![[dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv8/S5hAR2x0JVI/AAAAAAAACVo/caHZJMX-j9o/s400/dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg)
The mystery pictures keep coming this week. Lets start by clearing up yesterday's picture. Amazingly, the Evil Nate Mass was not joking yesterday. It really was a picture of J.E. Keefauver, and he really was paid by the government to watch paint dry. Your tax dollars at work . . . Oh well.
Anyway, on to today's picture. What in the world is this man doing?
Testing light bulbs would be too easy. And probably wrong.
ReplyDeleteHe has a tray of giant caviar beside him.
It looks like he has a magic scroll inside the bathysphere like thing. Perhaps he is Mister Wizard experimenting on the best material for scrolls.
Measuring the wattage of light bulbs.
ReplyDeleteGraham in St. John's
I would guess he is testiong the brightness of the light bulb to see if it is the wattage that the makers claims it is.
ReplyDeleteEither that or he is testing out a time machine, and is using a light bulb as a test subject first.
ReplyDeleteEarliest known version of an Apple computer.
ReplyDeleteThis is another photo from the US Bureau of Standards. Louis Barbrow, shown here, is attempting to discover if the light bulb in the refrigerator stays on when the door is closed or not. A specially designed cylindrical refrigerator was created with a light inside. This capsule was then subjected to high pressure gasses injected into the refrigeration unit allowing the tester to active maximum door opening speeds. While the greater pressures did allow the door to open more quickly, it would also tend to shatter the light bulbs. The project was abandoned at the outset of World War II, having never achieved a satisfactory answer, but Mr. Barbrow would later apply some of his research to improving depth charges for the US Navy.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first mini-fridge. Used to make light beer.
ReplyDeleteIt is Alva A Edison's idiot half brother. Elva E Edison trying to develop a Dark Bulb for people who have to sleep during the day.
ReplyDeleteGood one Danny
DeleteDang, I thought for sure yesterday's subject was Keefauver's cousin Delbert. Well, on to today: Here we see Frenchy Letourneau, publisher, TenPin Alley bowling newspaper of Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to being a writer and publisher, he developed the giant illuminated bowling ball that adorned the neon sign for the largest bowling alley in the USA. Sadly, the former home of the bowling alley, the Showboat and later Castaways Hotel was demolished on January 11, 2006. Letourneau's landmark illuminated bowling ball was preserved and is now housed in the Smithsonian Museum, next to the Happy Days TV Show exhibit.
ReplyDeletePS I really must move to an earlier time zone to get a jump on you clever folks! :)
ReplyDeleteMore tax dollars at work here. He is an inventot attempting to find a way to automaticaly screw in a light bulb. It seems it took three fereral workers and two bosses to replace a burned out bulb. A question I have is why the battery? I have an idea but afraid to guess, because, ....well....I hate to be wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like an Erlenmeyer Flask inside of some sort of centrifuge.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me - a Florence flask and it may be a "gondola" centrifuge - As to what he is doing???
DeleteRe. yesterday's tax dollars at work, watching paint dry is important, especially to the US Navy. When we toured the USS Lexington air craft carrier, now a museum, in Corpus Christie Bay, we learned that the battle against rust and salt is a major and massive one. The Navy is constantly researching for better methods to protect the fleet. Those better paints and other anticorrosion discoveries then also filter out to the rest of us in the form of better protection for our cars and bridges.
ReplyDelete