BibliOdyssey

Victorian Infographics

2009-12-21T20:15:00.007+11:00

A time table indicating the difference in time between the principal cities of the World and also showing their air-line distance from Washington.

IN: 'Mitchell's New General Atlas, Containing Maps Of The Various Countries Of The World, Plans Of Cities, Etc., Embraced In Ninety-Three Quarto Maps, Forming A Series Of One Hundred and Forty-seven Maps and Plans, Together With Valuable Statistical Tables..' by Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr, 1883; published in Philadelphia by WM Bradley.

Tableau d'Astronomie et de Sphère

IN: 'Atlas Universel d'Histoire et de Geographie Anciennes et Modernes, de Mythologie, des Religions, d'Astronomie, de Physique, de Geologie, de Histoire Naturelle, de Grammaire, de Rhetorique..' by Henri Duval, 1834; published in Paris by L Houbloup.

Tableau d'Astronomie et de Sphère [detail]

The Solar System. Theory of the Seasons.

IN: 'General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps. Engraved On Steel, In The First Style Of Art, By Sidney Hall, William Hughes, F.R.G.S., &c. New Edition. Embracing All The Latest Discoveries Obtained From Government Surveys And Expeditions, Books Of Recent Travel, And Other Sources, Including The North-West Passage Discovered By H.M. Ship Investigator. With Introductory Chapters On The Geography And Statistics Of The Various Countries Of The World, And A Complete Index Of 65,000 Names' by Adam & Charles Black, Sidney Hall and William Hughes, 1854; published in Edinburgh by A & C Black.

Northern Celestial Hemisphere. Southern Celestial Hemisphere.

IN: 'General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps...{as above}' by Adam & Charles Black, Sidney Hall and William Hughes, 1854; published in Edinburgh by A & C Black.

Tableau d'Histoire Naturelle: Annelides, Crustaces, Arachnides, etc.

IN: 'Atlas Universel d'Histoire et de Geographie anciennes et modernes, de Mythologie, des Religions, d'Astronomie, de Physique, de Geologie, de Histoire naturelle, de Grammaire, de Rhetorique &..' by Henri Duval, 1834; published in Paris by L Houbloup

Tableau d'Histoire Naturelle: Annelides, Crustaces, Arachnides, etc. (detail)

Tableau De L'Histoire Universelle depuis la Creation jusqu'a ce jour

This is a fold-out print depicting all of human history from the time of creation (4693 BC = Adam & Eve; the great flood = 3300 BC) up to the date of publication (1858 by Eug. Pick, Paris). Vignettes of historically significant people, places and buildings etc are arranged along the borders.

This audacious document mirrors the style of a similar graphical print by Colton from 1842 [I don't think it's online] and is in the same ballpark as an 1836 chart by Emma Willard (see here).

The designer has employed something of a metaphorical display choice: civilisations are presented as a series of rivers -- the widths likely imply the comparative population level of each group versus the world's population -- which 'flow' down through history.

Chart of the World Exhibiting Its Chief Physical Features. Currents of the Ocean &c. Ethnographic Chart of the World Shewing (sic) the Distribution and Varieties of the Human Race.

IN: 'General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps...{as above}' by Adam & Charles Black, Sidney Hall and William Hughes, 1854; published in Edinburgh by A & C Black.

Topographical Atlas Of The City Of New York Including The Annexed Territory. Showing original water courses and made land.

[click here for a VERY large version - the version at the source site is two or three times as large again: the downloadable MrSID file is ~50Mb which converts to a 270+ Mb jpeg file--> source]

Another stand-alone print, produced by J Bien & EL Viele in 1874 (by photolithography).

"Includes graphic scale. Streets named, ferry routes shown, railroads, streamcourses designated, and topography shown by hachures. Lands designated as originally meadow or marsh, or water as shown as made (filled) lands. Includes Manhattan and the Bronx and adjacent islands. Shows three cross-sections: across Central Park, from 50th Street to Brooklyn Heights, and from Hoboken to Brooklyn."

Geological Map Of The State Of Pennsylvania

'Geological Map Of The State Of Pennsylvania, Constructed From Original Surveys Made between the Years 1836 and 1857, Under The Superintendence Of Henry D. Rogers, State Geologist. To Accompany the Final Report on the Geological Survey of the State 1858. Entered ... 1858 by Henry D. Rogers ... Pennsylvania. Engraved by W. & A.K. Johnston Edinburgh.'

The different colours refer to the various geological types (coal = grey shades for instance). The bottom of the chart includes cross-sectional geological views of numerous land tracts. Regrettably, this is the only chart among the selection in this post for which the MrSID file wasn't available. So, although you can click through to a fairly large original image, it's not really big enough to view the details as well as one might like.

Geological Map Of The State Of Pennsylvania [detail]

Humboldt's Distribution of Plants in Equinoctial America

IN: 'General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps...{as above}' by Adam & Charles Black, Sidney Hall and William Hughes, 1854; published in Edinburgh by A & C Black.

Alexander von Humboldt's original (and exceptionally clever, for the time) botanical elevation distribution map of Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo appeared in the first decade of the 19th century [see: here/here and wiki. Humboldt is the first of my heroes to be mentioned in this post.]

Eastern and Western Hemispheres (two separate pages joined for this image)

IN: 'Mitchell's New General Atlas, Containing Maps Of The Various Countries Of The World, Plans Of Cities, Etc., Embraced In Ninety-Three Quarto Maps, Forming A Series Of One Hundred and Forty-seven Maps and Plans, Together With Valuable Statistical Tables..' by Samuel Augustus Mitchell Jr, 1883; published in Philadelphia by WM Bradley.

Includes inset drawings at the top showing comparative river lengths and mountain heights plus inset globe maps of the greatest masses of water and depictions of the southern and northern hemispheres at the the bottom.

Tinted drawing showing the comparative lengths of rivers and heights of mountains worldwide. The first text page in this volume has the legend for this sheet.

IN: 'General Atlas Of The World: Containing Upwards Of Seventy Maps...{as above}' by Adam & Charles Black, Sidney Hall and William Hughes, 1854; published in Edinburgh by A & C Black.

Be sure to check out the River Deep Mountain High post from last year for lots more comparative graphics from the 19th century.

The David Rumsey Map Collection has now been online for ten years. The above selection of carto-curios is from the latest batch of material uploaded to the site.

Rumsey is an internet hero of the first order. Following the success of his business he was able to afford to indulge his latent interest for all things cartographic and he assembled a massive collection of more than 150,000 items.

That might have been the end of the story: rich dude spends money on secret passion in obscurity. But Rumsey wanted to share his collection with the world and mere donation of his maps and atlases to a document repository didn't seem like it would fully satisfy his magnanimous urges. From a five year old interview on SFGate:

"I realized that whichever institution I gave it to would lock it away, put it on a shelf," he says, with mild indignation. "But just then the technology came along that would enable me to put it all up online, and it was obvious that this was the best way I could give it away to the public."

The site has been in continual development since. Every nine or twelve months a new cache of maps is added and the delivery system has been upgraded and optimised to a point where the site offers an exceptional model for how large-scale digitisation collections can be hosted and served in multiple formats in a very user-friendly manner.

So it goes that the most recent incarnation of the site is now live and is joined by a new blog (here's the announcement post about the newly available material) together with a twitter feed and facebook page.

Nuclear Reactor Wall Charts

2009-12-18T23:23:00.002+11:00

Super Phénix: Creys-Malville Nuclear Power Station, River Rhone (Sur le Rhone) Creys-Malville, Isere, France, Centrale Nucleaire Europeenne a Neutrons rapides SA. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, June 1978

Snupps (Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System): Kansas City Power & Light Co., Burlington, Kansas. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, November 1975

Fulton: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., Philadelphia Electric Company. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, August, 1974.

Candu 3: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, CANDU Operations, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, May 1990.

Douglas Point BWR/6: Potomac Electric Power Company, Douglas Point, Maryland. Wall Chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, November 1973.

Grand Gulf: Middle South Energy Inc./Mississippi Power and Light, near Port Gibson, Mississippi. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, September 1980.

Guangdong Nuclear Power Plant: Twin unit PWR station located at Daya Bay, People's Republic of China. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, September 1987

Oskarshamn: Simpevarp, Sweden, Oskarshamnsverkets Kraftgrupp AB, OKG. Wall chart insert, Nuclear Engineering International, 1970.

[Click through for large and very large versions]

These images are derived from pdf files [UNM CSEL Nuclear Engineering Wall Chart Collection] hosted on New Mexico's Digital Collections portal for the Centennial Science and Engineering Library at the University of New Mexico on behalf of NEI. Something a bit different, to be sure.

In the same vein, I posted a link on Twitter the other day to the Flickr cutaway pool.

The Kevin Hulsey site can never be over-linked.

Addit: For the very keen, MIT has lecture notes and slides (I haven't looked) for the Integration of Reactor Design, Operations, and Safety course available. But maybe it's only tangential at best.

I would love to find more in the way of technical / industrial drawings and designs if anyone has a link to share?

Liber Chronicarum

2009-12-18T03:50:00.003+11:00

The Nuremberg Chronicle

The famous world map from Hartmann Schedel's 'Nuremberg Chronicle', in the style of Ptolemy, leaves out Scandinavia, East Asia and the southern reaches of the African continent, yet includes a large island off the west African coast. The sons of Noah (Shem, Japhet and Ham: they populated the earth following the great - biblical - flood) are illustrated around the outside of the map.

The curious figures on the left include a centaur, a cyclops and various other fanciful characters and monsters, derived from early travellers' tales such as Pliny the Elder's first century AD epic, 'Natural History' and, perhaps, from the popular 'Romance of Alexander' legends. The implication being that strange creatures dwell in far away places. [zoomable b&w version]

City map of Florence

City map of Nuremberg

Germanocentric map of central Europe

The city map of Venice includes the palace of the doge (duke), St. Mark’s Basilica, the Campanile (bell tower) and other landmarks still visible today.

An imaginary view of the destruction of Jerusalem in one of the earliest maps of that city. The design is likely a collaboration between Felix Fabri, who had visited the Holy Land in 1480, and the author/woodcut artists who produced 'Liber Chronicarum' (Book of Chronicles)

Geocentric view of the universe, including the four elements (air, fire etc) and the hierarchies of cherubims and seraphims, leading to God

The heavenly chorus of angels

"The text describes different ancient Greek theories of creation before dismissing them for the biblical account found in Genesis. The woodcut, however, critiques the text's view of the Greek theories as ancient errors by reinstating the most important Greek concept, that of hyle, the primeval matter from which all things are formed (the stylized gothic letters at the center of the woodcut spell 'YLE'). The artist of this illustration, in fact, has literally made the Greek idea of hyle central to the creation story."

God the Father seated on a throne surrounded by the firmament. Cherubs cavort in the heavens above and two ?devilish creatures holding armorial crests are at the bottom. The banderole reads: "God said Let there Be and all things were made" (other versions {same woodcut}: one & two)

(I presume this is) the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The last Judgement (Ultima Etas Mundi). Christ on an orb flanked by St.John and the holy Virgin. The lily of mercy and the sword of justice are on either side of Christ's head. Two angels with trumpets are waking the dead from their graves. St Peter leads the majority to heaven, while devils drag off the remainder to hell.

This woodcut depicts the murder of Simon of Trent in 1475 surrounded by his alleged killers, a significant episode in anti-Semitic history [I totally thought this was the circumcision of Jesus at first]

The building of Noah's Ark

Double page spread showing the elaborate nature of the printing and woodcut layout

Organisational structure of the Holy Roman Empire

'Eneas Pius Papa -- Frideric(us) terci(us) romanor(um) i(m)perator'

The joint reign of Pope Pius II (reigned 1458-1464) and Emperor Frederick III (reigned 1440-1493) typifies the idea of the medieval Christian kingdom of compensation and reconciliation. The emperor had a divine order to secure peace with the Pope and justice in the world under the protection of his church.

'Concilium Nicenum' - ~~which I take to mean a Papal convocation~~

Later: Most likely: First Council of Nicaea in 325 (thanks Jim!)

The burning of Jews in the 14th century during the black death (bubonic plague). Jews were perceived as being less susceptible to the plague than their neighbours (likely the result of Jewish ritual regarding personal hygiene) and they were accused of poisoning Christian wells: thought to be the source of the plague. [see: Jewish History Sourcebook]

The apocalypse or armageddon, featuring the epic battle of good versus (some rather excellent depictions of) evil

Danse macabre or totentanz or the dance of death [previously]
[alternative full-page version]

[In most cases you can click through to enlarged versions; all the images with black borders were trimmed and spliced together; the descriptions are sometimes deductions so please let me know if there are any glaring errors]

One of the most important books in the history of printing, 'Liber Chronicarum' [Nuremberg Chronicle or Weltchronik] is an illustrated history of the world by Dr Hartmann Schedel with illustrations by Michael Wolgemut, his stepson Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and (probably) Wolgemut's apprentice, Albrecht Dürer. The printing was carried out in Nuremberg in 1493 by the renowned printer-scholar, Anton Koberger, first in Latin followed by a German edition a few months later.

"The Chronicle is probably the most sophisticated printed book published before the year 1500 [incunabulum] because of its use of different graphic layouts that integrate text and image in more varied ways than anything that had previously been attempted."

The book is divided into seven ages within a biblical timeline and narrative, and loosely incorporates historical events together with extended digressions that displays the author's personal interests.

"Schedel compiled this elaborate history of the world from “the first day of creation” to his own time in an effort to correct what he felt was a slight to German history by other chroniclers. He divided his work into the usual six ages of the history of mankind, adding a seventh in which he foretold the coming of the Antichrist, the destruction of the world, and judgment day." [source]

Over eighteen hundred illustrations appear in the book, compiled from about six hundred and fifty woodblocks. Many of the portraits appear multiple times and even some of the city maps are reused (some of those are imaginary views or adaptations from other artists and predictably, the closer to Nuremberg, the more accurate was the map).

The vast majority of the images above were obtained from the Bavarian State Library.
Others were obtained from Biblioteca Digital de Obras Raras e Especiais at Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
The b&w image comes from the Polish Digital Library [or large thumbnail page of all the images].
Wikimedia has a lot of illustrations in three categories: one, two, three; a few of which also appear above.
Morse Library at Beloit College in Wisconsin have an extensive website devoted to 'Liber Chronicarum'. It remains the best background site online definitely. [w]

Ainu Komonjo

2009-12-13T00:13:00.001+11:00

"The Ainu are generally considered to be the indigenous population of Japan. But, like all cultures on earth, the history of the Ainu is much more complex than any one label. The 20,000 to 60,000 people who presently identify themselves as Ainu are concentrated on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, but the Ainu culture once stretched up to the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kurile Islands (now part of Russia)."

"When the Japanese state was officially opened to outside influence in 1867, visiting Western scholars became fascinated by the Ainu they met in Hokkaido. They were struck by their "primitive" way of life, their "bizarre" rituals that involved the sacrifice of bear-cubs, the practice of facial tattooing, and their large amounts of body hair. Their facial features, when contrasted with the Japanese on the main island of Honshu, made them look positively Caucasian to these early scholars and explorers." [source]

The woodblock illustrations below were cherry-picked from a Wisconsin University collection of about forty books presenting the earliest depictions - from the 18th and 19th centuries - of the Ainu people by the Japanese. The images are in haphazard order and are primarily of the Sakhalin Ainu (pronounced eye-noo)

'Ezo-shi' by Arai Hakuseki (1720)

'Kita Ezo Zusetsu' vol. 1 by Mamiya Rinzō (1855)

'Ishikari Nisshi' by Matsuura Takeshirō (1860)