Hobo Jungle

[webenda]

...I have a feeling Mr. Wizard - Wayne - will be straightening me out shortly.

Naw Murph. Mules are like people, all different. Whatever you think about mules probably applies to some mule somewhere.

I am assuming that was working the same as what Wayne described?

Close enough Mitch. Both work by heat energy moving air. In your case, the heat from the bulb heats the air around it. The heated air rises and spins the propeller as it goes by.

In the radiometer, the energy from a light source heats the black side of the paddles which in turn heats the air in contact with the paddle causing it to expand and push on the paddle. This does not move the paddle because, in moving away it creates a slight vacuum so that the pressure of the air on the cold side equals the pressure of the expanding air pushing the paddle on the hot side. Reynolds explained that the air on the cold side had a place to go due to the vacuum on the hot side. It rushes around the edge of the blades (thermal transpiration) creating a pressure differential around the edges of the blades, i.e., low pressure on the cold white (or silver) side and high pressure on the hot black side.

[AG]

this is amazing!
the speed variate depending the light intensity and is very sensitive.
is lake stain glass, you can spend a lot of time watching it rotating.
thanks wayne for the info !!
Andre.

[The Dirt]

Just my humble opinion, but if I was one of those mules having to pull that idiot around on that turn of the century schlock sled, I'd kick that dude square in the balls the first chance I got.

Jon, LMAO!!

Hev, fantastic set of pictures!!
Now this is why I love those guys, keeping those old schlock sleds rolling! I was expecting that like a modern combine, it would be picking the ears off the stalk, but it's taking stalk and all! That means some labor-intensive work back in the barnyard. Notice it's a kid running the wagon- I wonder if that's a real source of pride. There's also a roller behind the cutter, which i guess flattens out the stub of the cut-stalk. I would have loved to have heard that thing in operation. Hell, I would have taken a turn on the wagon!

And to think a modern combine not only pulls the ears, but it peels them, strips the corn kernels and deposits them in a hopper, chops up the stalks, and strews them out into the field, with nothing left but a hopper of gold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wayne, that was fascinating about the radiometer, I had one as a kid, and always believed that old saw about light pressure. The real impetus makes much better sense.
I also had, as a kid, a glass tube maybe 6 inches long that opened into an upright globe at each end the size of a large walnut, a closed system, with a red liquid of sufficient quantity to fill one of the globes maybe 2/3 full. When you wrapped your hand around one of the globes, the liquid (driven by heat?) would run to the other globe and 'boil' in place. If you switched hands and held the other globe, the liquid would reverse and 'boil' in the other globe. Pretty cool, though I never came to understand why.
I also have a slug of metal that, if you put it in a pyrex measuring cup and pour in boiling water, it would melt and you could stir it around. Add some cool water, and it would re-solidify and you could lift it right out.
I also have half a baby-food jar of mercury. Probably ought to take it somewhere. Heavier than hell!

Murph,

I don't even know a mule from a donkey from an ***

You're still better off than me, who doesn't know his *** from a hole in the ground.

My FIL has two mules, and though they're supposed to be more tractable on a long ride and more sure-footed on a slope, they are the most cussed stubborn ornery animals. I'll take a horse any day. The male, even though de-nutted, has a 'thing' for Leah's mare, they've become inseparable, and I can't walk her out of the barn without him hee-hawing like I stole his woman. It was the two mules that tore my plastic-taped fence down in the riding-ring we made for Leah. Bastards would NOT leave it alone. And it was the male mule that dropped my MIL and put her in the hospital. How Ray refrained from putting a bullet through it's skull that day is beyond me.

Mitch, you bring the Labatts, I'll help you drink it just so there's not so much to carry home. Only thinking of you. Hey Hev, do they allow alcohol on the premises?

Andre! Just south of the Mason-Dixon!

I wonder where Delmar's been. Hope it's not those wildfires again!

[webenda]

Pete,

Ya had me going there for a minute. I was trying to figure out how a filly (FIL) could foal two mules.
Then it dawned on me that Ray is your FIL. Sometimes I am a little dense.

[The Dirt]

Wayne, it's an acronym from work. Sorry, I wasn't thinking.
But I AM counting on you to figure out the 'glass'-thing I mentioned.

The coal truck came today. Here's the result- three tons of prime Pennsylvania anthracite. My entire winter's heat in a box.



I leave the hinged lid up a couple of days to let it dry out. The weighmaster allows 180 pounds extra just for water weight, as the coal is washed before loading.
And coal is DOWN, yes DOWN(!) $24/ton from last year!!!

And now that I'm done cutting my fields, the scavengers have moved in. First tier was the crows, looking for dead bugs, of which there must have been a bazillion. I have 4 (2 pair?) of kestrels looking for the mice and voles that were fleeing from the Farmall, now that the 4 feet of dense vegetation is down to 6 inches. And while I was still mowing, a huge red-tailed hawk dove on something just on the otherside of the strip on which I was working. As I came around, he was in front of me, and let me get closer than I've ever been allowed, maybe 20 yards, before he took off with his catch, a fat black snake.
Now the last week, a passel of scavengers out there every day...





Dinner, anyone?
Thanksgiving's approaching.
*The Dirtman's Free Range Turkey Farm*
Opening soon!

[hev52]

Oh yea................Turkey dinner at the Dirt Man's this year. Looks like there ought to be enough..........................



BTW.................Dirt Man. I was thinkin' of ya................................... When the corn stalks are hauled back to the barn there are thrown into a grinder with a blower on it run by a tractor and is blown up a pipe into the silo.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-vruasHFyI

[dougdagrump]

Humpday Humour

Pink Weenie
A couple attending an art exhibition at the National Gallery was staring at a portrait that had them completely confused.
The painting depicted three very black and totally naked men sitting on a park bench. Two of the figures had black weenies, but the one in the middle had a pink weenie.
The curator of the gallery realized that they were having trouble interpreting the painting and offered his assessment. He went on for nearly half an hour explaining how it depicted the sexual emasculation of African-Americans in a predominately white, patriarchal society. 'In fact,' he pointed out, 'some serious critics believe that the pink weenie also reflects the cultural and sociological oppression experienced by gay men in contemporary society.'
After the curator left, a young man in a Kentucky T-shirt approached the couple and said, 'Would you like to know what the painting is really about?''
Now why would you claim to be more of an expert than the curator of the gallery?' asked the couple.
'Because I'm the guy who painted it,' he replied. 'In fact, there are no African-Americans depicted at all.
They're just three Kentucky coal miners, and the guy in the middle went home for lunch.


Anybody that has had to work with coal can relate to this.

[rogruth]

Doug,

I'm from a coal mine region of eastern Ohio and that makes sense to me.

LMAO

[webenda]

Doug,



It is funny how topics in the Hobo Jungle can move from topic to topic.
Rufus mentioned a word in his dictionary which reminded me of how smart people are.
Pete received a load of coal which made Doug think of three naked coal miners.
Doug's description of how the curator had a totally bogus idea of what the coal miners were about
reminded me of how bogus curator, park ranger, docent and tour guide descriptions of petroglyphs are.
They either have a made up story, always waaaaaay of base, or tell the public that no one, not even
the local Indians know what it means. Only the person who made the marks would know. True Lies!

The local indians have a saying, "If you give it away, you lose it." The secret of the writing on the rocks
is one of those things that they will not give away.

The US Government knows what they mean, but the government used the excuse, "The Indians are
ignorant beasts who do not even have a written language." to convince the public that it was OK to
take the land from Indians. They cannot change their story now. Well, thanks to the Library of
Congress being "on line" anyone can look up "petroglyphs" and find out that the petroglyph is the Indian
Sign Language written on rocks, bark, leather and other media. Here is a simple example attached below.

References:
http://catalog.loc.gov/
http://lccn.loc.gov/16005492
http://lccn.loc.gov/76188815
http://lccn.loc.gov/2001032360

I need to explain the first symbol a little, as I did a poor job when I created the image below. If you hold
your closed hands (make a fist) in front of you, elbows bent, forearms parallel, it looks like you are holding
something in each closed hand. Now if you move your fists toward each other and beyond, your forearms
form an X. That is sign language for, "Do you want to trade?"

[webenda]

But I AM counting on you to figure out the 'glass'-thing I mentioned.

I thought you already had the answer. You said, "...the liquid (driven by heat?) would run to the other globe and 'boil' in place..." That is the answer.

The liquid inside was colored dichloromethane* (also known as methylene chloride). Air is removed from the apparatus, causing the dichloromethane to evaporate until the vapor pressure is equal the ambient vapor pressure of the dichloromethane. (*Modern bubblers use alcohol.)

Vapor pressure of a liquid is a function of its temperture. If you place your hot hand on one bulb, that increases the vapor pressure in the bulb. The increased pressure pushes the liquid down the connecting tube into the other bulb. When the liquid level in the heated bulb gets below the top of the tube, heated high pressure vapor moves down the tube bubbling into the cooler liquid in the cold bulb, causing it to appear to boil. The vapor condenses in the cool bulb so that there is always room for more vapor to bubble in from the hot bulb. The cool liquid runs down the tube to the hot bulb where it is heated by your hand, keeping the process working as long as your hand provides heat higher than the cold end.

Here in Tucson I would expect the opposite to occur. My hot hand, at 98.6 °F, being cooler than the ambient temperature of 114 °F, would cause the liquid to move toward my hand and boil (bubble) in my hand. You could have simulated Tucson reverse action by placing a cold wet cloth on one bulb.

[rogruth]

I remember a "toy" that was big back in the late 1940s or early 1950s.It was based on the principle given by Wayne.

The tube was mounted on a pivot and made to look bird-like,a tail on one end and a beak on the other.The beak end was held in a water receptacle and when released would then start an almost continuos "drinking"action.They sold very well.

[webenda]

Google "drinking bird toy."

The drinking bird was invented by Miles V. Sullivan in 1945 and patented in 1946. He was a Ph.D. inventor-scientist at Bell labs in Murray Hill, NJ, USA. US Patent number 2402463.

Still available with quite a price range.

[rogruth]

The "5 & !0s" had them in windows and drew large crowds with much discussion about how they worked.They seemed to fascinate all ages.In 1945 or 46,I think they cost about $.50,almost two hours pay.

[Tramp]

This jungle sure makes for good reading sometimes.

Wayne, there is only one safe way to climb into a rolling boxcar. Do you know what it is? I used to practice for years before I actually began riding freights at 17. You're correct about the cars riding high. The floor is usually about chest height.

[webenda]

Wayne, there is only one safe way to climb into a rolling boxcar. Do you know what it is?

I do not know, but I can guess.

As the car approaches, jog alongside. Throw your pack on first. Put your hands on the boxcar door as you run. When you have a real good grip, pull yourself up.

Too many kids try to board like getting out of a pool. If you do not get your head in far enough with this method, you will swing under the car, fall and be cut in half by the wheels.

Getting off a moving train is the same thing in reverse. Wait until the train is going slower than a jog. Throw your pack off first. Hold on to the car tightly and start running as your feet touch the ground. When you have your footing, let go, move away from the train and stop running.

Too many kids jump. If they are lucky they roll rather than do a faceplant. Rolling just leaves you bruised and scrapped up.

Is my guess close at all?