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"

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

Artificial Volcanism "The earth will swell up and burst, and flames will issue out"

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

Early Aluminium & Beryllium "..some of us now present may yet live to eat with forks & spoons composed of aluminum...., possibly while seated upon aluminum chairs.." 1854

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

Electroluminescent Silicon Carbide Crystals in 1907 An Early Light Emitting Diode.

Gas of Lucifer, the Tiger of Chemistry... Fluorine 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.

Colloidal Growth The "chemical garden"

Victorian Liquid-Fuel Rocket Engine An account of the use of hypergolic propellants and deLaval nozzles in 1856.

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.

Copperas Efflorescence Mr. Medor of Santa Cruz has extensive ferrous sulphate deposits in his gulch.

Boxing day 1799. Humphry 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

Forming Vessels of Gold Using Phosphorus An ingenious, if hazardous, method of producing goldware for chemical research.

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.

Moving Pictures of an Interesting Nature 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

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"

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).

Edison Electrocutes Elephant There's no doubt about it - this man was a nasty piece of work. WARNING! The video accompanying this page is highly disturbing.

Lateral Science Inverted Antipodean anecdotes of an unusual nature

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