Curio Cabinet

It’s not exactly the heist of the century…at least, not this century. Maybe it’s a curse from the pharaoh, or maybe it was just their own fault, but four suspects have been apprehended after they allegedly stole an ancient Egyptian bracelet and melted it down for gold.
 
The original owner of the jewelry in question was Amenemope, who ruled during Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period around 3,000 years ago. Lasting from 1069 to 525 B.C.E., the Third Intermediate Period began shortly after the death of Ramesses XI of the New Kingdom. The pharaohs of the New Kingdom were in decline due to the increasing influence of the High Priests of Amun, who deemed that a pharaoh was no longer necessary as an intermediate of the gods. Perhaps due to the lessened power of the pharaohs during this time, little is known about Amenemope’s reign. Today, the long-dead king is remembered thanks to his funerary mask, which was discovered at the royal necropolis of Tanis in 1940. Made of solid gold, bronze, and bearing the king’s visage, the mask was found alongside a cache of other undisturbed royal tombs.
 
One of the many treasures found in the tombs was a gold bracelet with a spherical lapis lazuli bead, which held religious significance. In the ancient Egyptian religion, gold was considered the very flesh of the gods themselves, while the lapis lazuli was their hair. Therefore, covering a funerary mask in gold was more than a show of wealth, and the bracelet would have been an auspicious relic to be buried with. Unfortunately, the meaning of the bracelet and its true value might have been lost on the thieves. According to the police, the bracelet was sold for less than $4,000, and the buyer melted it down to make gold jewelry. 3,000 years of history smelted for trinkets…it’s enough to make a pharaoh (and archeologists) weep.

 
[Image description: A black-and-white illustration depicting a scene from ancient Egypt in which royalty watches dancers and musicians perform.] Credit & copyright: Pastime in Ancient Egypt, Engraver Charles William Sharpe, after Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1876. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Donato Esposito, 2015. Public Domain.

Prepare to be a-maized by a maze. It’s officially fall, which means that hayrides, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes are popping up across the country, and some are especially impressive. For the fourth year in a row, the Treworgy Family Orchards in Levant, Maine, has been given the distinction of having the country’s best corn maze, according to USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards. Amazingly, the seemingly age-old, seasonal tradition of carving mazes into cornfields has only been around since the 1990s.
 
Treworgy Family Orchards is one of countless farms around the U.S. that opens its fields to the public each autumn. Farms like theirs generate additional revenue by offering apple picking, pumpkin patches, and a chance to traverse a corn maze. The very first corn maze opened to the public in 1993. The story goes that Broadway creative director Don Frantz was flying over some corn fields when he looked out the window and got the idea to create a maze within the stalks of corn. With the help of his friend, Adrian Fisher, a British designer, the first corn maze was created in Annville, Pennsylvania, on a three-acre field by pulling stalks of corn by hand. Like many corn mazes today, the very first one ever featured a whimsical design in the shape of a dinosaur dubbed “Cornelius the Cobasaurus.” The maze itself was named the “The Amazing Maize Maze,” and it was a hit with the public. After the “The Amazing Maize Maze” debuted, it inspired other farmers to try their hands at creating corn mazes of their own. Today, the corn maze is a beloved fall tradition and there are around 500 of them made every year to thrill—and confuse—guests. As for how they’re made, some farmers use GPS to create their designs, while others rely on paper maps and a good sense of direction. Of course, a good sense of direction will also help you have fun in a corn maze…but at least if you get lost, you’ll be surrounded by food.

 
[Image description: A row in a cornfield, with leaves crisscrossing overhead, giving a tunnel-like effect.] Credit & copyright: Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing), Wikimedia Commons. The copyright holder of this work has released it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

Bombs away! Prior to the U.S. joining World War II, the U.S. military foresaw the need for a long-range, high-altitude, heavy bomber that could both evade enemy fire and defend itself. Less than a year after the nation joined the conflict, on this day in 1942, the United States Army Air Forces (AAF) introduced the B-29 Superfortress, a bomber unlike any other that—despite its flaws—was one of the most innovative aircraft of its time.
 
If necessity is the mother of invention, then war is necessity’s greatest sponsor. For better and for worse, military conflicts have always driven the development of industry and technology. In the case of the B-29, the mere possibility of conflict was enough for the AAF to begin development on a new aircraft to meet ambitious demands. As Germany began invading its neighbors, General Hap Arnold of the AAF feared that a German victory would deprive the U.S. of airbases across the Atlantic. The solution, then, was to create a bomber with enough range that it didn’t matter if there were no airbases across the ocean. In 1942, the B-29 debuted with a test run over the continental U.S. after taking off from Seattle. Ironically, when the bomber entered service in 1944, its first mission was in the Pacific theater against Japanese forces, not in Europe. As part of Operation Matterhorn, B-29s operating out of India, China, and other Asian countries bombed Japanese military targets and even their mainland. Eventually, two B-29s would be used in the first nuclear attacks in history. The Enola Gay would drop Little Boy on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, while Bockscar dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki on August 9.
 
The B-29 was undoubtedly one of the world’s most devastating weapons, yet it wasn’t without a myriad of flaws that made it dangerous for its own crew. Some of these flaws were due to the aircraft’s ambitious design. One of the things that set B-29s apart from other bombers was that it was pressurized, allowing it to fly higher without forcing the crew to rely on oxygen. Thanks to pressurization, B-29s could fly as high as 40,000 feet, increasing fuel efficiency and avoiding as much fighting as possible, as well as potentially dangerous weather. It was a technology that had only been in limited use until then, and the B-29 was the first mass-produced aircraft to be pressurized. Instead of pressurizing the entire fuselage, however, there were three individual compartments connected by tunnels. Unfortunately, a loss in pressure while someone was in the tunnel could result in them being ejected from the plane. Another flaw was that its engines were prone to overheating and catching fire, leading to many casualties. The reason for this was the shape of the engine, which was made to be aerodynamic. Its odd shape had the unintended consequence of reducing the aircraft’s ability to cool down. Still, the Superfortress did earn its name. The plane was equipped with a radar bombing system and an array of remote-controlled turrets that also used radar to aim with increased accuracy against enemy fighters flying at hundreds of miles per hour. The B-29 wasn’t invincible by any means, but it was less reliant on escort fighters for defense.
 
For history buffs, the B-29 remains one of the most iconic aircraft of WWII. The plane continued to be used by the U.S. military until the late 1950s, and the innovations that its development pioneered are now commonplace in aviation. B-29s even assisted in the U.S.’s discovery of the jet stream. Japanese meteorologist Wasaburo Ooishi discovered the jet stream and had been studying it since the 1920s, and the Japanese military used that knowledge to send bomb-laden balloons across the Pacific to strike at America's West Coast. The U.S., on the other hand, didn’t discover the jet stream until their B-29s encountered it on some of their missions, where the unexpected bands of winds at high altitude threw off their aims and affected their fuel efficiency. What a way to wander into a new kind of weather.

 
[Image description: A Boeing B-29 Superfortress on display at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA.] Credit & copyright: NeonMaenad, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.