by Cy Tymony
You will learn about the special World War II British MI9 division that inspired writer Ian Fleming to create the “Q” (Quartermaster) character for the James Bond novels. You will see, with illustrations, how compasses, maps, saws, and other gadgets were hidden in officer uniforms and in packages mailed to prisoners of war. You will also read the incredible story about the Colditz Glider, a 2-man, 19-foot glider that prisoners made using only wood and sheets from their beds!
Did you know that a certain fish shoots at insects with water? Or a spider walks on water and even catches fish? You’ll also learn how sneaky creatures hide in plain sight or fool their predators into thinking they are more fearsome than they really are.
This section highlights amazing real-life human and animal survival techniques accomplished with handy items. The lesson? You can do much more than you think with the things around you.
Sneaky Animals
Water Walkers
Molecules on the surface of water pull on each other to create surface tension, which allows some insects and animals to seemingly defy the laws of physics by walking on water.
Water Strider
Just as some people lie on a bed of nails without harm or use snow shoes to prevent from sinking into the snow, the water strider, shown in Figure 1, distributes its weight over a large surface by spreading its long back and middle legs over the water’s surface. This allows it to walk across the surface of water.
FIGURE 1
Basilisk Lizard
The basilisk lizard is another creature that can spread its feet, and weight, enough to skim along the water’s surface without sinking. Its foot has a broad sole that pushes down on the water, creating an indention like an air bubble in the water. The basilisk lizard pulls its foot upward before the cavity collapses, which reduces the downward forces and allows the reptile to keep moving. The basilisk lizard must keep its speed high enough otherwise it will sink. See Figure 2. Its nickname is the “Jesus lizard,” which presumably comes from its ability to walk on water.
FIGURE 2
Western Grebe
Western grebe birds are among the largest water walkers. During mating season, they perform a courtship display called rushing. After a grebe calls out loudly with a “creet creet” sound, another grebe will answer the call and go through various head bobbing and other motions. Grebes have lobed feet with folds of skin that hang down from their three long toes. The skin folds are flattened to produce a large surface as shown in Figure 3A. Eventually the grebes hold their heads up and wings stiff to stride up to 60 feet along the water’s surface before diving headfirst into the water. See Figure 3B.
FIGURE 3
Fisher Spider
The fisher spider strides in a slouched position keeping nearly all of its body and legs on the water’s surface. The fisher spider spins a web and attaches it to an object on the water bank. The web controls the fisher spider’s movements so it doesn’t slide past its prey. It also jiggles the web to attract prey, including insects and fish up to three times its size! The fisher spider can grab a fish with its front legs and sink its fangs in it to inject deadly venom. See Figure 4.
FIGURE 4
Parasite
Cuckoo Bird
The cuckoo bird is a brood parasite, or nest stealer. The female cuckoo bird searches for a host bird that has temporarily left her nest. The cuckoo bird then pushes out one of the host bird’s eggs from the nest and lays one of her own eggs there. When the host bird returns, it incubates and cares for the cuckoo bird’s egg until it hatches.
The baby cuckoo is also a born sneak. As a newborn parasite that takes advantage of a nonrelative’s nest and nurturing care, it usually hatches before the other eggs and pushes the other eggs out of the nest. If the baby cuckoo discovers another newly hatched bird, it will push it out too. See Figures 5 and 6.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
Tool Users
Japanese Crow
Many birds have been observed using twigs as tools and dropping eggs or nuts from high altitudes to crush them. One of the sneakiest birds, the Japanese crow, has been seen crushing nuts by carefully placing them under automobile tires stopped at intersections. See Figure 7.
FIGURE 7
Archerfish
The archerfish is the only tool user that is not a mammal or a bird. It swims near a bank of swamps or streams just below the water’s surface looking for insects on nearby tree branches. When it spots an insect, the archerfish squeezes its gill covers, which forces water through a groove in the roof of its mouth and tongue. The fish uses this water stream as a projectile to disable the insect and knock it into the water for food. See Figure 8.
FIGURE 8
Look-alikes
Some insects and animals use camoflauge as protection. Others avoid becoming prey through spots or feathers that resemble larger creatures, thus confusing or scaring their enemies. In some cases, insects and animals fool predators into thinking their eyes are in another place so if they are attacked, their eyes are protected to prevent blindness and possibly death.
Swallowtail Caterpillar
The swallowtail caterpillar has large spots on its back that appear to be “eyes.” When confronted by a predator, the caterpillar turns and swells up the front of its body to reveal large “snake eyes” that scare the attacker away. See Figure 9.
FIGURE 9
Caligo Butterfly and Emperor Moth
The caligo butterfly and the emperor moth have large spots on their wings that mimic the appearance of an owl or a large fearsome creature. See Figure 10.
FIGURE 10
Butterfly Fish
The butterfly fish has two large eye-like spots near its tail that confuse attackers about which end is the head of the fish. The fish’s real eyes are disguised in a dark stripe on its face as shown in Figure 11.
FIGURE 11
Pearl-Spotted Owl
The pearl-spotted owl confuses its prey and attackers with dark feathers on the back of its head that look like eyes and a beak. See Figure 12.
FIGURE 12
Sneaky Humans
Jan Demczur
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jan Demczur, a World Trade Center window washer, entered an elevator and was soon trapped with five other men when an American Airlines jet hit the top of the North Tower. Once smoke and heat entered the elevator, the men knew they could not wait for help to arrive and they had to do something immediately to escape.
Jan used his squeegee like a crowbar (see Figure 1) to pry open the doors but, unfortunately, they were riding in an express elevator and there was no door on the other side. The men then took turns using the squeegee as a chisel to eventually cut a hole through five layers of drywall. The men climbed through the hole, ran down thirty flights of stairs, and within five minutes the entire building collapsed. Using the squeegee in two sneaky ways allowed them to escape. Jan later donated his lifesaving squeegee to the Smithsonian Institute’s September 11 Memorial Exhibit.
FIGURE 1
Colditz Castle Prisoners of War
At a German World War II prison camp called Colditz Castle, British and American prisoners of war built a small workshop hidden behind a fake wall in a chapel attic. Amazingly, the prisoners were able to obtain plans from the prison library to construct a 2-man, 19-foot glider with a 33-foot wingspan. They used wood from their beds and floorboards and cloth from their sheets and sleeping bags to construct the Colditz glider shown in Figure 2.
FIGURE 2
Their plan was to place the glider on a roof and to tie it to an iron bathtub with bedsheets. The bathtub was to be positioned on the far end of the roof. When the bathtub fell off the roof, the glider would be pulled across the roof’s “runway” and, after disconnecting from the bedsheets with a quick-release mechanism, would fly to freedom.
The prisoners were eventually rescued before they had a chance to fly the glider. However, PBS produced a NOVA episode about the Colditz Castle prisoners and the c
rew rebuilt the glider using the same plans and materials.
At the end of the episode, the host brought some of the surviving British prisoners to an airplane hangar and showed them the replica. They couldn’t believe their eyes and some of the men cried on the spot. After the personnel touched and photographed the glider, it was pulled by a pickup truck with a nylon cord and, after a few moments, the glider soared and flew on its own for fifteen minutes!
World War II British Royal Air Force
The British MI9 division (Military Intelligence Section 9) outfitted their World War II Royal Air Force pilots and captured prisoners of war with various hidden devices. Here are some examples:
The cockpits in many British airplanes were not heated and pilots were required to wear knee-length boots. Unfortunately, if the plane were shot down, the British pilot would be easily identified because of his unique, tall boots. MI9 supplied the British pilots with fur-lined flying boots that had soft leather around the ankle sections. A small knife was included that allowed the pilot to cut away the top sections and, when combined, the extra leather converted into a shepherd’s waistcoat.
Some Royal Air Force bootlaces and cap badges contained a thin, flexible wire saw that could cut through prison bars.
FIGURE 3
Maps and compasses were important tools used to complete a successful postescape journey to a neutral nation like Switzerland. Military personnel were supplied with magnetized pencil clips and metal pins inside matches to assist in navigating prison escapes. Small magnets and maps were hidden inside pens and shaving brushes. Tiny magnets were even installed inside shoelaces tips. Sometimes the shoelace fabric also included a wire saw sewn inside.
Inmates at some prison camps were mailed items that contained hidden devices such as cribbage game boards with crystal radios inside, silk handkerchiefs with maps printed in invisible ink, and pipes and chess pieces with compartments that contained clothing dye and small explosive charges.
FIGURE 4
During their imprisonment, some prisoners used what they had around them to their best advantage. They created crude crystal radio sets with spare wire, pencil lead, and razor blades. They also converted boot heels into rubber stamps to forge documents and used wood from their beds to make crude printing presses and sewing machines. See Figures 3 and 4.
Prison Escapes
Many clever prison escapes have been accomplished using ordinary objects, including:
Braided dental floss used as a rope. Another prisoner sawed through his cell bars with toothpaste and floss. See Figure 5.
A green felt-tip pen used to color a prison uniform green. The convict walked out of the prison disguised as a hospital orderly. See Figure 6.
A Monopoly game’s wheelbarrow piece used to unscrew a heating duct cover. See Figure 7.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7
Science and Technology Resources
If you find that you like science and invention and you want to go further in your quest for knowledge, this section provides a multitude of science education resources. You’ll find links to science fairs, science camps and schools, science organizations, and educational scholarships. You’ll also find special inventor resources and contests, grants and awards, free government programs, educator lesson plans, and additional links to free science project Web sites.
Science Freebies, Grants, and Scholarships
www.science.doe.gov/grants
www.siemens-foundation.org
www.thehomeschoolmom.com/teacherslounge/freebies.php
Inventors and Inventing
www.inventorshq.com/just%20for%20kids.htm
www.inventorsdigest.com
www.inventivekids.com
www.super-science-fair-projects.com
www.funology.com
Science Fairs
physics.usc.edu/ScienceFairs
www.astc.org/sciencecenters/find_scicenter.htm
www.childrensmuseums.org/visit/reciprocal.htm
www.campresource.com
Science Sites
www.kidsinvent.org
www.wildplanet.com
www.build-it-yourself.com
www.sciencetoymaker.org
theteachersguide.com/QuickScienceActivities.html
Gadget Sites
www.popgadget.net
www.gizmodo.com
www.thinkgeek.com
www.johnson-smith.com
www.scientificsonline.com
www.smartplanet.net
Science and Technology Sites
www.howstuffworks.com
www.midnightscience.com
www.scitoys.com
www.scientificsonline.com
www.scienceproject.com
www.about.com
Recommended Books
Kids Inventing! (Susan Casey, Wiley)
Gonzo Gizmos (Simon Field, Chicago Review Press)
Joey Green’s Encyclopedia of Offbeat Uses For Brand-Name Products (Joey Green, Prentice Hall)
Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives (Ira Flatow, Perennial)
Magazines
Make
Boys’ Life
Craft
Popular Science
Popular Mechanics
Nuts and Volts
About the Author
In grade school, Cy Tymony defended himself from bullies with the help of a spring-loaded shocker hidden up his sleeve. Since then, he’s authored six books and more than a dozen articles. His technical wizardry has landed him on CNN and NPR. Cy is a technical writer and computer network specialist in Los Angeles, California.