Mexican Mole Lizard.

Image from here.

The Mexican mole lizard (Bipes biporus), commonly known as the five-toed worm lizard, or simply as Bipes, is a species of amphisbaenian, which is from Baja California, Mexico.

According to Urban legend these creatures “enter your body by the most unspeakable means”, while on the toilet.

These egg laying earth-worm like lizards have only two front arms which they use along with their strong head to dig underground burrows where they spend most of their life. They are in-fact harmless.

Digital Object – Online sources (for more information: The Reptile Database).

 

The Listening Mole

The Fleming valve, also called the Fleming oscillation valve, was a vacuum tube (or “thermionic valve”) invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming (of UCL) as a detector for receivers used in electromagnetic wireless telegraphy. This essentially enabled transatlantic telephone communication and the development of the wireless.

This valve is a German three-electrode valve, created by Telefunken (type EVN 94). The patent for this was provisionally given in 1914 and was fully approved in 1919. . With the development of valves, this technology soon began to be applied during the war, enabling wireless communication between those in the trenches and their commanders.

This is the first listening device created that enabled modern spying. It was placed underground and enabled the listening in on wireless communication. This particular valve was used by the Germans. These valves became increasingly more popular then the traditional methods used, these mainly consisted of messengers and pigeons. Pigeons used to be released through little hatches on the side of the tanks during the World War one.

Coinciding with the development of the listening devise, rose the development of the code (to hide communication from each side) and of the code-breaker.

For more information on communication during World War one, click here from the Western Front Association and click here for papers and further information from the Innovations in Combat Conference.

Americans used native Chactaw speakers to avoid their communication from being intercepted by the German forces as this BBC report explains.

Image courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (here in the UCL Science Collection) .

Digital Object – Online sources.

Mole Skeleton

This is a skeleton of a european mole at the Grant Museum. It is a much better photograph then the one I took, and the ones provided in the museum catalogue. It is from here. 

The combination of the distinct evolutionary features of the moles, as this skeleton shows and the fact moles were (and still are) considered a pest and in an abundance, is likely to be the reason that they were used in teaching so much, their abundance in the museum and the moles subsequent residing within the glass jar.

Courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: NON446)

Digital Object – Online sources.

18 Moles in Jar

Available for viewing (and more information on) at: Grant Museum, London.Image copyright held by : UCL Museums/Grant Museum.

This jar contains 18 moles. According the Mark Carnall, the curator of the Grant Museum how they came to be here it is not quite known, although it is thought that they might have been used for teaching and research in zoology and comparative anatomy, which historically included animal dissection.

The Glass Jar of Moles has it’s own twitter account, @GlassJarOfMoles. This is how they are described on twitter: “We many moles proudly reside at @GrantMuseum. A disparate lot, our interests lie in adventure, science, equality, educational disadvantage, history & worms.”

These moles also appear on the Museum of Unthings, providing an interesting, alternative story to this object.

The Grant Museum has an adoption facility. You can not adopt these moles as someone already has, though there are many others you could chose from. Check here if your interested.

Image courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums. (Search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z2754 )

Digital Object – Online sources.

Mole-Rats

Not to be confused with Mallrats. Mole-Rat is a general term for a number of unrelated groups of burrowing rodents, called blesmols.

The Naked Mole-Rat is probably the more unusual looking of the burrowing rodents, they are from the horn of Africa. They are  about 8-10 cm long and can live for up to 30 years, substantially longer then other rodents.

This study suggests due to their long life and unusual resistance to disease, in particular cancer, they would be particularly useful in genome experiments.

It is unclear if this truly is a mole rat, although it has been called so. Image from @JillJ_194 (origin unknown). But it is too good a photo not to include.

It seems our Glass Jar of Moles is not the only one with ther own twitter account. The Naked Mole Rat has one too; @TehNakedMoleRat (Described as: @Eusocialist. Tunneller. Warrior. The Sabre-Toothed Sausage – BBC)

This naked mole-rat came from a zoo. Image from here. Courtesy of Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

For more information on these Zambian mole-rats (and on this image) click here.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z1460 ).

Digital Object – Online sources. (search arkive.org for more variations).

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view ( At Pittsburgh Zoo, among many others).

The Mole People

The idea of ‘Mole People’ living underground is both urban folklore and reality. In Film and Television, they are usually appear as monster-like creatures.

The Mole People myth is thought to stem from urban myths. The are a number of video’s, articles and books on the subject suggest this is an American phenomenon, that occurs in particular within New York but also other large cities such as Las Vegas and Chicago. As shown in this short film ‘Tunnel People’ by Journeyman Pictures (2011).

Jennifer Toth wrote a book on the subject in 1993. Her claims have been contested by some since (here is a link to just one).

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Toth’s book is here in the British Library).

Digital Object – Online sources.

Physical Object available to view/buy.

Mole Feet Amulets

These two mole’s feet were carried in a pocket as an amulet to protect from toothache, collected in England (around 1933). They are part of the Pitt Rivers Museum. For much more details on this object and to see related objects please visit their online catalogue.

Image credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

Digital Object – Online sources.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Here in the Pitt Rivers Museum Catalogue).

Cooking with Moles

Mole sauce does not contain any mole. Indeed, it is generally stated that moles do not make good food; check out this blog by ediblegeography.com.

Mole Sauce is the generic name for a number of sauces originally used in Mexican cuisine, as well as for dishes based on these sauces. It comes in a variety of colours with a variety of ingredients. It is derived from Spanish and comes from Nahuatl mōlli: “sauce”.

Here are some recipes.

Black Bean Mole Burgers.

Tequila-Marinated Chicken with Mexican Mole Sauce
Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse
SHOW:The Essence of Emeril
EPISODE: Essence of Chocolate

“How to make Mole sauce’. By The Frugal Chef

Digital Objects – Online sources.

Holy Moley / Holy Moly

Holy Moley / Holy Moly : This is a saying. c. 1892 It is an expression of surprise. Place of origin is unknown.

This is Cathy Davey singing ‘Holy Moly’ From the album: ‘Something Ilk’ Regal Recordings, 2004. It is also featured in film ‘The Disappearance of Alice Creed’ 2009. Director: J Blakeson.

This was uploaded by Brooke onto YouTube on the 18 Feb 2012.

Digital Object – Online sources

Physical Object available to view/buy.

Moledom

 

Moledom is the name of the community of moles within the series  Duncton Chronicles written about by William Horwood. Here, as with ‘Wind in the Willows‘ the moles are given human elements (speech and faith for example) although unlike ‘Wind in the Willows’, they are limited to the physical behaviours of their real-world burrow-dwelling counterparts and neither wear clothing nor exhibit any special technological aptitude.

The author provides much more information about Moledom on this website.

This is an image of the American edition. Illustrator Unknown.

 Digital Object – Online sources.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view at The British Library)

Physical Object available to view/buy.