Another Historic Milestone in Human Civilization is Crossed

It was reported in the media on March 13, 2012 that the last printed edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been printed. A milestone to be recorded along side that of the ending of the publication of the logarithmic tables in the CRC Handbook and the use of the slide rule, to mention a few of the other milestones of civilization. The Encyclopaedia Britannica has been printed continuously since it was first published in Edinburgh Scottland in 1768.

I remember, sometime in the early '70s when you could finally purchase a calculator to compute a logarithm with a device of smaller volume than the section of tables consumed within the CRC Handbook.

Other milestones that have been passed:

Dialing a rotary telephone

Using a floppy disc

Use of the typewriter or carbon paper

Photography based upon developing silver emulsion film

Elimination of ice to cool refrigerators

The elimination of the telephone book as a means of finding a residential phone number.

Elimination of the cord on a residential telephone line

Other looming milestones are:

elimination of the phone booth

the ebook replacement of the paper book

the mobil phone replacement of the residential phone line.

If you have some others you would like to add to this list please add some of your own.

Space Shuttle ENDEAVOUR Over San Francisco Skies

I watched with awe yesterday as the space shuttle Endeavour passed overhead on its final trip to its resting place in the Los Angeles area.  Here was the symbol of an era being carried on the back of a Boeing 747 on its funeral march going to its final resting place. It reminded me of the funeral procession for President Kennedy after his assassination in 1963, as his flag-draped coffin was carried on a horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol building to lie in state.  In a strange way, these two events are tied to each other as the two anchor points on an era of manned space flight: Kennedy having been the President when Glenn first made his orbit of the Earth and also putting the stake in the ground challenging the nation to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and the shuttle funeral march signaling the end.  This was one of the most memorable events I have seen in years. 

The NASA space age Odyssey of human space exploration spans my entire adult life. 
I was a high school senior when John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth, entered his Mercury capsule to be hurled into space on February 20, 1962.
I was a college junior and senior when the Gemini program was launching space capsules.
I was in grad school and just married the month before Niel Armstrong set foot on the Moon in July 1969.
My first son was born a few months before the Apollo 13 mission in April, 1970
Apollo 17,  the eleventh and final  mission to the moon in December, 1972, was completed shortly before I completed my doctorate and the birth of my second son. 
The Apollo Soyuz space hook up was in 1975, just as I took my position at Columbia University.
The first space shuttle mission occurred in April, 1981, just as we launched our first PC software product. The events continued on through the decades, some good, some bad:
--the space shuttle Challenger disaster which occurred in January, 1986
--the Hubble space telescope launch in April, 1990
--the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia February, 2003
are all marked by corresponding events in my life.

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY'S 'RUSHING WATER' BOOKPLATE

One of my most prized possessions is this bookplate that belonged to Joseph Priestley and was most likely affixed by his very hands to one of his books. Very few of these bookplates exist at this time since his library at Fair Hill in Birmingham was destroyed in the riots of 1791 along with many of the books in his library.

Priestley’s ‘Rushing Water’ bookplate

The ‘Rushing Water’ bookplate was first described by Charles A. Browne in The Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Vol. 12, No.6, June 1920, p. 611. According to Browne: The plate was engraved by Josiah Allen of Birmingham and represents a stream of water gushing through a spout from under a massive rock into a smooth glassy pool. A stone curb, overgrown with grass and flowers, surrounds the spring, on one side of which lies a cup for the convenience of the thirsty wayfarer... For simplicity and charm, the writer has seen no bookplate which surpasses this one. For a chemist who worked so much upon the composition of water, the theme…is most appropriate, while for those who have drawn inspiration from the life and works of Priestley…the symbolism of a fountainhead has an added significance.

When Priestley’s home in Birmingham was attacked by a mob in 1791, most of his books were destroyed, although some survived (see H. C. Bolton, Scientific Letters of Joseph Priestley, New York: privately printed, 1891; letter 78).

Browne found this plate in a copy of The Laboratory or School of Arts by George Smith, “a translation of a German collection of receipts for working gold and silver” (London: T. Cox, 1738), which he had acquired from a dealer in London. Browne claims that he had seen no previous mention of this particular plate and implies that Priestley used the plate in books he had prior to the 1791 riot. Andrea Bashmore, a former historic site administrator at the Joseph Priestley House, has found the ‘Rushing Water’ bookplate in The Works of Peter Pindar (Dublin: Peter Porter, 1795) in the Priestley House collection, which seems to negate the idea that the plate was used pre-1791. In fact, Priestley was already in Pennsylvania when this work was printed.  

The bookplate measures 7.6 x 10.5 cm.

Subsequent to writing this entry in 2012 I have learned that the Priestley Bookplate issue is much more substantial than what I wrote. I am putting together a new entry on the Priestley Bookplate issue. I will append that link here when I have completed it.

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

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 by the National Trust. We found the sundial on the uppermost floor of the Abbey on the south western 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. Drake's ship the Golden Hind is depicted riding the sea along the eight o'clock line on course from Plymouth to Porto Bello where an encircled cross indicates the position of Drake's burial site. There is also a heraldic emblem and a legend. I believe it to be that of the Drake family. The metal gnomon 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 south western side of the building is not facing exactly to the south and so the lines are adjusted accordingly.

 The sundial commemorates the four hundredth anniversary of Drake's death (1596-1996) and was designed by Christopher Daniel and made in the studios of Goddard and Gibbs by Lord Cardross and Norman Attwood.  The undertaking was funded through the bequest of Dr. Ellinger and the Plymouth Centre of the National Trust.

I have found a reference to this sundial as sundial 10 here.

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

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 their 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

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

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/