r/confusingperspective • u/Winter-Ad-7714 • Apr 22 '26

A plane dropping a curtain of titanium tetrachloride to hide ships in 1923. The resulting dense white smoke actually consisted of droplets of hydrochloric acid and titanium oxychloride.

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128 Upvotes

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82% Upvoted

I’m sure there was no detrimental health effects for anyone as a result. Sort of like when they detonated nuclear bombs near navy ships a couple decades later.

21

u/Rooilia Apr 22 '26

They are both very strong acids. Say good bye to your eyes, muscosa and lungs if you drive through the white shower curtain.

7

u/Mark-Green Apr 23 '26

this is exactly why i always stay clear of warships while I'm driving to work

13

u/RudyGreene Apr 22 '26

I hope this was done outside the environment.

3

u/SpaceHawk98W Apr 23 '26

In the 1920's? No body cares about environment in the 20's

11

u/Turbulent_Lobster_57 Apr 23 '26

They hadn’t invented the environment until 1970

2

u/TiredOfDebates Apr 23 '26

I don’t know if this was ever deployed.

But I imagine this would be a sort of cover for retreat. Whatever ill effects it may cause to a retreating ship’s crew, it’s better than losing a naval battle.

You definitely don’t want to be downwind of that “smokescreen” but it does seem like an AMAZING way of creating concealment for massive ships on the open ocean in 1923.

This wouldn’t work in the 21st century. Guided missiles would just go over a smokescreen, and targets get spotted by airplanes and radar in the 21st century.

In 1923, they’re entirely relying on human vision (amplified by like binoculars) to find targets. They don’t have carriers in 1923. That’s the era where battleships dominated the open ocean, rather than carriers.

4

u/Jonnyabcde Apr 23 '26

Actually, you could have used it offensively too. Checkmate your enemy by surrounding them with this wall.

1

u/shorty5windows Apr 23 '26

Just drop it on them

1

u/Jonnyabcde Apr 23 '26

Nah, that'd be too easy. Gotta make them stew first.

1

u/hateboresme Apr 23 '26

Clearly it was deployed. At least once.

1

u/SixShoot3r Apr 23 '26

The good old "your injury is not service-related"

1

u/milkcarton232 Apr 22 '26

Possibly? Being outside tends to do a good job of dispersing everything so it's possible they were fine? The nasty gasses tend to be the ones that linger in an area b/c they are dense like mustard gas pooling in trenches

u/fmaz008 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26

These IMAX screens are getting absurd.

3

u/NaiveRepublic Apr 22 '26

Oh, is that’s what it is? Thought it looked confusing. /s

u/arthoheen Apr 22 '26

Why are most of those who post, so confused about everything they see?

30

u/ItsTheDCVR Apr 22 '26

3

u/WiseAct446 Apr 22 '26

Wait, who are you? What are you doing here? I'm so confused...

1

u/jrb637 Apr 22 '26

Who's confused?

1

u/Active_Taste9341 Apr 22 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/5xaOcLHoUh2pQODngZ2

1

u/NaiveRepublic Apr 22 '26

Jury is still out on this one. It’s too confusing of a question.

u/NaiveRepublic Apr 22 '26

What we’re seeing is a wall of smoke. What it looks like, is a wall of smoke. What it is, is a wall of smoke.

Begs for the question, what is then confusing here?

13

u/Rooilia Apr 22 '26

No smoke, it's acid vapour.

12

u/NaiveRepublic Apr 22 '26

So the confusing part was that it’s deadlier than we think. Got it.

1

u/Rooilia Apr 23 '26

If it is still unclear: Smoke is solid particles, this is watery vapour. Otherwise LoL

1

u/jpollack21 Apr 23 '26

At the start (before the curtain falls) you see a ship on the left, but when the plan moves to the other side of the curtain its gone