Curiouser and Curiouser

We present Curiouser and Curiouser, Mysterious Islands, and What's it all about, Algae?

Badnall's Undulating Railway (1832?).
Image courtesy University of Salford Information Services Division.

• Richard Badnall (died 1842): co-inventor of the "undulating railway"
• Francis John Welsh Whipple (1876-1943): investigated the inaudibility of meteors travelling at great height
• R.C. Frewen (fl 1954): author of An original realistic philosophy of the original, beginning, and evolution of the cosmos
• James Cannan McConnel (1860-1890): studied ice in Switzerland
• Somerville and Ross: pen-names of Anglo-Irish authors, Edith Somerville (1858-1949) and Violet Martin (1862-1915), who maintained their writing partnership even after Martin's death
• William Cowper (1731-1800): the poet's dream diaries
• Richard Meinertzhagen (1878-1967): naturalist and intelligence officer, who used his studies of birds as "cover"
• Annie Numbers (1897-1988): took a mathematics degree at Edinburgh University
• Upware Republic Society: in 1851, Cambridge University students founded an "independent republic" at an inn at Upware, Cambridgeshire
• Doll Collection: figures from history, used as a teaching aid

Mysterious Islands

The exploration of the southern oceans resulted in the "sighting" several islands, which although marked on the charts were subsequently found not to exist by later explorers. John Biscoe thus searched but found no sign of "Nimrod Island" during his voyage of 1830-1833, the United States Exploring Expedition did not find "Emerald Island" during its voyages of 1838-1842. During the twentieth century Wilhelm Filchner and Douglas Mawson looked in vain for "New South Greenland" and the "Royal Company Islands" respectively. >

"What's it all about, Algae?"

So, are these collections extraordinarily dull, or equally extraordinary?

• Algal memoirs compiled by botanist William Barwell Turner (1845-1917)
• Bangor Sewerage and Sewage Disposal Reports from 1971
• Sheep ear marks

Links

• Annals of Improbable Research
• Watching paint dry by Paul Sievking, Nth position magazine