Lord Kelvin started this experiment in 1887 by placing a block of Cobbler's Wax was places at the top. Cobbler's Wax is a non-Newtonian Fluid. This means that if it is hit hard, it acts like a brittle solid and shatters, but, as this experiment demonstrates, if left alone, it acts like a fluid and flows very, very slowly down hill.

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This is Lord Kelvin's Artifical Glacier in the Huntarian Museum in Glasgow. It has now been running for 140 years, and is potentially the longest running experiment in the world. Certainly, it had been running for 40 years when the currently recognised longest running experiment was initiated.

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