Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Earlier this week, Lake Superior State University in Sault St. Marie continued its decades-long tradition of banishing a list of popular words from the previous year. To determine the words to be cut, they asked for …
Category Archives: Science
Beer is Good for You
Okay this is weird but as the Regimental Brewmeister I feel compelled to inform you that the Mayo Clinic has suggested (not proved but only suggested) that may be preventative for Alzheimer’s Disease. For those of you who may have forgotten (pun intended), Alzheimer’s often causes memory loss and personality changes. It generally afflicts the …
Edmund Halley’s Famous Prediction
The first known observation of Halley’s Comet, or Comet Halley, took place in 239 BCE., when Chinese astronomers recorded its passage in the Shih Chi and Wen Hsien Thung Khao chronicles. When Halley’s returned in 164 BCE. and again in 87 BCE, it was noted in Babylonian records. It’s also thought that another appearance of …
Ben Franklin DID NOT Invent Daylight Savings Time!
Well, today we say goodbye to Daylight Savings time. I hope you all enjoyed your extra hour of sleep. Before the middle of the 19th Century, keeping time was more of an art than a science. Time pieces and clocks were available, even common in certain circles but they were notoriously inaccurate. However, the act …
Continue reading “Ben Franklin DID NOT Invent Daylight Savings Time!”
American Historical Mythology
If you hang around Fort Mifflin very long you will, no doubt, be regaled with stories of the supernatural and the pseudoscience that supports its existence. These are all good fun but let’s be clear, SOME people actually believe these things and even though the scientifically minded dismiss THESE beliefs, they are quick to then …
Supplying the Army with Muskets – The birth of Mass Production in America
“A good musket is a complicated engine and difficult to make — difficult of execution because the conformation of most of its parts correspond with no regular geometrical figure.” – Eli Whitney We all know Eli Whitney for his invention of the Cotton Gin but it was his contribution to industrial engineering and the manufacture …
Continue reading “Supplying the Army with Muskets – The birth of Mass Production in America”
Serendipity!
Sometimes the most interesting things are the things you learn by accident. So, I did my normal Spymaster program at Princeton on September 12, 2021 and in this program, I demonstrate invisible inks. My invisible ink (for cost and safety constraints) is a Na2HCO3 (baking soda) and turmeric reaction. Unfortunately, when the people who graciously …
Making Whiskey
Whiskey’s origin lies somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 AD when traveling monks migrating across Europe, introduced the distillation practice into Scotland and Ireland. Because of the lack of vineyards in these countries, the monasteries turned to fermenting grain mashes and then distilling them into whiskey. For the next 400 years, whiskey spread throughout the Celtic countries. …
The First Steamboat Sailed on the Delaware
The era of the steamboat began in America in 1787 when John Fitch made the first successful trial of a forty-five-foot steamboat on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of members of the Constitutional Convention. Fitch later built a larger vessel that carried passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. …
Continue reading “The First Steamboat Sailed on the Delaware”
The Surveyor’s Artificial Horizon
Much of what you read about celestial navigation is focused on ocean navigation where you have a reasonably unrestricted line of sight to the horizon. Terrestial navigators and surveyors often do not have this and must make adjustments in their technique. One very common approach is to use an ARTIFICIAL HORIZON. An “artificial horizon” is …
Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 