A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred.
85-409: Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people. Some types of modern land mines are designed to self-destruct, or chemically render themselves inert after a period of weeks or months to reduce the likelihood of friendly casualties during the conflict or civilian casualties after the conflict's end. The Amended Protocol II to
170-448: A Stories feature, where posted content is automatically erased after a predetermined time, commonly 24 hours. This concept has been popularized by Snapchat and later adapted by Instagram and YouTube . Some artworks may have mechanisms in them to destruct themselves in front of many eyes watching. An example is the painting Love is in the Bin by Banksy , which shredded itself right after
255-563: A captain, Rains had earlier employed explosive booby traps during the Seminole Wars in Florida in 1840. Over the course of the war, mines only caused a few hundred casualties, but they had a large effect on morale and slowed down the advance of Union troops. Many on both sides considered the use of mines barbaric, and in response, generals in the Union Army forced Confederate prisoners to remove
340-405: A cone-shape hole with gunpowder at the bottom, covered either by rocks and scrap iron ( stone fougasse ) or mortar shells, similar to large black powder hand grenades ( shell fougasse ). It was triggered by a flintlock connected to a tripwire on the surface. It could sometimes cause heavy casualties but required high maintenance due to the susceptibility of black powder to dampness. Consequently, it
425-641: A conflict has ended, harming civilians and the economy. With pressure from a number of campaign groups organised through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines , a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty . To date, 164 nations have signed
510-408: A conflict. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, which are designed to disable tanks or other vehicles; and anti-personnel mines, which are designed to injure or kill people. The history of land mines can be divided into three main phases: In the ancient world, buried spikes provided many of the same functions as modern mines. Mines using gunpowder as the explosive were used from
595-552: A few decades during the Cold War , the U.S. developed atomic demolition munitions , often referred to as nuclear land mines. These were portable nuclear bombs that could be placed by hand, and could be detonated remotely or with a timer. Some of these were deployed in Europe. Governments in West Germany , Turkey and Greece wanted to have nuclear minefields as a defense against attack from
680-413: A five-point pattern; and abatis , fallen trees with sharpened branches facing outwards. As with modern land mines, they were "victim-operated", often concealed, and formed zones that were wide enough so that the enemy could not do much harm from outside, but were under fire (from spear throws, in this case) if they attempted to remove the obstacles. A notable use of these defenses was by Julius Caesar in
765-474: A fuse to burn, became possible after electricity was developed. An electric current sent down a wire could ignite the charge with a spark. The Russians claim first use of this technology in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 , and with it the fougasse remained useful until it was superseded by the claymore in the 1960s. Victim-activated mines were also unreliable because they relied on a flintlock to ignite
850-567: A hazard to allies as enemies. Tripwire-operated mines were not defended by pressure mines; the Chinese were often able to disable them and reuse them against UN forces. Looking for more destructive mines, the Americans developed the Claymore , a directional fragmentation mine that hurls steel balls in a 60-degree arc at a lethal speed of 1,200 metres per second. They also developed a pressure-operated mine,
935-503: A large area. The use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions is prohibited by the international CCM treaty . If bomblets do not explode, they are referred to as unexploded ordnance (UXO) , along with unexploded artillery shells and other explosive devices that were not manually placed (that is, mines and booby traps are not UXOs). Explosive remnants of war (ERW) include UXOs and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO), devices that were never used and were left behind after
SECTION 10
#17328764390151020-408: A magnetic trigger to detonate even if the vehicle's tires or tracks did not touch the mine. Advanced mines are able to sense the difference between friendly and enemy types of vehicles by way of a built-in signature catalog (an identification friend or foe system). This theoretically enables friendly forces to use the mined area while denying the enemy access. Many mines combine the main trigger with
1105-458: A million mines in two fields running across the entire battlefield and five miles deep. Nicknamed the " Devil's gardens ", they were covered by 88 mm anti-tank guns and small-arms fire. The Allies prevailed, but at the cost of over half their tanks; 20 percent of the losses were caused by mines. The Soviets learned the value of mines from their war with Finland, and when Germany invaded they made heavy use of them, manufacturing over 67 million. At
1190-496: A person or vehicle". Similar in function is the booby-trap , which the protocol defines as "any device or material which is designed, constructed or adapted to kill or injure and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object or performs an apparently safe act". Such actions might include opening a door or picking up an object. Normally, mines are mass-produced and placed in groups, while booby traps are improvised and deployed one at
1275-448: A pressure plate; this triggers a detonator or igniter, which in turn sets off a booster charge. There may be additional firing mechanisms in anti-handling devices. A land mine can be triggered by a number of things including pressure , movement, sound, magnetism and vibration . Anti-personnel mines commonly use the pressure of a person's foot as a trigger, but tripwires are also frequently employed. Most modern anti-vehicle mines use
1360-408: A print. It was given by Banksy to a friend shortly after the " Barely Legal " exhibition in 2006. Banksy has said he prepared the self-destruct mechanism at this time in case the work was ever put up for auction. Sotheby's London sold the painting at auction on 5 October 2018, at an artist-record price of £1,042,000 (then equivalent to US$ 1,366,672 or €1,184,360). Within seconds of the gavel drop,
1445-410: A record for the artist, against a £4-6 million guide price (then equivalent to US$ 5.45-8.18 or €4.71-7.07). It has been speculated that a man seen filming the shredding was Banksy or someone connected to him. Shortly after the auction Josh Gilbert, an artist specializing in metal sculpture and also a magician, noted what he thought were a number of inconsistencies with the work shredding itself and
1530-594: A series of anti-tank mines, the Tellermines (plate mines). They also developed the Schrapnell mine (also known as the S-mine ), the first bounding mine . When triggered, this jumped up to about waist height and exploded, sending thousands of steel balls in all directions. Triggered by pressure, trip wires or electronics, it could harm soldiers within an area of about 2,800 square feet. Tens of millions of mines were laid in
1615-406: A shredding device hidden in the bottom edge. Sotheby's said it had no foreknowledge of the mechanism. Immediately after the sale, technicians from Banksy's representatives, Pest Control, deactivated the shredder, but the mechanics remained in the frame. After the shredding, there was a negotiation with the buyer to confirm the sale, and on 11 October it was agreed that the sale would go through at
1700-652: A similar, but more reliable mine, the C3A1 ("Elsie") and the British army adopted it. The British also developed the L9 bar mine, a wide anti-tank mine with a rectangular shape, which covered more area, allowing a minefield to be laid four times as fast as previous mines. They also upgraded the Dingbat to the Ranger , a plastic mine that was fired from a truck-mounted discharger that could fire 72 mines at
1785-451: A target steps on it or drives over it, although other detonation mechanisms are also sometimes used. A land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both. Land mines are typically laid throughout an area, creating a minefield which is dangerous to cross. The use of land mines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after
SECTION 20
#17328764390151870-478: A time. In the 1950s, the US Operation Doan Brook studied the feasibility of delivering mines by air. This led to three types of air-delivered mine. Wide area anti-personnel mines ( WAAPMs ) were small steel spheres that discharged tripwires when they hit the ground; each dispenser held 540 mines. The BLU-43 Dragontooth was small and had a flattened W shape to slow its descent, while the gravel mine
1955-485: A time. Booby traps can also be non-explosive devices such as punji sticks . Overlapping both categories is the improvised explosive device (IED), which is "a device placed or fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating explosive material, destructive, lethal, noxious, incendiary, pyrotechnic materials or chemicals designed to destroy, disfigure, distract or harass. They may incorporate military stores, but are normally devised from non-military components." Some meet
2040-418: A touch or tilt trigger to prevent enemy engineers from defusing the mine. Land mine designs tend to use as little metal as possible to make searching with a metal detector more difficult; land mines made mostly of plastic have the added advantage of being very inexpensive. Some types of modern mines are designed to self-destruct , or chemically render themselves inert after a period of weeks or months to reduce
2125-410: A variety of conditions. Not all self-destruct mechanisms are absolutely reliable, and most landmines that have been laid throughout history are not equipped to self-destruct. Landmines can also be designed to self-deactivate, for instance by a battery running out of a charge, but deactivation is considered a different mechanism from self-destruction. Another form of a self-destruct system can be seen in
2210-634: A wide range of conditions; it could be melted to fill a container of any shape, and it was cheap to make. Thus, it became the standard explosive in mines after the First World War. The British used mines in the Siege of Khartoum . A Sudanese Mahdist force much larger than British strength was held off for ten months, but the town was ultimately taken and the British massacred. In the Boer War (1899–1903), they succeeded in holding Mafeking against Boer forces with
2295-476: A wire that made a flintlock fire. Such mines were deployed on the slope in front of a fort. They were used during the Franco-Prussian War , but were probably not very effective because a flintlock does not work for long when left untended. Another device, the fougasse , was not victim-operated or mass-produced, but it was a precursor of modern fragmentation mines and the claymore mine . It consisted of
2380-470: A £1 million auction at Sotheby's London on 5 October 2018. In the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible , sensitive intelligence or equipment is shown to self-destruct in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Notably, the usage of "self-destruct" as a verb is said to have been coined on Mission: Impossible . Self-destruct mechanisms are frequent plot devices in science fiction stories, such as those in
2465-461: Is held back by the centrifugal force of the rotating projectile; as the drag slows down the rotation the force is eventually no longer able to prevent the spring from triggering the self-destruct fuse. Heavy anti-aircraft cannons typically fired time fused shells which did not need a separate self-destruct since they were intended to detonate in the air after a set time. A form of self-destruct system can also be observed in deep-sea oil drilling. In
2550-521: The Huolongjing ( Fire Dragon Manual ), describes hollow cast iron cannonball shells filled with gunpowder. The wad of the mine was made of hard wood, carrying three different fuses in case of defective connection to the touch hole. These fuses were long and lit by hand, so they required carefully timed calculations of enemy movements. The Huolongjing also describes land mines that were set off by enemy movement. A 9-foot (3 m) length of bamboo
2635-463: The Star Trek or Alien fictional universes. They are generally found on military installations and starships too valuable to allow an enemy to capture. In many such stories, these mechanisms not only obliterate the object protected by the device, but cause massive destruction in a large surrounding area. Often, the characters have a limited amount of time to escape the destruction, or to disable
Self-destruct - Misplaced Pages Continue
2720-565: The Battle of Alesia . His forces were besieging Vercingetorix , the leader of the Gauls, but Vercingetorix managed to send for reinforcements. To maintain the siege and defend against the reinforcements, Caesar formed a line of fortifications on both sides, and they played an important role in his victory. Lilies were also used by Scots against the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and by Germans at
2805-494: The Battle of Kursk , which put an end to the German advance, they laid over a million mines in eight belts with an overall depth of 35 kilometres. Mines forced tanks to slow down and wait for soldiers to go ahead and remove the mines. The main method of breaching minefields involved prodding the dirt with a bayonet or stick at an angle of 30 degrees (to avoid putting pressure on the top of the mine and detonating it). Since all mines at
2890-540: The Battle of Passchendaele in the First World War . A more easily deployed defense used by the Romans was the caltrop , a weapon 12–15 cm across with four sharp spikes that are oriented so that when it is thrown on the ground, one spike always points up. As with modern antipersonnel mines, caltrops are designed to disable soldiers rather than kill them; they are also more effective in stopping mounted forces, who lack
2975-651: The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), amended in 1996, requires that anti-personnel land mines deactivate and self-destruct, and sets standards for both. Landmines currently used by the United States military are designed to self-destruct after between 4 hours and 15 days depending upon the type. The landmines have a battery and when the battery dies, the land mine self-destructs. The self-destruct system never failed in over 67,000 tested landmines in
3060-610: The Gulf War , and the Islamic State have all contributed to land mine saturation in Iraq from the 1980s through 2020. In 2019, Iraq was the most saturated country in the world with land mines. Countries that provided land mines during the Iran-Iraq War included Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Romania, Singapore, the former Soviet Union and the U.S., and were concentrated in
3145-595: The M14 ("toe-popper"). These, too, were ready too late for the Korean war. In 1948, the British developed the No. 6 antipersonnel mine , a minimum-metal mine with a narrow diameter, making it difficult to detect with metal detectors or prodding. Its three-pronged pressure piece inspired the nickname "carrot mine". However, it was unreliable in wet conditions. In the 1960s the Canadians developed
3230-697: The M23 chemical mine , which used the VX nerve agent , in 1960. The Soviets developed the KhF, a "bounding chemical mine". The French had chemical mines and the Iraqis were believed to have them before the invasion of Kuwait. In 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention came into force, prohibiting the use of chemical weapons and mandating their destruction. By July 2023 all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons were destroyed. For
3315-525: The Mannerheim Line , integrated these natural defenses with mines, including simple fragmentation mines mounted on stakes. While the Germans were advancing rapidly using blitzkrieg tactics, they did not make much use of mines. After 1942, however, they were on the defensive and became the most inventive and systematic users of mines. Their production shot up and they began inventing new types of mines as
3400-567: The PMN anti-personnel mine . The MS3 has been found in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Love is in the Bin Love is in the Bin is a 2018 art intervention by Banksy at Sotheby's London. According to Sotheby's, it is "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction." His 2006 painting of Girl with Balloon unexpectedly self-destructed immediately after it
3485-555: The Second World War , particularly in the deserts of North Africa and the steppes of Eastern Europe , where the open ground favored tanks. However, the first country to use them was Finland. They were defending against a much larger Soviet force with over 6,000 tanks, twenty times the number the Finns had; but they had terrain that was broken up by lakes and forests, so tank movement was restricted to roads and tracks. Their defensive line,
Self-destruct - Misplaced Pages Continue
3570-711: The Snake and the Conger were developed for clearing mines, but were not very effective . One of the best options was the flail , which had weights attached by chains to rotating drums. The first version, the Scorpion, was attached to the Matilda tank and used in the Second Battle of El Alamein. The Crab, attached to the Sherman tank , was faster, at 2 kilometers per hour; it was used during D-Day and
3655-513: The Warsaw Pact . However, such weapons were politically and tactically infeasible, and by 1989 the last of these munitions was retired. The British also had a project, codenamed Blue Peacock , to develop nuclear mines to be buried in Germany; the project was cancelled in 1958. A conventional land mine consists of a casing that is mostly filled with the main charge. It has a firing mechanism such as
3740-401: The home front or in the rear of friendly forces anti-aircraft cannon shells are often equipped with self-destruct mechanisms to prevent missed shots from falling down and causing damage to friendly targets. Different self-destruct types exists: in tracer ammunition the burning tracer material can trigger a self-destruct fuse at the end. Other self-destruct types are mechanical where a spring
3825-399: The naval procedure of scuttling , which is used to destroy a ship or ships to prevent them from being seized and/or reverse engineered . Generally the scuttling of a ship uses strategically-placed explosive charges by a demolition crew and/or the deliberate cutting open of the hull rather than an in-built self-destruct system. Launch vehicles self-destruct when they go errant, to prevent
3910-548: The Allies found ways to counter the existing ones. To make it more difficult to remove antitank mines, they surrounded them with S-mines and added anti-handling devices that would explode when soldiers tried to lift them. They also took a formal approach to laying mines and they kept detailed records of the locations of mines. In the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the Germans prepared for an Allied attack by laying about half
3995-488: The First World War, it was the standard explosive used by the British military. In 1847, Ascanio Sobrero invented nitroglycerine to treat angina pectoris and it turned out to be a much more powerful explosive than guncotton. It was very dangerous to use until Alfred Nobel found a way to incorporate it in a solid mixture called dynamite and developed a safe detonator. Even then, dynamite needed to be stored carefully or it could form crystals that detonated easily. Thus,
4080-603: The First World War, the Germans developed a device, nicknamed the "Yperite Mine" by the British, that they left behind in abandoned trenches and bunkers. It was detonated by a delayed charge, spreading mustard gas ("Yperite"). In the Second World War they developed a modern chemical mine, the Sprüh-Büchse 37 (Bounding Gas Mine 37), but never used it. The United States developed the M1 chemical mine , which used mustard gas, in 1939; and
4165-466: The First World War, they burst into about 1,000 high-velocity fragments; in the Franco-Prussian War (1870), it had only been 20 to 30 fragments. Nevertheless, antipersonnel mines were not a big factor in the war because machine guns, barbed wire and rapid-fire artillery were far more effective defenses. An exception was in Africa (now Tanzania and Namibia ) where the warfare was much more mobile. Towards
4250-972: The Kurdish areas in the northern area of Iraq. During the Gulf War, the U.S. deployed 117,634 mines, with 27,967 being anti-personnel mines and 89,667 being anti-vehicle mines. The U.S. did not use land mines during the Iraq War . Landmines and other unexploded battlefield ordnances, contaminate at least 724 million square meters of land in Afghanistan . Only two of Afghanistan's twenty-nine provinces are believed to be free of landmines. The most heavily mined provinces are Herat and Kandahar. Since 1989, nearly 44,000 Afghan civilians have been recorded to have been killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) averaging to around 110 people per month. Improvised mines (IM) and ERW from armed clashes caused nearly 99 percent of
4335-586: The Ming dynasty to the American Civil War. Subsequently, high explosives were developed for use in land mines. Some fortifications in the Roman Empire were surrounded by a series of hazards buried in the ground. These included goads , one-foot-long (30 cm) pieces of wood with iron hooks on their ends; lilia (lilies, so named after their appearance), which were pits in which sharpened logs were arranged in
SECTION 50
#17328764390154420-515: The US developed the M24 , a mine that was placed off to the side of the road. When triggered by a tripwire, it fired a rocket. However, the mine was not available until after the war. The Chinese had a lot of success with massed infantry attacks. The extensive forest cover limited the range of machine guns, but anti-personnel mines were effective. However, mines were poorly recorded and marked, often becoming as much
4505-561: The advantage of being able to carefully scrutinize each step they take (though forcing foot-mounted forces to take the time to do so has benefits in and of itself). They were used by the Jin dynasty in China at the Battle of Zhongdu to slow down the advance of Genghis Khan 's army; Joan of Arc was wounded by one in the Siege of Orléans ; in Japan they are known as tetsu-bishu and were used by ninjas from
4590-523: The aftermath. During the Cold War , the members of NATO were concerned about massive armored attacks by the Soviet Union. They planned for a minefield stretching across the entire West German border, and developed new types of mines. The British designed an anti-tank mine, the Mark 7 , to defeat rollers by detonating the second time it was pressed. It also had a 0.7-second delay so the tank would be directly over
4675-508: The beginning of the war had metal casings, metal detectors could be used to speed up the locating of mines. A Polish officer, Józef Kosacki , developed a portable mine detector known as the Polish mine detector . To counter the detector, Germans developed mines with wooden casings, the Schu-mine 42 (antipersonnel) and Holzmine 42 (anti-tank). Effective, cheap and easy to make, the schu mine became
4760-422: The blind shear ram's reach). Self-destruct mechanisms are sometimes employed to prevent an apparatus or information from being used by unauthorized persons in the event of loss or capture. For example, they may be found in high-security data storage devices (e.g. IronKey ), where it is important for the data to be destroyed to prevent compromise. Similarly, some online social media platforms are equipped with
4845-488: The butt end disturbed a bowl underneath and a slow-burning incandescent material in the bowl ignited the fuses. At Augsburg in 1573, three centuries after the Chinese invented the first pressure-operated mine, a German military engineer by the name of Samuel Zimmermann invented the Fladdermine (flying mine). It consisted of a few pounds of black powder buried near the surface and was activated by stepping on it or tripping
4930-422: The canvas began sliding out of the bottom of the frame and shredding itself to the audible sound of a siren and the surprise exclamations of attendees. The shredder stopped when the canvas was about half-way through; Banksy has said this stop was unplanned and that he intended to shred it completely. The work was housed in a deep frame and was plugged in to facilitate built-in electrical lights, which also powered
5015-463: The casualties recorded in 2021. During the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine , both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used land mines. Ukrainian officials claim Russian forces planted thousands of land mines or other explosive devices during their withdrawal from Ukrainian cities, including in civilian areas. Russian forces have also utilized remotely delivered anti-personnel mines such as the POM-3 . In
5100-405: The construction of the shredding mechanism and frame, but deleted the post. Banksy subsequently released another video indicating that the painting was intended to be shredded completely, showing the painting being shredded with the words: "In rehearsals it worked every time". It was sold by auction at Sotheby's on 14 October 2021 for £18,582,000 (then equivalent to US$ 25,327,452 or €21,896,100),
5185-451: The definition of mines or booby traps and are also referred to as "improvised", "artisanal" or "locally manufactured" mines. Other types of IED are remotely activated, so are not considered mines. Remotely delivered mines are dropped from aircraft or carried by devices such as artillery shells or rockets. Another type of remotely delivered explosive is the cluster munition , a device that releases several sub munitions ("bomblets") over
SECTION 60
#17328764390155270-413: The end of the war, the British started to use tanks to break through trench defenses. The Germans responded with anti-tank guns and mines. Improvised mines gave way to mass-produced mines consisting of wooden boxes filled with guncotton, and minefields were standardized to stop masses of tanks from advancing. Between world wars, the future Allies did little work on land mines, but the Germans developed
5355-450: The endangerment of nearby ground personnel, spectators, buildings and infrastructure. When a rocket flies outside of a prescribed safety zone, personnel monitoring the launch or onboard computers activate the rocket's flight termination system. This usually detonates explosives mounted on the rocket, which sever its propellant tanks or solid fuel casing, leading to a controlled breakup of the vehicle. Since anti-aircraft weapons are used in
5440-478: The event of an oil well becoming disconnected from its oil rig, a dead man's switch may trigger activation of a blowout preventer blind shear ram, which cuts the drill pipe and permanently seals the well to prevent an oil leak. The oil spill that followed the Deepwater Horizon explosion is an example where the self-destruct system failed to operate correctly (due to the pipe buckling and moving outside of
5525-589: The explosive. The percussion cap , developed in the early 19th century, made them much more reliable, and pressure-operated mines were deployed on land and sea in the Crimean War (1853–1856). During the American Civil War , the Confederate brigadier general Gabriel J. Rains deployed thousands of "torpedoes" consisting of artillery shells with pressure caps, beginning with the Battle of Yorktown in 1862. As
5610-464: The fourteenth century onward. Caltrops are still strung together and used as roadblocks in some modern conflicts. Gunpowder , an explosive mixture of sulfur , charcoal and potassium nitrate was invented in China by the 10th century and was used in warfare soon after. An "enormous bomb", credited to Lou Qianxia, was used in 1277 by the Chinese at the Battle of Zhongdu. A 14th-century military treatise,
5695-415: The full original price. The work was renamed by Pest Control, from Girl with Balloon , to Love is in the Bin . Market watchers speculated that the self-destruction would increase the artwork's value. Sotheby's released a statement that called it "the first artwork in history to have been created live during an auction". It was reported that the artist uploaded a video of the event onto Instagram, showing
5780-401: The growing urgency of the characters' escape. Passwords in 1970s and 1980s movies are often clearly insecure for their purposes as self-destruct triggers, considering accounts with even low-level security—let alone the high-security measures which would come for a self-destruct mechanism—in modern times generally have far more complex password requirements (the writers of the era not anticipating
5865-468: The help of a mixture of real and fake minefields; and they laid mines alongside railroad tracks to discourage sabotage. In the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, both sides used land and sea mines, although the effect on land mainly affected morale. The naval mines were far more effective, destroying several battleships. One sign of the increasing power of explosives used in land mines was that, by
5950-560: The increasing mobility of war. The Germans developed the Skorpion system, which scattered AT2 mines from a tracked vehicle. The Italians developed a helicopter delivery system that could rapidly switch between SB-33 anti-personnel mines and SB-81 anti-tank mines . The US developed a range of systems called the Family of Scatterable Mines (FASCAM) that could deliver mines by fast jet, artillery, helicopter and ground launcher. The Iraq-Iran War ,
6035-450: The issues soon to be raised by the easy affordability of fast computer hardware for conducting brute-force attacks ). Land mine A land mine , or landmine , is an explosive weapon concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatically by way of pressure when
6120-417: The likelihood of civilian casualties at the conflict's end. These self-destruct mechanisms are not absolutely reliable, and most land mines laid historically are not equipped in this manner. There is a common misperception that a landmine is armed by stepping on it and only triggered by stepping off. This is not the case for almost all types of mine. In virtually all cases the initial pressure trigger detonates
6205-452: The mechanism, creating story tension. In some cases, an artificial intelligence will invoke self-destruct due to cognitive dissonance . Usually the method required to initiate a self-destruct sequence is lengthy and complex, as in Alien , or else requires multiple officers aboard the ship with individual passcodes to concur, while audible and/or visible countdown timers allow audiences to track
6290-414: The military still preferred guncotton. In 1863, the German chemical industry developed trinitrotoluene ( TNT ). This had the advantage that it was difficult to detonate, so it could withstand the shock of firing by artillery pieces. It was also advantageous for land mines for several reasons: it was not detonated by the shock of shells landing nearby; it was lightweight, unaffected by damp, and stable under
6375-473: The mine, since mines are designed to kill or maim the victim rather than standing still until the mine can be disarmed. This misperception originated with the fictional portrayal of mines, often in movies in which the disarming of a mine is a source of narrative tension. Some types of mines do actually use this mechanism, though these types are rare. One example is the MS3, a pressure-release mine similar in appearance to
6460-624: The mine. They also developed the first scatterable mine, the No. 7 ("Dingbat"). The Americans used the M6 antitank mine and tripwire-operated bounding antipersonnel mines such as the M2 and M16 . In the Korean War , land mine use was dictated by the steep terrain, narrow valleys, forest cover and lack of developed roads. This made tanks less effective and more easily stopped by mines. However, mines laid near roads were often easy to spot. In response to this problem,
6545-448: The mines. Starting in the 19th century, more powerful explosives than gunpowder were developed, often for non-military reasons such as blasting train tunnels in the Alps and Rockies. Guncotton , up to four times more powerful than gunpowder, was invented by Christian Schonbein in 1846. It was dangerous to make until Frederick Augustus Abel developed a safe method in 1865. From the 1870s to
6630-584: The most common mine in the war. Mine casings were also made of glass, concrete and clay. The Russians developed a mine with a pressed-cardboard casing, the PMK40, and the Italians made an anti-tank mine out of bakelite . In 1944, the Germans created the Topfmine , an entirely non-metallic mine. They ensured that they could detect their own mines by covering them with radioactive sand; the Allies did not find this out until after
6715-549: The treaty. However, China , the Russian Federation and the United States are not signatories. In the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (also known as the " Ottawa Treaty ") and the " Protocol on Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices ", a mine is defined as a "munition designed to be placed under, on or near the ground or other surface area and to be exploded by the presence, proximity or contact of
6800-438: The war. Several mechanical methods for clearing mines were tried. Heavy rollers were attached to tanks or cargo trucks, but they did not last long and their weight made the tanks considerably slower. Tanks and bulldozers pushed ploughs that pushed aside any mines to a depth of 30 cm. The Bangalore torpedo , a long thin tube filled with explosives, was invented in 1912 and used to clear barbed wire; larger versions such as
6885-439: The weight fell, the wheels struck sparks against flint , igniting a set of fuses leading to multiple mines. A similar mechanism was used in the first wheellock musket in Europe as sketched by Leonardo da Vinci around 1500 AD. Another victim-operated device was the "underground sky-soaring thunder", which lured bounty hunters with halberds , pikes , and lances planted in the ground. If they pulled on one of these weapons,
6970-472: Was larger. Both were packed by the thousand into bombs. All three were designed to inactivate after a period of time, but any that failed to activate presented a safety challenge. Over 37 million Gravel mines were produced between 1967 and 1968, and when they were dropped in places like Vietnam their locations were unmarked and unrecorded. A similar problem was presented by unexploded cluster munitions. The next generation of scatterable mines arose in response to
7055-510: Was mainly employed in the defenses of major fortifications, in which role it used in several European wars of the eighteenth century and the American Revolution . One of the greatest limitations of early land mines was the unreliable fuses and their susceptibility to dampness. This changed with the invention of the safety fuse . Later, command initiation , the ability to detonate a charge immediately instead of waiting several minutes for
7140-470: Was sold at auction. The damaged painting was later renamed Love is in the Bin . It has been on permanent loan to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart since March 2019. In October 2021, it sold at auction for £18,582,000 (then equivalent to US$ 25,327,452 or €21,896,100), a record for the artist. The painting is an adaptation of Banksy's 2002 mural Girl with Balloon , rare as a unique work rather than
7225-439: Was waterproofed by wrapping it in cowhide and covering it with oil. It was filled with compressed gunpowder and lead or iron pellets, sealed with wax and concealed in a trench. The triggering mechanism was not fully described until the early 17th century. When the enemy stepped onto hidden boards, they dislodged a pin, causing a weight to fall. A cord attached to the weight was wrapped around a drum attached to two steel wheels; when
#14985