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The Amazing Fate of the Solar Armor Inventor

environmentalgraffiti.com — In 1874, one man; an inventor of considerable genius, was reported to have completely reversed the effect of the sun. In the scorching heat of the mid-summer Nevada desert, he was found frozen stiff by Indians - his beard covered in frost and an icicle over a foot in length hanging from his nose. That man was Jonathon Newhouse, the genius inventor

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  • BuzzDiggity, on 06/10/2008, -30/+28yeah, sure newhouse is kinda smart... but he didn't think of the iphone, now did he?
    • geekchic, on 06/11/2008, -1/+45I dunno - he developed something which was incompatible with its enviroment.

      Sounds like an Apple product to me ;)
    • halobender, on 06/11/2008, -1/+1He invented the samphone.

      http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo/samsung_to_of ...
    • nj10ii, on 06/11/2008, -1/+15Funny, you stole the comment from the article thread.
      • Warden72, on 06/11/2008, -0/+6He stole it verbatim. Not funny at all.
      • EricAnderton, on 06/11/2008, -0/+6yeah, sure BuzzDiggity is kinda smart... but he didn't think of an original comment, now did he?
      • geekchic, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Preuming that the time zones are the same, it is quite possible that the Digg comment was posted a couple of minutes *before* the blog comment.

  • gazgolter, on 06/10/2008, -7/+17Awsome Post
    • benologist, on 06/11/2008, -0/+10It felt kind of short. Nothing about what happened to De Quille or why he did it, or any real background info on him. It's an interesting story but I think they could have done a better job telling it.
    • flink405, on 06/11/2008, -0/+4Read the entire article - it is a hoax, fake, not real:
      "The piece, as well as the solar armor was a complete hoax; an utter fantasy that spread very slowly across international media. It went viral before mass communication and propagated as a semi-ficticious urban legend, before the times of the internet."
    • eyefork2, on 06/11/2008, -2/+1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________
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  • maxyRO, on 06/10/2008, -2/+33sounds like LOST to me.
  • embeemb, on 06/10/2008, -1/+25Where do I buy one? It's almost 40C's after midnight here at the moment..
  • darkchild82, on 06/10/2008, -5/+18Wow, I never heard of this guy or this experiment until now.
    • halobender, on 06/11/2008, -0/+14Thats because it's a hoax, well the solar suit anyway.
  • jjgames, on 06/10/2008, -5/+19I always love stories about genius inventors whose experiments go wrong
  • contributor, on 06/10/2008, -3/+8319th Century hoax FTW!
  • domfosnz, on 06/10/2008, -0/+24"Transatlantic kinsmen" lol. Gotta love the skeptical British tone from the Telegraph.
  • PMG2007, on 06/10/2008, -0/+35A viral hoax, that is a lot like the internet
    • SuperWinner, on 06/11/2008, -4/+3this is the internet... are you new?
      • GeekyLotus, on 06/11/2008, -0/+0No... his point is that this story spread virally before the time of mass communication. This is not a new hoax... this is a *very* old hoax.
  • chris2930, on 06/11/2008, -2/+14Completely true... Not
  • pirlok, on 06/11/2008, -0/+6nice idea, but the genius was William Wright / Dan De Quille.. wow..when he was busted, he used the other name..who knows what other disguises he might have used to fool people..
  • skewl, on 06/11/2008, -3/+6Dan De Quille FTW!
  • craighoxton, on 06/11/2008, -0/+35Sounds like a Stillsuit from Dune gone wrong
    • swrostmore, on 06/11/2008, -3/+3no it doesn't.
    • SuperWinner, on 06/11/2008, -3/+4He is the quizzatzhadderactsdla!
    • halobender, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Except it's made of sponges.
    • Evolutuon, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2Sorta like one in reverse ... putting moisture Into the suit.
    • Terr01, on 06/11/2008, -0/+4I must not freeze.
      Cold is the mind-killer.
      Cold is the little-breath that brings annoying condensation.
      I will face the cold.
      I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
      And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
      Where the freezing has gone there will be nothing.
      Only frostbite will remain.
  • rj3sp, on 06/11/2008, -0/+18a good story from the wild west always has native americans
  • tutaforca, on 06/11/2008, -0/+14Love how in the olden days you could print anything!
    • geekchic, on 06/11/2008, -0/+8Some of the first uses for the Guttenberg printing press was to "mass produce" religious pardons where you could pay a fee to offset your sins.

      Suddenly, instead of spending a day (or more) writing out the pardon, the church could prints loads at a single go and just fill in the sinners name later.
      • jezsik, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2Actually, they were printing those BEFORE ol' Guttenberg came up with movable type.
    • gavin422, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I wish we could still make "modest proposals" to cure world hunger.
  • upick, on 06/11/2008, -1/+8I guess this would be the early stage of link baiting / buzz marketing
    =)

    buzz marketing 0.1 beta
    • dropthehammer, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2or the late stages of crappy blogspam
    • rtknox00, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2Dropthehammer - I'm curious, why are you so against the blog? It's actually really quite interesting and doesn't seem like spam at all. In fact, it isn't lol
  • mentol, on 06/11/2008, -3/+4Back then, solar armor was the word for air conditioning.
  • SillyRabbits, on 06/11/2008, -8/+7Well the most likely explanation, if there is any truth at all to the story, is that he simply died of hypothermia during the night (I thought most people knew it gets well below freezing at night in the desert). He would have gotten sleepy and died and everything thing simply froze. By morning it would have taken some time to thaw out, that's all, nothing more. Given that he was found 20 miles from his starting point, it would indicate about a days walk.
    • idntunknwn, on 06/11/2008, -1/+10The story is a hoax
    • Apokalyps2547, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2"The article was written by William Wright, better known as Dan De Quille; a colleague of Mark Twain’s at the Territorial Enterprise. The piece, as well as the solar armor was a complete hoax; an utter fantasy that spread very slowly across international media. It went viral before mass communication and propagated as a semi-ficticious urban legend, before the times of the internet."
    • mandarin, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2Learn to read dummy. It was a hoax.
      • Sharky35, on 06/11/2008, -1/+1Why would you call a fellow Digger a "dummy". Do you now feel better about yourself. Are you now going to go and masturbate over your EPIC WIN? Stick to your Obama 08 threads of you have nothing nice to say to your fellow man.
    • absurdist, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2WHOOOOOSH!!!
    • 4degrees, on 06/11/2008, -1/+1agreed, it can get pretty damn cold at night in the desert. having a soaking sponge on your back in that cold will not be cozy...

      the first comment in for the article postulates that as well.
    • JointVenture, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1I cant believe people are digging you down.

      They never mention a date in the story, just the date of when the story was written.

      Its real simple, he froze at night and the indian found him early in the morning...frozen.
  • bicyclethief, on 06/11/2008, -1/+8I know Dan De Quille...and you, sir, are no Dan De Quille.
  • republicker, on 06/11/2008, -3/+5So the title should read "Man in sponge shirt freezes to death in desert"
  • IAmTheGuy, on 06/11/2008, -4/+36Worthless story. A supposed "genius" invented some solar armor which was nothing more than a suit made of sponge soaked in water. He then went into the desert and froze. As it turns out, it was a hoax. There was absolutely nothing worthwhile in this story. The only thing that can be taken from this is that people lied in the 19th century. If you didn't know that, please leave.
    • foofightrs777, on 06/11/2008, -4/+9You must be a blast at parties...."This drink is nothing more than several types of alcohol mixed and this music i s nothing more than sounds arranged in order. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile here."
      • Duositex, on 06/11/2008, -2/+1I agree with the gp. This story isn't interesting. They drum it up like it is.. "the amazing tale.." and then they're just like, "it turns out the guy was just a liar. Oh well."

        Bad "journalism".
      • eyefork2, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Logged in just to digg you foofightrs777, best comment so far today
    • ethomas046, on 06/11/2008, -1/+4I agree - can I please have the last 2 minutes of my life back please - pretty worthless article.
    • MKrick, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Yea it was a hoax, but it's still interesting to read that back then urban legends spread a lot like they do today.
  • defe007, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2The desert gets pretty cold at night...
    • eviljolly, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1The armor was described as an inch-thick, water-drenched “long, close-fitting jacket made of common sponge and a cap or hood of the same material.”

      With an outfit like that, you could surely freeze to death at night.
      • Metman, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Enough to be frozen with ice still intact after 6-7 hours of sunlight on protruding hairs left to thaw in the warming morning wind?
        • eviljolly, on 06/12/2008, -0/+1meh, they're allowed to exaggerate a LITTLE :P
  • staden121, on 06/11/2008, -3/+1They got the details wrong. He was found with an Indian's "stiffy" hanging over his head.
  • sevvo, on 06/11/2008, -1/+3That story gives me the chills. . .
    • eviljolly, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1So close....

      But you have failed to fall under the "puntastic" category.
  • Born4Surf, on 06/11/2008, -1/+1Brrrrrr....Dugg
  • kmb1794, on 06/11/2008, -2/+1I couldn't make it past the first page...The whole concept of "environmental graffiti investigates" makes me want to vom...

    No investigation took place there is no challenge here but recanting a ludicrous story THEN and NOW.
  • StrawberryFrog, on 06/11/2008, -6/+1This has to be fake, since "reversing the effect of the sun" is against entropy (Second law of thermodynamics), and as we know

    “if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation."
    - * Sir Arthur Eddington
  • davidg11, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2What do you mean a hoax?

    I saw Jim West use this invention on "Wild Wild West".

    Therefore it exists! Their technology was unbelievable back then.
  • HerbSolo, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Interesting - Well, at least the fact that in the 19th Century, they still referred to native Americans as "Indians". I'd love to know how that came to be, it can't have taken them too long to figure out that Columbus had in fact missed India by a tad. Were they too lazy to make up a new name for the natives, or was keeping to call them indians some kind of joke on Columbus's expense?
    • doubleplanet, on 06/11/2008, -1/+0I hate to tell you this, Herb-alone, but when I went to primary school in the 1950s the terms Indian and Eskimo were so embedded that their origins were considered merely interesting, like the etymology of "fortnight" (a contraction of "14 nights": a two-week period). It was the entry of India (and therefore, its inhabitants) onto the "world stage" of Western news stories, I think, that really began to influence English-speakers (non-First Nations speakers, anyway) to think about abandoning the term; "North American Indian" was just too clunky to maintain.
      . . . Just as those who live in the USA won't let go of "Americans" until they (are forced to) notice how many people in Canada, Mexico, and the countries of Central and South America consider that "American" describes them, too.
      Usians, anyone? =)
      • whatever01, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2A co-worker of mine, an East Indian, used the rather politically incorrect distinction of "dot-Indians" or "feather-Indians" to distinguish the two.
  • shiftclick, on 06/11/2008, -4/+3Reminds me of the Obama campaign. Just a wonderful story...
  • jimfeet, on 06/11/2008, -1/+12Those who think this story is worthless have no vision. This story is quite revealing in that it demonstrates two important facts:

    1. People are as gullible today as they were 130 years ago even though we are supposedly better informed and more scientifically advanced. (Intelligent design anyone?)

    2. People today can't or won't read through to the end of an article before forming their own misguided opinions.
    • OrangeTide, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2foot long icicles!
    • racekarl, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2Perhaps, the reason that people, did not read to the end, is that the author, writes so poorly, sprinkling commas throughout where they have no place, for example, that they gave up in frustration.
    • rtknox00, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Well said Sir!
  • Derka010, on 06/11/2008, -2/+1So was there really a Jon Newhouse, Or is it all a hoax? Because I was thinking the creator of this made his last name Newhouse because thats what he was planning to buy with the money made off this *****!...
  • thewump, on 06/11/2008, -0/+4The secret to a good hoax is the possibility of credability and this has it.. When camping you can keep food cold by hanging it in a cloth sack that you keep wet. Put it in the sun, and the latent heat transfer of the evaporating water will keep the food chilled.
  • hpharty, on 06/11/2008, -4/+1This is why I come to Digg. Well done sir.
  • billyfalconer, on 06/11/2008, -1/+2Buried for poor writing.
  • Spoomeister, on 06/11/2008, -1/+4Am I the only one who envisioned some kind of badass mirrored plate armor that would blind their enemies and make them impervious to laser bolts?
    • tacapd42, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1You were until I read your comment.

      That would have been a better hoax
  • pineapplepaul, on 06/11/2008, -0/+3He tried to move the island.
  • JointVenture, on 06/11/2008, -2/+1The answer is simple, he FROZE at night, the Indian found him early in the morning.

    It can and does freeze in the desert. I didnt see a date of when he was found, only when the story was written.
    • LomasLou, on 06/11/2008, -0/+0I once froze to death in the desert but there were no Indians left to find me.
    • HCIsland, on 06/11/2008, -0/+0The answer is it didn't happen.

      Read the last paragraph.
  • Oea420, on 06/11/2008, -0/+2In related news, the man's suit seemed to have the word HALLIWAX and SCIENTIST engraved on the front.
  • nydwarf, on 06/11/2008, -0/+1Go into the Desert with a soaking wet suit made of sponge and you will probably die as well.
  • Hillsfar, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1Google "Solar oven as Radiant Refrigerator at night."
  • bubbadigg, on 06/13/2008, -0/+0This can't be a hoax, it is posted on the internet. Therefore, it must be true !
  • anasuya, on 07/04/2008, -0/+1what a nonsense
  •  

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