The Bathroom Break That Won a War
During World War I, a mathematician and physicist named William Lawrence Bragg was stationed in France. In 1915, Bragg was using a military outhouse that was totally closed off to the outside world, except for a pipe that reached down to the ground. While he was sitting on the toilet, a gun was fired 1,000 feet away. The energy traveled through the air, and up the pipe- right up Bragg’s bottom.
He eventually realized that this energy came from the gun’s low-frequency infrasound. After this discovery, it dawned on him that each weapon had a unique frequency. He created a small empty wooden ammunition box with a thin platinum wire that could detect infrasound. With this, he was able to pinpoint the exact location of enemy weapons within 150 feet. This helped the Allies win the war.
