J. Bjerknes and H. Solberg, Life Cycle of Cyclones and the Polar Front Theory of Atmospheric Circulation. Offprint/separate, Geofysiske Publikationer 3, no. 1, 1922. 12×9, 18pp (paginated 1-18). Bound in cloth, with a half-title and title, though no publication data save for a running abbreviation of the journal name and volume above the text. Nicely bound in buckram. Provenance: U.S. Navy, Naval War College, with a large “Discarded” stamp on front free flyleaf. There is also a bookplate. Very Good condition. Uncommon. $300/on hold

“Bjerknes was part of a group of meteorologists led by his father, Vilhelm Bjerknes, at the University of Leipzig. Together they developed the model that explains the generation, intensification and ultimate decay (the life cycle) of mid-latitude cyclones, introducing the idea of fronts, that is, sharply defined boundaries between air masses. This concept is known as the Norwegian cyclone model.”–Wiki

“Bjerknes’s father, Vilhelm. has often been called the father of modern meteorology. This title is doubly appropriate, for not only did Vilhelm’s vision and research programs lead to establishing new directions, methods, and the conceptual foundation for the science, but Vilhelm’s son also played a fundamental role in creating this new era in atmospheric science.”–DSB

“Although rapid transitions or discontinuities in temperature, pressure, and wind velocity had been noted in Jacob’s first model*—and even by nineteenth century meteorologists—and although such discontinuities had been theoretically postulated, the 1919 Bergen cyclone model represented the introduction of discontinuities into meteorology as the major focus for practice and, eventually, theory. These “fronts,” as they later were termed, were endowed with scientific reality through the introduction of major changes in forecasting practice. ”

“The cyclone model based on fronts entailed the ability to specify in time and three-dimensional space important weather phenomena associated with cyclones to a much greater degree than earlier models could achieve. During the next few years the Bergen group of Vilhelm and Jacob Bjerknes, Ernst Calwagen, Halvor Solberg, and Tor Bergeron, among others, expanded this preliminary cyclone model and accompanying forecasting methods to a comprehensive system for explaining midlatitude weather changes. The polar front, the occlusion process, an evolving cyclone model, and air mass analysis were the conceptual foundation for a new era in meteorology.”–DSB

*This was evidently a longer and more thorough version of a paper submitted by Bjernkes and Solberg to the Monthly Weather Review in 1919 on the findings of the Bergen group. –Robert Marc Friedman, Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology, p. 180; also noting that this article is “frequently cited”.

“Polar front theory is attributed to Jacob Bjerknes, derived from a coastal network of observation sites in Norway during World War I. … The convergence line ahead of the low became known as either the steering line or the warm front. The trailing convergence zone was referred to as the squall line or cold front.”–Wiki

The two authors “…pictured the polar front as a string of families of cyclones, described by dashed lines linking successive warm and cold front”.–Mark Monmonier, Air Apparent: How Meteorologists Learned to Map, Predict, and Dramatize Weather, pg 64, with several reproductions of some of the lovely diagrams.

“The “Bergen School of Meteorology” is a school of thought which is the basis for much of modern weather forecasting. Founded by the meteorologist Prof. Vilhelm Bjerknes and his younger colleagues in 1917, the Bergen School attempts to define the motion of the atmosphere by means of the mathematics of interactions between hydro- and thermodynamics, some of which had originally been discovered or explained by Bjerknes himself, thus making mathematical predictions regarding the weather possible by systematic data analysis. Much of the work was done at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, in Bergen, Norway.”–Wiki It should be noted that Jacob was the chief forecaster and head at Bergen 1918-1931.–DSB

Tenement House Department, City of New York: Survey of Vacancies in Class-A-Multiple Dwellings, compiled by the Commissioner Charles F. Kerrigan, 14×8.5″, 9 sheets (2 sheets of text and 7 sheets of tables). Provenance: Library of Congress, with their stamps on the front cover. Condition: meh. The edges are a little tatty, and there’s a good sized chunk out of the top left corner of the front cover and similar to the first page, as well as two small bits off of the right corner of the two last sheets. Other than that, the publication is in Okay shape, but probably just Fair/Good overall.  $100

I know that there must be someone out there in Webtubiana desperately looking for this in a way in which they didn’t know they (a) needed it at all and (b) didn’t know that that unknown need was desperate. And so here it is: New York City apartment vacancies in 1933. There is a tale being told here, in NYC, in the fourth year or so of the Depression and the first year of FDR, about what could be afforded and how much that all was. The list is found in eight pages of Tenement House Department, City of New York: Survey of Vacancies in Class-A-Multiple Dwellings, compiled by the Commissioner Charles F. Kerrigan, and dated in the text “May 11, 1933”.  It is a mimeographed production with a done-at-the-office quality to it, the typewriter having a problem with “9” and “0” and “O” as they tended to be filled in with ink. 

I know this sounds as brittle as ice on an ego, but once you get past the dust, there is definitely a story being told, if you looked for it.

At the very least this document will tell you what the rent was like on apartments from 1-7 rooms (elevator and non-elevator buildings), which means that if you consult the ever-useful Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator you can at least establish a common denominator for value interpretation into current dollars. There are 33 (!) price classifications for monthly rental, ranging from $5 (or less) to “over $300”.  So, using the BLS formula $1 in 1933 is worth about $19.21 in 2018 (or for the sake of convenience let’s say 1:20). So the cheapest monthly rent in 1933 for a vacant 1-room apartment in 1933 was $100…except there weren’t any available. The next step up was $6-10, and using the upper end at $300/month there were only 13 1-rooms vacant. The most-available of these price ranges was 189 1-rooms in the $31-$35 range, or about $700 vacant. There was nothing vacant over $75/month in a total of 1071 vacancies. 

The most commonly-vacant category was in the $26-$40/mo (or $800/month) 3 room apartments, where there were 8,488 apartments available in the 33,563 vacancies. 

It turns out that of the 839,245  “total apartments” in NYC there were 194,963 vacancies for a rate of 12.4%. Nowadays the vacancy rate for Manhattan hit a high of 2.6% in 2017 and the average studio apartment rented for about $3k (or $156 in 1933 dollars, which would have put you in the upper tier apartment dwellers back then). 

Different times.

There’s more, and if anyone needs it they can let me know and I’ll provide what I can. Right now I’m dead-up against my THX-1138 time limit of 30-minutes/post, so this one ends now.