13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCCXXXI)

November 24, 2020

1. Secrets of the Holland Island Bar Light

The Holland Island Bar Light was a screw-pile lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay which existed from 1889 to 1960. It is remembered for the unexplained death of one of its keepers, and for being “attacked” by United States Navy pilots during a training exercise.

Read about rum runners, rockets and (maybe) bloody murder on the Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

2. One of the oldest diving suits in existence, known as the Wanha Herra

The Old Gentleman is mostly made of cow leather. The seams are sewn with a waxed thread and sealed with pitch. The diving suit was made waterproof by sealing it with a mixture of pork fat, tar and pitch. The hood-shaped head is reinforced from the inside with a wooden framework. In the upper part of the hood is an opening for a wooden air pipe.

The diver wriggled himself into the diving suit through an opening in front of the body, which is closed by pressing the pitched mouth part together. This “sack mouth” was rolled on the belt and was attached to the diver’s waist. The air was pumped to the diver through wooden pipes that were mutually connected with leather, either using a piston pump or bellows. The air was discharged through a shorter pipe on the backside.
Diving lasted for a short time, since the suit was not completely watertight and could not withstand high pressure. The diving suit is presumably of Finnish origin … a drawing from 1727, discovered in the Admiralty’s material held in the Swedish National Archive, depicts a diving suit that is similar to the Old Gentleman.

3. 360 Views & selfies from NASA’s Curiosity Rover on Mars

New photography from the planet Mars everyday from 360 Cities.

You can also get the latest mission updates and even send a postcard to the rover here.

4. Old decorative stucco ceiling is uncovered during the renovation of a Moscow office building

Found on Reddit

5. A 1911 obituary of an American millionaire ranting against the arranged marriages of American heiresses to British noblemen for dowry.

Consuela Vanderbilt with Winston Churchill, cousin of her husband, Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough

Frank Work’s obituary printed in the New-York Tribune thought international marriage should be a ‘hanging offence’ – the waste of American money paying off private debts in exchange for aristocratic titles.

It’s time this international marrying came to a stop for our American girls are ruining our own country by it. As fast as our honorable, hard working men can earn this money their daughters take it and toss it across the ocean. And for what? For the the purpose of a title and the privilege of paying the debts of so-called noblemen! If I had anything to say about it, I’d make an international marriage a hanging offense.

Found in an article “How American Rich Kids Bought Their Way Into the British Elite” on the Smithsonian.

6. The ‘shoe-shine boy’ who left America in the 1930s under the invitation of Emperor Haile Selassie to become the Commander of the Ethiopian Air Force

John Robinson had vowed to defend the African country from the impending invasion of Mussolini’s Italian army. He had repeatedly applied to the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation in Chicago, but was denied each time. He ended up getting a job there as a janitor and unofficially sat in on classes until an instructor managed to secure a place for him, and was the first black student at the school. Prior to entering college, Robinson held a short-term job as shoeshine man. He later played a role in the foundation of Ethiopian Airlines, but died in 1954, from injuries he suffered in a plane crash.

Read his story on Wikipedia.