Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. Imagine yourself inching your way through the security line at the airport. You check the time on your tickets, You double check your I D. As you go to place your carry on bag a topic conveyor belt, you run through a mental list of items
packed inside? Did I take out my liquids? Is my cell charger in there? Is it okay that I packed my bazooka. Now, for some of you, your mind probably goes to bazooka bubble gum, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. You can bring gum on an airplane. But of course there's more to the story. Introduced during the Second World War, Bazooka gum is generally understood to be named after the rocket propelled grenade that was introduced by
the U. S. Army as an anti tank weapon. Has pointed out in Tanks one hundred Years of Evolution by Richard O'gorkowitch, the U. S. Army pioneered the use of rocket propelled shape charge grenades, deploying the first of these in North Africa in nineteen forty two. The German military followed suit in nineteen forty four with the pounds of Faust, which fired the shaped charge from a disposable, preloaded launch tube.
These weapons presented a serious threat to armored vehicles, as the shaped charge focused the blast energy in order to pierce armor, and the projectile methods meant that it could be deployed at range by infantry. Obviously, never try to bring one of these on a flight. But this brings us to the name bazooka. While the gum is named for the weapon, the weapon in turn took its nickname from a novelty brass musical instrument known as the bazooka,
invented by comedian and musician Bob Burns. This intentionally crude musical instrument featured a wide flaring bell and a telescopic body. In Clarity and Uncertainty about Bazooka, published in American Speech Back in, author Robert Chapman explored the invention of the bazooka and the etymology of the word. Burns seems to have invented the instrument and coined its name as early as possibly nineteen o five. He subsequently played in the Marine Corps band in World War One and went on
to become a famous radio player of the day. Now. While Chapman admits that full clarity on the question is impossible, he contends that the word bazooka largely seems to stem from the slang bazoo, which meant a person with a big mouth or someone who talks a lot, though various other semantic influences seemed possible as well. Either way, a whimsical name for a farcical musical instrument would ultimately become predominantly associated with a weapon to punch holes in tank armor.
Tune in for additional episodes of the artifact each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.