Word: shocks
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...Matter of Sardines. For everybody, money is one of the worst problems. You have to carry bales of currency; even little boys and beggars carry wads of bank notes in their hands. The papers tell of an elderly gentleman who died of shock after leaving $40 million in a pedicab. I sympathized until I figured out that it was about 133 U.S. dollars...
Near sea level, sound waves travel through air at about 760 m.p.h. But long before a plane reaches this speed, the layer of air crowding over the wing and other surfaces begins moving as fast as sound in relation to the plane. Thus, a "shock wave" (really a standing sound wave) may form above the wing...
...this point, a frightful thing can happen. The shock wave spoils the airflow over the wing, reducing its lift. The plane's nose drops. Faster & faster it dives. Louder screams the shock wave. The pilot struggles helplessly with the controls, but the tail surfaces do not respond normally. They cannot pull the nose up. Down to earth shoots the plane, with the screech of a siren...
With some planes, the shock wave may form at speeds as low as 550 m.p.h. Captain Wilson's Meteor was probably designed specially to push the danger limit upward. Even so, he did not dare use the full power of his jets...
Owner Arden, whose Maine Chance Farm horses have made hundreds of thousands of bettors happy, was flabbergasted. "This has been a severe shock to me," she said. "I love my horses. They're so beautiful. They were my toys. And now this calamity after such wonderful success. . ." Said Trainer Smith, admitting that he had long used a mixture of salt, vinegar and ephedrine (to clear up horses' heads): "The quantity and quality of ... the so-called drug ... is infinitesimal and could not have affected [the horse's] racing condition...