This Finch is a Canary in the Coal Mine

To talk about this Finch, first, we have to go back in time…

Have you ever heard the name, John Scott Haldane? Probably you do not know his name. He was a Scottish physician and physiologist. 

During the 1st World War, Germans used chlorine gas in the battle of Ypres. Many unprepared Allied soldiers died. Dr. Haldane  was sent to identify what gas was used. As he returned home, he experimented on himself and his family on how to protect people from exposure to gases. He invented the first respirator called “ Black Veil”.  

However that was not his first invention. Mr. Haldane was conducting numerous investigations of mine disasters and that is were the FINCH comes to play.

In the last decade of the 19th century, he suggested using small animals such as small birds - Canaries - to detect a dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in the mines.  

He suggested miners start carrying small cages with Canaries.

The Canary is a small bird with rapid breathing, small in size, and high metabolism. High level of carbon monoxide will kill them faster than they woukd a person.  This started saving the lives of miners. 

And that was the beginning of the Canaries in the mines. 

Canaries in the mines were used more than half of the century. In Great Britain Canaries were used to protect miners as late as 1986!

Canaries were miner’s sentinels for years until technology replaced them and stopped the old tradition. As usual, technology improved on the old process.

Canaries are a part of the Finch family and they were first bred in captivity in the 17th century. 

Darwin studied Finches in the wild since the time he arrived in the Galapagos Islands. As they were living  in reasonably isolated environments from isand to island ...they adapted for generations to the environment of each island, branching out into new species. 

Finches helped Darwin understand how the species adapted to their environment from generation to generation. They evolved to the 15 recognized species of today, with different sizes, beak shapes, songs, and behavior. 

They adapt to changing the length and the shape of the beak to make themselves more competitive for available food. 

Nowadays, we use technology to help us survive and live better, but technology needs to adapt with us to serve our needs better. 

The old rescue button is now obsolete. In 5 years the first quarter of the 21st century will have passed, and we would still be using a technology invented 50 years ago, when Wilhelm Hormann, in early1970 invented the first personal emergency response system (PERS). He revealed this to the public in 1980 as a Hausnotruf (home alert). In 1982 he was rewarded with the Frankfurt Innovation Prize of the German Economy.

That was 40 years ago we did not know smartphone technology, or that we would have smartwatches for the masses.