[ATM] Palomar and the muleskinners

["Don Clement" <clement.focuser@verizon.net>]

Got tired of the horrible S. California weather this weekend and took a road trip out highway 395 past the Naval center in the desert at China Lake  (didn't Michelson do his speed of light measurements there?) and out to the most perfect weather around in Death Valley. Death Valley was dressed in its finest green suit adored with abundant colors of the many flowers that covered the desert. As I stood at Badwater, drinking good water from a bottle of premium Palomar Mountain Spring Water and looking up at the sign that said "SEA LEVEL" 282 feet above on the cliff wall across the road, I couldn't help feeling that there was some kind of connection. I didn't think that it was only the view from Badwater  of 11,049 ft. Telescope peak in Panamint mountains but something more.  The weather was so perfect that it was hard to believe that a temperature of 134* F was recorded at Badwater in 1934. We drove on to Furnace creek and saw the wagons  that had been pulled by a 20 mule team from the Harmony Borax works to the railhead at Mojave. Also the 20 mule team replacement, Old Dinah, a steam tractor. The teamsters that drove the 20 mule team (actually 2 horses and 18 mules) were called muleskinners. It wasn't till I returned that I discovered the connection between the Palomar mountain water bottle with a picture of the 200" dome and Badwater. The connection was that the borax , hauled by the muleskinners, was a major ingredient in the making of  the Pyrex (borosilicate glass) used to cast the 200" mirror.

 

Don Clement  

Running Springs, California 
_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/