Category:
Experiments
Experiments
Killed by own invention
That's one way to cure rheumatism.
The Decatur Herald - July 14, 1958
RHEUMATISM CURE FATAL
Charles Werly, 52-year-old Swiss inventor, called in a group of specialists Saturday to demonstrate his new electric-wave apparatus for curing rheumatism.
Werly fitted the machine on himself, switched on the current — and died. The watching doctors said he was killed by a 220-volt charge passing through his body.
Charles Werly, 52-year-old Swiss inventor, called in a group of specialists Saturday to demonstrate his new electric-wave apparatus for curing rheumatism.
Werly fitted the machine on himself, switched on the current — and died. The watching doctors said he was killed by a 220-volt charge passing through his body.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 14, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Experiments, 1950s
Reaction of lions to a man in a motorized cage
I'm not quite sure what's going on here. This photo (sourced to AP Wirephoto) ran in various papers (such as here) on June 26, 1963. It had the following caption:
The inmates watch curiously as a Ueno Zoo employee tries a cagey experiment in the lions' den in Tokyo. Completely guarded by iron framework for his physical well-being, the man rides a gasoline-driven engine in an experiment to study the reaction of the lions.
And that's it. I've been unable to find out anything else about this strange experiment. But I'd like to know why exactly the zoo was curious about how lions would react to a guy driving around in a motorized cage?
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 13, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Animals, Experiments, 1960s
Photographing a mule at the instant its head is blown off by dynamite
Advances in photographic technology that occurred in the 1860s and 70s led to the invention of plates that had exposure times of a fraction of a second. This allowed for "instantaneous photography," as it was called at the time. Moving objects could be frozen in time by the camera.Researchers immediately used this technology to study bodies in motion. Most famously, Eadweard Muybridge in 1878 took a series of images to study the galloping of a horse. Similarly, neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot used instantaneous photography to study the muscular movements of his human patients.
A more unusual application of the technology took place on June 6, 1881, when Mr. Van Sothen, photographer in charge at the United States School of Submarine Engineers in Willett's Point, New York, took an instantaneous photograph of a mule having its head blown off by dynamite. The mule was apparently old and was going to be put down anyway, so it was decided to "sacrifice the animal upon the altar of science."
The resulting photo
Eugene Griffin, First Lieutenant of Engineers, described the details of the experiment in a letter to Lieut. Col. H.L. Abbot:
On the 6th of June, 1881, an instantaneous view was taken, by your direction, of the execution of a condemned mule belonging to the Engineer Department. A small bag containing 6 ounces of dynamite and a fuse was fastened on the mule's forehead, the wires from the fuse connecting with a magneto-electric machine. The camera was placed at a distance of about 47 feet from the mule and properly focussed; the drop shutter was held up by a string, fastened to another fuse, which was placed in the same circuit with the first, so that both were fired simultaneously and the shutter allowed to drop. The result was a negative showing the mule in an upright position, but with his head blown off. This photograph has excited much interest and comment in the scientific world. A very narrow slit was used in the shutter, and as nearly as can be estimated the time of exposure was about 1/250 of a second. A 10 by 12 gelatino-bromide instantaneous Eastman dry plate was used, with a 4 D Dallmeyer lens, using the full opening.
Several months later Scientific American published an account of the experiment, including several engravings showing before and after scenes:
Scientific American - Sep 24, 1881
Posted By: Alex - Fri Sep 02, 2016 -
Comments (0)
Category: Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Photography and Photographers, Science, Experiments, Nineteenth Century
Top 20 Bizarre Experiments
After the publication of Elephants on Acid (around 2007), I decided that it would be a good idea to have a website to help promote the book. Something where I would feature some content from the book, as well as post new stuff related to weird science.Most of the good domain names (including, at the time, ElephantsOnAcid.com) were already taken. So I ended up creating a site at MadScienceMuseum.com.
I added some content to the site, and then, after a while, I stopped. The site lay dormant, without updates, and largely without visitors.
Fast forward to the present. It recently occurred to me that it was stupid to keep paying to keep MadScienceMuseum.com online when hardly anyone visits it, and all the content on it would be perfectly appropriate for WU, which does have visitors.
So I'm getting rid of the "Mad Science Museum" and migrating all the content over to WU. It'll be a slow process, but if you notice me doing additional posts about weird science stuff, that's the reason.
The first thing I've migrated is my list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 30, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, Science, Experiments
40-year-old Twinkie
At the George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, Maine, a Twinkie has been kept on display for 40 years.
Back in 1976, chemistry teacher Roger Bennatti placed the Twinkie on top of the class blackboard in response to a student question about the legendary shelf-life of Twinkies. Eventually, the Twinkie was moved into a glass display box, but it remains at the school as a perpetual experiment on Twinkie immortality. More info: abc news.
Related Twinkie posts:
Twinkie Facts
Twinkies Art
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 01, 2016 -
Comments (5)
Category: Food, Junk Food, Experiments
Fetal Soap Addiction
June 1988: Australian researcher Peter Hepper reported in the medical journal The Lancet that fetuses often appeared to learn to recognize the theme tune of their mother's favorite soap opera. As a newborn baby, hearing this tune would then calm them down.He tested this hypothesis by playing the theme tune of the Australian soap "Neighbours" to a group of newborns whose mothers watched the show. Upon hearing it, he reported, six of the seven babies promptly adopted a "quiet alert state."
The Lancet - June 11, 1988
Des Moines Register - June 29, 1988
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 07, 2016 -
Comments (4)
Category: Science, Experiments, Television, 1980s
Three-Winged Chickens
1950: Scientists at UCLA breed three-winged chickens. More buffalo wings on one bird!
Herald and News (Klamath Falls, Oregon) - Nov 9, 1950
The Eugene Guard - Nov 15, 1950
Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 21, 2016 -
Comments (9)
Category: Animals, Science, Experiments, 1950s
Martian Radio Silence
Original article here.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 07, 2016 -
Comments (10)
Category: Aliens, Spaceflight, Astronautics, and Astronomy, Technology, Experiments, 1920s
Punching Cadavers
University of Utah researchers rigged up a "pendulum-like apparatus" in which they placed cadaver arms, and then proceeded to make the arms punch a padded dumbbell with clenched or unclenched fist. The idea was to test the theory that the human hand evolved its shape so that men could "fistfight over females" — aka the "pugilism hypothesis of hominin hand evolution."The researchers believe that their experiment supported the pugilism hypothesis.
More info: Science Daily and the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Oct 24, 2015 -
Comments (6)
Category: Death, Experiments
Парк Юрского периода
A lab in Russia is working on cloning a wooly mammoth. China and South Korea are supposed to participate in the project. Perhaps they will build their own Парк Юрского периода.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 01, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Experiments, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |