Lytle Adams: The Dentist Who Dreamed of Bat Bombs and Chicken Machines

By Dr. Keith Gressell

Back by unpopular demand – Famous or Infamous! Yes, loyal readers. After a newsletter or two of keeping my creative mind locked up, in my proverbial Fortress of Solitude, I am back with a story from our dental past. Let’s determine if they are famous or infamous!

Meet Dr. Lytle S. Adams, the Pennsylvania dentist whose wild imagination turned cavities into chaos and bats into bombs! As a dentist from Pennsylvania myself, bizarre Pennsylvania dentists are very common. But Dr. Adams is one of the quirkiest out there. This toothy innovator, born in 1883, was known for both drilling molars and cooking up wacky ideas. Buckle up for a peek at the wackiest works of this dental dynamo!

As he sculpted crowns and bridges from his dental chair, Lytle thought up a wild plan to strap tiny incendiary bombs to bats. Dubbed the “bat bomb,” Lytle came up with this idea after witnessing millions of bats at the Carlsbad Caverns and hearing about Pearl Harbor on his drive home.

At Carlsbad Army Air Corps Base in New Mexico, the military fitted bats with lightweight, timed incendiaries, some designed by Adams himself. In one test, the bats worked as hoped, but in another, oops! Armed bats flew off and accidentally burnt a hangar, a general’s car, and part of the base in 1943. The bats proved more dangerous to the U.S. than it was worth. Despite this, the idea showed promise, bats could carry loads, scatter widely, and start fires.

However, the U.S. never used them in war. By 1944, the project faded as bats were tricky to control, and the logistics confused planners. The Navy took over and their focus shifted to new ideas. The “bat bomb” cost about $2 million (roughly $30 million today), leaving Lytle’s idea a hilarious footnote in military history.

Not one to stop at flaming fiascoes, Lytle also invented the nonstop airmail pickup system. Think of planes catching mailbags mid-flight like a carnival game. Then he envisioned the fried chicken dispensing machine—yes, an invention to vend crispy drumsticks. Unfortunately, both inventions were unsuccessful. But imagine the chaos of bats dropping bombs, planes snagging mail, and chickens flying into hungry hands!

Dr. Lytle S. Adams proved you don’t need a lab coat to dream big—just a drill and a dash of daring. So now you decide… famous or infamous?