- Oh, uh, hello everyone.
My name's Eugene, and I'm here to introduce you
to the latest in military weaponry,
the Devastator 8000.
Toss it at your opponents and let it cute them to death.
(chuckles)
Yeah, I'm done.
(sighing)
- Welcome everyone to a brand new Top Ten.
My name is Matthew Santoro,
and although the Devastator 8000 might seem
like a strange weapon,
it doesn't even come close to being the strangest weapon
compared to some that actually out there.
So today, I've assembled a list of invented weapons
that were either complete failures,
or were way more complex than they needed to be.
And either way, you're gonna have a hard time believing
these are out there.
But they are.
So, without further adieu, here they are,
the Ten Craziest Weapons You Won't Believe Exist.
Number one is the Whirlwind Cannon.
Originally designed to take out enemy aircrafts
in World War II,
the Whirlwind Cannon was designed
by Austrian physicist Mario Zippermayr.
This weapon actually created pressurized vortexes
produced by explosions in a combustion chamber
that were directed at targets
using a specially designed nozzle.
The Nazi party approved its creation
after Zippermayr's miniature prototype managed
to break a ten centimeter thick wooden board
at a distance of 168 meters.
The weapon's success, however, was short lived
as the full sized cannons could not create whirlwinds
that reached anywhere near the altitude
that Allied planes generally flew at.
Although I hear it's really good at sending you to Oz.
Or, dropping a house on Hitler.
Number two is the Bulgarian Umbrella.
Developed by the Bulgarian secret service and the KGB,
the Bulgarian Umbrella fired tiny pellets filled
with a deadly poison called ricin.
The instrument became famous after one was reportedly used
by a KGB operative in the assassination
of dissident writer Georgi Markov
on September 7th, 1978.
Markov told doctors right before his death
that he'd been waiting for a bus
when he felt a small sting on his leg.
He described it must like the bite of an insect,
and turned to find a man lifting an umbrella
and walking away.
He died just four days later.
But what made this weapon even more impressive
was the ammunition itself.
Incredibly small holes were bored into each pellet,
filled with poison, and then plugged at the end
with a coating that melted at 37 degrees Celsius,
the exact temperature of the human body.
So interestingly, the weapon didn't prove fatal
until the coating melted
and the ricin entered the bloodstream.
Okay, this one totally seems like something Q would make
for James Bond.
I mean, if Q was a twisted Bulgarian assassin.
We don't know what he did in his free time.
Number three is the Vespa 150 Tap.
Produced by the ACMA for French paratroopers in 1956,
the Vespa 150 Tap was an M-20
75 millimeter recoilless rifle
attached to a scooter.
Unlike a civilian Vespa,
this came with totally reinforced framing
and, of course, a cannon that could penetrate
over ten centimeters of armor per shot.
The 150 Tap was always deployed in pairs
with one scooter carrying ammunition instead of a gun.
Tell them what they've won, Johnny!
This incredible machine combines all the fun
of a nice afternoon ride through the town
with the joy of blowing (bleep) up,
Grand Thef Auto style!
Amazing!
Number four are Bat Bombs.
Developed by the United States
for use in World War II,
Bat Bombs were designed by a dentist named Lytle S. Adams.
Instead of one explosive, large shells were separated
into thousands of tiny compartments,
each one containing a hibernating, Mexican three-tailed bat
with a small, timed incendiary bomb attached to it.
(screeching)
The casings would then be dropped from a bomber at dawn
and would parachute down, opening to release the bats.
The animals would then find shelter in attics and eaves
within a 30-60 kilometer radius,
places that could not easily be reached
when the fires from the blasts started.
Disturbing, yet kind of genius.
Of course, eventually the development of them was halted
due to the amount of money needed to complete the project
and the development of the atomic bomb at the same time
making these weapons unnecessary.
(clearing throat)
Look, I'm gonna be completely honest with you guys,
before I researched what Bat Bombs actually were,
I totally thought it was something
out of Batman's utility belt.
I need to get out more.
Number five is the Dyson LePetit Protector Ring.
Holding the record
of being the world's smallest functioning revolver,
the Dyson LePetit Protector Ring was originally sold
in the early 19th century,
and was popular among gamblers.
It was designed to be worn on one finger
and came in five and six-shot models,
each firing five millimeter pin-fire rounds.
Unfortunately, because of its small size,
the burn from the gun powder often would cause more damage
than the bullet itself.
Its size, though, made it quite risky.
If you're going to use it while gambling,
you better make sure it works.
Huh! I just lost everything!
Or did I?
Ha ha!
(clearing throat)
I'm sorry. Please don't kill me.
Number six is Who? Me? (sniffing)
You smell somethin'?
Created during World War II by the American office
of strategic services,
Who? Me? was a stench weapon
to be used against German officers by the French resistance.
This spray smelled of (clearing throat)
well, poop, and was to be carried
in small, easy to conceal dispensers
that the resistance member could covertly use.
The idea was that if a German officer was sprayed,
it would humiliate him and decrease morale
in the occupying forces ranks.
(chuckles) Rank.
However, after only two weeks,
the experiment was labeled a dismal failure,
due to the extremely volatile compounds
used to make it poopy,
and the fact that the smell was so strong,
it would often make the person who sprayed it smell
just as bad as as those being sprayed.
Ooh, that's just nasty.
Well, nothing like a practical joke
to end the world's biggest war, am I right?
Number seven is the Claw of Archimedes.
This ancient weapon was designed
by the great Archimedes himself.
Also known as the Iron Hand,
the Claw was used to protect Syracuse, Italy
from attacks by sea.
Attached to long ropes,
the claws were actually grappling hooks
which would lay on the ocean floor
until an enemy ship passed over them.
The machine would then raise the claws quickly,
snagging the ship and raising it partly out of the water,
capsizing it.
It was kind of like the world's first claw machine game.
Except, instead of winning stuffed animals,
it drowned a bunch of Roman sailors.
(snarling)
It worked.
Number eight is the Puckle Gun.
Also called the defense gun,
this tripod mounted single-barrel gun
with a revolving cylinder could fire multiple times
and is considered to be the first machine gun ever produced.
Capable of firing 63 shots in seven minutes,
this gun doesn't really seem like it belongs on this list.
Until you hear about its ammunition.
See, the Puckle gun fired two different types of bullets
according to the device's patent.
Round bullets were used against Christians,
and square bullets, yes, square bullets,
which were considered much more painful,
were used on Muslim Turks
in an attempt to convert them to Christianity
and thus caused less pain.
That really seems like a poor argument to convert someone.
I mean, who's gonna care about the shape of the bullet.
You're still getting shot!
(gasps) He got square bullets!
Oh, but you use round ones if I'm Christian?
Ah, oh, converted! Look at that!
Hallelujah!
(gunshot) Ugh!
Number nine is Project Habakkuk.
Designed in 1941 by Geoffrey Pyke
to be a colossal floating island made of,
believe it or not, wood, pulp and ice,
Habakkuk was to function as a mid-ocean aircraft carrier
to help hunt down German U-boats in World War II.
Why did all of the weird stuff come out of the World Wars?
The wood and ice material called pykrete
was much more resistant than ice alone,
a fact that Pyke proved at a conference
when he shot a piece of it with his service revolver
and hit another officer with the ricocheting bullet.
Project Habakkuk was ultimately abandoned in 1943
due to cost restraints,
mostly over the amount of steel required
to properly build the rudders and runway,
and the fact that the steal was in short supply.
But amazingly, it took three hot summers
to completely melt the Habakkuk prototype,
and only 30 seconds for that other officer
to knock out Pyke for his misfire.
Ow, bitch, you shot me!
Slap!
And number ten, the Gay Bomb.
This one just might take the cake
as the most ridiculous weapon ever created.
In 1994, the Wright Laboratory in Ohio
designed a non-lethal chemical weapon
that would discharge female sex pheromones
on opposing male soldiers
in order to make them irresistable to each other.
Essentially, the plan was to confuse enemy combatants
and have them conduct homosexual behavior.
Yup, this was developed!
Wright Labs research into the gay bomb
actually earned them an IG Nobel Prize,
a parody of the actual award given for trivial achievements,
but for some reason, nobody showed up to claim it.
I couldn't imagine why! (chuckles)
And those, my friends, were ten of the craziest weapons
that were ever developed.
As always, if you guys enjoyed this video,
please let me know by leaving a comment
and giving that like button a click,
and I will see you all back here next Saturday
with a brand new video.
Peace! Ahh!
Ah, my friends. Some announcements!
I recently shot an entire series
with Anheuser-Busch
and some YouTube friends of mine called Prove It,
where we discuss hilarious topics
and then try to prove whether or not
those things are actually possible
through real life experiments.
It's an awesome series that was a lot of fun to shoot,
and this week's video is out right now,
so be sure to click the annotation right there,
or click the link in the description below.
And be sure to subscribe to their channel
while you're there
because there's many more episodes coming up.
You'll also find an annotation to my last video,
as well as some cool merch
if you're interested in picking some up.
So be sure to check out those two things, my friends,
and I will see you next time with a brand new video.
Love your faces, bye!
La la.