Thursday, June 2, 2016

Flour With A BANG...!

You know, it's really amazing what people can come up with when they put their minds to it. Man can be very creative at times.

Sadly, it's in wartime that a number of very handy inventions seem to show up. When it comes to finding a way to blow up the enemy, our minds can go into overdrive!

Explosives Disguised As Flour That Could Be Eaten

With the OSS aiming to disrupt Japanese operations in Southeast Asia, they turned to chemist George Bogdan Kistiakowsky. He created the perfect explosive that could be disguised as, of all things, flour—and it could be used to bake as well.

The “Aunt Jemima” mixture of three parts explosive and one part flour could be sneaked past Japanese soldiers without suspicion. If they did get suspicious, a realistic looking and tasting loaf of bread could be made and eaten to prove to the Japanese that the flour was “just flour".

Although the flour could be ingested, the original mixture would have made people very ill. This was amply demonstrated in an incident when a Chinese cook disobeyed orders and ate a muffin, becoming so ill that he nearly died.

Ultimately, a second version of “Aunt Jemima” was developed that was far less toxic than the first variant and could be consumed safely in quantity. In the end, more than 15 tons of the stuff was smuggled into Japanese-controlled areas with the Japanese none the wiser.

I don't care if the original recipe was toned down, I wouldn't volunteer to eat any of those muffins...would you ?

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. The rain is back with a vengeance !

5 comments:

linda m said...

Eating explosives is not high on my list of fun things to do or try. Very interesting article - I learned something new today. Rain has left our area for today. It has been raining on and off for almost a week now. I can' imagine how "wet" you must be. Take care.

HermitJim said...

Hey Linda M...
I know exactly what you mean. Not high on my list either!
Thanks for stopping by today!

JO said...

wow to think how much of that stuff was consumed by people eating muffins, pancakes and waffles. Interesting another thing I didn't now but learned today right here.

We haven't had any rain is sometime, but we sure are getting the heat and still the wind in the afternoon.

Dizzy-Dick said...

It seems to me that Aunt Jemima was getting even for all people of color.

HermitJim said...

Hey Jo...
It rained again here...fell at the rate of 2 inches an hour. More on the way, I'm afraid. Scary !
Thanks for dropping by today, sweetie !


Hey Dizzy...
Sounds that way, doesn't it ?
Thanks for the visit !