The MacAdam Shield Shovel Weird Tech
World War I The MacAdam Shield Shovel
or Hughes shovel
was a two in one solution designed for
the trenches of World War I by a Canadian
named Sam Hughes, who was the minister for
the department of Militia and Defence in 1913
The device would resemble a standard infantry shovel
with a hole in it - so that it could also act
as a sniper's shield. The shovel would be named after
Ena MacAdam, Hughe's personal secretary. Who suggested
the idea in 1913, when she saw Swiss troops
digging trenches and
suggested that they could combine their entrenching tools
with bulletproof shields. To use
it as a shield, the soldier would lie in prone with
the rifle placed through the hole.
With the shovel handle rotated 90˚ to
expose the spike that drove into the ground.
In 1914, 25,000 shield
shovels were produced
for the Canadian army. Hughes
proclaimed them a 'Canadian Miracle Device'.
But after field testing, it was clear that the expensive
piece of equipment had many problems.
It was heavy because of the thick steel necessary
to deflect a bullet, and difficult to carry
as it had no carrying handle. Even worse,
the shield shovel couldn't actually deflect bullets,
even if they were small in caliber and was
not good for digging because of the hole in the blade.
High ranking Canadian and British military officials,
including Arthur Currie,
refused to accept the shield shovel.
It was stated by the Saturday Night's magazine
That "the MacAdam shield shovel was only good for
one thing - opening tins."
The shovels was soon replaced
by British entrenching tools and
turned into scrap metal. Although some Canadian
snipers did make use of the device,
placing many together for effective protection.
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