Ultimate Snow Blower
Shortly after the 300-foot telescope was built in Green Bank, its capacity for collecting snow became legendary. How to remove 2 acres of snow? Tipping the dish sometimes worked, but ice still got trapped in the mesh surface. Lighting fires underneath helped, but the melt soon put out those fires. Then an idea for a snow blower, way before its time, was imagined, and staff got hold of a surplus Rolls-Royce jet engine. A few times in the winter of 1963, this engine was aimed at the dish and snow blown away. However, it was too loud and costly to run, and eventually was no longer used.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
