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Gerhard Zucker, the genius of Don Juan explosive

Engineer Gerhard Zucker was born in 1900 in Hasselfelde in Germany. The first news we have about him is that produced butter and cheese in its homeland.

Struck the way of gunpowder in 1931 began to carry out several experiments in the villages of the region with the rockets of its design intended, in its idea, the transportation of mail.

Removed by local authorities during the 1933 began touring Germany to present his amazing "operational reusable rocket is 5 meters long, 360 chilogranmmi weight, able to fly 400 km at an altitude of 1000 meters and at a speed of 1 km per second and capable of returning to the starting point after the release of a cargo or making reconnaissance photographs .

Zucker demonstration organized an exhibition at Cuxhaven the northern coast of Germany in ' April 1933. A crowd of dignitaries and onlookers gathered per assistere all’imperdibile evento: dopo aver percorso circa 15 metri oscillando nell’aria, il razzo si schiantò inesorabilmente al suolo.

Zucker non si scoraggiò per così poco e riprese il tour attraverso la Germania organizzando nuove dimostrazioni e vendendo speciali fascette ed annulli per la sua “ posta espresso via razzo ”. Le lettere spedite con quel mezzo dovevano obbligatoriamente essere munite della fascetta e dell’annullo ufficiale, pagando ovviamente un sovrapprezzo .

Nell’inverno tra il 1933 e il 1934 le straordinarie potential of the rocket was shown to Nazi military hierarchy, who were apparently not particularly impressed.

During the 1934 fireworks then the engineer began to turn Europe to place its product.

L ' Netherlands, the Belgium, Switzerland were the scene of his amazing and also the companies' Italy refused to withdraw.

At that time in Italy there were already more than ninety eight thousand provincial capitals and municipalities, where he organized his experiments 's explosive Engineer? But of course in Trieste .

Zucker did prepare special triangular ties to commemorate the event. For transportation by "rocket expressed " was required small surcharge of 5 and 7.70 pounds reported in the band, when the normal postage was 10 cents (25 for international)!

The experiment took place on October 31, 1934 and no one knows what unexpected supernatural intervention was successful.

The rocket was apparently launched from and landed at Zaule Trieste, a trip a few miles, after which the mail was sent by conventional means. All 1600 letters arrived at their destination.

would love to ask those who were brave 1600 Trieste who entrusted their letters to detonating engineer and his flying machine. You can understand the philatelists who sent the letter to themselves expecting an increase in value of those envelopes stamped and travel "that way so singular, but the others? Bah, give everyone who believes the answer ...

In 1934 's flammable Zucker moved to Britain in May where he explained his rocket to the London Air Post Exhibition . The photographer Robert Hartman and philatelic Ms. Dombrowski sniffed the business and devised a way to get thousands of pounds from the sale of mail carried by the rocket Zucker.

Zucker argued that there were problems in replicate experiments brilliant played in Germany because the Nazis had banned the transport of the outside the borders of Germany special propellant rocket essential drive and why the launch pad was in need of a lubricating oil from the German secret formula . Ms. Dombrowski even declared himself ready to go to Germany to get all that was necessary for the project making him cross the border hidden inside his hat.

front of such great dedication and tenacity, with brilliant improvisation Zucker was able to build a smaller model of its rocket using substitute materials (including the butter as a lubricant).

The June 6, 1934, in the early morning, Zucker, Ms. Dombrowski , a journalist and a photographer from the London Daily Express , a publisher of a magazine and philatelic Hartman met on a hill Sussex. After a first successful launch with no load, two launches were carried out with rockets loaded with correspondence. Observers saw the rocket rise into the sky to a height of 800 meters.

The next day the London Daily Express broke the news of the launch of the rocket post British Prime "Providing that a little later it was opened via a postal service regular rocket espresso between Dover and Calais.

The next step was to try to impress the directors of the Royal Mail on the potential of mail by rocket expressed .

Zucker announced a demonstration flight of 1600 meters between the city of Harris island of Scarp . The rocket used had a length of just over 1 meter and a diameter of 18 cm and was equipped with an engine of 55 cm long by 6 inches diametro. La parte restante venne imbottita di 1200 lettere pre-affrancate e altamente redditizie . I funzionari governativi il 31 luglio del 1934 poterono osservare il razzo sollevarsi in aria ed esplodere seminando lettere in fiamme sulla spiaggia sottostante. Zucker sostenne che le cause dovevano ricercarsi probabilmente in un cattivo assemblaggio delle cartucce del propellente. Tuttavia le buste sbruciacchiate che vennero recuperate ottennero un buon successo tra i collezionisti.

Gli Inglesi accusarono Zucker di essere una “ minaccia per il Servizio Postale Nazionale e per la sicurezza del Paese ” e lo rispedirono in Germany, it is unknown if dragged by the ears or forwarded to one of his rockets postal amazing.

Shortly after returning to the homeland, Zucker was arrested on suspicion apparently collaborating with the British, but because the shutdown was switched to forced hospitalization in a nursing home provided the stop with his experiments, we suspect that the motives were other.

At the end of World War II , move a few miles away from his hometown, he began the business of selling furniture and simultaneously resumed his experiments on rockets . A student was killed in a Braunlage 1964 during one such experiment, which led the German government to ban non-military rocket launches over 100 feet high across the country. Nevertheless, over the years 1970, Zucker filming secretly launches rocket delivered via correspondence .

Zucker died at his home in 1985 . His soul rose up with a rocket expressed and disappeared in a blinding: not given way to know if the soul arrived at the destination.