Hercule Florence |1804 – March 27, 1879
by Natalia Brizuela in Aperture Magazine

"Little did Talbot, largely credited as one of photography’s inventors, know that six years earlier a twenty-nine-year-old man in Brazil, far removed from the conversations happening in Europe about how to fix light and shadow (including French scientist and politician François Arago’s presentation of the daguerreotype at the Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1839, and British scientist Sir John Herschel’s supposed coining of the word photography the same year with his now-famous phrase “picture obtained by photography” at the Royal Society in London), had invented his own form of “photogenic” writing aimed to aid naturalists.
[...]
Why didn’t any of Florence’s ideas and inventions flourish? Most likely his status as an outsider within the highly structured political and class system in nineteenth-century Brazil, with its strong monarchy and organized cultural centers clustered in Rio de Janeiro and the northern city of Recife, is to blame for his lack of recognition. Though his name would fall into obscurity rather than becoming canonized in photography histories, he seems to have passed his later years rather contentedly in the small town of Campinas, where he fathered twenty children and lived on a beautiful fazenda (ranch)."

Fascinating essay.


Maria Cunitz

By Leila McNeill @ SMITHSONIAN.COM

"Urania Propitia is a remarkable volume for many reasons. Published in 1650, this work of astronomy demonstrates a command of high-level mathematics and astronomical calculation. It also reveals a deep understanding of Keplerian astronomy; its author both simplified and corrected Kepler's math for locating planetary positions. Finally, the book was written in German as well as Latin, which helped to both establish German as a language of science and make the tables accessible outside of the university.

But Urania Propitia lays claim to yet another impressive quality: It was written by a woman."

"In 2012, Florike Egmond discovered an enthralling collection of 16th-century drawings and watercolours of animals collected by the founding father of zoology Conrad Gessner and his fellow Swiss successor Felix Platter hidden away in the Amsterdam University Library."

Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (5 March 1830 – 10 March 1882) was a Scottish natural historian and marine zoologist. He is remembered for his contributions to the studies of life and the physical conditions in the deeper parts of the ocean. Prompted by the results of the deep-sea dredgings off the coast of Norway he persuaded the Royal Navy to grant him use of HMS Lightning and HMS Porcupine for expeditions in the summers of 1868 and 1869. The results, aimed to reach scientific community and general public, were published in 1873.

"From Dr. Carpenter, V.FM.S., to the President of the Royal Society.
Dear General Sabine - During a recent visit to Belfast, I had the opportunity of examining some of the specimens retransmitted by Prof. Sars of Christiania to Prof. Wyville Thomson which have been obtained by M. Sars, Inspector bf Fisheries to the Swedish Government, by deep-sea dredgings off the coast of Norway. These specimens, for reasons stated in the enclosed letter from Prof. Wyville Thomson, are of singular interest alike to the zoologist and to the palaeontologist ; and the discovery of them can scarcely fail to excite, both among naturalists and among geologists, a very strong desire that the zoology of the deep sea, especially in the Northern Atlantic region, should be more thoroughly and systematically explored than it has ever yet been. From what I know of your own early labours in this field, I cannot entertain a doubt of your full concurrence in this desire.
Such an exploration cannot be undertaken by private individuals, even when aided by grants from Scientific Societies. Tor dredging at great depths, a vessel of considerable size is a requisite, with a trained crew, such as is only to be found in the government service. It was by the aid of such an equipment, furnished by the Swedish Government, that the researches of M. Sars were carried on.
Now, as there are understood to be at the present time an unusual number of gun-boats and other cruisers on our northern and western coasts, which will probably remain on their stations until the end of the season, it has occurred to Prof. Wyville Thomson and myself, that the Admiralty, if moved thereto by the Council of the Royal Society, might be induced to place one of these vessels at the disposal of ourselves and of any other naturalists who might be willing to accompany us, for the purpose of carrying on a systematic course of deep-sea dredging for a month or six weeks of the present summer, commencing early in August.
[…]
The surveying ship ‘Lightning' was assigned for the service — a cranky little vessel enough, one which had the somewhat doubtful title to respect of being perhaps the very oldest paddle-steamer in her Majesty's navy. We had not good times in the 'Lightning.' She kept out the water imperfectly, and as we had deplorable weather during nearly the whole of the six weeks we were afloat, we were in considerable discomfort. The vessel, in fact, was scarcely seaworthy, the iron hook and screw-jack fastenings of the rigging were worn with age, and many of them were carried away, and on two occasions the ship ran some risk. Still the voyage was on the whole almost pleasant.
[…]
The general results of the ' Lightning ' expedition were upon the whole as satisfactory as we had ventured to anticipate. The vessel was certainly not well suited for the purpose, and the weather throughout the cruise was very severe. During the six weeks, which elapsed between our departure from Oban and our return only ten days were available for dredging in the open sea, and on four of these only we were in water over 500 fathoms deep. On our return, Dr. Carpenter submitted to the Royal Society a preliminary report on the general results of the cruise, and these were regarded by the Council of the Society as sufficiently new and valuable to justify a strong representation to the Admiralty urging the importance of continuing an investigation which had already, even under unfavorable circumstances, achieved a fair measure of success.
It had been shown beyond question that animal life is varied and abundant, represented by all the invertebrate groups, at depths in the ocean down to 650 fathoms at least, notwithstanding the extraordinary conditions to which animals are there exposed.
It had been determined that, instead of the water of the sea beyond a certain depth varying according to latitude having a uniform temperature of 4° C, an indraught of Arctic water may have at any depth beyond the influence of the direct rays of the sun a temperature so low as — 2° C. ; or on the other hand, a warm current may have at any moderate depth a temperature of 6°-5 C. : and it had been shown that great masses of water at different temperatures are moving about, each in its particular course ; maintaining a remarkable system of oceanic circulation, and yet keeping so distinct from one another that hour's sail may be sufficient to pass from the extreme of heat to the extreme of cold.
Finally, it had been shown that a large proportion of the forms living at great depths in the sea belong to species hitherto unknown, and that thus a new field of boundless extent and great interest is open to the naturalist. It had been further shown that many of these deep-sea animals are specifically identical with tertiary fossils hitherto believed to be extinct, while others associate themselves with and illustrate extinct groups of the fauna of more remote periods; as, for example, the vitreous sponges illustrate and unriddle the ventriculites of the chalk.
Excerpted from ( the excerpt corresponds to the first expedition)
The depths of the sea: an account of the general results of the dredging cruises of H.M.SS. 'Porcupine' and 'Lightning' during the summers of 1868, 1869, and 1870, under the scientific direction of Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., J. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., and Dr. Wyville Thomson, F.R.S.
Published 1873
Online access
https://archive.org/details/depthsofseaaccou00thomrich
1 fathom = 6’ = 1.83 mts
Images belong to the linked book. Short bio in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wyville_Thomson

Victoria Falls

"This late 19th- or early 20th-century photograph of Victoria Falls is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. The falls lie on the Zambezi River that separates Zambia from Zimbabwe. David Livingstone, the British explorer and missionary who in 1855 became the first European to see the falls, named it in honor of Queen Victoria. The local Kololo tribe called the falls “Mosi-oa-Tunya,” meaning 'the smoke that thunders,' after the vast cloud of mist and spray created by the cascading water. The Zambezi is about 1.6 kilometers wide at the site of the falls. At the center, the river drops 108 meters. At the time this photograph was taken, Zambia was the British colony of Northern Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe the colony of Southern Rhodesia."

Source ( text and photo) : the World Digital Library https://www.wdl.org/en/item/550/


Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869 – September 22,1970) was a pioneer in the field of occupational health.

”It was also my experience at Hull-House that aroused my interest in industrial diseases. Living in a working-class quarter, coming in contact with laborers and their wives, I could not fail to hear tales of the dangers that working men faced, of cases of carbon-monoxide gassing in the great steel mills, of painters disabled by lead palsy, of pneumonia and rheumatism among the men in the stockyards. Illinois then had no legislation providing compensation for accident or disease caused by occupation. (There is something strange in speaking of "accident and sickness compensation." What could "compensate" anyone for an amputated leg or a paralyzed arm, or even an attack of lead colic, to say nothing of the loss of a husband or son?) There was a striking occurrence about this time in Chicago which brought vividly before me the unprotected, helpless state of workingmen who were held responsible for their own safety.
[…]
We were staggered by the complexity of the problem we faced and we soon decided to limit our field almost entirely to the occupational poisons, for at least we knew what their action was, while the action of the various kinds of dust, and of temperature extremes and heavy exertion, was only vaguely known at that time. Then we looked for an expert to guide and supervise the study, but none was to be found and so I was asked to do what I could as managing director of the survey, with the help of twenty young assistants, doctors, medical students, and social workers. As I look back on it now, our task was simple compared with the one that a state nowadays faces when it undertakes a similar study. The only poisons we had to cover were lead, arsenic, brass, carbon monoxide, the cyanides, and turpentine. Nowadays, the list involved in a survey of the painters' trade alone is many times as long as that.
[…]
A Hungarian, thirty-six years old, worked for seven years grinding lead paint. During this time, he had three attacks of colic, with vomiting and headache. I saw him in the hospital, a skeleton of a man, looking almost twice his age, his limbs soft and flabby, his muscles wasted. He was extremely emaciated, his color was a dirty grayish yellow, his eyes dull and expressionless. He lay in an apathetic condition, rousing when spoken to and answering rationally but slowly, with often an appreciable delay, then sinking back into apathy.
A Polish laborer worked only three weeks in a very dusty white-lead plant at an unusually dusty emergency job, at the end of which he was sent to the hospital with severe lead colic and palsy of both wrists.
A young Italian, who spoke no English, worked for a month in a white-lead plant but without any idea that the harmless-looking stuff was poisonous. There was a great deal of dust in his work. One day he was seized with an agonizing pain in his head which came on him so suddenly that he fell to the ground. He was sent to the hospital, semiconscious, with convulsive attacks, and was there for two weeks; when he came home, he had a relapse and had to go back to the hospital. Three months later he was still in poor health and could not do a full day's work.
[…]
Life at Hull-House had accustomed me to going straight to the homes of people about whom I wished to learn something and talking to them in their own surroundings, where they have courage to speak out what is in their minds. They were almost always foreigners, Bulgarians, Serbs, Poles, Italians, Hungarians, who had come to this country in the search for a better life for themselves and their children. Sometimes they thought they had found it, then when sickness struck down the father things grew very black and there were no old friends and neighbors and cousins to fall back on as there had been in the old country. Often it was an agent of a steamship company who had coaxed them over with promises of a land flowing with jobs and high wages. Six hundred Bulgarians had been induced to leave their villages by these super salesmen, and to come to Chicago. Of course, they took the first job they could find and if it proved to be one that weakened and crippled them well, that was their bad luck!"
Excepted from
Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton, M.D.
Online at https://archive.org/stream/exploringthedang011737mbp#page/n7/mode/2up
Published 1943
More in a related post from 2014
https://goo.gl/ZOJgWN
Images (PD) via Wikipedia Commons and linked autobiography, illustrations by Norah Hamilton


Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt (July 20,1836 – February 22,1925)

Thomas Clifford Allbutt was an English physician who, among other achievements, initiated and edited The System of Medicine published between years 1896 and 1899. In 1866 he designed a 6-inch clinical thermometer able to record the temperature in 5 minutes. That made an old 12-inch model (not an easy object to carry around) obsolete and temperature measuring became a routine in medical practice.

"There is no better example of the truth that the success of a discovery depends upon the time of its appearance than that of the value of thermometry in disease. In very early times it was known that those suffering from disease often presented marked changes of temperature; but this knowledge was not formulated nor its full meaning perceived until the present day. That the fluctuations of temperature in disease are now accurately traced, measured, and noted, depends partly upon the far greater scientific ability and the more thorough training of modern clinical observers but it depends also upon the corresponding advance of the collateral sciences, and derives both its interest and its means of growth from its participation in this general advance, and from the significance which would have been wanting to it in times when its phenomena stood alone.
[…]
As yet thermometrical observation is a recent industry, and must be said to be, if not in its infancy, at least in its youth; many interesting essays have been written upon it, and many physicians are now at work upon it, but as yet only one treatise has been published which deals adequately with the whole subject. This treatise (that of Wunderlich) displays, however, so much perseverance and thoroughness, such admirable caution and insight, and such wide and minute learning, that it may be said, not only to establish this branch of investigation for the first time upon a deep and lasting basis, but also to build up a very great part of the edifice, and to point out with clearness the directions in which future labour must be applied.
[…]
I hope it is no undue presumption on my part to please myself with the notion of having had a share in introducing the thermometer into general practice. A few years ago, when convinced of the vast improvement, both direct and indirect, which would follow the general use of thermometry, I began to think how the labour of carrying Aitken's instruments from place to place might be lessened. I applied to Casella, but he had no pocket thermometers, and seemed indisposed to make any. I therefore set to work with Messrs. Harvey and Reynolds to manufacture one; and it was not so easy as it may seem to devise an accurate thermometer of a new form, and with a safe and portable case.
The instrument was made in numbers by Messrs. Harvey and Reynolds, and the sale, at first slow, has during the last three years increased rapidly. I am glad to see the same instrument is now being made and sold by Hawksley and others, so that I have reason to suppose the thermometer is now in the hands of most medical men as a daily companion. It is a matter for much regret that these instruments are all made on the Fahrenheit scale. It is an inconvenient scale in itself, and it has the additional disadvantage of making English and foreign observers mutually unintelligible. There is really no excuse for its retention, as no human being supposes it to have any merit of its own. The new scale is very easy to learn, and the change would not unsettle the mind of the nation, as the use of thermometers is confined to a minority of competent persons. I urged Mr. Reynolds to make his thermometers on the centigrade scale, which has the additional advantage of being much more distinct in a short instrument; than the Fahrenheit, but it stopped the sale promptly. He has very recently made an instrument having both scales upon it, but no one buys it. Do let me urge my readers to have the nerve to make this change at once, for it must come sooner or later, and meanwhile authors are spoiling their records for posterity."
Excerpted from British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, an article by T.Clifford Allbutt, published 1870, Volume 45, pg. 429-441
https://archive.org/stream/britishforeignme45londuoft#page/428/mode/2up

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images via Wellcome Images https://wellcomeimages.org
M0018985 Credit: Wellcome Library, London
'Dr. Clifford Allbutt's short clinical thermometer (self-registering)'.
V0025963 Credit: Wellcome Library, London
Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt. Photograph.
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Allbutt



Johann Sadeler | Geometria | XVI century

"First conceptualized in the Middle Ages, the term "liberal arts" refers to the areas of study deemed necessary to attain an education grounded in classical antiquity. These subjects, which were divided into two categories—the trivium (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music)—became common themes for allegorical prints in the early modern period. While Sadeler conceptualized the practice of arithmetic as a personal act of concentration, Geometria sits among classical ruins and exotic animals demonstrating geometry’s application in fields such as architecture, astronomy, cosmology, geography, and surveying."

Text and Image via Metropolitan Museum of Art website, public domain collection released recently.
Artist:Johann Sadeler I (Netherlandish, Brussels 1550–1600/1601 Venice)
ca. 1570–1600
Credit Line:The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
Accession Number:49.95.1495
http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/739491


Who| When|Where

"This elegant group portrait of a team of laborers comes from an album assembled by a Belgian businessman involved in an enterprise to build railways in Peru. A Captain Hendrickx worked in South America in the mid-1850s and 1860s and presumably acquired this photograph on his travels. Although the photograph is not annotated, a clue to the subjects' occupation may reside in the clean folded towel that each man possesses. This evidence suggests that the crew were "wipers," a common profession in the early years of the railroad. As soon as a locomotive arrived in a station or roundhouse, a team of wipers thoroughly rubbed down the engine.
But where was the photograph made? Hendrickx's now-disassembled album contained at least two other early salt prints-views of Nashville, Tennesssee, and St. Louis, Missouri-and thus the scene could possibly be in North America. Or in Peru, for that matter: the first railroad built in South America was constructed between Callao and Lima for the profitable guano trade. However, a careful examination of the photograph suggests otherwise. The men's hair styles, distinctive straw hats, and white collarless shirts strongly suggest Brazil as the location, possibly the city of Rio de Janeiro, where the first railroad in the country was inaugurated in 1854."


Artist:Unknown
Date:Late 1850s
Medium:Salted paper print from glass negative
Dimensions:Image: 20.2 x 15.1 cm (7 15/16 x 5 15/16 in.) Mount: 42.2 x 30.2 cm (16 5/8 x 11 7/8 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, Alfred Stieglitz Society Gifts, 2005
Accession Number:2005.100.581
Public Domain :-)
Text is a copy&paste from Met website.

All images of public-domain artworks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection — about 375,000 — are now free for anyone to use however they may please."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/arts/design/met-museum-makes-375000-images-available-for-free.amp.html?client=safari