That guy from Newington Butts.

That guy was Michael Faraday. Born in 1791, he was both a chemist and physicist. He had range, a deep scope of interests and had the rare ability to see "into" things. For example, he discovered that a magnetic field could bend light. Just how the hell do you do that in the 1800's? Most homes barely had artificial sources of light, let alone anything so abstract as a way to bend it.

Early life was poor but happy. At 14 he went to apprentice as a bookbinder. Not surprisingly, this bookbinder sold and collected books and the young Faraday read everything. The apprenticeship was 7 years and during all that time he developed a keen interest in the sciences.

Among his many contributions to science we can list the basic but useful- Bunsen burner, the basic but useful with the other one-discovered benzine, the amazing given what year it was- by providing the first description, in scientific terms, of nanoparticles. He also invented, in 1821, no less, the electric motor.

Now all he needed was electricity.

Everything but the squeal.

A very long time ago on the this day, around 451 AD, Halleys Comet swooshed by. All 200 million people then living on the earth, went "whoa"

And so that the people were smart enough the next time it came by, Eton College was founded this day in 1441 by King Henry VI. The full name was "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"

And probably on this day in 1497, Giovanni Caboto, John Cabot to you and I, landed in North America. Like another famous explorer a few years earlier, he thought he was somewhere else. The snow and the lack of spices didn't give it away I presume.

Henry VIII divorces his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves on this day in 1540. It was said she was good at cards.

Kingston Jamaica founded in 1692. First inhabitants stayed at a place called Hogs Crawle. Num.

And for all you funny handshake people out there, the 1st Free Masons' grand lodge founded in London this day in 1717.

Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, born this day in 1771. He's the guy that brought explosives into the modern world.

Next time you have a bacon sandwich, tip your hat to Gustavus Franklin Swift, born this day in 1839. Never comfortable wasting anything, he pioneered the use of animal byproducts.

They gotta be kidding.

In my never ending search for the stupid in history, and my absurd success at finding buckets of examples, I have wondered into a rather dark arena today. As readers to this blog have noted, much of my focus has been on the ill guided but enthusiastic side of inventions. The car that was too long to turn around a normal city corner or the ancient aviator with the equivalent of 400 pounds of dynamite strapped to his back. The giddy excitement of discovery tempered by flaming crashes.

For today I was going to peel out a short (as always) backgrounder on the electric chair. Once I got looking a bit deeper though, it got too gruesome to describe.

I was left with the nicknames the more popular (now that's really sick) chairs had. That alone is enough to give you an idea.

So, how about Old Smokey? That's the one that executed Bernard Hauptmann. It resides in New Jersey.

Not to be outdone is Old Sparky. This cheerful moniker was given to chairs used in over a half dozen states. A chair of this name first built in 1912 was actually used in 2008. They made them to last then. None of that made in China mass produced stuff.

Now this one has a real scary name: Yellow Mama. It's home is the Kilby State Prison, Montgomery, Alabama. It's unique name comes from the fact it was originally painted with yellow highway paint.

And in Louisiana, they simply call the electric chair Gruesome Gertie. No commentary or descriptive adjectives. You knew it was gonna hurt.

I will leave you with whatever imagery these nicknames conjure up. But Sparky and Smokey? By the way, that's one of the Old Sparkey's up top.

twang

Ah, too too bad. But guitar legend Bob Bogle died Sunday. Who has NOT learned a Ventures song in this room? Stand up. I didn't think so. Everyone has done it. And anyone who tried realized that it was not as easy as it sounded.

The simple melody, the repeating riff, it all sounded so cool and so accessible. But when you learned those riffs, suddenly you knew that you were only copying the notes. The feel, the sound, the audacity to play such a bare bones production. Only Booker T and the MG's came close.

Formed in 1958 with fellow guitar player Don Wilson, they started the act as a duo in Tacoma Washington, probably being the first of the real Northwest sound bands to make it outside the northwest. And somehow managed to survive the Beatles and the British invasion. They both knew each other and worked as stone masons before hitting the clubs to watch bands and hang with their guitars. They had a single in 1959 that featured vocals, but it was a flop.

They soon added musicians to fill out their sound and had their first huge hit with "Walk, Don't Run" in 1960. It almost never got off the ground. After they recorded the song, they went shopping for a label. No one was biting so they formed their own label and by chance a local DJ had a copy of their record which he used to intro the news.

This was the break they needed. With the hit behind them, one more piece of luck moved the band into legendary territory. Nokie Edwards and Bob Bogle switched instruments- Nokie to lead guitar, and Bob to bass. A perfect fit. Bob had defined the sound and feel of the Ventures and Nokie ran with it.

And who didn't want to buy a Fender Jaguar after that? Thats Bob at the top left.

Bagdad Ipod

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta has been widely credited with inventing the electric cell, or storage battery. What a relief. Hanging out for lightning is a thing of the past. And grabbing electric eels, well, that grows stale fast.

He had been messing around with devices that produced electricity for a while, including a machine called an electrophorus. Volta coined the name for it, but it was actually the invention of Johan Carl Wilcke. He was a Swedish inventor who came up with the machine in 1762. A very big version of an electrophorus was built by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. He was a German scientist and bit of an oddball, but must have been quite fun to be around. He discovered the phenomenon known as a Lichtenberg figure from playing about with his giant electrophorus. The devise gave off static electrical sparks that he quite cleverly recorded in dust. He then lifted the pattern with moistened paper and had a real unique tree like image.

So, as usual, I am following a path away from my topic, the Bagdad Ipod. Volta developed the battery so guys like Lichtenberg didn't have to fuss with crazy macines to get a few sparks flying.

Now the thing is that there is some doubt if Volta really was the first to make a battery. Just before WWII, clay pots containing the components of a modern cell battery. The actual date of these is a matter of debate, but even the newest dates put them at around 200 AD or so.

Scholars have pondered the use of these things and most conclude they will work as batteries. Most likely real use was to electroplate metal objects, as many such relics have been found all over the area. Or, like many, priests used the electricity to jolt and dazzle the crowds.

Really though, no one has ever found any proof they were used for anything electrical.

search this.

K, things were hairy on this day.

For starters, in 1509, King Henry VIII marries his first wife, Catharina of Aragon. Lucky her.

Then in 1742 the Franklin stove is invented by Benjamin Franklin, nice.

Who could forget Barnabe Googe, English poet? He was born on this day in 1540. I know I can't.

Charles Fabry, born on this day in 1867, discovered the ozone layer in 1913.

Or how about the Professor, Dai Vernon, born in 1894. Famous Canadian magician.

Clarence "Pinetop" Smith born on June 11, 1904.

And finally, David Guy Barnabas Kindersley was born this day in 1915. He was the designer of the Octavian font.

Lots more people were born on this day. I am too busy right now looking up clever and little known details of the history of electricity.

Keep your nose out of the water.

As visions of thundering jets recede in the rear view mirror, we turn our gaze upon my semi official history of electricity.

Today, it seems easy to harness and control, and relatively easy to carry around with you. Unless you develop a habit of making toast in the shower or licking the battery electrodes in your car, chances are you passively enjoy the finer things electricity can do for you.

Now, many, many years ago, we're talking 2500 BC or more, electricity began to be noted by humans. Early interactions with it were notable, and very scary. It can be surmised that humans had had confrontations way before then, but they hadn't invented the words for "holy shit" yet.

Not surprisingly, the earliest recorded mentions were of people getting zapped by electric eels, rays and catfish. (Few were available or felt compelled to write about their lightning strikes).

Scientists of the day, like the early Roman physician, Scribonius Largus, knew of the shocks and that they were conducted through water. Even then, they were getting patients to touch electric fish in a misguided attempt to cure, of all things, gout. What is it with doctors anyway? I guess getting a zap from a ray DOES make you focus less on your sore toe. To put things in perspective, these animals can poop out over 200 volts.

Until static electricity was discovered, there was no real way to go out and get some to play with to see how it worked. Lightening had not yet been tied to it, and anyways it was horribly unreliable as a source.

Next post, science gets serious!

Now this sucks.

And . . . . he's back. I've been bouncing around Vancouver Island for work a lot and finally got to posting something. Not so sure yet if the jet engine has run it's course, but I need a break from flames and grievous bodily harm.

So, short term lets get to know Ives W. McGaffey. This enterprising fellow invented the vacuum cleaner. The year was 1868, the city, Chicago. The device was really the first "sweeper" to use vacuum to suck up the dirt. Trouble was, McGaffey did not have anything to power it with. This was a hand crank vacuum. And really, other than he had the idea down, this thing must have been awful. On top of pushing this about, you had to crank it. He named his invention the Whirlwind. Too bad he didn't share the "who gives a shit if it's dangerous" attitude of the early airplane pioneers who were quite happy to climb aboard steam engines and solid fuel rockets to prove an engineering theory.

In actual fact, these devices were really a two person endeavor- one cranked, spun a lever or pumped a bellows, while another pushed. Must have been the odd elbow to the chin cleaning aunt Mary's sitting room. The only reason, other than stupidity, that kept the sales of these things going was the limited penetration of electricity in rural North America until the late 30's. Labour saving there were not.

Hubert Cecil Booth, a British engineer was the first to power a vacuum cleaner in 1901. Nick named the "Puffing Billy" it was powered by a diesel engine (that's my boy) and later a large electric motor. Obviously, these were large machines carried on wagons or trucks, and designed to have the suction hose run into the home or office from outside, much like an industrial carpet cleaner does today. The cool thing about this company is that it continues to this day building pneumatic tube transport systems. Remember the rubber railroads?