Aug 9 Franklin Institute and Mongol Artifact Exhibit

We left our house in the morning on Sunday August 9 and went to Philadelphia. The destination was the Franklin Institute (aka Science Museum of the Franklin Institute). We had purchased tickets in advance for the Mongol artifact exhibit but had some time until our entry would be valid. 

We used the time to go to some parts of the museum that we hadn't looked at closely previously. The first image shows us at an image of brain tissue.

While Ann was resting from that and awaiting our time to get into the Mongol exhibit, I went to the sky bike exhibit which lets you ride a bike across the upper part of an atrium (second image). 

The bike has a counterweight so if you lean in one direction the weight leans in the other and prevents you from falling (and also they have a net just in case). The passenger weight limit was 250 pounds so I easily (cough, cough) was eligible for the ride.

After that it was time to go to the Mongol artifact exhibit, which was the first public showing of this exhibit in the world with artifacts from over a dozen different collections. 

In the third image, Genghis Khan is seated with a white and black decorative banner (goat fur on a post). The white one was for peace, the black for war and Genghis was the great Khan for both. 

The Mongols had several things going for them in their conquests: they had better offensive weapons, e.g., their bows could propel arrows 300 meters vs. 50-150 meters for their opponents; they had better defensive weapons, e.g., lighter chain mail (see fourth image below)

 they had better tactics and could execute those tactics well, e.g., the pretend retreat and then attack from the side; they had better logistics, e.g., each warrior had up to 5 ponies so if one got tired or killed, they kept moving and apparently, their armies frequently traveled 75 miles in a day.Two of the pieces in the exhibit were of significant historic importance. One was a sword that was presented to a guard by Marco Polo (below -its the one at the bottom - fifth image from the internet)
to one of his guards. The other was a manuscript (no image) describing the use of a gunpowder fired weapon (the first of this kind of device).

After the time at the institute we drove north to visit the Droars in Morristown, N.J. and then to Suffern, NY where we had a hotel reservation. (image is a scan from a letter sent by the Droars - click on image to enlarge it).