Back in 1927, physics professor
Thomas Parnell, set out to prove that
brittle
tar pitch actually behaves as a liquid when kept at room temperature. Eighty-five years later, the experiment is still running.
As a professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, Parnell set up the experiment using a funnel, beaker and some melted tar pitch. To prove that the tar pitch behaved as a vicious liquid, he melted some pitch and let it cool for
three years before placing it within the funnel, which was placed over the beaker.
The first drop rolled out the funnel eight years after the initial set up. The second came nine years later. Sadly, the third drop didn't roll out until after Parnell's passing in 1948. After his death, the experiment was placed in a closet until 1961, when Professor John Mainstone revived the experiment shortly after joining the University of Queensland. Then in 1975, Mainstone successfully lobbied the university to put the experiment on display in a cabinet located in the foyer of the physics department.
Today, the experiment is on display 24 hours a day, via a dedicated webcam which can be seen
here. Mainstone expects the next drop to come down the pipeline sometime next year, but one can never tell due seasonal temperature changes effecting the rate of the pitch's flow. The last drop that ran down the funnel back in 2000, but wasn't recorded on the webcam due to a poorly timed malfunction.
Parnell's experiment has been acclaimed as the world's longest running lab experiment. Here's to another 85 years.
