Geoffrey Nathaniel Joseph Pyke (9 November 1893 – 22 February 1948) was an English journalist; an educationalist and later an inventor whose clever, but unorthodox, ideas could be difficult to implement. In lifestyle and appearance, he fitted the common stereotype of a scientist-engineer-inventor or in British slang, a "boffin". Pyke is particularly known for his innovative proposals for weapons of war, most especially the material pykrete and th...
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Geoffrey Nathaniel Joseph Pyke (9 November 1893 – 22 February 1948) was an English journalist; an educationalist and later an inventor whose clever, but unorthodox, ideas could be difficult to implement. In lifestyle and appearance, he fitted the common stereotype of a scientist-engineer-inventor or in British slang, a "boffin". Pyke is particularly known for his innovative proposals for weapons of war, most especially the material pykrete and the proposed construction of the ship Habakkuk from it.
Pyke's father, Lionel Edward Pyke, was a Jewish lawyer who died when he was only five years old, leaving his family with no money. His mother quarrelled with relatives and made life "hell" for her children. She sent Pyke to Wellington, then a typical public school mainly for the sons of Army officers; there Pyke maintained the dress and habits of an Orthodox Jew. The persecution of which he was a victim instilled him with a hatred of and contempt for the establishment. After two years at...
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