#11: Glowing Foxes for Nighttime Intimidation
This one begins with folklore rather than engineering. The wartime Office of Strategic Services studied Japanese stories involving kitsune, fox spirits that could carry supernatural associations, and wondered whether those beliefs could somehow be turned into psychological warfare. The resulting ideas, usually grouped under Project Fantasia, included making fox-shaped creatures or devices appear to glow at night. Historical accounts describe experiments with luminescent materials and even trials involving animals, while surviving OSS records also show discussions of eerie glowing balloons shaped like foxes, dragons, or demons.
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