Ripley's Believe It Or Not - 5 (Weights and Measures)

A POUND OF FEATHERS WEIGHS MORE THAN A POUND OF GOLD



A pound is a pound you say?

Not always. A pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold because feathers
are weighed by "avoirdupois" weight which has 16 ounces to a pound, while gold is always weighed by "troy" weight which only contains 12 ounces to a pound.

Back in 1929, this may not have been common knowledge outside of the scientific or jewelry communities. Nowadays you're more likely to find people with a broader-based education who - if they don't know it right off the top of their heads - at least were exposed to it at some point in school and will admit that it makes sense.

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A GALLON OF VINEGAR WEIGHS MORE IN THE WINTER THAN IN THE SUMMER

This is puzzling - but a fact nevertheless.

The difference in weight is due entirely to the contraction and expansion of the vinegar due to the changes in temperature. During the heat of the summer months the vinegar, as any other liquid, will expand and thus the weight will be slightly less because a gallon jug will hold less.

A gallon jug of 4 per cent. (Acetic Acid) cider vinegar measured at 80 degrees (Fahrenheit) or summer heat, weighed 8.403 pounds - or 134½ ounces. When the same gallon jug filled with the same vinegar was measured at 40 degrees (Fahrenheit), or winter temperature, it weighed 8.457 pounds - or 135½ ounces. In other words, a gallon of vinegar will weigh approximately one ounce more in the winter than in the summer.

Again, not really puzzing and not really news, at least not today. It would even hold true for water, but as the table of volumetric coefficients of expansion below illustrates, acetic acid expands much more than plain old H₂O.

Liquid	Volumetric Coefficient of Expansion
	(1/K, 1/oC)	(1/oF)
Acetic acid	0.00110	0.00061
Acetone	0.00143	0.00079
Alcohol, ethyl (ethanol)	0.00109	0.00061
Alcohol, methyl (methanol)	0.00118	0.00066
Ammonia	0.00245	0.00136
Aniline	0.00085	0.00047
Benzene	0.00125	0.00069
Bromine	0.00110	0.00061
Carbon disulfide	0.00119	0.00066
Carbon tetrachloride	0.00122	0.00068
Chloroform	0.00127	0.00071
Ether	0.00160	0.00089
Ethyl acetate	0.00138	0.00077
Ethylene glycol	0.00057	0.00032
Freon refrigerant R-12	0.0026	0.00144
n-Heptane	0.00124	0.00069
Isobutyl alcohol	0.00094	0.00052
Gasoline	0.00100	0.00056
Glycerine (glycerol)	0.00050	0.00028
Kerosene	0.00100	0.00056
Mercury	0.00018	0.00010
Methyl alcohol	0.00119	0.00066
Methyl iodide	0.0012	0.00067
n-Octane	0.00114	0.00063
Oil (unused engine oil)	0.00070	0.00039
Olive oil	0.00070
Paraffin oil	0.000764	0.00042
Petroleum	0.0010	0.00056
n-Pentane	0.00158	0.00088
Phenol	0.0009	0.00050
Sulphuric acid, concentrated	0.00055	0.00031
Toluene	0.00108	0.00060
Trichloroethylene	0.001170	0.00065
Turpentine	0.001000	0.00056
Water	0.000214	0.00012

As it happens, freon and ammonia have values for β around twice that of acetic acid, but Robert Ripley was a man of the people, and he wrote to entertain Gran'ma and Gran'pa Ripley, coincidentally of the same name, who might be reading his odd tidbits in the local paper in their rattletrap cabin on the Iowa plains... whereas some of the other compounds would be Greek to them, everyone would know what vinegar was. "I'll be blowed if'n that don't take the cake, Pa. Says here in th' paper as vinegar weighs less in th' summer. Never learnt that back in Yaark State, no I didn't." "Sho! Sho' it does," cackled Gran'pa Ripley. "Vinegar is vinegar, any dum fool knows that."

Verdict: Believe it!

Ripley's Believe It Or Not - 6 (Premature Aging)

THE BOY WHO DIED OF OLD AGE BEFORE HE WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD



THIS strange anomaly of an aged youth attracted considerable attention during the last century. He was Charles Charlesworth, born of normal parents in Staffordshire, England, March 14, 1829. He reached maturity and grew whiskers at the age of four and died suddenly in a faint (syncope) when but seven years old.

Charlesworth was of small stature and proportions, and with imperfectly developed clavicles, lower jaw, and membrane bones of the skull. His face was wizened, hair and whiskers white, skin shriveled, hands knotted with conspicuous veins and tendons, voice piping, and gait and standing posture those of an old man.

Ref.: "Progeria" and "Premature Senility" in any Medical Text Book.

***

Progeria is now a well-known and well-understood phenomenon, although there is no known cure. It was not described until 1886 by Jonathan Hutchinson and independently in 1897 by Hastings Gilford, after which it was named Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria syndrome (HGPS). In 2003, it was discovered that progeria caused by a point mutation in position 1824 of the LMNA gene, replacing cytosine with thymine, creating a form of the Lamin A protein which cannot be processed properly and accumulates in the cell nucleus. Lamin A is a major structural protein of the human cell nucleus. When Lamin A is altered, it affects the shape and the function of the nuclear envelope. These changes cause other cells to die prematurely. (see Progeria at Wikipedia.)

One other famous case of accelerated aging was also documented by Ripley in a later series. His description, accompanied by one of his own illustrations, was lifted almost verbatim from the Huntingdon, PA "Daily News" of 25 September 1830:



Time Magazineof Monday, Oct. 06, 1930 described the event in these words:

At Toledo, Clarence Kehr Jr., 6, standing 4 ft. I in., weighing 87 lb., was barred from both public and Catholic schools because he has a bass voice, smokes, has to shave, is as strong as a grown man. He can lift persons bulking 250 lb., 200-lb. dumbbells, can push without strain a lawn roller, or an automobile filled with passengers. Prime stunt: lifting Jack Dempsey when Dempsey scaled 202 lb. Born normal, Clarence Jr. continued so until 9 mos. old. Between 9 mos. and 3½ years he grew ten years physically in all things except height. When 4½ he was physically 14½, at 6 he is 16. He has no use for girls his own age, prefers them 16 or older.

Doctors attribute his precocity to some defect in his pineal gland. This ductless gland, apparently the rudiment of a third eye,* lies in among the interior folds of the brain. Its functions are not well understood. One thing it certainly does is to inhibit sexual development of children. Because all the ductless glands of the body delicately control and balance one another's forces, when one acts abnormally as in Clarence Kehr's case, or in Harold Arnold's case (see col. 2), it incites a physiological riot. Clarence Kehr's parents plan to appeal to Ohio's State Board of Education. Meanwhile he is being tutored privately.

*In some lizards and other reptiles and in the larva of the lamprey, the pineal gland is on a stalk (like a crayfish's eyes) and is near the top of the head. Here it has a distinguishable retina and lens. French Philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) believed: "There is a small gland [the pineal] in the brain in which the soul exercises its functions more particularly than in the other parts." Contemporaries agreed.

It appears that Kehr was not a victim of progeria - Psych Web Resources describes Kehr's case in this manner:

Accelerated aging can also be produced by hormonal imbalance, as shown by the case of Clarence Kehr. This illustration is from a 1931 article in American Psychologist titled, "A clinical study of 'Toledo's Strong Boy'" (McClure & Goldberg, 1931). It reports "the strange case of Clarence Kehr, Jr., who skipped from the cradle to adolescence in physical development." Clarence, shown at age 6, is in the middle of the photograph, with his brother and sister on either side.


"Toledo's Strong Boy" (from McClure & Goldberg, 1931)

Clarence's development was radically accelerated. He was able to lift his mother off the floor at the age of 5. He had prominent muscles, a mustache, and a baritone voice at age 6.

Clarence was proud of his weight-lifting abilities. He boasted of being the strongest boy in the world. He did not associate with other children, preferring "to do the same things that older people do." His mustache began to appear when he was 11 months old. By the age of 4, his sexual development was the same as a 14-year-old boy, and he was interested in girls.

X-ray studies revealed that Clarence, at age 6, had bone structure typical of a sixteen to eighteen year old. At the time the article was written, Clarence's parents were trying to work out a program of private instruction for him. Mentally, he was a normal 6 year old with average or below-average academic abilities. For example, he could not copy a diamond pattern, or verbally describe a picture, both standard items for 7-year-olds on the 1930 Stanford-Binet IQ test.

Verdict: Believe it!