Author: JF Ptak

Glass Globes, Light, and Volcanoes (1898)
JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

I happened upon these lovely technical drawings –in plan and cross section–of the newly-patented Holophane Globe. The inventors and coiners of the Holophane were French scientist Andre Bondel and the Turkish Spiridion Psaroudak who patented their illuminating globe in the U.S. in 1896 (and five other countries between 1893-1895). It was designed with inverted and excised cuts in the glass dome to refract and reflect the interior lighting source, and successfully illuminated more area with “less light waste” than most other globes. Not only was the design effective, but the effects were also pretty, as were the schematics of the globe. (The profile and paln remind me of some early engravings and woodcut of the interior of the Earth showing the sources of volcanic action…or in the case of our not-recently-mentioned friend Athanasius Kircher, the source of water.)
- Source: “The Holophane Glass Globes for Effecting the Better Diffusion and Distribution of Artificial Light”, Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol 145, April 1898. The article is a technical review of the glass globe and wound up being highly favorable, awarding the inventors the John Scott Legacy Medal for their invention, “…for [the invention] of a globe that secures much better diffusion and more satisfactory distribution than any other globe…”
·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Technology, History of
The Skinniest Early Description in the USA of the Invention of Photography (1839)?
JF Ptak Science Books Post 2801

Among the earliest and lengthiest mentions of the newly-announced Daguerre invention of photography in the U.S. was “Pencil of Nature—A New Discovery” that appeared 13 April 1839 in the Corsair: A Gazette of Literature, Art, Dramatic Criticism, Fashion and Novelty. There’s a lot in there on the effects of what the new process might be more so than any real description of what the magical new process was. It would take several months for that to appear, and one of the first to do so, to provide some real detail on what was still a rather mysterious event and process, appeared in the National Intelligencer on 25 September 1839 (which was based on the 23 August 1839 London Globe account).

The Corsair article starts out bemoaning “progress”, in a way, setting the reader up for the next step of the democratization of art, which would meanwhile send the world of engraving (and engravers), lithography, sketchers, painters, and so on, who would all be replaced by the new invention of Daguerre.
- “We know not how it is, but just as we are going to have something good in this world, up starts a mischief to mar it or to vilify it. There is not a real panacea, but has its rival. Engraving, set upon a firm basis, one would have thought might have been supreme. No such a thing—her illegitimate sister, Lithography, sets up her claim, and by means of cheap publications, calls in the masses, who naturally prefer the inferior article; and here commences the democracy of art.”
And just like any advancement in anything—from water delivery systems in towns and cities that would replace the water-fetcher to the lineman working on some U.S.-built car being replaced by robotics, and etc.–the author sees the fate of the artisan in light of photography:
- “Here is a revolution in art; and, that we may not be behindhand in revolutions, for which we have so imitative a taste, no sooner does one start up in Paris, but we must have one in London too. And so Mr. Daguerre’s invention is instantly rivalled by Mr. Fox Talbot’s. The Dagueroscope and the Photogenic revolutions are to keep you all down, ye painters, engravers, and, alas! the harmless race, the sketchers.” –Source: Gary Ewer, http://www.daguerreotypearchive.org/texts/P8390015_PENCIL_CORSAIR_1839-04-13.pdf
It is interesting to see the variety of titles given to the earliest articles and notices of Daguerre from January through August 1839—granted for most of that time there were very few details of the process until late summer 1839 at which time the article titles became more directed and less fanciful. The following is a selection of the articles that appeared at this early stage—all of the work putting together the remarkable list of linked publications that these titles are taken from is that of Gary Ewer at the Daguerreotype Archive, here: http://www.daguerreotypearchive.org/1839.php
- “The Daguerotype” [sic]
- “Fixation of Images”
- “Chemical and Optical Discovery”
- “The New Art
- “Clericus”
- “Remarkable Invention”
- “Extraordinary Chemical and Optical Discovery”
- “New Discovery—Engraving, and Burnett’s Cartoons.”
- “Self-Operating Processes of Fine Art”
- “Sun-Painting”
- “The Daguerrotype” [sic]
- “Photogenic Drawings”
- “Daguerre’s Photogenic Paper, and Fixation of Images”
- “Pencil of Nature—A New Discovery”
- “New Discovery in the Fine Arts—The Daguerroscope” [sic]
- “The Daguerrotype, or Solar Engraving”
- “The Daguerre Secret”
- “The Pencil of Nature”
·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Anticipation, History of — Photography — Photography, history
Display of Information–a Brooklyn Bridge Contribution to the “History of Lines” Series

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

It has been a while since I’ve added a post to the History of Lines series, but today I’ve found a good one: a graphical display of the limited comings-and-goings of the cable tram on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1888. The bridge–still not yet quite the “Brooklyn Bridge”, but the “New York and Brooklyn Bridge”–was open at this point for only five years, still relatively new. and this chart shows the power expense and general time table of the small train that ran pedestrians from one end of the bridge to the other. It wasn’t a continuously moving cable train, and had regular departure times. In any event I’m happy to display the complicated and not altogether clear display of the data associated with the train:

And the full display, with legend and explanation:

Source: G. Leverich, “The Cable Railway on the New York and Brooklyn Bridge”, from American Society of Civil Engineers, Transactions, vol XVIII, March 1888, #380, pp (67)-102, plates 4-30 (25 folding plates of various aspects of the power train and fittings, complete).

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Architecture and Building — History of Lines — Technology, History of
A Very Early Quantitative Scale for Classifying Smoke (1899)
JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This is one of those things that you’d probably not properly think about until you had to do so–a quantitative measuring device to classify smoke (or visible emissions). In a way it reminds me of Mr. Howard who was the first to classify clouds in a scientific way in 1803–surely you’d think that the great classifiers like Aristotle & Co. would have done this over the centuries, but evidently the moving floating mountains escaped scientific classification until relatively recently. Is the same true of the cloud’s distant cousin, smoke? And what about classifying fog? I don’t have the answers to this tonight as its too late to figure it out right now, but I’ll return with the answers and correctly update this post. In the meantime, please find below the last part of a two-part article that appeared in the Journal of the Franklin Institute¹in which the organization and classification of smoke by Max Ringlemann is discussed and explained. It seems as though there is a slightly earlier publication of the scale in Engineering News in 1897, though I haven’t yet (again!) found the original article by Ringlemann himself. (“In 1897 architectural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann developed smoke charts to allow observers to contextualize observable smoke into a scale of known gray. Lighter smoke indicated fewer particulates and more water, while the darkest of smoke was of grave concern. The charts were posted outside of factories, providing a very public method of environmental monitoring and awareness.”–Science History Institute, https://www.sciencehistory.org/ringelmann-smoke-charts.)

It is interesting to note that a paper published by the Bureau of Mines of the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1967 employed the Ringlemann scale pretty much as we see it below.
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/userfiles/works/pdfs/ic8333.pdf
There is also an interesting article that addresses the use of the Ringlemann scale in regards to discussion of air pollution:
- “ Dark smoke – an introduction to air pollution control (smoke) regulations “(PDF). Hong Kong: Environment protection department, Hong Kong. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
Notes:

1. William H. Thorne, “The Smoke Nuisance and its Regulation…”, JFI, February 1898, vol 145, pp 401-442 and pp 17-59 (same volume, different number).
·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Calculating — History of Lines — Information, Quantitative Display of
The First Mention of a Photograph of a Face? (1840)

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2800

“An Account of some Experiments made in the South of Virginia on the Light of the Sun…”, published in the Philosophical Magazine (London) in 1840, is a very early photographic effort by John Draper on the effects of solar light on different material and media, including silver solutions. This is the first appearance of the work in Great Britain and Europe, having appeared in a much longer (32pp) version in the Journal of the Franklin Institute from 1837. Draper remarks that his works in photography were not much read in England, having been published in the U.S., and thought to bring this paper in particular to the attention of the Philosophical Magazine: He writes in the paper that “Most of these have been published in the Journal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia; but as they do not appear to have been noticed in England, I will ask the favour of a page or two of your excellent Magazine, to give my testimony on a subject, which now appears to excite so much interest.”

Of perhaps greater interest here is the announcement in the June 1840 issue in this same volume of Draper’s success in producing human portraits by the Daguerre process. It is a short notice (only five lines, appearing on page 535) and even though it is stated that the Draper paper was received on March 31st it still somehow did not make it into the May issue of the journal–this in spite of this being the first official announcement of a human portrait being made in photography. This is slightly complex because even though Draper’s portrait of his sister, Dorothy, was long recognized as being the first photographic portrait, it seems as though he was beaten to the punch by Alexander Wolcott (and/or Robert Cornelius?), though it was Draper who made the announcement of a successful portrait (in general) and thus the first overseas notice of the success. (Draper did make the first photograph of the Moon later in 1840…)

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Photography — Photography, history
A Very Early (First?) Description of a Panoramic Daguerreotype (1845)
JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

Just five years after the announcement of Daguerre’s invention of photography, and just four years after the beginning of the early photo craze, there appeared in the Comptes Rendus in mid-1845 a paper by Friedrich von Martens (1809-1875) on an expansive use of the new media: the panorama. It was certainly the first paper to appear in this journal on the subject; when I checked a likely U.S. source on the subject (Journal of the Franklin Institute, 1846) I found only one mention prior to 1865: a translation of the Martens paper (recorded though as “Merteus”). This seems a little obscure but not unimportant, as Martens may have been either the second (and possibly first) to perfect a panoramic camera, patenting his “Megaskop Kamera” in 1844.
- I’ve decided to share the Martens paper in both the original and the American translation:
- Here’s the text version of the original article, from the Comptes rendus de l’Academie des Sciences..., Paris, June 23, 1845:
·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Photography — Photography, history — Technology, History of
Leonardoesque Robot Brains, the Harvard Mark I, and a Peek into the Future of Computing (1944)

JF Ptak Science Books (Expanding an earlier post from 2008)

This may well be the first popularly-written and popularly-published report on the Harvard Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) (appearing in the American Weekly, 15 October 1944), which was the first automatic, general-purpose, digital calculator. Known as the MARK I, it was the brainchild of Howard Aiken (1900-1973), a graduate student at Harvard, who started it all in 1937 by proposing a series of coordinated Monroe calculators to function as a unified whole that would cross the threshold of the physically-impossible calculation (though theoretically possible) to the eminently doable. The project was immeasurably aided by the input of Harvard astronomer Harlow Shapley (who had earlier dealt with the enormously problematic aspects of the scale of the universe) who put Aiken in the hands of IBM at Endicott (NY). From there the building of the computer came under the supervision of Clair D. Lake, with the engineering and theoretical team of Francis Hamilton, Ben Durfee and Howard Aiken.

The machine was basically completed in 1943 and tested in Endicott for the better part of the year before it was shipped of to Harvard in February 1944, where it was put almost instantly to work on ballistic calculations (like its cousin ENIAC at the Moore School at U Penn), as well as naval engineering and design issues.

The author of this article, Gordind Bhari Lal (“noted science analyst”), actually does a pretty decent job describing the machine and its (1940’s) possibilities, noting at the end that “it may even unleash for Man’s Use the long-dreamed-of energy of the atom”. This part did come true, especially post-war, when the machine was put to fair use by the US Atomic Energy Commission.

The part I really don’t understand in this article is comparing the speed and function of the ASCC to two women working on calculators and Albert Einstein, working with a pencil, paper and pipe, none of whom look comfortable or happy. Lal does make a decent comparative point (of uncertain veracity) about four generations of humans (the three above-mentioned calculators?) doing calculations that the ASCC could do in seconds. Right or wrong, it gave the crowds in 1944 a real something to think about.

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Anticipation, History of — Computer Tech/History
On the Annihilation of the Mind (1877)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

I found an article with a captivating title and didn’t know where it would take me, except that at the end we got to the point of life-and-death being somewhat in league with the conservation of energy. Anyway, the title is as you see it in the title of this quick post, “On the Annihilation of the Mind”, written by the considerable John Trowbridge, who was a professor of physics at Harvard, an E&M guy, and the major force in establishing the Jefferson Lab at Harvard. I recall that he was very prolific in addition to his teaching duties, and right about this time published several articles on the Bell telephone, which made it first appearances less than a year before this article, which published in the Popular Science Monthly in April 1877.

The last three sentence sum the article up, though I’m not exactly sure of how the author arrived at his conclusions—it bears repeating in spite of the result, if for no other reason than to share the pretty remarkable structure of the close of the article.

And so:

“The doctrine of the existence of the spirit after physical death seems to me not to be foreign to the scientific ideas of the conservation of force, which have now obtained such complete supremacy in the science of physics; or to the doctrines of Darwin, which are accepted by so large a body of eminent naturalists. Without the sun there would be an annihilation of force. When energy is dissipated, we find the sun exalting it again by processes which we cannot completely follow. The idea of a great source of life and mind, the prototype of our physical sun, which sets in motion a vast scheme for the survival of the fittest, and the exaltation of energy in vast cycles, is not inconsistent with the doctrine of the New Testament, and seems to be required in a philosophical theory which shall endeavor to account for the differences in that great spiritual world which are continually suggested to the human mind by the various types of mental growth.”

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Anticipation, History of
Mouldy Elegance (1864)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

I started to call this mini-post “Beautiful Mould” but thought better of it, since moulds can cut both ways (so to speak)–“elegant” is a good descriptor and fairly correct. In any event this image is used for the article “Moulds” and it appeared in the journal Popular Science Review, and published in 1864. Just about everything about the illustration is lovely, including the design in the display of the six samples.

Here’s a detail of one of the six:

And the full plate:

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Absurdist, Unintentional
From the Department of Hopes and Dreams: the Red Cross, St. John, and POWs (WWII)

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2798

I assembled a little collection of WWII Red Cross and St. John charity pamphlets–what they all share is a sense unity, duty, perseverance, and hope. They are all published between 1942 and 1944, the majority coming in the summer of 1943–a wicked bad time for the Allies, perhaps the worst time since the Nazi onslaught of Europe. Five of these pamphlets directly addressed trying to help the prisoners of war held by Nazi Germany, and portrayed some healthy and sustaining images of the possibilities of POW life, as well as what would seem to be a high chance of delivery all manner of goods to the prisoners to make their time behind barbed wire somewhat more bearable. (Several of these short pamphlets are reproduced below, while the covers of four of them follow):

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Anticipation, History of — World War II