Amateur Ornithologist - The Feather Revisited by a Couple of Old Engineers
What follows is from a message that I'm sending to an old engineering buddy (Alec) concerning the spine of the bird feather pictured below.
Hi Alec,
Long time no talk!!!
Ummm... There are a million things new here... But best to cut to the chase.
First off, this email will be duplicated in a post I write for www.ebirdseed.com/blog. I know... It's weird, but I've come to the conclusion that there are no non-engineering problems - only poor engineers who don't see the problems for what they really are.
Anyway... Here's an example... When you get a chance, take a look at some of the pics linked below. There are a number of shots of the back of a crow's feather's quill. Notice the wild cross section structure of the thing! It appears to be some sort of an arched or cylindrical beam embedded longitudinally within the cylindrical, hollow quill itself. This is just nuts. (At least I've never seen anything like this... Have you?) The links to those pictures contain a close-up, the entire set of feather photos, and the complete collection of bird pics itself.)
In general, the feather's shaft seems to be flexible but strong in all directions of deflection... It is resistant to shear, tension, and compression... So what gives with the goofy spine within a spine?
Have you seen any human-made structural elements like this?
Alan (aka CapeCodAlan)
I'll post Alec's response shortly, and in the meantime, see you by the feeders,
CCA
Comments
With regard to a bird's feather, one must also consider that it originally is a growing structure as well and when forming and growing, the center portion is filled with blood. Owners of birds know that breaking a "blood feather" can cause a severe bleed as the hollow feather structure can allow the bird to actually bleed to death or cause anemia from loss of blood.
Posted by: Largosmom | July 8, 2007 9:34 AM