Risk-taking discoveries

Up, up in the air

above the clouds

is no oxygen

no heat

only teeth to hold the rope…

and friend to save my life!

 

James Glaisher and Henry Tracey Coxwell broke the world record for altitude on this date in 1862. Glaisher was a British meteorologist, and he wanted to investigate what happened to water vapor at different altitudes. The country had just been through a period of extended drought, and there was much interest in studying rain in particular, and weather in general. In order to get high enough into the atmosphere, Glaisher needed to go up in a balloon. That’s where Coxwell came in. The son of a naval officer, he was an avid and accomplished balloonist as well as a scientist. He built a balloon especially for Glaisher’s project: it was 55 feet wide and 90 feet high. The men and their instruments rose steadily, but they were unprepared for what they would experience above the clouds. At an altitude of five miles, Coxwell started to feel short of breath, and Glaisher had trouble reading his instruments. At 29,000 feet, Glaisher lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, and the balloon continued to drift higher — they later estimated that it rose to 37,000 feet before Coxwell was able to release gas from the balloon and bring the balloon back to earth. Barely conscious himself, with his hands turning black from the extremely cold temperatures, he pulled the release line with his teeth.

Wind

art posted by Roger Foucault

.

the wind

blew through

tossing birds’ nests

felling two tall trees

and twisting gold finch in a frenzy-

left the spoils

and panicked birds

and leaf and twigs

asunder!

took them

UP

rent them

blew them

DOWN!

New Years Eve

A light in the dark-

A beacon to lead you on-

up-eternity

Hidden

Find 10 faces, up

and down, all around the tree,

profiles hidden, see!

One person found a piglet and a rat too!

Did you?

Definition #172 Up

Kavi celebrates Spring

Sun

up

Kavi

up

Easter

up

Footnotes

The word “Easter” and most of the secular celebrations of the holiday come from pagan traditions. Anglo Saxons worshipped Eostre, the goddess of springtime and the return of the sun after the long winter. According to legend, Eostre once saved a bird whose wings had frozen during the winter by turning it into a rabbit. Because the rabbit had once been a bird, it could still lay eggs, and that rabbit became our Easter Bunny. Eggs were a symbol of fertility in part because they used to be so scarce during the winter. There are records of people giving each other decorated eggs at Easter as far back as the 11th century.