A smashing good time

“Beef stew’s done, Ma—that just took it right off the stove,” onlooker Wendell Porter, a University of Florida construction specialist, bellows after a 90-pound two-by-four drills its way through a target wall.

“If that had been your kitchen wall, you can forget about dinner.”

MORE AFTER PHOTO (click here for high resolution) Simply Smashing

In this photo released from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Kurt Gurley, an assistant professor of civil engineering, left, uses an air cannon to fire two-by-fours at a mock wall target.

Armed with a radar gun, graduate student Johann Weekes, right, times the projectiles at nearly 90 miles an hour. At that speed, the wood slices directly through the type of wall typically built before the current hurricane building standards. The demonstration was hosted by Porter, not shown, as part of the IFAS Extension Symposium on UF’s main campus in Gainesville – Tuesday, May. 8, 2007.

Photo by Thomas Wright

 

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