by "Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
Published 06/09/2017 at 09:06
by "Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
Published 06/09/2017 at 09:06
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STARS: 6
I found this newspaper clipping in an old book on clocks. I tried Googling this story and found nothing, and I’m not entirely sure what happened here, but I get the feeling that Dr. Sedlacek was one clock collector that you do not want to fuck with.
So much for that theory, Mr. Welles.
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"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura)
06/09/2017 at 09:41, STARS: 2
Fake news. Great story though.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
06/09/2017 at 09:46, STARS: 0
The only other reference I could find to it at all was in this book of stories about Nazi resistance in Czechoslovakia published in 1943:
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
06/09/2017 at 09:51, STARS: 1
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/09/2017 at 10:02, STARS: 2
Welles himself acknowledged that the origin of cuckoo clocks is the Black Forest, not Switzerland (but what a monologue).
Which makes it a nicely circular story...
"X37.9XXS" (x379xxs)
06/09/2017 at 10:03, STARS: 1
This sounds a lot like Ministry of Information BS
Where did Sedlacek get his detonator?
Don’t be so smug, Harry. The Swiss were probably sitting on top of your money
"TheJMan92" (TheJMan92)
06/09/2017 at 10:12, STARS: 0
Came here for this, not disappointing.
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/09/2017 at 10:23, STARS: 1
Have a look here, pages 24-25. Vestník (“Herald”), a newspaper (or rather bulletin) published in Texas in 1949 by the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas.
More or less the same story, with a few more details. Note the setting is now “an ancient Moravian town”, not quite Prague (which is in Bohemia).
I concur with Mr O.C.’s idea of something concocted by the UK Ministry of Information during those days. Gotta give the occupied countries good stories with an “uplifting” end (also give them ideas, natch).
Edit: The Slavonic Benevolent Order still exists:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/spjst/about/
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/09/2017 at 11:40, STARS: 0
Well, if the clock was as old as the Napoleonic wars, it may have had a very primitive (and functioning) detonator; on the other hand, who would have kept a device which has not been made safe?
I agree that the whole story sounds as psychological warfare by the Brits though.
"X37.9XXS" (x379xxs)
06/09/2017 at 11:58, STARS: 0
The problem is that clockwork fuses did not exist in the early 19th century.
"AuthiCooper1300" (rexrod)
06/09/2017 at 12:23, STARS: 0
Yes, I got that; I should have written “a primitive (and functioning) means to initiate the explosion” or somesuch. And we haven’t even discussed the condition the theoretical, one-hundred-year-old explosive would be in.
From a purely theoretical point of view, wouldn’t it be possible to rig something to the actual mechanism of the clock? A vial containing acid which once broken would trigger a flame or chemical reaction leading to the explosion?
"X37.9XXS" (x379xxs)
06/10/2017 at 09:04, STARS: 0
About the only way it could be done would be with a black powder charge and slow match
According to Grimmelshausen, a foot of slow match burns in about an 90 minutes
http://www.musketeer.ch/blackpowder/lunte.html
The problem with black powder is that it has a low brisance (shattering capacity), so a LOT is needed to make an “infernal device”
So, I think that Moravec was planting stories with the help of MOI