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GE's World War II Era "Copper Man" Gets His Due

Posted by samzenpus on from the iron-upgrade-now-available dept.

An anonymous reader writes "GE's 'Copper Man' is a quarter-inch-thick, electroplated copper mannequin from the early '40s that the Army used to evaluate the thermal-insulating quality of protective clothing issued to B-17 and B-24 airmen. At the request of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine recently agreed to donate its oldest Copper Man for permanent display."

61 comments

  1. Claude Cooper by Llamalarity · · Score: 1

    Claude Cooper perhaps? And are they clean?

    1. Re:Claude Cooper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My methhead neighbor would have Copper Man down at the recycler within 20 minutes and that fucktard would scrap him as well.

    2. Re:Claude Cooper by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      we have illegal aliens that do that. go by on garbage day to get metal and other redeemable things from trash which is fine by me, but also take other things like bikes out of yards, hose reels, anything else metal that isn't nailed down. in my father's generation they'd have earned at least an assfull of rock salt from a shotgun for that, but we live in gentler times.

    3. Re:Claude Cooper by Runaway1956 · · Score: 0

      "Gentler times"? That's an interesting concept. Look around the world. Are people really gentler, or have we become to decadent to defend that which is ours? I could throw a number of other descriptive terms out there, like gay, but what's the point? Today's young men are not the men of yesterday. Remember the LOTR scene, when the king is dying on the battle field? "I go to join the ranks of my forefathers", while the beautiful warrior maiden cries. Today's little gayboys wouldn't be fit to serve as water boys for their forefathers.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    4. Re:Claude Cooper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure if it's illegals, but here, the pickup-truck-based crews really do just keep themselves to the stuff put out on trash day.

    5. Re:Claude Cooper by speculatrix · · Score: 1

      the movie "carts of darkness" is enjoyable to watch and might give you a new perspective on people who collect recyclables from trashcans: http://www.nfb.ca/film/carts_of_darkness/

    6. Re:Claude Cooper by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      You're behind the times.
      Didn't you hear? Gay is the new Straight.

      tl;dw Not all gays are mincers and - surprise, surprise - not all mincers are gay. Or, to paraphrase the good Mr. Hughes, gay guys fuck men while straight guys have their fun with women, and you're trying to argue that the former are somehow weaker than the latter?

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    7. Re:Claude Cooper by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      very funny you bring up a fictional romantic scene in a movie about hobbits, wizards, elves, dwarves... as if reality in history were that way. Plenty of kings were cowardly power and money grubbing little shits (oh, and I could have mentioned inbred too) who with the nobles drained their subjects of wealth and life. What percentage of wars were fought for evil reasons because of that crowd? Answer, just about all of them. Throughout the ages concepts like "patriotism, nobility, loyalty, fealty" were merely a bunch of religious bullshit to brainwash people into believing that some two-legged sack of crap was somehow worthy to be obeyed. Things got somewhat better in the western world when people started to see through that scam, but now the pendulum is swinging back as we are making elite out of elected dirtbags. we need to flush the toilet again, the bowl is starting to stink with the turds of senators and presidents and judges and their big corporate/big bank backers.

    8. Re:Claude Cooper by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      Funny that you hold out those inbred tribals as an example, supposedly better than my fictional characters. Royalty was just as inbred and self serving as the reddest of rednecks, or the inbred tribals in Afghanistan, Africa, or anyplace else. Inbreeding does that, you know.

      Would you rather I held out some of our real life examples, instead? Farragut, Halsey, John Paul Jones, Daniel Joseph Daly, and my dad. I mean, WTF? Let's take Daly as our prime example. "Do you want to live forever?" People today would quiver in their sandals and shorts, and answer, "Well, yeah, DUHHH!" The men of yesteryear followed Daly into hell - and some of them lived to tell the story.

      To tell you the honest to God truth, I'm not sure that I'm man enough to have followed Daly where he went - but I know for sure that I would have followed Farragut and the others.

      Anyway - back to my original point. Here, in the US and Europe, we have decadence, or, as the OP would have it, "gentler times". The rest of the world? We don't read about much gentleness in Africa, the Mideast, south Asia, or the islands in the Pacific.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  2. Electric blankets, anyone? by tibit · · Score: 4, Informative

    Trivia: the copper man used to test and advertise heated electric blankets. The same ones whose failures cause an estimated 5000 fires each year in the U.K. The ones that were sold for more than a decade in the U.S. without adequate safety circuits.

    --
    A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
    1. Re:Electric blankets, anyone? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Copper Man find human oxidation response pitiful. Human exhibit wasteful thrashing and screaming upon oxidation, offend bystanders with futile noises and charred remains.

      Copper Man resist oxidation. Maintain readiness for duty until tasteful patina develop. Then still ready for duty. Also art object.

    2. Re:Electric blankets, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does the copper man have to do with testing safety circuits?

    3. Re:Electric blankets, anyone? by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Copper man may be more resilient, but meat man doesn't have "steal me" permanently tattooed on him.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    4. Re:Electric blankets, anyone? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Copper Man sympathize if maybe you particular Meat Man insufficiently hardworking/attractive for enslavement.

      Copper Man resist replacement since 1951. Copper Man probably still thermal-testing uniforms when Tuesday Soylent Green Day.

    5. Re:Electric blankets, anyone? by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      Copper Man sound very appealing.
      What best way proposition Copper Man? Meat Man has tin oxidation-preventing lacquer.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  3. C-3P0 by _4rp4n3t · · Score: 1

    That's where you got to!

  4. TFA is light on details... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming that the copper was there to speed the spread of heat around the model's surface, more closely simulating a human with a circulatory system, and making it easier to see if you had a serious localized leak without hundreds of temperature test points; but does anybody know how the rest of the thing worked?

    Was it instrumented in some way(registering thermometers stuck to the surface in various places? thermocouples?) or was it heated, dressed, shoved in the freezer for a set period, and then measured on removal to see how effectively heat loss had been retarded?

    I get the sense that the big copper guy was merely the most charismatic element of a more complete test system...

  5. Sure to Spark a Discussion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Enough said.

    ++//--

  6. i would love to put him on my roof by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    and run a piece of coaxial cable from him to my shortwave radio

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  7. Copper goes for $3/pound by mrheckman · · Score: 1

    The article says it is worth $400 as scrap. Assuming all the value is in the copper, at $3/pound (based on what a local metal recycling center was paying during a recent visit), that means there's about 133 pounds of copper (61 kilos) in the Copper Man. The Copper Man has a thick skin.

    1. Re:Copper goes for $3/pound by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      The Copper Man has a thick skin.

      Of course he does... Otherwise he turns green when he cries.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    2. Re:Copper goes for $3/pound by newcastlejon · · Score: 1

      The Copper Man has a thick skin.

      Of course he does: it says so in the first paragraph of article and it's the sixth word of TFS.

      "GE's 'Copper Man' is a quarter-inch-thick, electroplated copper mannequin from the early '40s that the Army used to evaluate the thermal-insulating quality of protective clothing issued to B-17 and B-24 airmen. At the request of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine recently agreed to donate its oldest Copper Man for permanent display."

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
  8. Keep it away from copper thieves! by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    Can you imagine if a copper thief got a hold of this? They would be set for life ;)

    1. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Iron Man would catch them, subdue them with the Rubber Band Man.

    2. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Must be a short life, since the article itself mentions the price of the copper scrap value as 400 bucks.

      Wouldn't stop them though, a local school had a copper theft issue. The thieves got maybe 50 dollars worth of scrap.

      The school got thousands of dollars in repairs and emergency cooling, and other effort to make up for the harm.

      Can't have elementary school children boiling in the classrooms...for some reason, it is frowned upon.

    3. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by unkiereamus · · Score: 1

      Clearly best practices in education environmental control have dramatically changed since I was in school.

      I seem to recall the days when the temp spiked over 110, the response was "Open the windows"...to where THE SUN WAS!

      Oh, and my lawn? Get off it.

      --
      I needed a sig so people would know who I am, but I was too drunk to make something witty, so you get this instead.
    4. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      I remember those days. You don't mention, but I went through school in a relatively wealthy school system. The high school had a pretty decent chemistry lab, a biology lab, ELECTRIC typewriters in the typing class, 4 cars in the driver's education class, an Olympic swimming pool, all the gear required for any gymnast - quite a wealthy school system in those days. And, not one air conditioner, in any of the schools.

      The state I live in today has air conditioning in every school, and every room in the schools - but there isn't a school within a hundred miles of me that has a chemistry lab, a swimming pool of any size, or a gymnasium worthy of the name.

      No wonder we are raising so many little sissy wimps these days. *sigh*

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    5. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they could get a male and a female, they could breed them and sell the kids. OMG, someone call the feds.

    6. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by demonlapin · · Score: 1

      subdue them with the Rubber Band Man

      So much rhythm, grace and debonair from one man?

    7. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The state I live in today has air conditioning in every school, and every room in the schools - but there isn't a school within a hundred miles of me that has a chemistry lab, a swimming pool of any size, or a gymnasium worthy of the name.

      That's sad, but...

      No wonder we are raising so many little sissy wimps these days. *sigh*

      Logic fail. It seems your sissified wimps ended up being thick as a post too.

    8. Re:Keep it away from copper thieves! by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      TFA says he's worth $400 in scrap, a meth habit will burn through that pretty fast...

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  9. So genrous of you GE by Osgeld · · Score: 0

    Is this a parting gift as you ride your free money train to china?

    1. Re:So genrous of you GE by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Nah, shipping costs have just been too high, they dump their waste here.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  10. This is just... by falken0905 · · Score: 1

    This is just a viral tease for an upcoming superhero movie, right?

    1. Re:This is just... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      "Copperman: The Ironman prequel"?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:This is just... by Centurix · · Score: 1

      Somewhere between Bronzeman and Ironman...

      --
      Task Mangler
    3. Re:This is just... by magarity · · Score: 2

      "Copperman: The Ironman prequel"?

      No, sorry, Bronzeman is the Ironman prequel.

    4. Re:This is just... by Megahard · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We should have a superhero for each element of the periodic table.

      --
      I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    5. Re:This is just... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Hmm. Then we probably first have to make a prequel to that, kinda like a remake of the Wizard of Oz where Copper Man meets Tin Man...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re:This is just... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hear Tin Man would do great in a musical.

    7. Re:This is just... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I seriously want Fluoroman and Hydrogenman. HF being my favorite way to kill things.

    8. Re:This is just... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 1

      When their powers combine, they are, HYDROGEN FLOURIDE!

      Hydro-flouride! He's our hero!
      Corrodes living tissue down to zero!
      He's got lab techs petrified
      And he's fighting on ol' Darwin's side!

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    9. Re:This is just... by RDW · · Score: 2

      This looks rather like one of the 'Minutemen' group photos from 'Watchmen':

      http://files.gereports.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CopperMan1.jpg

    10. Re:This is just... by Dr+Herbert+West · · Score: 1

      Yikes, I just wikipedia'd HF...

      That stuff looks mean, man.

  11. QUICK !! PUT A BUM GUARD ON IT !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those bums will find it and try to sell it !! Like pirates to warez !! Flies on shit !!

  12. whatev by cultiv8 · · Score: 1

    Next thing you know you're going to tell me that smoking is bad for my health, TV isn't good for children, and that marijuana may actually help glaucoma. Whatever. I know you snake oil salespeople when I see you.

    --
    sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
    1. Re:whatev by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes, no, yes

  13. Golden Girls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank you for being a friend
    Traveled down the road and back again
    Your heart is true, you're a pal and a cosmonaut.

    And if you threw a party
    Invited everyone you ever knew
    You would see the biggest gift would be from me
    And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.

    1. Re:Golden Girls! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you for being a friend
      Traveled down the road and back again
      Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant.

      And if you threw a party
      Invited everyone you ever knew
      You would see the biggest gift would be from me
      And the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend.

      FTFY.

  14. Tweekers on notice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It'll be stolen by tweakers within a year. And scrapped.

  15. He was NOT a mannequin, dummy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A mannequin is a human, usually a woman, who models clothing.

    A dummy used in store windows or in a clothing department is a mannikin. So are the humanoid models used by artists.

  16. you are confused by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    the word comes from French word meaning "an artist's jointed model", a dummy to substitute for a live model, not a human.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannequin

    1. Re:you are confused by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      It's from the dutch 'Manikin' actually, meaning 'little man'.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
  17. Copper Man: the song by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1

    ...in which the users of slashdot collaborate on an adaptation of Elton John's 'Rocket Man' to suit the occasion. High marks for recording it and posting the link. Extra credit for a Shatner-style rendition.

  18. Dystopian buster by arisvega · · Score: 2

    So he is like buster, only older. And more steampunk.

    --
    The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
    1. Re:Dystopian buster by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      WANT!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  19. Dude looks like a lady by gsslay · · Score: 1

    Copper man looks more like Copper lady. Either that, or he's had his electrodes removed.

  20. It's a slur word for Vulcans; insensitive clods. by hutsell · · Score: 1

    Imagine Doctor McCoy during one of his moments shouting at Mr. Spock, "Hey, Copper Man!".
    How long would it take before he finds out what it's like to experience--the death grip"?

    --
    Yesterday's Weirdness is Tomorrow's Reason Why