Churchill’s London Wartime Wizards — londonist.com

During the Second World War, many an ingenious plan — by many of London’s greatest scientific minds — was hatched in the capital, with the aim of standing up to Hitler. Here are our favourites. Where better to start than with a filthy story? Bombs began raining from a dark sky in September 1940. Navigation was an inexact science and London was blacked out. But the silvery meanders of the Thames were like a huge sign put out for the enemy. So, someone had the opposite of a bright idea and decided to try blanketing the river in coal dust. However, apart from wet coal dust clogging the machines laying it, all the whites on local washing lines caught a liberal coating too. People complain about that sort of thing even when there’s a war on. The pull of the moon also flushed the riverine bowl clean round the bend twice a day and the idea was finally brushed aside.

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