e1c46a9fdd9fd90a49a64aa1ac5fa964.jpg

When George Washington lit it up: Re-enacting a scientific test

By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
   ROCKY HILL — Re-enactors dressed as Gen. George Washington and Thomas Paine paddled a boat onto the Millstone River Wednesday afternoon to honor a landmark scientific experiment held by the men over two centuries ago.
   A crowd of about 100 residents, local officials, scientists and historians looked on, huddled under umbrellas along the bridge at Washington Street as the men, joined by two officers, held torches over the river’s surface, hoping to ignite swamp gas bubbling up from beneath the water.
   The event marked the 225th anniversary of the investigation into the cause of a folklore phenomenon known as the “will o’ the wisp” — flickering lights seen at twilight or nighttime, often over marshes and bogs.
   The cause is still uncertain, according to Douglas Eveleigh, a microbiology professor at Rutgers University and Rocky Hill resident who organized the event. It was sponsored by the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and about 25 students and faculty from the university turned out for the re-enactment.
   Gavin Swiatek, a professor of chemistry, played the part of Gen. Washington, and Zachary Freedman, a graduate student in ecology and evolution, was Thomas Paine.
   Professor Eveleigh, who hopes a commemorative plaque will be placed to honor the experiment, said it was an indication of the founding father’s scientific nature.
   ”Washington was really a gentleman farmer and quite the scientist,” he said during an introduction shortly before the demonstration began.
   In the days after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, Gen. Washington was in residence at the nearby Rockingham mansion. It was a period of relaxation, with many celebration parties held in Princeton. Writer and inventor Thomas Paine had been invited to the estate by Gen. Washington so that he could be honored by the Continental Congress.
   Princeton was briefly the capital of the United States in the summer of that year. For four months, the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, and it was there that it learned of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, ending the war.
   It was also during this period that Gen. Washington, Paine, two colonels and some soldiers decided to investigate the “will o’ the wisp.”
   Credit for the first discovery is given to Count Alessandro Volta at Lake Como, Italy, in November 1776. However, knowledge of the experiment by Gen. Washington is undocumented and considered unlikely, considering the language and geographic differences, as well as his preoccupation with the Revolutionary War during that period.
   Others, including Benjamin Franklin, had failed in their earlier attempts at the experiment.
   The officers wondered if the phenomenon was caused by something, perhaps turpentine, created by decaying plants. However, Gen. Washington and Paine theorized that the flame was actually caused by a gas.
   To find out who was right, the group took a boat onto the Millstone River and held the experiment.
   Wednesday, the re-enactors went out on to the river and poked at the mud with their oars until bubbles rose. The Gen. Washington stand-in held his torch close to the surface of the water, above the bubbles. Very quickly, and to the surprise and delight of the crowd, a flame about four feet high leapt up.
   Gen. Washington and Paine had been correct. A flammable gas, now known to be methane, can be found in the mud under the water. However, it is still unknown how the gas ignites naturally, without a source of high temperature.
   Wednesday, the experiment was re-enacted with a little bit of assistance, Professor Eveleigh said. Though the experiment had been recreated naturally in the past week, he said, balloons filled with methane gas were sunk in place to ensure the flame appeared during the re-enactment.
   The experiment wasn’t the only foray by Gen. Washington into science, the professor said. In his farm, Gen. Washington explored then-modern techniques of crop rotation, composting and distilling. As a general, he used invisible ink in his military dispatches, and he had the troops use an early form of vaccination against small pox.