The Deborah Number

In 1928 I came from Palestine to Easton, Pa., to assist Eugene Cook Bingham at the birth of Rheology. I felt strangely at home. There was Bethlehem quite near, there was a river Jordan and a village called little Egypt. The situation was, however, also slightly confusing. To go from Bethlehem to Egypt, one had to cross the river Jordan, a topological feature which did not conform to the original. Then there were, here, places such as Allen town to which there was no analogy. And this could lead to strange situations, such as when a girl at school was asked where Christ was born and replied, “In Allentown”. When corrected by “No, in Bethlehem,” she remarked, “I knew it was somewhere around here.”