A beautifully translucent butterfly at the Butterfly House.  You can see the color of the blooms he’s snacking from through her wings.

A bright bloom at the Butterfly House

Butterfly House St. Louis.  One of the approximately 2000 butterflies.

This is a Photo Friday post “Days end”.  We went out to Confluence point state park in Missouri.  This is the point where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet.  We arrived just a few minutes before sunset.

An other photograph at Confluence Point State Park.  I really like how the water looks like ice as it flows past the camera.

Watch the water flow down the Missouri River just feet from where it meets the Mississippi River at Confluence Point State Park.

Another image from Confluence Point state park, watching the sunset through a small bunch of trees.

We took a night time drive and got some nice shots.  This one is looking down the free-way on a small valley (driving by Matthew, Photography by Elizabeth.)

I got this cigar box from my new job, and there was a large label on the front that didn’t like. Me: “I’ll scrape it off with Goo Gone!”. Well, I got some of the label off, and some of the nice black finish too. I decided that I needed to cover up this blight with something cool. Warning, incoming art. The piece on the front is a photograph of a wood-cut that I made in printmaking at Elmhurst College. It’s a multi-panel piece, meaning I used 4 different pieces of wood, each with different colors on them to create this print. The process isn’t that easy – you’ve got to plan out the print before you start and figure out what parts of the image are going on which panel, and what parts of each panel you have clear away for the pieces on the other panels. Even explaining it is confusing. Anyways, the finished piece is a color wood-cut about 20×24 inches and is titled Contemplating Sentencing. I had photographed it with a Canon 20D while at college, so I already had a high quality digital file. I used some contact cement to attach the photograph and then some used some spray fix to coat it. What you see here is the result of that. It’s a nifty personalized cigar box. I like.

This is a directy copy of the information sheet that is given out at the Art Accecelator space telling visitors what this space used to be all about. There used to be two machines but one (I believe the smaller one) was removed to make more space to move about. I said last time that I’d post this info, and be sure to check out the little poster I found too.

” The particle accelerator inside the Elmhurst College Accelerator Art space is a Kevatron machine. It was used to break apart the nucleus of an atom in attempts to produce energy in the laboratory. For sixty years, Kevatron accelerators have been used as a physics research tool by countless researchers and scientists. It was created by Dr. Samuel King Allison.

In 1940, during the Second World War, the U.S. government provided Dr. Allison with a grant to study the possibility of using beryllium for an early nuclear reactors. Allison took part in this historic research by running groundbreaking scientific experiments (which had to include a solution to pour over the reactor in case the chain reaction could not be stopped). for his work during the war, Allison was awarded the Medal of Merit, signed by President Harry S. Truman.

Two years after Allison’s death in 1965, the decision was made to dispose of the Kevatron accelerator (then located at the University of Chicago). That year, George Koch, a physics major from Elmhurst College, met John Erwood, a technician hired to develop methods of producing better efficiency on the Kevatron. Koch asked Erwood whether he might be interested in helping to build an accelerator at Elmhurst… surprisingly, Erwood offered to give Allison’s Kevatron to the College. The accelerator was disassembled at the University of Chicago, then transported to Elmhurst where it’s re-assembly began in may 1969.

in 1973, the physical reconstruction of the machine was finished. John Erwood made the decision to turn on the machine, this starting a new age for Elmhurst College, and adding another 25 years to the Kevatron’s useful life. The machine had problems at first, but by 1975 the lab was working well. From 1975 to 1994, the accelerator was used for various experiments by both Elmhurst College students and local scientists.

The final era of the Kevatron ended in 1994. the scientists valued both the opportunity to work on the machine and also to work with the people involved. it is hoped that the accelerator will be preserved for the memories and friendships that have formed around these things. Every year, the people who have worked on the machine throughout the years meet for Kevatron’s birthday party, where it is said that the ghost of Sam Allison still walks the lab. ”

–Matttail