LATERAL SCIENCE by Roger Curry; a plethora of science & engineering subjects, both real & virtual
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please read disclaimer at the bottom of this page |
The Young Man's Book of Amusement
This wonderful book was published in 1854 and it contains gems of Victorian experimental science. It`s unpromising, mildly suggestive title belies a veritable cornucopia of experiments, including the macabre "Galvanic experiments on the dead body of a criminal"
The Cross Over Between Peptides and Sarms explained
Sarms and peptide products have been sold online now for many years, offering a fascinating array of treatment for all sorts of ailments in medical and scientific studies.
EDISON -- The Menlo Park DRUGS BARON
Thomas Alva Edison, you stand accused of the supply of poisons and dangerous drugs for human consumption. Namely Heroin, Strychnine and Opium
Martinus Van Marum "discovers" a light blue gas in 1785 with the help of Mr. Cuthbertson
Ozone liquifies as an explosive indigo-blue liquid & solidifies as violet crystals
Victorian Nitrogen Laser
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.
Hittorf`s Metallic Phosphorus of 1865
Smithell`s cold flame, phosphoretted hydrogen & will o` the wisp, phosphorus agriculture - farming for bones
Mr. Perkins` Extraordinary Steam Gun of 1824
One thousand shots per minute, using 900psi steam.
Fulminating Oils - Sweat of the Devil
Two sensitive high-explosive liquids & fearless scientists with missing body parts
The Ernest Glitch Chronicles
Anarchic Experimental Science in Victorian Weardale, with an account of the 1855 Grand National at Aintree.
An Excellent Van de Graaff Design from 1938
500kV and 200uA from this four foot high electrostatic generator.
Beagle 2 - A 19th Century Hybrid Coal / Liquid Nitrous Oxide Powered Rocket
Busty seam coal & laughing gas propels scientific probe into space, successfully launched 24th July 1863 from Weardale, returning 30th June 1908 over Siberia
Experimenting with Weapons-Grade Fissile Material in the Home
The Spinthariscope - Crookes` Turbulent Luminous Sea
Fulgurites - Tubes Formed by Lightning
Darwin`s observations from South America 1832
Fullerenes Discovered in Victorian England
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.
Writing Under the Shell of an Egg
How can one be without this essential life-skill?
Cloud Chambers
Apparatus to render visible the tracks of swift electrified particles such as californium fission fragments
Gas of Lucifer, the Tiger of Chemistry... Fluorine
Fluorine is the most reactive element. Its 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.
Victorian Liquid-Fuel Rocket Engine
An account of the use of hypergolic propellants and deLaval nozzles in 1856.
Colloidal Growth
The "chemical garden"
Coolidge uses 200kV Lenard Rays to Punch Holes in Rabbits Ears
Also the profuse growth of snow-white hair is induced
Alchemy: a Pseudo-Science
A monograph by Henry Smith Williams. "You forget, sir, I have been only five hundred years in your service."
Victorian Tesla Coil, with reference to a possible medieval Coil.
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.
A Method of Electro-Plating Lizards
Twenty Six Articles Concerning Electricity, by John Munro 1915
Getting Gold
A complete book on-line : Getting Gold, A Practical Treatise for Prospectors, Miners, & Students.
J.C.F. Johnson 1898.
Artificial Volcanism
"The earth will swell up and burst, and flames will issue out"
Boxing day 1799. Humphrey Davy Encloses his Head in a Box Full of Nitrous Oxide Gas.
"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."
19th Century Jet-Powered Flying Machine in Weardale
Manned Flight achieved long before the Wright Bros., using Multiple Valve-less Pulse Jets
Red Sprites & Blue 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.
Pyrotechnic Magic
Unbelievably dangerous magic tricks for the magician with a death wish, from 1948
Lord Rayleigh`s Active Allotrope of Nitrogen
"A whirling cloud of brilliant yellow light"
The Most Powerful Rock Ever Found
A Belgian man in a pith helmet irradiates his gonads with seven tons of uranium ore
The Production of Fine Bluish Crystals of Aluminium Nitride
An interesting experiment using atmospheric diffusion
Victorian Cyclotron
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
Atomic Hydrogen Blowtorch
In 1926 Langmuir invented this electrical dissociation blowtorch, capable of attaining 3700 degrees C. Melt tungsten, vapourise diamond!
The Flesh Transducer
Using high-voltage discharges to produce sound from living human flesh
Glowing Radium Chloride
"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
Glitch Constructs Hypersonic Gun
Upper Weardale was impacted by several projectiles in late 1857, in Glitch`s words, "Velocities approached 70,000 furlongs to the hour, Bishop."
Helix Chemica
The Periodic Spiral, a helical representation, drawn in 1937, illustrating the relationship of the elements.
Safe Breaker`s Tools
A complete burglar`s outfit for opening safes and strong rooms, 1929
"Tore off both legs from the unfortunate M. Hervy"
Unwise experiments with liquified gases
1858: First X-Ray?
Rupert Glitch photographs his own bones
Leyden Jars & Leyden Batteries
"...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."
Fluorescence of CaF2 (Eu) with 337.1nm laser?
Are Glitch`s observations reliable?
GOLD - an element of beauty & violence
General auriferous subjects including Fulminating & Scottish gold
The Footsteps of a Fly
Professor Hughes` flystep amplifier from 1877
The Glitch Sporting Bathyscaphe
Accounts of the use of this extreme depth marine hunting vessel.
"A large globe of bluish fire struck Professor Richman on the head, and he instantly expired"
Highly dangerous experimentation with lightning.
135 Chemistry Experiments from 1888
".... the gas in the flask is the most poisonous known, and a single bubble of it inhaled is said to have killed the discoverer."
The Evolution of the Zip
fascinating fastening
The Glitch Machine Gun
A fully automatic weapon 24 years before Hiram Maxim
Strutt`s Radium Clock
"This arrangement is perhaps the nearest approach yet made to perpetual motion."
Explosive Antimony
This allotrope of antimony, by its very nature, is of absolutely no use as a practical explosive
Oft Overlooked Innovations Within Van de Graaff`s Original Patent of 1935
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
Metallic Carbonyls
Gilbert T. Morgan, O.B.E., F.R.S. describes unusual compounds such as nickel carbonyl, a colourless volatile liquid
A Wimshurst Machine, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip & The Bishop of Durham
The Queen may have required a change of underwear after an electrostatic demonstration during her Silver Jubilee in 1977
Tesla Coil
A 5MV pressurised oil immersed bipolar tesla coil by Breit 1930
Hydrogen Metal
Hydrogen exists in a metallic state in the core of Jupiter. It has been momentarily created in the laboratory using this self destructing apparatus
Radon Collection
The collection of radon from radium salts is extremely perilous, because of the extreme radioactivity.
Spectacular Isolation of Metallic Potassium & Sodium by Davy, 1807
"...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."
Observation of Light Emission from Electrically Stressed Silicon Carbide Crystals
Early LED? A letter to Faraday
Galvanic Reanimation of the Dead
The exploits of nineteenth century scientists with electrical batteries and corpses.
The Laboratory of Ernest Glitch
An illustration of his apparatus for the synthesis of an organic compound
Mechanical Television
The early equipment (patented by Nipkow in 1884) was simple and consisted of rotating discs with spirally placed holes
Fictional Influence Machine
Predating Wimshurst`s electrostatic generator, using hemispherically terminated charge carriers
Slickensides Galena & Other Naturally Occurring Explosives
Siberian Marekanite, natural Prince Rupert`s drops. Detonating Derbyshire Galena, Higginbotham narrowly escapes crackingwhole explosion. Lanchester Witherite, collector`s dismay.
Moist Conductors of the Second Class
Contact Electrification by Prof. F. Sanford, 1915
The Plate Glass Electrical Machine
Pages 61 - 65 from Rudimentary Electricity, Sir Snow Harris, 1853
Weapon of Mass Destruction in Victorian Times: The Coal-Dust Flame-Thrower
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.
Doctor Diode
Dr. Diode, Practitioner of Experimental Exotica, Unleashes the Primal Energies of the Universe in a Series of Terrific Science Japes.
The Operation of a 1950`s Cyclotron
"Cleaning a cyclotron is neither an easy nor a pleasant job"
Etizolam Vendor
"benzodiazepines mechanism of action, size effects, dosage & more
The Science of Pool
Investigations into the Physics, Psychology & Pharmacology of Pool
Archived Science Radio Programmes from the BBC
From Murder with Mercury to Beagle 2, (a small dog on mars).
Lateral Science Inverted
Antipodean anecdotes of an unusual nature
Lateral Links
For your Perusal & Delectation, items of interest elsewhere on the web
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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. restricted pages