Lincoln's Funeral Car Mystery

Recently, a mystery was solved. The question was simple; finding the answer was hard. The year 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's death, so in his honor, a replica of the funeral railcar is being constructed and taken along the original route that Lincoln's funeral car made in 1865. The original trip lasted two weeks, and so will this one. In celebrating and honoring the President, there was one detail which came up that needed to be answered. The railcar was sold after the procession at an auction. It went through a number of owners before it was destroyed by a fire in 1911. Since the railcar doesn't exist anymore, and the only photographs of it are not in color, what color was it?

Photograph of Lincoln's funeral car

In steps Wayne Wesolowski, chemist at University of Arizona at Tuscon, who was brought on to solve the mystery. Wesolowski was a natural choice. While teaching in Chicago, he directed the Lincoln Train Project, where the funeral procession was the main focus. He completed a 15-foot scale model of the railcar for the project in 1995.

Wesolowski's first step was to pour through historical records such as newspapers and other written materials. This proved inconclusive because most said nothing of the color, and those that did tended to be contradictory. One article mentioned it was a claret or red wine color, and another mentioned chocolate brown. Big difference? Well, remember that there were no chocolate bars at the time, and the only real chocolate was Dutch chocolate, which was a reddish brown. This would mean that most likely it was a dark reddish color, but that wasn't enough.

Through his research, he found a man in Minnesota who had a window frame piece from the original railcar. There was some paint still on the frame, although not much. He was able to take microscopic samples of the paint and laid them on color samples to match them up. Since the samples were microscopic, it was possible to see the dots of the colors mixed which your eye then tells you of the overall color. Under the microscope, it appears as a patchwork or dots. Matching is simple: if the frame sample is visible on top of the color sample, then it is not correct; if it disappears, then it matches. After much trial and error, he found the right color.

What was the verdict? A dark maroon color. When he was interviewed, he noted that his 1995 model was too red. So when we see the replica railcar in 2015, it will be the same color as the original, and a celebration of the legacy of one of our nation's greatest presidents can be truly honored accurately.

TV's Lost Airings

From the advent of the TV until the late 50's, a number of shows were broadcast live, meaning they didn't record the episode then broadcast it later: they actually acted like it was a play. Some are amusing to watch when you see someone mess up; you'd never see that today! Through this time, however, there was a growing sentiment to have shows recorded and broadcast later, that way one could fix the mess ups and redo the messed up scenes. Many shows went from live to recorded very quickly as the 50's ended. There was a problem with recorded shows: the tapes. What was the broadcast company going to do with all those tapes? Tapes weren't cheap, so from the first recorded telecasts in the 30's/40's through the late 70's, a process of tape wiping went rampant through the television industry.

There wasn't a sense that things aired on TV were useful beyond their original airdate, so when the tapes were put into storage. These tapes weren't cared for in a way they would be today. Instead, the tapes had the original broadcast on them until they needed another tape. The TV company would simply wipe over the original broadcast on the tape, then reuse the tape for the next show. It's essentially like taking a VCR tape, recording a show on it, then once you don't need it anymore, you record over it. This meant that an incredible amount of classic TV airings have been lost to time, having only been shown once.

At the time, there was no such thing as a re-run (a great example is when Marty McFly went back to 1955 and said he saw an episode of the Honeymooners on a re-run, and the kid said "What's a re-run?"). Shows aired once, then that was it. Now, we have re-runs on TV, we have Netflix and Hulu to watch series, we can watch shows on TV channel's websites, we can watch series on dvd and blu ray, or we can just download them or watch them from the cloud. We are not used to there being only one copy in existence, and it being erased. The problem is that the TV corporations didn't realize that there might be historical value in this early broadcasts. Some moments from history have been lost, as well as great moments in television history have been lost.

This issue isn't solely an American TV issue because the practice of wiping tapes happened all over the world. Terry Gilliam, member of Monty Python, has said that in the 70's, the BBC said it was going to erase all of the TV show of the Monty Python's Flying Circus, so he bought up every episode to save them, and today they still exist in their entirety from it. But many other broadcasts (even well known ones) weren't so lucky.

Here's a short list of some of the most well-known TV airings that have been completely, mostly, or partially lost:

• 106 episodes from 1960's airings of Doctor Who
• the debut broadcast of Ed Sullivan in 1948
• no episodes of the Vampira Show survived
• most Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1962-72 were taped over
• 1968's Super Bowl II
• many episodes of soap operas before 1978 have been lost, in some case whole series have been lost
• the original NASA broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing is missing from NASA archives
• most gameshows from the 70's and before don't exist anymore (only 24 Jeopardy! episodes from 1964-75 exist; only episodes from 1968, 1971-76 of Hollywood Squares exist from the period of 1966-81; Wheel of Fortune episodes from 1975-79 are said to be destroyed; and only 11 episodes of the Match Game during 1962-69 exist)
• many episodes of music shows such as Ready Steady Go and Top of the Pops are lost, most notably including nearly all recordings of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett and the Beatles last live TV performance in 1966

By 1978, the practice of wiping old tapes was for the most part ended in Europe and the US. There have been some instances where copies of old shows have been destroyed, usually because of conflict of ownership. There are still old "lost" episodes of shows that seem to appear. A mostly complete copy of Super Bowl I showed up a couple years ago, and old Doctor Who episodes continue to be discovered every so often. A massive hunt is underway for Doctor Who episodes since 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the series' beginning. However, some shows were just completely erased or never saved in the first place, and still others were lost due to improper storage techniques. This isn't solely a TV problem, since some films have been lost also, but the TV industry thought of itself as a totally disposable medium until they learned what they had by the late 1970's. Sadly, it was already too late for a number of shows.

Where Do the Jogging Side Cramps Come From?

If you have ever jogged for exercise for any amount of time or even gone for a long swim, you have probably noticed the dreaded side cramp. This is that tight pain in your right abdomen. If you are new to jogging, then you will probably feel it quickly. But take heart in that even experienced joggers can feel it too. So where does it come from and how does it go away?

For once on this blog, I'm sorry to say that the true cause is still not completely known. Since it occurs during  times of exercise/exertion, there are some clues as to why it happens. The common theory at the time is that it is caused by changes in blood flow to the abdominal viscera (or the connective tissue on your diaphragm) from the tugging that each step causes. These cramps can be annoying at first, but they get painful quickly.

How does one prevent these side cramps? There is no one proven method, but there are steps that can lower your chances of having these occur.

1. Make sure your jogging form is good. Bad form can lead to bad pains.
2. Not having any solid food or drinking large amount of water at least two hours (and preferably four hours) before you go on your jog.
3. Make sure to stretch your side and torso before going on your jog.
4. Strengthen your back and abdominal muscles.
5. Make sure to stay hydrated because dehydration can cause cramps.

So you get the side cramps. How do you make them go away quicker? There are a couple of ways to make the side cramps go away quicker than doing nothing. If you are jogging, obviously stop jogging. It's recommended to walk until they go away, or even bend over and breathe deeply. If you are continuing your jog, then press two fingers against the pained area. Probably the best way is to focus on your breathing. It's recommended to breathe in a 3:2 ratio compared to your steps. Inhale for three steps, and exhale for two. 

Good luck with your exercising!

Is Neon Really in a Neon Light?

Have you ever wondered what makes neon lights have such funky colors? Did you know that neon isn't the only color used in those colorful lights? Neon lights have been around since the first part of the 20th century, and from the 1920's-50's they were all the rage. Even though cheaper alternatives have been created since then, love of the original neon lights still have a following.

Example of an old neon sign.

 There is more than just neon used in the neon lights. It was discovered that if you had a tube of neon and ran a charge of electricity through it, it would glow with a red light. Only a little neon is needed, but you have to use a large amount of electric charge (even though the actual input is low, which makes them really energy efficient). Neon lights also don't have filaments, so they don't burn out. Instead, what typically happens is the metal on the ends degrades, but that takes a long time to happen (which makes neon lights last a long time). But scientists found out that neon wasn't the only gas that would glow like that.

Neon is a gas in the atmosphere and part of the periodic table of elements known as the noble gases. The noble gases are gases on the right side of the table that are unreactive to other elements. These are unreactive because they won't bond with other elements. Why won't they bond? Because the outermost ring of electrons in the atom has to be able to share electrons with other atoms. For example, 8 is the magic number of electrons. If there are 8 electrons, then that's what the atom wants. But if your atom has an outer ring of 7 electrons, then it most wants to share an electron with an atom that only has 1 electron in its outermost ring. A ring with 6 electrons wants either an atom with 2 electrons in its outermost ring or two atoms with 1 electron in their outermost rings. Make sense? Well, the noble gases are called "noble" after the royalty of the old days: they didn't mix with others. So there weren't really any practical uses for the noble gases, until the electricity through them was found out.

There are six naturally occurring noble gases: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. Helium is only one of these elements that does not have eight electrons in its outermost electron ring (it has only two electrons in the entire atom). Radon is not used in neon lights because it is radioactive. Helium, argon, krypton, and xenon are all used in addition to neon in these style of lights, with each one glowing a specific color.


 Neon glows with a bright red color.


Helium glows with a fainter reddish-pink color (to make it brighter, sometimes a small amount of mercury is added).


Argon glows with a light blue color.


Krypton glows with a yellowish-white color, which can be used with colored glass to make all sorts or colors.


Xenon glows with a bright purple color.

The combinations of helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon along with other elements like mercury and carbon dioxide can produce many different colors. However, a lot of tubes are also colored in a variety of colors using phosphors, which are substances that can glow (think of phosphorus). When you have a gas that gives off a certain color, and you can put a color of tube around that gas, then creating just about any color is as simple as when you mix paint. For example, if you have the blue argon light, and put a yellow tube, then you will get a green light.

Today we had a trip through chemistry, but wasn't it interesting?

Cinco de Mayo

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated as a tribute to the heritage of Mexican-Americans, but few really understand where this holiday came from, or why it is exclusively Mexico and not Spain that celebrates the holiday. In order to understand where Cinco de Mayo came from, you have to first understand the buildup of events that made it possible for the holiday to exist.

In the mid-1800's, Mexico was in pretty bad shape. First the fought a war against the United States from 1846-48 (what we call the Mexican War), during which time the Battle of the Alamo occurred. Between 1858-61, Mexico endured its own civil war called the Reform War, which was fought between conservatives and liberals, but actual armies were raised by both sides with actual fighting occurring. This war was the final blow to the economic system of Mexico, causing the Treasury to be near bankrupt by the end. The liberals had won the Reform War, but conservative guerrilla forces still opposed the government. On July 17, 1861, President Benito Juarez issued an announcement that for two years, foreign payments would be suspended in order to stabilize the Treasury. Britain, France, and Spain were the three countries that were being paid by Mexico, and they took great exception to the lack of funds. All three countries sent naval forces to Veracruz in order to demand payment. The Mexican government settled with Britain and Spain, so they left. But France was different.

France at the time was led by Napoleon III, who was the nephew of the notorious Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon III wanted to establish a pro-French government in Mexico. French forces hoped to destabilize the government. Conservative forces who had been defeated in the Reform War aided the French. In late 1861, the French began to nearly invade Mexico, and President Juarez's armies had to retreat. The French military marched toward Mexico City, encountering fierce resistance from the Mexican forces.

On May 5, 1862, the Battle of Puebla occurred. It was on this day when the nearly 8,000-man army of France was defeated by the smaller 4,500-man army of Mexico. Although it wasn't strategic, it was very symbolic, giving the Mexican forces the confidence to fight the French army, which at the time was the premier world army.

Painting of the Battle of Puebla: May 5, 1862

The celebration didn't last long because a year later the French army defeated the Mexican army. The French installed Emperor Maximilian I, and thus created the Second Mexican Empire. The empire only lasted from 1864-1867. In 1865 the US Civil War ended, which freed up resources and men to try to free Mexico from the outside French influence. The empire was constantly being harassed by guerrilla forces, and Napoleon III was having trouble with Prussia in Europe. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon III began pulling French out of Mexico, and in 1867, the empire fell.

Today, celebrations of the defeat of the French are celebrated in Puebla, Mexico, but the rest of Mexico doesn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo as much. It is actually more recognized in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. In areas of the United States that were once Mexican territory, beginning shortly after the victory, Cinco de Mayo was celebrated. It gradually spread across the US. In 2006, there were over 150 official Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the US.