Dr.Sliderule's Archaic Science Ramblings

Sir Francis Drake and the Unusual Sundial at his Country Estate at Buckland Abbey

2011-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

We were travelling through Devon this last summer and went to visit the country estate of Sir Francis Drake at Buckland Abbey, a large manor house near Yelverton. I thought it would be fitting, given the posted theme and headline picture of this blog, to add here a description of the unusual sundial we found at the home of this great explorer.

It is unlike any other sundial I have ever seen.

Drake purchased Buckland Abbey in 1580 and lived there for fifteen years until his final voyage. The Abbey is currently administered bye the National Trust. We found the sundial on the uppermost floor of the Abbey on the southern side of the building.

What you see in the picture to the left above is the stained glass window (as seen from the inside) with a map of the Atlantic Ocean showing the bordering continents of Europe, Africa, North and South America. There is also a compass rose where England is located and the hour lines for the sundial radiating out from the rose. There is a sailing ship riding the sea along one of the time lines. There is also a heraldic emblem and a legend. I believe it to be that of the Drake family. The metal gnomen for the sundial is located on the outside and casts its shadow onto the window which can be viewed from the inside. The reason the line for noon is not vertical is that the southern side of the building is not facing exactly to the south and so the lines are adjusted accordingly.

I believe the sundial dates from sometime after Drake's death since it has the dates of his birth and death etched into the glass at the top below his name.

Spanish Royal Academy, in an Effort at Austerity, Reduces Alphabet by Two Characters

2010-11-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

As has been reported heavily in the press recently, some of the European Union countries are having financial difficulties. Greece and Ireland have already had there hands out and gotten bailouts from the EU and the IMF. As part of their bailout packages they have had to cut back on their domestic government spending. Many financial pundits have pointed to Portugal, Italy and Spain as other countries that will also most likely experience financial difficulties and have to go with hat in hand to the EU and IMF.

In a brave effort to stave off financial ruin, the Spanish Royal Academy in an unprecedented move has proactively initiated an austerity program whereby two of the characters of their 29 character alphabet have been removed. This represents a reduction of 6.9% in the Spanish alphabet. In a collateral move they have also eliminated accent marks on some words. While it is difficult to measure exactly what this reduction will mean, it is clearly a step in the right direction.

Even though the Spanish Royal Academy has reduced the size of the alphabet by eliminating the characters "CH" and "LL", this does not mean that all will go smoothly. There has been some resistance to the change from a variety of sources. Some hispanophiles were quick to point out that instead of removing the two letters from the alphabet, the Academy should have eliminated the practice of certain Castillians from pronouncing certain words with the "th" phoneme as has been common practice for a number of centuries now in Latin America, thereby fostering more standardization and, perhaps, an increase in trade with their linguistic brethren. Also, the authors of the "Reverse Dictionary of the Spanish Language" have stated that they have no intention of following the lead of the Academy "at this time". They are not going in the same direction.

In fact, there has even been speculation that the IMF will not even accept these reductions by Spain as a bonafide reduction since there was no attempt to remove any Arabic numerals and roll back to the more "European" Roman numerals which were in use earlier. The EU has decried this proposed measure since it is a very thinly veiled demonstration of islamophobia. Italian sources have claimed that adoption of the Roman numerals would be a very good development for Italy since it would produce more revenue for them based upon the increased usage of their numerals.

Some have suggested that the numeral "O" should be considered for removal first since the very concept of "zero" is not indigenous to Spain in the first place. The Arabs originally introduced "zero" to the number system and brought it with them when they emigrated to the Iberian peninsula starting in 711. Since the expulsion of the Mulsems from Spain in 1492, many think this addition to the number system should finally go with them leaving the Alhambra in Granada, Spain as the one lasting legacy of the Moorish occupation.

Also, the American Mathematical Association claims that nothing will be gained by actually tossing out "zero", but others are quick to point out that it is an extreme budget cutting method to reduce the Spanish government spending from 338,623,164,850 Euro to 33,862,316,485 Euro - a reduction of 90%.

Another Major Earthquake

2010-02-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

In my post of January 19, 2010, in the aftermath of the Port-au-Prince 7.0 earthquake I posted a blog entry with a chart that I constructed of major earthquakes and the devastation that they caused.

It seems appropriate to amend that list with the latest quake information on the 8.8 earthquake outside Concepcion Chile on 2/27/2010.

LOCATION DATE MAG. DAMAGE

Lituya Bay, Alaska 7/9/1958 NA Tsunami 1720 ft.

Upper Egypt 7/5/1201 NA 1,100,000 killed

Offshore Chile 5/22/1960 9.5 1655 killed

Anchorage, Alaska 3/27/1964 9.2 9 killed

Andreanof Islands,

Alaska 3/9/1957 9.1

Kamchatka,USSR 11/4/1952 9 no deaths

Offshore Sumatra,

Indonesia 12/26/2004 9.1 227,898 killed

Offshore Equador 1/31/1906 8.8 500-1500 killed

Concepcion, Chile 2/27/2010 8.8 700+ so far

Rat Islands, Alaska 2/4/1965 8.7 none reported

Northern Sumatra,

Indonesia 3/28/2005 8.7 1300 killed

Lisbon, Portugal 11/1/1755 8.6 60,000 killed

India/China Border

Tibet 8/15/1950 8.6 780 killed

Alaska 1957 8.6 none reported

Kamchatka,USSR 2/3/1923 8.5

South Sumatra 2007 8.5 21 killed

Kansu, China 12/16/1920 8.5 200,000 killed

Offshore Samoa 9/29/2009 8.3 34? killed

San Francisco,

California 4/18/1906 8.3 700 killed

Tokyo-Yokohama,

Japan 9/1/1923 8.3 143,000 killed

Mexico City, Mexico 9/19/1985 8.1 9,500 killed

Tangshan, China 7/27/1976 8 255,000 killed

Chile 3/3/1985 8

Chile 7/30/1995 8

BengKulu, Indonesia 6/4/2000 7.9 N/A

India/Pakistan

Border 1/26/2001 7.9 20,000+ killed

Gölcük, Turkey 8/17/1999 7.6 17,000 killed

Nantou, Taiwan 9/20/1999 7.6 1,800 killed

New Britain, PNG 11/16/2000 7.3 N/A

Loma Prieta,

California 10/17/1989 7 62 killed

Port-au-Prince,

Haiti 1/11/2010 7 200,000+ est.

Armenia, USSR 12/7/1988 6.8 25,000 killed

Northridge,

California 1/17/1994 6.8 60 killed

Kobe, Japan 1/16/1995 6.8 5,530 killed

Managua, Nicaragua 12/23/1972 6.2 9,800 killed

Agadir, Morocco 1/13/1960 5.9 12,500 killed

I can only reiterate the same comments as I made in my prior blog on this subject: that there is much that can be done in the name of humanity to improve responsiveness to natural disasters such as this. Please read my prior blog on this subject. Comments appreciated.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Suggests Approach to Make Joseph Priestley House a National Historic Site

2010-02-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

In a correspondence received on February 16, 2010, from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as a response to my correspondence about the Joseph Priestley House, Reid has suggested that parties interested in having the Joseph Priestley House and Museum considered as a National Historic Site within the National Park Service contact the Senators within whose district the site is located. In this case, interested parties should contact Senators Casey and Specter of Pennsylvania. He has also forwarded my correspondence to the two Senators.

I include the addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the two Senators below:

Senator Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-PA)

393 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone: (202) 224-6324

Toll Free: (866) 802-2833

Fax: (202) 228-0604

http://casey.senate.gov/

Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA)

711 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington , DC 20510

Main: 202-224-4254

Fax: 202-228-1229

http://specter.senate.gov/public/

Joseph Priestley House Receives Financial Support from the National Chemical Society to Keep Joseph Priestley House and Museum Open

2010-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

According to an article in Preservation, the official publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, published on January 25, 2010, Tom Bresenhan, President of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House indicated that "the National Chemical Society has chipped in to keep the home [Joseph Priestley House and Museum] open." He further stated that "Preserving it was an absolute necessity."

Perhaps the bandwagon of support is just starting to circle the Joseph Priestley House and protect it from distinction.

Correspondence from Tom Bresenhan about Joseph Priestley House and the National Park Service

2010-01-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

I have now received a note from Tom Bresenhan, President of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House. I am encouraged by his confirmation that they will be speaking to the local congressional representatives about having the site evaluated by the National Park Service. The text of his note follows:

"Thanks for your note.

The Friends plan to conduct tours on weekend afternoons from mid-March to the end of November and special events such as Summer History Camp in July. We feel confident based on our experiences with tours and events in the fall of 2009. We expect to sign a Management Agreement with the PA Historical and Museum Commission in February which will continue state ownership and maintenance of the site as well as the utility bills. The Friends will be responsible for programming.

The Friends Board this year will be looking longer term, and your suggestion is one we will evaluate. I will contact our local Congressman's office to start the process with the National Park Service to evaluate the site and its circumstances.

As this moves forward we will keep in touch, through the newsletter and by email.

My sense now is, although the state's financial situation is precarious, it will improve this year leading to greater security in the PHMC [Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission] and more dependability in its relationships with management organizations. From this improved perspective we can then look toward the future with more certainty. This may lead to a greater role for the Park Service.

Thanks again for the note and your concern.

Tom Bresenhan"

Progress on Making The Joseph Priestley House Part of the National Park Service as a National Historic Site.

2010-01-22T16:31:00.000-08:00

I have now received responses from both Senator Harry Reid and the National Park Service with regard to my suggestion to include The Joseph Priestley House as a National Historic Site as part of the National Park Service.

I include my latest letter to Senator Reid below and encourage all those of you who feel similarly to write to your congressmen supporting the idea.

Dear Senator Reid:

Thank you for having forwarded my email to you of Sept. 5, 2009 with regard to the Joseph Priestley House to the National Park Service. I have now received their response dated Nov. 5, 2009, and I note that they have copied you on that correspondence. I was encouraged to see that there is a way to proceed with the consideration of The Joseph Priestley House for inclusion as a National Historic Site in the National Park System. As indicated in that letter this is initiated through acts of Congress by first authorizing the NPS to conduct a special resource study.

I would like you to consider introducing legislation to authorize the NPS to conduct a special resource study as to whether the Joseph Priestley House is appropriate for inclusion in the NPS. I have read the pamphlet "Criteria for New National Parklands" that they included and I feel strongly that it meets the objectives set forth therein. I do not know what else I can provide you to help you move to the next step. I look forward to your suggestions.

Observations on the Human Condition

2010-01-19T22:06:00.000-08:00

I watched with horror as the events unfolded about Port-Au-Prince, Haiti after the earthquake hit. It brought my thoughts back to another time and place: 1972 in Managua, Nicaragua to be more precise - when another people that could also ill afford the devastation of an earthquake were hit. At the time of the Managua quake I was a graduate student and my thoughts were to, in some way, help the people of Managua. I thought of somehow getting on a plane and travelling down there and doing whatever I could to help save lives.

I had previously worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross ten years earlier in Mexico City. I initially worked as an ambulance attendant and I had dealt with typical urban trauma events caused by accidents, human brutality and disease. I had even worked in a rescue effort when an earth slide had buried a community of poor Mexicans. We worked side by side with the fire department and other rescue workers, scratching at the dirt, trying to find people trapped in their homes under that horrible mountain of dirt. I remember, all too well, pulling young, lifeless bodies from the rubble and trying desperately to get them to come alive, performing CPR. We never revived most of the victims. Seeing the children die hurt the most. They were so innocent, what had they done to deserve the fate of being born into a community of people who lived in substandard housing on an unsafe hillside.

I didn't go to Managua at the time of the earthquake. I was already married and I had two very young children. I inquired and was advised that I would not really be welcome there -- that only professional rescue workers should go at that time. Roberto Clemente, the well known major league baseball player, gathered supplies and chartered a plane to take to Nicaragua, his plane crashed and he died on his way there. What a shame. The tragedy of Managua quieted down and the press stopped reporting so much about what happened there shortly thereafter.

I went in Managua for the first time in 1976 -- three and a half years later. I was on a mission sponsored by IBM to provide assistance to the Universidad Nacional de Managua. Upon arriving at the airport in Managua I was taken to the Intercontinental Hotel. The hotel is high on a hill. From that hill the terrain slopes downward toward the shores of Lake Managua a few miles away. The city of Managua spreads out between the hotel and the lake. I cannot convey the magnitude of the damage to the city that I saw from my window in the hotel. The grid of the city streets were all there. I could see only two buildings between the hotel and the lake that were still standing, and that also included as far as the eyes could see to the left and the right. Every other building was completely demolished. However, it wasn't until I decided to walk from the hotel to the lake that I realized the true enormity of the devastation. You cannot fathom how minuscule we are compared to the powers of nature until you confront a natural disaster event such as the aftermath of an earthquake. And to put it in perspective, I was not there during the intense period just after the quake. It must have been horrific.

I wanted to comprehend the relationship in size of the Managua earthquake of 1972 and the Port-Au-Prince earthquake and to other earthquakes as well. It turns out that when an earthquake occurs in the ocean it many times causes a tsunami. So, I looked up tsunamis also.

The following is a partial list of the most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis that I could put together from a quick Google search. It does not include volcanic explosions, pyroclastic flows, floods, hurricanes, fires, viral and bacteriological diseases, plagues or other disasters, natural or man made:

LOCATION DATE MAG. DAMAGE

Lituya Bay, Alaska 7/9/1958 NA Tsunami 1720 ft.

Upper Egypt 7/5/1201 NA 1,100,000 killed

Offshore Chile 5/22/1960 9.5 1655 killed

Anchorage, Alaska 3/27/1964 9.2 9 killed

Andreanof Islands,

Alaska 3/9/1957 9.1

Kamchatka,USSR 11/4/1952 9 no deaths

Offshore Sumatra,

Indonesia 12/26/2004 9.1 227,898 killed

Offshore Equador 1/31/1906 8.8 500-1500 killed

Rat Islands, Alaska 2/4/1965 8.7 none reported

Northern Sumatra,

Indonesia 3/28/2005 8.7 1300 killed

Lisbon, Portugal 11/1/1755 8.6 60,000 killed

India/China Border

Tibet 8/15/1950 8.6 780 killed

Alaska 1957 8.6 none reported

Kamchatka,USSR 2/3/1923 8.5

South Sumatra 2007 8.5 21 killed

Kansu, China 12/16/1920 8.5 200,000 killed

Offshore Samoa 9/29/2009 8.3 34? killed

San Francisco,

California 4/18/1906 8.3 700 killed

Tokyo-Yokohama,

Japan 9/1/1923 8.3 143,000 killed

Mexico City, Mexico 9/19/1985 8.1 9,500 killed

Tangshan, China 7/27/1976 8 255,000 killed

Chile 3/3/1985 8

Chile 7/30/1995 8

BengKulu, Indonesia 6/4/2000 7.9 N/A

India/Pakistan

Border 1/26/2001 7.9 20,000+ killed

Gölcük, Turkey 8/17/1999 7.6 17,000 killed

Nantou, Taiwan 9/20/1999 7.6 1,800 killed

New Britain, PNG 11/16/2000 7.3 N/A

Loma Prieta,

California 10/17/1989 7 62 killed

Port-au-Prince,

Haiti 1/11/2010 7 200,000+ est.

Armenia, USSR 12/7/1988 6.8 25,000 killed

Northridge,

California 1/17/1994 6.8 60 killed

Kobe, Japan 1/16/1995 6.8 5,530 killed

Managua, Nicaragua 12/23/1972 6.2 9,800 killed

Agadir, Morocco 1/13/1960 5.9 12,500 killed

The Port-Au-Prince quake is quite significant, both in magnitude, the amount of human life lost and physical destruction. The Managua quake seems minor in comparison.

As a counterpoint, while I was in Managua I had occasion to meet with Anastasio Somoza, the infamous and brutal dictator who ran that country like it was his private estate. While there, I noticed that most people were always looking over their shoulders in fear of being overheard while they were talking to me. They were afraid that someone from the government, or an informer, might be listening, even though the conversation was of no real consequence. Somoza was assasinated in Paraguay in 1980, after being deposed by the Sandanistas in 1979.

After looking at the list above I have a hunch that more individuals were killed by war and as a result of totalitarian regimes, just like Somoza's reign, just since the beginning of the 20th century than all the natural disasters of all time combined. I haven't done any rigorous calculations yet to support this hypothesis though.

So, the issues that I see are as follows:

First, while there is a tremendous outpouring of empathy and aid by peoples from around the world for the victims of natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis, how come, when a man made disaster, like a war, or a despotic ruler's tyranny occurs, we just don't see the same response? Are the victims of man made disasters somehow not worthy of the same empathy? Were the victims in Sudan and Rwanda and Nicaragua somehow not worthy of our empathy and aid? Is there something we can do now, so that when one of these horrific man made events occurs, we are prepared to actually do something on a coordinated basis for the good of humanity?

Second, while we cannot predict where or when the next disaster will occur, we can predict that they will continue to occur in the future on a fairly regular basis. We, in the United States, presumably have an emergency response system (FEMA) which is designed to provide for just such contingencies (except it seems we blew it for hurricane Katrina). Wouldn't it make sense to have an organization like the UN coordinate global preparedness among its member nations to allow us to get a leg up on catastrophies like the earthquate in Haiti?

I'd like to hear what you think. Please post a comment on your thoughts.

The Average American Consumes about 34GB of Data Daily

2009-12-11T19:11:00.000-08:00

According to an article in the New York Times on Dec 9, UCSD has issued a report indicating that the average American consumes about 34 GB of data per day. This is up about 350% over nearly three decades ago. Are we going to drown in all this data? Can we keep up with the growth of data consumption?

I would imagine that if you had asked one of our founding fathers how they would cope with travelling at 60 mph they would have said that it would have been between difficult and impossible to function at that speed. Certainly if you asked if they could steer a vehicle at that speed you would have been looked at is if you were crazy. Yet, here we are. We think nothing of getting in the car and travelling at that speed. We watch the roadside whizzing past us and don't get too excited about it.

With data consumption it is the same thing, once you get used to dealing with that speed, you really don't feel like it's all that much to deal with.

What I do find interesting are a number of side issues relative to this point that should merit some attention. AT&T appears to be considering "limiting" the unlimited data plan for their iPhone. Particularly in the San Francisco and Manhattan markets. They claim that some iPhone "hogs" are consuming inordinate amounts of data with certain video applications. See this article or this really funny article on this point.

The other notable point is that the cable industry wants to set limits to the amount of data that they provide at the base rate to their customers at about 5GB per month. If this were to be accomplished we would find ourselves having to ration our consumption of data or pay exorbitant rates to get a "full" daily dosage of data.

Whatever your feelings about these developments, one thing is very clear. The amount of data that we will be consuming as the years roll on is going to increase dramatically. This is sort of a form of data pollution. The video density is becoming higher and higher. The number of devices we use this data on is increasing. Our appetite for higher density data on these types of products is increasing dramatically.

What do you think this will mean to our future technology developments? I'd like to hear from you about this.

Permanent Agreement between PA and Friends on Priestley House

2009-12-02T09:09:00.000-08:00

On December 1, 2009 The Daily Item of Sunbury, PA reported that the Friends of Joseph Priestley House has come to a long term agreement with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission over the management and operation of the Joseph Priestley House and Museum in Northumberland PA. It is anticipated that the agreement will be signed shortly. Under the agreement the Friends will have complete control of the operation of the site. The state will continue to provide some of the cost to maintain the facility.

The Zillow Effect

2009-11-09T18:49:00.001-08:00

I have been watching with keen interest the development of a new class of web sites. As the Internet gathers into its web more and more terabytes of data, it is possible to gather some very valuable information about specific individuals.

Let's use Zillow as the example here. Zillow aggregates publicly available information on residential real estate such as taxes, sales prices, and a host of other things like lot size, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc., and makes that information available to anyone who might be interested in looking at it and it is already organized for each specific property. More importantly, Zillow also computes a market value based upon this information. They call it a Zestimate. I suppose, in a way, it is sort of like a FICO score.

You could argue, no, it's not like the FICO score because the FICO score is based upon accurate experience information on the consumers' use of credit. The FICO score can have a significant impact upon a conumers' life, every financial or credit decision involving that consumer usually boils down to what his FICO score is. It's like that pesky SAT score that was on your forehead when you applied to college.

If your home is your largest financial investment and the Zestimate is the alleged "score" that you have achieved with that investment, it could materially affect the decisions that are made that involve your financial condition. Zillow is the first to point out in their terms and conditions that financial institutions cannot use the Zestimate as a basis for loan. This makes me think of the porn sites that say that if you are under 18 years of age that you are not allowed to use the site. When was the last time you thought a teenager would heed such a notice?

Additionally, if the Zestimate is lower than it should be it could influence a potential buyer for your home should you want to sell it. If you are contemplating the purchase of a home it could impact your decision about whether to buy that home. Perhaps, you have applied for a business loan and as part of your Net Worth statement you list the equity in your home. No loan officer in the world is going to perform a CMA (Certified Market Analysis) on your home under those circumstances. It is too costly and takes too much time. A quick and easy Zestimate is available to check the number on that Net Worth statement.

Do we really believe that this computed value has any accuracy? This is easily measurable. Take a community and find every sale during a given period of time and compare the sale price to the Zestimate that was in effect at the time of the sale. Just how accurate can such a crude Zestimate actually be?

According to Carol Augustus, a Realtor with Pacific Union in Marin County California, Zillow itself cites the following figures as interpreted for Marin County:

1. 88% of Marin homes are in Zillow

2. 80% have Zestimates

3. 20% are within 5% of a recent 3 month sales price (80% are NOT)

4. 38% are within 10% of a recent sales price (68% are NOT)

5. 64% are within 20% of a recent sales price (36% are NOT)

I, quite frankly, don't know what to make of these numbers. Does this mean that a given home has a 20% chance that another home in the county sold within 5% of the price within the last 3 months? If so, what does that mean? It sounds almost meaningless.

Alternatively, if it means that 20% of the homes are within 5% of a hypothetical sales price, this would be dreaming of a dream. I don't have any other interpretations that could make sense of these cited statistics.

But, the big question is, what if products like Zillow and their Zestimates become more pervasive and can meaningfully affect your daily life (either positively or negatively)?

Will you have the ability to redress your grievances if you feel you have been maligned? Will there be the equivalent of the Fair Credit Reporting Act to protect consumers from erroneous data being used negatively against them in these new financial marketplaces?

What other products are there out there now, or can reasonably be expected to appear on the web near you in the not too distant future? I'd like to hear from you. Please let me know your thoughts on this issue.

New Posts on Joseph Priestley

2009-10-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Positive Liberty, posted an interesting blog: 'Joseph Priestley on the Swedenborgs'. In this entry they cite known letters between Priestley and the Swedenborgs as described in a recent publication William Blake and the Culture of Radical Cristianity by Robert Rix, Ashgate Pubishing, July, 2007, 178pp.

Oh, the heretics that are among us! I merely mention this as a link and will not elaborate on it here. I note that a reader of that blog responded to the blog, "Oh, I’d have paid to see Priestley answer a Mormon knock on his door…Oy".

Also, an interesting commentary appears in the UUworld.org web site. It covers two recent books about Priestley:Joseph Priestley: Scientist, Philosopher, and Theologian, published by the Dr. Williams’s Centre for Dissenting Studies at the University of London, edited by Isabel Rivers and David Wykes; and, Steven Johnson's recent biography, The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America, published last year by Riverhead Books .The article is favorable to the Rivers and Wykes text but fairly critical of Johnson's work. I will add my comments later after I have thought about it some more.

Friends to Staff Reopened Priestley House Temporarily

2009-09-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

In an article in the Daily Item, Sunbury, PA, dated two hours ago it has been reported that the Friends of Joseph Priestley House have just signed an agreement with the State of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commissipn to reopen and staff the Priestley House with volunteer members starting Octover 3. The Friends will also financially support certain aspects of keeping the site open. This came about due to the budget cuts that forced the Commission to have closed the site earlier this year on August 14. The agreement was announced last evening at the annual dinner of the Friends.

This arrangement will allow the public to have access to this important historic landmark and museum until a more permanent arrangement can be found. Both the state Historical and Museum Commission and the Friends are to be commended for the improvement to the situation.

There has been a press release issued by the Central Pennsylvania Susquehanna River Valley Vistitors Bureau on this in addition to the notice on the Joseph Priestley House website.

Let's hope that a practical solution for perminent funding of the site can be found.

Friends Report Progress on Operating Priestley House

2009-09-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Susan Brooke of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House reports: "We are very close to an arrangement that will let us open this fall, with a proposal to hold our annual Heritage Day (costumed event, with chemistry demonstations,) on Nov. 1 as previously scheduled. We meet with the state staff this Thursday to finalize."

Stay tuned for more information later this week.

Erasmus Darwin and those pesky little critters in the stones

2009-09-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

I was doing my usual aerobic gardening work today --I had 8 tons of boulders delivered to the house the other day and I spent the day today breaking them into smaller pieces to border some beds and paths I am building. That sure is hard work. The sledging just gets you real quick, but it's the lifting and hauling the resultant pieces that absolutely does you in. I got about 3 tons broken and moved today in about 6 hours.

What is interesting is the kind of rock it is. It is local field stone. Looks like some was coral a long time ago and the rest is some sort of igneous type rock. Neither of these rocks break real easy. Call me prejudiced, but I would take the good old Connecticut potatoes any day of the week over this stuff out here. I really like the field stones out in Connecticut. So much so, that I brought some of them out here with me when we moved here. The movers weren't too happy about that. One of the rocks is about 600 lbs.

Anyway, there I was breaking open these rocks and you could see that there were these animal fossils preserved in some of them. Nothing to write home about, but still, there they were. My mind went to a passage I read somewhere in one of the Joseph Priestley books I had read that Erasmus Darwin had also been intrigued by the fossils he was finding in the rocks. Don't forget that in that (mid 18th century England) epoch it was still believed by Western culture that the Earth had been created by God some 6,000 or so years ago. The fossils don't fit in real well with that theory. Darwin (this is Charles' grandfather) was on the right path. He was convinced that the history of the Earth was far greater than that postulated by the Church. What Erasmus did not get, though, but his grandson Charles would, was that these primordial creatures would some day 'evolve' into all the living things that we see on the Earth today.

It is very humbling to think of how creative and observant these early scientists of the Age of Enlightenment were. And, they were so brave to tell the world about it in spite of any repercussions that might result from these heretical ideas. We can dismiss this as being obvious, but they did not have the understanding that we now have about the development of the planet.

In fact, Charles Darwin waited many many years after conceptualizing his theories about evolution and natural selection before he ever published his results. He knew that the publication would have profound effects upon the world and would affect the religious deeply because it appeared to contradict the Church's teachings.

Letter to Governer Rendell about Joseph Priestley House

2009-09-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Gov. Rendell:

I would like to address the matter of the closing of the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland, PA by the PA Historical and Museum Commission on August 14 of this year.

While I am not a PA resident, I have followed with intense interest the developments this year. The site is a true national treasure and should be treated as such. I do understand the budgetary constraints that have plagued PA this year. I also do understand that the Friends of Joseph Priestley House are attempting to negotiate a way for them to operate the site. I think the Friends are a fine group (I am a member), but they do not have the real resources to do justice to the site.

I propose, as an alternative, that you consider working with the U S Park Service to see if the site can be converted to a National Historic Site. If that were to occur, the site could be operated by the U S Park Service at no cost to the state of PA and still be made available to visitors. I know that the U S Park Service has just purchased the land for the memorial for United Flight 93 in PA, so there must be some discussions going on with the U S Park Service ongoing.

This would be a wonderful compromise under the circumstances. It might even add additional tourism to PA if the site were made a National Historic Site of the U S Park Service since there are many people who want to tour U S Historic Sites (there are less than 100 such sites in the country). Thank you for your consideration of this proposal.

Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid Forwards Request to National Park Service to Make Joseph Priestley House a National Historic Site

2009-09-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

I received a letter from Senator Harry Reid that was very encouraging. Sen. Reid met with Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, the other day and, unfortunately, I had not written to Reid beforehand. After writing to Reid, Reid responded that he was going to forward my request to the National Park Service. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

I don't know if it is that we just passed the slowest part of the year in August and nothing happened, or if something is going on with respect to the Joseph Priestley House and it is not being reported by any of the media.

Restoration Begins on One of the Oldest Modern Computers

2009-09-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

I just found this article about the WITCH computer at Bletchley Park which they are going to attempt to restore. It is a 1950s era machine based upon telephone relays and vaccuum tube technology. It is an interesting read.

I will try to post additional information on this as I have time and I find it. There appears to be very little out there and I can see inaccuracies all over the place.

Joseph Priestley House Update

2009-09-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

This blog continues comments and activities concerning the closing of Joseph Priestley House on August 14 and the various attempts to reopen it. For continuity it is recommended that you start with the earliest post first. Please click on the label "Joseph Priestley House" at the left.

I have received three more correspondences on this topic:

The first was included in the "Postings from Priestley House" Newsletter of the Friends of Joseph Priestley House, Number 44, Summer 2009, which states:

"New Responsibilities Ahead for Friends

The friends Board is discussing a Management Agreement with PHMC [Pennsylvania Historical and Museums Commission] that could result in increased responsibilities for the Friends.

Ownership & Maintenance. PHMC will retain ownership of the site and cover major maintenance, exterior painting, electric, gas, water, sewer, and lawn care and snow removal. The Friends would be responsible for the interior painting.

Insurance. Friends will be responsible for liability insurance for anything conducted at the House (which we now have) as well as negligence insurance regarding the structures and contents (which we don't now have). We may be responsible for the insurance for collections currently on loan from other sites.

Custodial Care. Friends would be responsible for custodial care of the facility -- that includes general housekeeping, light bulbs, toilet cleaning, etc. A curatorial assistant would be available to respond to the injury or damage to artifacts.

Security. Friends would be responsible to provide periodic security visits to [the]site and entrance for emergency responders and lock up after they leave.

Programming. Friends are responsible for all events at the site including tours. Special events at the site may include alcohol such as wedding receptions."

I have also received an email from:

Amanda Shafer
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Commonwealth Keystone Building
400 North Street, Plaza Level | Harrisburg, PA 17120-0053
Phone: 717.525.5368
Email: amshafer@state.pa.us
www.phmc.state.pa.us

"In the past years, the PHMC operated the Joseph Priestly House for about $140-160 thousand per year on a Wednesday through Sunday schedule. However, the cost to run the site in the future depends on many factors such as when the site is open, the number of programs held, maintenance and ticket/membership pricing. While the Joseph Priestley house is temporarily closed, the PHMC is seeking other management options in order to keep the site protected and available to the public. Thank you for your interest in our sites. I have also forwarded your comments to the Executive staff."

The third correspondence is a letter from Congressman Dean Heller (R- Nevada)

"As you know , the National Park System owns and administers all of the current 86 National Historic Sites. Congressional legislation authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to designate an area of historical significance that is worthy of remembrance as a National Historic Site. Current National Historical Sites include the home of Abraham Lincoln, the Vanderbilt Mansion, and the home and woodland property of John Muir.

I understand your admiration for Joseph Priestley's accomplishments. A famed philosopher, historian, and educator, he is most noted for his scientific achievements including the discovery of oxygen and nitrogen. Throughout his lifetime, Joseph Priestley published more than 150 works on topics ranging from religion to electricity. You can be sure that I will keep your thoughts in mind should any legislation related to this topic come before the House of Representatives."

While I am not privy to the details of either the negotiations between the Friends and PHMC nor the line item costs for running Priestley House, the portion that Friends would be contributing would, I assume be less than the cost that PHMC would still be undertaking.

Surely, the U S Park Service would consider these costs to be a pittance compared to what they spend at their 86 other locations. They spent $9 Million this week alone to acquire the land they need to make the United Flight 93 National Historic Site Memorial in PA. In spite of all the good intentions of all those involved, I still maintain that the National Historic Site alternative would be the best long term solution for the Joseph Priestley House.

Please contact the Secretary of the Interior and other government officials to express your opinion on this matter. Below is a copy of the body of my letter to Secretary Salazar:

Mr. Ken Salazar,

U.S. Secretary of the Interior

1849 C Street, NW

Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary Salazar:

On August 14, 2009, the State of Pennsylvania closed the Joseph Priestley House & Museum due to funding problems within the state. The State owns the property and has a budget of about $150,000 a year to keep the site open.

While the Priestley House is recognized on the National Register of Historical Places, it is considered, by some, to be a true National Treasure. The closing of the Priestley House is an immeasurable loss for our National Heritage. Please consider converting the Priestley House into a National Historic Site as part of the National Park Service so that it may be properly preserved and opened to the public once again.

Sincerely,

Dr. Sliderule

You may also want to contact:

Barbara Franco

Executive Director Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission

State Museum Building

300 North Street

Harrisburg, PA 17120.

Make sure you read my previous blogs on this subject. Click on Joseph Priestley House on the labels to the left.

Peter Lymburner Robertson's Screwdriver

2009-08-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

I had occasion to be working on a project around the house and I came across some screws that needed to be removed from a retractable screen. Much to my amazement, none of my screwdriver bits would work. It looked like an Allen head, but not hex.

I went to the local hardware store that carries everything and found out that was a square headed screw. Further, since the square hole is tapered, it allows for a very secure grip -- one that will not slip and strip the screw head. Interesting! I needed to investigate this. Is this a new screw head?

The Robertson appellation was given to me by Canadian Russ McKinnon. The Internet is amazing. With this information I was able to locate an excellent article by Susanna McLeod about Peter Lymberner Robertson and his Screwdriver. It is so good, in fact, that I include it here in its entirety with permission from the author.

The Invention of the Square-Head Screw and Driver

From Canadian History @ Suite101.com

A mishap led to the invention of the Robertson screw and screwdriver, patented in 1909. The design remains popular: 85% of screws sold in Canada are Robertson's.

There are several versions of the story: Whether he was demonstrating a spring-loaded screwdriver, as mentioned in Mysteries of Canada, or setting up a booth to sell tools, as noted by Canadian Home Workshop, the fact is that Peter Lymburner Robertson cut his hand while he used a regular slot-head screw and screwdriver. The injury was enough to encourage the man to come up with a new device, something that would have a firmer hold and less slippage.

In 1909, Robertson received Canadian patents for his invention of a square-head screw and driver. The design permitted driving “a screw more quickly…,“ said Cool Canada, “and the screw was self-centering so only one hand was needed.” The screwdriver fit better in the head of the screw, so there was less opportunity of sliding out, and less chance of injury.

Competition for Robertson

The competition did not care for Robertson’s invention. The Steel Company of Canada tried to have his patents quashed and “a scathing story about him appeared in a 1910 issue of Saturday Night magazine,” according to the book, I Know That Name! , by Mark Kearney and Randy Ray. Robertson sent his own letter to the editor, and the attempts to overthrow his gains were unsuccessful.

The Robertson screw and screwdriver were hugely popular, seen by manufacturers as a way to speed up production and lessen product damage. Mysteries of Canada mentioned that “The Fisher Body Company, which made wooden bodies in Canada for Ford cars, used four to six gross of Robertson screws in the bodywork of the Model T and eventually Robertson produced socket screws for metal for the metal bodied Model A.” Henry Ford so appreciated the new screw that he wanted a licencing arrangement for control of the time-saving tools. Peter Robertson refused to give up control.

500 People Employed

With his company, Recess Screws Limited, founded in England, Robertson opened a manufacturing facility in Milton, Ontario. At the end of World War II, he employed 500 people in the production of three colour-coded sizes of the Robertson – green for small, red for medium and black for large. (There is now yellow, for very small drivers.) Still remarkably popular, the square-head screw controls 85% of the market in Canada, said Canadian Home Workshop. The Americans are less familiar with the design, but the Robertson's still own 10% of the American market.

Born in 1879, Peter Robertson went from salesman to millionaire with his invention. A good design that is tough to top, there has been nothing to improve on the Robertson screw since. Robertson made good use of his fortune, becoming a renowned philanthropist. He died in 1951.

Source:

I Know That Name!: The People Behind Canada's Best-Known Brand Names, by Mar Kearney and Randy Ray, published by Dundurn Press 2002. pp 24.

Joseph Priestley House Designation as a National Historic Landmark vs. National Register of Historic Places vs. National Historic Site

2009-08-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

Definitions taken from Wikipedia:

A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance. All NHLs are listed in theNational Register of Historic Places. Out of more than 80,000 places on the National Register, however, only about 2,430 are NHLs. [NHLs are not owned by the Federal Government (this is my comment)]

The National Register of Historic Places (National Register) is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. Having a property on the National Register makes its owners eligible for tax incentives for expenses incurred preserving the property if they are offered by the local taxing districts.

National Historic Sites are Federally owned and administered [lands]. Some other Federally administered sites are National Historical Parks. There are also about 79,000+ National Register of Historic Places sites, which usually are privately owned, of which about 2400 have further been designated as National Historic Landmark sites.

Joseph Priestley House is owned by the State of Pennsylvania. Consequently, it is not a National Historic Site. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Now that the Joseph Priestley House has been closed by the State of Pennsylvania I would like to see that the designation for Joseph Priestley House be changed to that of National Historic Site and that the ownership be ceded to the Federal Government to insure that the site is opened to the public and funded at an appropriate level.

The following email was sent to the Department of the Interior today

To: feedback@ios.doi.gov

Gentlemen:

The Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland PA was closed on August 14, 2009 by the State of Pennsylvania due to budget cuts.

While I understand that Priestley House is owned by the State of Pennsylvania and is designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Park Service, I can only emphasize that this site is a true national treasure and should be designated a National Historic Site. With that status the U.S. Park Service could provide the support necessary to reopen the House and Museum and make it available once again to the public.

The importance of Joseph Priestley as a part of the national heritage of this country cannot be left to a distant memory. It must be protected and promoted in a manner that only the U.S. Park Service can perform.

Joseph Priestley has already been honored with a U.S. Commemorative Stamp in his honor. His connection to our founding fathers is profound and his contribution to what we are as a nation is undisputed.

Thank you for your attention.

The Latest Proposal on Saving the Priestley House

2009-08-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

According to Jan Bowman, Northumberland Borough Secretary, "The Borough Council met last evening [August 18, 2009] with Tom Bresenhan, Co-President of the Friends of the Joseph Priestley House. This group is negotiating with the State to be permitted to open the Priestley House with volunteers giving tours."

While I commend both the Borough of Northumberland and the Friends of the Joseph Priestley House for their efforts, this can only be a stopgap effort. Clearly, the upkeep and development of the site needs full-time skilled professionals that can only be accomplished with sufficient funding. I still feel that making Joseph Priestley House a National Historic Site under the administration of the U.S. Park Service is the only way to insure that the site is properly protected.

According to Mr. Bresenhan the Priestley House already carries the designation of National Historic Landmark (January,.1965) of the U.S. Park Service.

My only real experience with National Historic Sites of the U.S. Park Service is with Weir Farm in Ridgefield, CT. Until Weir Farm was established there were no National Historic Sites or Parks within the state of CT. Once designated, the U.S. Park Service came in with money to provide much of the infrastructure changes needed to handle the staffing, traffic, land acquisition, etc. to bring it up to the standards that they have for any site. I was very impressed with what they did. They did not come in with big bulldozers, so to speak. They were very sensitive to the needs of the community and the history of the site.

I don't know what the difference between a National Historic Site and National Historic Landmark, but I will investigate this, and I'll bet that it is in that difference that we will find out why the U.S. Park Service has not been as actively involved in the Priestley House.

Further Thoughts About the Closing of Joseph Priestley House

2009-08-17T18:15:00.001-07:00

The stamp to the left, which is based upon a painting by Dennis Lyall, of Norwalk, CT, was issued by the United States Postal Service on April 13, 1983 in Northumberland, PA to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Joseph Priestley's birth. Lyall based his painting of Priestley on an 1801 portrait of Priestley by Rembrandt Peale which is located in the Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia, PA.

Priestley and his wife, Mary, had settled in Northumberland PA, after immigrating to the United States in 1794 from England. From 1795 to 1797 they built their house there. Unfortunately, Mary died before the house was completed. Until its closing last week on August 14, the Joseph Priestley House, which is owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, had operated as a museum in his honor. There was a special ceremony at the Priestley House on the day the commemorative stamp was issued.

Joseph Priestley, of course, was the first of a long list of emigrant scientists celebre to come to the United States to partake of the freedom and liberty enjoyed by our citizens. Priestley was the noted chemist, biologist, theologian, political activist, and educator who had fled England with his family after the Birmingham Riots of 1791 where his house, laboratory and church were burned to the ground in protest of his support of the French and American Revolutions.

Among other notable accomplishments, Priestley was known for his scientific work in discovering oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia, nitrous oxide (laughing gas), and 5 other gases. He also invented the first method of artificially creating carbonated water or "soda water". He, additionally, was the first to note that there was a gas cycle wherein plants and animals produced oxygen and carbon dioxide, respectively, to symbiotically support the survival of the other. He wrote the definitive text on electricity which was considered the standard text on the subject for about a century.

Priestley's political writings have been credited as providing Thomas Jefferson with key concepts relative to his expressions of liberty and freedom that are found in the Declaration of Independence. He was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin and corresponded regularly and met with many of the other American Founding Fathers. He was an abolitionist, and a strong supporter of tolerance and equal rights for all. Some have referred to him as the "high priest" of our Founding Fathers.

He was a dissenting minister and wrote many scholarly texts on the history of the Christian Church. He cofounded Unitarianism in England also brought that Church to the United States.

Priestley was an educator and wrote books on various subjects including grammar, history, etc. and developed pedagogical tools that are still in use today. In fact, he wrote over 150 books which were on a wide diversity of subjects and he believed in the open and free exchange of information for all human endeavors.

While the Priestley House is recognized on the National Register of Historical Places, it is considered, by some, to be a true National Treasure. The closing of the Priestley House last week is an immeasurable loss for our National Heritage. Please contact your congressional representatives to have them consider converting the Priestley House into a National Historic Site as part of the National Park Service so that it may be properly preserved and opened to the public once again.

Digital Archeology

2009-08-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Digital Archeology is the study of archaic data found in memory devices of earlier digital computers. It is related to the fields of cryptography and computer forensics.

Think about this problem: You are running a company and you want to change the computer software vendor that you keep your business accounting information on. There must be some old data which you will not convert over to the new system. Now, further suppose that a number of years after you do this conversion you need to access some information from before the cut off point. And further suppose that the company that supplied the software has gone out of business. Now what do you do?

Well, in case you don't think this is a realistic probability, consider the IRS and the requirement that not only must you maintain your accounting records in tangible paper form, but also, if you maintain electronic records, you must maintain the data in those records in machine readable form for a considerable period of time into the past. The rationale for this is obvious.

Every day computer data devices are failing and sometimes that information on them is very valuable and sometimes that information is not backed up properly. Or alternatively, a back up has been kept, but for one reason or another it has been destroyed. There are specialists who will extract information from a disc or other memory device and then reconstruct the original information in a meaningful way.

I think you could easily call this digital archeology.

Now, just imagine, 100 years from now. Will we be able to "read" the data that we are producing today? Will we be able to see the images and video we are currently producing if it hasn't been "converted" to newer and newer formats along the way?

What about .pdf files? Will those be easily readable?

Today, if we discover archival material that was produced 100s or even a thousand years ago we most likely have the skill to decipher it. Will that be the case into the future?

Alternatively, is there data out there today that was produced 50 years ago that is, for all practicle purposes, undecipherable today. Look at the Sony "Beta" format for video. I'm sure there are still functioning units around, but for how long will they be around?

Should we, as a society, be taking steps now that will insure that digital data produced today and into the future will remain intelligible?

I'd like to hear from anyone who has something to say about this.

Please comment or contact me.

The Comptometer of Felt & Tarrant and Their Rival -- Burroughs

2009-08-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

The most authoritative website on Comptometers, if you are interested, is run by Brooke Boering. Here is the link: Comptometers Brooke actually worked for The Felt & Tarrant Co., the manufacturers of the Comptometer, in Chicago, briefly, as a service technician. That was a long long time ago. The history of the company until its demise is quite interesting. At one point they merged with the Victor Company, which also made calculators. Eventually, all these companies making mechanical computing devices were superceded by companies making modern day computers. You can find all this information on Brooke's website.

I have two Felt & Tarrant Comptometers:

The first is a model H, serial #221922, last patent date Nov. 2 1920, 8 columns, green painted metal (copper), with black metal cover, manufactured in the early 20's and then apparently refurbished and painted green in England after World War II (that is to distinguish it from one's manufactured in the U.S.).

The second is serial #802, last patent date Dec. 15 1891, 8 columns, mahogany wood case (see picture above), overall dimensions of the case is 19 cm wide, 36.7 cm deep, and 10.8 cm high. This is not including the 72 keys protruding from the top an additional 3 cm, and the lever mechanism on the right protruding 1.5 cm. This specific Comptometer serial number is listed as the 21st oldest known machine on Brooke's Comptometer website above.

I also have some Comptometer ancillary collectables that I have still to unpack. I will add information on those items when they pop up.

In addition to the Comptometers above I have a number of other (competitor) machines of this type.

The Burroughs Adding Machine Company had a very interesting machine that was developed at about the same time as the Comptometer, but it only performed addition.

I call it my "windows" machine because it has large beveled plate glass windows on three sides so that you can see the mechanism inside. It is a beautiful machine.

I also have the very rare Burroughs shoebox calculator, serial # 204171, manufactured in 1912. This was issued by Burroughs to compete with the Felt and Tarrant Compometer.

It performed identical computations as the Comptometer and even had the same external look to it. There was a very interesting legal fight between these two giants that ensued as a result of the introduction of the Burroughs "shoebox". See this webpage about the legal battle to remove these machines from the marketplace Felt & Tarrant v. Burroughs. As a result of the litigation all of these original Burroughs "shoebox" comptometers were ordered removed from the market and destroyed. There are very few remaining.

As a follow-on to the ill fated Burroughs "shoebox" which was removed from the market Burroughs introduced yet another calculating machine of which I also have an example of:

I first met Brooke Boering at the home of Bob Otnes in Palo Alto many years ago. I spoke to Brooke yesterday. While the website is still functioning, Brooke informed me that he is not actively working on it much these days. He has donated his collection of Felt & Tarrant machines and associated materials to the Felt Mansion/Estate for display. Due to his age, his activities have been more restricted lately. We all wish him well.

All photos above are courtesy of Brooke Boering.

State of Pennsylvania Closes the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland

2009-08-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

It was with great sadness that I learned today that the State of Pennsylvania closed the Joseph Priestley House. As reported by News Radio WKOK:

Friday, August 14, 2009

Pennsylvania closes the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland

NORTHUMBERLAND – The Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland closed its doors at 3:00 p.m. today. Co-president of the Friends of the Joseph Priestley House, Tom Bresenhan, tells us the state made the announcement Thursday. He says they were told the museum would close and their director Andrea Bashore, would be furloughed. Bresenhan says they hope the closure will be a temporary one. The Friends of the Joseph Priestley House has submitted a plan to the state to continue to keep the sight open on a limited basis. Probably on afternoons and weekends, they hope to have volunteers operating the site, with the facility still owned by the state.

Bresenhan says they were expecting this step to be taken by the state, with no budget passed and four of the six identified sites, including the Priestley House closed their doors today. (Ali Stevens)

If you would like some additional information on the Priestley House you may click on the Joseph Priestley House Index Tab on the left side of this page.

Otis King's Cylindrical Slide Rule

2009-08-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

This is a stock photo of an OK. I will insert a photo of mine later

I just opened the latest issue of the Journal of the Oughtred Society. This issue has a picture of an Otis King (OK) slide rule on the cover. I have to unpack mine and take some pictures. I think the most interesting Otis King that I have is the Model N. It is an early production serial #8365 with the holder 422 scale and the cylinder 424 scale. It is an all chrome plated model with white numbers on a black background scales. It came in a coffin case with the Holburn Viaduct address inside the lid. Mine is in very good condition. According to the JOS article this month it looks like there are three other Model Ns that have been recorded in the literature. However, according to the Dick Lyons table of OKs (Click here). I found 11 type Ns listed with two of those being white numbers on a black background.

I remember when I bought this OK in Denver at a store on "Antique Row" on South Broadway about 15 years ago. I think the store was called the "Packrat". I was in Denver doing some forensic work for a client located downtown and had some time to kill between meetings. I had heard there was one antique store on South Broadway that specialized in scientific instruments. The store was crammed full of gadgets. There were many pieces of surveying equipment or other pieces related to the mining industry. I can highly recommend it if the store is under the same management. Prices were a bit steep there. It has been a long time and Ebay wasn't really around then. I knew this particular OK was different than most of the other OKs that I had seen up to that point. Much has been published about OKs in the literature since then. My suspicion was well founded. There is something about an OK in the way it feels and moves as you operate it that is very satisfying compared to many other slide rules.

Palmer's Computing Scale

2009-07-29T14:14:00.000-07:00

Aaron Palmer patented a slide rule in Boston in 1843. I believe this is the earliest example of an American slide rule. The "Computing Scale", as he referred to it was available in a number of formats. In 1846 Palmer apparently sold his patent rights to John E. Fuller. Fuller, in turn, added another circular scale to the original Palmer Computer Scale on the reverse side which would compute the number of days between two dates. Fuller called his scale the "Time Telegraph".

Major variations of Palmer's Computing Scale include:

1. A 12 inch square hard cardboard device (as shown).

2. A 12 inch square version, as above, with the the Fuller Time Telegraph on the reverse side.

3. Palmer's Pocket Scale, a 10 cm. by 15.5 cm. hardbound book with a smaller version of the 12 inch device attached to the inside rear cover. 48 pp. not including the scale.

4. Key to Palmer's Pocket Scale, the same as 3. above without the slide rule attached to the inside rear cover. This was presumably used as the instruction manual for 1. above. 50pp.

5. Improvement to Palmer's Endless Self-Computing Scale and Key by John E. Fuller. This is like 4. above, but for use with 2. above. 72 pp.

6. Fuller's Computing Telegraph by Aaron Palmer and John E. Fuller, same as 2. above as part of a 22 page book.

I saw one reference to the fact that the use of the word "computing" as associated with the Palmer Scale was the first time that that word was used when referencing a device, as opposed to a person who did that operation. I cannot confirm this.

Most references to these Palmer devices indicate that it is rare, and the prices they are sold for seem to support this theory. However, I personally have 12 of them. I did not pay anywhere near the prices I have seen out there. So, I don't know what to make of this.

Once I bought one of the smaller Palmer Scales on EBay from a fellow in San Francisco. I was in Connecticut at the time and happened to be going to San Francisco about two days after the close of the auction. I asked the fellow if I could come to him in San Francisco to pick it up instead of him mailing it to me in Connecticut. I think I must have spooked him. He refused to agree and insisted that he mail it to me.

Florian Cajori

2009-07-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Florian Cajori (1859-1930) A Swiss American scholar who was one of the most important and prolific writers on the history of Mathematics and Physics during the latter part of the 19th century and earlier part of the 20th century. Born in Switzerland, he emigrated to the United States in 1875. He received a Ph.D. from Tulane University in Mathematics. He was a Professor of Physics, Engineering and Mathematics at Colorado College (1889-1918) and then a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley (1918-1930) and held a chair there in the History of Mathematics.

I spoke with Charles Cajori (b. 1921), his son, a number of years ago. He lives in Watertown near our home in Connecticut. Charles is an artist of some note. We spoke about his father and the fact that his papers are housed at the U.C. Berkeley Library. Now that we live much closer to Berkeley I must go over there some day and look through those archival materials. I'm sure it will be very interesting.

Cajori, among other subjects, is known for his writing on William Oughtred and the history of the slide rule. There is certainly much more historical interest in these areas now than when he wrote his books on those subjects just after the turn of the century.

I have listed below the more substantial works written by Florian Cajori:

A History of Mathematics

A History of Mathematical Notations I

A History of Mathematical Notations II

A History of Physics in its Elementary Branches, Including Physical Laboratories

William Oughtred A Great Seventeenth Century Teacher of Mathematics

A History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule and Allied Instruments and the History of the Gunther Scale and the Slide Rule in the Seventeenth Century

Principia, Vol. I Motion of Bodies by Isaac Newton (translated by Andrew Motte) (edited by Cajori)

Principia Vol. II A System of the World by Isaac Newton (translated by Andrew Motte( edited by Cajori)

A History of the Concepts of Limits and Fluxions in Great Britain from Newton to Woodhouse

The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United States

An Introduction to the Modern Theory of Equations

The Chequered Career of Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler

I know that at Colorado College they had the annual Cajori Lecture for two years back in the 50s, and the Cajori Award for outstanding Engineering students at Colorado College, but I don't know if there is any continuing award of any national or international acclaim in his honor, or if there have been any substantial scholarly work on his life written. I have not found it. If you know of either, I would be glad to hear about it.

I will augment this post with additional information on Florian Cajori as time permits. Of particular note are his volumes that were published posthumously.

"If a lunatic scribbles a jumble of mathematical symbols it does not follow that the writing means anything merely because to the inexpert eye it is indistinguishable from higher mathematics." --Florian Cajori

William Oughtred and the Oughtred Society

2009-07-29T10:11:00.000-07:00

William Oughtred (1574-1660) was an English Ordained Episcopal Minister who is best known for his mathematical work. He was a Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge.

Oughtred is credited with the invention of the slide rule in 1622. While it was John Napier who invented logarithms and Edmund Gunther who invented the logarithmic scale, it was Oughtred who recognized that by using two Gunther scales sliding by each other he could perform multiplication and division more rapidly than on a Gunther scale alone. He conceived of this as two circular Gunther logarithmic scales.

In addition to the slide rule he is also known for the introduction of the symbols "x" for multiplication, and "sin" and "cos" for the sine and cosine functions, and "::" for proportion. The book he wrote which he is most noted for is Clavis Mathematicae (1631).

A very good biography of William Oughtred was written by Florian Cajori entitled William Oughtred, a Great Seventeenth-Century Teacher of Mathematics, Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1916. Cajori also wrote History of the Logarithmic Slide Rule, Engineering News Publishing Co., 1909 which contains many references to Oughtred. There are in print reprints of this volume.

The Oughtred Society is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to the preservation and history of the slide rule and other calculating instruments. Their goals include the dissemination and sharing of information and encouragement for collectors. They are affiliated with organizations in the United Kingdom, Germany, and The Netherlands with similar goals. The Journal of the Oughtred Society, a scholarly publication is put out semiannually by the Society. They have a number of meetings each year, usually on the East Coast and West Coast. They have a website: Outred.org and encourage membership.

When I attended the last meeting in Mountain View, CA on June 27 it was held at the Computer History Museum. It was great to see so many familiar faces again.

The Hunt for a Curta and Discovery of a Treasure

2009-07-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

I had decided that I wanted a Curta calculator for my collection of antique mechanical calculators. It was going to represent the last of my mechanical calculators, chronologically speaking. I should preface this with the comment that I could have easily gone out and purchased a Curta, but that takes half the fun out of it. Curtas are fairly expensive little gadgets, it would not be hard to spend $600 on a good one. I like to find my computing collectibles at more affordable prices. I figure, if it costs less, then I can have some money left over to buy something else for my collection.

I know that most engineers who went to school when slide rules were de rigeuer ended up keeping their slide rules even though they never used them after they got weaned onto electronic calculators and computers. They just feel that after all that time together, you don't just throw one away. You have to have more respect for it. So, it gets tucked away in some drawer somewhere, and every once in while they run across it and it brings back all those fond memories of years past. The damn thing has no monetary value, so they don't sell it either. I have found, when telling people that I collect these devices that they are all to often willing to part with theirs because they know it is going to a good home and it will be treated right and won't be destroyed.

Back to the Curta. I figured that someone who used to enter rally races would be in pretty much the same situation as an engineer and his slide rule. So, I started tracking down rally car enthusiasts. It isn't very hard. You find one, if he doesn't have one to spare, then ask for the names of others that he know and their phone numbers. It went fairly fast. I had been looking off and on in my spare time for about two weeks, when this one fellow referred me to another. I called the individual.

No, he had sold his last year. He had no use for it anymore. He couldn't just throw it out and someone offered to give him $100 for it, so he took it. I, of course, had explained that I was looking for one for my collection of computing devices. So, then, out of the blue, he says to me, "Maybe you would be interested in these slide rules we have." My ears went up. "Oh, slide rules! What kind of slide rules?" He replied, "My wife's grandfather, or great grandfather designed them and she might want to get rid of them. I don't know much about them. You would have to talk to her about them."

His wife eventually got on the phone after I had gotten the names of a few more potential Curta owners. When his wife got on the phone she explained that her great grandfather, Edwin Thacher, had designed these slide rules and she had the original production runs for one of them and a prototype for another. The former was the cylindrical slide rule that I have already written about, the latter was a Scofield-Thacher Engineer's slide rule.

I asked her if she would be interested in selling the devices. She indicated that she would. We made arrangements for me to come out to visit her.

Two weeks later I found myself on the road again. It was about a 4 hour trip in rural New York.

A little historical insert is due here. Edwin Thacher (1840-1920) was born in DeKalb, Lawrence County, New York and died in New York City. He grew up as a youth in Herman, NY not too far from DeKalb. He was trained as Civil Engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1863 and was employed at first on the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad, and subsequently with the US Military Railroad during the Civil War. Thereafter, he worked for the Louisville, Cincinnati & Lexington Railroad, Louisville Bridge & Iron Co., and as Chief Engineer of the Keystone Bridge Co. He was most noted for his concrete compression bridges and the slide rules he designed to engineer his bridges. He was always plagued by the lack of accuracy in the calculations he performed in designing bridges. His most substantial engineering project was the design of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga, Hamilton County, TN. It was a six-span through truss bridge over the Tennessee River built from 1889 to 1891. It has a total length of approximately 2,370 feet with the longest single span being 320 feet. It is in the National Register of Historic Places. The Walnut Street Bridge was converted to a pedestrian bridge some time in the latter part of the 20th century and may be the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. Among the various slide rules he designed, was the cylindrical slide rule that carries his name (in reality, Thatcher[sic] due to a typo) to solve the accuracy problems he was encountering in his bridge engineering design work.

Now, back to the rest of the story. I arrived at the home of the great granddaughter of Edwin Thacher and had a cordial meeting with them. They produced the various Thacher devices. The K&E 4012 was serial number 1050, indicating that it was the 50th production number produced. the Scofield-Thacher Engineer's rule was clearly a prototype. They started disclosing what information they knew about him which wasn't all that much, but then they produced their Thacher family Bible. You should know that way back when it was very common for families to record all the births, deaths, marriages, etc. in the family Bible. Well, there it was: Edwin Thacher, born October 12, 1839 to Seymour Thacher and Elizabeth (Smith) Thacher. From there she showed me the family tree, showing her direct descendancy from Edwin. Wow! Was this the Holy Grail squared, or what? Most of the biographies on Edwin were wrong on the date of his birth. He was not born in 1840 as noted!

We got down to business and discussed the sale of the items. Their concern was that these were large devices and no one in the family had expressed interest in them and they wanted to make sure that they ended up being taken care of. Yes, yes. I'm real good at taking care of my slide rules. We talked about the price. We did not conclude anything at that meeting. They wanted to think about the whole matter. I did not want to pressure them. I told them I would send them some biographical information on their great grandfather, which I did as soon as I got back home.

We had a number of conversations after that and the conclusion was that they thought they would, at least for the time being, hold onto these family mementos. DARN!!!

So close, but so far from completing the purchase.

By the way, this whole story started out looking for a Curta. Well, I got my Curta a number of months later, but not from the plan I had set out to get it. An acquaintance of mine had a friend who was an engineer who had some slide rules who wanted to give them to me, and while talking to him I learned that he used to participate in rally races. Yes, he still had his Curta, and yes, if I gave him $50 he would sell it to me.

I now have that Curta.

The Quest for the Holy Grail of Slide Rules

2009-07-29T01:28:00.000-07:00

I will now tell an interesting story about something I uncovered.

In about 1997, I was sitting and working at my computer and an email popped into my mailbox. Someone wanted to know if I wanted to buy a slide rule. I didn't recognize the name, but I answered anyway. Okay I'll bite, "What kind of slide rule do you have? And, oh, by the way, where did you get my name or email address?" Most slide rules that come up are fairly boring.

A little while later a reply came with more information. "It is a Thatcher and I saw your name on some website advertising that you want to buy slide rules." "Interesting, a Thatcher." I thought. "I don't remember ever putting an ad anywhere for buying slide rules. I wonder where she saw that"

There were two principal models of the Thatcher that were made. Production started in 1881. There is the 4012 model and the 4013 model. Both are almost identical, except for one thing. They both are almost two feet wide, they are built around a 4 inch diameter cylinder with rotating vanes around the cylinder. The theory behind a cylindrical slide rule is that by wrapping the scales in a helical fashion around the cylinder the scale can be made considerably longer. The longer the scale, the more accurate the computations. The principal difference between the two Thatcher models is that the 4013 has a bar across the front of the device to which is attached a magnifying glass that can be adjusted to "read" the answer to a computation. This allowed the device to be very precise -- so much so, that it was the most accurate device available for many years. And to get the most out of the accuracy, you really do need a magnifying glass to "read" it. It turns out that the 4013, while more expensive than its brother 4012, had many fewer produced, and consequently, they are extremely hard to find in good condition -- and they are so very expensive.

Now, back to the story, I assumed it would be a 4012 and probably, like most, fairly deteriorated. The response I got said it was a 4012 and after a few more back and forths, I concluded it was worth seeing. It turned out, of all places in the world that it could be, it was about an hour away, in Springfield, MA. I hopped in the car, went to the bank to get the required cash, and off I went to Springfield from Connecticut.

I arrived at a small house in an older section of town. I knocked at the door and this woman came and let me in. She showed me to the table where she had on display, unbeknownst to me, two Thatchers. One was a 4012, and... the other ---the other was the Holy Grail -- a model 4013. I tried to restrain myself from showing how elated I was.

The story took a very strange turn. She was apologizing to me that she had me come all that way, but she had already sold the 4012 Thatcher that I had come to buy........ But, if I was interested, she had this other one almost the same over here. I knew it, it was a bait and switch!

I looked it over, it was beautiful. It was well preserved, and it had all its parts. "I'll let you have this one for the same price" she said. "I'll take it"

So, that's how I got the Thatcher and now it sits right next to the Curta in the display case in my living room. But that was not always the case. I had not purchased the Curta at that time. I was still on the trail to find one.... and that is the next interesting adventure.

The Curta Calculator

2009-07-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

The Curta Calculator is an amazing mechanical device. It was first produced in 1948 as the brainchild of an Austrian, Curt Herzstark (1902-1988), based upon work of the famous 17th century mathematician Godfried Leibniz (1646-1718). It performs addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and with some ingenuity even more complex functions. While Herzstark had conceived the device during the 1930s, it was actually during World War II while a he was imprisoned at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp (his father was Jewish), that he worked out the actual design of the first production devices. After being liberated from Buchenwald in 1945 and before 1948 he finalized the design and brought the device to the marketplace. The Curta factory was located in Lichtenstein.

The Curta I has 8 slides for entering one of the operands and a 6 digit revolution counter for the other operand and an 11 digit result counter. The entire Curta I weighs only 200 gm. There were 80,000 Type I calculators produced. The larger Curta II, first manufactured in 1964 has 11 slides for entering the first operand and a 8 digit revolution counter, and 15 digits for the results. The Curta II weighs about 370 gm. The Type II model had a production run of 60,000. The difference between the two calculators was primarily the number of digits of significance that the devices could handle.

The first thing you should know about a Curta is that it is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. It is so small, in fact, that you could not imagine a device this complicated fitting in such a small space. It has such a good feel when holding it and operating it. Curtas are sometimes called "pepper grinders" because of the similarity in looks and size.

Numbers are entered on the slides. A rotating crank on the top allows the input number to be added to the result. By lifting the crank the input is subtracted from the result. Rotating the top will cause the the input to be either multiplied by 10 or divided by 10 depending on the direction of the rotation. So, with a sequence of rotations and lifts and turns relatively large numbers could undergo arithmetic operations with great precision. In the case of the Curta II, up to 15 significant digits of accuracy. There is a great video showing the operation of the Curta here. Or, see Jan Meyer's amazing Curta simulator here.

I purchased my Curta from a fellow that used it during the 60s for rally car races. The navigator for the car had the responsibility to see that the driver "paced" the car as prescribed by the rally rules. This required quick and reliable computation under some difficult circumstances. I don't think a slide rule would have quite made it in that type of situation. They were also used in airplane navigation and in engineering and scientific computation. They pretty much went out of favor at the same time as the slide rule during the 1970s.

I found my Curta many years ago, when hand held mechanical calculators were out of favor, yet before the collector craze for older mechanical computing devices had started. I keep it in a display case in my living room right next to my Thatcher 4013 Calculator. The reason I mention this is because I have a very interesting story about Edwin Thacher and his Cylindrical Calculator that I stumbled upon while searching for a Curta for my collection. But that is going to have to be for another day. By the way, no, I didn't make a mistake on spelling the Thatcher/Thacher names above. Edwin spelled his name without a "t" (i.e. Thacher), but the engraver making the device for production misspelled his name on the engraving plate by putting in an extra "t". The device was so precise and it would have cost so much to redo the engraving that they went into production with the wrong spelling for his name anyway, so the device is a "Thatcher".

Georg Ernst Stahl and the Phlogiston Theory

2009-07-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

Just to keep things balanced, I have an engraving of Georg Stahl hanging on my office wall right near my Priestley likenesses, some of these likenesses I have blogged about earlier. I have Georg hanging there to put things in perspective.

Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) was born at Ansbach. He was an eminent chemist and physician and is best know as the foremost proponent of the now defunct and discredited phlogiston theory.

The phlogiston theory was originally postulated by Johann Becher in 1667. It hypothesized that flammable materials contained phlogiston, a substance without any discernible properties, including, mass, or any other physical properties whatsoever. When the flammable material was combusted the phlogiston dissipated and the material returned to its "dephlogisticated" state called the calyx or true state.

Joseph Priestley was also a lifelong proponent of the phlogiston theory, and, in fact, upon isolating a substance from mercuric oxide with heat, called it "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen).

It was Antoine Lavoisier in France who showed that combustion requires a gas that has weight. This substance he named oxygen, and in demonstrating that it did have mass he had made the phogiston theory obsolete. The fact that Lavoisier became obsolete after the French Revolution by losing his head is the subject of a blog yet to be composed.

In any case, the conclusion is that even great minds make mistakes. In Priestley's case it was his clinging to an obsolete theory even after it had been clearly discredited. In Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley the letters Priestley wrote of his observations from experiments he had performed show his numerous mistakes and ill formed conclusions. Yet, through it all, through all the imperfect observations and incorrect thinking, he was able to accomplish so much. It is a lesson to be learned by all. Mistakes are normal in the course of discovery. They are essential! And every assumption must be treated with suspicion.

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

2009-07-27T08:22:00.000-07:00

In early January of this year I was listening to the local Public Radio Station and I heard an interview hosted by Michael Krasny on his Forum program. He was interviewing Steven Johnson, the author of a book published last year entitled The Invention of Air. It was a very interesting interview and someone mentioned that Johnson would be at the Book Passage book store in Corte Madera, CA on Saturday, January 17. I decided to go even though I hadn't read his book yet.

There have been a host of books about Joseph Priestley written recently, Johnson's being one of the latest. My first inclination upon hearing the interview was that this particular book, while intended primarily for the lay reader unfamiliar with Priestley, would step through the usual biographical milestones of his life and his contributions to humankind and be pretty humdrum. I did find the talk was interesting.

However, when I went to the talk at Book Passage I heard a more expanded discussion of his book and had ample time to chat with Mr. Johnson afterwards. We agreed to get together sometime in New York, since he lives in Brooklyn and I am frequently in Manhattan. Even though I have been to New York three times since, I haven't had an opportunity to see him there yet. Maybe on the next trip.

After attending the talk, I actually read his book. I found it a good read and quite refreshing. He did not, as I had previously suspected, step through the usual biographical material. Instead, he tried to capture the essence of that period of history in England, and the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. He brought forward a number of very interesting observations, including:

Priestley's penchant for openness by sharing the information he had discerned. He had, after all, written over 150 books on such varied topics as electricity, chemistry, Christianity, education, language, politics, etc.

The role of the coffee houses in the second half of 18th century London -- an 18th century form of social networking, so to speak, where he met with the likes of Benjamin Franklin and the other "Honest Whigs".

When I say he did not go through the usual biography, there were, of course, the sprinklings here and there of tried and true lines about Priestley's accomplishments for sure, but not laden like many of the other Priestley books. There was just enough for the uninitiated to want to go out and get a real biography to read.

I notice that this book seems to have gotten some real traction of late. I hope it does well and "enlightens" the general public about this great and important historic individual who has, for all intents, been forgotten by the mainstream of our culture. Actually, never known by the mainstream of our culture.

Dr. Priestley's Slide Rule

2009-07-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

I mused about whether Joseph Priestley, eminent natural philosopher that he was, ever had a slide rule. While I was at the Priestley House in 2004, I asked the docent, Brooke Dearman, if they had any information to that effect. Wouldn't you know, the following day she informed me that on the Inventory of Dr. Priestley's Laboratory in 1791 was the listing of a slide rule. Just in case you don't remember, this is the very same Laboratory that was burned to the ground during the Birmingham Riots of the same year. So, in fact, this is a list of the items that were destroyed when the Laboratory was destroyed.

This Inventory appeared first in the Birmingham Weekly Post in 1890, and was subsequently reprinted as an Appendix in Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley by Henry Carrington Boulton in 1892, and then reprinted again in the reprinting of Boulton's book by the Kraus Reprint Co., New York, in 1969. I've referred to this book before. If you are seriously interested in studying about Priestley, it is a good book to have for reference.

There it is on page 229 under the category of Mathematical Instruments, "A Sliding Rule of the best construction" and on the next line "A Navigation Sliding Rule". So, now we know that he had two "Sliding Rules".

But, is there anything else we can learn or conjecture about these sliding rules. During this period of time, from 1780 to 1790, Matthew Boulton, the famous engineer and industrialist,and his partner of James Watt, who were both friends of Priestley's and also members of the Lunar Society, had produced a "Sliding Rule" at their Soho Manufactory called a "Soho" ruler in about 1775. This was specifically designed for the engineers' use at Soho. James Watt, earlier in his career was a scientific instrument maker and was quite familiar with the sliding rule. As best as I can tell at this time the Soho sliding rule had A B C D scales, the A B and C scales were double decade scales so that squares and square roots could be computed rapidly, and the D scale was a linear scale.

There also appear to have been some French slide rules being produced at this time also.

So, it is not clear which exact type of sliding rules Priestley had in his Laboratory. He certainly had access to the Soho sliding rules through Boulton and Watt. Additionally, we know that Boulton supplied many other instruments and items of need to Priestley's laboratory. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

The Interesting Genealogical Connections of the Lunar Society Members and their Offspring

2009-07-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Charles Darwin's theories of evolution and natural selection have shaken the world. To this day they draw controversy. Some religious groups feel that these theories are in direct contradiction to their belief systems. Many of the great intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment, while fiercely defending scientific inquiry were very religious in their own right. Look, for example, at Joseph Priestley. While many of his era would have considered his religious views heretical, he firmly believed in God and that scientific inquiry would only give man a deeper understanding of Him.

In my ramblings into the Age of Enlightenment, English Industrial Revolution and the Lunar Society, in particular, I had known of two of the eminent members being Erasmus Darwin, the noted doctor, and Josiah Wedgwood, the famous manufacturer of porcelain. I knew that Erasmus Darwin had written some interesting material about "evolution" and I knew that he was the grandfather of Charles, the noted naturalist.

What I didn't know was that Erasmus Darwin's son Robert (Charles' father) had married Josiah Wedgwood's daughter Susannah (Charles' mother). Talk about a great gene pool. Wow! No wonder Charles could have put it all together.

Also, Samuel Galton, another Lunar Society member, Quaker and noted arms manufacturer, was the grandfather of Francis Galton, the eminent Victorian intellectual who originated statistical methods for many areas of scientific research and developed the concept of statistical correlation. Francis lived at Fair Hill, which was the site of the Priestley house and Laboratory that was burned down in the Birmingham Riots of 1791. Francis' other grandfather was Erasmus Darwin. Zingo! Another one.

So long as we are on this genealogy stuff. Mary Priestley, Joseph Priestley's wife was the daughter of John Wilkinson, the famous ironmaster of Wilkinson sword fame.

This was quite a fraternity. I'm sure that there were many more. If you know of any others, please let me know.

Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of Joseph Priestley's Death

2009-07-26T08:40:00.001-07:00

Joseph Priestley died on February 6, 1804 at his home in Northumberland, PA. My wife and I, having long admired this extraordinary individual, traveled to Northumberland from Connecticut on February 5, 2004 to pay our respects to him the following day on the 200th anniversary of his death. He is buried in the Riverview Cemetery quite near his home there. It was still wintertime and quite a bit of snow was on the ground. We visited the Priestley House, went to his graveside nearby, and went to the Priestley Memorial Chapel of the Unitarian Church in Northumberland for a special service in his honor that Sunday. He is buried with a simple headstone with his wife, Mary, at his side. His headstone reads:

"Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the

Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

I will lay me down in peace and sleep till

I awake in the morning of the resurrection"

There were no other visitors at the House or the cemetery that weekend. Except for the scaled down staff at the House most people who have any interest in Priestley were paying their respects to him in Leeds, England. The place of his birth. I thought that a bit odd, but no matter where it was, it was an awesome occasion. We were quite impressed with the level to which his house had been restored to its original condition. The staff were incredibly well versed in the history and significance of the site and offered every amenity of cordiality to us. The service at the Priestley Chapel was inspiring. The Unitarian Minister from Philadelphia gave the sermon to a packed house which was a well rounded account of Priestley's life and the extraordinary contributions that he made to civilization. That was the first time I have heard of Priestley referred to as "Gunpowder Joe", a reference to his explosive involvement with the political issues of the time when he was in Birmingham.

It was at Priestley House on August 31 through July 1, 1874, that a group 75 chemists made a pilgrimage to celebrate the centennial of chemistry. This was the date chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of the date that Priestley performed the experiment that produced oxygen by heating mercuric oxide with sunlight using a "burning glass", a device made of lenses to concentrate the sun's light. The meeting in 1874 is recognized as the first National Chemistry Congress and led to the formation of the American Chemical Society.

We can highly recommend a pilgrimage to this site if you have the opportunity. It is awesome. [As a subsequent comment, the Joseph Priestley House was closed on August 14, 2009 by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission due to budget cutting.] See more in subsequent posts.

Joseph Priestley Bas Relief Wax Portrait by D. Weaver

2009-07-25T16:21:00.000-07:00

The last posting of a bas relief likeness of Dr. Priestley that I am posting is one by D. Weaver of Philadelphia, PA. 13 cm by 19.5 cm. I received this one as a present from my wife, so I don't have many details about how she acquired it. Picture will be uploaded as soon as possible.

This rather striking portrait is a white wax bust on a black background in a gilt frame with glass cover. Dr. Priestley is facing to his right as in the Wedgwood medallion. Weaver used the wax by Guiseppe Cerracchi as the basis for her medallion. The Cerracchi portrait was produced by Wedgwood in 1779 and was a large 12 inch model. It is similar to the wax by Hackwood in 1779. The difference between them being the hair/wig and collar. It seems that Hackwood's was first and Cerracchi's similar but with the removal of the "Presbyterian parson's wig".

Gilbert Stuart's Portrait of Joseph Priestley

2009-07-25T15:55:00.000-07:00

According to the National Gallery of Art "Because he [Stuart] portrayed virtually all the notable men and women of the Federal period in the United States, Gilbert Stuart was declared the 'Father of American Portraiture' by his contemporaries." His most famous work is his unfinished portrait of George Washington. It is noted that Stuart, like Priestley, was a fellow Unitarian.

For this post I am going to quote from the section of Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley that I referred to in my last post about Gilbert Stuart (pp. 177ff):

THE STUART PORTRAIT (19)

The distinguished American artist, Gilbert Stuart, born at Narragansett, Rhode Island, in 1756, and died in 1828, executed a portrait of Dr. Priestley at the request of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia; this must have been between the years of 1794 and 1800. The contract price of fifty guineas was paid to Stuart, who, however, delayed finishing the work, especially the drapery, and took it with him to Boston. There it was accidentally seen by Mr. Barclay, of Wavetree, near Liverpool, a friend and admirer of Dr. Priestley, then on a visit to the United States. Stuart, whose eccentricities are well known, sold the portrait for fifty guineas to Mr. Barclay, who took it to his home and had it finished by Artaud in 1812. At the death of Mr. Barclay it was left to Mr. Rathbone, of Liverpool, who is said to have placed it in a public museum of the city. We have not, however, been able to trace it.

While in Mr. Barclay's possession three full-sized copies were made; one of these was kept by Mr. Priestley, the Doctor's son, and is now preserved by his grandchildren in Northumberland, PA (20). The second went to Mr. George Skey, Hackney, and was afterwards bought by Mr. Joseph Parkes, husband of a granddaughter of Dr. Priestley. It is now in the possession of Mme. Belloc, Mr. Parkes's daugher, and hangs in a private house in Westminster (21). The third went (we are informed) to Miss Mansell, of Birmingham, and was left by her to Cambridge University (22). Mrs. Wainewright, granddaughter of Dr. Priestley, informed me the three copies were made by Artaud.

Beside these, small copies were made, one of which is now in possession of the widow of Dr. James Russell, of Birmingham (23). Another is owned by Mme. Beloc (24); another fell to Mrs. Bowen, a granddaughter of Dr. Priestley, and was taken by her to Australia (25). Still another of these is in possession of Mrs. Wainewright, of London (26).

Joseph Priestley Engraving by W. Holl

2009-07-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

The next image of Priestley that I have in my collection is an engraving by W. Holl. This is one of my favorites. It hangs, framed, in a very prominent place in my office.

It is 13.2 cm by 10.6 cm. This is a steel engraving attributed to a picture by Gilbert Stewart [sic.] in the possession of J. B. Barclay, Esq. of Liverpool. Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London. Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street & Pall Mall, East. 1833.

I should mention that a very complete list of the likenesses of Priestley from before 1891 can be found in an Appendix to Scientific Correspondence of Joseph Priestley, edited with copious biographical, bibliographical, and explanatory notes by Henry Carrington Bolton, Privately Printed, New York, 1892. I am fortunate to have the not so rare Kraus Reprint of 1969 of the rare 1892 first edition.

In any case, this engraving is identified as (29) on page 179 of that list. The history of the Gilbert Stuart painting is very interesting in its own right. That will be for another post. I might also annotate here the Bolton number of the other likenesses I have already posted where they exist. I have modified the Bolton nomenclature to account for subsequent likenesses appearing after 1892: Wedgwood medallion (49) as first issued in about 1769, sculpted by Flaxmann (I refer to mine as (49.1) since it is a later edition of the same mold). Please note that there were two different sizes of (49). The one I have is the smaller one. The Halliday medallions are listed as (86) and make no distinction between the bronze and block-tin varieties. I see no mention of the P Bemi medallion. There were many likenesses of the Wedgwood medallion made. There is no question in my mind that the Bemi medallion is a copy of the Wedgwood medallion. I will reserve assigning a Bolton number to this medallion at this time. It might be time to reconsider the whole numbering system.

Wedgwood Jasperware Plaque of Joseph Priestley

2009-07-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

So long as I am blogging about all these likenesses of Joseph Priestley that I have collected over the years, I am adding, yet, another. This one is the plaque done in Jasperware by Josiah Wedgwood. I will dig out some others that I have and post them as they become available when time permits.

This plaque is 10.8 cm by 8.7 cm. The portrait on the obverse side is of Joseph Priestley in profile of his right side. The bas-relief image is in white with a Jasperware blue background. The reverse side has the following information printed on it in gold lettering:

Dr. Joseph Priestley

1733-1804

Member of the Lunar Society

Discoverer o Oxygen

Friend of Josiah Wedgwood

-o-

This plaque was struck from the

original model produced by

Josiah Wedgwood in 1779

Also, impressed into the plaque on the reverse side is the following:

WEDGWOOD

1952

MADE IN

ENGLAND

Priestley and Wedgwood were both members of the Lunar Society in Birmingham between 1780 and 1791. Priestley left Birmingham in 1791 after the Birmingham Riots where a mob burned his house and laboratory as well as his church to the ground. Among the various "sins" that this dissenting minister committed to cause these lawless acts were his outspoken support of both the American and French Revolutions. This was a very unpopular position to take in England at the time. Ultimately Priestley and his family emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York in 1794.

Terracotta Plaque of Joseph Priestley by P. Bemi

2009-07-25T00:06:00.000-07:00

I was looking for the Thomas Halliday medal of Priestley that I had blogged about earlier, when I came across this plaque which is located at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It is 11.1 cm long and 8.8 cm wide. It was engraved by P. Bemi for Josiah Wedgwood sometime between 1780 and 1790. I purchased one like this a few years ago. Mine is made of terracotta. I would suspect that if it was produced by Wedgwood it would be some ceramic material like this.

The coloration of mine is just as seen in this picture. Curiously, the attribution at the Museum says that it is made of metal of probable French origin. I have my doubts about that. The reverse side is marked identically in both with the names "Dr. Priestley" and "P Bemi".

Joseph Priestley Medal 1804 by Thomas Halliday

2009-07-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have been looking a little closer at a Joseph Priestley medallion that I purchased some time ago. I had initially thought that it was the 1804 Death Medal by Thomas Halliday, BHM 563 shown above. The attribution for this medal is a size of 51mm and a composition of white metal. BHM 563 is inscribed with the name HALLIDAY on the obverse side on the lower edge of the bas relief bust. Now, after careful inspection my medal is quite different. It is 52mm diameter and is apparently made of bronze.

Furthermore, the actual portrait of Priestley is slightly different, primarily in the shoulder area and other parts of the bust below the face. The inscription reads "HALLIDAY F". There is no question that the medal I have is not the BHM 563 Halliday medal. I have posted below a picture of my medal.

I have now found my medal listed on the British National Portrait Gallery. It is listed as NPG 175b. According to the NPG this medal is also by Thomas Halliday and also referred to as the Halliday 1804 Death Medal and is 51mm in diameter and is made of bronze and has the same shoulder detail as my medal with the HALLIDAY F inscription.

Possible House key for Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland PA

2009-07-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

BELOW: Box Lock and Key surviving from Fair Hill, home of Joseph Priestley 1780-1791. The house was destroyed by fire during the Birmingham Riots of 1791. Now located at Priestley House, Northumberland, PA.

BELOW: Box Lock Key from Priestley House, Northumberland, PA presumed to be Joseph Priestley's key to his home (Priestley House)

(photo supplied by Andra Bashore, Historic Site Administrator, Priestley House, Northumberland, PA)

BELOW: Photos of a key I recently acquired.

A Skeleton key allegedly from Priestley House, Northumberland PA

I have found a piece of potential Priestley memorabilia and would like to discuss the likelihood of its authenticity with anyone who might be able to help me.

I recently purchased a skeleton key from a woman in Lewisbury, PA who says she purchased it from an estate sale in Dillsburg, PA. Both of these locations are close enough to the Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland, PA to make me think there may be some truth to the story. The very old paper tag wrapped around the key says that the key was the house key to the home of Joseph Priestley built in 1795-97 in Northumberland. The ink on the tag looks like from an old fashioned quill ink pen. The key itself appears to be made of solid brass and is quite heavy, measuring 6 1/2 inches in length and weighing about 8oz. I have poked around a little and found that the lock and key for his former home in Birmingham is located at Priestley House in Northumberland (see photo above). From the picture of those items it is clear that the key I have doesn't appear to be the same as that one, and it shouldn't be.

Does anyone know if the original key or lock for the Priestley House in Northumberland still extant? Do you know anything that would be able to assist me in my determining if this is, in fact, the real original period key to the Priestley House? I have already gotten a response to an inquiry to the Priestley House. They have supplied one of the photos above labelled "Box Lock Key from Priestley House Northumberland, PA"

Any additional information will be appreciated.

Getting Started

2009-07-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is the start of my blog. I have thought for years that I would like to put down somewhere some of the things that I have researched and had an interest in over the years.

This is an excellent time to do this since everything was packed up for the big move out West from Connecticut. Now it is time to unpack all these trinkets and tell the story that each one deserves.

I'm sure that the blog will grow as I start getting into it. For right now I want to start documenting a few areas that have captivated my interest for the longest period of time.

Let me list some of the themes here.

Antique computing devices, particularly devices before the electronic age. This includes devices from about the time of the Antikythera Mechanism, c. 87 B.C. up to and including the death of the slide rule in the early 1970's. I do not include in this list electronic or electro-mechanical devices that started appearing before the mid 20th century, and definitely do not include what we would call modern electronic computers.

Slide rules, in particular, have been of intense interest to me. I never did use one as a student. I was just young enough to have used computers almost from the first day I went to college (1962).

The Industrial Revolution, in general. More particularly in the Birmingham, England area during the second half of the 18th century.

The Lunar Society of Birmingham, a group of distinguished thinkers, including, Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin, James Watt, and Samuel Galton to mention a few. Benjamin Franklin visited the group on a number of occasions.

Joseph Priestley, the 18th century scientist (natural philosopher), theologian, political activist, educator and all around great guy born in Leeds, England in 1733.

Most commonly known as the scientist who first isolated what we now call oxygen, Priestley actually isolated nine gases, including: nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and carbon monoxide. He also developed the first artificial method of impregnating water to make soda water by infusing carbon dioxide into water and discovered the interesting relationship between plants and animals wherein each supplies essential gases to the other to survive. Priestley wrote the definitive History of Electricity, which was considered the standard text on the subject for about 100 years.

As a theologian he was a dissenting minister in England and played an important role in bringing Unitarianism to the United States. He was a scholar, having published numerous books on Christianity. While he believed that Jesus was a great prophet, he did not believe that he was the son of God. He wrote a seminal volume on the "Corruptions of Christianity".

Priestley was an educator and wrote many books on various subjects including grammar, history, etc. He developed pedagogical tools that are still used today.

As a political activist he was an abolitionist, an early supporter of the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and critical of the British discrimination against dissenters like himself. He was friends with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, and communicated frequently with them. He met with, and was consulted on, by many other of the founding fathers of the United States. Some have said that he was the "high priest" of our founding fathers and have credited him with providing Jefferson with the views on liberty and freedom that Jefferson expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

In 1791 his house and laboratory were burned to the ground by rioters during the Birmingham Riots, primarily for his support of the American and French Revolutions. He fled to London and eventually France, where he was made an honorary French citizen. In 1794 he emigrated to the United States and build a home in Northumberland PA from 1795 to 1797. In his era, Priestley was recognized as one of the greatest scientific figures of the world - up there with the likes of Isaac Newton. He received practically every major scientific honor that could have been bestowed upon an individual at that time. He died in Northumberland PA in 1804. Yet, today, his name is hardly known, but to the few who have stumbled upon him or from a fleeting mention in a high school textbook as the discoverer of oxygen.