The Explosive Paper (feat. Veritasium) - Objectivity 298

0:00 Hi there everyone.

0:01 Welcome back to the Royal Society where

0:02 we have blockbuster YouTuber Derek Müller from Veritasium.

0:06 I'm sure you've seen his videos before.

0:08 Here's just a little taste of the kind of stuff he's making.

0:11 But today he's here at the Royal Society

0:13 with the card catalog to do the white gloves of destiny.

0:16 Are you ready, Derek?

0:17 I'm ready to let these white gloves guide me.

0:20 All right.

0:20 So, I want you to close your eyes.

0:22 You choose a draw.

0:23 You go ahead.

0:25 All right.

0:25 Tell me what you're thinking.

0:26 What's your like what's the I mean I

0:28 I want to pick something that's feels random.

0:31 Okay.

0:31 So I'm going to go like here.

0:33 Oh, we've gone low.

0:34 Okay.

0:35 All right.

0:35 So we got a deep nice deep draw here.

0:37 Yep.

0:38 Okay.

0:38 All right.

0:39 All right.

0:40 It's in here somewhere.

0:41 Okay.

0:41 Again, I'm just going to go I'm going to go right here.

0:43 Here.

0:44 Okay.

0:44 What have we got?

0:45 Henry Jeff.

0:46 We we don't know a place or a date, but it's to John Hershel.

0:50 Pratt has given his permission for the rules and they

0:52 can be enrolled as soon as the tables have been added.

0:55 will arrange a meeting with Harrison.

0:56 Leaves home tomorrow.

0:58 Keith Moore, head librarian here at the Royal Society,

1:01 will come and take the details down on a call slip.

1:04 Got a first impression there, Keith?

1:06 Uh, no place, no date.

1:08 That's uh not a good start.

1:10 We have another tradition here.

1:11 You can have a provisional.

1:13 You can have like a second card like in case

1:15 when you hit a golf ball and you think,

1:16 "Oh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to find that." So,

1:18 you hit a second golf ball.

1:19 Sure.

1:19 We're going to have a second card that you can pull.

1:22 All right.

1:23 Let's do the same.

1:24 All right, eyes are closed again.

1:26 Let's go for something where like nobody would normally look.

1:30 Top left.

1:31 Top left.

1:32 Top left.

1:32 Okay.

1:33 And how deep we going to do?

1:34 Uh, we're going to go there.

1:36 Okay.

1:36 Here we go.

1:37 1892.

1:39 Frederick Abel report on a paper by HB Dixon on the rate of explosion in gases.

1:45 I like that.

1:46 I know it's a referee's report, Keith.

1:48 I've been learning my lessons because it says RR there.

1:50 So, this is going to be a referees report about someone else's paper.

1:53 Well, there could be some dirt there.

1:54 That could be fun.

1:55 Snarky, right?

1:56 So, we will now go downstairs and have a look at what you pulled.

1:59 Let's do it.

2:00 Let's do it.

2:07 So, first of all, we have a referee's report.

2:10 Uhhuh.

2:13 1140.

2:16 There we are.

2:19 The Hersel letters are down here.

2:22 So, we have Hershel 10 and it's number 307, which should be in this box.

2:36 We're good.

2:37 Okay.

2:38 All right.

2:38 So, this was the first one, Derek.

2:40 This is the Jeffrey letter to Hershel.

2:42 So, that's a top file, there.

2:43 Okay.

2:43 Oh, wow.

2:44 Let's just see.

2:45 We can delve now as well.

2:47 People get really upset, but you're supposed to handle paper without gloves.

2:50 Okay.

2:51 So, here we are.

2:51 Uh, this is it.

2:52 And this is by Mr.

2:54 Jeff to Sir John Hershel.

2:56 Can we read his handwriting?

2:57 We can.

2:58 Yes.

2:58 Would you like to try?

2:59 Well, that's the challenge.

3:00 Yeah.

3:01 My dear sir, I go I go to London tomorrow.

3:04 I go to London tomorrow.

3:05 Yes.

3:05 For a day or two?

3:06 For a day or two?

3:06 Yes.

3:07 It's been a while.

3:07 I hope not to return before Friday.

3:10 Very good.

3:11 Meanwhile, I write to say that Tid Pratt has given his impramature to our rules

3:18 and I will have them enrolled as soon as we have added the tables.

3:24 I shall see Mr.

3:26 Hamish tomorrow and we shall arrange someday soon for our meeting.

3:31 Feel like this is kind of like reading someone's email.

3:34 It's like in the old days.

3:35 I'll be there in a bit.

3:37 We'll see you tomorrow.

3:38 Yeah.

3:38 I conclude you have not yet received any answer from Mr.

3:42 Win.

3:43 I shall leave I shall leave some tomorrow directly after breakfast

3:49 as I have several of my neighbors I wish to see.

3:53 But my servant will follow me by the coach

3:56 when it comes in about a quarter before 11.

3:59 He could thereupon give me any letter supposing

4:02 you have anything to communicate after post time tomorrow.

4:06 Hm.

4:07 We don't even know if this is about science

4:09 or administration of the Royal Society or it say tables there.

4:13 So presumably it's some kind of mathematical or astronomical table.

4:16 Okay.

4:17 But it would take a bit of detective work

4:18 to find out what he's uh what he's talking about.

4:21 What are your feelings, Derek?

4:22 Well, yeah.

4:23 Like I say, just it feels like very very ordinary communication.

4:27 There's this line here.

4:28 Do you think we shall something in be prepared in respect of tables by tomorrow?

4:35 What are these tables?

4:36 What are the tables?

4:38 This is the mystery.

4:38 It is.

4:39 It is a deep mystery.

4:40 So, if we wanted to solve the mystery,

4:42 we'd have to find all the preceding letters and following letters.

4:45 Yep.

4:45 Yep.

4:45 Yep.

4:45 And they'll probably be there because we've got over 10,000 of 10,000 letters.

4:50 Well, we've only got Derek for another 30 minutes.

4:53 So, Okay.

4:53 Well, uh, get reading, Brady.

4:56 All right.

4:57 Still, Derek, John Hershel, kind of a big deal.

5:00 Legend, held that letter and read it just like you just did.

5:03 That's got to mean something.

5:04 That is very cool.

5:05 I mean it's it's amazing that these things are here, right?

5:08 And you know, keeping this history is incredible.

5:12 And I know for some of the videos that I've been working on, often we

5:15 are chasing letters and correspondence to really get

5:18 to the bottom of the meaning of something.

5:19 So I can imagine that, you know,

5:21 if someone wanted to tell the story of those tables,

5:23 that letter would be pretty important.

5:25 But you are not that person.

5:26 I'm not that person.

5:27 I'm not I'm not in search of the understanding of the the tables.

5:30 Let's see how your second poll went.

5:32 Did you do any better with that one?

5:33 I hope so.

5:34 Uh, so we have a referee's report.

5:36 Now, Frederick Ael is a big figure.

5:38 He, you know, he he was an explosives expert.

5:40 Worked at Woolitch.

5:42 We should get something interesting here.

5:45 Oh, have a look at this.

5:47 Notice the paper.

5:48 It's on.

5:48 Imperial Institute.

5:49 No, no, the border.

5:50 What about the border?

5:51 What do you think?

5:52 I have no idea.

5:52 It's just a border.

5:54 Just a border.

5:55 Can I drop my knowledge bomb?

5:57 Do do drop your knowledge bomb, Brady.

5:59 This means the person writing it is in mourning for someone who's died.

6:04 Huh?

6:05 I had no idea.

6:06 So when you see these black borders and all these books,

6:08 you know someone has died recently.

6:10 Knowledge bomb.

6:11 Knowledge bomb dropped.

6:12 How long would they do that for?

6:13 So someone's died.

6:14 Is this a month?

6:15 Is it two weeks?

6:17 Is it a year that they're in morning?

6:18 And they So if you're in morning and you send a letter,

6:21 you put the black paper behind it.

6:23 You've uh you've exhausted my knowledge, Bob.

6:25 Okay, Keith.

6:26 Yeah.

6:27 Uh, so you would be in mourning for quite a long time.

6:31 If you were a man, you might wear crepe around, black crepe around your hat.

6:36 If you were a woman, you'd be in mourning, a black dress.

6:39 Uh, there are even memorial jewelry produced at this time.

6:43 So, my ring here, the black ring, that's in memoriam for a 19th century vicar.

6:48 So, it's a secondhand ring, but people would wear this kind of jewelry.

6:51 What does it say that the ring on your wedding finger is like a morning ring?

6:55 Uh, yeah.

6:56 Oh, let's let's not go into that.

6:58 Okay, let's let's move on.

6:59 Let's move on to the contents of the letter.

7:01 This is the actual letter.

7:02 Yeah.

7:02 1892.

7:04 So, you can see Frederick Ael's signature there.

7:06 And we can read the letter.

7:07 Yeah, you might be able to.

7:08 I I struggle with these people.

7:09 Dear Lord Rally, is this the right one?

7:12 Yeah, that's right.

7:12 Yeah.

7:12 Yeah.

7:13 So, he's writing to Lordley who has asked him to do

7:16 a referee's report on this particular paper that's been sent in.

7:19 I have carefully uh gone through professor Harold

7:23 Dixon's paper on the rate of explosion in gases

7:27 and am of the opinion that is in every

7:30 respect suitable for publication in extenso in the philosophical translation.

7:36 So publish the thing complete 10 out of 10.

7:39 Yeah, you never see that.

7:41 That's a great referees report.

7:42 I wish when I published my papers I got reports back like that.

7:46 Yep.

7:46 No changes.

7:47 Nope.

7:47 Nothing at all.

7:47 I like a little bonus Lord rally there as well.

7:50 That's a nice little one.

7:51 That's a good one.

7:51 They're for two referees quite often.

7:53 So the next letter here also to to Lord is on the same paper.

7:58 This is by GD Living.

8:00 I have no difficulty about recommending Dixon's

8:02 paper on the rate of explosions and gases

8:04 for the philosophical transactions as a valuable

8:06 and important contribution to our knowledge of the subject.

8:09 Although he has not been able

8:10 to establish a thoroughly satisfactory theory of it.

8:15 I feel like referees have to put something

8:17 in there to show that they've read the paper.

8:19 You know, even if it's good paper, they have to say something.

8:23 That that feels like a like a limited limited critique.

8:27 I feel like I know what Derek's going to want next.

8:29 I feel I would like to see the paper.

8:31 Yeah.

8:32 Yes.

8:32 I would like to see the paper that they published.

8:34 Keith, if only you were prepared enough to have brought the paper with us.

8:38 By a strange and remarkable coincidence, I have the explosive paper right here.

8:43 All right.

8:43 So the paper itself that has been so positively endorsed by these two

8:48 referees is going to be here in this volume of the philosophical transactions.

8:53 I'm really really hoping for like a picture

8:54 or a diagram something exploding just something visual.

8:58 I mean like a paper about explosions about expanding gases from 1892 like that.

9:04 I feel like that's a pretty good that's a pretty good pull.

9:06 But if if we get a picture of it all the better.

9:09 Well, this was a Royal Society named lecture.

9:11 It became the bakery lecture for that.

9:13 Yes.

9:14 This is a prize-winning lecture.

9:16 Top of the range.

9:17 Look at this.

9:18 He starts with introduction.

9:19 The experiments described in this memoir were undertaken with two objects.

9:23 In the first place to obtain information concerning

9:26 the course of chemical change pursued by reacting

9:29 gases and secondly to examine the nature

9:31 of the explosion wave in gaseous mixtures discovered by Ms.

9:35 Berto.

9:36 We have an equation which I do like.

9:38 The formula of Claussius theta equ= 29.354* the square

9:43 root of T/ D where T is the absolute

9:46 temperature reached in the explosion and D the density

9:49 of the products of combustion referred to air.

9:52 Lovely.

9:52 I like that.

9:53 I do like an equation.

9:55 Oh, we have we have some tables.

9:57 Velocity in meters/s of the expanding gases.

10:00 Oh, look.

10:00 He's got calculations for it and he's got the values that he

10:03 found and generally they seem to be within some some agreement.

10:08 I'd say plus- 10%.

10:09 It would be hydrogen.

10:11 He's done very well on that one.

10:12 Carbonic oxide, not so well.

10:14 Combustible gases with nitrous oxide.

10:17 Yeah.

10:18 Okay.

10:18 So, we've got all the tables of all these results.

10:21 Wow.

10:21 This is lengthy.

10:22 It is.

10:23 Yeah.

10:23 He's given the whole opus here, which I think, you know.

10:27 Yeah.

10:27 He hasn't turned it into a YouTube video, has he?

10:29 No.

10:29 Well, he's not done a short.

10:30 He's He's done a long form.

10:32 He's going for the 2 or three hour.

10:33 Yeah.

10:34 I I can't believe people would sit and listen to all of this.

10:37 Honestly, I start to wonder about those referees if they saw

10:40 this like tome arrive and they just scribbled off those little notes.

10:44 Yes.

10:44 Absolutely worthy of publication.

10:46 So, they didn't want to read all of this.

10:47 My goodness.

10:48 Still going.

10:49 This is really long.

10:49 But still going.

10:50 But I will say, Derek,

10:51 you have done well on your first attempt at pulling with the gloves.

10:55 You were The first one was a bit of a dud, but you came through with the backup.

10:58 I mean, this one, it just seems like he's done everything.

11:01 Like, he's gone through every possible mixture he could.

11:04 I wonder if this guy just really loved explosions because uh Wow.

11:09 Brady wants pictures of blowing stuff up.

11:11 I know.

11:12 And I understand.

11:12 So does the internet.

11:13 Picture picture.

11:14 We do have an apparatus for preparing chlorine and hydrogen.

11:17 Everyone's curious about how you might prepare it.

11:19 Looks uh very much as you'd expect old apparatus to look.

11:23 I'm not Oh, look.

11:24 Oh, hang on.

11:24 He's got a cart section of drum mounted

11:27 on turntable and trolley for winding the explosion tube.

11:32 Oh, okay.

11:34 We got all sorts of figures and diagrams now.

11:37 But this this just gets better and better.

11:38 Look at all these apparatus he was using.

11:40 Oh, that's amazing.

11:42 And he's got firing wires, the firing piece.

11:45 That's the explosion tube wound on the drum.

11:48 Look at all this.

11:48 This is great.

11:49 Wow.

11:50 This guy has been thorough.

11:51 Yeah, this is really good.

11:52 I'm not surprised the referees gave this the thumbs up, right?

11:55 Yeah.

11:55 So, we got some posh grass now.

11:58 The end.

11:59 Wow.

12:01 I did not expect to get uh something that that complex.

12:04 We've gone We've gone deep.

12:06 And I think there could be a Veritassium video in this.

12:08 Oh, absolutely.

12:09 You could recreate one of these experiments.

12:11 Get the apparatus built, get it working.

12:13 And I think people would like it to see all these exploding gases.

12:16 Yeah.

12:16 And compare the results you can get

12:18 with modern instruments with what he was getting.

12:20 Yeah.

12:21 So, this is like 19th century YouTube.

12:23 Yeah.

12:24 Yeah.

12:24 This could be.

12:25 Get on it.

12:25 Get on it.

12:26 All right.

12:26 I look forward to that video in the next 6 months or so.

12:28 Stay tuned.

12:30 We'll pop a link to the Veritassium YouTube channel down below.

12:34 Also, you can head over to our Patreon page to see more pictures and scans,

12:38 high-res images of all the documents from today's video.

12:41 That's one of the perks of being a Patreon supporter.

12:44 You can see the names of some supporters here on the screen at the moment.

12:47 If you'd like to become one, help us make more videos,

12:50 please go across to the website and have a look.

12:52 There'll be links down below to that as well.

12:55 That's the beginning.

12:55 I think beginning.

12:56 Yeah, maybe this one.

12:59 All right, let's have a look.

13:00 We have an undated paper from 1868 by James Clark Maxwell.

13:06 Okay.

13:06 on account of my ignorance of um crystalallography.