Interesting science related topics.Accounts of a Victorian sociopath, the experimentalist Ernest Glitch.
Projects, inventions & observations
pertaining to science & engineering.
Victorian 3D PrinterA computer controlled additive manufacturing machine was invented in 1857
The Artificial GoatA Victorian water-powered autonomous lawnmower
SWAN open source AAC
SWAN enables severely disabled folk to communicate their needs and thoughts to their friends, family and carers.
Beautiful Bright Red Pyrrhotite Crystal - TeesdaleA microscopic crystal found within a millerite bearing ironstone concretion, from the namurian shales exposed at Coldberry Gutter. All that glitters....
Victorian Production of One Ounce of Nitrogen Trichloride A Discourse Relating to the Economical Production of the Most Dangerously Explosive Substance Known, Using Only Natural Minerals & Human Gastric Juice. The first chapter of "The Ernest Glitch Chronicles" - 
The Ernest Glitch Chronicles
A Novel by Roger Curry
Search for Ernest Glitch on your Kindle, or visit Amazon -UK here, USA here
A Novel by Roger Curry
Search for Ernest Glitch on your Kindle, or visit Amazon -UK here, USA here
"...but if I did press hard upon it with my Finger, at the very instant that I drew it briskly off, it would disclose a very Vivid but exceeding short Liv'd Splendour, not to call it a little Coruscation."
Local Pub Hosts Royal Society of Chemistry Soirée
Scottish Nitroglycerin & One Legged Stools
This wonderful book was published in 1854 and within its 384 pages are Gems of Victorian Science. It`s unpromising, mildly suggestive title belies a veritable cornucopia of experiments
A tornado was witnessed whilst investigating the magnetic nature of an outcrop of the Cleveland Dyke in upper Teesdale. Sunday 5th August 2012 - 4.46pm.
Alston Gold
Chemistry Course Bound to Maim or Kill
North Pennines Lead Mining - Britannica Eighth Edition 1853-1860
Mr. Thompson Draws 14 Inch Sparks From a Newcastle Chimney
LOCOMOTION No.1 - Historic Steam Engine & Public House. 1825 - 2014At the very spot in County Durham, England, where Geordie Stevenson started the global rail network in 1825, there's now a lively pub, The "Loco"
Some excerpts from The Young Man's Book of Amusement, including "To Recover a Fly after being drowned several hours."
Heath Barnes discovers Auroch skulls & magnetic igneous rock in Cleveland
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| Buy it for the Kindle (or PC, ipad, smart phone with free reader) UK (77p) here, USA (99 cents) here |
The Ernest Glitch Chronicles. A Novel by Roger Curry
STEAMPUNK SCIENCE &
MATTER ANNIHILATION
Anarchic Experimental Science in
Victorian Weardale &
Event Horizon Powered Lotus
Ernest Glitch. Wealthy Victorian experimentalist, armaments mogul, aficionado of intoxication and big game hunting. His mansion in Weardale, England, had laboratory facilities second to none in the mid eighteen hundreds. In them Glitch, with his assistant Hodges, performed scientific experimentation of a most eclectic nature, and always with concentrated disregard to safety issues.
An eccentric and volatile person, his pursuit of knowledge was accompanied by the sort of hedonism only the very rich can enjoy. The results of experiments he and his assistant Hodges undertook were never published. As he kept no log-book, the main record of the discoveries they made are the letters he wrote to Michael Faraday.
In this book, those letters are presented, together with contemporary reports, a journal Glitch made of his expedition to Africa, and several narratives of his life. Also, reference is made to both his ancestors and, in detail, his descendants. This novel has two threads. One details the horrific experiments performed by Victorian Ernest Glitch and his assistant Hodges. The other is set in the near future, where Glitch and Hodges' descendants wreak havoc, with a device capable of generating enormous power from the annihilation of nuclear waste.
More Information & Sample Chapters here
WARNING - Contains very strong language. The letters and accounts of the work of Ernest Glitch are of an appalling nature in parts, containing references to animal and human experimentation, extreme violence, Victorian drug abuse, and complete disregard for the dignity of native peoples. 135 thousand words. Buy it for the Kindle - UK (77p) here, USA (99 cents) here
The LOLA Simulator was an Apollo project which was of no practical use
Experiments with leyden jars charged to high voltages &
lethality upon their application to hens, turkeys & humans.
In 1836, Mr. Andrew Crosse was conducting his electrocrystallisation experiments when he saw something moving. Soon his apparatus was crawling with "Acarus Crossii."
Becquerel & Crosse created mineral crystals by the application of small electrical currents over long periods.
3.1 kiloton nuclear bomb detonated to melt salt
A wafer of sapphire is coated with a 1µm layer of yttrium barium copper oxide and cooled in liquid nitrogen.
Armstrong Maneuvering the Eagle
Excellent presentation shows how hard Armstrong maneuvers with virtually no fuel left
Is Alcohol Food?
Excellent presentation shows how hard Armstrong maneuvers with virtually no fuel left
This brilliant Swedish chemist came very close to a nasty end
Fluorite
The flats of the Boltsburn Mine, under Rookhope in the North Pennines, produced the best crystallised fluorite in Britain. Here are two accounts of the mineralisation, one from 1904, the other 1926
From Lateral Science website 2002 - 2012
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Cancer Research UK's work has saved thousands of lives, but there is still a long way to go. The research is entirely funded by the public, so please donate online today and help beat cancer.
Thomas Alva Edison, you stand accused of the supply of poisons and dangerous drugs for human consumption. Namely Heroin, Strychnine and Opium
"The earth will swell up and burst, and flames will issue out"
Ozone liquifies as an explosive indigo-blue liquid & solidifies as violet crystals
A letter from Glitch to Faraday, dated June 1856, would appear to indicate the observation of laser action in air, more than a century before Maiman first demonstrated his ruby laser.
Pics & vids from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, International Space Station, Apollo 11, Voyager 1, Spirit Mars Rover, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter & Beagle 2.
Smithell`s cold flame, phosphoretted hydrogen & will o` the wisp, phosphorus agriculture - farming for bones
One thousand shots per minute, using 900psi steam.
Two sensitive high-explosive liquids & fearless scientists with missing body parts
"..some of us now present may yet live to eat with forks & spoons composed of aluminum....,
possibly while seated upon aluminum chairs.." 1854
500kV and 200uA from this four foot high electrostatic generator.
Busty seam coal & laughing gas propels scientific probe into space, successfully launched 24th July 1863 from Weardale, returning 30th June 1908 over Siberia
The Spinthariscope - Crookes` Turbulent Luminous Sea
Darwin`s observations from South America 1832
A letter from Ernest Glitch (son of Mad Judge Glitch) to Michael Faraday appears to note the crystallisation of C60 some 150 years before Kroto.
How can one be without this essential life-skill?
Apparatus to render visible the tracks of swift electrified particles such as californium fission fragments
An Early Light Emitting Diode.
Fluorine is the most reactive element. It's isolation proved to be one of the most difficult problems in chemistry. Horrendously poisonous, devilishly corrosive, many 19th century chemists were killed or mauled by the tiger.
The "chemical garden"
An account of the use of hypergolic propellants and deLaval nozzles in 1856.
Also the profuse growth of snow-white hair is induced
A monograph by Henry Smith Williams. "You forget, sir, I have been only five hundred years in your service."
A letter from Glitch to Michael Faraday appears to note the discovery of Germanium some 30 years before Winkler. The main body of the correspondence concerns a lightning machine.
Twenty Six Articles Concerning Electricity, by John Munro 1915
A complete book on-line : Getting Gold, A Practical Treatise for Prospectors, Miners, & Students. J.C.F. Johnson 1898.
Mr. Medor of Santa Cruz has extensive ferrous sulphate deposits in his gulch.
"Nothing Exists But Thoughts!" A quote from Davy, off his head on 57 liters of nitrous oxide, in an attempt "to produce excitement equal in duration and superior in intensity to that occasioned by high intoxication from opium or alcohol."
Manned Flight achieved long before the Wright Bros., using Multiple Valve-less Pulse Jets
Early documentation of these unusual luminous electrical discharges, which dart from thunderclouds up towards space. Chapter 7 of "Rudimentary Electricity" by Sir W. Snow Harris, third edition 1853.
part two of 19th Century Jet-Powered Flying Machine in Weardale, plus The Steam-Powered Rope-Engine - Mad Judge Glitch`s Power-Gallows - An account of the first test of this capital punishment machine.
Unbelievably dangerous magic tricks for the magician with a death wish, from 1948
"A whirling cloud of brilliant yellow light"
A Belgian man in a pith helmet irradiates his gonads with seven tons of uranium ore
An interesting experiment using atmospheric diffusion
E. Glitch bombards diamonds with high energy particles to produce coloured 'fancy' stones. His equipment, mentioned in a letter to M. Faraday, pre-dates that of Lawrence by some 73 years
In 1926 Langmuir invented this electrical dissociation blowtorch, capable of attaining 3700 degrees C. Melt tungsten, vapourise diamond!
Using high-voltage discharges to produce sound from living human flesh
Some interesting articles from American Mineralogist.
"The result of our experiment proved that there were in reality new radioactive elements in pitchblende, but that their proportion did not reach even a millionth per cent!" - Marie Curie
An ingenious, if hazardous, method of producing goldware for chemical research.
Upper Weardale was impacted by several projectiles in late 1857, in Glitch`s words, "Velocities approached 70,000 furlongs to the hour, Bishop."
The Periodic Spiral, a helical representation, drawn in 1937, illustrating the relationship of the elements.
A complete burglar`s outfit for opening safes and strong rooms, 1929
Unwise experiments with liquified gases
Rupert Glitch photographs his own bones using tandem Cuthbertson electrical machines
"...was discharged through and upon various kinds of matter, its force was quite irresistible."
"....disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, from which fell red-hot globules of tin."
Are Glitch`s observations reliable?
General auriferous subjects including Fulminating & Scottish gold
Professor Hughes` flystep amplifier from 1877
Accounts of the use of this extreme depth marine hunting vessel.
Highly dangerous experimentation with lightning.
".... the gas in the flask is the most poisonous known, and a single bubble of it inhaled is said to have killed the discoverer."
fascinating fastening
A fully automatic weapon 24 years before Hiram Maxim
"This arrangement is perhaps the nearest approach yet made to perpetual motion."
This allotrope of antimony, by its very nature, is of absolutely no use as a practical explosive
A feebly conductive coating on the supporting column overcomes corona leakage at opening of sphere, & possibility of replacing charge transport belt with pumped insulating fluid
Gilbert T. Morgan, O.B.E., F.R.S. describes unusual compounds such as nickel carbonyl, a colourless volatile liquid
The Queen may have required a change of underwear after an electrostatic demonstration during her Silver Jubilee in 1977
A 5MV pressurised oil immersed bipolar tesla coil by Breit 1930
Hydrogen exists in a metallic state in the core of Jupiter. It has been momentarily created in the laboratory using this self destructing apparatus
The collection of radon from radium salts is extremely perilous, because of the extreme radioactivity.
"...sometimes violently exploded and separated into smaller globules, which flew with great velocity through the air in a state of vivid combustion, producing a beautiful effect of continued jets of fire."
Early LED? A letter to Faraday
The exploits of nineteenth century scientists with electrical batteries and corpses.
An illustration of his apparatus for the synthesis of an organic compound
The early equipment (patented by Nipkow in 1884) was simple and consisted of rotating discs with spirally placed holes
Predating Wimshurst`s electrostatic generator, using hemispherically terminated charge carriers
Siberian Marekanite, natural Prince Rupert`s drops. Detonating Derbyshire Galena, Higginbotham narrowly escapes crackingwhole explosion. Lanchester Witherite, collector`s dismay.
Contact Electrification by Prof. F. Sanford, 1915
Pages 61 - 65 from Rudimentary Electricity, Sir Snow Harris, 1853
Horror weapon invented in Weardale by Glitch. Also in 1862, his assistant noted the depletion of U235 in pitchblende from Oklo, and suggested that a natural reactor could be the cause of the isotopic anomaly.
Eddy current braking, negative stepped leaders, dust conflagration, X-rays, canine cruelty, bullet impacts, fast fungi, volcanic fountains, uranium mining, glacial time, lichtenberg figures & meteors
Dr. Diode, Practitioner of Experimental Exotica, Unleashes the Primal Energies of the Universe in a Series of Terrific Science Japes.
"Cleaning a cyclotron is neither an easy nor a pleasant job"
Investigations into the Physics, Psychology & Pharmacology of Pool
There's no doubt about it - this man was a nasty piece of work. WARNING! The video accompanying this page is highly disturbing.
Antipodean anecdotes of an unusual nature
For your Perusal & Delectation, items of interest elsewhere on the web
Eclectic Science Esoterica Shop
Unusual items of science & engineering interest for sale
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Cancer Research UK is entirely funded by donations. The organisation is producing encouraging data and progressing our knowledge about this horrible disease. We need to understand cancer to beat it. It's just a question of funding experimental science.
Please donate now, click here
Note - other than my encouraging folk to donate, with both the Lateral Science website (2002-2012) and this blog, I have no connection with Cancer Research UK. Roger Curry, Lateral Science
WARNING - Many subjects outlined within this site are extremely dangerous and are provided here for information only. Please don`t experiment with high voltages or chemicals unless you are fully conversant with safe laboratory practices. No liability will be accepted for death, injury or damage arising from experimentation using any information or materials supplied.
