Mine Warfare Technology
The history of mine warfare in the United States dates back to the Revolutionary War and David Bushnell, inventor of the first practical submarine. Bushnell created crude mines by packing gunpowder into butter churns and beer kegs and setting them afloat in the Delaware River to drift down onto the British fleet at Philadelphia. One exhibit is an exact scale replica of one of Bushnell's keg mines.
The exhibit traces the history of mine warfare from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War with a Confederate mine captured at the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay. The exhibit interprets and provides examples of mines used during World War I and II, the Vietnam conflict, and modern operations.
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