The Prometheus Club - a gentlemen´s club for mad scientists

[Ella Kremper]

Well, to solve all the problems of inflation and lack of cash, I've embarked on a quest to turn lead into green.

Yes, the world's purest green*.

*Points may be given for correct guesses as to the reference, but are likely not to be given because I'm miserly. Feel free to pat yourself on the back, however!

[Herr Döktor]

Ah Percy, someone appears to have blown their nose on your shirt.

(alchemy led, ultimately, to the legitimate study of chemistry, so it qualifies in my book!)

[Ella Kremper]

Ah Percy, someone appears to have blown their nose on your shirt.

Points to the gentleman dressed as a spider!

[Atterton]

Well I´m afraid club rules state that the occult or magic is not allowed here.

[Dr. Zedrich Heretic]

Well I´m afraid club rules state that the occult or magic is not allowed here.

I’ve read no such rules in this thread, or rules of any form, unless you count the “Leave your coat and ethics at the door.”

[Atterton]

I know, I just made them.

[JingleJoe]

I know, I just made them.

Lets see a big fancy list with a title in heavy gothic font and fancy scrollwork all round!

Well, to solve all the problems of inflation and lack of cash, I've embarked on a quest to turn lead into green.
Yes, the world's purest green*.
*Points may be given for correct guesses as to the reference, but are likely not to be given because I'm miserly. Feel free to pat yourself on the back, however!

Ah Percy, someone appears to have blown their nose on your shirt.
(alchemy led, ultimately, to the legitimate study of chemistry, so it qualifies in my book!)

Oh oh me too I know the reference! It influences my "Mad Titles" I give to things when feeling particularly fancy and mad sciencey
 "Ah it's purest orange!"
"look, add this dash of purest red to make purest flavour!"
"It's purest wood!"

[Atterton]

Well this club is for the discussion of science and scientific experiments. Bringing magic into it would be a waste of time, as it is not real. Besides I don´t want people to be going on about Chtulu.

I just found some footage from a surgical procedure where they transplants the head of a monkey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJGlYOL0r4

It´s not as graphic as I would have thought. Seeing as they have started doing hand transplants today, they must be pretty good at reattaching nerves. Maybe they could get a lot further these days with head transplants. There´s also the footage of the dogs head being kept artificially alive, which looks quite interesting.

[JingleJoe]

Chtulu.

That made my face twitch in an uncontrollable manner, please correct yourself or I will begin to talk about that which you mispell

[Dr. Zedrich Heretic]

Well this club is for the discussion of science and scientific experiments. Bringing magic into it would be a waste of time, as it is not real.

Really now.  “There are more things in Heaven and Earth then are dreamt of in your philosophy,” As the playwright said.  Science cannot account for all things in nature and it is decidedly lacking in maters of the spirit.  Is there an equation for love?  Can you show me where the soul is on an anatomy chart?  Ingenuity comes from imagination, and imagination comes from the human heart, the ability to dream.  Until science can account for all of these things, a bold statement like, “It is not real,” is groundless.

Very well, I will leave here in peace, for now…

YOU’LL LIVE TO REGRET THIS!

[Albert Bagstock]

You're too mad for a mad scientist's society. I'd take that as a compliment.

[Flynn MacCallister]

Chtulu.

That made my face twitch in an uncontrollable manner, please correct yourself or I will begin to talk about that which you mispell

Unless it was deliberate. They know when you speak their names...

[Think_Long]

Very well, I will leave here in peace, for now…

YOU’LL LIVE TO REGRET THIS!

seems to me like you fully intend to live up to your 'heretic' name

[Nikola Tesla]

Well I am really late to the party, I lost phone and net access for a while, something to do with the antigravity. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I really did lose it to a powerful burst of electricity...from the sky, this time.

So I apologize.  But unfortunately, since my current projects involve alchemy, I can't share them here...

[Ella Kremper]

What I think is meant is that the Prometheus Club does not examine things focused on in the Crowley Convention, or the Blavatsky Meet, as it is not its focus.

[Atterton]

Mostly it meant that you will not get kicked out for being too mad, but maybe for not being scientific enough. However experiments like the "21 grams" would still be allowed to discuss. Also as it is a language not meant for human throats, I doubt it matters how you spell Chtulu.

[Ambie]

Good day Ladies and Gentlemen;
Apologies to be bothering such a fine group of scientists as yerselves with dis long post, but the Doc has me scrounging about for another bit of knowledge and I thunk that y’all might know something about it.  She heard of this club and simply assumes that she is a member (and I be wanting to stay above snakes for a while long so I didn't say nothing 'bout that!).

Bit of background.
‘Course everyone here knows ‘bout Haller's ‘irritability’ concepts and how those were refined by Unzer’s neuromuscular classification (voluntary, involuntary, and unconscious).  Unzer’s decapitated toad experiments further showed da point that the ‘animal spirits’ could keep headless animals moving.  With the ever-improving Leyden jars more such experiments were devised by brilliant genius like Caldani, Musschenbroek, or the ever popular Nollet (who else would line up two miles of men to see if everyone gots shocked when each end o’ the line touched the poles of a Leyden jar) to investigate reanimation.
 
In his famous series of experiments, Galvani managed to work out an apparatus to gather atmospheric electricity to contract frog legs and; of course, his nephew worked with newly decapitated criminal heads and electricity eliciting many facial movements (until petty minded obstructionists made the practice illegal in 1804).
 
This leads me to Krüger (his work needs no description) and specifically to his student Dr. Kratzenstein.  Using frictional methods to produce electricity, his work with the reanimation of paralyzed phalanges is impressive; however, we be interested in details concerning  his work with human ‘electro-sleep’ (the relaxation and/or unconsciousness stimulated by a very low voltage electric current passing through da brain) first mentioned in a 1743 letter and later in his 2nd edition 1745 book. 

What we be looking for.
So we be looking for any clues as to the spacial and/or temporal locations of public or private copies of Kruger and Kratzenstein’s 1744 (first edition) pamphlet on the therapeutic uses of electricity.
 
As per private correspondence, this edition contains the uncensored experimental drawings and descriptions of remote (i.e., no physical connections) electro-sleep induction.  Such a device would be of great aid in the collection of undamaged field specimens and possible other scientific uses.

Unfortunately, I be unsure of the title of the first edition (as all public copies are missing, dangnabit) but the second edition (1745) is titled, “Von dem Nutzen dcr Electricitat in der Arzneinissenschaft.”

As I have been searching I thunk that Edward Cave’s magazine (first issued ‘bout 1731 using the nom de plume of Sylvanus Urban), titled ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’  might be a possible lead.  This would not be the best source for technical information but it does cover medical breakthroughs of the time so if someone knows any issue(s) that discuss Kratzenstein or Kruger that would be most helpful.

Thank ye kindly for any assistance you might offer the Doc. 

[Ella Kremper]

As I have been searching I thunk that Edward Cave’s magazine (first issued ‘bout 1731 using the nom de plume of Sylvanus Urban), titled ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’  might be a possible lead.  This would not be the best source for technical information but it does cover medical breakthroughs of the time so if someone knows any issue(s) that discuss Kratzenstein or Kruger that would be most helpful.

Thank ye kindly for any assistance you might offer the Doc. 

Whilst I still have access to my university's journal vaults, I did a quick search on this Kratzenstein chap, and have come up with this journal article written about him from 2002.

I'm going to hazard a guess that the article you're looking for is the 9th citation on there: Abhandlung dem Nutzen der Electricität in der Arzneywissenshaft (the date matches, anyway, my German is hazy and can only be used to talk about penguins on holiday in Antarctica).

[Ambie]

Grand!  That must be the title.

I have recently acquired a copy of Kaplan’s (2004) “Mind, Brain, Body, and Soul: A Review of the Electrophysiological Undercurrents for Dr. Frankenstein”   (in Clinical Neurophysiology) which has a bit more detail than the 2002 paper and confirms the suggested reference (e.g., has a drawing from the 1744 paper).

Hmmm, it appears that Dr. Kaplan has or had access to the 1744 paper--at least betwen the years 2002-2004.  I be believing that the Doc might want to, um, visit with 'im.   

The Doc will be delighted with progress and we all be happy when she smiles.   

Thank ye many times for your help.

As an aside; anyone working with a Weinholdian framework (replacement of spinal cord interior with bimetallic mixes such as silver and zinc to produce electricity)?  We be having control problems with the bigger bison (and its sure be a mess with a berserk bison in the lab) due to over-stimulation of the brain.  It is possible that the concept aint no good at larger scale (he worked with tiny decapitated kittens) but the reanimation of major organs and musles is promising.  We gots a good system for replenishing the bimetallic mixes but this control problem sure gots us all plumb argy-bargy with each other. 

[Albrecht]

I just found some footage from a surgical procedure where they transplants the head of a monkey. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJGlYOL0r4 It´s not as graphic as I would have thought. Seeing as they have started doing hand transplants today, they must be pretty good at reattaching nerves. Maybe they could get a lot further these days with head transplants. There´s also the footage of the dogs head being kept artificially alive, which looks quite interesting.

I've seen that in a documentary once. I find it pretty revolting. Before they do this, they should train on nerve cells grown in petri dishes.

[Ella Kremper]

Personally, I just find it great that they can re-attach nerves of things that were attached to your own body (severed fingers and whatnot), rather than switching heads, which I think should be reserved for Princess Mombie in Return to Oz.

I know I wouldn't like someone else's head... I just feel it wouldn't feel right. The weight distribution would be off, the little cricks in the neck that you always expect when you do something. In that case I'd probably go for the brain and eye in a buffer solution like William.

Although it does make me wonder, because it's not necessarily to do with the rewiring of nerves and such. Depending on where the head was removed, the vocal capabilities may be affected. The resonation would be off, surely.

I just get an image of the head turning into a great, putrified mush. You'd never want to eat peas again.

[Think_Long]

well, i don't know if it is possible to have a new head without being an entirely new person, but a new body would be something else.  or perhaps several that can be kept in cold storage, and i can just reattach my head to any of them depending on the need. hmmmmmmm

[von Corax]

Anyone else here read Donald Moffitt's Mechanical Sky dualogy? It begins with "The Emir is having himself beheaded again!" (The Emir kept a stable of clones of himself, and would regularly have his hundred-something-year-old head grafted onto a younger body.)

[JingleJoe]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd just like to share with you photos of this phial of fluid I'm sending to a comrade-in-mad-science I'm quite proud with how it turned out, it really looks the part
The cork is sealed with wax and the phial is from around 1920 Contained within it is a solution of concentrated Joe's Ocular-Visual Pigmentation Distortion Fluid (may contain traces of a colour out of space ) It really does have a strange colour- infact it has a few depending on what angle the light is at, the colour of the light, what angle you look at it from and how diluted it is.

[Mr. Consciousflesh]

Nice phial ! But its contents looks familiar ... Is it a mixture of copper chloride and iron chloride commonly known as used etchant ?

Now,  a word of warning for all the mad scientists who use a gas welding goggles for eye protection . I made some experiments and now i know that the glass used in these goggles does not provide almost any protection against 808 nm laser ! In 680 nm range it is even worse , the attenuation factor is only about 100  . It seems I will have to find another solution to this problem before tuning the optics of my 20W laser