Author Topic: Question for the younger crowd... (You old farts can chime in, too...) (Read 4697 times)

Ben · « **Reply #25 on:** June 26, 2006, 05:41:47 AM »

Yeah, I only knew them as frost protectors. Never saw them used as road markers.

ONE-SHOT-ONE · « **Reply #26 on:** June 26, 2006, 05:46:37 AM »

it is one of those old road markers that used an open flame and was shaped like a classical roadrunner/coyote cartoon bomb. (i'm 45 yrs old)

DrAmazon · « **Reply #27 on:** June 26, 2006, 05:56:43 AM »

I thought I knew, checked Google, and I was right!

Typhoon · « **Reply #28 on:** June 26, 2006, 07:17:43 AM »

Heh - I went to a high school that was surrounded by orange groves (sadly, all gone thanks to over-development). Every year there was a football game with the cross-town rivals. The winner got a chrome covered smudge pot as a trophy. Of course, the game was called the Smudge Pot Bowl.

richyoung · « **Reply #29 on:** June 26, 2006, 07:32:52 AM »

44 - knew it. Weren't the also used along runways to abate ground fog?

Brian Williams · « **Reply #30 on:** June 26, 2006, 09:02:27 AM »

I remember seeing a row of them get wiped out by a Semi while I was laying down in the back of an old Station wagon with the rear window down. I was laying on my back and watching for shooting stars while we were traveling the NY Thruway and a Semi beind us started hitting them. Wow what a sight seeing those little round cannonballs flying thru the night. Kerosene went everywhere. neither my dad nor the trucker stopped.

grislyatoms · « **Reply #31 on:** June 26, 2006, 09:39:13 AM »

Yep, I remember my Grandad(WWII Navy pilot) and my Great Uncle (WWII AAF pilot) telling me about them.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #32 on:** June 26, 2006, 02:02:35 PM »

What's a G4?

Ben · « **Reply #33 on:** June 26, 2006, 02:09:16 PM »

Quote

What's a G4?

grampster · « **Reply #34 on:** June 26, 2006, 02:16:40 PM »

Yep.

A an asside, in Michigan, a lot of the fruit farmers spray a water mist propelled by huge propellers mounted on poles as opposed to smudge pots when it gets cold in the spring.

As a kid, we had lots of fun with the pots when they were used to mark potholes or roads under construction. Fun to ride bikes and bat them around while they sprayed kerosene about.

Matthew Carberry · « **Reply #35 on:** June 26, 2006, 07:13:21 PM »

Quote

What's a G4?

For when you need more than 9 C-notes. Wink

gunsmith · « **Reply #36 on:** June 27, 2006, 12:06:49 AM »

I used to know what one is but now I have forgotten

garrettwc · « **Reply #37 on:** June 27, 2006, 06:46:41 AM »

You guys have much more humorous answers, but G4 is the new name for the old Tech TV cable channel.

It has been revamped into a young adult male channel. Sort of a junior Spike TV. The programming consists of video games, babes, import racing, and some Star Trek reruns.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #38 on:** June 27, 2006, 08:37:46 AM »

Tech TV, Spike TV? Never seen those either, but at least I understand now. Thanks.

garrettwc · « **Reply #39 on:** June 27, 2006, 10:46:36 AM »

Quote from: fistful

Tech TV, Spike TV? Never seen those either, but at least I understand now. Thanks.

Believe me, you're not missing much.

El Tejon · « **Reply #40 on:** June 27, 2006, 11:38:16 AM »

Grandpa said it was the smoke generators on American AFVs in WW2. He, or his fellow soldiers, called them smudge pots.

Old Fud · « **Reply #41 on:** June 28, 2006, 10:54:25 AM »

OK, Mike -- you got THREE valid answers. (Highway pots, orchard protection and wartime smoke generators)

Now then ----

What prompted the question?

Fud

K Frame · « **Reply #42 on:** June 28, 2006, 11:33:58 AM »

"OK, Mike -- you got THREE valid answers. (Highway pots, orchard protection and wartime smoke generators)"

OK, I've already answered that in a previous message.

"The reason I was asking is that my brother and sister in law have a set (the green & red ones you find on Google) that they're using for bug lamps.

I went to their place for a BBQ, saw them, and asked where they got the smudge pots. A bunch of the younger people there looked at us as if we were insane -- they had no idea that anything existed before blinking lights."

As for the military smoke generator, I really think that's an aside answer. It's likely that the military smoke generators got that nickname when people who were familiar with the agricultural and construction smudge pots joined the military in WW II. Military smoke generators of that era normally worked by squirting raw fuel on a hot surface, like the exhaust.

gaston_45 · « **Reply #43 on:** June 29, 2006, 07:44:37 PM »

Another use for them was on the rifle range. Before sight black came in a spray can, there would be a smudge pot going on each shooting line so you could use the sooty smoke to blacken your front sight.

Matthew Carberry · « **Reply #44 on:** June 29, 2006, 07:52:02 PM »

Quote from: charby

Quote

fistful wrote:
Tech TV, Spike TV? Never seen those either, but at least I understand now. Thanks.

Believe me, you're not missing much.

Except the delicious (and probably too young for me) Miss Morgan Webb.

Rowwwwwr. Wink

coppertales · « **Reply #45 on:** June 30, 2006, 05:12:59 AM »

I have some. I use them with citranella oil to keep the mesquitos down on the patio.......chris3

News:

Author Topic: Question for the younger crowd... (You old farts can chime in, too...) (Read 4697 times)