Interesting residue left after a storm: Investigation!

reply to post by wrkn4livn


Heh, something to consider I suppose, but living as close as I do to a military testing range, I am not nearly as concerned as I could be about breathing in dodgy substances. I am just curious as to the origin of this stuff.

I actually spoke to the fellow who cleans our windows today (who came in to request payment for having cleaned our once again sparkling windows), and he said that although he had not noticed anything on the windows, owing largely to the fact that he is out when it is only just becoming light, he HAD noticed quite a bit of brown run off from his applicator (that being the tool used to apply suds to the window, as opposed to the squeegee, used to clear the suds away). Now, I have seen window cleaners work, and more often than not, when road dirt is involved,the run off from a dirty window looks more black than anything else. For him to have said that he had BROWN run off coming from his applicator means that something more interesting was responsible for the dirt on the window.

Now, I get to tap my feet, twiddle my thumbs, and generally fritter the weekend away, waiting for the opportunity to get some progress made on this. I have looked up Mr John Skinner, who is manager of Southend Museum, and an expert geologist. Aside from being able to ascertain that the fellow is indeed manager of the Museum, and is an expert geologist, I cannot find any professional details, which specify his precise level of qualification in that field. However, that may be because all of that information is personal to him, and I did find a Linked.in reference, which indicated that there was more to read if one joins the site. He has, however, been featured in our local news paper, and has struck me in his dealings with the press to be an inquiring sort of a fellow, so hopefully he will be as interested in this little mystery as I am!

Double post?

reply to post by TrueBrit


Yep, this is looking like nasty stuff that we breath in on a daily basis (Especially if you are going out everyday), even eat this stuff when you get take out and eat it walking down the street!!

Much safer staying indoors and not going out much.

reply to post by TruthxIsxInxThexMist


Safer indoors? Perhaps, unless you happen to be one of those unfortunate people who dies while trying to put their trousers on while walking down stairs (sounds daft, but it happens). I would much rather live an interesting life, than a safe one!

But you are right of course, we do breathe in quite a collection of hazardous compounds during a normal day, especially those of us who are close to testing facilities like the one down the road, industrial areas, and urbanised areas. Most of the nasties we breathe in do not occur in large enough doses to represent a terminal hazard in and of themselves, but I think it is wise to be mindful of these things in any case.

My main concern, in terms of this substance and its origin, outside of pure curiosity, is that if it has hazardous elements, it may have come into contact with delicate ecological structures, like wetlands, marshes, conservation areas, national parks, and other areas of scientific interest and natural beauty, because the storm was quite wide reaching, in that it affected a massive portion of the country. If this substance was present throughout the storm front, and fell all over the regions affected, then my hope is that the substance is either harmless, or fell in small enough quantities that one could expect it to have zero nett effect on ecology in the storm hit areas.

After all, it would seem reasonable that whatever nasties might be in the substance, are diffuse rather than concentrated, having been mixed with sea water and other storm blown stuff, but none the less, its worth looking into further, if only for curiosities sake.

I had a similar exsperience. I went to go uptown, but my window on the car was fogged. I tried the window washer with fluid and it went back and forth for a bit,but it did not work. I got a rag wet thinking it would just wipe off, but when i wiped the wet rag on the window it did not take it off, so i pushed a little harder and it slightly smeared. I tried dawn soap, that did not work, I tried bleach and that did not work, i tried that orange hand cleaner in a small area cause i did not want to scratch my windshield and that did not work. I then tried gasoline and that did not work, so i then tried to soak rags in dawn dishsoap and lay the rags to soak on the windshield for a half hour. That worked, but i had to scrub very hard in a small area to get it clean. I gave up. Later i took the same rags and soaked them in pop coke, that made it worse but turned the hardened stuff into like a gel that smeared the window. I soaked more rags in pop and let it sit on the window for an hour and i had used the soaked rags to rub the stuff and a dry rag to wipe off. That worked, but took me an hour to clean it and i had to throw away three dry rags and the towels soaked in pop. I think i figured it out. My car had been sitting for a bit and there were pine trees in the back. I figured maybe some of this pine tree sap got on the car, then the lawn was mowed, it got dust on the car windshield. Only question is, how does sap from pine trees get in the air to travel and collect on the cars windsheild and not only that, why would it ONLY collect on the windshield.

cloaked4u
I had a similar exsperience. I went to go uptown, but my window on the car was fogged. I tried the window washer with fluid and it went back and forth for a bit,but it did not work. I got a rag wet thinking it would just wipe off, but when i wiped the wet rag on the window it did not take it off, so i pushed a little harder and it slightly smeared. I tried dawn soap, that did not work, I tried bleach and that did not work, i tried that orange hand cleaner in a small area cause i did not want to scratch my windshield and that did not work. I then tried gasoline and that did not work, so i then tried to soak rags in dawn dishsoap and lay the rags to soak on the windshield for a half hour. That worked, but i had to scrub very hard in a small area to get it clean. I gave up. Later i took the same rags and soaked them in pop coke, that made it worse but turned the hardened stuff into like a gel that smeared the window. I soaked more rags in pop and let it sit on the window for an hour and i had used the soaked rags to rub the stuff and a dry rag to wipe off. That worked, but took me an hour to clean it and i had to throw away three dry rags and the towels soaked in pop. I think i figured it out. My car had been sitting for a bit and there were pine trees in the back. I figured maybe some of this pine tree sap got on the car, then the lawn was mowed, it got dust on the car windshield. Only question is, how does sap from pine trees get in the air to travel and collect on the cars windsheild and not only that, why would it ONLY collect on the windshield.

I can't say the same , as with my experience trying to get that goop off my car, my car sits out in the open with not a single tree anywhere close by, that can drop anything on it. Plus any trees on the neighbors side of the hill are just too far, & there's no sap or pine out where my car is....lived here for 14 years, nothing like that had ever gotten on my car before, or on anything else for that matter. Sending good luck out to the O/P!!! Hope you get some interesting results!! TY so much for taking that extra step for us all 👍

reply to post by cloaked4u


Well, our window cleaner did not have any significant difficulty cleaning the stuff off our windows, in fact he barely noticed anything untoward, except of course for the fact that the run off from his applicator was brown rather than black or grey.

Sap from pines, and other trees, can become amber over time, and that is some hard stuff. If the stuff on your windshield was in fact sap, then I can understand it being tricky to remove!

Right.

As you may know from my previous updates, I was due to call a man named John Skinner this morning, at the local museum, in order to see if his expertise would prove useful in identifying this mystery substance. Unfortunately, Mr Skinner is not in the office today, and the person to whom I spoke just now, says that I should call back on Thursday.

This is somewhat aggravating, but I suppose it is only a couple of days, and it is not as if my sample jars are going anywhere. It is just frustrating, as I was hoping to begin the path to an answer this morning. I do not know why Mr Skinner is absent from his post today, nor why he is expected to be tomorrow and Wednesday. However, the gentleman I spoke to on the phone just now, confirmed that the sort of task I have before me, is just the sort of quest for understanding that Mr Skinner would be equipped to assist with. With such ringing endorsements of the fellow, I am happy to wait a couple more days before getting this particular ball rolling.

Just thought you folks would appreciate an update, and I apologise for the delay.

Let's just hope your samples don't deteriorate (there is a more scientific term which eludes me just now ) before you see Mr Skinner on Thursday.
Thank you for your update TB.
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel


Could be that the word you were after was "Denature: To take away or alter the natural qualities of."

I have thought of that, but the thing is this. If that is going to happen, then it is going to happen, because given the unidentified nature of the substance I collected, I do not know what the best way to mitigate the effect would be. And, it has to be said that more delicate samples than those which I have taken, are still held within storage at places like the natural history museum, so they must still be good for something.

I do not want to place them in the refrigerator, because for all I know, that may have as bad an affect on whatever is in the sample, as leaving it in the sun. It really depends on what it is made of, as to how best to store it, and then the chicken and the egg walk into the discussion, and we all get damned dizzy!

Its Thursday, I have been working like a machine, all the more amazing since I have a cold at the moment, and am therefore slightly reduced in terms of the upper limits of my capabilities. However, you folks deserve an update, since many of you have followed this since the start.

I called the Museum AGAIN this morning, and although I had been assured that Mr Skinner would be available, I was told that he was not. When I was asked if his deputy would be of any use to me, I explained the situation, and he told me that it was unfortunate timing, since the reason Mr Skinner was absent for as long as he had been, is that his father had died over the weekend. I have never met the man, or his father, but it is very sad none the less.

A compromise then. I will be taking the samples into the museum at my nearest opportunity. I may be able to arrange an hour away from work to do that over the next couple of days, or have to wait EVEN longer, until next Wednesday. I will drop them off, along with a copy of my photographs, in order that they can be examined at the leisure of Skinner and his minions, whenever they are available to do so. I would love to have had some sort of result or at least progress by now, but where swings the scythe, so waits the mortal things I suppose.

Just bumping along

I had an 'out there' thought over my morning brew.....sort of connecting your 'gunge' to chemtrails...mhmmm...I was watching these two vids, and thinking about the weather because they were chemtrailing like mad over here yesterday, a lovely day, and today we have the obligatory #e weather.





Rainbows
Jane

I visited the Museum again today, and handed over two of my sample jars to the gentleman I had been trying to get to see. He said, upon looking at my photographic data, that the likelihood is that the residue is basically sea water residue. He suggests that the likelihood is that some of the stuff will be salt, sand, and diatoms (little waterborn critters that live in the sea). However, he took the samples and said that it will be a couple of days before he can get around to looking them over with his microscope. He took my name, and my address and so on is written on the sample jars, so I imagine he will get back to me either at the end of the week, or the begining of the next.

Even if all this turns out to be, is sea water residue, I will be pleased to know for sure. When you see something unfamiliar, it is important to learn all you can about it, because you never know when paying attention, may pay dividends. At least, thats they way I look at it.

Fingers crossed that it is simply that.
Rainbows
Jane

Really wondering what he will find!

Hello, hello......what's the result??????
Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel


Well, the result as of yet has not been made known to me. However, it is my day off tomorrow, and therefore I will have some spare time (hopefully) to visit the Museum and partake in a round of poke the boffin, in order to extract some sort of answer. That I have not been contacted thus far, leads me to assume that either:

A) The stuff is just seawater mixed with the regular collection of pollutants, as well as its normal contents like diatoms and other small creatures, salt, sand, and fish poop.

B) The samples have been sent for more exploratory testing than the Museum is capable of on its own.

C) The fellow has not gotten around to peering through his microscope just yet.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Just slightly off topic....didn't realise your avatar was you....thought it was a psychedelic Roy Wood!

Rainbows
Jane

angelchemuel
reply to post by TrueBrit

 

Just slightly off topic....didn't realise your avatar was you....thought it was a psychedelic Roy Wood!

Rainbows
Jane

Surely merely saying "Roy Wood" is enough? The addition of the word psychedelic would seem to be superfluous!

But yeah, that is my leering mug. Sorry about that!

So whatever happened? I just remembered your thread.