Slashdot reports that students from MIT have stolen the Cal Tech Cannon.

The kids who did this better be careful that they don’t brag too loudly about their hack. When I was at Auburn there was a fraternity on College street with a large Confederate era cannon on its front lawn. Some friends and I thought it would be hugely funny to sneak over the night before their formal ball and paint the thing pink. Fortunately, someone did some checking and discovered that the cannon was on the national historic register, and that messing with it would be a federal crime. So instead we painted their front door pink. Windows and all. But MIT students would do their homework and know whether the object of their larceny was federally protected, wouldn’t they, Adam?

Stealing the cannon is the best college hack since some students at Rice rotated the statue of William Marsh Rice:

In 1988, a group of students pulled off the biggest prank at Rice. They rotated the 2,000 pound statue of William Marsh Rice 180 degrees, making Willy face Fondren Library for the first time in 58 years.

“We were sitting in the pub drinking beer, and we decided something had to be done,” says John Q. Smith ‘86, who helped mastermind the operation. After two futile attempts, the pranksters decided the third time had to be the charm.

Three electrical engineers, two mechanical engineers, a civil engineer, a mathematical scientist, a biochemist, a chemist, a physicist and an English major put their brains and brawn together to carry out the elaborate scheme.

Using plans of the statue taken from Fondren Li-brary, they simulated the transfer load through a computer model. They built two 24- foot A-frames, which they painted black to blend with the night, and put a beam on top that supported a three ton hoist in the middle and two one ton hoists on the sides. The A-frames were tested at an off-campus garage by lifting a 2,250-pound Toyota that was swung back and forth to simulate rotation. A pair of Houston police officers looked on after being told the car hoisting was “a senior research project. ”

These same police officers stopped the students as they were hauling the A-frames back to campus. Convinced it was only a school project, the officers gave the students a police escort to Entrance 8. Lookouts and decoys positioned themselves around the Quad and communicated to each other through walkie-talkies using code names from the X-Men comic book series. The light on Anderson Hall had been turned off every night for the two previous weeks. Each morning the pranksters reconnected the light so that physical plant people would not replace it.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Apri112, 1988, before the sun came up, Willy sat facing the library. Only one student was caught, Patrick Dyson ‘88, and was made to pay the cost of turning the statue to its rightful position.

Students rallied behind Dyson and sold T -shirts that read, “Where There’s A Willy, There’s a Way. ” More than enough money was collected to pay the cost of restoring Willy to his familiar perspective. What took the pranksters one hour and cost $400 to do took professional movers three hours and a rumored $1,500-$2,000 to remedy. The students were blamed for breaking a guide pin underneath the statue, but they claim the professional movers did that.

Reports of the prank quickly spread across the country with the help of the media. “People are going to have a hard time beating this one,” comments a contented Smith.

Well, maybe. But Rice students don’t have excellent minds for nothing and they know quite well that a masterminded prank is a terrible thing to waste.

(The mathematician was obviously along just for muscle and the English major to provide moral support.)

That account of the hack, quoted from a now-defunct web site, is in line with versions of the tale I was told by people who went to Rice at the time. I heard that several people were caught, but who knows? Why was anyone caught? Bragging. The tale that I heard goes on to say that the student(s) caught were suspended from school in a manner that effectively canceled their scholarships, which, Rice being an exclusive and expensive school, effectively expelled them. The Rice student body, having a good sense of humor, appreciating the elegance of the hack, and believing that the administration had overreacted, went on strike for a few days, an act that was not impeded by the beautiful Spring weather. The administration relented and restored the guilty to full status, but made them pay the cost of turning the statue back around.

Oh, by the way, I didn’t actually paint anyone’s door pink, or any other color, while at Auburn. That was a complete lie. But you believed it… didn’t you?

Update: A Slashdot post claims that this cannon is not the Cal Tech cannon, but a different of artillery. If that’s true, then this becomes more of a mental hack like this beauty. Either way, I still think it’s a great hack. In a way, the second form of the hack is even better, because it gets everybody talking, doesn’t involve complicated logistics (the actual Cal Tech cannon has been locked down because of an earlier theft), and still pisses off the opposition.

Update: I’m not sure that Slashdot poster knew what he was talking about. Yes, this is the Fleming House cannon, but given all the fuss the Caltech alum made in 1986, it would seem that this is also THE Caltech cannon. (Or a very good replica - who knows?) It will be fun to see how this story plays out!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.