A Daily History of Holes, Dots, Lines, Science, History, Math, Physics, Art, the Unintentional Absurd, Architecture, Maps, Data Visualization, Blank and Missing Things, and so on. |1.6 million words, 7500 images, 4.9 million hits| Press & appearances in The Times, Le Figaro, Mensa, The Economist, The Guardian, Discovery News, Slate, Le Monde, Sci American Blogs, Le Pont, and many othr places… 5000+ total posts since 2008. Contact johnfptak at gmail dot com
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. London, Macmillan & Co.. First edition, 2nd impression, March 1936. 8vo; xii, 403pp. Diced cloth. Lovely copy. About fine. There is a signature on the front pastedown and a name stamped on the front free endpaper. Crisp, strong, fresh, and clean copy. $450
This is an extention of Doppler’s epochal “Ueber das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels,” which appeared in Abhandlungen der Konigl. Böhmischen Gesellschaft derWissenschaften, (5th ser., 2 (1842), 465, and which was also published separately in Prague in the same year, (1842) in which the idea of motion is expressed to both source and observer, based on the experimental work of Buys-Ballot. “ The Doppler Theory/Doppler shift is of monumental applicability and importance, providing the foundation for sonar and radar, as well as for the general acceptance of the cosmological theory of the Big Bang (showing how the shift in the spectra of astronomical entities allows for the measurement of the rate of recession relative to the Earth.
“Buys-Ballot [Buys-Ballot, Christophorus Henricus Didericus (1817-1890)] also conducted one of the most famous experiments to confirm the Doppler shift. He put a group of musicians on a train and took up his position on a station platform. He asked the train driver to rush past him as fast as he could while the musicians played and held a constant note, and was able to detect the Doppler shift (as a change in pitch) as the train passed him (Filkin and Hawking 1997, p. 65).” –Eric Weisstein’s Science Biography pages on the Wolfram Research website
“In 1845, Christophe Ballot, a Dutch meteorologist, conducted a public demonstration to prove it. Ballot lived beside a train line, and he noticed the change in pitch in whistles and sounds as the train passed him by. He pulled a few strings and got a train to pull along an open-air cart filled with trumpet players. Meanwhile, more trumpet players stood in a station. Ballot checked the pitch of their instruments, and then got each section to play the same note as the train hurtled — at an astonishing forty miles per hour — past the station. Although the players in the station stayed right on the note, the players in the train by seemed to be pitched a little too high, and dropped a little too low as the train passed the station. Everyone in the station could hear the changing notes as the trained passed, and one of the most useful tools in all of physics was finally recognized.” Esther Inglis-Arkell, Gizmodo (2013)
“In 1846 Doppler published a revised version of his principle where he considered both the motion of the source and the motion of the observer. Later, a French physicist, Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (1818–1896), who made one of the first measurements of the velocity of light, generalized Doppler’s work by applying his theory not only to sound but also to light.”– A. Roguin, “Christian Doppler, the Man Behind the Effect”. The British Journal of Radiology, 75 (2002), 615–619
This volume also contains significant paper by Michael Faraday, the first German edition of “Thoughts on Ray Vibration”, which suggests that no ether or other vibrating material is responsible for the transmission of light.
Charles Nordmann, Einstein and the Universe. Henry Holt & Co., NYC, 1922, First U.S. Edition. Xvi, 240pp. Original cloth. Excellent copy in a VG dust jacket. $250 (The first printing of the book was in Paris earlier in 1922; there was also a British and German edition in 1922 as well.)
The dj has some chips here and there, as well as a hole (as you can see in the pic) in the front panel—otherwise (as they say) this is in good shape. The book itself is Fine.
“Charles Nordmann was an early pioneer of radio astronomy, the creator of multicolor photometry techniques, and a noted popularizer of astronomy. After receiving his Licencié ès sciences in 1899, he spent the following year at the Meudon Observatory, near Paris, under the directorship of Pierre Janssen . There, Nordmann began a study of the Sun, its activity, and effects on the Earth’s magnetic field. From 1902 to 1903, he worked in the magnetic service at the Nice Observatory. For his doctoral research at the University of Paris, Nordmann attempted to test the prediction of Henri Deslandres that the Sun ought to emit Hertzian (i. e., radio) waves. He constructed a horizontal antenna, 175 m long, and installed it on the glacier of the Bossons (on Mont Blanc). Despite Nordmann’s best efforts, no definite signals were ever received….”–The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (online), Springer Verlag
And the German first edition:
Charles Nordmann. Einstein und das Weltall. Stuttgart, Verlag von Julius Hoffmann, 1922. 8”x 5”, 199pp. Decorated paper boards and a cloth spine. VG copy. $50
A Proposed Solution for Traffic Congestion, Los Angeles, 1939
Suspended Roadways and Monorails
DAVINO, Alphonso (1888-1965?). A Brief analysis of the Traffic Congestion Problem and its Economical Solution. Self-published, Los Angeles, 1939. 11”x 8.5”, 8 leaves, four folding plates (two graphic displays, one map, one display of the suspended thoroughfares, the last two printed on heavy blueprint stock. Rare. No copies located in WorldCat. $4500
Provenance: Library of Congress (with their surplus stamp on title page).
Condition: contemporary store-bought manila document holder with flexible metal pins, title on paper pasted on cover. The blueprints are in excellent condition—there are no breaks at any of the folds, and the paper is quite heavy. The blueprints are also uniformly dark blue (the photo images I made of them make them appear a little variable though they are not—the light catches the various folds and distorts the color, and I just didn’t want to force the prints flat to make a better picture. The blueprints are lovely.)
“Suspended rapid transit and elevated highway system for high-speed passenger service” is what Mr. Davino was suggesting here, all of which was of his own design. I can not find very much at all for Mr. Davino, though he is a patent holder for at least three associated designs/ideas dating from 1926 to 1950. [Semirigid Suspended Railway Structures, 1607875, (1923);Aerial Railway Apparatus patent 2234487 (1943); Suspended Rapid Transit System 2781001A (1950), (suspended vehicles with self-propelled vehicles).] I also found a reference to a suspended transportation system of some sort offered by him through his business “Aerial Apparatus” of Los Angeles (in the Mining Journal, vol 110, 6 November 1920, p 910).
Details of the large folding blueprint:
The folding plates:
1. “Graphic Time Schedule”. 17.5”x 24”. Shows difference in travel time car vs bus compared to NYC “rapid transit” for moving over the same distance, and then compared to the proposed Davino system.
2. Graphic Table Outlining Coats of Davino’s Train System…” 11”x 15”.
3. Blueprint. Suggestive Tentative Plan of the Davino Suspended Rapid Transit nd Elevated Highway System. Lovely!
4. Blueprint. “Sketch Map of Los Angeles and Vicinity” showing the connections and possible routes of the Davino system. 11”x 15”.
Ledger from the advertising department of the Wichita Advertiser newspaper, Wichita Falls, Texas, 1938-1940. 8”x 10” (x 3” thick), approximately 270pp, much more than half with entries, featuring 75+ business in Wichita Falls. Bound in very heavy corduroy boards with leather edges and cover label, in a heavy spring-loaded metal spine. Very Good condition. $500
This seems to indicate the size of an ad, the date, and the cost, all written in a neat hand. The business name appears on upper right for each entry, virtually all with an address.
Some of the names of businesses include: Texan Theater (Indiana Street), August’s Pie Shop, Reiss Radio, Orvel Beauty, Artistic Beauty Shop, Bowen Motor Coach, Cain’s Cosy Corner, Health Food Store, Ice Service Co., Brumley Funeral, Ray’s Chick Hatchery, Modern Shoe Shop, Muller Furniture (606 Indiana where there is STILL a furniture store), Health Spot Shoe Store, The Famous, Burch Cafe, Brooks Grocery, and many others.
Note: this is a repurposed ledger for the Nicara Mining Company which seems to have been in Nevada—this has nothing to do with the Wichita Advertiser.
Elmer James Rollings, The Silent Horror. Published in Wichita, Kansas by the Defender Press, 1939. 8.5”x 5.5”, 45pp. Cover art plus four photos. Green wrappers. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus stamp on rear wrapper and a tiny “Pamphlet Collection” on front cover. The wrappers were originally a deep green but have faded around the edges. VG copy. ALSO: includes a carbon copy of the LC card catalog card! Rare. NO COPIES located in WorldCat. $250
Rollings contributed at least four other narcotics-related works (“Your Girl or My Boy May be Next”. “Marijuana—the Weed of Woe”, “Junk, Junk Peddler and Junkers”, “Perils of the Poppy” and “I Saw Him Die”. There were a few other short works non-drug-related, including something on cowboy songs and also a book on bible prophesy.
The major chapters deal with the shades of narcotics: Opium, the King of Dope; Crown Prince, Morphine; Cocaine, the Princess of Perdition; Marijuana, the Dutchess of Despair; the Dope Peddlers; and Addicts.
Here’s an excerpt:
“An eighteen-year-old boy in a Midwestern city smoked two “reefers” and an hour later choked his sweetheart to death because she refused his shocking, lustful advances, born in a marijuana-crazed brain… A sixteen-year-old boy shot his mother and father to death with his father’s shotgun after smoking several “Mary Anns” given to him by a new friend whose acquaintance he made by chance. He could neither explain nor remember the killing when the effects of the drug had worn off and sobbed himself into hysterical grief when told of his crime. And so, on and on, runs the record of thievery, forgery, banditry, kidnapping, brutal murder, degeneracy, and rape, all chargeable to this paralyzer of conscience and inflamer of depravity — Marijuana! “
Here’s a detail of one of the photos–this one has a caption stating that 60 addicts were picked up in 60 minutes, though Mr. Rollings declined to say where this all took place:
FAJON, Etienne and Arthur Giovani, and others Jeunesse, Espoir du Pays. Published meeting of the French Communist “Assemblee Consultative”. Published in Algeria (?), 1944 (?) 6.5”x 4.5”, 36pp. Printed on newsprint. Original wrappers; crude but yet charming cloth repair to the spine. Provenance: Library of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), via the Library of Congress, each of which has contributed a rubber stamp to the pamphlet. GOOD condition, only. $250 NO Copies located in WorldCat.
Well. Someone at the library of the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) labeled this “COMMUNISM—France-Propaganda”, which it is, though what it is first, I think, is a call to arms. And that clarion call is very directly aimed at the youth of France, which the Communist Party saw as being directly under attack by the Nazis.
The writers here established that “combat over slow death” was the approach to take, there in 1944.
Here’s a selection of what they were talking about:
(Section header: Helping Youth to Fight)
“We all want to save the French youth that the enemy is trying to destroy. All that, there is only one way: to help young people in France to defend themselves against the enemy, to strike him, to hasten his defeat.”
“..the rations granted to the French, from January 1943, were equivalent to the death of one in five individuals. No fight could cost our young generation so dear.”
“Helping French youth to fight that means: Replace certain wait-and-see or stupid broadcasts on our radio with specific advice to young workers to organize the sabotage of enemy production and transport with minimum risk and maximum efficiency
“…develop the struggle of prisoners and deportees in Germany who are, in their vast majority, young people doomed to death. Our radio must give directives for escapes, for sabotage, for all forms of struggle • in enemy territory. Above all, to urgently send by all means, to young soldiers without uniform, small arms, ammunition, clothing, instructors.
“We are concerned with restoring, upon liberation, the compromised health of millions of children and adolescents in France. In our opinion, the Government will not be able to solve this problem…”
“We all want to save the French youth that the enemy is trying to destroy. All that, there is only one way: to help young people in France to defend themselves against the enemy, to strike him, to hasten his defeat.”
“..the rations granted to the French, from January 1943, were equivalent to the death of one in five individuals. No fight could cost our young generation so dear.”
“Helping French youth to fight that means: Replace certain wait-and-see or stupid broadcasts on our radio with specific advice to young workers to organize the sabotage of enemy production and transport with minimum risk and maximum efficiency
“…develop the struggle of prisoners and deportees in Germany who are, in their vast majority, young people doomed to death. Our radio must give directives for escapes, for sabotage, for all forms of struggle • in enemy territory. Above all, to urgently send by all means, to young soldiers without uniform, small arms, ammunition, clothing, instructors.
“We are concerned with restoring, upon liberation, the compromised health of millions of children and adolescents in France. In our opinion, the Government will not be able to solve this problem…”
Unknown publisher. Dated 7 June 1944. 13”x 8”, 7pp (4 leaves). Mimeographed.
Provenance: British Society for International Understanding (the possible publisher?); then received 11 June 1945 by the Library of Congress. Rubber stamps from those two institutions on front, plus a LC surplus rubber stamp on the rear blank.
GOOD copy, only. The staple holding this together is rusted and has degenerated the paper around it (see photo). There is also some edge wear on the leaf leaf. $250
Scarcity: NO copies located in WorldCat.
Interesting note from page 6: “The Secret Societies and Fascist Bodies. These are really only carrying on an old tradition, but perhaps the first of importance in modern times was the “Black Dragon”formed from extreme reactionary elements of the Sei yu-kai about 1925. It was probably responsible for the “Death Bands” which carried out a series of political assassinations from 1952 onwards. From them came the “Back-to-Asia-” ideology. They attracted fervent youth by their claim to stand for spiritual regeneration…”
[IBM] Machine Methods of Accounting. A Manual of the Basic Principles of Operation and Use of International Electric Bookkeeping and Accounting Machines. IBM, 1936-1940. 23 separately paginated sections, approximately 340pp, with illustrations throughout of machines and components, all gathered in a spring-loaded IBM binder of the same name. A fine illustrated reconnaissance of the IBM company. Fine condition, all 29 issues: $850
00. Foreword
01. Historical (in later editions, Development of International Business Machines Corporation (revised))
02. Principles of the Electronic Accounting Machine Method
03. The Tabulating Card 3a. The Electric Accounting Machine Card.
04. The Design of Tabulating Cards
05. The Preparation and Use of Codes
06. Organization and Supervision of the Tabulation Department
07. Selection and Training of Key Punch Operators
08. Accounting Control
09. Punches
10. Alphabetic Printing Punches
11. Facts to Know about Key Punches
12. Verifiers
13. Gang Punches
14. Card Operated Sorting Machines
15. Electric Tabulating Machines
16. Electric Accounting Machines (Type 285 and Type 297)
17. Alphabetic Direct Subtraction Accounting Machine
18. Interpreters 18a. Electric Punched Card Interpreter Type 552
19. Reproducing Punches (and supplement 19a) AND Reproducing Punches Type 512.
20. Automatic Summary Punches (Type 285-297; 20a – Type 405) AND: Automatic Summary Punches, for Use with the Numerical Accounting Machines Type 285-297.
21. Multiplying Punches
22. Applications of Machines to Accounting Functions
23. Other International Products
24. The International Automatic Carriage (Type 921)
[IBM] Machine Methods of Accounting. A Manual of the Basic Principles of Operation and Use of International Electric Bookkeeping and Accounting Machines. IBM, 1936. 10 separately paginated sections, massively illustrated throughout with images of machines and components. A fine illustrated reconnaissance of the IBM company and its early tabulating machines. Superb! Fine condition.__+__ Includes 03. the Electric Accounting Machine Card, 20pp; 04, The Design of Tabulating Cards, 16pp; 05. The Preparation and Use of Codes, 28pp; 06. Organization and Supervision of the Tabulation Department, 16pp; 07. Selection and Training of Key Punch Operators, 12pp; 08. Accounting Control, 8pp; 13, Gang Punches, 8pp; 14. Card Operated Sorting Machines, 14pp; 20. Automatic Summary Punches (Type 285-297; 20a – Type 405) , 16pp; 22. Applications of Machines to Accounting Functions, 24pp.$220
IBM Information Retrieval. IBM, NYC, ca. 1959. (No date but the bibliography cites only 1957 and 1958 “recent” works, and the IBM machine quoted here for this particular use is the RAMAC which was sold beginning 1956. I guess it is possible that this was 1960-1962, though I’d also guess there would be more recent entries in the bibliog.) 8.5”x 11”, 16 pp, illustrated. FINE condition. $125
This is summation of the current state of affairs in info storage and retrieval delivered in a how-to schematic step-by-step presentation, concentrating on library applications, and including a tail piece on “the library of the future”, with that schematic reproduced here.
Pierre de Lanux, Notes by Pierre de Lanux, for his Friends, October 1941. The Free French, their Motives, and the Meaning of their Cause. November, 1941. Received by the Library of Congress November 10, 1941. 11”x 8.5{, 11 leaves. Mimeographed. Includes he following sections: Those Who Walk by Night; A War of Independence; The F.F.F.(Free French Forces);the Invisible Army; In Terms of History. $200
Provenance: Library of Congress, with a small oval stamp plus three small rubber stamps on front page; LC rubber stamp on rear page. Front page a little dusty but he rest of the ext is near-fine. Stapled, with last leaf detached. Very old and nearly gone horizontal fold at center.
NO copies located in WorldCat.
