Author: JF Ptak

Found-Art and Light Irony in Selenium, 1891

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

Roughing my way through a volume of the Philosophical Magazine for 1891 I came upon an article¹ illustrated with these beautiful and slightly ironic images of experiments conducted on selenium. The slightly odd thing about this is that in the first image on the left in the montage of the three images (below) of selenium we see that the basic colors at play here are yellow/gold and blue, which happens to be the colors of the national flag of Sweden–the chemical symbol for the element selenium is “Se”, and the detailed country code for Sweden happens also to be “.Se”. Further, the man who first identified the element selenium back in 1817 was J.J. Berzelius (1779-1848), who of course is Swedish, and widely recognized as being the Father of Chemistry in Sweden (contributing the coining of the words “catalysis, “Polymer”, “isomer”, and “allotrope”, among much else). So, well, that’s that–there was just a lot of Se/Sweden stuff going on here. (The last bit here is a stretch: Berzelius does among other thigns have a lunar crater named for him, appropriately, as the Greek word for “moon” is “selene”, the root of the name of the element.)

And of course the images are beautiful, and wouldn’t stand a chance at being recognized as a found-art form for another two decades with the first appearances of non-representational art (as art).

Notes:

1. Shelford Bidwell, “Some Experiments with Selenium Cells”, pp 250-256, found in The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, (edited by William Thomson, George Fitzgerald, and William Francis. Printed in London by Taylor and Francis), volume XXXI, fifth series, January-June 1891. viii, 523pp, 6 engraved plates.

And the full images:

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Chemistry, history of
A Circular Debtors’ Prison and other Interesting Bits, 1818

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2645

In cataloging the following volume of The Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts (volume IV, 1818) amidst a spray of very interesting papers I found J.C. Loudon’s effort, “On the Construction of Prisons”. Loudon was interested in a different sort of prison for debtors, something a little more removed from the punishing existence for criminals and such. It was also illustrated with two engraved plates, the detail in one in particular is striking and calls for sharing:

The image is a plan for a debtor’s prison, a circular affair with the cells along the circumference. This being a prison distinct from the criminal elements the debtors were given two cells, one for sleeping and the other for work and cooking…

This is the detail from the full image:

The volume I was working my way through was Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts (of the Royal Society of Great Britain); London, printed by John Murray, volume IV, 1818; 8.5×5”, vi, 416 pp, 9 plates 5 of which are folding. (Also–three of the folding plates are lithographs, which is an extremely early appearance of this process which was invented by Alois Senefelder in Bavaria in 1796, though the process really was comparatively very little used in book production until the first quarter of the 19th century. These images were made at the lithographic press of Moser and Harris and frankly show a number of the early problems–at least at this press–with the process, as the images here are not very strong.)

The volume contains a few dozen contributions (plus many more in shorter abstracts), though some of the most interesting include the following:

de Candolle, “On the Effect of Elevation above the level of the Sea upon the Geography of Plants in France”;

Michael Faraday, “On the Sulphuret of Phosphorus”, p. 361-2;

William Scorsby, “On the Greenland or Polar Ice”, pp 247-268;

M.C.F. Brisseau Mirbel, “On the Dissemination of Plants”, 1-7;

M.C.F. Brisseau Mirbel, “Of the Death of Plants”, pp 7-13 (these two papers being the first appearance in English from the French);

And also the following two interesting pieces by John R. Park:

J.R. Park, “An Inquiry into the Influence of Corporeal Impressions in producing Change of Function in the Living Body”, pp 13-30; AND

J.R. Park, “On the Influence of Mental Impressions in producing Change of Functions in the Living Body”, pp 307-327;

And one detail of the emotional aspect and its physiological impact on the rest of the body:

Catalogue of Scientific Papers (1800-1863) lists the following supporting and continuing paper on this subject by Park:

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Anticipation, History of — Architecture and Building
A Very Early Geological Map of the Mountains of Europe

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This fine geological map, illustrating the long paper Memoir illustrative of a general Geological Map of the principal Mountain Chains of Europe, by the Rev. W.D. Conybeare (1787-1857), appeared in Annals of Philosophy, volume 22, 1823, (in multiple numbers for January, February, March, April, May, pp 1-16, 135-149, 210-218, 278-290, 356-359, and extending briefly into Annals of Philosophy, volume 23, September 1823, pp 214-219). The article is extended and fairly comprehensive, being a review of the geology of the mountain ranges of Europe by region, and the map–engraved by Sidney Hall and colored by hand–although somewhat small is very concise and detailed, and appears only eight years after the landmark geological map of Great Britain by William Smith, considered to be the first detailed national-scale geological map (though there is an earlier though not as detailed work on the U.S. by William McClure in 1809). As Conybeare notes on pp 2-3 in this work the foundation of his map was based on the earlier work by Ebel on the geology of the Alps, as well as a smaller general and not much detailed map of the geology of the mountains of Europe in general, the beginning of which reaches back to 1808. He no doubt also relied on Buckland’s work on the Alps in 1821. Conybeare added dramatically to the understanding of this aspect of European geology. [See Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution, by M. J. S. Rudwick, for an interesting look at geological mapping in the early 19th century.]

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Maps, Cartography, History of Mapmaking
A Submarine Research Platform, 1873

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

In the same year as the British and American first appearances of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea there appeared in the pages of Scientific American this short article on a not-very-Victorian submarine exploring platform. Published in the April 19, 1873 issue was an illustrated (by cross-section) note on a type of diving bell created by M. de Toselli:

.

It is explained to us that the living compartment (C) holds a number of instruments and machines: there is a pump (P) for drawing and evacuating water (in compartment B) for the raising and lowering of the craft (there is also a layer of lead in compartment A for weighing down the vehicle); there are also two manometers (M and N), a telegraph (Q), and of course, a seat (Z); the top section (F) is for storing breathable air; (U) is a hatch for entering and exiting; and (R) is a rope/cable that connects the thing to a ship, and which also contains the telegraph cable. The text said that there are “small windows” but I can’t find them. In any event this was intended as a scientific platform for research, including photography.

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Information, Quantitative Display of — Inventions — Technology, History of
Inside the Sausage Factory–Images of the Socialist Press at Work, NYC, 1904

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2655 (Honestly I’ve lost track of the full posts and the 2000 or so unnumbered “Quick Posts”, though this is close to being correct.)

No doubt that when these photos were made the working conditions, equipment, and so on were at least “standard” issue–nothing too fancy, nothing too crowded, nothing too dirty, nothing too rough, nothing too grubby. The overall sense of the series of images though is definitely Grub Street. The photos were made for the pamphlet The Party Press, 1900-1904 which celebrated the first and at the time only Socialist daily newspaper the “Daily People”¹, and showed the guts and glory of the Beast. It all seems rather tatty, and soiled, and threadbare, and cramped, and probably very oily–all of this was either offset or enhanced by the fact that the newspaper was located in several floors of “a” but not “the” Flat Iron Building.

For example:

This is the back cover for a little pamphlet celebrating the Social Labor Party’s daily newspaper, The Daily People, the front being not nearly as well designed:

It is a little difficult to read, but there is an idiom ringing the arm and hammer: “You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to gain; workingmen of all countries unite!” This is derived from a similar quote in the Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto where it is better said. In any event, it is a pretty good and striking design.

And of course the non- Flat Iron Building, here photographed without elan as just some other building:

Notes:

1. “The devotion the sacrifices the work in behalf of the maintenance of the Daily People will forever remain the brightest day in the life of the party. On the day of its birth after a march through the streets several hundred comrades waited until four o clock in the morning to receive the first copy of the paper the first and in fact the only Socialist daily ever published in the English language. The building situated at 2 6 New Reade street the birthplace of the Daily People was torn down several years ago. The party members named it the Daily People Flatiron Building and it saw many of the struggles that followed the ones of 1899. All party institutions were housed in this building. The basement was used by the mechanical department the ground floor by the Labor News Company the party’s literature agency while the third floor was occupied by the editorial rooms. On the top floor were the offices of the national secretary also of Section New York and the national office of the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance.”–from Daniel DeLeon, a Symposium, published by the Socialist Labor Party, New York, 1919

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Social History
What Things Cost in the U.S. in 1836–How Much WAS a One Pound Bladder of Snuff?

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

In case you’ve wondered how much four barrels of gin cost in the U.S. in 1836 I have provided the following list of What Stuff Cost, found tucked away in a book-keeping section of a very well used pocket-sized copy of Roswell C. Smith’s Practical and Mental Arithmetic on a New Plan..., which was published in Hartford in 1836. The answer to the gin question is $75, and if a barrel meant 42 gallons back then as it does now then the gin would cost about 60 cents a gallon. That of course sounds like a tiny price, but compared to what? That 60 cents would be about two-thirds of a day’s wages for the average non-farm white male worker (actually between 50 cents and $1.00), while girl/women textile workers in Lowell Mass worked for about $3-4 per six day week. So if you considered working for most of the day in exchange for a bottle of (average, nothing special) gin, then it would seem a little on the expensive side. Or consider the prices of stuff as expensive or not based on a yearly salary of $300 or so and getting by on about a dollar a day. Naturally many standard cost of living bits are not present in 1836, but still there’s not a lot of wiggle room on a salary like that.

What is also a very attractive insight was that these items were considered to be at least more-or-less obvious object to have in a store or in trade, which might say a lot about what sorts of things were available for purchase in general at that time.

In any event, the list (which is tiny in real life, about 3.5×3″ total) which for some reason did not make use of the decimal point:

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Information, Quantitative Display of
An Early Mechanical-Biological “Interface”–the Perfect Voice, 1878

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

I think that this may have been one of Punch’s responses to Mr. Edison’s newly-invented talking phonograph. Given that the machine was now capable of reproducing not only voices but musical sounds as well, perhaps the cartoonist decided to push the idea a step further and introduce the “chrysophone”, a device that fit over the face and allowed the user to sing perfectly. So, no need now for recorded music (at least for vocals) when you can produce the music perfectly on your own, regardless of personal ability. It seems a bit “robotic” to me, and I think that in Our Future Robot Overlords’ (OFRO) history of robotics that this image could find a place in the archives, mainly because it suggests (even in parody) the adaptability of a human-mechanical biological interface, which in 1878 was pretty early stuff.

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Future, History of the — History of the Future
Dickens and the Ragged School (1852)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

As impossibly busy as Charles Dickens was–and this mostly throughout the course of his writing life–there was always something else going on for him beyond that tirelessly-busy stage. He always seemed to have time, too, even beyond all of this, to help people in need, physically and through his words. Dickens’ interest and care for the poor, the working class, the sick, the abandoned, the beggars, the children, exposing them to the reading public, expressing care and understanding and sympathy, is perhaps unmatched in the 19th century.

I found this piece–new to me–in Dickens’ edited (“conducted”) Household Words, in the March 13, 1852 issue. It discusses the concept of the “Ragged School” in Dickens’ visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, an institution for educating all-comers, including the homeless, the indigent, the sick, abandoned children, all done for free by volunteer teachers.

I wanted to reproduce the Household Words article, below.

There’s a fine article explaining the ragged school available at the British Library site, here: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/ragged-schools

Another–cleaner–version of the Household Words article appears on the site Infed, here: http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/dickens_a_sleep_to_startle_us.htm

Image sources: Hathi Trust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293028986887;view=1up;seq=589;size=75

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

Social History
A Case of Pedestrian Confusion: Adam & Eve, Monkeys, and Darwin (1878)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This busy and crowded side-of-a-building display of advertising added to the confusion of these two passers-by, the older woman no doubt thinking that the younger woman was connecting the monkey and the “Adam and Eve” play, as though making a connection between Adam/monkey, when in fact they just happened to be closely-placed adverts that had nothing to do with one another. I guess the magazine that published this bit, Punch (in London on May 4, 1878, just a few years before Darwin’s death and 19 years after the Origin first edition) wanted to have a go at how easily Darwin could be misunderstood, especially those who were willing to make big leaps of faith with no foundation of understanding, equating in their creationist ways that with Darwin Adam & Eve were monkeys, or some such.. Or maybe it was something else…

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

History of Nothing
Not Seeing the Soldier for the Gas, 1918

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

I was struck by what I hoped at first was a smudge in the center of this photograph, though I knew better. The smudge was a man, a soldier in a gas mask, nearly completely enveloped in gas. This is a pixellated view of that lone man in the smoke, derived from a half-tone image, giving the soldier a crystalline-like half-gone vision:

This is a detail from the full image, which shows a bombardment and gas attack on a “defensive” position. This was published in the unblinking photographic history of the war by Hermann Rex, Der Weltkrieg in Seiner Rauhen Wirklichtkeit, printed by Herman Rutz in Oberammergau in 1926.

I’ve conducted a number of other such images elsewhere on this blog (mostly in the WWI Photography category), such as the “Runnung Man, 1918” post, below:

https://historyofideasblog.com/thesciencebookstore/2015/10/running-man-1914-1918-.html

·Posted by :

JF Ptak

·in:

World War I