Buckshot Bear

THE ECLIPSE ADVENTURE THAT SOUGHT TO CONFIRM THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY - 1922 Atlas Obscura. It took 35 tons of equipment and a lengthy voyage to remote Western Australia. On August 30, 1922, astronomer William Wallace Campbell arrived at Wallal, Western Australia, for the solar eclipse that would happen three weeks later. It had already been quite a journey. In July, Campbell—director of California’s Lick Observatory—had sailed roughly 7,500 miles from San Francisco to Sydney. From there, he crossed Australia by train to reach Perth, then traveled north by ship for 10 days to reach the town of Broome. At this point his expedition party was around 35 people strong: it included his wife, Elizabeth Campbell, and scientists from Australia, India and Canada. From Broome, two boats carrying 35 tons of equipment sailed to Eighty Mile Beach, the final stop before they could reach their destination of Wallal. Wallal is in a uniquely remote position. To the east is the Great Sandy Desert, an arid landmass larger than the whole of New Zealand. In perfect conditions, on the afternoon of September 21, 1922, the sky darkened. Months of preparation—and years of attempts—had led Campbell to these 5 minutes and 19 seconds. What he saw that day is now part of the Lick Observatory Collection. One of his eclipse photographs shows the sun’s corona burning around a dark moon; around it, the sky is dotted with circles. These circles “denote the positions of stars around the edge of the sun, which are only visible at this position when an eclipse occurs,” says Norton. It’s one of her favorite images in the collection. “ “This photo of the total solar eclipse is stunning both from an artistic and scientific point of view—first of all, it’s gorgeous, but more importantly, it confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity.”

When John Dunn died on 13 October 1894 at the age of 92 he had achieved great success in his 54 years in south Australia. Born to a poor family in Devon he learnt about flour milling as a boy and put his knowledge to good use when he and all his family came to SA in 1840. He built his first mill at Hay Valley in 1841 and in 1844 acquired land at Mount Barker where he planted wheat and set up a steam driven mill. In 1860 his new mill at Cox’s Creek was opened with some flourish and the large water driven wheel, which came to be known as ‘Old Rumbler’, began its working life by turning a spit on which a whole ox was roasted to celebrate the occasion. The wheel turned five pairs of stone rollers for nine months of the year and for the remaining three, when not enough water came down the creek, it was switched to steam power. Dunn was so successful he expanded his business to mills at Nairne in 1864, Port Adelaide 1866, Port Pirie 1877 and Port Augusta 1878. The mill at Bridgewater worked at full capacity until the 1880s then only sporadically until the 1920s. After changing hands several times and being used for other purpose it was closed down in 1955. After years of falling into disrepair, the mill was restored as a restaurant and ‘Old Rumbler’ happily turns just for fun. Tom Dyster, Pump in the Roadway, Investigator Press, 1980, pp. 102-08. Image: J.Dunn & Co. flour mill at Nairne. Nairne township between 1872 and 1886. Nairne was founded by Scottish sheep farmer Matthew Smillie in 1839 and was named after his wife's maiden name. South Australia's first flour mill was built just outside Nairne in 1841. Steam driven mill was added in 1857 and operated by John Dunn from 1864. The Mill was named Albert Mill after the husband of Queen Victoria.

No thank you!

What would be fun would be to find some caves and do some cave writings in comic sans......that would have some scientists scratching there heads in the 1990's carbon dating them

I'm surprised no one asked Forty Rod what it was like back in 1145 😃

Great post.

You haven't invented anything unless you've made a working prototype. I think the basis of the original question was pretty obvious, otherwise you could just say "I'd invent a Columbia Class Nuclear Submarine and rule the World".

You could 'invent' the 'Fork'. Chopsticks may have died out

Again....how? I've made and repaired many steam engines, totally understand the workings of them. It would be impossible for me to make a viable steam engine in 1145, let alone - Electric generator. Electric Motor. Refrigeration.

Depends how much you hate 'em.

How?

In essence that sounds good and easy and something that would be useful .....but and its a pretty big BUT....how do you explain the why for? "Hey all you dirty people, I'm here to tell you that you're killing yourselves because you're disgustingly filthy and have billions of microorganisms, bacteria, virus's, that you can't see crawling all over your hands and bodies but I know that they are there and you need to wash them off.....believe me". Welcome to a burning!