Author: Bess Lovejoy

It was hard to get a word out of “Silent Cal,” the president Teddy Roosevelt’s daughter once said was so sour-looking he appeared to have been weaned on a pickle. But while Coolidge was reserved in public, he apparently had plenty of fun in private.

When an admirer—either a friend or an anonymous donor—sent an electric horse to the White House in 1925, Coolidge reportedly laughed so hard at the sight of William Starling, the head of the Secret Service, atop the contraption that he had to sit down. Then, he decided to try it himself—and a weird-but-true White House legend was born.

Coolidge was no stranger to equines, of course. He was an outdoorsman and a horse lover. Though he fell from a horse as a child, breaking his arm, he loved horseback riding for exercise. But his increasing political duties—he was a mayor, senator, and then governor of Massachusetts before being elected as vice president and eventually becoming president in 1923—didn’t leave much leisure time.

By the time he made it to the White House, Coolidge had apparently put on eight pounds. But how was an executive to exercise in the days before Shake Weights and ellipticals?

Enter the electric horse. It was the brainchild of John Harvey Kellogg, the utopian doctor best known for inventing corn flakes in an attempt to cure people of their masturbation habits. Kellogg was a proponent of better living through electricity, crafting scores of inventions that promised to vibrate, shake, and shock patients back to health. He claimed that one of his apparatuses for “automatic exercise,” which he called “the riding horse,” perfectly imitated the single-foot and English trot gaits of a real horse.

Coolidge apparently thought so, too. Though The New York Times mocked the device as “a hobby horse” in 1923, it cited friends who thought that the president’s strength and stamina as a leader were due “in large part to the attention he has given his electric horse.” From a canter to a gallop, Coolidge rode it three times a day.

The president’s personal physician told The Chicago Tribune that while “the horse is not much for looks,” it had some medical benefits. “It is great for the liver and fine for reducing flesh,” he declared. The story was apparently kept secret until Coolidge had to send for an electrician to repair his steed after it went berserk and bucked him from the saddle.

Today, the president’s trusty horse stands in the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts, a testament to the quiet president’s thrice-daily dose of whimsy—and fitness.

Earth is nicknamed “the blue planet” for a reason—lakes, rivers, and oceans cover around 71 percent of its surface. Aquariums help us connect with these watery environments, but looking after the creatures that live in these places isn’t always easy. On any given day, the people who take care of water-dwelling animals and plants for a living—they’re known as aquarists—might be asked to swim with sharks, train sea lions, or poke a gassy sea horse.

1. THE JOB MARKET IS INCREDIBLY COMPETITIVE.

Like zoos, aquariums get loads of applications whenever an animal care position opens. Therefore, vacancies tend to be filled in short order. “It’s a very, very competitive field,” says Paige Stuart, an aquarist at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium. “Basically everybody wants to do this, so you have to try to get ahead of the game as much as you can.” As a rule, aquariums will expect all applicants to have a degree in biology or a related field. Stuart adds that, on top of this, “You definitely have to be scuba-certified.”

But satisfying those two requirements still might not be enough to get you hired. “It’s harder to get a job without first having a lot of experience,” Sally*, who works at a zoo in the southeastern U.S., notes. “You need the degree, but it’s the experience that’s going to make you better at your job and what will ultimately get you the job in the first place.”

To boost your credentials, Sally recommends volunteering or interning at a local aquarium, zoo, or animal shelter. Applying to pet stores, she adds, might also be a good idea: “They’ll help you get to know the practical side of things, the actual application of your book knowledge.”

2. OCTOPUSES CAN CAUSE MAYHEM.

Never underestimate those cephalopods. In 2008, an octopus at one German aquarium deliberately short-circuited the lamp above his tank by squirting a jet of water at the fixture. Not to be outdone, an octopus at the Santa Monica Pier aquarium caused a minor flood the next year. After the creature loosened a water-control valve that fed into its own filtration system, 200 gallons of seawater poured out onto the surrounding floor. And last April, yet another octopus pulled off a spectacular escape worthy of Steve McQueen. Staffers at the New Zealand National Aquarium were dumbfounded to discover that their octopus named Inky had crawled out of his tank and squeezed into a six-inch-wide drain. Where did this exit lead? Directly into the Pacific Ocean.

3. IF YOU WANT TO BE AN AQUARIST, BRUSH UP ON YOUR PLUMBING SKILLS.

“Believe me, you need to know a lot about plumbing for this job,” Vickie Sawyer, an aquarist at Norwalk’s Maritime Aquarium, observes. Those who work with captive fish and marine animals deal with all manner of filters, valves, and pumps, and the bigger the aquarium, the more elaborate the plumbing. Consider, for instance, the world-famous Georgia Aquarium, which utilizes an expansive network of filtration systems that distributes 10 million gallons of water throughout the facility. To keep things running smoothly, a Life Support System (LSS) team oversees some 225 individual pumps. These highly trained employees are also responsible for monitoring the water temperature and pH level in each tank, among other things.

4. GASSY SEA HORSES MAY BENEFIT FROM A GENTLE POKING SESSION.

As most people know, it’s the male seahorse that gives birth. A special pouch on his stomach makes this amazing feat possible. When these fish mate, the females deposit their eggs into the pouch. Ten to 25 days later, as many as 2000 babies will come shooting out of this receptacle. Sally tells us that the unusual breeding process makes male sea horses susceptible to an odd medical problem: Excessive gas sometimes accumulates inside of their pouches. To deal with this, an aquarist will need to gently grasp an afflicted male, keeping him just below the water’s surface. Then, Sally explains, careful pressure should be applied to his midsection with a blunt, stick-shaped object (e.g., a plastic pipette). If all goes well, the gas will be released in the form of harmless bubbles.

5. CAPTIVE SEALS GET RESTAURANT-QUALITY CUISINE.

Every fish that’s given to a seal or sea lion has to be rigorously inspected for quality and health. “We check their eyes, their bodies, and press their stomachs to make sure they aren’t too soft,” Sawyer says. According to Sally, if even a single scale is out of place, the fish can’t be used. “There are a lot of really strict regulations on marine-mammal keeping,” she says. “I used to work with seals and when I did, I spent 90 percent of my time in the kitchen, making sure the fish were perfect. If any little scale was missing, that could mean that some parasite had gotten inside the fish.” When all’s said and done, the potential entrée has to be a restaurant-quality specimen.

6. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT A “TOUCH TANK” IS NOT A PLAYGROUND.

So-called “touch tanks” are roofless enclosures that allow guests to reach down and actually touch a small menagerie of aquatic animals. Given the hands-on appeal, such exhibits are quite popular—especially with kids. Unfortunately, visitors sometimes get a little too rough with the display creatures. In order to keep their creatures from getting injured or stressed, aquariums will often enforce a strict “two-finger touch” policy (rather than using the whole hand). It’s also common practice to ask all guests to wash their hands before they approach the tank.

7. TRAINING A MARINE MAMMAL IS A VERY TIME-CONSUMING PROCESS.

In the words of biologist Toni Loschiavo, “There’s a lot of time, there’s a lot of patience, there’s a lot of care that goes into each animal that you see performing in a show.” An assistant curator at the Mystic Aquarium in eastern Connecticut, Loschiavo helps manage the facility’s Maritime Theater, where trained sea lions dazzle crowds several times a day. Experience has taught her that even the most basic marine mammal stunts are the fruit of some intense labor. For instance, she claims that teaching a pinniped (seal or sea lion) just to lift its flipper on command is a process that can take more than 30 hours.

Most trainers employ a method called “positive reinforcement operant conditioning.” This involves giving the animal a command and then rewarding it—usually with food—for responding appropriately. To inform the creature that it’s done a good job and that a reward is on the way, trainers use a special signal known as a “bridge.” Normally a sight or sound cue of some kind (eg: blowing a whistle), this lets the animal know it has done a good job and prevents it from getting frustrated while its trainer grabs a treat. [PDF]

8. AQUARIUMS TEND TO TRADE ANIMALS.

Myrtle the green sea turtle is arguably the most beloved reptile in Boston. Over the past 46 years, she’s become a fan favorite at the New England Aquarium, where she spends her days eating Brussels sprouts and hanging out with sharks in a gorgeous four-story tank. “She arrived on June 12, 1970 … the year after we opened,” New England Aquarium senior aquarist Sherrie Floyd Cutler told Boston Magazine. Myrtle was acquired from the now-defunct Provincetown Aquarium in exchange for some smaller turtles. Cutler reveals that it’s “very common for aquariums and zoos to trade surplus animals … In terms of conservation, it helps partially to stock exhibits, especially when you’re talking about an endangered species. Myrtle was too big for their tank, so it worked great for us.”

9. THEY PERFORM ANIMAL AUTOPSIES.

“You have to report every single death,” Sally tells mental_floss. Oftentimes, the staff veterinarian(s) will perform a necropsy (an animal autopsy) in order to ascertain why the creature died. Information gleaned from this procedure can be invaluable; if it turns out that a certain fish was killed by some kind of disease, the necropsy might help the staff fight the outbreak before it can spread further and potentially wipe out an entire tank.

10. AQUARISTS SPEND MOST OF THEIR TIME CLEANING.

Just ask Ruby Banwait, a fish specialist at the Vancouver Aquarium [PDF]. “Much of the work of an aquarist is cleaning—cleaning glass, cleaning walls, cleaning gravel,” she says. “This is important not only for the health of the animals but also for aesthetic reasons. We want … visitors [to] mentally transport themselves into the world beneath the water.”

Sally agrees that she spends much of her day cleaning tanks, noting that she’ll often get herself pretty filthy in the process. “There are so many ways to get covered in fish poop,” she jokes. On certain weekdays, she’ll clean the substrate and filters of her aquariums, and fecal matter collects in both locations. Then there’s the protein skimmer, a handy device used to filter out solid waste. “It’s basically just a cup of poop that you have to wash out in a sink,” she explains.

11. GREAT PAINS ARE TAKEN TO KEEP THE SHARKS WELL-FED.

Nurse sharks, lemon sharks, and other good-sized species often share huge, expensive enclosures with various smaller fish. Ever wonder what stops the notorious predators from turning these tanks into sushi bars?

The answer is actually pretty straightforward. When a carnivore’s belly stays full, it loses the urge to hunt. So aquarists make sure that their sharks stay satisfied. At the Tennessee Aquarium, the biggest marine tank is a mixed-species setup that includes multiple sand tiger and sandbar sharks (both of which can grow to 8 feet or more). Three times every week, the predatory fish are given two to three percent of their body weight in food. A typical meal consists of some mackerel meat dipped into the tank at the end of a large pole.

The Toronto-based Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada maintains a similar tank, filled with its own sand tigers. Like their counterparts in Tennessee, the keepers here stand on platforms and hold out long sticks tipped with some tasty shark chow. Apparently, the system works very well. “People frequently lose their poles while feeding the sharks. I’ve even fallen in the tank,” aquarist Nicole Petrovskis told Toronto Life magazine. “When I fell, all the sharks heard the noise and flew to the other side … People ask if I was scared, but the first thing I thought of when I fell in was, ‘Damn, it’s weird to swim with shoes on.’”

All images via iStock unless otherwise noted.

* Some names have been changed.

There are roughly 200 varieties of natural gemstone known in the world today. Alongside the world’s precious gems (diamond, ruby, sapphire, and emerald) are numerous semi-precious stones, some of which are so incredibly rare that their value outstrips many of the world’s most valuable precious gems. Here are a few of the rarest from around the world.

1. TANZANITE // FOUND ONLY IN TANZANIA

 
Tanzanite is a beautiful blue variety of the mineral zoisite, and is so named because it is only found in a small area near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The stone was not discovered in commercial quantities until the 1960s and since then its popularity has grown tremendously, thanks largely to the efforts of Tiffany & Co. Heat-treating tanzanite at very high temperatures can improve the blue coloration, so most gems on the market have been treated in this way, but any tanzanite that has not been heat-treated and has a strong blue color naturally will be of a much higher value. Because it is only found in one small location, the value of tanzanite looks likely to soar over time; once those mines have been emptied there will be no new stones coming onto the market—unless a new source is found.

2. BLACK OPAL // THE DARKER THE BETTER

 
Opals are usually a creamy-white color and are made special by the rainbow-colored inclusions that reflect the light as the stone is moved. Black opals are much rarer, because almost all of them are found in mines in the Lightning Ridge area of New South Wales in Australia. The darker their background color and brighter the inclusions, the more valuable the stone. One of the most valuable black opals of all time is the “Aurora Australis,” which was uncovered in Lightning Ridge in 1938. The 180-carat opal is especially admired due to its large size and intense harlequin coloration; in 2005 it was valued at AUS $1,000,000, or about $763,000 U.S.

3. LARIMAR // ONLY FOUND IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 
Larimar is a very rare blue variety of the mineral pectolite and is found in only one small area of the Dominican Republic. This turquoise stone’s name was created by the man who brought the stone to prominence in 1974, Miguel Méndez—he took the first part of his daughter’s name, Larissa, and combined it with the Spanish word for sea, mar, to create the portmanteau larimar. Locals had known of the existence of the stone for generations, because small examples had washed up on the seashore, but it was not until the 1970s that sufficient quantities were found in the ground to open a mine.

4. PARAIBA TOURMALINE // NEON LUSTER

 
Tourmalines are common in many colors across Brazil, but the Paraiba tourmalines are the only stones with a bright turquoise hue, thanks to their copper content. The very rare gems were discovered in 1987 by determined miner Heitor Dimas Barbosa, who had been driven by a belief that something special lurked under the hills of the Brazilian state of Paraiba. Barbosa was right, and after years of fruitless digging, he finally unearthed a tourmaline of unrivaled neon blue that set the gem market alight. The extremely rare stone (only one stone is mined for every 10,000 diamonds) then became intensely sought-after. In 2003 very similar turquoise-colored tourmalines were found at mines in the mountains of Nigeria and Mozambique, although some say they are not quite as striking as the Paraiba tourmaline.

5. GRANDIDERITE // ONE EXCEPTIONAL EXAMPLE

 
Grandiderite was first described in 1902 by French mineralogist Alfred Lacroix, who found it in Madagascar and named it in honor of the French explorer Alfred Grandidier, an expert on Madagascan natural history. This extremely rare blue-green mineral has been found in a number of places around the world, but so far only Madagascar and Sri Lanka have produced any gem-quality stones, and these are still extremely scant. The majority of the known stones are translucent, but the most rare, and therefore most valuable, example ever found was transparent. In fact, the stone was initially assumed to be another rare gem, serendibite, because grandiderite of that color and transparency had yet to be seen. The gem was only identified as grandiderite after expert analysis and was subsequently sold for an undisclosed sum. It’s safe to assume that if a gem of similar quality were to be unearthed, its scarcity alone would ensure it fetched an extremely high price.

6. ALEXANDRITE // COLOR-SHIFTING GEM

 
The amazing color-changing stone alexandrite was discovered in 1830 in the Ural Mountains in Russia and named after Russian tsar Alexander II. A variety of chrysoberyl, the stone’s remarkable color-shifting capability makes it especially sought-after: In sunlight the stone looks blue-green, but under incandescent light it becomes red-purple. The degree of color change varies from stone to stone, with some only showing marginal change, but the most valuable are clear stones that demonstrate complete color change.

Although some large examples of the stone have been found (the Smithsonian houses the world’s largest known cut sample of alexandrite at 65.08 carats), the majority are under one carat. This means that the value of a gem under a carat may only be $15,000, but a stone larger than one carat might fetch as much as $70,000 per carat.

7. BENITOITE // STATE GEM OF CALIFORNIA

 
Benitoite is only mined in one small area of California, near the San Benito River (hence the name), but the mine closed for commercial mining in 2006, making this gemstone yet more scarce. The gem was first identified around 1907 by geologist George Louderback and has a deep-blue color that shows especially interesting qualities when caught under UV light, when it glows fluorescent. The gem was named the official state gemstone of California in 1985 in recognition of the fact that, despite it being found in trace quantities in Arkansas as well as Japan and Australia, California is the only place where it can feasibly be mined. Due to the rarity of discovering a good quality benitoite of a reasonable size, it can fetch huge prices on the open market—a well-cut benitoite stone at over 2 carats can fetch more than $10,000 a carat.

8. PAINITE // ONCE THE WORLD’S RAREST GEM

 
Painite was first discovered by British gemologist Arthur Charles Davy Pain in 1951 and recognized as a new mineral in 1957. For many years only one specimen of the dark red crystal was in existence, housed at the British Museum in London, making it the world’s rarest gemstone. Later on other specimens were discovered, although by 2004 there were still fewer than two dozen known painite gems. However, in recent years a couple of mines in Myanmar have begun to produce some painite, and there are now said to be over 1000 stones known. The scarcity of this gem has made it extremely valuable and just one carat can fetch more than $60,000.

9. RED BERYL // TINY AND SCARCE

 
Red beryl, also known as bixbite or red emerald, is so rare it is estimated by the Utah Geological Survey that a single such gem is uncovered for every 150,000 gem-quality diamonds. Pure beryl is colorless and only gains its bright hues from impurities in the rock: chromium and vanadium give beryl a green color resulting in an emerald; iron provides a blue or yellow tint creating aquamarine and golden beryl; and manganese adds the deep-red color to create red beryl. Red beryl is only found in Utah, New Mexico, and Mexico, and the majority of examples found are just a few millimeters in length, too small to be cut and faceted for use. Those that have been cut are generally less than a carat in weight, and a red beryl of 2 or 3 carats would be considered exceptional.

10. TAAFFEITE // DISCOVERED BY CHANCE

 
Austrian-Irish gemologist Count Edward Charles Richard Taaffe bought a box of cut stones from a jeweler in Dublin in the 1940s, thinking he had purchased a collection of spinels. But on closer inspection, he noted that one of the pale mauve gems was not reacting to the light in the same way as the rest of the spinels, so he sent it off to be analyzed. The results revealed that he had discovered a hitherto unknown gemstone—a serendipitous but frustrating situation, since he had discovered a cut gem and had no idea where the mineral naturally occurred. Fortunately, once the new stone had been announced, many other collectors re-examined their own spinel collections and a number of other samples were uncovered. Finally the source of the stone was tracked down to Sri Lanka, although a handful have also been found in Tanzania and China. It is thought that less than 50 examples of taaffeite exist—many of which are housed in geological and private collections, making this gemstone so rare the ordinary public are unlikely to ever encounter it.

By their very nature, explorers often push the boundaries of survival in the name of glory, so it’s not a great surprise that many have gone missing in the course of their adventures. Over the years, the quest to uncover the truth of what happened to them has captivated the public, historians, and journalists alike, leading to numerous theories and some surprising finds.

1. GASPAR AND MIGUEL CORTE-REAL // LOST BROTHERS

The youngest of three Portuguese brothers, Gaspar Corte-Real was a keen explorer who undertook an expedition to Greenland in 1500. He embarked on a second expedition in 1501 with his older brother Miguel, in which they claimed Greenland for the crown before apparently sailing on to reach Newfoundland or Labrador. At that point, Gaspar sent two of his three ships back to Portugal, including the one captained by his brother. Gaspar’s ship continued its explorations, but was never seen again.

In 1502, Miguel Corte-Real, learning of his brother’s disappearance, led a search party to the area where Gaspar was believed lost, but he found nothing, and his ship too went missing. The oldest Corte-Real brother, Vasco Annes, begged the king to let him mount a further search party to find his lost brothers, but the king refused—perhaps unwilling to risk the embarrassment of losing a third Corte-Real.

The disappearances have remained a mystery for centuries. But in the 1910s, Edmund Burke Delabarre, a psychology professor at Brown University, put forward a new theory about the inscriptions on the famous Dighton Rock in Massachusetts. The rock is covered with petroglyphs that were first noted way back in 1680, and since then scholars have proposed numerous theories about who carved them and why. Delabarre suggested that the inscription was in fact abbreviated Latin, and reads: “I, Miguel Cortereal, 1511. In this place, by the will of God, I became a chief of the Indians.” This astounding theory implies that the explorer may have continued his travels into America and survived at least nine years in the New World. If his inscription is to be believed, made quite a success of his new life.

2. JEAN-FRANCOIS DE GALAUP // DISAPPEARED AT SEA

Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Pérouse, was an accomplished sea captain. In 1785, inspired by the successes of Captain James Cook, the French king Louis XVI sent La Pérouse on an expedition to explore the Pacific. The party was made up of two ships—La Boussole and L’Astrolabe—manned by 225 crewmembers. The voyage was expected to last four years. La Pérouse kept scrupulous records of his findings during the trip, mapping coastlines, taking specimens, and making observations of the peoples and places he encountered. (Thankfully, he sent his journals back to France, where they were preserved for posterity and later published to great success.) Having successfully sailed through the Pacific, taking in Japan, the Philippines, and Tonga, La Pérouse arrived at Botany Bay in Australia and was witnessed by British settlers sailing out of the bay in March 1788, the last sighting of the expedition. By 1791, when no communication had been received from Pérouse for some time, a search party was dispatched from France—but no trace of the expedition was found.

The puzzle seemed to be solved in 1826 when an Irish sailor, Peter Dillon, came across something intriguing while exploring the Solomon Islands. The locals had a number of European swords, which Dillon thought might have belonged to La Pérouse, and told of sighting two large ships that had broken up on the reefs there. In 1964 the wreck of La Boussole was at last discovered on the reefs of Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands, confirming that this indeed was where the expedition had reached its sad end.

3. NAOMI UEMURA // LOST ON MOUNT MCKINLEY

Modern explorer and adventurer Naomi Uemura was part of the first Japanese team to scale Mount Everest in 1970. He would have been the first Japanese to reach the summit if his impeccable manners hadn’t made him relinquish the lead to allow his elder, Teruo Matsuura, the honor of going first. Uemura completed many amazing feats during his lifetime, including climbing the five highest mountains on each of the world’s continents solo, trekking across the Arctic to become the first person to reach the North Pole solo, and rafting down the Amazon. In February 1984, Uemura set off to scale Mount McKinley in Alaska in an attempt to become the first person to achieve a solo winter climb of the treacherous peak. Uemura reached the peak, but that is all we know, as he never made it off the mountain. Rescue parties searched for the adventurer, but all that was found was some equipment and his diary hidden in a snow cave. To date his body has not been found, and the exact circumstances of his tragic death remain a mystery.

4. PERCY FAWCETT // FRUITLESS QUEST FOR THE LOST CITY OF Z

In the last 90 years, some 13 expeditions and over 100 people have perished in futile attempts to discover the fate of British explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. Fawcett was the very epitome of a dashing explorer: he had a distinguished military career before following his sense of adventure to help create maps of the vast and uncharted Amazon jungle. During the 1920s Fawcett departed on a number of ambitious expeditions in an attempt to locate the fabled lost city of El Dorado, which he dubbed the city of “Z.”

In 1925 Fawcett set off into the Mato Grosso region of Brazil with his eldest son, Jack, and his son’s best friend, Raleigh Rimell. The trio plowed into the jungle, covering up to 15 miles in a day in their zeal to find the rumored riches of the lost city. By May 29 the group sent their natives guides back with their latest letters, including one to Fawcett’s wife, Nina, in which he wrote: “You need have no fear of any failure.” This missive was the last heard of Fawcett and after two years with no sign, the Royal Geographical Society sent the first of many search parties. That no trace was found of Fawcett only served to keep the many rumors surrounding his fate alive. Researchers have come forward with many different theories: he had “gone native” and was living among a remote tribe; he had succumbed to malaria or a jaguar attack; he had deliberately disappeared in order to set up a mystical commune. But perhaps the most believable version of his fate was obtained by journalist David Grann, who retraced Fawcett’s steps in 2005 and discovered the Kalapalo Indians had an oral history indicating that Fawcett had ignored their advice and walked right into the domain of a hostile tribe who, in all likelihood, killed him.

5. GEORGE BASS // FORCED INTO SLAVERY?

George Bass was an English surgeon who, inspired by tales of Pacific exploration, took to the seas as a ship’s surgeon. He undertook many expeditions, but the one for which he is most remembered is his voyage to Australia with Matthew Flinders in the 1790s. The pair mapped large swathes of the Australian coast, and Bass identified the body of water between Australia and Tasmania that was later named the Bass Strait in his honor. Despite his success as an explorer, Bass felt under-appreciated and became envious of the merchants who were making their fortunes shipping goods from Europe to the new settlements in Australia. Consequently, he abandoned his cartography and set himself up as a trader. Unfortunately he was a little late to the party and when he returned to Australia, his ship laden with goods, he discovered many others had beaten him to the punch and the market was saturated with British products. Undeterred in 1803, he decided to try his luck in South America and set sail with his bounteous cargo. Bass and his ship were never seen again, and their fate remains an enigma. Rumors persisted that Bass made it to Chile or Peru, where he was captured by the Spaniards and forced to work in the mines there as a slave until his death.

6. GEORGE MALLORY // LOST ON EVEREST

George Mallory was a British explorer and mountaineer who captured the public’s imagination after he was asked why he wanted to climb Everest and he responded: “Because it’s there.” As one of the foremost mountaineers of his day, Mallory was an obvious choice to take part in the first British expeditions to the as-yet-unconquered Everest throughout the early 1920s—well before the benefit of modern materials, technology, and weather forecasting.

In June 1924, George Mallory and fellow mountaineer Andrew Irvine set off for an attempt on the summit. Another member of the expedition glimpsed them climbing at over 26,800 feet, but that was the last time they were seen alive. That the pair perished in their attempt was certain, but debate raged over whether they had become the first to reach the summit and died on their way down, or if they died having never reached the top. Various pieces of the puzzle emerged over time—in the 1930s, Irvine’s ice axe was discovered at 27,700 feet, and in 1991 a 1920s oxygen canister was found. Finally, in 1999, an expedition discovered Mallory’s frozen body on the mountainside, clearly the victim of a terrible fall. The climbers carefully buried the body where they found it, but sadly no trace was ever found of Andrew Irvine. It was hoped that Mallory’s camera might be found, an artifact that might prove for certain if he made it to the summit, but unfortunately the camera remains missing. Tantalizingly, Mallory had stated that he was going to carry a photograph of his wife and leave it at the summit, and when Mallory’s body was found the photograph was not there, providing yet another clue that perhaps this great mountaineer had conquered the world’s tallest mountain.

7. SIR JOHN FRANKLIN // LOST IN THE FROZEN WASTES

One of the foremost explorers of the Victorian era was Sir John Franklin, who had captained a number of expeditions to the Arctic in search of the Northwest passage. Franklin succeeded in mapping large areas of coastline, identifying many new botanical specimens and furthering our knowledge of the unforgiving Arctic weather during his first two expeditions. Some 20 years after he had retired, Franklin was tempted back to make one final effort to find the Northwest Passage. In 1845, when Franklin was 60 years old, he set off with 129 crewmembers in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. The ships made it to Baffin Island, where they were sighted by a whaling ship, but after that the ships were seen no more.

With no word from the expedition, numerous rescue missions were sent out to try and discover their fate. Finally, in 1859, after a tip-off from local Inuit hunters, a team led by Francis McClintock found objects and remains from the group on King William Island. It became clear that the two ships had become hopelessly trapped in the sea ice. A note was found which indicated that the ships had finally been abandoned in April 1848, having been stuck fast in the ice since September 1846. The note also revealed that Franklin had died in June 1847, though no cause was given. Scientific analysis of the mummified remains of some of the sailors indicated they may have died from lead poisoning, likely caused by the lead used to seal their canned food. Historians argue that those who did not die from contaminated supplies probably perished in the freezing conditions as they tried to march across the ice to safety. In September 2016, archaeologists announced the discovery of the wrecked remains of HMS Terror off the coast of King William Island, which historians hope will provide yet more clues about the terrible fate of the stranded crew and their desperate struggle for survival.

8. LUDWIG LEICHHARDT // PUZZLING LACK OF CLUES

In 1848, German scientist and explorer Ludwig Leichhardt led an attempt to cross Australia’s desert interior from east to west. Leichhardt was already an explorer of some renown, having completed two earlier expeditions across Australia—on one occasion, he had been given up for dead after he spent 18 months in the Australian interior, only to show up very much alive and with copious notes and discoveries. Leichhardt set off for his final mission accompanied by seven companions, 50 bullocks, 20 mules, seven horses, and a huge amount of supplies and equipment. Despite all of that, the only trace ever found of the missing expedition was a small brass plaque inscribed with Leichhardt’s name and the year 1848, which had been attached to his rifle. The lack of any further evidence of the bodies or equipment from the expedition has proved an enduring mystery, and things aren’t made any clearer by the fact that no one is sure which route they took or how far through Australia’s vast interior they got.

An 1852 search party reported that they had found an abandoned campsite with a tree with the letter L carved into it, a mark Leichhardt reportedly frequently left to indicate his route. Over the years a number of further searches uncovered more trees inscribed with an L, but their disparate locations did little to solve the riddle of the progress and fate of the explorers. The public was so intrigued by the mysterious disappearance that numerous rumors were published in the newspapers, inevitably leading to sensationalist stories of the group dying of thirst, being murdered by Aboriginals, or even of Leichhardt surviving into old age living in the bush. However until some concrete evidence or remains are discovered it is likely that the truth will remain elusive.

The waters of California’s San Joaquin River Delta are currently suffering from an alien invasion. Fortunately, the creatures don’t come from outer space, although looks can be deceiving. Over the past several weeks, local boaters and beach-goers have been finding gelatinous brown blobs known as magnificent bryozoans (Pectinatella magnifica)—although people also call them moss animals or dragon’s boogers.

The bryozoans, which are actually colonies of tiny organisms called zooids joined together, aren’t supposed to be west of the Mississippi, as the Stockton Record reports. It’s not clear how long the alien species has been in California, or exactly how they got there. However, in 2012 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also noted an increase in magnificent byrozoans in the Pacific Northwest, perhaps because of climate change. (Magnificent bryozoans need waters over 60 °F to survive.)

What IS this thing discovered in the Delta? Answer soon @Recordnet pic.twitter.com/xhkg7smHiM

— Alex Breitler (@alexbreitler) September 20, 2016

Locals residents and boaters have been alarmed by the creatures, which cling to docks and weeds throughout the Delta. But while their appearance might be disgusting, they won’t actually harm you. At least, not immediately. Since the bryozoans are an invasive species, as CBS Sacramento notes, they may be disrupting habitat for other creatures. Only time will tell what kind of effect they’ll have, but for now, at least we know they’re not from Mars.

You can learn more—and see the “dragon boogers” up-close—in the CBS video below:

[h/t: Stockton Record]

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

George Washington had a thing for trees—legendary trees, that is. Remember when he cut his dad’s cherry tree down, then refused to tell a lie about his deed? The tale was a legend created by one of Washington’s first biographers, but the cherry tree has forevermore been associated with the first president’s honesty. However, it turns out that Washington consorted with another legendary tree, too: He supposedly took command of the Continental Army beneath an elm tree in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The elm itself wasn’t fake: It was one of six elm trees that lined Garden Street near Cambridge Commons. But the story that surrounded it almost certainly was. It went like this: Inspired by patriotism and inflamed by the anger of a crowd, Washington sat on a horse beneath an elm tree, pulled out his sword, and made himself an army.

Just about everything in the legend appears to be false, as Harvard arborist John George Jack noted in 1931 [PDF]. “To clinch the effect of [the legend] …” he complained, “the artists have allowed their historical imaginations to run amuck. Prancing steeds, dipping colors, dear little drummer boys, long rows of troops aligned to a hair’s breadth, gorgeously uniformed, and presenting glittering arms with fixed bayonets, thrill every youthful heart, while smack in the middle of the front rank stands the Elm, with just room for Washington, flourishing his sword, to ride between it and the immaculate warriors.”

Washington did take command of his troops in Cambridge, but the event is thought to have been anything but glamorous. His men didn’t have uniforms or enough to eat. It wasn’t even a real army: It was a random assortment of state militias with no authority of any kind. Once he took control, Washington found that his troops were dirty and unruly and had really bad manners. For the future president, assuming control of the motley mob was taking an almost laughable gamble—one that he famously won.

The legend of what became known as “the Washington Elm” may have taken root because of other famous Revolutionary War-era trees. Boston’s Liberty Tree was an elm tree where people hung their favorite effigies and met to conspire against King George. Eventually, places all over the new nation planted their own “liberty trees,” and elms became known for their Revolutionary War connotations.

By the time the 100th anniversary of Washington’s army takeover came around, the tree where he supposedly did the deed was in terrible shape. “It is not pleasant to view the decay of one of these Titans of primeval growth,” wrote one observer, who noted that its branches had been mutilated and fallen until only a bandage-swathed monster remained.

Perhaps guessing that the end was near, a group of savvy businesspeople took some of the detritus of the dying tree and had it carved into commemorative books, like the one you see above. Housed in the collection of Harvard University’s Houghton Library, the book shows scenes of the tree itself and glimpses of Revolutionary War-era soldiers doing their thing.

In 1923, the last mangy portions of the rotted Washington Elm fell down. The government of Cambridge had to rescue what remained from souvenir hunters eager to get their hands on a piece of the tree. But its legacy didn’t end there: Not only were the remnants made into gavels and sent all around the country, but other portions of the rotten wood were divvied up and sent to various notable people and everyday applicants. The tree even got its own postage stamp in 1925.

Today, descendants of the tree can be found throughout the country. But don’t confuse them with other so-called Washington Elms the president supposedly planted or chilled out under in Washington, D.C. They’re probably legends, too—although the memorabilia generated by the first president’s association with elms shows that Washington fans were anything but fake.

Mosquitos are very good at transmitting disease, whether it’s the Zika virus dominating current global health news or the age-old malaria that has killed billions of people over the course of human history.

It wasn’t known that mosquitos could be dangerous, however, until the late 1870s, when a Scotsman practicing medicine in the Far East discovered that these insects can host parasites that cause human illness. His name was Patrick Manson.

Born near Aberdeen, Scotland in 1844, as a teenager Manson was apprenticed to an ironsmith, but he didn’t have a sturdy enough build to accommodate rigorous manual labor. Instead, he began medical school at the University of Aberdeen. After graduation, he worked at a mental asylum before heading across the world in 1866 to work as a port surgeon for the Imperial Chinese Customs Service in Formosa (present-day Taiwan). He was later transferred to Amoy on China’s southeast coast, where he operated on tumors and encountered a condition that fascinated him: elephantiasis.

At the time, the disease—which can be incapacitating and severely disfiguring, swelling soft tissues to colossal proportions and thickening skin—was leading people to suicide. Aside from having their social lives ruined, many were rendered unable to work. Their families often suspected them of demonic possession, owing to their drastic, horrifying change in appearance.

In 1875 Manson went to London, where he married Henrietta Isabella Thurburn, the 18-year-old daughter of a Royal Navy captain, before bringing his new bride back to Amoy with him the following year. And during his year in London, Manson did more than get married. He also frequented the British Museum’s reading room, where he researched the elephantiasis condition that was plaguing so many people on the other side of the planet.

After returning to his post in South China, Manson investigated the life-cycle of the filarial worm that was just then being established as the cause of elephantiasis. In 1877, he conducted experiments on his gardener, who was infected with the worm. The doctor had mosquitos feed on the man while he slept, and then dissected the insects after they’d engorged themselves on the gardener’s blood.

 
Observing the mosquitos’ stomach contents under the microscope, Manson saw that the filarial parasites developed further in their life cycle than they did inside a human. Over the course of several days, the parasites beneath his microscope had transformed from “structureless filaria embryos into morphologically distinct larvae,” writes Douglas M. Haynes in his book Imperial Medicine: Patrick Manson and the Conquest of Tropical Disease.

Based on these observations, Manson arrived at the realization that mosquitos serve as an incubator for parasites and an intermediary mechanism for passing them on to humans (although he didn’t understand exactly how the parasite was passed—he thought that the mosquitoes transferred the parasite to water that was then drunk by humans).

He published his findings in medical journals both in China and in the UK. The medical communities in both places needed a wakeup call about mosquitos—a main reason why much of Asia was sometimes called, at the time, the “white man’s grave.” Of course, people from all backgrounds were and are at serious risk from mosquito-borne illnesses (malaria alone killed an estimated 438,000 people in 2015, according to the World Health Organization), since the insects are very adept at introducing themselves to the human body, often unnoticed. They’re also nifty at traveling (some species can cover multiple miles), making them particularly effective—both medically and geographically—at spreading diseases.

In 1883, Manson moved to Hong Kong, where he founded the Hong Kong College of Medicine. By the end of the 1880s, having spent most of the previous 23 years in the Far East, he returned to the UK. At that point, other doctors and scientists in the Far East were continuing his work on mosquito-borne diseases.

Manson’s breakthrough with filarial parasites—showing that mosquitos could be a disease vector for humans—formed the basis of modern tropical medicine and paved the way for the theory that mosquitos transmit malaria. The mosquito-malaria theory would be proven in 1898 by Ronald Ross, who had been mentored by Manson, and who wrote to him: “What a beautiful discovery this is. I can venture to praise it because it belongs to you, not to me.”

The relationship between the two men would eventually become difficult. When Ross won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1902, the presentation speech and Ross’s own Nobel lecture praised Manson’s influence. But soon after, Manson and Ross’s relationship soured as Ross felt that Manson wasn’t supportive enough in Ross’s disputes with other researchers. The many letters between these two ambitious, brilliant men are anthologized in The beast in the mosquito: the correspondence of Ronald Ross and Patrick Manson.

Though Manson was a Nobel nominee multiple times, he never won the prize. He was, however, knighted in 1903, if that provided any consolation. He continued his work, lecturing on tropical diseases and serving as Chief Medical Officer to the British Colonial Office. He also established the London School of Tropical Medicine, which lives on today as one of the world’s leading institutions for the study of infectious diseases.

In the opening years of the 20th century, Manson’s health began to decline as he was beset by a mix of gout and arthritis. He retired in 1912, at age 68, a self-described “permanent cripple,” whose “next attack of gout will floor [him] altogether.”

He collected honorary memberships from medical societies scattered across the globe until his death in London in 1922 at age 77. Even today, he is referred to as “The Father of Tropical Medicine.”

Wearing tiny polyester pants affects the sex life of rats. Rocks have distinct brand personalities. Dragonflies have a fatal attraction to black tombstones. Things may look different when you bend over and view them between your legs.

These are just some of the scientific revelations that were celebrated, tongue firmly in check, at the 26th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony on September 22. The awards are organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, which combs through thousands of scientific journals for amusing (but not necessarily trivial) research news. Recent articles have covered the kissing games of adolescents in Ohio, the health benefits of dirty water and smoking, and feminist glaciers.

This year’s awards—given in honor of “achievements that first make people laugh then make them think”—went to a man who lived as a goat, a man who wrote a multi-volume autobiography on the pleasures of collecting flies, and a team that studied the reception of pseudo-profound bullshit. The awards were held at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre during a hijinx-filled live webcast that featured genuine Nobel laureates giving out the awards (live tweets gave a taste of the proceedings). The full list is on the Ig Nobel website, but here are a few highlights—and if you happen to be near MIT on September 24, there will be a “half-afternoon” of informal public lectures by the winners.

REPRODUCTION

For studying the effects of wearing polyester, cotton, or wool trousers on the sex life of rats, and for conducting similar tests with human males.

Winners: Ahmed Shafik

Study: “Effect of Different Types of Textiles on Sexual Activity. Experimental study,” published in European Urology and “Contraceptive Efficacy of Polyester-Induced Azoospermia in Normal Men,” published in Contraception

ECONOMICS

For assessing the perceived personalities of rocks, from a sales and marketing perspective.

Winners: Mark Avis, Sarah Forbes, and Shelagh Ferguson

Study: “The Brand Personality of Rocks: A Critical Evaluation of a Brand Personality Scale,” published in Marketing Theory

PHYSICS

For discovering why white-haired horses are the most horsefly-proof horses, and for discovering why dragonflies are fatally attracted to black tombstones.

Winners: Gábor Horváth, Miklós Blahó, György Kriska, Ramón Hegedüs, Balázs Gerics, Róbert Farkas, Susanne Åkesson, Péter Malik, and Hansruedi Wildermuth

Study: “An Unexpected Advantage of Whiteness in Horses: The Most Horsefly-Proof Horse Has a Depolarizing White Coat,” published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B and “Ecological Traps for Dragonflies in a Cemetery: The Attraction of Sympetrum species (Odonata: Libellulidae) by Horizontally Polarizing Black Grave-Stones,” published in Freshwater Biology

BIOLOGY

For two projects: to Charles Foster, for living in the wild as, at different times, a badger, an otter, a deer, a fox, and a bird; and to Thomas Thwaites, for creating prosthetic extensions of his limbs that allowed him to move in the manner of, and spend time roaming hills in the company of, goats.

Winners: Charles Foster and Thomas Thwaites

Books: GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being Human, Thomas Thwaites, published by Princeton Architectural Press and Being a Beast, Charles Foster, published by Profile Books.

LITERATURE

For a three-volume autobiographical work about the pleasures of collecting flies that are dead, and flies that are not yet dead.

Winner: Fredrik Sjöberg

Book: The Fly Trap is the first volume of Fredrik Sjöberg’s autobiographical trilogy, En Flugsamlares Vag (“The Path of a Fly Collector”), and the first to be published in English, by Pantheon Books.

Trade routes have developed since ancient times to transport goods from places of production to places of commerce. Scarce commodities that were only available in certain locations, such as salt or spices, were the biggest driver of trade networks, but once established, these roads also facilitated cultural exchange—including the spread of religion, ideas, knowledge, and sometimes even bacteria.

1. SILK ROAD // THE MOST FAMOUS TRADE ROUTE IN THE WORLD

The Silk Road is the most famous ancient trade route, linking the major ancient civilizations of China and the Roman Empire. Silk was traded from China to the Roman empire starting in the first century BCE, in exchange for wool, silver, and gold coming from Europe. Alongside spreading trade, the Silk Road also became a vital route for the spread of knowledge, technology, religion, and the arts, with many trading centers along the route—such as Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan—also becoming important centers of intellectual exchange.

The Silk Road originated in Xi’an in China and travelled alongside the Great Wall of China before crossing the Pamir Mountains into Afghanistan and on to the Levant, where goods were loaded on to ships destined for Mediterranean ports. It was rare for tradespeople to travel the full 4000 miles, and so most plied their trade on only sections of the route. As the Roman Empire crumbled in the fourth century CE, the Silk Road became unsafe and fell out of use until the 13th century, when it was revived under the Mongols. Italian explorer Marco Polo followed the Silk Road during the 13th century, becoming one of the first Europeans to visit China. But the famous route may have spread more than trade and cross-cultural links—some scientists think it was merchants traveling along the route who spread the plague bacteria which caused the Black Death.

2. SPICE ROUTE // BRINGING FLAVOR FROM EAST TO WEST

Unlike most of the other trade routes in this list, the Spice Routes were maritime routes linking the East to the West. Pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg were all hugely sought-after commodities in Europe, but before the 15th century access to trade with the East was controlled by North African and Arab middlemen, making such spices extremely costly and rare. With the dawning of the Age of Exploration (15th to 17th centuries), as new navigation technology made sailing long distances possible, Europeans took to the seas to forge direct trading relationships with Indonesia, China, and Japan. Some have argued that it was the spice trade that fueled the development of faster boats, encouraged the discovery of new lands, and fostered new diplomatic relationships between East and West (it was partly with spices in mind that Christopher Columbus set out in 1492 and ended up finding America).

The Dutch and English especially profited from the control of the spice trade in the East Indies—modern-day Indonesia, especially the area known as the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, which were the only source of nutmeg and cloves at that time. Wars were fought, lands colonized, and fortunes made on the back of the spice trade, making this trade route one of the most significant in terms of globalization.

3. INCENSE ROUTE // STARRING THE DOMESTICATED CAMEL

The Incense Route developed to transport frankincense and myrrh, which are only found in the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula (modern Yemen and Oman). Frankincense and myrrh are both derived from tree sap that is dried in the sun; these nuggets of sap can then be burned as incense or used as perfume, and were also popular in burial rituals to aid embalming. The camel was domesticated around 1000 BCE and this development allowed the Arabians to begin to transport their valuable incense to the Mediterranean, an important trade hub. Frankincense and myrrh became a significant commodity for the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians—indeed it was said that the Roman emperor Nero had a whole year’s harvest of frankincense burned at the funeral of his beloved mistress.

The trade flourished, and the overland route was, at its height, said to have seen 3000 tons of incense traded along its length every year. Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote that it took 62 days to complete the route, although it is clear that at times the exact route shifted when greedy settlements pushed their luck and demanded taxes that were too high from the caravans coming through. By the first century CE, this ancient overland route was largely redundant, as improved boat design made sea routes more attractive.

4. AMBER ROAD // TRADING BEADS

Amber has been traded since c.3000 BCE, with archaeological evidence revealing amber beads from the Baltic having reached as far as Egypt. An Amber Road linking the Baltic with the rest of Europe was developed by the Romans, who valued the stone as both a decorative item and for medicinal purposes.

Large deposits of amber are found under the Baltic Sea, formed millions of years ago when forests covered the area. The amber washes ashore after storms, and can be harvested from the beaches across the Baltic, which is how many local amber traders built their business. However, during the crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Baltic became an important source of income for the Teutonic Knights, who were granted control of the amber-producing region. The Knights persecuted the local Prussians brutally, and anyone attempting to harvest or sell amber was put to death. Today traces of the old Amber Road can be found in Poland, where one of the major routes is known as the “Amber Highway.”

5. TEA ROUTE // THE PRECIPITOUS TEA-HORSE ROAD

This ancient route winds precipitously for over 6000 miles, through the Hengduan Mountains—a major tea-producing area of China—through Tibet and on to India. The road also crosses numerous rivers, making it one of the most dangerous of the ancient trade routes. The main goods traveling the route were Chinese tea and Tibetan warhorses, with direct trades of tea-for-horses and vice versa being the main goal of merchants plying the route. Parts of the route were used starting c.1600 BCE, but the entire route began to be used for trade from about the seventh century CE, and large-scale trade was taking place starting in the Song dynasty (960–1279).

At least one piece of research suggests that in the period 960–1127 some 20,000 Tibetan warhorses were traded along the route every year in exchange for an eye-watering 8000 tons of tea. As sea routes became more popular, the significance of the road lessened, but during World War II it once again grew in importance as the Japanese blocked many seaports, and the Tea-Horse Road became an important route for supplies traveling between inland China and India.

6. SALT ROUTE // VIA SALARIA

Salt has long been a precious commodity—it’s been used to flavor and preserve food, and as an antiseptic, for example. But easily harvested salt was a scarce mineral in antiquity, and so areas rich in salt became important trading centers. Routes connecting these centers to other settlements also became commonplace. Of the many such routes that sprang up, one of the most famous was the Roman Via Salaria (Salt Route), which ran from Ostia, near Rome, across Italy to the Adriatic coast. So precious was salt that it made up a portion of a Roman soldier’s pay, and it is from this that we get the word salary (from the Latin for salt, sal) and the phrase “Not worth his salt”—the latter because a soldier’s salt pay would be docked if he did not work hard.

Another important salt route across Europe was the Old Salt Road, which ran 62 miles from Lüneburg in northern Germany, which was one of the most plentiful salt sources in northern Europe, to Lübeck on the north German coast. During the Middle Ages this route became vital for providing salt for the fishing fleets that left Germany for Scandinavia, as the salt was used to preserve the precious herring catch. It would take a cart delivering salt some 20 days to traverse the Old Salt Road, and many towns along the way grew wealthy by levying taxes and duties on wagons as they passed through.

7. TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE ROUTE // TRADING ACROSS THE DESERT

The Trans-Saharan Trade Route from North Africa to West Africa was actually made up of a number of routes, providing a criss-cross of trading links across the vast expanse of desert. These trade routes first emerged in the fourth century CE, and by the 11th century caravans made up of over a thousand camels would carry goods across the Sahara. Gold, slaves, salt, and cloth were the most important commodities on this route, but many other objects also found their way into the caravans, from ostrich feathers to European goods such as guns.

The trade route was instrumental in the spread of Islam from the Berbers in North Africa into West Africa, and with Islam came Arabic knowledge, education, and language. The Trans-Saharan trade route also encouraged the development of monetary systems and state-building, as local rulers saw the strategic value in bringing large swathes of land, and thus their commodities, under their control. By the 16th century, as Europeans began to see the value in African goods, the Trans-Saharan trade routes became overshadowed by the European-controlled trans-Atlantic trade, and the wealth moved from inland to coastal areas, making the perilous desert route less attractive.

8. TIN ROUTE // BRONZE AGE BUSINESS

The Tin Route was a major Bronze Age to Iron Age trade route that provided early settlements with access to a vital ingredient for metal-making—tin. Copper must be alloyed with tin to make bronze, an advance that occurred in the Near East around 2800 BCE and created a stronger, better metal than the type used previously. This new technology put tin much in demand, and as it is not found in many places, it became an important item for trade.

One such tin route flourished in the first millennium BCE from the tin mines in Cornwall in the far southwest of Britain, over the sea to France, and then down to Greece and beyond. Evidence for this route is provided by the many hillforts that sprung up along the way as trading posts. Historians believe that trade passed both ways up and down this route, as the hillforts provide evidence of exotic artifacts, including coral and gold. No written accounts survive from this period, but the archaeological record shows that technology and art traveled the route between northern Europe and the Mediterranean alongside tin—thus providing a vital link across Europe.

Conspicuous consumption was a theme of the Reagan era, so it wouldn’t be surprising to find an auction of Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s personal effects littered with high-status, high-glitter items in keeping with 1980s excess. But while the auction of Reaganobilia taking place at Christie’s later this month does feature some glitzy high points—like a diamond, sapphire, and ruby Bulgari American flag ring Nancy used when pledging allegiance—it’s more notable for its humble touches, like the horse-shaped jar of jellybeans than once sat on Reagan’s desk or the linen dinner napkins he favored, embroidered with the phrase “Mr. President.”

The auction includes plenty of glimpses of Reagan the man, including a set of doodles he penciled on White House stationery around 1982. Alongside cartoon characters with a Western theme, they feature two self-portraits: one of Reagan dressed up as a cowboy, and another of him in a suit. In keeping with the former president’s love of Western themes, the auction also features a pair of Tony Lama-designed cowboy boots made of ostrich, cowhide, and bullfrog skin, embossed with the Great Seal of the United States in 14k gold.

Another doodle in the same set, of a football player, reflects one of Reagan’s most famous film roles, when he played the gifted but doomed Notre Dame player George Gipp in the 1940 film Knute Rockne, All American. That role is also commemorated by another item in the collection, an official NFL Wilson football Reagan inscribed “win one for the Gipper”—a line Reagan uttered both in the film and at the 1988 Republican National Convention (when he directed it at George W. Bush).

Aside from repeated uses of the phrase “president” (“first place president” is engraved on one punch bowl), the football is one of the few items with obvious political overtones. However, there’s also a fine needlepoint pillow decorated with the line “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” and depicting all the states Reagan carried in the 1984 election (all but Walter Mondale’s home state of Minnesota). The 1984 election is also echoed in a Tiffany marine chronometer Frank Sinatra gave Reagan as a 1981 inauguration gift, which includes an inscribed plaque that reads “Good morning Mr. President.” (That “morning” theme, of course, is reminiscent of the TV ad campaign that propelled Reagan to his second term: “It’s morning again in America.”)

Politics also shows up in a more humorous vein in the couple’s collection of 27 elephant figurines, which were once strewn (alongside several bald eagles) around the couple’s Bel Air home at 668 St. Cloud Road. According to the auction catalog, the original address was 666, before Nancy Reagan made them change it.

But perhaps the most humble item of all is the most significant—a chunk of graffitied concrete to which Reagan added his name in black felt-tip marker. The 25-inch slab of the Berlin Wall recalls another of the 40th president’s famous moments, on June 12, 1987, when he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and implored “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

For those interested in owning a piece of presidential history, the auction runs live at Christie’s in New York, September 21-22 (public previews run until September 20) and online September 19-27. While there are plenty of items with lower estimates—you can have napkins that once graced presidential lips for only a few hundred dollars—the auction in total is expected to raise over $2 million for the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute.