Category: Information, Quantitative Display of

Visual Display of Data: Bad Graphics, Nazi War Materials, 1940

JF Ptak Science Books Post 269

This dense, complicated table showing the distribution of strategic raw materials (published in The Illustrated London News 3 August 1940) I is a decent example of how not to display data. Perhaps there’s just too many variables to try to control here in one visual display: it tracks twenty raw materials by percentage of access for thirteen different countries, with the entire graph being displayed in a sort-of progression according to metric tons of material. Maybe it’s the varying widths of the bars representing the material, maybe it’s the complex designs distinguishing the countries, and maybe its just too many lines. The only time this really works for relatively-offhand use is when you’re looking for one country in particular, and then the eye allows it self to just concentrate on the solid black (Germany) or the stars in a bar (U.S.) When the graph is used in this manner it displays rather quickly that Nazi Germany doesn’t control a whole lot of the combined tonnage of the twenty strategic materials, which was a particularly good thing for the general reading population in the Allied world to see, because the war was not going so well at this early stage. (At this point in the war—less than a year old now in Europe—the Battle of Britain had begun though it was still weeks away from when the massive Blitz begins, and Hitler had just toured Paris…it was not a good time for Britain, and a worse time for France. The Soviet Union is listed still with the Axis as it was still 10 months away from being attacked, Hitler turning on his allies in Operation Barbarosa in June 1941.)

A little further effort would show that the Allied countries are mainly lighter, with the “belligerent” or neutral countries are darker, showing the lighter is on top with darker beneath, and that in general the Allies control more of these materials than the Axis. It is also interesting to not ethe relative smallness of control by Great Britain, though when you throw in the rest of the British and then the French empires the possession summary changes dramatically.

So the data is there, and there’s allot of it, and its fairly nimble—its just that the visual display is not pretty or easy to use .

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Militaria
Visual Display of Information:TWIGS (!)

JF Ptak Science Books Post 268

These two wonderful and unexpected sets of data come from Sir John Lubbock’s article On Leaves, appearing in the Popular Science Monthly for July 1885. Sir John was a very keen and astute observer of nature, and was one of a long line of gentleman/noble scientists naturalists and the fourth Sir John in the Lubbock line. The idea that Lubbock was running here with was the the size and shape of the leaf of a tree was determined by the diamter of the twig leading to the sixth leaf of the tree, with size determining form and function. This gets much more complicated than this, once you throw in a bunch of the other factors that he treid to account for, and I’m not qualified to respond to this work. What I liked though was the thickness indicator (below) of twigs of twelve different trees and the thickness of their twigs at Lubbock’s decribed sixth leaf, which is something I’ve not scene before (though I’m hardly a naturalist, I have seen hundreds of thousands of scientific and natural history images, and I’ve not seen one like this). It is glorious in its own quiet way. The chart that he provides correlating leaf size (the square footage of leaf in the last six leaves with twig thickness) is seen in the table at bottom.

I’m aware that I haven’t said very much about this, but I just couldn’t pass on the opportunity to post this iamge on twig thickness.
(Click to enlarge to readable size.)

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Information, Quantitative Display of
Visual Display of Information: Ships on the Pyramid and in Trafalgar Square

JF Ptak Science Books Post 264

Just yesterday I made a post about Ships-in-the-Skyline as part of a series on the Visual Display of Information, saying that I recalled seeing another ship as part of a skyline but couldn’t recall the reference. Luckily just now I stumbled upon it, and it is better than memory served–it is also the sister ship of yesterday’s Mauretania, the even-more-famous Lusitania. This ten-part full-page illustration in The Illustrated London News for 14 September 1907 seems to cover all of the cityscape bases for ship comparison, and then some, from the Lusitania dwarfing the Cecil/Savoy Hotels, or behind the Manchester Town Hall, to being printed in outline against the enormous Auditorium Hotel in Chicago. I think that for most people, numbers don’t quite “do” for comparative discussions on unrelated objects–illustrations like this, though, form a perfect understanding almost instantly.

There are four other outstanding comparative views, though, that are just simply remarkable, using points of view that I’ve not noticed before.

1. The first is the spectacular image of the Lusitania on the side of the Great Pyramid–taken alone, discretely and removed from context this image would be a prime example of the Found Dadaist division of my imaginary museum of Found Art..

2. This next image, below, is one of the rare times that buildings are displayed on a horizontal axis next to a ship–in this case, its the (Stieglitz) Flat Iron Building (NYC). A bonus with the Flat Iron Building was placing the plan of the structure on the superstructure of the Lusitania! This was a superb idea.

3. I’m certain that this bit of early 20th century pre-photoshopism must’ve stopped the casual view in their tracks–seeing the stern of the Lusitania completely filling up Northumberland Avenue at Trafalgar Square must’ve been a true surprise to the visual system.

4. The last of the four shows one of the four great funnels of the Lusitania on its side allowing traffic to go through it for two blocks or so, resting on its side on the great Argyle Street in Glasgow. If all four stacks had been placed end-to-end, traffic could’ve continued through it for 7 blocks or more.

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Prints–looking HARD/deeply at
Graphical Display of Data: the R.A.F. and Luftwaffe Present Their Cases, 1938-1940

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 262

These four images represent some common, popular distribution of
information to the general population, the sets of two working at cross
purposes. (I’ve written several posts here about the Nazi use of maps as a propaganda tool; if you search this blog under those terms you’ll find several entries.) The British images were issued just after the start of WWII
(30 September 1939) and then again just after the end of the Battle of
Britain (November 1, 1941), respectively. The first (“The Tremendous
Range of RAF Bombers Pictorially Shown”), illustrates the range
capacity of its long range bombers for WWI and for 1939, showing how
far they could strike into the heart of Africa. I’m not so sure why
Africa was chosen as the target, as nothing at all was happening there,
militarily speaking, at this early stage of the war; why this didn’t
show the planes screaming their way to the east is a mystery to me.
The Home Office was busy showing how far the Wellington bomber could
reach (3,240 mles), as well as the long shadows cast by the Hampden,
Sunderland and Wellesley. The second British image, “The Speed and
Power of Fighter Craft, Comparisons of Range” displays aircraft of the
principle RAF and Luftwaffe fighters and bombers.

The first German image, printed as a small inset map in a general propaganda piece in the Illustrirte Zeitung (Leipzg), for November 1940, depicted the capacity of the Luftwaffe to reach, threaten and bomb any region in the British Isles from bases in Calais (France) and Norway, having secured the positions in their attacks against the two countries in Fall Gelb and Operation Weserubung respectively. Britain was effectively half-surrounded from these positions from the Brittany to the Norwegian coasts.

The second German map (and the fourth presented here) is another interesting fiction coming from the propaganda offices in 1938, showing how Germany was threatened by attack from the air forces of its neighbors. Particularly pungent in this portrayal was the threat from Checoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Poland.

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Aviation & flight — Information, Quantitative Display of — Maps, Cartography, History of Mapmaking — Militaria — Prints–looking HARD/deeply at
Comparative Display of Quantitative Data: Ships in the Skyline

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 261

This wonderful display (appearing in The Illustrated London News for 26 March 1927, page 518) of quantitative data isn’t quite as whimsical as it appears in detail, though I can think of only
a few (antiquarian) times that I have seen a ship made part of a cosmopolitan vertical cityscape. It is a great way of comparing two disparate, out-of-place equals, and certainly can get the idea of the size of something as stand-alone and solitary as a great ship to children (and adults, too) by comparing it to something as obvious as a tall building., This time its really just comparing the length of the SS Mauretania with the heights of some famous and notable buildings. (The Mauretania, 1906-1935, was a fabled, luxurious and fast ocean liner of the Cunard line; it was refitted for a resurgent oceanic service at about this time.) In the larger, expanded second image we see the Mauretania stacked up against (from left to right) the Washington Monument (555′), the Woolworth Building (792′), the Mauretania (790′), the Eiffel Tower (984′), the Larkin Building (proposed at 1208′), the Book Building (873′), the Koln Cathedral (512′) and the Statue of Liberty (305′). The Larkin Building (not the F.L. Wright structure of the same name) was a proposed super-tall of 110 floors for 330 W. 42nd Street that was proposed in 1926 and not canceled until 1930, and which would’ve been the tallest building in the world. (For an interesting site on the cancellation of tall buildings, see HERE.) In any event, this was a big ship–the largest in the world when it was launched as a matter of fact–and the drawing is wonderful. Upon closer inspection, there is a terrific amount of detail in the cross section of teh ship.)

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Prints–looking HARD/deeply at
National Socialists Take Control, 1933: Diagram Presentation of German Elections 1919-1933

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 250

This diagrammatic presentation of the German elections from
the end of the First World War to the 1933 elections clearly shows the rapid
and sustained growth of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, called
for short, the Nazi Party (or NSDAP).

It is really the chronicle of the rise of the unemployed sergeant
Adolf Hitler’s rise from total obscurity to the chancellorship of Germany in just
fourteen years. This is accomplished
through a thick and murky collaboration of some of the stupid aspects of the Treaty
of Versailles, the failure of the great base of the German economic enterprise,
the worldwide depression, and the abject and miserable condition of post-war
German society—and of course the rip-tide undercurrent of anti-Semitism, which
was healthiest in Germany but still achieving newish heights in Hungary, Poland
and of course the Soviet Union. Through a
wicked and unrelenting propaganda campaign which fed on fear and retribution
and rage in defeat, Hitler secured a rising power base among disparate
populations: university students,
veterans, farmers, the working lower classes, and a huge dollop of political investment
from a number of different industrial sources. When his part almost wins control of the country outright against the
creakingly old Hindenburg, and others, in 1933, it is Hitler who outmaneuvers
his political rivals to secure the chancellorship and controlling power in the Reichstag. It was all downhill from there, to the ring
of fire.

I’ve seldom seen the rise of the Nazi party presented this way in the year
of their ascendency—this pamphlet was printed in 1933 by the Foreign Policy
Association (founded in 1918 and still in existence) , and written by its
chair, James G. .McDonald (who served 1919-1933 as it turns out) for a radio
broadcast for 11 March 1933. It is
interesting to note that McDonald was the first U.S.ambassador to Israel
(1949-1951).

The front cover of the diagram:

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Militaria
Classic in the History of Surgery (1833) and its Reviewer Who Hated Surgical Tools

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 211

The medical doctor and 19th century hero of modern plastic surgery, Dr. Ernst Blasius, published a remarkable work in 1833. Ajnurgische Abbildungen oder Darstettung der Blutlgen Chirurgischen Operationem, u. a. w. Akiurgicol Figures, (or Representations of the Bloody Surgical Operations, and the Instruments devised for their performance, with Illustrative Text.) was a careful, historically grounded, masterful textbook, illustrated with 50 engravings of procedures and—perhaps most famously—surgical instruments. It is considered a foundation work of the 19th century, especially in regarding to procedures to the eye, and especially for the development of modern plastic and reconstructive surgery.

As important as this book was, it received a very singular, peculiar and anonymous review in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Exhibiting a Concise View of the Latest and Most important Discoveries in Medicine, Surgery, and Pharmacy (1836, volume 44, pp 539-544). The reviewer (somehow, in ways that I cannot know or understand) found the illustrations of the instruments to be an abomination.

Recounting that the surgeon’s “art” is a simple response to the inability to actually cure something with medical treatment—the reviewer states that the surgeon simply cuts things out. He then makes a statement that I think is unique to my experience, saying that the gorgeous and painstaking illustrations of surgical instruments were calculated to repel the student “with an appearance both formidable and something repulsive.” He continues: “If, however, this publication, by exhibiting instrumental surgery in its most complicated, formidable, and repulsive character, may damp the ardour of the surgical aspirant, it is also, by presenting all the various forms with which instruments have been endowed, useful in showing the surgeon the very height of the evil which he has to encounter. By placing before him such numbers and varieties of instruments, it may enable him to choose that which, upon mature consideration, seems best calculated for the proposed purpose.” The unnamed reviewer does acknowledge the great understanding and historical grounding and command of deep literature, as well as the surgical techniques that Balsius presents in the book, and even goes so far as to describe them as “unrivaled”. But he keeps returning to the illustrations, and particularly the images of the instruments, which he just simply cannot tolerate. He ends the review saying that it would be a huge benefit to republish and translate the Balsius in English, and, given that opportunity, a great many of the instrument illustrations should be left out. “The explanatory descriptions, by which these illustrations are accompanied, show extensive and accurate knowledge of the literary history of operative surgery. All the operative methods and their peculiarities are carefully explained; and whoever studies this work cannot fail to understand thoroughly the merit of the different methods proposed for accomplishing each operation. This leads us to think that a republication in this country,! with a translation of the explanatory details, would be extremely useful ; and, in such circumstances, the number and variety of the instruments represented might be greatly diminished, while the anatomical figures and the views of operative processes might be retained.”

The hatred of the surgical tools images is almost incoherent—especially since they were of such high importance, and that the book was being reviewed by a doctor for doctors and in a medical journal

.

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Medicine, History of
Unusual Maps: Cartographic Displays of Comparative Distance–Supplying Great Britain in 1940

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 209

This map comes to us from The Illustrated London News, 3 August 1940, which reproduced it from an article in Fortune Magazine. Though it looks oddly wrong from the outset, it really is pretty lucid–elegant, even–once you understand its purpose. And the purpose of this map was to show the distances that the goods and raw materials from the British Empire (and from the possessions of France) had to travel via the then-closed Suez Canal route versus the new routes “not open to enemy interference” to Great Britain. Countries depicted in outline show the distance via Suez while the same country depicted in shade show the new, longer, non-Suez route. Ever stiff lipped, the Brits announced that even though some of their major natural resources are coming from these vastly removed areas, “even with the fall of France, the British Empire and its allies remain an economically self-contained and immensely powerful war unit, and still control the great part of the world production of some vital commodities…” I’m not sure why, exactly, that it was necessary to display this map to the public eye, what with England under assault in the Battle of Britain (the Nazis extending their aerial assault in preparation for Operation Sealion), the loss of France, and the nearly-there Nazi blockade of English waters. Perhaps it was drawn to show that even though the material was coming from the same places that were now further away, they were still getting there.

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Maps, Cartography, History of Mapmaking — Militaria
Superior Display of Data: the Dead of the Titanic, April 1912

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 208

The photographic editor of The Illustrated London News came up with this superb illustration of what the 1513 dead aboard the Titanic would look like. Oddly enough, the photo used for the visualization exercise is of Mr. Ben Tillett, a socialist reformer and speaker, and also the spokesman for the National Transport Workers’ Federation and also of the Dock Wharf and General Workers’ Union., who at the time was playing an enormous role in the coal handling (and etc.) slowdown, representing the underpaid workers against the shipping companies.

The use of Tillett’s crowds to make a case for the shipping industry tells me that The News was oblivious to the attendant ironies. That Tillett was a tremendous thorn in the companies’ paw(s) is beyond question. Almost immediately after the Titanic disaster he published a statement accusing the White Star Line of trying to save the first class passengers first at tremendous expense of the third class passengers. “We offer our strongest protest against the wanton and callous disregard of human life and the vicious class antagonism shown int he practical forbidding of the saving of the lives of the third-class passengers. The refusal to permit other than first-class passengers to be saved by the boats is a disgrace to our common civilization”. Strong stuff with a huge dollop of truth to it–god only knows why The News would’ve used this picture and this quote as part of a way to concretize what the loss of 1500 lives looked like. The News did counter the Tillett statement, saying “It need not be said that there is no truth in the allegations thus made…”

Except, well, they’ve not got the truth under control. On the one hand
it is true that the greater indicator of survivability on the Titanic
was by sex and age variables; on the other, overall, hand Tillett’s
implied figures are closer to the truth that The News found so repugnant. Women and children did
survive in much greater numbers across (voyage) class lines than
anything else. Only 3% of first class women perished, followed by 14%
of second class and 54% of third class. 67% of first class men died,
followed by 92% of second class and 84% of third; 78% of the male crew
also disappeared. So the men did generally go down with the ship, giving their
places to women and children (and the other 33% of first class men).
Well, not all of the children: while no first or second class children
were lost, 66% of third class kids drowned. Overall, I’d have to side
with Tillett rather than a company apologist: 67% of first class
people survived, followed by 41% of second class and only 25% of third;
least of all came the crew, with a survivability rate of 23%.

Tillett would make many observations on the disaster, though one of the most revealing was his observation on the newspapers’ coverage of the heroism of only the first class passengers: ‘I feel glad that the motto “Women and children first” is the great
call in the hour of danger at sea. Mr Astor’s heroic end was in keeping
with the heroic end of the humble third class and the members of the
crew”. It was an excellent point, and true, and also very uncomfortable stuff to acknowledge in print.

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Information, Quantitative Display of — Statistics–Fossil, Found, Odd, Forgotten
Renaissance Wall Calendar, 1544–a Medical Quack’s Contribution to Astrological/Astronomical Prettiness

JF Ptak Science Books Post 203

This is one of the earliest wall-mounted calendars that I’ve seen. Constructed by Tommaso Gianotti (1493-1577) and printed by Thomas Janothus in Venice in 1544, this astrological wall calender, exhibiting tables of the phases of the Moon, movable feasts, lucky and unlucky days, hours of the sunset, and so on, was a very large, lovely thing of real and soft information.. Gianotti, also know by his more aristocratic name of Rangoni, was a physician of sorts, a man of semi-medicines who practiced some sort of quacky healing arts in Venice. He was well a very well paid practionner of the questionable arts, evidently surrounding himself with a mixture of mythological care and medicine–so well paid as a matter of fact that he was able to commission several works (on St. Mark) by none other than Tintioretto, paying his way, by the way, to have his own portrait included in the scene, painted by the great master himself.
Gianotti did make some minor contributions to medicine, and did study physics and the allied sciences, but his contributions were generally sugary flakes. He did make other social, architectural, liturgical contributions–paying for restoration work at the churches of San Guilliano and San Germinamo–though the cost of his generosity was usually a statue of bust of himself, perched above entry ways here and there, His calendar though was pretty and useful.

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Astronomy — Information, Quantitative Display of