DCML Digest, Vol 21, Issue 4

[Donald D. Markstein]

Darnedest thing turned up on TV last night. There's this obscure cable 
show called "Mythbusters", where they take some story element that's 
achieved the status of "myth", and spend the entire show setting up 
conditions to test whether or not it could really happen. An example is 
the gag about someone holding too many helium balloons and floating 
away, which we've seen many times in cartoons and comic books. Their 
conclusion -- it would work, but take so many balloons (nearly 4,000 to 
lift a 44-pound little girl) as to render it impractical. What they have 
to go through to set up these conditions is often hilarious.

Last night, the main focus of the show was raising a sunken ship by 
pumping it full of ping pong balls. I don't think I need to say where 
the story originally came from -- a fact they acknowledged by showing 
pages from it, probably taken from one of the Gladstone albums.

They started by establishing how much lift each ball gave, by putting a 
pound of buckshot in a jar glued to an upside-down bowl, in a tank full 
of water, then using tongs to fill the bowl with balls until it floated. 
After a couple of tip-overs, they concluded that 15 balls could lift one 
pound. Then they worked out how many they could get into a given volume, 
versus how many it would take to raise a given wreck, and concluded that 
it might work with a fiberglass sailboat, which they promptly bought and 
sank in a nearby harbor. After experimenting to make sure the balls 
could withstand the pressure, they cordoned off an area with nets (so no 
unsuspecting sea creatures would choke on the balls), and engineered a 
device to pump the balls in (which also took some experimenting). There 
was a minor disaster when upward pressure pushed a panel out and 
hundreds of balls escaped, but they managed to repair it.

They'd estimated it would take about 40-50,000 ping pong balls to raise 
their boat, but it actually floated with a lot less. Conclusion: Yes, it 
can be done, but it would cost more than the boat is likely to be worth. 
Which, as I recall, is the same conclusion Barks came to more than half 
a century ago.

(And by the way, I believe the Urban Legend about someone being denied a 
patent on the basis of this earlier published description is true. About 
30-35 years ago, when I was working for the New Orleans newspaper, I 
wrote a story about a local diver who CLAIMED, at least, that had 
happened to him. I got the assignment because I was the only one on 
staff who could supply panels from the comic book to illustrate the story.)

Quack, Don