Thursday, July 10, 2008

science is a mess!



St Albans College is having a major reunion of graduates from matching years in revious decades - 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998 - on Friday July 11 in Pretoria. And there's been a flood of memories.

Thought you might like to know that Peter Bower of the Class of 70 wrote about someone who is still going strong at the MTN Sciencentre - Detlef Basel, now in his 70s and still causing chaos, as can be seen in the photograph above.

This is what Peter wrote: In the 60s the Photographic, Printing and Puddlers (pottery) Clubs were all housed in one of the original farm outbuildings near the dining hall.

In the Puddlers Club somebody (Detlef Basel, I think) had lit on the idea of using a Morris Minor gearbox to drive the potter's wheel. For some reason, he hadn't removed the gear lever. The correct speed to throw a neat pot was to be found in 1st gear. Changing to top gear resulted in a most gratifying spray of muddy water and clay about the room.

Some things never change, as people who sit in the front row at Detlef's science shows might attest!

Info found here: http://www.stalbanscollege.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=380&Itemid=33

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