. H., The Mad Scientist?

aron Von Lodge was the head of a small country known as Lilliland near Switzerland. The time was the early 1900s.

One of the Baron’s biggest concerns was the potential destruction of Lilliland by an Alpine avalanche. If one ever came to Lilliland it would bury many of the homes and establishments. Since Lilliland was small and situated in a valley between two of the Alpine mountains, the avalanche threat was always present.

Despite many meetings between the Baron and his chief advisor Professor Hamblin they could not find any accurate way of predicting an avalanche before it came. If they could have just one hour warning, then many lives could be spared.

A man called T. H. who lived in Lilliland had been known to the population as the mad scientist because he believed that there was a way to predict the coming of an avalanche. He had yet to find a solution but believed strongly that it could be done.

One day, T. H. was observing his pet cardinal that he had in his home and noticed that the bird seemed to sing different songs depending on the time of day and whether it was a bright sunny day or rainy. His pet canary also sang a different song before a snowfall. He recorded the various songs and wrote the musical notes to duplicate the birds’ songs.

Then an idea hit T. H. What if the birds had a special song to signal an upcoming avalanche?

Very carefully, T. H. watched and listened to the birds’ songs. Since avalanches do not occur very often the people thought that T. H. was truly a mad scientist who wasted his time watching and listening to his birds sing.

Finally, one winter day it paid off. The birds started singing a very unusual song that T. H. could not remember hearing before. Then two hours later, an avalanche hit Lilliland. It was not a major avalanche but it did cause some damage and some problems in Lilliland until it was all cleaned up.

T. H. reported his findings regarding the different songs of his pet birds to the Professor. The Professor believed that the songs were a very good indicator of major weather problems. T. H.’s discovery was used again and again to help warn the people of Lilliland’s impending danger. T. H. was now recognized as a brilliant scientist who made a major discovery to help keep the citizens of Lilliland safe.