It isn't clear how effective the technique was-the number of sinkings did drop sharply, but that may have been caused by other schemes adopted at the same time, such as grouping ships into large, guarded convoys. Over the course of the two World Wars, several thousand Allied ships were outfitted in dazzle camouflage. If there was time in the rush of war, a ship might be photographed in the harbor and out at sea to assess how well the designed pattern was followed and how effective it was at disguising the vessel's movements. Finally, the shapes were filled in with paint. Next, using the pattern plan as a guide, the outline of the camouflage was marked in chalk on the ship like a giant paint-by-numbers kit. After the pattern was approved, precise plans of the color scheme were drafted and sent to where the actual ship was docked. Designers studied the pair through periscopes to judge how well the camouflage worked and made adjustments as needed. Next, the dazzled model was placed next to a matching one painted plain gray and then the two were placed in front of various simulated backgrounds of water and sky. First, a wooden model of each ship was built to scale and then handed off to artists who designed and painted individualized patterns. The Navy called this disruptive camouflage razzle dazzle : odd, irregular patterns and colors that would confuse enemy gunners and throw off their aim by disguising the shape and motion of their ships.Īpplying the razzle dazzle idea took a lot more than handing sailors buckets of paint and letting them have it. But then the British had a startling idea-if they can't hide them, why not make the ships stand out instead? They decided to paint them in contrasting colors and random patterns, like zebras and giraffes, animals that are easy to spot but hard to track because the patterns they wear break up their outline. Although the military was very good at camouflaging troops and tanks on land, ships couldn't be painted to blend into the background because the colors of the sea and the sky are always changing. There was little that surface boats could do to hide from submarines. Submariners would sneak up on a moving ship, watch it just long enough to figure out its speed and direction, and then fire torpedoes into the ship's path. ![]() In the early days of World War I, German submarines devastated the British and American fleets. (Figure 1.2) Gazelles and whales have counter-shaded sides that flatten and minimize rounded shapes, as do color-blocked dresses. (Figure 1.1) Moths and caterpillars are shaped like leaves and twigs to fool predators, while cell phone towers are built like trees to hide their industrial clutter from neighbors. Zebras have wild stripes that disrupt their outlines especially when they move in groups, and so did dazzle-painted warships in World War I. Octopi and lizards match the color and texture of their skins with nearby rocks and vegetation to blend into the background, and manmade hunting gear is painted or woven to do the same thing. There are many different methods of camouflage. More recently, camouflage techniques have also been applied to fashion, architecture, and industrial design. Humans have long mimicked natural camouflage techniques in hunting and warfare. Animals use camouflage to help them eat and avoid being eaten. One of the oldest and most widespread examples of biomimicry is camouflage-the use of objects, colors, or illumination to conceal or confuse an observer. ![]() It can also be extremely complex, as in engineering filtering systems that pull salt out of seawater based on the chemical and mechanical reactions that operate across cell membranes. It can be as simple as merely copying a shape, such as building fan blades that look and perform much like whale flippers. ![]() Biomimicry views the natural world as a vast laboratory filled with completed experiments that can be adapted to make human activities more efficient. The stunning diversity of microbes, animals, and plants means that for every problem, nature has already produced many solutions. Through billions of years of evolution, organisms have faced and met the challenges of living on earth, over and over again. It means, "imitation of life," and describes the practice of adopting natural structures and strategies to solve human problems. Biomimicry is a fairly new word for an ancient practice.
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