The Long Drop and Snowflakes

Wilson Bentley - Plate XIX of "Studies among the Snow Crystals"

The Long Drop, capital punishment and looking at snowflakes.

Ali Naylor, of the Norris Museum, came out with the surprise fact, that the great grandfather of her friend was the inventor of "The Long Drop" for hanging as a method of execution, William Marwood. Before that, there was the short drop, which caused death by slow asphyxiation unless you had paid for someone to hang onto your feet to speed up the process. It started out with my demonstrating the proposed design of the map pages I was working on - to place names, to Caxton Gibbet, to Ali's recollection. Very logical in retrospect!

Richard, a former policemen, then expanded the conversation to the 220 crimes that were included for capital punishment by the 1820s, from theft whilst blacking the face or wearing a mask, to being in the company of gypsies for over a month. Although over 35,000 death sentences were handed down over a 60 year period up to 1830, 'only' 7000 were actually carried out. After all, we had the colonies to deport them to.

The day was interspersed with occasional light snow flurries. Back home, I chilled a black card on a bag of frozen seawater from Frinton and, during a particularly heavy flurry of snow, managed to capture some of the snowflakes. Mine were aggregates of several flakes, often partially melted together as the air temperature was just around freezing. Unfortunately, conditions were not as ideal as for "Snowflake Bentley" at the turn of the 19th/20th century. He made an art form of photographing snowflakes over an extended period. I tried some photography, using the Nikon with an extension tube . When it snows again, I could be better prepared.

After the Brexit vote in the Commons, the scandal of the halt in accepting more child refugees rumbles on but is now being superseded by the crisis in the NHS. Not good time to fall ill.  Across the Pond, the Donald is gnashing teeth and promising the appeal court retribution for the unanimous verdict on not reinstating his travel ban "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"