August 20, 2024
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September 2024: History of science 50, 100, and 150 years ago
Mysterious Mercury: Spiders Predict the Weather
1974 Sioux population: “Lone Dog’s ‘Winter Count’, painted inside a buffalo pelt, chronicles 71 tumultuous years in the migration life of the Yankton Sioux, from the winter of 1800-1801 to the winter of 1870-1871. Each year is represented by a symbol recalling a memorable event. The record begins near the center and spirals outward in a counterclockwise direction.”
Scientific AmericanVolume 231, Number 3, September 1974
1974
Mysterious Mercury: Like the Moon or Mars?
“Five months after the Mariner 10 spacecraft passed by Mercury, quantitative analysis of its instrument data and 2,300 high-resolution photographs have revealed some surprising facts. Early photos showed that Mercury is very similar to the Moon. But measurements of the planet’s mass showed that, unlike the Moon (and like the Earth), Mercury must have a massive core. The main visible difference is that Mercury has several cliffs about three kilometers high, some of which are more than 500 kilometers long. The Moon has no similar cliffs. Perhaps most puzzling, Mercury, like the Moon and Mars, has numerous craters on one side and a broad, flat plain on the other. It is not clear why three of the five objects in the inner solar system are so asymmetric.”
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A unique clock radio
“Advances in technology have relegated pendulum clocks to unreliable antiques, but one such device has been modernized by Lawrence M. Leeds, who connected an 80-year-old Seth Thomas wall clock to a quartz crystal oscillator. The clock now keeps time to an accuracy of about one second per year. Every week, the old pendulum strikes 60 seconds into each minute, almost exactly in sync with the signal of radio station WWV, which broadcasts precise time and frequency data from the National Bureau of Standards.”
1924
Vitamin D, the White Chemical of Life
“Food chemists have known about four or five vitamins for some time, but (Walter) Eddy, (RR) Carr and (Ralph) Williams at Columbia University were the first to isolate one. Vitamin D, also known as bios, can cause rickets without it. Isolated vitamin D is a crystalline white substance, similar to quinine. It should not be eaten as is; Carr says you will regret it if you do. The chemists say they have no plans to license the process or make and sell it themselves. They hope to one day prove that life is just a chemical process.”
1874
The spider and the cow predict the weather
“Curiously enough, many animals seem to be able to predict the weather. With the moisture in the air and various atmospheric influences, some of their behavior seems to be governed more by reason than by instinct. The common garden spider shortens or strengthens the supports of its web when rain or wind approaches, and lengthens them when the storm has passed. The seagulls gather on land, because they know that rain will cause earthworms to come to the surface. But their behavior is so varied that a satisfactory explanation is hardly possible. The coming of rain is heralded by the frequent crowing of the peacock, the moaning of the woodpecker, the babbling of the parrot, and the running of the geese restlessly. At the approach of the storm, the pigs carry hay or straw to their hiding places, the cows ruffle their wool, the foals rub their backs on the ground, the crows flock together, the frogs croak and turn dark, the dogs eat grass, and the crows soar like hawks.”
Ants and Herrings Rain
“Recently, a great rain of ants fell in Cambridge, England. At about six o’clock in the evening, soon after the temperature rose, a great rain of countless ants fell on the street, covering the pavement. No such great rain of ants is believed to have been recorded. A great number of great rains of fish were also found, which can usually be explained by a column of water attracting fish, which are carried onshore by strong winds. Great rains of herring occur frequently in Scotland, and in some cases the fish fall far inland. In 1804 a great rain of frogs fell near Toulouse. The great rain of rats in Norway is thought to have been caused by a tornado which struck large swarms of rats which migrate annually from the hills to the lowlands, and carried them off into fields some considerable distance away.”
