One of my jobs was to climb over the railing around the Foucault Pendulum twice a day and set up the little "dominos" that its swinging point would knock over as the rotation of the Earth shifted its orientation. I was also responsible for demonstrating the Van De Graaff electron accelerator, which would make my long curly hair stick out straight from my head making me look like a giant dandelion. While it was cool to be able to reach out and zap museum patrons with a sparking jolt and to make a fluorescent tube glow just by holding it, my skin would crawl and my hands ached for an hour after each show. And I also would broadcast the announcement that would bring people to the main gallery to see the demonstrations of the Oudin type Tesla coil, which now resides in a Faraday cage at the Science Museum on the river. I can still remember all the words of the little spiel that I memorized about the Tesla coil! Though no matter how carefully I described the mechanism, somebody would always ask what it was after I stepped out of the microphone booth -- I would just answer that we were about to demonstrate the "Frankenstein machine" and everyone always seemed to know exactly what that meant.
I did appreciate being able to sit in on the planetarium shows several times a day, though since my day started at 7:30 AM after a one hour bus ride in the dark and ended at 9:00 PM with another dark bus ride home I felt like I lived in permanent night for those months. Due to the shortage of staff, I usually worked 6 or 7 days a week and Buhl closed from 5 to 7 each evening so most of the staff could go home for dinner. I could not do so I would just eat half my packed lunch in the lounge and nap (I was not paid for those two hours) until they reopened for the evening crowd. I had a very crabby and abusive supervisor but the astronomers in the offices upstairs were kind to me, knowing how much I loved science (and I had taken Astronomy as an elective the previous term at Pitt) and they let me watch them use the refractor telescope on days when we were not busy or there was additional staff to cover for me.
2019 November 23
I was the only full time Buhl tour guide during the Fall and Winter of 1970 and part of my job was to make the announcement over the PA system in the museum's main lobby each time that we were going to demonstrate that Tesla Coil. The little spiel explained what the scientific principle was behind its function but whenever I was finished with the announcement some visitor would always ask what was about to happen and I would just say "we're firing up the Frankenstein machine" and they always knew what that meant.
I can still remember most of that script by heart. Very nostalgic for me to see this photo!
Sunday, 2020 January 12
Another bit of trivia about the Observatory: they have to keep that space within the dome where the big telescope lives at the same ambient temperature as the outside air so when they open it for viewing the lenses won't fog up or deflect from material expansion or contraction. When my friend had his scheduled sessions using the telescope during the winter he had to dress from head to toe in down-filled expedition gear like an Arctic explorer or mountain climber.
Being in the dome when they rotate the entire floor to aim the telescope is pretty cool.
2019 November 23
