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The 1939 invasion of Poland is generally seen as the beginning of the second world war. An enduring image of that battle is of Polish lancers bravely but hopelessly charging German tank formations, getting cut to pieces. But that story, like so many in the popular mindset, is false, and the true story is somewhat different, but no less interesting.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
