice palaces. Perhaps I could use that idea.
Research reading is a great sop to my conscience. I can feel virtuous, that I'm doing something to move the book forward--but it doesn't feel like real work, the way that sweating out words over the keyboard does. Instead, if feels like a guilty indulgence. I'm certainly enjoying Ice Palaces very much. It's a good sign that I actually like the research I'm doing for this book.