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 other places… 5000+ total posts since 2008.

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Author: JF Ptak

Near-Dark, No Windows, Filled with Explosives, and Breathing Cordite. 1894

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This is an elementary but still highly useful cross-section illustration, showing the semi-automatic loading system for a U.S. Navy rapid fire gun as it appeared in Scientific American for September 17, 1894. I wonder if the sailor sending up the (six inch?) shells in near -dark (except for the “light box”) was breathing in any of the cordite from above? The weapon was probably the revolutionary six-inch Dashiell rapid firing breech loading gun, which in trials scored 5 aimed hits at a 900-yard target in 55 seconds. Fast and accurate for 1894.

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Militaria — Technology, History of
An Harmonic Analyzer, 1916

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2290

It isn’t really an onomatopoeia, but the harmonic synthesizer at least feels like itself in the mouth as the two words are spoken. try it: h a r m o n i c s y n t h e s i z e r. The name does feel as though it touches the boundaries of most of the mouth, and that is basically what this analog computer does, analyzes sound, and record it in lovely waves (the plotter on the left in the photo). http://www.phys.cwru.edu/ccpi/Harmonic_synthesizer.html

It is also a beautiful machine. The one above is by Dayton Miller of Case Western Reserve, and it is described in a 1916 publication from the Journal of the Franklin Institute.

“As described on the Case Western Reserve University website, “Lord Kelvin’s harmonic synthesizer is basically Henrici’s harmonic analyzer in reverse. Originally designed as a tide predictor in 1873, the system can combine numerous component waves—in some devices, up to 64 separate components—into a single curve. It is based on the earlier pin-and-slot device, which produces simple harmonic motion with the turn of a crank.”

And one of the results as it appeared on page 73 of the Journal of the Franklin Institute, a curve representing the sound wave from a clarinet and twenty of its harmonic components:

“The version used by Dayton Miller was designed and built in the laboratory and instrument shop of the Physics Dept. of the Case School of Applied Sciences. It consisted of 32 rotating pin-and-slot devices (see diagram below), each of which produced simple harmonic motion with a specified amplitude and phase; these 32 elements controlled the motion of a single cable that traced out the combined wave with a stylus and sliding drafting table. It was used by Dayton Miller to check the results produced by the harmonic analyzer against the original phonodeik curve…” http://www.phys.cwru.edu/ccpi/Harmonic_synthesizer.html

And from the magazine Popular Science for Augusat, 1921, we find the following article:

[Source: Google Books]

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The Molecular World in Not-Quite 3-D

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August Hofmann (a German organic chemist of high calibre, 1818-1892) made this presentation¹ to the Royal Institution in 1865, and it is one in which hand-made three-dimensional models of molecules² are used for one of the first times for public demonstration. (He actually made parts of it in different lectures, that is, but I have not yet been able to compare the two.) The models aren’t quite three-dimensional, as Hofmann arranged them so that they would have at least 3-D molecules though their arrangement in space was veyry much liek they would appear on a piece of paper. (This might be a bit off, and the molecules were all the same size, but the colors he employed to represent molecules are still being used: black/carbon, yellow/sulphur, white/hydrogen, blue/nitrogen, red/oxygen, green/chlorine.

Notes:

1. HOFMANN, August Wilhelm. “On the Combining Power of Atoms”, in three parts, all in The Chemical News, October 5, 1865, pp 166-169; October 13, 1865, pp 175-179; and in October 20, 1865, pp 187-190.

2. The idea of molecules goes back 2000 years, to Empedocles, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus. It should be noted I guess that the modern idea of the world (mostly?) owes itself to an 1873 article in Nature by James Clerk Maxwell. He titled the paper, well, “Molecules”, and this is how he defined his terms: “An atom is a body which cannot be cut in two; a molecule is the smallest possible portion of a particular substance.”

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Chemistry, history of — Information, Quantitative Display of
Bitter Insurance for Cold Un-found Gold, 1898

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Apologies for the quality of this reproduction, but the original is quite small, about an inch square, an wasn’t meant for a marquee display. The idea, though, is a large one, and probably an uncomfortable one at that for the thousands of people who were considering a march to the relatively-newly-found goldfields in the Klondike region of the Canadian northwest territory. The gold was discovered in the summer of ’96, and there were soon dozens of thousands of hopefuls crowded narrow pathways through prospector-choked passes over snow-covered mountains to the gold fields. Of the 100,000+ prospectors that tempted fate over the next few years, only about 4% actually struck gold. That made for 96% of the gold-seekers with the dangerous and expensive ‘seeking” part accomplished but without any gold to shpw for it. Gold fever or not, revenge or not, unresponded sweat equity or not, many were no doubt tempted to find their gold in someone else’s pockets. And so the insurance policy filled by Misters Smith & Wesson.

And even though quite a small ad on a big page, it packed some punch.

Found in the ad pages of the Scientific American, September 24, 1898.

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Exploration
An Appeal to the Conscience of the Civilized World–Anti-Lynching 1920, FULL TEXT

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2288b

I’ve recevied several requests for the full text of this document, which is now found below.

This truly is an appeal “to the world” for there to be an understanding about what was happening to African Americans in the United States in 1920–and this appeal wasn’t about unequal access to education or jobs or Jim Crow laws or any of the social assaults made on those people; it was more basic than that. It was a statement of how thousands of African Americans were being lynched, and murdered, and burned. The appeal was extremely basic–to let it be known that these horrors were being committed against a class of people with little capacity to defend itself legally.

It is a roll call of terror, listing “barbarous” practices against “colored Americans”, citing 84 persons “murdered or ‘lynched’ .

Warning: Graphic material below

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An Appeal to the Conscience of the Civilized World–Anti-Lynching 1920

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2288

This truly is an appeal “to the world” for there to be an understanding about what was happening to African Americans in the United States in 1920–and this appeal wasn’t about unequal access to education or jobs or Jim Crow laws or any of the social assaults made on those people; it was more basic than that. It was a statement of how thousands of African Americans were being lynched, and murdered, and burned. The appeal was extremely basic–to let it be known that these horrors were being committed against a class of people with little capacity to defend itself legally.

It is a roll call of terror, listing “barbarous” practices against “colored Americans”, citing 84 persons “murdered or ‘lynched’ .

Warning: Graphic material below

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History of Goodbye
The Magnificent Comptometer, 1893

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This magnificent image was–is–The Comptometer, a key-driven calculating machine made by Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Company, a glorious instrument, encased in coppery metal, and just larger than a large shoebox. It was invented by Dorr E. Felt (1862-1930) in 1889, and in order to put his idea into production went into business with the Chicago businessman and entrepreneur Robert Tarrant, and the two made an enormously successful go of the whole operation, the machine being easy to carry, and easy to use, and saved a huge amount of time in calculating mounds of long figures.

The image (and ad, below) both appeared in the November 11, 1893 issue of the Scientific American.

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Computer Tech/History — Technology, History of
A Beautiful Turbine, 1893

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Dr. Laval’s steam turbine is quite a lovely thing, presented here on the front page of the Scientific American (October 1, 1893), a glorious and beauitiful achievement capable of 20,000 revolutions/minute and developing 20 hp.

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Technology, History of
Something No Skyscraper Could be Without: an Elevator (1893)

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The front page and very present image (running the full height of the magazine) of the Scientific American for the October 28, 1893 issue presents the Otis elevator on exhibit at the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Otis was one of a dozen manufacturers showing their wares–it was also evidently the largest and most sensational display, with their demonstration (electric) elevator constructed in the center of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Hall and rising 185′ from the ground. At the time the nation’s tallest skyscraper was the New York World buildiing, recently finished in 1890 and 349′ high. The tallest buildings of the previous decade weren’t close to this, and weren’t as tall as the Columbian Otis elevator, so the thrill of the folks who took the ride to the top of this great indoor structure must have been palpable.

And of course tall buildings wouldn’t be anything without an elevator; and elevators would be nothing without a great, reliable, and safe (Westinghouse) braking system.

And this, an accompanying image:

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Anticipation, History of — Architecture and Building
The Crime of Being a Negro

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This extraordinary handout–a small broadside, printed on both sides–in very short order gets to the heart of a compelling epidemic, a gruesome single-sheet epic.

[No real title on title page] “Some of the 51 Lynchings [dropped title] which have occurred during the last Six Months—and there are others”, printed by the NAACP, NYC (20 Vesey Street) ca. 1912.

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