Wire Gremlin – [Aviation Gremlin]

Description

Wire Gremlins – [Aviation Gremlin] – (Latin: Tangleprop Gremlinicus)

• About this Gremlin: These tiny-bee-winged gremlins buzz in the low altitude near the telephone & power cables surrounding air fields. They love to cause wires to wiggle rapidly to the point where the wires become invisible & then tangled in the wind; Often resulting in pilots coming in for an unsure landing or causing them to lift up at the very last moment! They wear rubber outfits hats and gloves so that they conduct the electricity just so! (Shockingly delicious!) … As these gremlins grow older, they tend to take to the army bases, where instead they would tangle up computer cords into “jungles.” these are tangled so badly that Newbie Air force recruits & engineers often have to go ‘safari’ to attempt to untangle ’em! Wire gremlins are also known to sometimes camouflage live wires so that workers cannot see them. (a danger to all involved!) They are also said to have something to do with the hum heard through cross wired communications (Though not to a point as to out shine the work of the Radio Gremlins & Grohms.) Smart Captains would tell younger troops not to have anything to do with ’em at all if possible.

• History: This instance of ‘Wire Gremlins’ where earliest illustrated by Eric Solane in his Gremlin Americanus [1942] The entry about it with correspondence from The Spartan school of Aeronautics Tulsa, Oklahoma.” goes as follows:

“Wire Gremlins... Perhaps you have noticed that all airports are fields surrounded by high tension and telephone wires. this was all cleverly arranged by the wire gremlins. even where wires are low enough the gremlins sit around and wait until the pilot thinks he is clearing them successfully, then they wiggle the wires blurring them so that the pilot cannot see them causing him to zoom up in fright. this tickles the wire gremlins so much that they often become overwrought with mirth and snap the wires in their frenzy of laughter.

Wire gremlins sometimes camouflage wires so that pilots cannot see them. On any windy day you can hear the wire gremlin humming as he sits astride the wires, waiting for another moment of mischief.

Dear Eric – One of the gremlins we know best is the Wire Gremlin. I have seen them at work and we teach our students not to have anything to do with them. I hope you will pass the warning on to your fans. – Sincerely, Capt Maxwell Balfour Spartan school of Aeronautics Tulsa, Oklahoma.”

• About the Correspondence: According to the Dmairfeilds website: In 1941, Captain Maxwell W Balfour (1895-1977) became the vice president of the Spartan Aircraft Company in Tulsa, OK. – Maxwells name & face appears widely in recruitment advertisements for the airbase widely across various flying & aviation magazines.

• Other ‘Wire’ Gremlins: Gremlins that “mess with wires of machinery” have also been more recently been described by the folks at NASA! Apparently they have a “Midnight Patcher” who would ‘fix &/or break’ things over night! Often causing “Gremlinity!” – [As described by nasa engineer “Bob Kempel” in “Black Magic and Gremlins: Analog Flight Simulations At NASA’s Flight Research Center” [Gene L Waltman, 2000] – [see also “The Midnight Patcher” on p 20.]

…however, take caution dear reader! – These ‘buggie-boys’ in particular should certainly not be conflated with those such as the Aussie; “Wire-chewer-upper” or the ‘Alieron-Gremlins” (which are particular to bite the wires in a planes breaks) Nor the ‘cord-playing’ “Saw-Tooth Gremlin” (or for that matter, the fiddling “Yehudi”) each variation presents their own unique ‘wire related’ mishaps, pranks and plane issues to the Aviators, and of course, there’s always the chance of micro-folklore causing further distinctions. Thus these should not be overly confused!

I digress… A tangled cord can be dangerous in any sense! in my mind, This type of gremlin more or less is a reminder to try and organize your cables!! (important to be functional & safe in times of war and otherwise!)

[Art Sticker by @samkalensky part of my Gremlinology series of stickers!]