Well this is Shakespearean, Tempest in a Teapot, Much Ado About Nothing, but
not dead wrong. What they didn't tell you about using human hair as crosshairs
in optical instruments is that not only is it too coarse, it suffers from sag
in high humidity environments. No doubt the gubmint during the war was hoping
if the hair hadn't suffered the usual abuse, it might work. I can only think
that they tried it but it didn't work. Still Babnik was nice to volunteer her
remarkable hair.
Nearly all military optical instruments, binoculars, gunsights, battery
commanders telescopes and anti-aircraft fire control optics use etched glass
reticles often with altitude and azimuth markings. Those that don't use the
glass reticles, use spider web which stays taught in a wide variety of
environments. I should know, I worked in my father's shop during the 50s where
he had a contract with the army to fix all of their severely abused optical
stuff, most of which dated from WWII.
On Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 08:29:31 PM GMT+1, Frank Znidarsic
<[email protected]> wrote:
Not too sure about women volunteering to grow their hair long to make
crosshairs for gunsights during WWII, though. I've never heard of that. Most
women had to cut their hair for safety as they were working in war production
plants. You know, the Veronica Lake problem. Human hair is too coarse for good
crosshairs. How do I know about this? My father was head of the instrument
repair division at Camp San Luis Obispo during WWII. Among other things his
subordinates had to tend terrariums full of black widows to harvest the web for
crosshairs. Kind of a creepy job, no? Yeah, I know, far off-topic.
and dead wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Babnik_Brown
