Is Your Head in the Stars?

Is Your Head in the Stars?

Andromeda Galaxy. Source, Internet.

They should be! Everyone loves astronomy. I can’t think of anyone who does not like to look up and gaze at the cosmos and wonder if we are alone. Of course astronomers do this for a living but there are many amateur astronomers in our midst and those who would like to be.  So why not do the next best thing?  Hang out with some.

On August 25th, Dudley Observatory, one of the oldest in the country (chartered in 1852) and the oldest independent organization in the country supporting research and education in astronomy and the history of astronomy, is sponsoring its Starlight Cruise aboard the Dutch Apple.  You can eat, drink, take part in a silent auction and even learn something about the stars in the sky.

The cost is $30 per person, $55 for a couple, and $80 for a family. It is a great family event.

You can sign up on their web site at http://www.dudleyobservatory.org

LECTURE SERIES

Dudley is also sponsoring their annual Skywatch Speaker series starting in September. This affordable series ($10, $8 for members, $5 for students) brings some of the brightest minds to Schenectady.  This year we have:

Anna Frebel. Source, her website.

September 28th.  Anna Frobel. Expert in Astrophysics.

Anna is currently a Clay Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA. She is in the Optical and Infrared Astronomy division (OIR) and affiliated with the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC) of the Theoretical Astrophysics division.

October 19th. Alex Filippenko. Expert on Cosmology.

Alex Filippenko and his collaborators have made a concerted effort to determine the nature of the progenitor stars and the explosion mechanisms of different types of supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. One of his major activities is to use

Alex Filippenko. Source, his website.

supernovae as cosmological distance indicators; he was a member of both teams that discovered (in 1998) the accelerating expansion of the Universe, driven by “dark energy.” He is also interested in determining the physical properties of quasars and active galaxies, and he searches for black holes in both X-ray binary stars and nearby galactic nuclei. His group has developed a 0.76-meter robotic telescope at Lick Observatory (KAIT, the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope), which in the past decade has been the world’s most successful search engine for relatively nearby supernovae; see http://astro.berkeley.edu/~bait/kait.html.

November 20th.  Jay M. Pasachoff. Expert on the Sun.

Jay is the Director of Hopkins Observatory; Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy.  His interests inclue Coronal Heating; Occultations by the Outer Planets and Their Moons; Solar Chromospheric Structure; X-ray Observations of Stellar Coronas; Transits of Venus and Mercury; Primordial Deuterium Abundance; and Images of Comets in Art.

Jay M. Pasachoff. Source, his website.

Why not Join the observatory. Only $25 and this will get you

1. Dudley Observations, an electronic newsletter containing the calendar of events, news of all our programs, and articles on recent activities
2. Invitations to special events, such as Friends’ Nights at local observatories and planetariums
3. 10% off all items in their gift shop, including telescopes
4. Exclusive Dudley Observatory Membership Card
5. Acknowledgement of support in annual publication

You can join online or get more information at

http://www.dudleyobservatory.org/About_Us/Friends_of_Dudley.html

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Serendipity And A Man Named Vince

Serendipity And A Man Named Vince

Vince Schaefer. Photo by Roger Cheng.

As you grow up and if you are lucky in life there are one or two people that influence you greatly throughout your journey.  I have been very fortunate to have several.  One of those was a man named Vincent Schaefer. I met Vince when I was a college freshman in the late 60’s at the University at Albany (then called State University of New York at Albany or SUNYA).  Vince was the head of SUNYA’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, but our mutual interest then was archeology and the Pine Bush.

Vince was a noted scientist although at the age of 19 his statue in the world of science really did not sink in to me until much later. His accomplishments didn’t really hit me until I included him in my encyclopedia, “A To Z Of Scientists In Weather And Climate” published in 2003 which dealt with the top 100 atmospheric scientists of all time.  But the one thing I remember about Vince was his love of asking questions and making you think about things.  He was big into serendipity, and rightfully so since one of his biggest discoveries had a good dose of it.  Vince contributed in many areas of atmospheric science but what he is perhaps most noted for was his discovery of cloud seeding – how to do it.

That discovery took place in a GE cold box (freezer).  Vince had come to work for Irving Langmuir, the Nobel Prize winner at GE.  Vince had to drop out of school to help support the family but had an uncanny ability to make things with his hands and Langmuir saw great use for that in his laboratory.

The original GE cold box that Vince used for his cloud seeding experiments. This was an exhibit that we put up at City Hall during the Schenectady Roundtable lecture on July 16, 2010. Photo by Don Rittner.

In his autobiography, which I will be publishing in the coming months, Vince writes about those days of discovery:

“During the spring of 1946 using a 6 cubic foot G.E. Cold Chamber I made a concerted effort to modify a supercooled cloud. I found that the temperature of the chamber varied from -10°C at the top to -20°C at the bottom and 15°C near the middle.

I dusted into the chamber dozens of materials ranging from chemical dusts to natural soils. While some of these formed a few glinting ice crystals none of them showed any encouraging effects.

I found the cold chamber to be an ideal testing device. Lined with black velvet and illuminated with a concentrated filament lamp that cast a shaft of bright light at a 45° angle across the length of the chamber. A single ice crystal could readily be detected in the super cooled cloud in the chamber. Exhaling ones breath into the chamber directing it toward the bottom could easily produce such a cloud. The temperature inversion in the chamber was so intense that the turbulence generated by the moist breath would die out in less than 10 seconds. I found it important in supplying moisture with the breath, to exhale rather than blow. The latter entrains warm, drier air from the air surrounding the top of the chamber and thus tends to warm the supercooled cloud.

Irving Langmuir (top left), Bernard Vonnegut( top right) and Vince Schaefer. On July 12, 1946 Vince Schaefer discovered cloud seeding. Photo courtesy Schenectady Museum.

By early July I had reached an impasse in my experiments and was trying to figure what to do next. Then suddenly a serendipitous event occurred. The morning of July 12 was humid and quite warm. Checking the temperature of the cold chamber I found it to be warmer than usual. To cool it down I got a large chunk of dry ice from our storage bin to overcome the warmth of the chamber. The instant the dry ice was lowered into the chamber I saw to my delight that the supercooled cloud had been displaced by a strange bluish fog unlike anything heretofore seen. Quickly lifting the dry ice from the chamber I introduced moisture from my breath and gradually decreased the density of the fine particle blue fog until I could see the glinting of the incredible numbers of ice crystals. After spending five minutes or more growing these crystals I finally was able to produce a supercooled fog.

I then put a smaller piece of dry ice in the chamber only to see it again revert to a bluish fog. Repeating my procedure to cause the fallout of the ice crystals I then held the chunk of dry ice above the chamber, scratched its surface with a nail and saw a magnificent cluster of condensation trails appear in the supercooled cloud through which the tiny grains of dry ice had fallen. Once I had this incredible phenomenon under control I summoned all of my “neighbors” to see the spectacular display. Unfortunately the Boss was on the west coast on a lecture tour and it was nearly a week before he returned to see it. Needless to say he was very excited when I showed it to him, and he summoned a number of his friends to see it.

He told me I should make plans to conduct some experiments with atmospheric clouds and I soon arranged for the cooperation of the G.E. Flight Test Center at the Schenectady County Airport. The Director of the Center, Mr. Curtis Talbot, volunteered to take me up in his Fairchild Cabin plane, so I designed and built a motor driven CO₂ dispenser which I planned to use for dispensing crushed dry ice as the plane flew over or through the atmospheric cloud.

On November 14, 1946 Vince Schaefer creates manmade snow for the first time. Photo courtesy Schenectady Museum.

As tends to happen with most atmospheric experiments the fall of 1946 was a period of clear skies! Day after day in October and early November I would get up early, look at the sky and feel disappointed. This continued until the morning of November 13 when a series of parallel bands of clouds were in the sky over our area which appeared large enough to be seedable and high enough to be supercooled. I called Curt Talbot and then headed for the local dairy to obtain the dry ice needed, alerted Langmuir and was able to take off from the Schenectady Airport at 0930.“

Last week on the 12^th of July marked the 64^th anniversary of the dry ice cloud seeding discovery. At my monthly Schenectady Roundtable at City Hall, in Vince’s honor, we replayed that demonstration.  Jim Schaefer, Vince’s son, Duncan Blanchard, the sole survivor of the team of scientists working on Project Cirrus which was the government sponsored research based on this discovery, and Roger Cheng, Vince’s Lab director of over 20 years, discussed Vince the man and his discoveries and impact in the city council chambers with over 50 attendees.

There were a number of kids in the audience and we let them up to the chamber first to see millions of ice crystals fall from the supercooled cloud we created in a brand new cold box.  The demonstration went off beautifully and I took some video of it, which you can see on Youtube (go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCESMAMsdg).

We are going to redo this demo at the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center in October. I was just as excited about seeing the ice crystals fall as I was when Vince showed me for the first time over 40 years ago in a hangar at the Schenectady Airport.

Cloud Seeding experiment on July 16, 2010 by Don Rittner and Jim Schaefer replaying Vince Schaefer's original experiment of July 12, 1946. Notice ice crystals falling from manmade supercooled cloud. Photo by Don Rittner.

During Vince’s full life he started the Mohawk Hiking Club, the Van Epps Hartley Chapter of the New York Archeological Society, and the Dutch Barn Preservation Society. He created the Long Path, saw to it that Old Maid’s Woods was preserved, and loved the Adirondacks. You will have to wait for the autobiography to learn more.

Many discoveries are serendipitous and history is full of serendipitous moments. But what is serendipity you ask?  It is when something obvious slaps you in the face and you are smart enough not to turn the other cheek.

Vince was a great mentor and friend. It was serendipity that brought me into the world of Vince Schaefer and for that I am eternally grateful.

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A Trip Off The Old Block

A Trip Off The Old Block

There are over 100 miles of streets in the city of Troy. By 1925, 73 miles of it were paved. Most drivers today only notice the road they are on if there is a problem, say a bump, pothole, detour, or accident.  Everyone is in a hurry to get from point A to B, and as long as that road is flat and smooth a second thought is never mustered.

Wasn’t always that way of course. Roads started off as paths and in our neck of the woods that usually meant Native American trails that were later widened into wagon roads like the King’s Highway between Albany or Schenectady or the River Road that led from Dirk Vanderheyden’s house to Hoosic or Schaghticoke in the 17^th century.

Road to Schaghticoke, now North First was Troy's first highway. Photo by Don Rittner.

The King's Highway between Albany and Schenectady during the 18th century. Photo by Don Rittner.

In the villages of yesterday, such as Troy in the 18^th century, streets were your basic dirt and sidewalks did not exist – unless of course someone decided to put a few planks down in front of their house.

In the latter part of the 18^th century turnpike roads were built and maintained giving the traveler a much more reliable ride and later many of them became plank roads.

The dirt roads of course did not stop some inventive types from inventing foot or boot scrapers, often a single blade on a pedestal to wipe your boots off before you entered your house.  During the 19^th century, boot scrapers were designed right into the ironwork in balustrades or railings up to the house.  Independent boot scrapers on the side of a stoop were common too.  During Victorian times, they became rather fanciful in design.

This boot scraper at the Rensselaer County Historical Society is built right into to the stoop railing. Photo by Don Rittner.

If you want to see a few great examples of boot scrapers take a stroll on Second Street between Congress and Broadway and First Street between Congress and State. During the 1870s right into the early 20^th century many patents were filed for new types of foot scrapers.

This boot scraper is built into the stoop on this house on First Street. Photo by Don Rittner

You took your chances when you left the house but eventually someone got the bright idea to use river cobble to line the streets and areas in front of homes and so began the paving of our travelling ways.

Troy’s first pavers were indeed native cobblestone.  The only remaining memory of this is North First Street, the original River Road that led from Dirk Vanderheyden’s house to Hoosic and Schaghticoke.  Believe it or not, part of this still exists from Rock Alley (the old Cluett Peabody Shirt Factory parking lot) to North Street.  There are parts of the original cobblestone, followed by yellow brick, and finally asphalt.

Cobblestone streets in Troy were followed by brick and later Belgian Block.  The first Belgian Block came from Weehawken New Jersey in 1854 and was laid on River Street.  By 1925, the city had 22.36 miles of Belgian Block, followed by 19.51 Miles of brick, 6.5 miles of sheet asphalt, 7.2 miles of bitulithic (crushed stone), 4.24 miles of macadam, 4,72 miles of Hassam block, 5.92 miles of bitulithic macadam, 1.95 miles of reinforced concrete, 1 mile of renapped granite, and four miles of wood.  There were at the time 160 miles of sidewalk.  Hassam Block is similar to Belgian Block.  These are granite blocks 4 to 4/12 inches deep, 3 ½ to 4 ½ inches wide and 6 to 12 inches ling laid on edge across the street on a sand cushion 1 ½ inches in thickness placed on a foundation (called Hassam foundation – 6 inches of broken stone grouted with portant cement and four parts sand).

North First Street, the original River Road is the first road in Troy and still exists in its native cobblestone in a few places. Photo by Don Rittner

As a kid growing up in Troy in the 60’s I remember much of the city streets as Belgian Block.  I often was awakened by the click clock of the Freihofer’s horses as they dragged the wagon down the street.  You can see these blocks and often trolley tracks with them when asphalt is being sucked up before repaving occurs.

Parts of North First Street cobblestone were replaced with yellow brick and then asphalt. Photo by Don Rittner.

That brings us to the main part of our story.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was a section of historic Troy with beautiful 19^th century buildings and a nice Belgian Block street to give us a visual reminder of what a beautiful city it was 150 years ago?  Impossible you say?  But Don, all the streets of Troy have been covered by ugly asphalt, you say?  Not quite.  There is one not so secret snapshot of 19^th century Troy and that is Washington Place, a little 300 foot plus long street that faces east and west and is the southern boundary of Washington Park, one of the few private parks in America (Gramercy Park in NYC and Washington Park are the only two private parks in New York State).

If you saw Washington Place a few years ago, it was a set of half shell, dilapidated houses that looked like bombed Dresden from WW II.  This series of 10 buildings were built together to represent a Greek Temple along the whole block when first erected.

The Beligan Block street in front of it looked like a rollercoaster and if your drove over it, it felt like one!  Rolling or not it was one of the last intact Belgian Block streets in the city and neighborhood activists decided it was time to do something about it.  Afterall, those bombed out homes were being restored and lived in.  Might as well fix the street too.  Neighbors raised the money to fix the street rather than pave it with ugly asphalt. This meant take every block out, store them, level the road bed, and reinstall each block nice and level. The city of Albany donated 8,000 blocks to replace missing ones.

A new Washington Place Belgian Block Street. Many Troy streets once looked like this. Photo by Don Rittner.

Friends of Washington Park initiated the $200,000 restoration project and coordinated the work efforts. They also secured private funding and a state grant for the preservation of the historic pavers.

To celebrate this Friends of Washington Park will host a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception on August 3 at 2 p.m. to recognize the street’s reopening and to thank the contributors who made it possible.

Hats off to all those who made it possible.  As you know a win for historic preservation is rare in Troy.

Time to savor this one!

Look’s like New York City has the same idea.  Read this latest article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/nyregion/19cobblestone.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cobblestone&st=cse

Washington Place is on the way back to its former glory with restored 19th century homes and newly restored Belgian block street. Photo by Don Rittner.

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