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Funkinwagnill: Fact # 000949

The Centennial Light: The World’s longest running lightbulb – A Shelby Bulb –  is celebrating its 110th birthday on June 18. In its role as night-light for the firetrucks – who would have guessed fire trucks where scared of the dark – it has operated almost continuously for its entire life, only being switched off a number of times early on, to be moved.

Known as a Shelby bulb after the town in Ohio that it was manufactured in the bulb was a revolution for its time.  After emigrating to the USA in 1892 electrical engineer Adolphe A. Chaillet started the Shelby Electrical Company, with business partners. Shelby was operating by 1896.  A new manufacturing technique and the bulb filament were used to produce the Shelby bulb, all developed by Chaillet.  The coiled filament carbon lamp burned brighter than other bulbs at the time and had better directional properties, this became the basis of the Shelby bulbs success.

The Centennial Light has faced its fair share of controversy, with many people speculating that the long-lasting filaments could be produced today but for the fact that the manufacturing companies wouldn’t be so profitable, did GE buy the technology and shelve it? The Shelby Electric Company that produced the bulbs was absorbed into GE – General Electric – in 1914. Shelby had already moved away from the original coiled carbon filaments as used in the Centennial bulb, Tungsten had been introduced and allowed much cheaper and brighter bulbs to be produced. While the Centennial Bulb was originally rated at 60 watts it is down to 4 watts due to its age. So the answer to the controversial question ‘Could we all have light bulbs that last 100 years ?”. Yes we could but we would be paying $30 a bulb and sitting in the relative darkness of the low light output of carbon.

With its own website and publicity for its 110th birthday this is also the most famous light bulb in the world. Anyone can visit the light, just ring the bell at the back of the station and the fireman on duty will show you around. It’s good to see a celebrity that hasn’t let fame go to its head. Happy birthday you plucky little bulb, keep on keeping those firetrucks safe.

Aoe Aloe, Oops We Have a Problem

ALOE BARBADENSIS MILLER or ALOE VERA, is dolled out by herbalists, naturapaths and general nae sayers as a cure all and serious anti-oxident. Oops, turns out the ferril desert dweller may Cause Cancer, Not Cure.

A warning has been issued by the US National Toxicology Program, the NTP  has found that rats given drinking water spiked with an extract of the succulent developed tumours in their intestines.

The rodents were given relatively high doses of a whole-leaf extract of Aloe Vera over two years. In rats given water containing 1.5 per cent by weight of the extract, 39 per cent of females and 74 per cent of males had malignant or benign tumours in their large intestines. None of these growths were seen in rats given pure drinking water.

A quick trawl of the net revaels and abundance of advice, freely given with little warning of possible detrimental effect, example: Aloe vera is one of the herbs that have a variety benefits. Aloe vera belongs in the Liliaceae family who have a variety of chemical constituents that can help the body’s health. Chemical constituents found in Aloe Vera are on the roots and leaves contain aloin, barbaloin, isobarbaloin, aloenin, aloesin, aloe-emodin, verasilglukan. Aloe vera is a plant that rod-shaped shrub with a height approximately 30 cm-50 cm, dark green with little spines toothed surface of the skin. Efficacy of Aloe Vera for health, such as:

* Smooths Skin
* Help Nourish Hair
* Heat Treat Stomach
* Anti-inflammatory
* Laxative
* Blood circulation
* Reduce high blood pressure
* Asthma cure
* Tuberculosis or TB cure”

It’s not yet clear what the results mean for people consuming products containing aloe vera as part of a “natural health regime.

“At this stage, we’re looking at designing the next round of experiments,” says Daniel Fabricant at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which contributed to the report, and is responsible for regulating dietary supplements. “We want to relate the results to the commercial products that are out there.”

Funkinwagnill: Fact # 000148

Water draining from a sink or toilet will always spin the same direction, counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clock wise in the southern hemisphere.

Funkinwagnill: Fact # 000149

Only one satellite has been ever been destroyed by a meteor, the European Space Agency’s Olympus in 1993. If two satellites collide who’s insurance pays, and do you have to overtake on the right in space. Whatever road rules they’re using in space it’s working. With well over 8,000 satellites whirling around the planet - all launched since 1957 – there has ever only been one hit by a meteor and only one collision between two satellites. With the added complication that some satellites travel at very high speed -26,00km/h- while others don’t travel at all – they are in geo-stationary orbits -  it is amazing that more satellites haven’t met an early demise. The satellite Olympus was hit by debris from the Perseid shower, a meteor shower caused by the annual visit of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle passing close to the earth. The satellite would normally have been moved out of danger but had already been partially disabled. The fact that there aren’t more satellite incidents is completely down to the satellites being moved to avoid any known dangers, such as meteor showers. Ground control of satellites by NORAD and other montioring stations is the only defence for satellites, until the get theyre own lasers anyway.

Funkinwagnill: Fact # 000114

If you thought a Leap Year was an oddity. Leap Seconds help battle the slowly increasing Solar Day. To keep the civil day aligned with the apparent movement of the Sun, positive or negative leap seconds are inserted. A civil clock day is 86,400 seconds long, but will be 86,401 s or 86,399 seconds long in the event of a leap second. Leap seconds are announced in advance by the International Earth Rotation Reference Systems Service which measures Earth’s rotation and determines whether a leap second is necessary. Leap seconds occur only at the end of a UTC month, and have only ever been inserted at the end of June 30 or December 31.

Funkinwagnill: Fact # 000027

Have you ever noticed that herds of cattle all face in the same direction? Turns out cows all align their bodies – all over the world –  in a North South orientation.  Dr Sabine Begall, from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany surveyed Google Earth images of 8,510 grazing and resting cattle in pasture plains across the globe, confirming this extra sense – magnetoception.

“Turns out cows might be the worlds stinkiest magnets”

says Begall

Further analysis of cattle showed that in locations where the angle between the geographic and magnetic poles differs most. For instance, cows in Oregon, which is relatively far north and subject to a strong magnetic field, face 17.5 degrees off true north.

For More Delectable Deviant Earth Facts, Checkout Paranoid Android