In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnell heated a lump of pitch, poured it into a funnel, and created the world’s longest-running laboratory experiment. He also created what might be science’s cruellest joke…
The ‘Pitch Drop Experiment’ at the University of Queensland was designed to prove a simple point: pitch, that black tarry substance once used to waterproof boats, isn’t actually solid. It’s a liquid. An insanely viscous liquid that flows at a rate so slow it makes glaciers look hyperactive.
The Setup That Took Three Years To Settle
Parnell heated the pitch until it flowed, poured it into a sealed glass funnel, and waited. For three years.
In 1930, he cut the bottom of the funnel and positioned a beaker underneath. Then the waiting really began.
The first drop took eight years to fall. Eight years of watching a substance that looks like solid rock behave like the world’s most patient liquid. Pitch is 100 billion times more viscous than water. At room temperature, you can shatter it with a hammer like glass. But leave it alone and it flows – just slower than human patience can usually track.
The Custodian Curse
Professor Parnell died in 1948 without seeing a single drop fall. Professor John Mainstone took over. He watched the experiment for 52 years.
He missed every single drop.
In 1977, he watched all weekend. The drop fell the day after he left. In 1988, he stepped out for five minutes to get a drink. The drop fell whilst he was gone. In 2000, they installed a webcam. A 20-minute power outage knocked it offline during the eighth drop!
Mainstone died in August 2013, eight months before the ninth drop fell in April 2014. Both custodians, Parnell and Mainstone, dedicated their careers to this experiment and died without witnessing what they spent decades waiting for.
When Air Conditioning Ruined Everything
The first seven drops fell roughly every 7-9 years. Predictable, if glacially slow. Then the university installed air conditioning in the 1980s.
The cooler temperature increased the pitch’s viscosity even further. The eighth and ninth drops each took approximately 13 years to fall. The eighth drop was noticeably larger, the pitch had thickened so much it pooled before finally surrendering to gravity.
Temperature control improved the building’s comfort but it destroyed the experiment’s rhythm!
35,000 People Watching Paint Not Dry
More than 35,000 people from 160 countries are registered to watch the live webcam feed.
They’re hoping to witness history. A moment 97 years in the making.
Despite three webcams monitoring 24/7, technical glitches and impossible timing prevented anyone from seeing a drop fall for over 86 years. The ninth drop was finally captured in 2014, but only because the base wobbled during a beaker change and snapped it off accidentally.
The experiment holds the Guinness World Record for longest continuously running laboratory experiment. It also holds the unofficial record for most anticlimactic livestream in scientific history too…!
The Experiment That Outlives Everyone
As of 2024, only nine drops have fallen in 94 years.
The funnel still has enough pitch to continue for another hundred years. Professor Andrew White oversees it now, carrying the torch from Parnell and Mainstone.
The experiment proves that pitch is a liquid. It also proves that reality moves at its own pace, indifferent to human schedules, webcams, or the people who dedicate their lives to watching.
You can plan. You can prepare. You can install backup cameras and power supplies.But sometimes, the universe just waits until you blink.
(NB: Cover image is an artist’s impression of the experiment)
