This may be a dumb question...

but that won't stop me from wondering...

Does anyone know why HL choose to put a Seahorse on each model? Not why they chose to put some mark or widget, but why the Hippo? Hard to replicate? Symbol of The Sea?

Is the the Seahorse the same on all models? I know it shows better on some than others, but is it the exact same Seahorse on each?

Rgds,
__
/im

Quit (sea)horsing around, Tim. John, tell him what he wants to know...

"Seahorse? What Seahorse?" That is a direct quote from BY.

If I'm not mistaken, the seahorse was chosen as a "signature" for the HL line much do to BY's past affiliation with David Winter cottages, which has a mouse on each one of its pieces.

Many collectibles use this signature for authenticity purposes, but as you say above BY denies any official usage.

Interesting question, Timothy.

I conducted an experiment to see if one (or more than one) seahorse exists. I placed my Point Judith next to my White Shoal in such a way that the seahorses were in the same field of view and closed one eye so as to avoid interocular distortions and illusions. I was able to see what appeared to me to be two distinct, differently colored images of seahorses in bas relief, apparently occupying different space at the same time. The result did not seem to change in spite of varying the intensity, wavelength and diffusion qualities of the lighting. Moreover, I was able to do so both while wearing my eyeglasses and while not (thinking that perhaps one image could have been a reflection in the lens). So, unless I had the singular misfortune to have viewed these pieces through a hole in the space-time continuum, or unless we ascribe supernatural or divine powers to these Hippocampi facsimiles, and discounting the possibility that an inverse image of one seahorse had burned its way into my retina causing an inverse but otherwise double image in my mind's eye (a possibility refuted by the photographic record), then one could reasonably conclude that the same seahorse is not present on all models. It would be interesting to see if this experimental result could be replicated by others. It would also be interesting to see if two different edition numbers of the same model have unique seahorses or if they share a single one.

Regarding the decision to place seahorses on the models, I too suspect it has something to do with the John Hines/ David Winter Cottages connection. It supposedly adds another level of interest and just a small amount of whimsy to each piece (without overdoing it, as with doggies and bunnies and such). Since it worked for the DWC series, and since it seems that Harbour Lights might have used DWC (at least in part) as a template for success…

One can only speculate why a seahorse was selected over say, a starfish, or some other hapless beached ocean dweller. Clearly, a beached right whale would detract from the lighthouse itself and run up materials and packaging costs unnecessarily. It might also run into some opposition from the Save the Whales crowd. Jellyfish would be too hard to simulate and too difficult to spot. Seahorses probably have it over horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, and other denizens of the piscatory persuasion in the whimsy department. All in all, seahorses seem to have been a pretty good choice.

Pushing the scientific envelope,

-Jaques-Yves Cousteau [Hmmm… How about mermaids?]

Say WHAT?

Scientifically challenged redneck

Ahhh! The dreaded space-time continuum, ART.
That was my first thought too.

"The Truth is Out There"

Is everybody forgetting the one lighthouse with no seahorse.

> Portland Head

>>So, unless I had the singular misfortune to have viewed these pieces through a hole in the space-time continuum, or unless we ascribe supernatural or divine powers to these Hippocampi facsimiles, and discounting the possibility ...<< blah blah blah

You distinctly avoid mentioning the Heisenberg Principle which suggests that what you're seeing is actually changed by the fact you're looking at it. So stop looking at it and then tell me what you see.

>>(a possibility refuted by the photographic record), <<

Horsecollar! In terms of the act of observation, What makes you think looking at a photograph is any different than looking at an HL model?

Methinks this is best continued in the Scientography forum. :-)

Of course of course,
__
/im

WOW!!!

Until now I thought they were rather cute. Now I can see that I am going to have to look at them in a whole new perspective.

Should the truth be known, Bob pushed very hard for a beaver on each lighthouse, but lost by one vote because Harry felt that the tail would take up too much room.

Jim
Johnson

(Thanks to Harry R. for the font and J. Timothy A. for the computer magic.)

Heisenberg was uncertain. I am not.
:-D Heisenberg's principle appears to apply well enough to quarks, but not to matter on the superatomic level. I know some of the seahorses are small, but they're not quark-like.



Nothing. But when several of my esteemed professional colleagues review the same photos (Stephen Hawking and Jacob Bronowski said to say "hi", Tim) and all our observations concur, we begin to build some confidence regarding our perceptions of the universe.

Peer reviewed,
___
_/YvesC

Space-time continuum- OK!
Heisenberg Principle????
Quarks and superatomic level????????

Professor, I thought this course was on Hippocampi (Seahorses)?

- Heinsenberg

Heisenberg's 'Uncertainty Principle' of 1925 postulated that the act of measuring something changes the thing you are measuring, so you can never be sure of the measurement you made (simply stated).

Concerned with the dynamics of electrons to neutrons in an atomic particle, he found...



While he was applying his principle to sub-atomic particles, the same 'uncertainty' can be said of nearly all observations.

The more you try to get into it's 'workings', the more uncertain will be your measurements of a system.

In the area of opinion polling, for example, simply asking questions, however finely crafted, brings issues into the mind of the person being surveyed that affects how they will respond to the question. Had you not asked the question, the respondent might have followed a totally different path than the one they answered.

An excellent site about Heisenberg and his work is at:

http://www.aip.org/history/heisenberg/p08.htm

Chidester, GA