JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

I like this cross section as a piece of Found-Art–pre-nonrepresentational art, but it appears about 25 years too soon. It could be classified as “art” after Mr. Kandinsky makes an appearance…but we might have to look not very closely at the work of Whistler, Turner, Constable, and some others who came very close to abstract art but not quite…and we’ll also have to overlook some wide swath of Asian art (some quite ancient). 

The actual element here is a cross section of a piece of 2.5″ pipe half-stuffed with 420 telephone lines, and belonged in 1885 to the Metropolitan Telephone Company of New York.  (“The dark shading shows the pitch filling the box around the pipe. The light ring next the pitch represents the wrought iron pipe inside of which rests the cable showing the ends of the copper wire surrounded with the insulating oil which fills the pipe full at all times.”–The Electrician, November 13, 1885)

And just conversationally I’ll include Robert Delaunay’s  1913 Premier Disque:

[Robert Delaunay, via Wikicommons]