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Re: Failed Windscreen Test



"David Bennetts" <davibenn@pcug.org.au> wrote:

>Interesting little anecdote on ABC radio last night about testing loco
>windscreen for high speed train in Britain.  The testing procedure was
>developed in the US for aircraft, and involved a cannon firing a chicken at
>the windscreen at short range.  The British test was a dismal failure, the
>windscreen shattered on impact and the bird punched right through the
>driver's seat back, then smashed an instrument panel on the rear bulkhead
>of the cab.  Disillusioned, consulted the US experts to find out what went
>wrong.

>The result - next time thaw out the chook!

To me, it sounds like an urban myth or, if it was an Intercity train
they were testing, an Interurban myth.

The chicken story has been around for about 30 years and led to an
interesting article in "Physics Today" in 1971, part of which is
reproduced below

"New linear accelerator to take wing?

Colonel Sanders
Montana State University

At a time when physics is faced with funding crises everywhere, it is
reassuring to find that some research projects can still be run on
mere chicken feed, 

In this regard, we call attention to the recent announcement, by the
National Research Council of Canada, of the successful operation of a
new linear chicken accelerator, or LCA (see Chemical and Engineering
News, 2 Nov, 1970, page 56).  

The LCA, which is capable of accelerating a four--pound chicken to
speeds of 610 mph, is currently being used as a flight-impact
simulator in an engineering study of airplane-bird collisions.  But we
believe it may have application as a basic research instrument, since
- in more familiar terms, it has a rated energy of 5 x 10^14 GeV,
which .makes the LCA the most powerful particle accelerator of its
kind in the world today."

This was followed by a lot of woeful puns which really appealed only
to a physicist.

Geoff Lambert