The Norden Bomb Sight was so classified that Air Force personnel being
trained to use them had to take an oath of secrecy before being allowed
to even see one. 
This is a photograph of an aircraft engineer mounting the norden bomb sight on a B-17 Flying Fortress. In numerous photographs provided by the military in World War II, the bomb sight's nose section was often blacked out in photos for national security reasons. 
The Fulton Sylphon Company's products were also useful in the Apollo
Space Program. Many of the company's controls were used in the rocket
as well as the lunar module. The Space Shuttles and satellites also
employ a number of controls that were invented by engineers at Fulton's
company. In fact, without a sylphon-related device, there would be
no drinking water on the spacecraft. HOME TN NEWS CLASSROOM RESOURCES GALLERY TN HISTORIC SITES REENACTORS TN CONSTITUTION PRESERVATION TN TRIVIA GOVERNMENT E-MAIL |
In
1902, Weston Fulton, a University of Tennessee meterologist created
a thermodynamic device he named the sylphon after the Norse Goddess
of weather. The device revolutionized industry world wide. It helped
the Allied forces develop the depth charge in World War I and the
Norden Bomb sight of World War II. In fact, the device spawned so
many inventions that the U.S. Patent Office had to give sylphon-related
spin-offs their own special section. 
The German U-Boats terrorized the Atlantic
shipping lanes until Fulton's invention gave them the accuracy required
to attack the subs. The invention evolved to include many military
weapons that still remain classified to this day. The first depth
charge was the 300-pound barrel-like casing containing high explosives,
normally TNT. A sylphon device actuated by water pressure at a selected
depth detonated the depth charge. The 300-pound WWI depth charge
could be detonated as deep as 300 feet.
