Rare Radio, Wireless, and TV Ciphers, Codes, Language (1936-1937)

No Listings in WorldCat

SPARTARI, Carlo. Three items.

(Spartari Radio Language, Sirela) Spatari Radio Language: A Word-of-mouth Code Easily Understood by Listeners of Many Nationalities Without Need of Memorizing for Use in International Radio Broadcasting. Self-published (?) 1937.

Three items: $500

18”x 12”, 34pp. Bound in a mini spiral metal binding, thick wrapper. The binding is beautiful in its way. The only problem is that the pamphlet had been stored folded in half (horizontally) , and even though I’ve had this in a book press for months, I cannot reduce the wave in the books structure much beyond what you see in the pics. That said, the binding and text are strong.

Easily the tallest book on radio codes and ciphers that I have seen, Spartari invented a rather clevwer and interesting radio language. It was based upon the seven musical notes of the diatonic scale–DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, and SI—which took no translation to understand, and everyone pronounces the names of the notes in about the same way, a la Italiano. On the one hand it seems to me to be whimsical, and on the other, it seems brilliant.

Provenance: Library of Congress, with their rubber stamp on the title page.

With:

Spatari International and National Criminal Identification Code.

This consists of two folding posters, each 11×17”, folded in thirds.

The code in sheet one is such that a lot of data can be transmitted in a short, alpha-abbreviated message via radio or wireless. There are codes to describe the following characteristics of the person of interst: name, alias, nationality, build (“fat/fat and short/fat and tall”), weight, eye color, hair, scars (and their various forms and locations), moles, tattoos, birthmarks, malformations, teeth, hair/beard. Fingerprints, relatives, g\hat style, shoes, tie, and suit, all of which can be described in some detail in the code.

And with:

Spatari Television Code for Facsimile Transmission.

14”x 32”, 1936. Folded in quarters.

None of these items are found in WorldCat.

“Back in 1905 a young musician was so impressed by the fact that the language of music is universal, that he decided to develop a language based on music. The result is the Spatari Radio Language, an ingenious system of speech based on the notes of the musical scale, capable of being understood by anyone, regardless of his native language, and requiring no study of grammar, vocabulary or syntax. The entire language consists of only the seven notes DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, and SI, and the symbol BO. Capable of being combined into nearly a million different words or groups, these symbols can be pronounced on sight, and easily written down as soon as heard. The “secret” of the language is that each group of symbols represents an entire thought, or sen- tence. It is not intended that anyone memorize the symbols, as they can be written down as heard, and found quickly in the Spatari dictionary later.”–World Radio History online, Radex

Also see On the Short Waves, 1923-1945: Broadcast Listening in the Pioneer Days of Radio

By Jerome S. Berg

Charles C. Hawke (M.D., F.A.C.S., Winfield, Kansas). Castration vs. Vasectomy in the Feebleminded as a Surgical Problem. 12 leaves (including a 17-item bibliography. Mimeographed. Stapled. GOOD+ copy, with little dings and short tears to sp,e page edges. Provenance: “Gift from the author, 1941” in pencil notation on the back of the first leaf, with the LC rubber stamp on the rear leaf.

WorldCat records only ONE copy (Tozzer Libray, Harvard). $500.

Dr. Hawke wonders—somewhat facetiously to my reading—about the relucatance of including testicles in the field of “glandular surgery”, noting that “text books in the eugenic field” teach that “this mighty king is not to be disturbed”, along with a few other purplely examples. He quickly establishes the castration (and ovariectomy) as well as vasectomy and salpingectomy may be the way to stabilize “the unstable group” (in institutions), “be they idiot, imbecile or moron” and that the procedure should “be given serious consideration”.

He states that “the majority of our castrates will never leaves the institution. You ask—why then castrate[?]” He doesn’t seem to answer this directly, but does provide some evidence (below) that the behaqvior of 71% those castrated and confined does improve. It is not 100%, Dr. Hawke notes, and adds the corollary “…but what surgical procedure has a 100% cure [sic]”.

There are other reports of successes in castration, including a long paragraph of Dr. (F. Hoyt) Pilcher, (Superintendent of the Kansas State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Children) who began his work in the early 1890s. There is also a review of the 1917 (and 1928) laws passed by the Kansas legislature on “asexualization”. It seems that the state can uphold recommendations from medical officials recommending castration; the person in question can register a “protest” (“which are rare”). These laws extended its reach into “state penitentiaries, the boys’ reformitories, state hospitals for the insane, and the state hospital for epileptics, the state home for the feebleminded and the state industrial school for girls…”

It is quite a document of those eugenical times.

See: Cean T. Collins, “CHILDREN OF SORROW: A History of the Mentally Retarded in Kansas”, in Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Vol. 39, No. 1 , 1965, pp. 53-78

Milutin Milankovitch. Théorie mathématique des phénomènes thermiques produits par la radiation solaire. (Mathematical theory of thermic phenomena caused by solar radiations.) SOLD

Paris, Gauthier-Villaras, 1920. 9.5x 6.5”; xii, 338, (1)pp.

Classic Gauthier -Villars publication, which is too big and heavy for the perfect binding—this volume has a slight crack in the spine middle from having been read (or opened many times). There is also a thin piece of rear cover missing at edge (about 1/4”x 2”). That said, still a near-Fine copy.

Housed in a custom pamphlet case (of similar materials as the custom box housing the 1941 document, made by the same bookbinder), which is in as-new condition.

“Milankovitch revolutionized the understanding of climate dynamics. He put the astronomical theory of climate on a firm mathematical basis and founded cosmic climatology by calculating the temperature conditions on planets of the inner solar system, and the depth of the atmosphere of the outer planets. In particular he calculated the impact of Earth’s secular orbital cycles on climate changes and explained the origin of the Pleistocene ice ages. The perennial periodic orbital variations (eccentricity, obliquity, precession) considered in his canon of insolation, along with their influence on planets’ climates, today are called Milankovitch cycles.”

“(In this work) he resolved the problem of thermodynamics of inner planets of the solar system and attained the first reliable predictions about the present climates of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon, generally still valid, with the exception of Venus. After 1920, when cooperation with Wladimir Köppen and Alfred Wegener began, Milankovitch turned his attention exclusively to Earth’s climate, specifically the problem of ice ages. His primary focus was the insolation of Earth in the last six hundred thousand years at middle latitudes. The best-known result of the work was the “Curve of Insolation,” first published in 1924, in Köppen and Wegener’s book Die Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit. Being coincident with contemporary dating of four Alpine glacial periods, determined fifteen years earlier by Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner, the curve soon became widely accepted as a geological calendar for calibrating the paleoclimatological timescale.”–Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography online

“He formulated a precise, numerical climatological model with the capacity for reconstruction of the past and prediction of the future, and established the astronomical theory of climate as a generalized mathematical theory of insolation. When these most important problems of the theory were solved, and a firm foundation for further work built, Milanković finished a book which was published in 1920, by the Gauthier-Villars in Paris under the title “Théorie mathématique des phénomènes thermiques produits par la radiation solaire” (Mathematical Theory of Heat Phenomena Produced by Solar Radiation). Immediately after the publication of this book in 1920, meteorologists recognized it as a significant contribution to the study of contemporary climate.”–Milankovitch wikipedia entry

“When Milankovitch received printed copies of his book from his Paris publisher, he sent one sample to Vladimir Köppen. Köppen (“…a principal founder of modern meteorology and climatology”-DSB) was so impressed by Milankoviitch’s introduction of advanced mathematics into Earth sciences that he immediately wrote him a postcard, stating, “I am impressed by the abundance of reason and clarity in your interpretation, and I am truly grateful for this precious gift…” (Köppen’s letter to Milankovitch) 1921; Milankovitch 1997, 474).

“The father of paleoclimates”–Berger, “Milankovitch, pere de la theorie astronomiques des paleoclimats”, Theorie et Mesure, 1988, p 385.

• There are two interesting review of this work in English published in 1923: Bulletin of the AMS by PJ Daniel, August 1923; and Nature 112, August 1923, pp 160-161.