Dr. Bull’s Giant Space Cannon
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So Ray, recently pop princess Katy Perry took a ride into subspace aboard Jeff Bezos' rocket. Yeah, she did. The public on social media had a field day eviscerating her for doing spoiled rich people stuff. Yeah, I saw that. I mean, super wealthy people playing with toys us regular folks could never afford. And not that there's anything new about that. I mean, that's been happening for millennia, really. Yeah, it sure has.

So we're hiking Vermont's famous Long Trail. It runs the length of the state north and south. It's 272 miles long.

The trail starts in Clarksburg, Massachusetts, right at the Vermont state line, and it runs all the way north to where we are today here in Jay, Vermont. The trail ends at the Canadian border, which is pretty close to where we're walking right now. And you thought Vermont's long trail was just a beer. No, no, no, no, no. I knew it was a real thing, but it is also a beer. Very true.

All right, so Ray, so we've come to this remote section of northern Vermont to find a secret base that was involved in the space race for decades. Now, when I think of the space race, I really don't think about Vermont. No, few people do. But there was once a giant 6,000-acre base right up here that used to straddle the border between the United States and Canada. And this is an intriguing story of a big dreamer with a vision. It's a story that involves international dictators and murder most foul.

Ray, we've come to Jay, Vermont to search for a scientist who is trying to build a space cannon. Hey, I'm Jeff Belanger. And I'm Ray Ogier. Welcome to episode 397 of the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. From weird history to ghosts to monsters to aliens, we love it all. And we'll explore this legendary space cannon right after this word from our sponsor.

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Jewel Osco. Now through June 24th, score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in-store tags on items like General Mills cereal, Chobani Greek yogurt, Pillsbury Crescent rolls, cinnamon rolls, and biscuits, Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Lindor chocolate truffles, Tillamook ice cream, and Cove probiotic sodas.

Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event-long savings. Shop in-store or online for easy drive-up and go-pick-up or delivery. Subject to availability. Restrictions apply. Visit Jewelosco.com for more details. So much science is inspired by science fiction. I get that. First someone dreams of something and later some scientist eventually says, you know what? I might be able to figure out how to make that thing work.

So a year before the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, a French filmmaker named George Malaise released a short film that blew the minds of everyone who saw it.

The year was 1902. The film was called Le Voyage dans la Lune, or A Trip to the Moon. Oh, wait, that's the one where they have the scene with the lunar capsule crashes into the moon's face? That's the one. But it's literally a person's face in the moon, and it just got hit in the eye with a capsule. That's the one. The film was so far ahead of its time, it's still taught in film schools today.

In 1902, George Millais was scratching the surface of what's possible in film. This was some early sci-fi. And the way that capsule reached the moon was being fired out of a giant cannon on Earth. That's right. I remember that. So you can watch the whole 13-minute film on YouTube if you want. But the cannon is how Millais imagined we could get to the lunar surface.

Anyway, the earliest cannons go back over a thousand years to the 9th century. Obviously, they evolved quite a bit over time. They got bigger, they got more powerful. In World War II, the Germans developed the Gustav cannon. It weighed 1,350 tons, had a barrel that was 107 feet long, and could fire a 7-ton shell about 30 miles away. Wow, that's quite a gun. Yeah, you're not kidding. Now, it's tough to be accurate from that distance, and the sheer weight of the cannon meant it was staying in one place to defend a position.

But still, the Germans proved you could scale up a cannon. I see where you're going. If a cannon can fire a shell 30 miles, can a bigger cannon fire a shell even further? Exactly. Now, to give you some perspective, it's generally considered that the line between Earth and space is 62 miles up. Which is only double of what Gustav's cannon could reach.

Right. I mean, it's more complicated than that, but yeah, double the Gustav and you could launch an object like a satellite into space without the enormous expense of a rocket. If you could pull that off, that would be huge. Enter an engineer named Gerald Bull. Bull was born in North Bay, Ontario, Canada in 1928. The Canadian engineer worked on long-range artillery projects for the Canadian government. He worked on missiles capable of reaching speeds in excess of Mach 4, which is four times faster than the speed of sound.

Around the mid-1950s, some American members of the U.S. Army Research and Development Team saw Bull's work, and they were impressed. This guy had vision for scaling up both speed and distance for firing ordnance from a cannon. Now, this is where we need to remind people of just how personal war was in all of human history. Before World War II, if you wanted to kill someone in battle, you had to get close. Exactly. I mean, close enough for hand-to-hand combat in those early days, but then close enough for guns and bombs.

As air power and gun power quickly evolved in World War II, you could drop bombs from airplanes or even drop nuclear weapons on people and never see their faces. Obviously, the further away you can launch weapons, the safer you can keep your soldiers. So yeah, the U.S. military was highly interested in the work of Gerald Bull. And Bull was interested in a more peaceful and noble pursuit of launching satellites, maybe even people, into space with a cannon.

But Bull knew the military was a bottomless well of money for potential weapons projects.

Maybe he could use those funds to help with their weapons, but also prove his theory that you can make a cannon capable of launching objects into space. Now, he wasn't the first person to think along those lines. During World War II, Hitler was having his scientists develop rockets to launch weapons at enemies far away. Some of those German engineers came to the United States to build the rockets that would launch people into space. I'm sure those thoughts were crossing Bull's mind as he was speaking with the U.S. military.

Pretty soon, Bull was part of Project HARP, or High Altitude Research Project. In January of 1962, Bull helped develop the Martlet 2A projectile. This missile weighed over 400 pounds, and once fired, it reached speeds of over 10,000 feet per second, or close to 7,000 miles per hour, and reached an altitude of 215,000 feet. Okay, I'm getting my calculator here.

Converting 215,000 feet to miles, that would be just over 40 miles or two-thirds of the way to space. Right. Suddenly, the idea of using a cannon to get to space doesn't seem so crazy. I mean, scale up just a little more and you're there. That's exactly what Bull thought. So let's head back to 1972 and see the Space Research Corporation.

It's May of 1972 here in Jay Vermont. Richard Nixon is in the White House. The Vietnam War is on everybody's mind right now, as American troops are heading over by the thousands. But here in Jay Vermont, thoughts of outer space are the focus. A few years ago, Project HARP was cut by both the Canadian and United States governments. However, Gerald Bull still had dreams of launching satellites into space. So he started the Space Research Corporation, or SRC.

They set up a 6,000-acre base, half in North Jay, Vermont, and half in Highwater, Quebec, just on the other side of the Canadian border. Half of the workers are American, half are Canadian. Bull was able to secure all of Project Harp's assets so he could continue his dream of launching objects into space from a cannon. And the governments of the United States and Canada continue to funnel in money for military research projects. The complex looks like a war zone.

There's all kinds of military weapons here. There are a bunch of long-range artillery cannons and other various cannons, plus research buildings and housing. You'd never guess you were in northern Vermont. No, you wouldn't. And the centerpiece of this whole project and complex is a massive cannon that was cobbled together from three 16-inch surplus naval guns.

The three cannons were originally bored inside with spiral grooves. This is pretty standard with all kinds of guns because the groove sends the projectile spiraling, which makes it more accurate. But Bull needs those grooves gone for what he has in mind. So Bull has his staff refitting these three large cannons, smoothing out the barrels, and joining them together with laser precision. When it's finished, the huge cannon is getting worldwide attention. The tests are promising too.

One of the most amazing innovations is that the firing of the cannon doesn't shatter windows all around. The report from the firing is loud, sure, but not nearly as loud as a much smaller cannon. However, the ground rumbles like a minor earthquake for several seconds after each launch. And after each successful test, the reputation of Bull's Space Research Center continues to grow. Bull's dream of launching satellites into space from a cannon is moving closer to reality with each test firing.

And the trick isn't just distance. Launching something 60 miles in an arc is one thing. Launching it straight up is another. The projectile needs enough speed and force to escape Earth's atmosphere. I mean, we're talking speeds of about 7 miles per second. Or about 9 seconds to get to space. Yeah, that's pretty quick. To give you a comparison, it took the Apollo rockets about 3 minutes and 24 seconds to get 60 miles up.

There's a big hurdle facing Bull and the Space Research Agency, though. And what's that? Well, the world's changing. I mean, if you talk about large weapons, big governments like the United States already have intercontinental ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads halfway around the world in 30 minutes. And the Vietnam War is teaching us that other weapons need to be precise and portable. There's no room in those jungles for giant cannons.

And if you're talking about space, NASA just announced plans to design and build a new type of vehicle, a reusable space plane they call the Space Shuttle, which leaves... Which leaves the Space Research Agency in the dust as far as military or space research funding goes. Gerald Bull is furious. Why can't people see his vision? His space cannon could potentially be fired multiple times a day if needed. Imagine how many satellites could get into space at a fraction of the cost.

Years pass, and the Space Research Agency is hanging in there, but their funds are drying up. As the Canadian and U.S. governments pull out their interest in money, it's clear to Bull that he's going to need some new investors. Unfortunately, the private sector is more interested in NASA for getting satellites into space, which leaves one other customer. Militaries. Militaries. And if the U.S. and Canada are out, then he'll have to look elsewhere. That's right.

It's January of 1988, and Richard Bull is sitting cross-legged on the floor of a palace. The city is Baghdad. The country? Iraq. And sitting in a chair in front of Gerald Bull is a man named Saddam Hussein. Okay, this is a little scary. Everyone knows Hussein is a dictator and a killer. He has no trouble dispatching those he sees as in his way. Yet Gerald Bull is fearless. He's charming even.

Bull is explaining to Saddam Hussein that he can get Iraq a seat at the global table using technology from the Space Research Agency. Imagine Iraq with the ability to launch satellites into space in just a few years using Bull's space cannon. All Bull needs is the money to finish the work.

He imagines a space cannon about 1,500 feet in length surrounded by a massive complex that could launch objects into space. Saddam Hussein lights up at the idea. However, the dictator isn't thinking about launching satellites into space.

He's thinking about dropping non-nuclear weapons on Israel, which sits about 250 miles west of Iraq's most western border. Bull has an ethical dilemma. Hussein wants a weapon. The Space Research Corporation needs money to see Bull's dream come true. If Bull could only prove his cannon could get satellites and maybe even people into space one day, it would change the world.

In the end, Bull figures his own government and the U.S. government turn their back on him, so he makes a deal with Iraq, and construction on a new massive cannon is set to start as soon as possible. Saddam Hussein is no stranger to saber-rattling. He begins to make speeches about dropping chemical weapons on Israel, of burning the country to the ground.

It's now February, 1990. Bull's Iraqi supergun is the worst-kept secret in the arms world. Everyone knows about it. A weapon like that in the hands of someone like Saddam Hussein has everyone on edge, especially in the Middle East and Israel. It's March 22, 1990. We're in Brussels, Belgium, and Gerald Bull is walking out from his luxury apartment building.

Oh, gee, oh my gosh. Bull was just shot multiple times. He's lying motionless on the sidewalk, and the killer just sped off. Bull has been assassinated. Most suspect it was by Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency, but no one ever claims responsibility. And that brings us back to today.

In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein and Iraq evaded Kuwait. The United States, as well as many other allied nations, responded, which of course led to the first Gulf War. Gerald Bull's cannon was never completed for Iraq, and coalition forces soon destroyed what had been built so far.

The Space Research Corporation shut its doors, the buildings were torn down, and the Forest of Northern Vermont and Southern Quebec reclaimed what was always hers to begin with. And we're left to wonder what could have been if Gerald Bull got his funding and time he needed to build a space cannon. Later in life, Bull grew bitter. All he ever wanted was a better way to get into space. I mean, in his mind, he could solve this problem, but the military could only see use for a weapon.

He made his deals with various devils in order to try to get his space cannon to where he wanted it to be, but the clock ran out, and he made a deal with the wrong devil. And paid for it with his life. But still, we're always wondering if Jay Vermont could have been the next Cape Canaveral.

What could have been? Those kind of things haunt us. And that takes us to After the Legend, where we dive deeper into this week's story. Sometimes, Vera, of course. After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon patrons. This group of insiders is the lifeblood of everything we do. They help us with hosting costs, production, marketing, travel, and all the other costs it takes to bring you two episodes each week. All we're asking for is three bucks per month. And for that, you get early ad-free access to new episodes.

access to our entire archive of shows, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just head over to patreon.com slash new England legends to sign up to see some pictures of Gerald bulls cannons and the space research corporation. Click on the link in our episode description, go to our website and click on episode 397. What could have been? Yeah. I never knew this story. I didn't either. Um, and it all came because there's, you know, some old foundational ruins up there in the woods. Um, and,

There's a haunted ship in Salem, right? Excuse me, in Quincy, the USS Salem. Yeah. And it's called a Super Destroyer. It's a very large destroyer. It's a post-World War II ship that...

that was made by the Navy. And the thing was, there was only a few of them made because at post-World War II, as the Cold War is heating up, the Navy said, we either want really massive ships like aircraft carriers or really small agile ships that can zoom in and out. This ship almost became instantly obsolete. It had its use for years and it, you know, served all kinds of purposes, but the world changed. The military needs changed.

And so cannons, cannons were, I mean, big in World War II, not in Vietnam, right? Right. While you're in the jungle, there's no use for them. You either have airstrikes or you've got whatever you can carry. Right. And, you know, humans can't carry massive, you know, cannons. Right. Right. Especially in the jungle. You can't wheel them through, like none of that. So the nature of war changed and suddenly cannons were like, ah, that's old stuff. That's old technology for old wars. We don't need those anymore. Right.

And still, like when you look at the math, right, he got something, you know, two-thirds of the way to space. Not bad. Fired out of a cannon. Yeah. Everything's scalable, right? Like in your head, you're like, okay, bigger, longer gun. Yeah. More power behind it. Right. And now my big question is, and I don't, I mean, hey, I'm very far from an engineer, right? But let's say you had, he did it. Let's say he could get something that could launch it 100 miles up in seconds, right? Yeah.

satellites, my understanding anyway, is that they're highly sensitive pieces of equipment, right? Right. That initial blast, I would think, would do some damage. Yeah. Imagine putting your iPhone, something that goes to space. Or yourself. Oh, human, forget it. You'd be a

puddle. I mean, you think of the guy at the circus that just gets launched, what, 50 feet maybe? Into the net, yeah. Imagine halfway to space. Multiply that by a ton, right? And so, yeah, so those are some of my questions. Could you create a capsule that could protect equipment inside and then open? Well, I was going to say the capsule has to open at some point. There's a lot of moving parts. Yeah, there's a lot of things that would have to happen. However, if he figured it out, if he cracked the nut...

I mean, holy cow. Rockets are so expensive. And the space shuttle...

no one really talks about this. It was, remember when it came out, like how cool it was? It was super cool. It was a plane. It's also not cheaper than a rocket. Right. Oh, but you can reuse it. Yeah. After spending millions of dollars to like fix it up again every time. Right. It needs work after. Every time. Like you can't just like. Doesn't just need an oil change. Yeah. You don't land and take off again. And so someone sort of figured out like, you know, rockets are actually cheaper. They're more efficient. They're cheaper to build. We can just do them. We can make them

bigger. We can scale rockets up the Titans and stuff, right? They became bigger and bigger. So everything's scalable. Um, and Saddam Hussein gets ahold of this and says, that's great. I'm not going to make it go straight up though. Yeah. Once you deliver it, it's going to lean just a bit. We need this thing to aim West. Yeah. Yeah. Right over there. And, and I get it. And, and so here's this guy, he's like, Oh,

I'm making, you're making a deal with the devil. Oh yeah. Hey, everyone, as soon as you're handing it over to any military, I don't care how patriotic you are. The military wants to kill people with whatever you're making, you know, and you're thinking about getting into space. I get it. Yeah. You know, you know, same with the missiles, the World War II. Missiles got bombs from Germany to England. Yeah.

And people with more noble pursuits are like, but we could put humans into space and do research and further the species, you know? And the military's thinking, kill, kill, kill. Yeah, I don't care, right? We don't need to be up there. We have issues down here. Yeah, I don't need to take pictures up there. I want to kill people down here, right? So that's how it goes. But then Saddam Hussein and like, man, oh, man. So he must have been desperate. Yeah. And like, okay, well, I'm going to get this thing. But I mean, the construction was well underway of building this massive gun.

Can you imagine being this guy too, bull, and it comes to that where you're sitting in front of Saddam Hussein. You have this brilliant idea. Cross-legged on the floor while he's in a chair, by the way. Oh, I know. The descriptions were clear. Yeah. Like, have a seat. I don't see a chair here. Yeah, I know. Sit below me. Yeah, on the floor. Okay, go on. Sorry. You're fearing for your life from that point on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't know if you're going to get out of there. I don't like your idea off with your head.

Um, but, um, with all the powers in the world, that's where he ended up. Yeah. What a, what a horrible feeling just being on the plane heading to Iraq. It's come to this. You wonder too, like, uh, how many deals get made by governments with more money, say like the United States where you go like, Hey,

um, I'd prefer to sell to you. Yeah. But I got this guy, Saddam Hussein, you may have heard of him. Right. He's willing to buy. If you buy, I'll be with you and I'll have money to, to do this. It gotta be cocky. Oh my gosh. So I'm, I'm sure those deals are happening. Don't you think? Oh yeah. Yeah. But, um, yeah, Bull's fate was, uh,

was to die at the hands of this invention that he had, trying to sell it to all these different people, and then ended up obviously selling it to the wrong person. But if it wasn't... Which was it? Israel? Well, he was aiming at Israel. No, no, no. Who killed him? They suspect Israel. Never been confronted. But if it wasn't him, it could have been the USA. It could have been Russia. It could have been anybody trying to take this guy out. Right. They don't want Saddam with a weapon like that. Yeah. It would be the largest...

non-nuclear ordinance. And the concern was that Saddam was going to use those shells to carry chemical weapons. Right. Which is still against the Geneva Convention. Yeah. You know, but because he was dropping chemical weapons on his own people. Yeah, he doesn't seem to care. We already knew that. He wasn't playing against the rules. Right? He wasn't playing with the rules. But he had limitations. Imagine a cannon that could get it

hundreds of miles instead of, I'm like, forget it. So yes, no, I shot back at Vermont, right? Like, you know, um, so, so I get it. And this is such a complex story, but I got to believe there's others like it. We just don't know about. Oh, sure. I'm sure where someone invents something like with the best of intentions. Um, I remember it was like when I was a kid, my dad told me this story. We had a cousin. I don't remember who, and this could be like family folklore. They get spread around, but he said his cousin, keep in mind, we're all from Massachusetts. Um,

had developed a glass razor blade. It never goes dull. Okay. It would never dull. Yeah. You could use it forever. And you know who bought it? The patent from him? Shake. Gillette. Gillette, yeah. Yeah, Gillette. Squashed. To make sure it doesn't get made. I've heard of those stories before. However, I mean, if you're Gillette, you could say like, hey, Ray, if you go make the glass razor blade, you know who you're going to put out of business?

You. Yeah. Yourself. Right. Now, with the internet, it could be different. Right? Like, you could sell online because, like, if you sold locally, well, you only need one. Right. I mean, unless you drop and break it, I guess. Yeah. But for the most part, like, think how many razor blades you buy. Oh, absolutely. And they're so expensive. Yeah. So someone bought something just so it wouldn't get made. And when it comes to military weapons, I mean, people dream. Yeah.

And I'm sure a lot of those scientists aren't thinking like, how many people can I kill? They're thinking like, what can I do to better the earth? But how do I get the millions of dollars I need to develop this thing? Get to make it into a weapon. I got to be able to tell you how I can make it into a weapon. And it's horrible. I remember a story too. This was from the 1980s, the height of the Cold War, nuclear, you know, the movie The Day After was probably just on. So scary. We're all petrified that, you know, remember walking to the bus stop and you'd look in the sky thinking like, I'm going to see missiles coming down. Yeah.

It was a very frightening time. People that aren't of a certain age don't remember it, but there was a story about how some Soviet scientists had said, we could build a nuclear device, the biggest the world has ever seen, put it on a ship just offshore of Soviet Union and put Geiger counters on it. So if someone snuck an attack on us,

when the Geiger counters were triggered on this ship, it would detonate the explosives, which would blow up like half the Earth. Like literally vaporize half the planet and then kill the other half with fallout. And at first, like what a deterrent that would be, right? We've got this doomsday device. And if you mess with us, we'll kill ourselves and you. Yeah. Right? And I think finally, someone in the government was just like,

what if there's an accident? You know what I mean? Like, like what if I'm playing with my kids and like something just broke on the ship and it went off. Right. You know, so cooler heads, I think prevailed that, you know, a doomsday weapon could be doomed for you too. And so. I'm sure they're trying to, to make one right now where they don't have to worry, but.

anything could happen. Right. I mean, think like we have the capability to do incredibly destructive things, but we also have the ability to do amazing things, you know? And I, I, when I, when I really got into this story and was researching it, you're like, he got so close and you got to see the description. We will have it on our website, but the cannon was like half underground. Yeah. So 1500 feet, keep in mind, like the, the world trade center, the new one to the top of the spires, 1,776 feet. Hmm.

This cannon was most of that, you know, like most of the height of the Empire State Building would be this cannon that could arguably launch something, you know, into space. And it would be half underground. And that's why the ground rumbled like an earthquake. Right, right. Because it would boom, right? Yep. And then, oh my gosh, what an amazing idea. Yeah.

And all I'm left with now is going, could he have done it? Could he have done it? I'm sure he was thinking the same thing. And that's why. And suddenly he's in front of Saddam Hussein putting on the charm going, yeah, man, let me do this for you. But then the world will see, you know, I can launch satellites. And his name goes down in history. If you've got a strange tale you think we should check out, please email us anytime through our website. We love hearing from you and we love your ideas.

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