Looking for a good read? Here is a recommendation. I have an unusual approach to reviewing books. I review books I feel merit a review. Each review is an opportunity to recommend a book. If I do not think a book is worth reading, I find another book to review. You do not have to agree with everything every author has written (I do not), but the fiction I review is entertaining (and often thought-provoking) and the non-fiction contain ideas worth reading.
Book Review
The Weapon That Could Have Won The War, But Didn’t
Reviewed by Mark Lardas
July 21, 2024
“Rings of Fire: How an Unlikely Team of Scientists, Ex-Cons, Women, and Native Americans Helped Win World War II,” by Larry J. Hughes, Stackpole Books, 2024, 600 pages, $34.95 (Hardcover), $33.00 (E-book)
In 1940 Polaroid and Edwin Land were best known for polarized film, used most famously in sunglasses. When World War II started Land thought up another use for polarized light, one he hoped would yield a war-winning bombsight.
“Rings of Fire: How an Unlikely Team of Scientists, Ex-Cons, Women, and Native Americans Helped Win World War II,” by Larry J. Hughes tells the story of for the Optical Ring Sight, a weapon with potential to win the war that did not.
Land’s bombsight used the unique light-polarizing properties of calcite. It created concentric brightly-colored circles. The military realized it was a better gunsight than bombsight. Centering targets within the rings aimed the gun perfectly. It did not require crosshairs or for the observer to be optically aligned to the sight. Simple to use, guns equipped with ORS sights yielded double the hits of identical guns with iron sights.
Both Army and Navy were enthusiastic. The US Army ordered tens of thousands for bazooka sights. The Navy placed large orders for antiaircraft guns. Both wanted it for flexible aircraft guns.
Hughes tells what happened next. The sight required large quantities of calcite. The mineral had a low demand. Nicol prisms used scarce, optically-perfect calcite. Land’s sights used cheap sub-optical calcite, but calcite was not mined industrially. A calcite-mining industry had to be built at the remote locations where calcite was found.
Hughes describes how mining developed. Efforts were handicapped because calcite was not a strategic material and secrecy prevented reclassification. The mines were set up using leftover resources. Miners and processing workers were drawn from those unable to find work elsewhere: desert rats, ex-convicts, Native Americans, and women.
Landowners confusing expensive optical calcite with the cheap sub-optical calcite Polaroid wanted, started royalty fights creating delays. Production issues had to be solved. Ultimately the bugs were worked out and full production started just in time for radar-guided gunnery to eliminate need for the ORS as a gunsight.
The ORS made a minor comeback 20 years later, as the camera sights used in the Gemini and Apollo programs for space photography. The iconic Blue Marble and Earthrise Over the Moon photos were created using cameras fitted with ORS sights.
“Rings of Fire” is a fascinating story. It examines the promise and limitations of technology. It presents an array of eccentric characters, and illustrates the process required to take an innovation from concept to production.
Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City. His website is marklardas.com.