AJF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

In the history of humans building things there is a tendency to engage in celebration for the completed job, an effort well done. These victory monuments can be a flag, or spire, or dirigible mast, or lightning rod, or transmitters, or small statues, and so on. There was another example of this, unexpectedly found in the pages of endlessly interesting and resourceful American Agriculturalist, this one from volume 4, 1845.  This was another in a series of articles on farm buildings, and the building in question was a piggery. Now the plan for the piggery seemed a little uneven, and not very clear, and not all that interesting, even for a piggy. But the elevation revealed the early-Victorian beauty of the structure, which was a real surprise. The fabulous aspect of it though was the figure in the weather vane, which, upon close inspection, revealed:

And the full image (which in real life was only about 50mm tall):

And the plan, with explanatory accompaniment: