[rather than hijack James Schneiders welcome thread (rude of me) or add to my own (buried too far), I would like to post an addendum to my introduction...] I just got reminded by all the MIT stuff that holy crap how could I forget my grandfather on Moms side? George Morton. He was, I think, VP (or better) of Engineering (Vacuum tubes division) at Raytheon during WWII. He worked on some of the early heat-seeking technologies that were coming out. He took my Mom to work with him one day (she was eight) and there was this missile, mounted on gimbals, with gyromotors, in a silo with stairs around the edge. Huge. Pointed up at the standard 45 degrees starboard angle (Reach for the stars!). Mom was not at all sure about this. She walked toward it. As soon as she got within about 25 feet of the rim of the missile silo, it started to move. Mom stopped cold and watched the nose of the missile draw itself to bear on her location. Grampa said, Go ahead and go down the stairs. About half way. With much trepidation, she did so. The missile followed her step for step. Mom recounted this as one of the most frightening moments of her life. Mom died this last Easter, and I never did get to meet Grampa George. With my innate fascination with older equipment (especially old pinball machines), Mom always said he would have really enjoyed my company. I feel like I could have learned a lot from him.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 19:41:51 +0000
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