Word: levering
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been erected with more attention to numerology than to efficiency. The platforms were eight feet apart, stood eight feet above the ground, measured eight feet square. From each platform rose two heavy beams, supporting a heavy crosspiece with a hook for the rope in the middle. An inconspicuous lever served to open the traps. The space beneath the traps was hidden by curtains. 1:11 a.m. Two white-helmeted guards led Joachim von Ribbentrop from his cell down the corridor and across the courtyard. He walked as in a trance, his eyes half closed. The wind ruffled his sparse grey...
...mounted the steps (there were 13) to the gallows. With the noose around his neck, he said: "My last wish ... is an understanding between East and West. . . ." All present removed their hats. The executioner tightened the noose. A chaplain standing beside him prayed. The assistant executioner pulled the lever, the trap dropped open with a rumbling noise, and Ribbentrop's hooded figure disappeared. The rope was suddenly taut, and swung back & forth, creaking audibly...
...Shannon Airport, Ireland, was routine. As the Pan American Airways Clipper (bound for Lisbon from New York) taxied towards the airport terminal, the pilot snapped an order: "Flaps up." The copilot, who had flown many hours in DC-4s, instinctively reached down with his left hand, yanked the lever next to his seat...
...copilot was not in a DC-4. He was in a Constellation (which has a landing-gear lever where the DC-4 has its flap lever). Instead of the flaps coming up, the wheels came up. The Connie crashed seven feet, on to the runway. The crew and 26 passengers were unhurt. But the $750,000 Connie was damaged beyond repair. Contributing cause to the accident: a safety lock-designed to keep the landing gear from coming up when a plane is on the ground-did not work...
Zipping over Dayton's Wright Field in a sleek, twin-boomed Black Widow night fighter, pilot J. W. McGuyrt reached for a new lever in his cluttered cockpit. He looked back at his passenger, and pulled. A telescopic gun tube exploded a 37-mm. charge and sent First Sergeant Lawrence Lambert, still strapped to his seat, whooshing upward out of the plane, 20 feet above the onrushing tail fins. Three seconds later a second explosion in the air snapped Lambert's safety belt and ripped the seat away. A third blast automatically opened his chute. After that...