Is there finally going to be a drop OR a very emotional story

In 1927 Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, set up an experiment to demonstrate to students that some substances that appear to be solid are in fact very-high-viscosity fluids.

He used bitumen, also known as asphalt, a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product; it is a substance classed as a pitch.

Parnell poured a heated sample of pitch into a sealed funnel and allowed it to settle for three years. In 1930, the seal at the neck of the funnel was cut, allowing the pitch to start flowing. A glass dome covers the funnel and it is placed on display outside a lecture theater. It was named the pitch drop experiment.

The set up of the pitch drop experiment

 And then the experimenters would wait to watch pitch drops fall....

 and wait....

and wait...

and wait.......

 

Only eight drop have emerged from the funnel in the past 83 years. The last one fell on 28 November 2000, allowing experimenters to calculate that the pitch has a viscosity approximately 230 billion (2.3×10¹¹) times that of water. 

The strange thing is that no one has ever seen a drop fall and excitement is rising as a ninth drop looks set to emerge from the pitch block in the very near future. "No one has actually seen a drop emerge, so it is getting quite nervy round here," said Professor Mainstone, custodian of the experiment since 1960, when interviewed last April. "The other eight drops happened while people had their backs turned. For the last drop, in 2000, we had a webcam trained on the experiment, but it broke down … in 1988, when the previous drop was about to emerge, I popped out for a coffee and missed it. This time we have got several cameras trained on the pitch sample to make sure we get a sight of it dropping. It will take only about a tenth of a second, however. On the other hand, I am 78, and the next drop is unlikely to fall for at least another 10 years, so this might be my last chance to see it happen."

 

Unfortunately Professor John Mainstone will not witness the 9th pitch drop as he died on 23rd of August 2013 but his devotion to his cause and his perseverance is an inspiration for me and I hope for many others as well.

Professor John Mainstone with the pitch drop experiment in 1990

The ninth drop hasn't still emerged..

Very exciting update: The ninth drop emerged on the 24th of April 2014. Faithfull to its previous cinematographic tradition it only fell when the new custodian of the experiment Prof Andrew White tried to change the beaker containing the previous eight drops. Apparently, it has been decided for the experiment to go on for another eighty years, so there will be plenty of time for more drops...or not??