James Watt (19 January 1736 – 19 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. His influential teacher was Joseph Black.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Biography
o 1.1 Early years
o 1.2 Method and personality
o 1.3 Later years
* 2 Controversy
* 3 Legacy
* 4 Honours
* 5 Remembrance
* 6 About Watt
* 7 References
* 8 See also
* 9 External links
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early years
A statue at the James Watt College marks the site of his birthplace.
A statue at the James Watt College marks the site of his birthplace.
James Watt was born on 19th of January, 1736 in Greenock, a seaport on the Firth of Clyde. His father was a shipwright, ship owner and contractor, while his mother, Agnus Muirhead, came from a distinguished family and was well educated. Both were Presbyterians and strong Covenanters.
Watt attended school irregularly but instead he was mostly schooled at home by his mother. He exhibited great manual dexterity and an aptitude for mathematics, while Latin and Greek left him cold, and he absorbed the legends and lore of the Scottish people.[1]
When he was 17, his mother died and his father's health had begun to fail. Watt travelled to London to study instrument-making for a year, then returned to Scotland – to Glasgow – intent on setting up his own instrument-making business. However, because he had not served at least seven years as an apprentice, the Glasgow Guild of Hammermen (any artisans using hammers) blocked his application, despite there being no other mathematical instrument makers in Scotland.
Watt was saved from this impasse by three professors of the University of Glasgow, who offered him the opportunity to set up a small workshop within the university. It was established in 1758 and one of the professors, the physicist and chemist Joseph Black, became Watt's friend.
In 1764, Watt married his cousin Margaret Miller, with whom he had five children, two of whom lived to adulthood. She died in childbirth in 1772. In 1777 he married again, to Ann MacGregor, daughter of a Glasgow dye-maker, who survived him. She died in 1832.
Watt had a brother by the name of John. He was shipwrecked when James was 17.[2]
Four years after opening his shop, Watt began to experiment with steam after his friend, Professor John Robison, called his attention to it. At this point Watt had still never seen an operating steam engine, but he tried constructing a model. It failed to work satisfactorily, but he continued his experiments and began to read everything about it he could. He independently discovered the importance of latent heat in understanding the engine, which, unknown to him, Black had famously discovered some years before. He learned that the University owned a model Newcomen engine, but it was in London for repairs. Watt got the university to have it returned, and he made the repairs in 1763. It too just barely worked, and after much experimentation he showed that about 80% of the heat of the steam was consumed in heating the cylinder, because the steam in it was condensed by an injected stream of cold water. His critical insight, to cause the steam to condense in a separate chamber apart from the piston, and to maintain the temperature of the cylinder at the same temperature as the injected steam, came finally in 1765 and he soon had a working model.
Now came a long struggle to produce a full-scale engine. This required more capital, some of which came from Black. More substantial backing came from John Roebuck, the founder of the celebrated Carron Iron Works, near Falkirk, with whom he now formed a partnership. But the principal difficulty was in machining the piston and cylinder. Iron workers of the day were more like blacksmiths than machinists, so the results left much to be desired. Much capital was spent in pursuing the ground-breaking patent, which in those days required an act of parliament. Strapped for resources, Watt was forced to take up employment as a surveyor for eight years. Roebuck went bankrupt, and Matthew Boulton, who owned the Soho foundry works near Birmingham, acquired his patent rights. Watt and Boulton formed a hugely successful partnership (Boulton & Watt), which lasted for the next twenty-five years.
Watt finally had access to some of the best iron workers in the world. The difficulty of the manufacture of a large cylinder with a tightly fitting piston was solved by John Wilkinson who had developed precision boring techniques for cannon making at Bersham, near Wrexham, North Wales. Finally, in 1776, the first engines were installed and working in commercial enterprises. These first engines were used for pumps and produced only reciprocating motion. Orders began to pour in and for the next five years Watt was very busy installing more engines, mostly in Cornwall for pumping water out of mines.
The field of application of the invention was greatly widened only after Boulton urged Watt to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston to produce rotational power for grinding, weaving and milling. Although a crank seemed the logical and obvious solution to the conversion Watt and Boulton were stymied by a patent for this, whose holder, James Pickard, and associates proposed to cross-license the external condensor. Watt adamantly opposed this and they circumvented the patent by their sun and planet gear in 1781.
Over the next six years, he made a number of other improvements and modifications to the steam engine. A double acting engine, in which the steam acted alternately on the two sides of the piston was one. A throttle valve to control the power of the engine, and a centrifugal governor to keep it from "running away" were very important. He described methods for working the steam expansively. A compound engine, which connected two or more engines was described. Two more patents were granted for these in 1781 and 1782. Numerous other improvements that made for easier manufacture and installation were continually implemented. One of these included the use of the steam indicator which produced an informative plot of the pressure in the cylinder against its volume, which he kept as a trade secret. Another important invention, one of which Watt was most proud of, was the Parallel motion / three-bar linkage which was especially important in double-acting engines as it produced the straight line motion required for the cylinder rod and pump, from the connected rocking beam, whose end moves in a circular arc. This was patented in 1784. These improvements taken together produced an engine which was up to five times as efficient in its use of fuel as the Newcomen engine.
Because of the danger of exploding boilers and the ongoing issues with leaks, Watt was opposed from the first to the use of high pressure steam--all of his engines used steam at very low pressure.
In 1794 the partners established Boulton and Watt to exclusively manufacture steam engines, and this became a large enterprise. By 1824 it had produced 1164 steam engines having a total nominal horsepower of about 26,000.[3] Boulton proved to be an excellent businessman, and both men eventually made fortunes.
[edit] Method and personality
Statue of James Watt at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Statue of James Watt at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Watt was an enthusiastic inventor, with a fertile imagination that sometimes got in the way of finishing his works, because he could always see "just one more improvement." He was skilled with his hands, and was also able to perform systematic scientific measurements that could quantify the improvements he made and produce a greater understanding of the phenomenon he was working with.
Watt was a gentleman, greatly respected by other prominent men of the Industrial Revolution. He was an important member of the Lunar Society, and was a much sought after conversationalist and companion, always interested in expanding his horizons. He was a rather poor businessman, and especially hated bargaining and negotiating terms with those who sought to utilize the steam engine. Until he retired, he was always much concerned about his financial affairs, and was something of a worrier. His personal relationships with his friends and partners were always congenial and long-lasting.
[edit] Later years
Watt retired in 1800, the same year that his fundamental patent and partnership with Boulton expired. The famous partnership was transferred to the men's sons, Matthew Boulton and James Watt Jr. William Murdoch was made a partner and the firm prospered.
Watt continued to invent other things before and during his semi-retirement. He invented a new method of measuring distances by telescope, a device for copying letters, improvements in the oil lamp, a steam mangle and a machine for copying sculptures.
He and his second wife travelled to France and Germany, and he purchased an estate in Wales, which he much improved.
He died in his home "Heathfield" in Handsworth, Staffordshire on 19 August 1819 at the age of 83.
[edit] Controversy
As with many major inventions, there is some dispute as to whether Watt was the original sole inventor of some of the numerous inventions he patented. There is no dispute, however, that he was the sole inventor of his most important invention, the separate condenser. It was his practice (from around the 1780s) to pre-empt others' ideas which were known to him by filing patents with the intention of securing credit for the invention for himself, and ensuring that no one else was able to practice it. As he states in a letter to Boulton of 17 August 1784:
"I have given such descriptions of engines for wheel carriages as I could do in the time and space I could allow myself; but it is very defective and can only serve to keep other people from similar patents".
Some argue that his prohibitions on his employee William Murdoch from working with high pressure steam on his steam locomotive experiments delayed its development. Watt, with his partner Matthew Boulton, battled against rival engineers such as Jonathan Hornblower who tried to develop engines which did not fall foul of his patents.
Watt patented the application of the sun and planet gear to steam in 1781 and a steam locomotive in 1784, both of which have strong claims to have been invented by his employee, William Murdoch. Watt himself described the provenance of the invention of the sun and planet gear in a letter to Boulton from Watt dated January 5, 1782:
"I have tried a model of one of my old plans of rotative engines revived and executed by W. M(urdock) and which merits being included in the specification as a fifth method..."
The patent was never contested by Murdoch, who remained an employee of Boulton and Watt for most of his life, and Boulton and Watt's firm continued to use the sun and planet gear in their rotative engines, even long after the patent for the crank expired in 1794.
[edit] Legacy
James Watt's improved steam engine transformed the Newcomen engine, which had hardly changed for fifty years, into a source of power that transformed the world of work, and was the key innovation that brought forth the Industrial Revolution. The importance of the invention can hardly be overstated--it gave us the modern world. A key feature of it was that it brought the engine out of the remote coal fields into factories where many mechanics, engineers, and even tinkerers were exposed to its virtues and limitations. It was a platform for generations of inventors to improve. It was clear to many that higher pressures produced in improved boilers would produce engines having even higher efficiency, and would lead to the revolution in transportation that was soon embodied in the locomotive and steamboat. It made possible the construction of new factories that, since they were not dependent on water power, could work the year round, and could be placed almost anywhere. Work was moved out of the cottages, resulting in economies of scale. Capital could work more efficiently, and manufacturing productivity greatly improved. It made possible the cascade of new sorts of machine tools that could be used to produce better machines, including that most remarkable of all of them, the Watt steam engine.
Watt celebrated as a statue in Chamberlain Square, outside Birmingham Central Library
Watt celebrated as a statue in Chamberlain Square, outside Birmingham Central Library
[edit] Honours
Watt was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society of London. He was a member of the Batavian Society, and one of only eight Foreign Associates of the French Academy of Sciences.
[edit] Remembrance
Watt was buried in the grounds of St. Mary's Church, Handsworth, in Birmingham. Later expansion of the church, over his grave, means that his tomb is now buried inside the church. A statue of him, Boulton and Murdoch is in Birmingham, as are two other statues of him alone, one in Chamberlain Square, the other outside the Law Courts. He is also remembered by the Moonstones and a school is named in his honour, both in Birmingham. An extensive archive of his papers is held at Birmingham Central Library. Matthew Boulton's home, Soho House, is now a museum, commemorating the work of both men. The University of Glasgow's Faculty of Engineering, the oldest in the United Kingdom, (where Watt was a professor) has its headquarters in the James Watt Building, which also houses the department of Mechanical Engineering and the department of Aerospace Engineering.
The location of James Watt's birth in Greenock is commemorated by a statue, close to his birthplace. Several locations and street names in Greenock recall him, most notably the Watt Memorial Library, which was begun in 1816 with Watt's donation of scientific books, and developed as part of the Watt Institution by his son (which ultimately became the James Watt College). Taken over by the local authority in 1974, the library now also houses the local history collection and archives of Inverclyde, and is dominated by a large seated statue in the vestibule. Watt is additionally commemorated by statuary in George Square, Glasgow and Princes Street, Edinburgh.
The James Watt College has expanded from its original location to include campuses in Kilwinning (North Ayrshire), Finnart Street and The Waterfront in Greenock, and the Sports campus in Largs. The Heriot-Watt University near Edinburgh was at one time the "Watt Institution and School of Arts" named in his memory, then merged with George Heriot's Hospital for needy orphans and the name was changed to Heriot-Watt College. Dozens of university and college buildings (chiefly of science and technology) are named after him.
The huge painting James Watt contemplating the steam engine by James Eckford Lauder is now owned by the National Gallery of Scotland.
Watt was ranked first, tying with Edison, among 229 significant figures in the history of technology by Charles Murray's survey of historiometry presented in his book Human Accomplishments. Watt was ranked 22nd in Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.
The SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him, as are over 50 roads or streets in the UK.
A colossal statue of him by Chantrey was placed in Westminster Abbey, and on this cenotaph the inscription reads:
NOT TO PERPETUATE A NAME,
WHICH MUST ENDURE WHILE THE PEACEFUL ARTS FLOURISH,
BUT TO SHOW
THAT MANKIND HAVE LEARNED TO HONOUR THOSE
WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE,
THE KING,
HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES
AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM
RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO
JAMES WATT
WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS
EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH
TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF
THE STEAM-ENGINE
ENLARGED THE RESOURCES OF HIS COUNTRY
INCREASED THE POWER OF MAN
AND ROSE TO AN EMINENT PLACE
AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS FOLLOWERS OF SCIENCE
AND THE REAL BENEFACTORS OF THE WORLD
BORN AT GREENOCK MDCCXXXVI
DIED AT HEATHFIELD IN STAFFORDSHIRE MDCCCXIX
A lecture theatre in the Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering building at the University of Birmingham is named 'G31 - The James Watt Lecture Theatre'
[edit] About Watt
* Dickenson, H. W., James Watt: Craftsman and Engineer Cambridge University Press (1935).
* H.W. Dickinson and Hugh Pembroke Vowles James Watt and the Industrial Revolution (published in 1943, new edition 1948 and reprinted in 1949. Also published in Spanish and Portuguese (1944) by the British Council)
* J. P. Muirhead, Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt (London, 1854).
* J. P. Muirhead, Life of Watt (London, 1858).
* Samuel Smiles, Lives of the Engineers, (London, 1861-62, new edition, five volumes, 1905).
* "Some Unpublished Letters of James Watt" in Journal of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (London, 1915).
* Carnegie, Andrew, James Watt University Press of the Pacific (2001) (Reprinted from the 1913 ed.), ISBN 0-89875-578-6.
* Hills, Rev. Dr. Richard L., James Watt, Vol 1, His time in Scotland, 1736-1774 (2002); Vol 2, The years of toil, 1775-1785; Vol 3 Triumph through adversity 1785-1819. Landmark Publishing Ltd, ISBN 1-84306-045-0.
* Marsden, Ben. Watt's Perfect Engine Columbia University Press (New York, 2002) ISBN 0-231-13172-0.
[edit] References
1. ^ Carnegie, ch.1
2. ^ Carnegie, p 19
3. ^ Carnegie, p 195
[edit] See also
Electronics Portal
* James Watt International Medal
* Watt steam engine
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
James Watt
[edit] External links
* James Watt by Andrew Carnegie (1905)
* James Watt by Thomas H. Marshall (1925)
* Archives of Soho at Birmingham Central Library.
* James Watt at Birmingham Jewellery Quarter website
* James Watt at Important Scots website
* BBC History: James Watt
* Revolutionary Players website
* Cornwall Record Office Boulton & Watt letters
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Boris Vian
Boris Vian (March 10, 1920 – June 23, 1959) was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered for novels such as L’Écume des jours and L'Arrache-cœur (translated into English as Froth on the Daydream and Heartsnatcher, respectively), highly controversial "criminal" fiction released under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan and some of his songs (particularly the anti-war Le Déserteur). Vian was also fascinated with jazz: he served as liaison for, among others, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris, wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in the United States and in France.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Vian and Jazz
+ 2.1.1 The Jazz Conceptions of Boris Vian
* 3 Death
* 4 Selected bibliography
o 4.1 Prose
o 4.2 Dramatic works
o 4.3 Poetry
o 4.4 Translations
* 5 See also
* 6 External links
[edit] Early life
Boris Vian was born in 1920 to an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville D’Avray. His early childhood was a privileged one, and even after his father lost most of his wealth in the crash of 1929, the family still managed to maintain a comfortable existence, renting out the main villa at the Ville d’Avray to the Menuhins of later musical fame while living in a small cottage on the property. His liberal upbringing included, among other indulgences, frequent surprise-parties (the English word was used at the time), unscripted social gatherings where “convention gave way to invention, and the more wayward the invention the better.” Vian relished the novelty and absurdity of this childish pastime, and as an adult he continued to host surprise-parties from time to time. Before his teen years had expired, Vian was keeping a diary and had already written several works of fiction.
[edit] Career
Vian earned a degree as a civil engineer and began his career at the French Association for Standardisation where Vian held an undemanding post, and amused himself with pataphysical conundra, by composing songs and sketching sub-aqueous plants, and by publishing a chapbook for friends that satirized his colleagues.
Vian wrote 10 novels, including popular hardboiled thrillers published under the name Vernon Sullivan, Vian's fictionalised American persona. The Sullivan œuvre earned Vian opprobrium and fame in equal measure, and he was fined 100,000 francs for the 100,000 copies sold of J'irai cracher sur vos tombes. His books were frequently banned.[citation needed]
Under his own name Vian published L'Arrache-Cœur (Heartsnatcher), L'Herbe Rouge, L'automne à Pékin and what critics regard as his masterpiece, L'Écume des Jours. L'Écume des Jours appears in three English translations, but Stanley Chapman's translation, called Froth on the Daydream, is the most highly regarded. L'Écume des Jours was translated by an American in 1968 as Mood Indigo (named for the famous Duke Ellington song), and most recently by Brian Harper as Foam of the Daze. Paul Knobloch has also translated "Autumn in Peking", which has received spectacular reviews, including one from American novelist James Sallis. It was published in 2004 by TamTam books. In addition, Paul Knobloch did the recent and first-ever English translation of "The Manual of Saint-Germain-des-Prés", published by Rizzoli International in concert with TamTam. He is currently at work on two other Vian/Sullivan novels: "Les morts on tous la même peau", and "Et on tuera tous les affreux" (“The dead all have the same skin” and “To hell with the ugly”).
Vian was Raymond Chandler's French translator; he was intimately, if remotely, involved with American pop-culture and its reception in France.
He also authored plays, short stories and songs, including a 1958 collaboration on the opera Fiesta with Darius Milhaud. He often played jazz at the "Tabou", a club (now defunct) located in the Rue Dauphine, close to Saint-Germain des Prés, in Paris. He played a pocket trumpet, which he called "trompinette" in his poems. His most famous song was "Le déserteur", a pacifist song written during the Indochina War. His songs were recorded by a variety of other artists, including Juliette Gréco, Nana Mouskouri, Yves Montand, Magali Noel, and Henri Salvador. Serge Gainsbourg said that seeing Boris Vian on stage inspired him to try his hand at songwriting.
[edit] Vian and Jazz
A jazz enthusiast, he served as liaison for, among others, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris. He wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in America and France. Though he never put a foot on American soil, the themes of both jazz and America run thick in his work.
Vian's literary work was intimately tied to his love of jazz. In the foreword to L'Écume des Jours, he writes, "There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly..." Vian expressed himself in music and in literature, as it were, in the same breath.
[edit] The Jazz Conceptions of Boris Vian
Over the course of his thirty-nine years, Boris Vian managed to live not just one but several existences. A prolific writer, Vian authored plays, poetry, novels, philosophical treatises, songs, magazine articles and reviews, and “translations” of non-existent American pulp novels. Trained as an engineer at the prestigious École Centrale in Paris, he was twice employed in this capacity, though by the end of his life he was more likely to lend his technical expertise to whimsical projects like the invention of an elastic wheel. At the same time, Vian played trumpet in Claude Abadie’s orchestra, one of the most successful amateur dance bands in postwar Paris, playing for American GIs and expatriates and French hipsters and existentialists in the smoky caves (underground nightclubs) of the Boulevard Saint-Germain. In addition, Vian was a family man, with children from each of his marriages. Remarkably, even as he honed his mastery in each of his lives—“be a specialist in everything,” he once said —Vian constantly blurred the lines between them. He wrote a story about a mechanical cocktail-making piano (le pianocktail), literary-quality reviews of jazz concerts and of the latest technological innovations, and, in grand pataphysical style, an artistic and pseudo-mathematical examination of the nature of God.
Though jazz was only one of Boris Vian’s occupations, the sounds and ideas of the music deeply affected his artistry and his existence in general. Shortly after his death, one of his lifelong friends said: “he was in love with jazz; he lived only for jazz; he heard jazz; he expressed himself in jazz.” Vian himself revealed the depth of his attachment to jazz through his numerous articles and reviews in French publications such as Jazz-Hot and Combat, and in his jazz-inflected fiction, which included stories with names like “Blues pour un chat noir.” As a prominent figure in the jazz and literary scenes of mid-century Paris, Boris Vian’s opinions, especially those on music, deeply affected the progression of the direction and the self-image of the Parisian jazz scene for years to come. This essay will sketch the genesis and the characteristics of the aesthetic of jazz that informed Vian’s influential perspective.
In 1938, Vian’s eyes were opened to the wonders of jazz; after seeing Duke Ellington’s big band at the Salle Pleyel, he resolved to learn jazz trumpet. Meanwhile, he earned his degree at the École Centrale and took a job at A.F.N.O.R. (l’association française de normalisation), a classic bureaucracy whose primary function was “to justify and prolong indefinitely its own existence, constantly putting off important decisions while inventing new pretexts for its survival.” After the toil of A.F.N.O.R., Vian transferred to the Office Professionel des Industries et des Commerces du Papier et du Carton, “where—according to his musician friend Claude Léon—‘there was literally nothing to f*cking do.’” Vian finished two novels on the job in the year before he was fired.
Obviously, Vian did not see the life of an engineer as a particularly rewarding or engaging enterprise. He much preferred the vibrant scene of the left bank, centered along the boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés. There, surrounded by zazous (the young hipsters of the forties), impecunious writers, Sartrean existentialists, musicians, and hedonists, Vian found himself at the heart of a thriving bohemian subculture where he could simultaneously express many of his parallel identities—the musician, the critic, the writer, the philosopher, and the jazz partisan. Vian himself never traveled to the United States to hear jazz in its native environment, relying instead on recordings and performances in Europe; consequently it was primarily in this environment that Vian nurtured and developed his sense of jazz.
Vian’s most direct involvement in the Saint-Germain scene was as the trumpeter for Claude Abadie’s six-piece dance band. In 1942, Boris and his brothers had enlisted en masse with the bandleader, with Alain on drums and Lélio on guitar. Vian modeled his playing style after that of the trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, whose recordings he cherished, while the Abadie band played in a complementary style, attempting to recreate the pure sounds of Dixieland and early swing. (Of course, the presence of guitar and string bass inherently detracted from the possibility of achieving an authentic approximation of the former, but so did the fact that their sound was emanating from Parisian basements and not from the back rooms of Storyville.) The Abadie orchestra was one of the more popular groups in France, taking top awards at several amateur jazz festivals and performing all over Europe. The self-avowed amateurism of the group certainly helped them in their musical mission; freed from the commercial constraints of the professional dance bands, the Abadie orchestra could afford to maintain their purity of style.
The liberation of Paris would end the “golden era” of the artificially-isolated jazz scene wherein European musicians were the only available practitioners of the American art form. The GIs who invaded the musical time warp enabled by the war brought with them a demand for the newer forms of popular music, a demand which the Abadie orchestra managed to resist. “We refused on moral grounds to play songs that we didn’t like,” a bandmember recalled. “The GIs would constantly request ‘Besame Mucho’ and other total saucissons of the era. Boris would reply, ‘No, we won’t play ‘Besame Mucho;’ we’re going to play some Duke Ellington for you.’ In the end, everyone was happy—the soldiers danced and we played ‘our music.’” However, an influence that was not so easily tackled by the French jazz establishment was arrived in the GIs’ footsteps: le bebop. The endless debate over the new style resulted in the fragmentation of the community of jazz fans in France and provided endless fodder for the pens of French critics, including Boris Vian.
Though it did have a couple of stints at jazz festivals around Europe, the regular habitat of the Abadie orchestra was in the caves, the basement nightclubs full of jazz and existentialists (and presumably a fair number of poseurs). The experience of playing in this environment would deeply affect Vian’s conception of the juste milieu of jazz. The first of these clubs in open in Saint-Germain-des-Prés was the Tabou Club, and the Abadie orchestra was the house band. Later, Boris Vian would describe the entry into the club as follows: “one descended a torturous stone stairway…ending up in a long vaulted passage, like a subway station only much smaller and dirtier… It took some time to make all this out, since the cigarette smoke produced a fog of London-like proportions and the uproar was so intense that one reacted by not seeing anything.” As other clubs sprung up in imitation, the “amateurish, spontaneous air” of the Tabou club gave way to a more subdued professionalism, and the Abadie band moved down the street to the Club Saint-Germain.
Though the caves may have initially presented an atmosphere of anarchy and abandon, they, along with their pre-war aboveground counterparts, also served as important rallying points for the organizers of the Parisian jazz scene. In 1937, Vian had joined the Hot-Club de France, then headed by Hughes Panassié and Charles Delaunay, who together had introduced serious jazz scholarship to Europe. With this organization, he probably played a marginal role in bringing American big bands to Paris, including those of Benny Carter and Duke Ellington. Though the Hot-Club remained stable and operative throughout the war, the arrival of bebop would tear it apart. Essentially, after the disconnection of the war era was ended by the American liberation, the shock of sudden exposure to the new style was simply too much for some fans to integrate into their conception of the music. The question which proved so destructive (which to our eyes today is virtually incomprehensible) was “is bebop jazz?” In the Hot-Club, Panassié and Delaunay were split over the issue, with Delaunay siding with the beboppers, and Panassié claiming that the New Orleans style was in fact the only true form of the music. Thus was the querelle de bebop born. The Hot-Club split in 1947, with Panassié maintaining control of the organization and Delaunay taking over its magazine, Le Jazz-Hot.
It was in this ideologically-charged environment that Vian crafted his first attempts at jazz criticism. He sided firmly with Delaunay in defending the innovations of the young black American musicians, writing his first pieces exclusively for Jazz Hot. However, unlike the die-hards on both sides, he acknowledged the qualities of both styles, attempting to create a more tolerant path between the polemical extremes of the split. Meanwhile, he remarked upon the absurdity of the schism; a short story printed in the Christmas 1948 issue of Jazz Hot compared the querelle to the Nazi-Communist dichotomy. Goebbels shows up at Vian’s door with the salute “Heil Gillespie,” to which Vian replies “Heil Parker!” Goebbels, “draining his glass of marijuana elixir,” then proceeds to instruct Vian in the intricacies of propaganda and cultural infiltration, consisting primarily of wordplay to fool the food service population: “Une poule au riz-bop…du riz-bop au curry-bop, avec pain bis-bop et du thé-lonious.” The humorous connection to the Nazis so soon after the atrocities of war is a rather uneasy one, but nothing is taboo for Vian, and he succeeds in driving the point home in his typically raw and cynical manner. Though many of his contributions to Jazz Hot would be less raucous, the pages of the magazine would serve him well as a bully pulpit for the propagation of his often-unconventional conceptions of jazz and the jazz scene.
To begin to understand what exactly these conceptions were, let us turn to Vian’s idea of what his own group sounded like. In Veronquin et le Plancton, one of the novels he finished while at the Professional Office of the Paper and Cardboard Industries, Claude Abadie’s orchestra makes its fictional début: “the musicians gave it their all, and managed to play pretty much as well as blacks of the thirty-seventh order.” This droll self-commentary indicates one of the fundamental attributes of Vian’s understanding of jazz—the privileging of music created by black people. As this passage reflects, even the best efforts of white musicians are still orders of magnitude removed from the capabilities of their black counterparts. Vian would assign the same criticism to his own playing—no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to equal the playing of a thirty-seventh-rate black musician. In fact, in his usual hyperbolic style, he actually went as far as to remove himself entirely from the realm of human endeavor. In his journal, he wrote “I played the trumpet a bit like a porker, I think.” Of course, many musicians have felt this same kind of existential despair while listening to the recordings or concerts of musicians whose superb skills seem totally unattainable, but for Vian, the one thing that practice couldn’t change—the color of his skin—was the major impediment to mastery of the jazz idiom.
In truth, Vian believed in the universality of this distinction. No matter what the jazz style, white musicians were inherently inferior to Blacks. “The problem is the following,” he wrote in a 1948 editorial in Combat, “black music is increasing encumbered by white elements, often pleasant but always superfluous, easily and advantageously replaced with black elements.” Vian believed, in theory, in the idea of racial mixing among musicians. “Of course, it’s fun to play with Blacks.” But, he asked his readers, “who benefits? Surely not them!” “So,” he ends the piece, “do we have to exterminate the Whites? Of course not! But if only they could all just die suddenly…” Obviously, as a white musician himself, Vian is overstating his case. But for various reasons, Vian is continually frustrated by the Whites in jazz, especially when they take attention away from Blacks.
This frustration is not necessarily unreasonable. The history of jazz, and the history of American popular music in general, has been marked by a hep-cat/copycat phenomenon. The great innovators, usually black, have had their creations co-opted and commercialized by white artists for sale to the predominantly white populace. For reasons of racism and capitalism, the white bands are typically more successful than their black antecedents, even as their level of invention is sometimes far inferior. Of the commercially successful English pianist George Shearing, Vian wrote “[he] is nothing but a shitty platter of Huntzo-progressive style.” Benny Goodman’s sextet, despite its integration, is similarly subject to Vian’s caustic criticism: “aside from Eldridge, what a constipated band!” It is hard to believe that Vian’s musical racism was simply a conscious and bitter reaction to the pressures of commercialism or an attempt at some kind of early musical affirmative action; it more probably was an actual reflection of how he perceived the music. Still, it seems likely that these perceptions, even with Vian’s emphatic claims of his receptiveness to all types of music, were colored by his deeply ingrained racial essentialism (which, in turn, may have been derived from an association of whiteness with commercialism.) While Stan Kenton’s attempts at “serious” composition are met with ridicule—“Kenton never played jazz anyway, and I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with him in the columns of this supposedly-serious publication”—those of Duke Ellington in his early Reminiscing in Tempo are cited as an example of a good attempt at “serious jazz,” despite the piece’s initially-checkered critical reception. Vian thus betrays the fact that he shares some of Panassié’s inability to accept innovation and synthesis as part of the jazz aesthetic, especially if that innovation is coming from white composers.
If Vian’s jazz ideal is a progressive and professional music played by black musicians, then why does he choose the white trad-jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke as his idol? Although Beiderbecke is indeed a formidable presence in early jazz, a white musician whose playing style is as unique as that of any of his contemporaries, white or black, it seems odd that even after the arrival of bebop, Vian continues to consider him his idol. Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham are much more frequently cited in his columns, but Vian would never deign to model himself after them. The answer must lie in Vian’s conception of the abilities of white musicians in general, including himself. First of all, by following Beiderbecke’s lead rather than a black trumpeter’s, he can excuse himself from the black-innovator/white-copier dynamic which he so vocally decries. The temporal separation of Beiderbecke’s era also lends itself to an escape from this model, for it allows Vian to avoid the pretext of playing a popular and commercially viable music; instead, he can devote himself to an erudite attempt at recreating a music whose time is long past.
At first, this model seems inherently hypocritical; why does Vian play in public at all if he feels like white performance is inherently exploitative of the black tradition? And how can he justify calling the Ellington standards that he plays with the Abadie orchestra “our music”? In fact, though one might disagree with Vian’s stance, he manages to be logically consistent in his discrimination with the inclusion of his self-categorization as an amateur. With amateur status, he can disavow any commercial pretexts, and any material gains that result from his playing are merely accidental and not abusive. In addition, his amateurism excuses him from the responsibility of innovation to which he holds professionals. Thus, it is consistent for him to denounce an Artie Shaw record as “not new enough to be sensational and not sensational enough to be new” while continuing himself to recreate the music played by black musicians years or decades earlier. Since he believes, as he puts it, that “the best that Whites can learn is to be good imitators,” he is trying his best to use the full extent of his racially-imposed limitations.
The music which Vian played in the Abadie orchestra and in his own groups was entirely derivative, even if played well. Solos tended less toward innovation and more toward a revival of the original style; Vian almost certainly committed some of Beiderbecke’s recorded solos to memory to aid him in this quest. Though he believed himself incapable of true musical innovation, how did Vian view the role of spontaneity among true jazz musicians in general? One might expect that, in his bohemian liberalism, Vian would have favored a true and total freedom of form and color. In fact, weaned on big band and Dixieland charts, Vian never lost his love for the arranged side of jazz. “The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in ‘48, and Ella in ’52,” all of which shared a heavy reliance on the skills of the arranger as well as on those of the soloists. Strikingly, none of the hundreds of bebop combo concerts that Vian saw in Paris, including ones by Miles and “the Zoizeau” (Parker), made the list of “great moments.”
Vian’s fear of purely spontaneous and unarranged jazz was that it left too much to chance. “One ends up relying on pure musical inspiration, and failing that, the music won’t lead to anything good, or it will alienate all but the most die-hard fans.” This comment discloses one of Vian’s primary concerns about bebop—that it is not as accessible as earlier styles and therefore will not attract any new listeners. The simultaneous accessibility and refinement of Diz’s Latin-accented bebop big-band probably assuages some of these fears. But even without the ready-accessibility of the big-bands, Vian recognized Charlie Parker’s mastery when he saw it at the 1949 Paris Jazz Festival:
“Ah! The genial superexcitation of the brain tissues of this man…what am I saying…of this superman…of this demi-god descended to earth… And why stop at demi-god?…of this god…of this double god! Have you seen how he plays? Indeed, in watching him we are far removed from the overintellectualized conceptions that our misdirected society and atrophied century have given to music.”
Next, Vian crafts a pseudomusicological analysis of the first dozen notes of Bird’s solo, dealing less with the music itself and more with Vian’s literary self-indulgence. “Have you noticed with inflexible necessity of the me to insert itself between the sol which precedes it and the sol which follows it?” Vian believes (and he is not alone) that a good solo has the same kind of artistic intent and finality about it as a through-composed arrangement, or for that matter a poem. However, thriving alongside the concrete and “inflexible necessity” of the notes’ arrangement is an antithetical impulse—the primal, savage, and anti-structural urges which lie deep below the foundations of our “atrophied century.” In listening to Bird’s solo, Vian hears the release of huge amounts of the same energy that he hears in other black music—the release of the human soul.
For Vian, this was the ultimate power of jazz, “the potential for at least a partial escape from the strictures and inhibitions of the intellect.” The source of jazz—America—was the only potential source of such a mid-20th century anachronism. But this characterization of Parker’s music, and of jazz in general, put us in a quandary. Boris Vian forswore the stereotype of the noble savage again and again as he elevated the “popular music par excellence” of jazz to the level of high art, but in the end we find ourselves with that colonialist image staring us in the face. Is Vian just as racist as the rest? Does he think that Blacks should, because of their special talents, stick to artistic endeavors and forgo the opportunities of modern society?
The answers to these thorny questions could, in Vian’s words, “occupy ninety-two block-printed double-spaced pages,” and we will not approach them here. But suffice it to say that, even in the most complimentary sense, the praise of black music for its primal urges may rest on even shakier ground than the jokes Vian makes about the Nazis even before the smoke from the camps has completely cleared. If Vian was not so insistent about the superiority of Blacks in the arena of l’expression jazzistique, then his call for jazz to leave the sterile concert halls and return to the caves of the Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés would not be as perplexing. Vian was definitely not a racist in an anti-Black, Jim Crow sense—Duke Ellington was the godfather of his daughter Carole. Perhaps his Afro-essentialism was a reaction to the Aryan essentialism of the Nazi occupiers. Or perhaps it was a reaction to what he perceived as the privileged, technically-structured nature of his own existence. Certainly, the influence of the French colonial endeavor accompanied by, in Paris, the new philosophy of négritude, colored his conceptions of the capabilities and limits of the music.
[edit] Death
On the morning of June 23, 1959, Boris Vian was at the Cinema Marbeuf for the screening of the film version of his controversial "Vernon Sullivan" novel, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit On Your Graves). He had already fought with the producers over their interpretation of his work and he publicly denounced the film stating that he wished to have his name removed from the credits. A few minutes after the film began, he reportedly blurted out: "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" He then collapsed into his seat and died by sudden cardiac death en route to the hospital, an event probably foreshadowed by the fact that Boris Vian had been suffering from irregular heartbeat for a long time.
[edit] Selected bibliography
[edit] Prose
* As Boris Vian:
o Trouble dans les andains (1947, posthumously published in 1966)
o Vercoquin et le plancton (1947)
o L'Écume des jours (1947, Froth on the Daydream, Mood Indigo, Foam of the Daze
o L'automne à Pékin (1947) "Autumn in Peking" (TamTam Books,2005)
o Les Fourmis (1949, short stories)
o L'Herbe rouge (1950)
o L'Arrache-coeur (1953, Heartsnatcher)
o Le loup-garou (posthumously published in 1970, short stories)
* As Vernon Sullivan:
o J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (1946, I Shall Spit on Your Graves (TamTam Books))
o Les morts ont tous la même peau (1947)
o Et on tuera tous les affreux (1948)
o Elles se rendent pas compte (1949)
[edit] Dramatic works
* L'Équarrissage pour tous (1950)
* Le Dernier des métiers (1950)
* Tête de Méduse (1951)
* Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (1959)
* Le Goûter des généraux (posthumously published in 1962)
[edit] Poetry
* Barnum's Digest (1948, a collection of 10 poems)
* Cantilènes en gelée (1949)
* Je voudrais pas crever (posthumously published in 1962)
[edit] Translations
* The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler as Le grand sommeil (1948)
* The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler as La dame du lac (1948)
* The World of Null-A by A. E. van Vogt, as Le Monde des Å (1958)
etc.
The difficulty of translating Vian might account for his relative obscurity in the English-speaking world. L'écume in English means foam, froth or spume, but the expression l'écume des jours is a bizarre and unnatural concoction, typical of Vian's light and surrealistic touch. Critics comment that in L'Écume des Jours -- which Raymond Queneau called 'the most heartbreakingly poignant modern love story ever written' -- Vian's imaginative and playful use of language constitutes a fourth dimension of meaning, which supplements ordinary elements of plot and character. The difficulty of re-capturing the distinctively Vian-esque tone and charm of the text is the challenge confronting his translators. Vian's novels are tied irrevocably to the language of their composition.
It should be noted, however, that despite the difficulties almost all of his works have been translated to Hungarian, German, Polish, Russian, a lot of them to Italian and Spanish (the list of the translated works can be found on the Boris Vian Wikipedia pages of the given language).
[edit] See also
* Zazou
* Existentialism
[edit] External links
* Biography in English on the Radio France International Website
* Le Petit Cahier du Grand Boris Vian: Biography, Quotations, Articles, etcFrench
* Boris Vian for English language readers
* Vian page on Tam Tam Books site
* A Tribute to Gainsbourg, zoom sur Boris VianFrench
* Le Déserteur translated in a lot of different languages
* Boris Vian in St Tropez 1950
* Boris Vian at the Internet Movie Database
* Boris Vian, J'irai chanter sur vos tombes site-conférence du Hall de la Chanson, French
* Some Thoughts on the Work of Boris Vian – feature article on ReadySteadyBook
* intermezzzo - boris vian in croatian language
* Photo
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Career
o 2.1 Vian and Jazz
+ 2.1.1 The Jazz Conceptions of Boris Vian
* 3 Death
* 4 Selected bibliography
o 4.1 Prose
o 4.2 Dramatic works
o 4.3 Poetry
o 4.4 Translations
* 5 See also
* 6 External links
[edit] Early life
Boris Vian was born in 1920 to an upper middle-class family in the wealthy Parisian suburb of Ville D’Avray. His early childhood was a privileged one, and even after his father lost most of his wealth in the crash of 1929, the family still managed to maintain a comfortable existence, renting out the main villa at the Ville d’Avray to the Menuhins of later musical fame while living in a small cottage on the property. His liberal upbringing included, among other indulgences, frequent surprise-parties (the English word was used at the time), unscripted social gatherings where “convention gave way to invention, and the more wayward the invention the better.” Vian relished the novelty and absurdity of this childish pastime, and as an adult he continued to host surprise-parties from time to time. Before his teen years had expired, Vian was keeping a diary and had already written several works of fiction.
[edit] Career
Vian earned a degree as a civil engineer and began his career at the French Association for Standardisation where Vian held an undemanding post, and amused himself with pataphysical conundra, by composing songs and sketching sub-aqueous plants, and by publishing a chapbook for friends that satirized his colleagues.
Vian wrote 10 novels, including popular hardboiled thrillers published under the name Vernon Sullivan, Vian's fictionalised American persona. The Sullivan œuvre earned Vian opprobrium and fame in equal measure, and he was fined 100,000 francs for the 100,000 copies sold of J'irai cracher sur vos tombes. His books were frequently banned.[citation needed]
Under his own name Vian published L'Arrache-Cœur (Heartsnatcher), L'Herbe Rouge, L'automne à Pékin and what critics regard as his masterpiece, L'Écume des Jours. L'Écume des Jours appears in three English translations, but Stanley Chapman's translation, called Froth on the Daydream, is the most highly regarded. L'Écume des Jours was translated by an American in 1968 as Mood Indigo (named for the famous Duke Ellington song), and most recently by Brian Harper as Foam of the Daze. Paul Knobloch has also translated "Autumn in Peking", which has received spectacular reviews, including one from American novelist James Sallis. It was published in 2004 by TamTam books. In addition, Paul Knobloch did the recent and first-ever English translation of "The Manual of Saint-Germain-des-Prés", published by Rizzoli International in concert with TamTam. He is currently at work on two other Vian/Sullivan novels: "Les morts on tous la même peau", and "Et on tuera tous les affreux" (“The dead all have the same skin” and “To hell with the ugly”).
Vian was Raymond Chandler's French translator; he was intimately, if remotely, involved with American pop-culture and its reception in France.
He also authored plays, short stories and songs, including a 1958 collaboration on the opera Fiesta with Darius Milhaud. He often played jazz at the "Tabou", a club (now defunct) located in the Rue Dauphine, close to Saint-Germain des Prés, in Paris. He played a pocket trumpet, which he called "trompinette" in his poems. His most famous song was "Le déserteur", a pacifist song written during the Indochina War. His songs were recorded by a variety of other artists, including Juliette Gréco, Nana Mouskouri, Yves Montand, Magali Noel, and Henri Salvador. Serge Gainsbourg said that seeing Boris Vian on stage inspired him to try his hand at songwriting.
[edit] Vian and Jazz
A jazz enthusiast, he served as liaison for, among others, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis in Paris. He wrote for several French jazz-reviews (Le Jazz Hot, Paris Jazz) and published numerous articles dealing with jazz both in America and France. Though he never put a foot on American soil, the themes of both jazz and America run thick in his work.
Vian's literary work was intimately tied to his love of jazz. In the foreword to L'Écume des Jours, he writes, "There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly..." Vian expressed himself in music and in literature, as it were, in the same breath.
[edit] The Jazz Conceptions of Boris Vian
Over the course of his thirty-nine years, Boris Vian managed to live not just one but several existences. A prolific writer, Vian authored plays, poetry, novels, philosophical treatises, songs, magazine articles and reviews, and “translations” of non-existent American pulp novels. Trained as an engineer at the prestigious École Centrale in Paris, he was twice employed in this capacity, though by the end of his life he was more likely to lend his technical expertise to whimsical projects like the invention of an elastic wheel. At the same time, Vian played trumpet in Claude Abadie’s orchestra, one of the most successful amateur dance bands in postwar Paris, playing for American GIs and expatriates and French hipsters and existentialists in the smoky caves (underground nightclubs) of the Boulevard Saint-Germain. In addition, Vian was a family man, with children from each of his marriages. Remarkably, even as he honed his mastery in each of his lives—“be a specialist in everything,” he once said —Vian constantly blurred the lines between them. He wrote a story about a mechanical cocktail-making piano (le pianocktail), literary-quality reviews of jazz concerts and of the latest technological innovations, and, in grand pataphysical style, an artistic and pseudo-mathematical examination of the nature of God.
Though jazz was only one of Boris Vian’s occupations, the sounds and ideas of the music deeply affected his artistry and his existence in general. Shortly after his death, one of his lifelong friends said: “he was in love with jazz; he lived only for jazz; he heard jazz; he expressed himself in jazz.” Vian himself revealed the depth of his attachment to jazz through his numerous articles and reviews in French publications such as Jazz-Hot and Combat, and in his jazz-inflected fiction, which included stories with names like “Blues pour un chat noir.” As a prominent figure in the jazz and literary scenes of mid-century Paris, Boris Vian’s opinions, especially those on music, deeply affected the progression of the direction and the self-image of the Parisian jazz scene for years to come. This essay will sketch the genesis and the characteristics of the aesthetic of jazz that informed Vian’s influential perspective.
In 1938, Vian’s eyes were opened to the wonders of jazz; after seeing Duke Ellington’s big band at the Salle Pleyel, he resolved to learn jazz trumpet. Meanwhile, he earned his degree at the École Centrale and took a job at A.F.N.O.R. (l’association française de normalisation), a classic bureaucracy whose primary function was “to justify and prolong indefinitely its own existence, constantly putting off important decisions while inventing new pretexts for its survival.” After the toil of A.F.N.O.R., Vian transferred to the Office Professionel des Industries et des Commerces du Papier et du Carton, “where—according to his musician friend Claude Léon—‘there was literally nothing to f*cking do.’” Vian finished two novels on the job in the year before he was fired.
Obviously, Vian did not see the life of an engineer as a particularly rewarding or engaging enterprise. He much preferred the vibrant scene of the left bank, centered along the boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés. There, surrounded by zazous (the young hipsters of the forties), impecunious writers, Sartrean existentialists, musicians, and hedonists, Vian found himself at the heart of a thriving bohemian subculture where he could simultaneously express many of his parallel identities—the musician, the critic, the writer, the philosopher, and the jazz partisan. Vian himself never traveled to the United States to hear jazz in its native environment, relying instead on recordings and performances in Europe; consequently it was primarily in this environment that Vian nurtured and developed his sense of jazz.
Vian’s most direct involvement in the Saint-Germain scene was as the trumpeter for Claude Abadie’s six-piece dance band. In 1942, Boris and his brothers had enlisted en masse with the bandleader, with Alain on drums and Lélio on guitar. Vian modeled his playing style after that of the trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, whose recordings he cherished, while the Abadie band played in a complementary style, attempting to recreate the pure sounds of Dixieland and early swing. (Of course, the presence of guitar and string bass inherently detracted from the possibility of achieving an authentic approximation of the former, but so did the fact that their sound was emanating from Parisian basements and not from the back rooms of Storyville.) The Abadie orchestra was one of the more popular groups in France, taking top awards at several amateur jazz festivals and performing all over Europe. The self-avowed amateurism of the group certainly helped them in their musical mission; freed from the commercial constraints of the professional dance bands, the Abadie orchestra could afford to maintain their purity of style.
The liberation of Paris would end the “golden era” of the artificially-isolated jazz scene wherein European musicians were the only available practitioners of the American art form. The GIs who invaded the musical time warp enabled by the war brought with them a demand for the newer forms of popular music, a demand which the Abadie orchestra managed to resist. “We refused on moral grounds to play songs that we didn’t like,” a bandmember recalled. “The GIs would constantly request ‘Besame Mucho’ and other total saucissons of the era. Boris would reply, ‘No, we won’t play ‘Besame Mucho;’ we’re going to play some Duke Ellington for you.’ In the end, everyone was happy—the soldiers danced and we played ‘our music.’” However, an influence that was not so easily tackled by the French jazz establishment was arrived in the GIs’ footsteps: le bebop. The endless debate over the new style resulted in the fragmentation of the community of jazz fans in France and provided endless fodder for the pens of French critics, including Boris Vian.
Though it did have a couple of stints at jazz festivals around Europe, the regular habitat of the Abadie orchestra was in the caves, the basement nightclubs full of jazz and existentialists (and presumably a fair number of poseurs). The experience of playing in this environment would deeply affect Vian’s conception of the juste milieu of jazz. The first of these clubs in open in Saint-Germain-des-Prés was the Tabou Club, and the Abadie orchestra was the house band. Later, Boris Vian would describe the entry into the club as follows: “one descended a torturous stone stairway…ending up in a long vaulted passage, like a subway station only much smaller and dirtier… It took some time to make all this out, since the cigarette smoke produced a fog of London-like proportions and the uproar was so intense that one reacted by not seeing anything.” As other clubs sprung up in imitation, the “amateurish, spontaneous air” of the Tabou club gave way to a more subdued professionalism, and the Abadie band moved down the street to the Club Saint-Germain.
Though the caves may have initially presented an atmosphere of anarchy and abandon, they, along with their pre-war aboveground counterparts, also served as important rallying points for the organizers of the Parisian jazz scene. In 1937, Vian had joined the Hot-Club de France, then headed by Hughes Panassié and Charles Delaunay, who together had introduced serious jazz scholarship to Europe. With this organization, he probably played a marginal role in bringing American big bands to Paris, including those of Benny Carter and Duke Ellington. Though the Hot-Club remained stable and operative throughout the war, the arrival of bebop would tear it apart. Essentially, after the disconnection of the war era was ended by the American liberation, the shock of sudden exposure to the new style was simply too much for some fans to integrate into their conception of the music. The question which proved so destructive (which to our eyes today is virtually incomprehensible) was “is bebop jazz?” In the Hot-Club, Panassié and Delaunay were split over the issue, with Delaunay siding with the beboppers, and Panassié claiming that the New Orleans style was in fact the only true form of the music. Thus was the querelle de bebop born. The Hot-Club split in 1947, with Panassié maintaining control of the organization and Delaunay taking over its magazine, Le Jazz-Hot.
It was in this ideologically-charged environment that Vian crafted his first attempts at jazz criticism. He sided firmly with Delaunay in defending the innovations of the young black American musicians, writing his first pieces exclusively for Jazz Hot. However, unlike the die-hards on both sides, he acknowledged the qualities of both styles, attempting to create a more tolerant path between the polemical extremes of the split. Meanwhile, he remarked upon the absurdity of the schism; a short story printed in the Christmas 1948 issue of Jazz Hot compared the querelle to the Nazi-Communist dichotomy. Goebbels shows up at Vian’s door with the salute “Heil Gillespie,” to which Vian replies “Heil Parker!” Goebbels, “draining his glass of marijuana elixir,” then proceeds to instruct Vian in the intricacies of propaganda and cultural infiltration, consisting primarily of wordplay to fool the food service population: “Une poule au riz-bop…du riz-bop au curry-bop, avec pain bis-bop et du thé-lonious.” The humorous connection to the Nazis so soon after the atrocities of war is a rather uneasy one, but nothing is taboo for Vian, and he succeeds in driving the point home in his typically raw and cynical manner. Though many of his contributions to Jazz Hot would be less raucous, the pages of the magazine would serve him well as a bully pulpit for the propagation of his often-unconventional conceptions of jazz and the jazz scene.
To begin to understand what exactly these conceptions were, let us turn to Vian’s idea of what his own group sounded like. In Veronquin et le Plancton, one of the novels he finished while at the Professional Office of the Paper and Cardboard Industries, Claude Abadie’s orchestra makes its fictional début: “the musicians gave it their all, and managed to play pretty much as well as blacks of the thirty-seventh order.” This droll self-commentary indicates one of the fundamental attributes of Vian’s understanding of jazz—the privileging of music created by black people. As this passage reflects, even the best efforts of white musicians are still orders of magnitude removed from the capabilities of their black counterparts. Vian would assign the same criticism to his own playing—no matter how hard he tried, he would never be able to equal the playing of a thirty-seventh-rate black musician. In fact, in his usual hyperbolic style, he actually went as far as to remove himself entirely from the realm of human endeavor. In his journal, he wrote “I played the trumpet a bit like a porker, I think.” Of course, many musicians have felt this same kind of existential despair while listening to the recordings or concerts of musicians whose superb skills seem totally unattainable, but for Vian, the one thing that practice couldn’t change—the color of his skin—was the major impediment to mastery of the jazz idiom.
In truth, Vian believed in the universality of this distinction. No matter what the jazz style, white musicians were inherently inferior to Blacks. “The problem is the following,” he wrote in a 1948 editorial in Combat, “black music is increasing encumbered by white elements, often pleasant but always superfluous, easily and advantageously replaced with black elements.” Vian believed, in theory, in the idea of racial mixing among musicians. “Of course, it’s fun to play with Blacks.” But, he asked his readers, “who benefits? Surely not them!” “So,” he ends the piece, “do we have to exterminate the Whites? Of course not! But if only they could all just die suddenly…” Obviously, as a white musician himself, Vian is overstating his case. But for various reasons, Vian is continually frustrated by the Whites in jazz, especially when they take attention away from Blacks.
This frustration is not necessarily unreasonable. The history of jazz, and the history of American popular music in general, has been marked by a hep-cat/copycat phenomenon. The great innovators, usually black, have had their creations co-opted and commercialized by white artists for sale to the predominantly white populace. For reasons of racism and capitalism, the white bands are typically more successful than their black antecedents, even as their level of invention is sometimes far inferior. Of the commercially successful English pianist George Shearing, Vian wrote “[he] is nothing but a shitty platter of Huntzo-progressive style.” Benny Goodman’s sextet, despite its integration, is similarly subject to Vian’s caustic criticism: “aside from Eldridge, what a constipated band!” It is hard to believe that Vian’s musical racism was simply a conscious and bitter reaction to the pressures of commercialism or an attempt at some kind of early musical affirmative action; it more probably was an actual reflection of how he perceived the music. Still, it seems likely that these perceptions, even with Vian’s emphatic claims of his receptiveness to all types of music, were colored by his deeply ingrained racial essentialism (which, in turn, may have been derived from an association of whiteness with commercialism.) While Stan Kenton’s attempts at “serious” composition are met with ridicule—“Kenton never played jazz anyway, and I don’t know why I’m wasting my time with him in the columns of this supposedly-serious publication”—those of Duke Ellington in his early Reminiscing in Tempo are cited as an example of a good attempt at “serious jazz,” despite the piece’s initially-checkered critical reception. Vian thus betrays the fact that he shares some of Panassié’s inability to accept innovation and synthesis as part of the jazz aesthetic, especially if that innovation is coming from white composers.
If Vian’s jazz ideal is a progressive and professional music played by black musicians, then why does he choose the white trad-jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke as his idol? Although Beiderbecke is indeed a formidable presence in early jazz, a white musician whose playing style is as unique as that of any of his contemporaries, white or black, it seems odd that even after the arrival of bebop, Vian continues to consider him his idol. Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham are much more frequently cited in his columns, but Vian would never deign to model himself after them. The answer must lie in Vian’s conception of the abilities of white musicians in general, including himself. First of all, by following Beiderbecke’s lead rather than a black trumpeter’s, he can excuse himself from the black-innovator/white-copier dynamic which he so vocally decries. The temporal separation of Beiderbecke’s era also lends itself to an escape from this model, for it allows Vian to avoid the pretext of playing a popular and commercially viable music; instead, he can devote himself to an erudite attempt at recreating a music whose time is long past.
At first, this model seems inherently hypocritical; why does Vian play in public at all if he feels like white performance is inherently exploitative of the black tradition? And how can he justify calling the Ellington standards that he plays with the Abadie orchestra “our music”? In fact, though one might disagree with Vian’s stance, he manages to be logically consistent in his discrimination with the inclusion of his self-categorization as an amateur. With amateur status, he can disavow any commercial pretexts, and any material gains that result from his playing are merely accidental and not abusive. In addition, his amateurism excuses him from the responsibility of innovation to which he holds professionals. Thus, it is consistent for him to denounce an Artie Shaw record as “not new enough to be sensational and not sensational enough to be new” while continuing himself to recreate the music played by black musicians years or decades earlier. Since he believes, as he puts it, that “the best that Whites can learn is to be good imitators,” he is trying his best to use the full extent of his racially-imposed limitations.
The music which Vian played in the Abadie orchestra and in his own groups was entirely derivative, even if played well. Solos tended less toward innovation and more toward a revival of the original style; Vian almost certainly committed some of Beiderbecke’s recorded solos to memory to aid him in this quest. Though he believed himself incapable of true musical innovation, how did Vian view the role of spontaneity among true jazz musicians in general? One might expect that, in his bohemian liberalism, Vian would have favored a true and total freedom of form and color. In fact, weaned on big band and Dixieland charts, Vian never lost his love for the arranged side of jazz. “The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in ‘48, and Ella in ’52,” all of which shared a heavy reliance on the skills of the arranger as well as on those of the soloists. Strikingly, none of the hundreds of bebop combo concerts that Vian saw in Paris, including ones by Miles and “the Zoizeau” (Parker), made the list of “great moments.”
Vian’s fear of purely spontaneous and unarranged jazz was that it left too much to chance. “One ends up relying on pure musical inspiration, and failing that, the music won’t lead to anything good, or it will alienate all but the most die-hard fans.” This comment discloses one of Vian’s primary concerns about bebop—that it is not as accessible as earlier styles and therefore will not attract any new listeners. The simultaneous accessibility and refinement of Diz’s Latin-accented bebop big-band probably assuages some of these fears. But even without the ready-accessibility of the big-bands, Vian recognized Charlie Parker’s mastery when he saw it at the 1949 Paris Jazz Festival:
“Ah! The genial superexcitation of the brain tissues of this man…what am I saying…of this superman…of this demi-god descended to earth… And why stop at demi-god?…of this god…of this double god! Have you seen how he plays? Indeed, in watching him we are far removed from the overintellectualized conceptions that our misdirected society and atrophied century have given to music.”
Next, Vian crafts a pseudomusicological analysis of the first dozen notes of Bird’s solo, dealing less with the music itself and more with Vian’s literary self-indulgence. “Have you noticed with inflexible necessity of the me to insert itself between the sol which precedes it and the sol which follows it?” Vian believes (and he is not alone) that a good solo has the same kind of artistic intent and finality about it as a through-composed arrangement, or for that matter a poem. However, thriving alongside the concrete and “inflexible necessity” of the notes’ arrangement is an antithetical impulse—the primal, savage, and anti-structural urges which lie deep below the foundations of our “atrophied century.” In listening to Bird’s solo, Vian hears the release of huge amounts of the same energy that he hears in other black music—the release of the human soul.
For Vian, this was the ultimate power of jazz, “the potential for at least a partial escape from the strictures and inhibitions of the intellect.” The source of jazz—America—was the only potential source of such a mid-20th century anachronism. But this characterization of Parker’s music, and of jazz in general, put us in a quandary. Boris Vian forswore the stereotype of the noble savage again and again as he elevated the “popular music par excellence” of jazz to the level of high art, but in the end we find ourselves with that colonialist image staring us in the face. Is Vian just as racist as the rest? Does he think that Blacks should, because of their special talents, stick to artistic endeavors and forgo the opportunities of modern society?
The answers to these thorny questions could, in Vian’s words, “occupy ninety-two block-printed double-spaced pages,” and we will not approach them here. But suffice it to say that, even in the most complimentary sense, the praise of black music for its primal urges may rest on even shakier ground than the jokes Vian makes about the Nazis even before the smoke from the camps has completely cleared. If Vian was not so insistent about the superiority of Blacks in the arena of l’expression jazzistique, then his call for jazz to leave the sterile concert halls and return to the caves of the Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Prés would not be as perplexing. Vian was definitely not a racist in an anti-Black, Jim Crow sense—Duke Ellington was the godfather of his daughter Carole. Perhaps his Afro-essentialism was a reaction to the Aryan essentialism of the Nazi occupiers. Or perhaps it was a reaction to what he perceived as the privileged, technically-structured nature of his own existence. Certainly, the influence of the French colonial endeavor accompanied by, in Paris, the new philosophy of négritude, colored his conceptions of the capabilities and limits of the music.
[edit] Death
On the morning of June 23, 1959, Boris Vian was at the Cinema Marbeuf for the screening of the film version of his controversial "Vernon Sullivan" novel, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit On Your Graves). He had already fought with the producers over their interpretation of his work and he publicly denounced the film stating that he wished to have his name removed from the credits. A few minutes after the film began, he reportedly blurted out: "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" He then collapsed into his seat and died by sudden cardiac death en route to the hospital, an event probably foreshadowed by the fact that Boris Vian had been suffering from irregular heartbeat for a long time.
[edit] Selected bibliography
[edit] Prose
* As Boris Vian:
o Trouble dans les andains (1947, posthumously published in 1966)
o Vercoquin et le plancton (1947)
o L'Écume des jours (1947, Froth on the Daydream, Mood Indigo, Foam of the Daze
o L'automne à Pékin (1947) "Autumn in Peking" (TamTam Books,2005)
o Les Fourmis (1949, short stories)
o L'Herbe rouge (1950)
o L'Arrache-coeur (1953, Heartsnatcher)
o Le loup-garou (posthumously published in 1970, short stories)
* As Vernon Sullivan:
o J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (1946, I Shall Spit on Your Graves (TamTam Books))
o Les morts ont tous la même peau (1947)
o Et on tuera tous les affreux (1948)
o Elles se rendent pas compte (1949)
[edit] Dramatic works
* L'Équarrissage pour tous (1950)
* Le Dernier des métiers (1950)
* Tête de Méduse (1951)
* Les Bâtisseurs d'Empire (1959)
* Le Goûter des généraux (posthumously published in 1962)
[edit] Poetry
* Barnum's Digest (1948, a collection of 10 poems)
* Cantilènes en gelée (1949)
* Je voudrais pas crever (posthumously published in 1962)
[edit] Translations
* The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler as Le grand sommeil (1948)
* The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler as La dame du lac (1948)
* The World of Null-A by A. E. van Vogt, as Le Monde des Å (1958)
etc.
The difficulty of translating Vian might account for his relative obscurity in the English-speaking world. L'écume in English means foam, froth or spume, but the expression l'écume des jours is a bizarre and unnatural concoction, typical of Vian's light and surrealistic touch. Critics comment that in L'Écume des Jours -- which Raymond Queneau called 'the most heartbreakingly poignant modern love story ever written' -- Vian's imaginative and playful use of language constitutes a fourth dimension of meaning, which supplements ordinary elements of plot and character. The difficulty of re-capturing the distinctively Vian-esque tone and charm of the text is the challenge confronting his translators. Vian's novels are tied irrevocably to the language of their composition.
It should be noted, however, that despite the difficulties almost all of his works have been translated to Hungarian, German, Polish, Russian, a lot of them to Italian and Spanish (the list of the translated works can be found on the Boris Vian Wikipedia pages of the given language).
[edit] See also
* Zazou
* Existentialism
[edit] External links
* Biography in English on the Radio France International Website
* Le Petit Cahier du Grand Boris Vian: Biography, Quotations, Articles, etcFrench
* Boris Vian for English language readers
* Vian page on Tam Tam Books site
* A Tribute to Gainsbourg, zoom sur Boris VianFrench
* Le Déserteur translated in a lot of different languages
* Boris Vian in St Tropez 1950
* Boris Vian at the Internet Movie Database
* Boris Vian, J'irai chanter sur vos tombes site-conférence du Hall de la Chanson, French
* Some Thoughts on the Work of Boris Vian – feature article on ReadySteadyBook
* intermezzzo - boris vian in croatian language
* Photo
Andy Thomas
Andrew "Andy" Sydney Withiel Thomas (born December 18, 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian-born U.S. aerospace engineer and a NASA astronaut. He became a U.S. citizen in December 1986. [1] He is married to NASA astronaut Shannon Walker.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Education
* 2 Spaceflight experience
* 3 Australian astronauts
* 4 External links
[edit] Education
Educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide before receiving a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering (with First Class honours) from the University of Adelaide in 1973. He completed a doctorate in the same subject at the University of Adelaide in 1978.
He appears in the 1972 edition of the Adelaide University Engineering Society's annual publication, Hysteresis. The caption below a photograph of the young Thomas reads:
"A.S.W. (Syd) Thomas: Hides his massive intellect behind a screen of silence and hair. His abilities are varied and include designing wine labels for the A.U.E.S."
– Hysteresis 1972, pg 27 [2]
[edit] Spaceflight experience
In August 1993, following one year of training, Thomas was appointed a member of the NASA astronaut corps and was qualified for assignment as a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews.
In June 1995, Thomas was named Payload Commander for STS-77, subsequently making his first space flight on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 1996. He then undertook long-duration flight training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia before serving 130 days as Board Engineer 2 onboard the Russian space station Mir in 1998, launching on STS-89 and returning on STS-91. His third space flight, STS-102, increased his time spent in space to more than 177 days. For his fourth flight, he was a Mission Specialist on the Discovery "return to flight" mission (STS-114) that launched at 14:39 UTC, 26 July 2005.
He has served as Deputy Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.
[edit] Australian astronauts
* Philip K. Chapman
* Paul D. Scully-Power
* Andy Thomas
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Education
* 2 Spaceflight experience
* 3 Australian astronauts
* 4 External links
[edit] Education
Educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide before receiving a bachelor of engineering degree in mechanical engineering (with First Class honours) from the University of Adelaide in 1973. He completed a doctorate in the same subject at the University of Adelaide in 1978.
He appears in the 1972 edition of the Adelaide University Engineering Society's annual publication, Hysteresis. The caption below a photograph of the young Thomas reads:
"A.S.W. (Syd) Thomas: Hides his massive intellect behind a screen of silence and hair. His abilities are varied and include designing wine labels for the A.U.E.S."
– Hysteresis 1972, pg 27 [2]
[edit] Spaceflight experience
In August 1993, following one year of training, Thomas was appointed a member of the NASA astronaut corps and was qualified for assignment as a Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle flight crews.
In June 1995, Thomas was named Payload Commander for STS-77, subsequently making his first space flight on board the Space Shuttle Endeavour in May 1996. He then undertook long-duration flight training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia before serving 130 days as Board Engineer 2 onboard the Russian space station Mir in 1998, launching on STS-89 and returning on STS-91. His third space flight, STS-102, increased his time spent in space to more than 177 days. For his fourth flight, he was a Mission Specialist on the Discovery "return to flight" mission (STS-114) that launched at 14:39 UTC, 26 July 2005.
He has served as Deputy Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office.
[edit] Australian astronauts
* Philip K. Chapman
* Paul D. Scully-Power
* Andy Thomas
Victor Szebehely
Victor G. Szebehely (1921 - September 13, 1997) was a key figure in the development and success of the Apollo program.
Szebehely was born in Budapest, Hungary. He went to the United States in 1947 and became a naturalized citizen in 1956. In 1956, a dimensionless number used in time-dependent unsteady flows was named “Szebehely’s number,” and in 1957, he was knighted by HRH Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. In the September and October 1977 issues of the journal Celestial Mechanics, volume 16, an equation used to determine the gravitational potential of the earth, planets, satellites and galaxies was named “Szebehely’s equation”.
He worked with General Electric, Yale University, the Dutch Navy, the United States Air Force, NASA, and The University of Texas at Austin.
He was the author of several books.
His first book, The Theory of Orbits, is an important work in orbital mechanics, being the definitive text on the restricted three-body problem as applicable to an Earth-Moon-spacecraft system such as Apollo. In 1978 he received the Dirk Brouwer Award from the Dynamical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society.
He died in Austin, Texas at age 76.
Szebehely was born in Budapest, Hungary. He went to the United States in 1947 and became a naturalized citizen in 1956. In 1956, a dimensionless number used in time-dependent unsteady flows was named “Szebehely’s number,” and in 1957, he was knighted by HRH Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. In the September and October 1977 issues of the journal Celestial Mechanics, volume 16, an equation used to determine the gravitational potential of the earth, planets, satellites and galaxies was named “Szebehely’s equation”.
He worked with General Electric, Yale University, the Dutch Navy, the United States Air Force, NASA, and The University of Texas at Austin.
He was the author of several books.
His first book, The Theory of Orbits, is an important work in orbital mechanics, being the definitive text on the restricted three-body problem as applicable to an Earth-Moon-spacecraft system such as Apollo. In 1978 he received the Dirk Brouwer Award from the Dynamical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society.
He died in Austin, Texas at age 76.
John H. Sununu
John Henry Sununu, PhD (born July 2, 1939 in Havana, Cuba) is a former Governor of New Hampshire (1983-89) and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Governor
* 3 White House Chief of Staff
* 4 Political positions
* 5 Later life
* 6 Controversies
* 7 Trivia
* 8 References
[edit] Early life
Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba to Victoria Dada and John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor.[1] He is Roman Catholic and has Lebanese and Spanish heritage.
He earned a BS in 1961, a Master's degree in 1963, and a Ph.D. in 1966 from MIT, all in mechanical engineering. Sununu is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
From 1968 until 1973, he was Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He served on the Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT from 1984 until 1989.
From 1963 until 1983, he served as President of JHS Engineering Company and Thermal Research Inc. In addition, he helped establish and served as chief engineer for Astro Dynamics Inc. from 1960 until 1965.
[edit] Governor
Sununu became New Hampshire's 85th Governor on January 6, 1983, and served three consecutive terms. He served as chairman of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the Republican Governors Association and, in 1987, the National Governors Association.
[edit] White House Chief of Staff
Sununu provided critical assistance to George H. W. Bush during the New Hampshire primary by advising him to emphasize his ill-fated "no new taxes" pledge.[2]
Sununu was the first White House Chief of Staff for Bush, serving from 1989 to 1991. He made many enemies from both within and outside the administration and the Republican Party. (see below) Sununu is responsible for recommending David Souter to president George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Sununu co-hosted CNN's nightly Crossfire from March 1992 until February 1998.
[edit] Political positions
Sununu holds deeply conservative economic and social views[2] and as an engineer, he supports the expansion of nuclear energy. He is fiercely against the imposition of new taxes.[2]
[edit] Later life
Sununu is President of JHS Associates, Ltd. and is a partner in Trinity International Partners, a private financial firm.
Sununu is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Board of Trustees for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. He is married to the former Nancy Hayes, and they have eight children, including U.S. Senator John E. Sununu.
He recently moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He and his wife were subsequently elected as the town's honorary hog reeves and poundkeepers.[3]
Governor John H. Sununu
Governor John H. Sununu
[edit] Controversies
Sununu angered some when he was the only governor of a U.S. state not to call for repeal of the extremely controversial UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 ("Zionism is Racism"). He later reversed his position on this issue and supported the Republicans' pro-Israel 1988 platform.[2] Sununu is of partial Palestinian and Lebanese descent.
Sununu resigned as White House Chief of Staff on December 3, 1991, effective December 15, 1991.[4] His resignation is chiefly blamed on a controversy involving his personal use of government military aircraft,[5] a scandal which was termed "Air Sununu".[6] Sununu reportedly took personal trips, for skiiing and other purposes, and classified them as official, for purposes such as conservation or promoting the Thousand Points of Light.[6] The Washington Post wrote that Sununu's jets "took him to fat-cat Republican fund-raisers, ski lodges, golf resorts and even his dentist in Boston."[citation needed] Sununu had paid the government only $892 for his more than $615,000 worth of military jet travel.[7] Sununu said that his use of the jets was necessary because he had to be near a telephone at all times for reasons of national security.[8] Sununu became the subject of much late-night television humor over the incident.[8] Sununu worsened the situation shortly afterwards when, after leaking rumors of financial difficulties in his family, he traveled to a rare stamp auction at Christie's auction house in New York City from Washington in a government limousine, spending $5,000 on rare stamps.[8] Sununu then sent the car and driver back to Washington unoccupied while he returned on a corporate jet.[8] In the course of one week, 45 newspapers ran editorials on Sununu, nearly all of them critical of his actions.[9]
Sununu repaid over $47,000 to the government for the flights on the orders of White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, with the help of the Republican Party.[5] However, the reimbursements were at commercial rates, which are about one-tenth the cost of the actual flights; one ski trip to Vail, Colorado alone had cost taxpayers $86,330.[10]
However, other sources claim that Sununu's departure was related to the president's declining approval ratings[11], or George W. Bush's belief that Sununu did not have his father's best interests at heart.[12].
[edit] Trivia
The 1991 police comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear features Sununu who is played by Peter Van Norden.
[edit] References
1. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/sununu.htm
2. ^ a b c d Duffy, Michael (1988-11-28). The Markets Vote. TIME.
3. ^ Morse, Susan. "From governor to hog reeve". Portsmouth Herald. March 25, 2007
4. ^ http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20294
5. ^ a b http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2004/06/01/colin/index.html?pn=2
6. ^ a b "Air Sununu Grounded", Washington Post, 1991-05-10.
7. ^ "The control tower takes over Air Sununu.", US News & World Report, 1991-05-20.
8. ^ Cite error 8; No text given.
9. ^ "Too Much Sununu News?; Post Said to Ignore Democrats' Abuses", Washington Post, 1991-06-28.
10. ^ "The flights of Air Sununu; the White House chief of staff mixed politics and playtime on some of his 'official' trips. (John Sununu)", US News & World Report, 1991-05-06.
11. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2128748/
12. ^ http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A76395
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Governor
* 3 White House Chief of Staff
* 4 Political positions
* 5 Later life
* 6 Controversies
* 7 Trivia
* 8 References
[edit] Early life
Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba to Victoria Dada and John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor.[1] He is Roman Catholic and has Lebanese and Spanish heritage.
He earned a BS in 1961, a Master's degree in 1963, and a Ph.D. in 1966 from MIT, all in mechanical engineering. Sununu is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
From 1968 until 1973, he was Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He served on the Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT from 1984 until 1989.
From 1963 until 1983, he served as President of JHS Engineering Company and Thermal Research Inc. In addition, he helped establish and served as chief engineer for Astro Dynamics Inc. from 1960 until 1965.
[edit] Governor
Sununu became New Hampshire's 85th Governor on January 6, 1983, and served three consecutive terms. He served as chairman of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the Republican Governors Association and, in 1987, the National Governors Association.
[edit] White House Chief of Staff
Sununu provided critical assistance to George H. W. Bush during the New Hampshire primary by advising him to emphasize his ill-fated "no new taxes" pledge.[2]
Sununu was the first White House Chief of Staff for Bush, serving from 1989 to 1991. He made many enemies from both within and outside the administration and the Republican Party. (see below) Sununu is responsible for recommending David Souter to president George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Sununu co-hosted CNN's nightly Crossfire from March 1992 until February 1998.
[edit] Political positions
Sununu holds deeply conservative economic and social views[2] and as an engineer, he supports the expansion of nuclear energy. He is fiercely against the imposition of new taxes.[2]
[edit] Later life
Sununu is President of JHS Associates, Ltd. and is a partner in Trinity International Partners, a private financial firm.
Sununu is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Board of Trustees for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. He is married to the former Nancy Hayes, and they have eight children, including U.S. Senator John E. Sununu.
He recently moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He and his wife were subsequently elected as the town's honorary hog reeves and poundkeepers.[3]
Governor John H. Sununu
Governor John H. Sununu
[edit] Controversies
Sununu angered some when he was the only governor of a U.S. state not to call for repeal of the extremely controversial UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 ("Zionism is Racism"). He later reversed his position on this issue and supported the Republicans' pro-Israel 1988 platform.[2] Sununu is of partial Palestinian and Lebanese descent.
Sununu resigned as White House Chief of Staff on December 3, 1991, effective December 15, 1991.[4] His resignation is chiefly blamed on a controversy involving his personal use of government military aircraft,[5] a scandal which was termed "Air Sununu".[6] Sununu reportedly took personal trips, for skiiing and other purposes, and classified them as official, for purposes such as conservation or promoting the Thousand Points of Light.[6] The Washington Post wrote that Sununu's jets "took him to fat-cat Republican fund-raisers, ski lodges, golf resorts and even his dentist in Boston."[citation needed] Sununu had paid the government only $892 for his more than $615,000 worth of military jet travel.[7] Sununu said that his use of the jets was necessary because he had to be near a telephone at all times for reasons of national security.[8] Sununu became the subject of much late-night television humor over the incident.[8] Sununu worsened the situation shortly afterwards when, after leaking rumors of financial difficulties in his family, he traveled to a rare stamp auction at Christie's auction house in New York City from Washington in a government limousine, spending $5,000 on rare stamps.[8] Sununu then sent the car and driver back to Washington unoccupied while he returned on a corporate jet.[8] In the course of one week, 45 newspapers ran editorials on Sununu, nearly all of them critical of his actions.[9]
Sununu repaid over $47,000 to the government for the flights on the orders of White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, with the help of the Republican Party.[5] However, the reimbursements were at commercial rates, which are about one-tenth the cost of the actual flights; one ski trip to Vail, Colorado alone had cost taxpayers $86,330.[10]
However, other sources claim that Sununu's departure was related to the president's declining approval ratings[11], or George W. Bush's belief that Sununu did not have his father's best interests at heart.[12].
[edit] Trivia
The 1991 police comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear features Sununu who is played by Peter Van Norden.
[edit] References
1. ^ http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/sununu.htm
2. ^ a b c d Duffy, Michael (1988-11-28). The Markets Vote. TIME.
3. ^ Morse, Susan. "From governor to hog reeve". Portsmouth Herald. March 25, 2007
4. ^ http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20294
5. ^ a b http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2004/06/01/colin/index.html?pn=2
6. ^ a b "Air Sununu Grounded", Washington Post, 1991-05-10.
7. ^ "The control tower takes over Air Sununu.", US News & World Report, 1991-05-20.
8. ^ Cite error 8; No text given.
9. ^ "Too Much Sununu News?; Post Said to Ignore Democrats' Abuses", Washington Post, 1991-06-28.
10. ^ "The flights of Air Sununu; the White House chief of staff mixed politics and playtime on some of his 'official' trips. (John Sununu)", US News & World Report, 1991-05-06.
11. ^ http://www.slate.com/id/2128748/
12. ^ http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A76395
Su Song
Su Song (traditional Chinese: 蘇頌; simplified Chinese: 苏颂; pinyin: Sū Sòng; style Zirong 子容) (1020–1101 AD) was a renowned Chinese statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD).
Su Song was the engineer of a water-driven astronomical clock tower in medieval Kaifeng, which employed the use of an early escapement mechanism; the verge escapement was not known in Europe until 1275 AD.[1][2][3][4] The escapement mechanism of Su's clock tower had previously been invented by Buddhist monk Yi Xing and government official Liang Ling-zan in 725 AD to operate a water-powered armillary sphere, although Su's armillary sphere was the first to be provided with a mechanical clock drive.[5][4][6] Su's ingenious clock tower also featured the oldest known endless power-transmitting chain drive, called the tian ti, or "celestial ladder", as depicted in his horological treatise.[7] Su Song's treatise about the clock-tower, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao (新儀 象法要), has survived since its written form in 1092 and official printed publication in 1094. The book has been analyzed by many historians, such as Joseph Needham. However, the clock itself was dismantled by the invading Jurchen army in AD 1127, and although attempts were made to reassemble the clock tower, it was never successfully reinstated.
Although the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao was his best known treatise, Su Song had other works compiled as well. He completed a large celestial atlas of several star maps, several terrestrial maps, as well as a treatise on pharmacology. The latter discussed related subjects on mineralogy, zoology, botany, and metallurgy. His star maps also featured Mercator projection nearly five hundred years before it was known and used in Europe by Gerard Mercator.
Although later European Jesuit travelers to China such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault would briefly mention Chinese clocks with drive wheels in their writing,[8] early European visitors to China mistakenly believed that the Chinese had never advanced beyond the stage of the clepsydra clock and sundial.[9] They believed that advanced mechanical clockworks were new to China, and were something valuable which Europe could offer.[9] Although not as prominent as in the Song period, contemporary Chinese texts of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) describe continued designs of mechanical clocks in China from the 13th to 16th centuries.[10]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Life and works
* 2 Su Song's escapement mechanism
* 3 The endless chain drive
* 4 Su Song's armillary sphere
* 5 Transmission of Su's text throughout time
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 External links
[edit] Life and works
A scale model of Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower.
A scale model of Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower.
Su Song was born in modern-day Fujian, near medieval Quanzhou.[11] Like his brilliant contemporary Shen Kuo, the discoverer of true north for better navigation with a compass, Su Song was a polymath. It was written by Ye Mengde that in his youth, the young Su Song mastered the provincial exams and rose to the top of the examination list for writing the best essay on general principles and structure of the Chinese calendar.[12] From an early age, his interests in astronomy and calendrical science would lead him onto a distinguished path as a state bureaucrat.
In matters of administrative government, he had attained the rank of Ambassador and President of the Ministry of Personnel at the capital of Kaifeng, and was known also as an expert in administration and finance.[13] Eventually, he also rose to the post of Vice President of the Chancellery Secretariat. Among many honorable positions and titles conferred upon him, Su Song was also one of the 'Deputy Tutors of the Heir Apparent'. At court, he chose to distance himself from the political rivalries of the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Sima Guang, and the Reformists, led by Prime Minister Wang Anshi; although many of his associates were of the Conservative faction.[11] In 1077 he was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the Liao Dynasty of the Khitan people to the north,[14] sharing ideas about calendrical science, since the Liao state had created its own calendar in 994 AD.[6] In an embarrassing event, Su Song admitted to the emperor that the calendar of the Khitan people was in fact a bit more accurate than their own, resulting in the fining and punishment of officials in the Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar.[12] In 1081, the court issued Su Song to compile into a book the diplomatic history of Song-Liao relations, which he completed in a total set of 200 volumes.[15] With his extensive knowledge of cartography, Su Song was able to settle a heated border dispute with the Liao state.[16]
A star map with Mercator projection, from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
A star map with Mercator projection, from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
Su Song also created a celestial atlas as well (in five separate maps), which had the hour circles between the xiu (lunar mansions) forming the astronomical meridians, with stars marked in quasi-orthomorphic cylindrical projection on each side of the equator, and thus was in accordance to their north polar distances.[17] Not until the work of Gerard Mercator in 1569 was a celestial map of this projection created in the Western world.[17] Furthermore, Su Song must have taken advantage of the astronomical findings of his political rival and contemporary astronomer Shen Kuo (1031–1095).[18] This is so because Su Song's fourth star map places the position of the pole star halfway between Tian shu (-350 degrees) and the current Polaris; this was the more accurate calculation (by 3 degrees) that Shen Kuo had made when he observed the pole star over a period of three months with his width-improved sighting tube.[18] There were many star maps written before Song's book, but the greatest significance of these star maps by Su Song is that they represent the oldest existent star maps in printed form.[19]
In the year 1070 Su Song and a team of scholars compiled and edited Ben Cao Tu Jing (Illustrated Pharmacopoeia, original source material from 1058–1061 AD), which was a groundbreaking treatise on pharmaceutical botany, zoology, and mineralogy.[20] In compiling information for pharmaceutical knowledge, Su Song worked with such notable scholars as Zhang Yuxi, Lin Yi, Zhang Dong, and many others.[21] This treatise documented a wide range of pharmaceutical practices, including the use of ephedrine as a drug.[11] It also includes valuable information on metallurgy, with the steel and iron industries during 11th-century China. In this written work he created a systematic approach to listing various different minerals and their use in medicinal concoctions, such as all the variously known forms of mica that could be used to cure ills through digestion.[22] Su Song also wrote of the subconchoidal fracture of native cinnabar, signs of ore beds, and provided description on crystal form.[23] Similar to the ore channels formed by circulation of ground water written of by the later German scientist Georgius Agricola, Su Song made similar statements concerning copper carbonate, as did the earlier Ri Hua Ben Cao of 970 AD with copper sulphate.[23] It was also the first pharmaceutical treatise written in China to describe the flax Linaceae, Urtica thunbergiana, and Corchoropsis tomentosa (crenata) plants.[24]
Armillary sphere on roof.
Armillary sphere on roof.
Su Song compiled one of the greatest Chinese horological treatises of the Middle Ages, surrounding himself with an entourage of notable engineers and astronomers to assist in various projects. Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao (lit. "Essentials of a New Method for Mechanizing the Rotation of an Armillary Sphere and a Celestial Globe"), written in 1092, was the final product of his life's achievements in horology and clockwork. Fortunately, this book of Su's that was handed down included 47 different illustrations of great detail of the mechanical workings for his astronomical clocktower.[25]
Su Song's greatest project was the 40-foot-tall water-powered astronomical clocktower constructed in Kaifeng, the wooden pilot model completed in 1088, the bronze components cast by 1090, while the wholly finished work was completed by 1094 during the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song.[26][27] The emperor had previously commissioned Han Gonglian, Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, to head the project, but the leadership position was instead handed down to Su Song. The emperor ordered in 1086 for Su to reconstruct the hun yi, or "armillary clock", for a new clock-tower in the capital city. Su worked with the aid of Han Gong-lian, who applied his extensive knowledge of mathematics to the construction of the clock-tower.[28] A small-scale wooden model was first crafted by Su Song, testing its intricate parts before applying it to an actual full-scale clock tower.[29] In the end, the clock-tower had many impressive features, such as the water-powered, rotating armillary sphere crowning the top-level and weighing some 10 to 20 tons,[29] a bronze celestial globe located in the middle that was 4.5 feet in diameter,[29] mechanically-timed and rotating manikins dressed in miniature Chinese clothes that would exit miniature opening doors to announce the time of day by presenting designated reading plaques, ringing bells and gongs, or beating drums,[30] a sophisticated use of oblique gears and an escapement mechanism,[31] as well as an exterior facade of a fanciful Chinese pagoda. Upon its completion, the tower was called the Shui Yun Yi Xiang Tai, or "Tower for the Water-Powered Sphere and Globe". Joseph Needham writes:
Star map of the south polar projection for Su's celestial globe, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
Star map of the south polar projection for Su's celestial globe, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
“ After the invention of the escapement in ~AD 725 (Tang Dynasty), there was a great flourishing of gear-wheels in clockwork and jackwork, culminating in the bronze and iron of Su Song's elaborate masterpiece in ~AD 1088.[32] ”
Years after Su's death, the capital city of Kaifeng was besieged and captured in 1127 by the Jurchens of the Manchurian-based Jin Dynasty.[33][25] The clock-tower was dismantled piece by piece by the Jurchens, who carted its components back to their own capital in modern-day Beijing. However, due to the complexity of the tower, they were unable to successfully piece it back together. The new Emperor Gaozong of Song instructed Su's son, Su Xie, to construct a new astronomical clock-tower in its place, and Su Xie set to work studying his father's texts with a team of other experts. However, they were also unsuccessful in creating another clock tower, and Su Xie was convinced that Su Song had purposefully left out essential components in his written work and diagrams so that others would not steal his ideas. As the sinologist historian Derk Bodde points out, Su Song's astronomical clock did not lead to a new generation of mass producing clockworks throughout China since his work was largely a government-sponsored endeavor for the use of astronomers and astrologers in the imperial court.[34] For the most part, basic waterclocks and incense time keepers were used in widespread fashion throughout China, yet the mechanical legacy of Su Song did not end with his work, as the rulers of the continuing Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368 AD) had a vested interest in the advancement of mechanical clockworks.[35] The astronomer Guo Shoujing helped restore the Beijing Ancient Observatory beginning in 1276, where he crafted a water-powered armillary sphere and clock with jack-works being fully implemented throughout the device.[36] Complex gearing for uniquely Chinese clockworks were continued in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), with new designs driven by the power of falling sand instead of water, and some Ming clocks perhaps featured reduction gearing rather than the earlier escapement of Su Song.[10] The earliest such design of a sand-clock was made by Zhan Xiyuan around 1370, which featured not only the scoop wheel of Su Song' device, but also a new addition of a stationary dial face over which a pointer circulated, much like new European clocks of the same period.[37]
[edit] Su Song's escapement mechanism
Celestial globe on third floor.
Celestial globe on third floor.
Time display panel.
Time display panel.
Water wheel with water tank and escapement mechanism.
Water wheel with water tank and escapement mechanism.
Su Song's escapement is similar and reminiscent of the anchor escapement found in European clockworks of the 17th century.[38] In Su Song's waterwheel linkwork device the action of the escapement's arrest and release are achieved by gravity exerted periodically as the continuous flow of liquid would fill containers of limited size.[38] In a single line of evolution, Su Song's clock therefore united the concept of the clepsydra and the mechanical clock into one device run by mechanics and hydraulics. In his memorial, Su Song wrote about this concept:
“ According to your servant's opinion there have been many systems and designs for astronomical instruments during past dynasties all differing from one another in minor respects. But the principle of the use of water-power for the driving mechanism has always been the same. The heavens move without ceasing but so also does water flow (and fall). Thus if the water is made to pour with perfect evenness, then the comparison of the rotary movements (of the heavens and the machine) will show no discrepancy or contradiction; for the unresting follows the unceasing.[39] ”
In his writing, Su Song accredited the predecessor of his working clock to the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere of Zhang Heng (78–139 AD), an earlier Chinese scientist.[39] Su Song also gained much of his influence from the earlier armillary sphere created by Zhang Sixun (976 AD), who also employed the escapement mechanism and used liquid mercury instead of water in the waterwheel of his astronomical clock tower (since liquid mercury would not freeze during winter and would not corrode and rust metal components over time).[40] However, Su Song stated in his writing that after Zhang's death, no one was able to replicate his device, much like his own.[41]
The mechanical clockworks for Su Song's astronomical tower featured a great driving-wheel that was 11 feet in diameter, carrying 36 scoops on its circumference, into each of which water would pour at uniform rate from the 'constant-level tank' (Needham, Fig. 653). The main driving shaft of iron, with its cylindrical necks supported on iron crescent-shaped bearings, ended in a pinion which engages with a gear-wheel at the lower end of the main vertical transmission-shaft.[42]
Joseph Needham gives a general description of the clock-tower itself:
“ (Su Song's) clockwork, driven by a water-wheel, and fully enclosed within the tower, rotated an observational armillary sphere on the top platform and a celestial globe in the upper story. Its time-announcing function was further fulfilled visually and audibly by the performances of numerous jacks mounted on the eight superimposed wheels of a time-keeping shaft and appearing at windows in the pagoda-like structure at the front of the tower. Within the building, some 40 ft. high, the driving-wheel was provided with a special form of escapement, and the water was pumped back into the tanks periodically by manual means. The time-annunciator must have included conversion gearing, since it gave 'unequal' as well as equal time signals, and the sphere probably had this. Su Sung's treatise on the clock, the Hsin I Hsiang Fa Yao, constitutes a classic of horological engineering.[43] ”
That was figure Fig. 650, while Fig. 656 displays the upper and lower norias with their tanks and the manual wheel for operating them.
Fig. 657 displays a rather miniature and scaled-down pic for the basics of the escapement mechanism in an illustration (from Su's book), with Needham's caption here in this quote: "The 'celestial balance' or escapement mechanism of Su Sung's clockwork (Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, ch. 3, p. 18b),".[44] The latter figure carefully labels:
The original diagram of Su's book showing the inner workings of his clocktower, for more information, click this thumbnail picture.
The original diagram of Su's book showing the inner workings of his clocktower, for more information, click this thumbnail picture.
* a right upper lock
* upper link
* left upper lock
* axle or pivot
* long chain
* upper counterweight
* sump
* checking fork of the lower balancing lever
* coupling tongue
* main (ie. lower) counterweight.[44]
Figure 658. displays a more intricate and most-telling half-page scale drawing of Su Song's large escapement mechanism, labeling these individual parts as they interact with one another:
* arrested spoke
* left upper lock
* scoop being filled by
* water jet from constant-level tank
* small counterweight
* checking fork tripped by a projection pin on the scoop, and forming the near end of
* the lower balancing lever with
* its lower counterweight
* coupling tongue, connected by
* the long chain with
* the upper balancing lever, which has at its far end
* the upper counterweight, and at its near end
* a short length chain connecting it with the upper lock beneath it;
* right upper lock [45]
[edit] The endless chain drive
An endless roller chain and sprocket, used in Su Song's clock tower to operate the rotation of the armillary sphere.
An endless roller chain and sprocket, used in Su Song's clock tower to operate the rotation of the armillary sphere.
The world's oldest illustrated depiction of an endless power-transmitting chain drive is from Su Song's horological treatise.[7] It was used in the clockworks for coupling the main drive shaft to the armillary sphere gearbox (rotating three small pinions),[46] as seen in Needham's Fig. 410 and Fig. 652.[7] This belonged to the uppermost end of the main vertical transmission shaft, incorporating right angle gears and oblique gears connected by a short idling shaft.[31] The toothed ring gear called the diurnal motion gear ring was fit around the shell of the armillary sphere along the declination parallel near the southern pole.[47] Although the ancient Greek Philo of Byzantium (3rd century BC) featured a sort of endless belt for his magazine arcuballista, which did not transmit continuous power,[46] the influential source for Su Song's chain drive is most likely the continuously-driven chain pump known in China since the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD).[46] From his horological treatise, Su Song states:
“ The chain drive (lit. celestial ladder) is 19.5 ft long. The system is as follows: an iron chain with its links joined together to form an endless circuit hangs down from the upper chain-wheel which is concealed by the tortoise-and-cloud (column supporting the armillary sphere centrally), and passes also round the lower chain-wheel which is mounted on the main driving-shaft. Whenever one link moves, it moves forward one tooth of the diurnal motion gear-ring and rotates the Component of the Three Arrangers of Time, thus following the motion of the heavens.[46] ”
In addition, the motion gear rings and the upper drive wheel both had 600 teeth, which by Su's mathematical precision carefully calculated measured units of the day in a division of 1/600.[48] These gears having 600 teeth would thus ensure the division the day into basic unit measurements of 2 minutes and 24 seconds.[48]
[edit] Su Song's armillary sphere
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
In Joseph Needham's third volume of Science and Civilization in China, the drawing for Fig. 159 displays a drawing of Su Song's armillary sphere (as depicted in his 11th century treatise), complete with three 'nests' or layers of mechanically-rotated rings. It was the earlier Chinese astronomer Li Chun-feng of the Tang Dynasty who in 633 AD created the first armillary sphere with three layers to calibrate multiple aspects of astronomical observation.[49] Zhang's armillary sphere has often been compared to the 13th century monarch Alfonso X of Castile in Islamic-era Spain. The chief difference was that Alfonso's instrument featured an arrangement for making measurements of the azimuth and altitude, which was present in the Arabic tradition, while Su Song's armillary sphere was duly graduated.[50] For the drawing of Su's armillary sphere, the listing of components are:
* The Outer Nest [5]
o meridian circle
o horizon circle
o outer equator circle
* The Middle Nest[5]
o solstitial colure circle
o ecliptic circle
o diurnal motion gear-ring, connecting with the power-drive
* The Inner Nest [5]
o polar-mounted declination ring or hour-angle circle, with
o sighting tube attached to it and strengthened by a
o diametral brace
* Other Parts[5]
o vertical column concealing the transmission shaft
o supporting columns in the form of dragons
o cross-piece of the base, incorporating water-levels
o south polar pivot
o north polar pivit
[edit] Transmission of Su's text throughout time
When Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao was written in 1092 and the horological monograph finalized and presented in 1094, his work was published and widely printed in the north (see woodblock printing and movable type of Bi Sheng). In the south, printing and circulation of his work was not widely distributed until Shi Yuanzhi of Jiangsu had it printed there in 1172.[2]
The later Ming Dynasty/Qing Dynasty scholar Qian Zeng (1629–1699) held an old volume of Su's work, which he faithfully reproduced in a newly-printed edition. He took special care in avoiding any rewording or inconsistencies with the original text as well.[2] Again, it was later reprinted by Zhang Xizu (1799–1844).[2]
In the realm of modern research, the deceased British biochemist and historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham (1900–1995) (known as Li Yuese in China) has done extensive research and analysis of Su Song's texts and various achievements in his Science and Civilization in China book series. Joseph Needham had also related many detailed passages from Su's contemporary medieval Chinese sources on the life of Su and his achievements known in his day.
Interestingly enough, Su Song's treatise on astronomical clockwork was not the only one made in China during his day, as the Song Shi (compiled in 1345) records the written treatise of the Shui Yun Hun Tian Ji Yao (Wade-Giles: Shui Yun Hun Thien Chi Yao; lit. Essentials of the [Technique of] making Astronomical Apparatus revolve by Water-Power), written by Juan Taifa. However, this treatise no longer survives.[51]
[edit] See also
Atlas Portal
* List of Chinese people
* List of Chinese writers
* List of mineralogists
* List of cartographers
* Clock tower
* Water clock
* Pin-lever watch
* Grasshopper escapement
* Technology of the Song Dynasty
* Richard of Wallingford
* Villard de Honnecourt
* Giovanni de Dondi
* John Harrison
* Thomas Tompion
* George Graham
* Jean Froissart
* Dante Alighieri
[edit] Notes
1. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 445.
2. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, 448.
3. ^ Bodde, 140.
4. ^ a b Fry, 10.
5. ^ a b c d e Needham, Volume 3, 351.
6. ^ a b Bowman, 105.
7. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 111.
8. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 438.
9. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 435-440.
10. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 509-512.
11. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 446.
12. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 447.
13. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 32.
14. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 446-447.
15. ^ Breslin, 14.
16. ^ Wright, 213.
17. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 569.
18. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 278.
19. ^ Sivin, III, 32.
20. ^ Wu, 5.
21. ^ Unschuld, 60.
22. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 648.
23. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 649.
24. ^ Needham, Volume 6, Part 1, 174, 175.
25. ^ a b Ceccarelli, 58.
26. ^ Fry, 9.
27. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 495.
28. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 39.
29. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 465.
30. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 455.
31. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4 456.
32. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 89.
33. ^ Wright, 96.
34. ^ Bodde, 362.
35. ^ Fry, 12.
36. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2 504-505.
37. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 511.
38. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 462.
39. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 466.
40. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 469-471.
41. ^ Needham Volume 4, 470.
42. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 451.
43. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 449.
44. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 458.
45. ^ Needham, volume 4 460.
46. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, 457.
47. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 456-457.
48. ^ a b Fry, 11.
49. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 343.
50. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 353.
51. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 450.
[edit] References
* Bodde, Derk (1991). Chinese Thought, Society, and Science. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
* Bowman, John S. (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Breslin, Thomas A. (2001). Beyond Pain: The Role of Pleasure and Culture in the Making of Foreign Affairs. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
* Ceccarelli, Marco (2004). International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Fry, Tony (2001). The Architectural Theory Review: Archineering in Chinatime. Sydney: University of Sydney.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1, Botany. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
* Sivin, Nathan (1995). Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing.
* Unschuld, Paul U. (2003). Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text. Berkeley: University of California Press.
* Wright, David Curtis (2001) The History of China. Westport: Greenwood Press.
* Wu, Jing-nuan (2005). An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. New York: Oxford University Press.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Su Song
* Su Song's Clock 1088
* Su Song in the Britannica Encyclopedia
* Miniature working replica by the Japanese Tanseisha Company
* The Ben Cao Tu Jing at the James Lind Library
* Su Song at Bookrags.com
Su Song was the engineer of a water-driven astronomical clock tower in medieval Kaifeng, which employed the use of an early escapement mechanism; the verge escapement was not known in Europe until 1275 AD.[1][2][3][4] The escapement mechanism of Su's clock tower had previously been invented by Buddhist monk Yi Xing and government official Liang Ling-zan in 725 AD to operate a water-powered armillary sphere, although Su's armillary sphere was the first to be provided with a mechanical clock drive.[5][4][6] Su's ingenious clock tower also featured the oldest known endless power-transmitting chain drive, called the tian ti, or "celestial ladder", as depicted in his horological treatise.[7] Su Song's treatise about the clock-tower, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao (新儀 象法要), has survived since its written form in 1092 and official printed publication in 1094. The book has been analyzed by many historians, such as Joseph Needham. However, the clock itself was dismantled by the invading Jurchen army in AD 1127, and although attempts were made to reassemble the clock tower, it was never successfully reinstated.
Although the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao was his best known treatise, Su Song had other works compiled as well. He completed a large celestial atlas of several star maps, several terrestrial maps, as well as a treatise on pharmacology. The latter discussed related subjects on mineralogy, zoology, botany, and metallurgy. His star maps also featured Mercator projection nearly five hundred years before it was known and used in Europe by Gerard Mercator.
Although later European Jesuit travelers to China such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault would briefly mention Chinese clocks with drive wheels in their writing,[8] early European visitors to China mistakenly believed that the Chinese had never advanced beyond the stage of the clepsydra clock and sundial.[9] They believed that advanced mechanical clockworks were new to China, and were something valuable which Europe could offer.[9] Although not as prominent as in the Song period, contemporary Chinese texts of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) describe continued designs of mechanical clocks in China from the 13th to 16th centuries.[10]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Life and works
* 2 Su Song's escapement mechanism
* 3 The endless chain drive
* 4 Su Song's armillary sphere
* 5 Transmission of Su's text throughout time
* 6 See also
* 7 Notes
* 8 References
* 9 External links
[edit] Life and works
A scale model of Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower.
A scale model of Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower.
Su Song was born in modern-day Fujian, near medieval Quanzhou.[11] Like his brilliant contemporary Shen Kuo, the discoverer of true north for better navigation with a compass, Su Song was a polymath. It was written by Ye Mengde that in his youth, the young Su Song mastered the provincial exams and rose to the top of the examination list for writing the best essay on general principles and structure of the Chinese calendar.[12] From an early age, his interests in astronomy and calendrical science would lead him onto a distinguished path as a state bureaucrat.
In matters of administrative government, he had attained the rank of Ambassador and President of the Ministry of Personnel at the capital of Kaifeng, and was known also as an expert in administration and finance.[13] Eventually, he also rose to the post of Vice President of the Chancellery Secretariat. Among many honorable positions and titles conferred upon him, Su Song was also one of the 'Deputy Tutors of the Heir Apparent'. At court, he chose to distance himself from the political rivalries of the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Sima Guang, and the Reformists, led by Prime Minister Wang Anshi; although many of his associates were of the Conservative faction.[11] In 1077 he was dispatched on a diplomatic mission to the Liao Dynasty of the Khitan people to the north,[14] sharing ideas about calendrical science, since the Liao state had created its own calendar in 994 AD.[6] In an embarrassing event, Su Song admitted to the emperor that the calendar of the Khitan people was in fact a bit more accurate than their own, resulting in the fining and punishment of officials in the Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar.[12] In 1081, the court issued Su Song to compile into a book the diplomatic history of Song-Liao relations, which he completed in a total set of 200 volumes.[15] With his extensive knowledge of cartography, Su Song was able to settle a heated border dispute with the Liao state.[16]
A star map with Mercator projection, from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
A star map with Mercator projection, from Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
Su Song also created a celestial atlas as well (in five separate maps), which had the hour circles between the xiu (lunar mansions) forming the astronomical meridians, with stars marked in quasi-orthomorphic cylindrical projection on each side of the equator, and thus was in accordance to their north polar distances.[17] Not until the work of Gerard Mercator in 1569 was a celestial map of this projection created in the Western world.[17] Furthermore, Su Song must have taken advantage of the astronomical findings of his political rival and contemporary astronomer Shen Kuo (1031–1095).[18] This is so because Su Song's fourth star map places the position of the pole star halfway between Tian shu (-350 degrees) and the current Polaris; this was the more accurate calculation (by 3 degrees) that Shen Kuo had made when he observed the pole star over a period of three months with his width-improved sighting tube.[18] There were many star maps written before Song's book, but the greatest significance of these star maps by Su Song is that they represent the oldest existent star maps in printed form.[19]
In the year 1070 Su Song and a team of scholars compiled and edited Ben Cao Tu Jing (Illustrated Pharmacopoeia, original source material from 1058–1061 AD), which was a groundbreaking treatise on pharmaceutical botany, zoology, and mineralogy.[20] In compiling information for pharmaceutical knowledge, Su Song worked with such notable scholars as Zhang Yuxi, Lin Yi, Zhang Dong, and many others.[21] This treatise documented a wide range of pharmaceutical practices, including the use of ephedrine as a drug.[11] It also includes valuable information on metallurgy, with the steel and iron industries during 11th-century China. In this written work he created a systematic approach to listing various different minerals and their use in medicinal concoctions, such as all the variously known forms of mica that could be used to cure ills through digestion.[22] Su Song also wrote of the subconchoidal fracture of native cinnabar, signs of ore beds, and provided description on crystal form.[23] Similar to the ore channels formed by circulation of ground water written of by the later German scientist Georgius Agricola, Su Song made similar statements concerning copper carbonate, as did the earlier Ri Hua Ben Cao of 970 AD with copper sulphate.[23] It was also the first pharmaceutical treatise written in China to describe the flax Linaceae, Urtica thunbergiana, and Corchoropsis tomentosa (crenata) plants.[24]
Armillary sphere on roof.
Armillary sphere on roof.
Su Song compiled one of the greatest Chinese horological treatises of the Middle Ages, surrounding himself with an entourage of notable engineers and astronomers to assist in various projects. Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao (lit. "Essentials of a New Method for Mechanizing the Rotation of an Armillary Sphere and a Celestial Globe"), written in 1092, was the final product of his life's achievements in horology and clockwork. Fortunately, this book of Su's that was handed down included 47 different illustrations of great detail of the mechanical workings for his astronomical clocktower.[25]
Su Song's greatest project was the 40-foot-tall water-powered astronomical clocktower constructed in Kaifeng, the wooden pilot model completed in 1088, the bronze components cast by 1090, while the wholly finished work was completed by 1094 during the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song.[26][27] The emperor had previously commissioned Han Gonglian, Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, to head the project, but the leadership position was instead handed down to Su Song. The emperor ordered in 1086 for Su to reconstruct the hun yi, or "armillary clock", for a new clock-tower in the capital city. Su worked with the aid of Han Gong-lian, who applied his extensive knowledge of mathematics to the construction of the clock-tower.[28] A small-scale wooden model was first crafted by Su Song, testing its intricate parts before applying it to an actual full-scale clock tower.[29] In the end, the clock-tower had many impressive features, such as the water-powered, rotating armillary sphere crowning the top-level and weighing some 10 to 20 tons,[29] a bronze celestial globe located in the middle that was 4.5 feet in diameter,[29] mechanically-timed and rotating manikins dressed in miniature Chinese clothes that would exit miniature opening doors to announce the time of day by presenting designated reading plaques, ringing bells and gongs, or beating drums,[30] a sophisticated use of oblique gears and an escapement mechanism,[31] as well as an exterior facade of a fanciful Chinese pagoda. Upon its completion, the tower was called the Shui Yun Yi Xiang Tai, or "Tower for the Water-Powered Sphere and Globe". Joseph Needham writes:
Star map of the south polar projection for Su's celestial globe, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
Star map of the south polar projection for Su's celestial globe, Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, 1092.
“ After the invention of the escapement in ~AD 725 (Tang Dynasty), there was a great flourishing of gear-wheels in clockwork and jackwork, culminating in the bronze and iron of Su Song's elaborate masterpiece in ~AD 1088.[32] ”
Years after Su's death, the capital city of Kaifeng was besieged and captured in 1127 by the Jurchens of the Manchurian-based Jin Dynasty.[33][25] The clock-tower was dismantled piece by piece by the Jurchens, who carted its components back to their own capital in modern-day Beijing. However, due to the complexity of the tower, they were unable to successfully piece it back together. The new Emperor Gaozong of Song instructed Su's son, Su Xie, to construct a new astronomical clock-tower in its place, and Su Xie set to work studying his father's texts with a team of other experts. However, they were also unsuccessful in creating another clock tower, and Su Xie was convinced that Su Song had purposefully left out essential components in his written work and diagrams so that others would not steal his ideas. As the sinologist historian Derk Bodde points out, Su Song's astronomical clock did not lead to a new generation of mass producing clockworks throughout China since his work was largely a government-sponsored endeavor for the use of astronomers and astrologers in the imperial court.[34] For the most part, basic waterclocks and incense time keepers were used in widespread fashion throughout China, yet the mechanical legacy of Su Song did not end with his work, as the rulers of the continuing Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368 AD) had a vested interest in the advancement of mechanical clockworks.[35] The astronomer Guo Shoujing helped restore the Beijing Ancient Observatory beginning in 1276, where he crafted a water-powered armillary sphere and clock with jack-works being fully implemented throughout the device.[36] Complex gearing for uniquely Chinese clockworks were continued in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), with new designs driven by the power of falling sand instead of water, and some Ming clocks perhaps featured reduction gearing rather than the earlier escapement of Su Song.[10] The earliest such design of a sand-clock was made by Zhan Xiyuan around 1370, which featured not only the scoop wheel of Su Song' device, but also a new addition of a stationary dial face over which a pointer circulated, much like new European clocks of the same period.[37]
[edit] Su Song's escapement mechanism
Celestial globe on third floor.
Celestial globe on third floor.
Time display panel.
Time display panel.
Water wheel with water tank and escapement mechanism.
Water wheel with water tank and escapement mechanism.
Su Song's escapement is similar and reminiscent of the anchor escapement found in European clockworks of the 17th century.[38] In Su Song's waterwheel linkwork device the action of the escapement's arrest and release are achieved by gravity exerted periodically as the continuous flow of liquid would fill containers of limited size.[38] In a single line of evolution, Su Song's clock therefore united the concept of the clepsydra and the mechanical clock into one device run by mechanics and hydraulics. In his memorial, Su Song wrote about this concept:
“ According to your servant's opinion there have been many systems and designs for astronomical instruments during past dynasties all differing from one another in minor respects. But the principle of the use of water-power for the driving mechanism has always been the same. The heavens move without ceasing but so also does water flow (and fall). Thus if the water is made to pour with perfect evenness, then the comparison of the rotary movements (of the heavens and the machine) will show no discrepancy or contradiction; for the unresting follows the unceasing.[39] ”
In his writing, Su Song accredited the predecessor of his working clock to the hydraulic-powered armillary sphere of Zhang Heng (78–139 AD), an earlier Chinese scientist.[39] Su Song also gained much of his influence from the earlier armillary sphere created by Zhang Sixun (976 AD), who also employed the escapement mechanism and used liquid mercury instead of water in the waterwheel of his astronomical clock tower (since liquid mercury would not freeze during winter and would not corrode and rust metal components over time).[40] However, Su Song stated in his writing that after Zhang's death, no one was able to replicate his device, much like his own.[41]
The mechanical clockworks for Su Song's astronomical tower featured a great driving-wheel that was 11 feet in diameter, carrying 36 scoops on its circumference, into each of which water would pour at uniform rate from the 'constant-level tank' (Needham, Fig. 653). The main driving shaft of iron, with its cylindrical necks supported on iron crescent-shaped bearings, ended in a pinion which engages with a gear-wheel at the lower end of the main vertical transmission-shaft.[42]
Joseph Needham gives a general description of the clock-tower itself:
“ (Su Song's) clockwork, driven by a water-wheel, and fully enclosed within the tower, rotated an observational armillary sphere on the top platform and a celestial globe in the upper story. Its time-announcing function was further fulfilled visually and audibly by the performances of numerous jacks mounted on the eight superimposed wheels of a time-keeping shaft and appearing at windows in the pagoda-like structure at the front of the tower. Within the building, some 40 ft. high, the driving-wheel was provided with a special form of escapement, and the water was pumped back into the tanks periodically by manual means. The time-annunciator must have included conversion gearing, since it gave 'unequal' as well as equal time signals, and the sphere probably had this. Su Sung's treatise on the clock, the Hsin I Hsiang Fa Yao, constitutes a classic of horological engineering.[43] ”
That was figure Fig. 650, while Fig. 656 displays the upper and lower norias with their tanks and the manual wheel for operating them.
Fig. 657 displays a rather miniature and scaled-down pic for the basics of the escapement mechanism in an illustration (from Su's book), with Needham's caption here in this quote: "The 'celestial balance' or escapement mechanism of Su Sung's clockwork (Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, ch. 3, p. 18b),".[44] The latter figure carefully labels:
The original diagram of Su's book showing the inner workings of his clocktower, for more information, click this thumbnail picture.
The original diagram of Su's book showing the inner workings of his clocktower, for more information, click this thumbnail picture.
* a right upper lock
* upper link
* left upper lock
* axle or pivot
* long chain
* upper counterweight
* sump
* checking fork of the lower balancing lever
* coupling tongue
* main (ie. lower) counterweight.[44]
Figure 658. displays a more intricate and most-telling half-page scale drawing of Su Song's large escapement mechanism, labeling these individual parts as they interact with one another:
* arrested spoke
* left upper lock
* scoop being filled by
* water jet from constant-level tank
* small counterweight
* checking fork tripped by a projection pin on the scoop, and forming the near end of
* the lower balancing lever with
* its lower counterweight
* coupling tongue, connected by
* the long chain with
* the upper balancing lever, which has at its far end
* the upper counterweight, and at its near end
* a short length chain connecting it with the upper lock beneath it;
* right upper lock [45]
[edit] The endless chain drive
An endless roller chain and sprocket, used in Su Song's clock tower to operate the rotation of the armillary sphere.
An endless roller chain and sprocket, used in Su Song's clock tower to operate the rotation of the armillary sphere.
The world's oldest illustrated depiction of an endless power-transmitting chain drive is from Su Song's horological treatise.[7] It was used in the clockworks for coupling the main drive shaft to the armillary sphere gearbox (rotating three small pinions),[46] as seen in Needham's Fig. 410 and Fig. 652.[7] This belonged to the uppermost end of the main vertical transmission shaft, incorporating right angle gears and oblique gears connected by a short idling shaft.[31] The toothed ring gear called the diurnal motion gear ring was fit around the shell of the armillary sphere along the declination parallel near the southern pole.[47] Although the ancient Greek Philo of Byzantium (3rd century BC) featured a sort of endless belt for his magazine arcuballista, which did not transmit continuous power,[46] the influential source for Su Song's chain drive is most likely the continuously-driven chain pump known in China since the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD).[46] From his horological treatise, Su Song states:
“ The chain drive (lit. celestial ladder) is 19.5 ft long. The system is as follows: an iron chain with its links joined together to form an endless circuit hangs down from the upper chain-wheel which is concealed by the tortoise-and-cloud (column supporting the armillary sphere centrally), and passes also round the lower chain-wheel which is mounted on the main driving-shaft. Whenever one link moves, it moves forward one tooth of the diurnal motion gear-ring and rotates the Component of the Three Arrangers of Time, thus following the motion of the heavens.[46] ”
In addition, the motion gear rings and the upper drive wheel both had 600 teeth, which by Su's mathematical precision carefully calculated measured units of the day in a division of 1/600.[48] These gears having 600 teeth would thus ensure the division the day into basic unit measurements of 2 minutes and 24 seconds.[48]
[edit] Su Song's armillary sphere
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
A modern replica of a Ming Dynasty era armillary sphere found at the Beijing Ancient Observatory.
In Joseph Needham's third volume of Science and Civilization in China, the drawing for Fig. 159 displays a drawing of Su Song's armillary sphere (as depicted in his 11th century treatise), complete with three 'nests' or layers of mechanically-rotated rings. It was the earlier Chinese astronomer Li Chun-feng of the Tang Dynasty who in 633 AD created the first armillary sphere with three layers to calibrate multiple aspects of astronomical observation.[49] Zhang's armillary sphere has often been compared to the 13th century monarch Alfonso X of Castile in Islamic-era Spain. The chief difference was that Alfonso's instrument featured an arrangement for making measurements of the azimuth and altitude, which was present in the Arabic tradition, while Su Song's armillary sphere was duly graduated.[50] For the drawing of Su's armillary sphere, the listing of components are:
* The Outer Nest [5]
o meridian circle
o horizon circle
o outer equator circle
* The Middle Nest[5]
o solstitial colure circle
o ecliptic circle
o diurnal motion gear-ring, connecting with the power-drive
* The Inner Nest [5]
o polar-mounted declination ring or hour-angle circle, with
o sighting tube attached to it and strengthened by a
o diametral brace
* Other Parts[5]
o vertical column concealing the transmission shaft
o supporting columns in the form of dragons
o cross-piece of the base, incorporating water-levels
o south polar pivot
o north polar pivit
[edit] Transmission of Su's text throughout time
When Su Song's Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao was written in 1092 and the horological monograph finalized and presented in 1094, his work was published and widely printed in the north (see woodblock printing and movable type of Bi Sheng). In the south, printing and circulation of his work was not widely distributed until Shi Yuanzhi of Jiangsu had it printed there in 1172.[2]
The later Ming Dynasty/Qing Dynasty scholar Qian Zeng (1629–1699) held an old volume of Su's work, which he faithfully reproduced in a newly-printed edition. He took special care in avoiding any rewording or inconsistencies with the original text as well.[2] Again, it was later reprinted by Zhang Xizu (1799–1844).[2]
In the realm of modern research, the deceased British biochemist and historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham (1900–1995) (known as Li Yuese in China) has done extensive research and analysis of Su Song's texts and various achievements in his Science and Civilization in China book series. Joseph Needham had also related many detailed passages from Su's contemporary medieval Chinese sources on the life of Su and his achievements known in his day.
Interestingly enough, Su Song's treatise on astronomical clockwork was not the only one made in China during his day, as the Song Shi (compiled in 1345) records the written treatise of the Shui Yun Hun Tian Ji Yao (Wade-Giles: Shui Yun Hun Thien Chi Yao; lit. Essentials of the [Technique of] making Astronomical Apparatus revolve by Water-Power), written by Juan Taifa. However, this treatise no longer survives.[51]
[edit] See also
Atlas Portal
* List of Chinese people
* List of Chinese writers
* List of mineralogists
* List of cartographers
* Clock tower
* Water clock
* Pin-lever watch
* Grasshopper escapement
* Technology of the Song Dynasty
* Richard of Wallingford
* Villard de Honnecourt
* Giovanni de Dondi
* John Harrison
* Thomas Tompion
* George Graham
* Jean Froissart
* Dante Alighieri
[edit] Notes
1. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 445.
2. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, 448.
3. ^ Bodde, 140.
4. ^ a b Fry, 10.
5. ^ a b c d e Needham, Volume 3, 351.
6. ^ a b Bowman, 105.
7. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 111.
8. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 438.
9. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 435-440.
10. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 509-512.
11. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 446.
12. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 447.
13. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 32.
14. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 446-447.
15. ^ Breslin, 14.
16. ^ Wright, 213.
17. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 569.
18. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 278.
19. ^ Sivin, III, 32.
20. ^ Wu, 5.
21. ^ Unschuld, 60.
22. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 648.
23. ^ a b Needham, Volume 3, 649.
24. ^ Needham, Volume 6, Part 1, 174, 175.
25. ^ a b Ceccarelli, 58.
26. ^ Fry, 9.
27. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 495.
28. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 39.
29. ^ a b c Needham, Volume 4, 465.
30. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 455.
31. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4 456.
32. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 89.
33. ^ Wright, 96.
34. ^ Bodde, 362.
35. ^ Fry, 12.
36. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2 504-505.
37. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 511.
38. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 462.
39. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 466.
40. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 469-471.
41. ^ Needham Volume 4, 470.
42. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 451.
43. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 449.
44. ^ a b Needham, Volume 4, 458.
45. ^ Needham, volume 4 460.
46. ^ a b c d Needham, Volume 4, 457.
47. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 456-457.
48. ^ a b Fry, 11.
49. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 343.
50. ^ Needham, Volume 3, 353.
51. ^ Needham, Volume 4, 450.
[edit] References
* Bodde, Derk (1991). Chinese Thought, Society, and Science. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
* Bowman, John S. (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Breslin, Thomas A. (2001). Beyond Pain: The Role of Pleasure and Culture in the Making of Foreign Affairs. Westport: Praeger Publishers.
* Ceccarelli, Marco (2004). International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Fry, Tony (2001). The Architectural Theory Review: Archineering in Chinatime. Sydney: University of Sydney.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1, Botany. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
* Sivin, Nathan (1995). Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing.
* Unschuld, Paul U. (2003). Nature, Knowledge, Imagery in an Ancient Chinese Medical Text. Berkeley: University of California Press.
* Wright, David Curtis (2001) The History of China. Westport: Greenwood Press.
* Wu, Jing-nuan (2005). An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. New York: Oxford University Press.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Su Song
* Su Song's Clock 1088
* Su Song in the Britannica Encyclopedia
* Miniature working replica by the Japanese Tanseisha Company
* The Ben Cao Tu Jing at the James Lind Library
* Su Song at Bookrags.com
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Locomotive designer
* 3 Bridge builder
* 4 Other aspects of his life
* 5 In fiction
* 6 Trivia
* 7 Bibliography
* 8 External links
[edit] Early life
He was born in 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle, the only son of George Stephenson and his wife, Fanny. At the time, George and Fanny were living in a single room and George was working as a brakesman on a stationary colliery engine. In 1804 the family moved to a cottage in West Moor when George was made brakesman at Killingworth Colliery. In 1805 Fanny gave birth to a daughter who died after a few weeks. The next year Robert’s mother died of consumption. George then went and worked in Scotland for a short time, leaving the infant Robert with a local woman. However, George soon returned to West Moor, and his sister Nelly came to live at the cottage to look after Robert.
George had received virtually no formal education and he was determined that his son would have the education that he lacked. Because of his great aptitude for engineering, George was promoted in 1812 to be an enginewright, a skilled job with responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the colliery machinery. His wages were therefore much improved. Robert was sent to a primary school in Longbenton, near Killingworth until the age of eleven. He was then sent to Doctor Bruce’s Academy in Percy Street, Newcastle. This was a private institution and Robert would have been studying alongside the children of well-off families. Surprisingly his fellow pupils failed to see any remarkable signs of talent. Whilst at the Academy, Robert became a reading member of the nearby Literary and Philosophical Society.
Father and son studied together in the evenings, improving George’s understanding of science as well as Robert’s. They also built a sundial together, which they placed above the front door of their cottage. The cottage subsequently became known as Dial Cottage. It is preserved today as a monument to them.
[edit] Locomotive designer
After his education at the Bruce Academy, an apprenticeship to Nicolas Wood, the manager of Killingworth Colliery, and a period at the University of Edinburgh, Robert went to work with his father on his railway projects, the first being the Stockton and Darlington Railway. In 1823, when he was 20, Robert set up a company in partnership with his father, Michael Longridge and Edward Pease to build railway locomotives. The firm, Robert Stephenson and Company, was situated in South Street, off Forth Street in Newcastle. The works, known as the Forth Street Works, were the first locomotive works in the world, and it was here that the locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway were built. The first locomotives produced there were, Locomotion, Hope, Diligence and Black Diamond The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until the mid-twentieth century, and the original factory building still exists, at Forth Street in Newcastle, as the Robert Stephenson Centre. George used Locomotion in 1825 for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington line, which Robert had helped to survey.
In 1824, a year before the Stockton and Darlington line opened, Robert went off to South America for three years, to work as an engineer in the Colombian gold mines. His decision seems unusual, and there have been suggestions that it was caused by a rift with his father, but there is no evidence of this. When he returned in 1827, his father was building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. George was living in Liverpool directing proceedings, so Robert took charge at the Forth Street Works and worked on the development of a locomotive to compete in the forthcoming Rainhill Trials, intended to choose a locomotive design to be used on the new railway. The result was the Rocket, which had a multi-tubular boiler to obtain maximum steam pressure from the exhaust gases. Rocket competed successfully in the Rainhill Trials, none of its competitors completing the trial. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 with a procession of eight trains setting out from Liverpool. George led the parade driving the Northumbrian, Robert drove the Phoenix and Joseph Locke drove the Rocket. Following its success, the company built locomotives for other newly-established railways, including the Leicester and Swannington Railway. It became necessary to extend the Forth Street Works to accommodate the increased work.
On 17 June 1829, Robert married Frances Sanderson in London. The couple went to live at 5 Greenfield Place, off Westgate Road in Newcastle. Unfortunately they were not married long. In 1842, Robert’s wife, Fanny as she was known, died. They had no children and Robert never re-married.
In 1830 Robert designed Planet, a much more advanced locomotive than Rocket. Stephenson’s company was experiencing stiff competition from other locomotive manufacturers. Up until then, locomotives had their cylinders placed outside the wheels, as this was the easiest arrangement. It was thought that, placing the cylinders inside the wheels was a more efficient arrangement and this was done on Planet. However there was thought to be an increased risk of broken crank axles. There was friction between Robert and his father over this question. The locomotive, when completed, was found to produce much more power than previous designs. It was used on the Camden and Amboy Railway in the USA.
In 1833 Robert was given the post of Chief Engineer for the London and Birmingham Railway, the first main-line railway to enter London, and the initial section of the West Coast Main Line. That same year Robert and Frances moved to London to live. The new line posed a number of difficult civil engineering challenges, most notably Kilsby Tunnel, and was completed in 1838. Stephenson was directly responsible for the tunnel under Primrose Hill, which required excavation by shafts. Early locomotives could not manage the climb from Euston Station to Chalk Farm, requiring Stephenson to devise a system that would be draw them up the hill by chains using a steam engine near The Roundhouse. This impressive structure remains in use today as an Arts Centre. The London and Birmingham Railway was completed at an enormous cost of £5.5 million, compared with the cost of £900,000 for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
[edit] Bridge builder
Robert constructed a number of well-known bridges to carry the new railway lines. In 1850 the railway from London to Scotland via Newcastle was completed. This required new bridges for both the Tyne and the Tweed and Robert designed them both. He designed the High Level Bridge, at Newcastle upon Tyne as a two-deck bridge supported on tall stone columns. Rail traffic was carried on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower deck. Queen Victoria opened the bridge in 1849. Robert also designed the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed for the same line. It was an imposing viaduct of 28 arches and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850. At last the railway ran all the way from London to Edinburgh. In the same year Robert’s, Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, was opened. This bridge had the novel design of wrought-iron box-section tubes to carry railway line inside them, because a tubular design using wrought-iron gave the greatest strength and flexibility. The Conwy railway bridge between Llandudno Junction and Conwy was built in 1848 using a similar design. The Conway and Britannia bridges were such a success that Robert applied the design to other bridges, two in Egypt, and the 6,588 feet long Victoria Bridge over the St Lawrence River at Montreal in Canada. This was built as one long tube made up of 25 sections. Other bridges include, Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria, and a joint road and rail bridge in 1850 over the River Nene, at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire.
One of Stephenson's few failures was his design of the Dee bridge, which collapsed under a train. Five people were killed. He was heavily criticized for the design, even before the collapse, particularly for the poor choice of materials, which included cast iron. In fact, he had used cast iron for bridge designs before, as had Brunel, but in this case it is thought that he used longer girders (98 feet) than used previously and that this may have contributed to the failure. Robert had to give evidence at the inquest and this proved to be a harrowing experience. Fellow engineers such as Joseph Locke and Brunel refused to criticise Stephenson, even though they rarely used cast iron themselves.
[edit] Other aspects of his life
He served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death. Paradoxically, given his background, he was a right-wing Tory, hostile to free trade, and anxious to avoid change in almost any form. He was a commissioner of the short-lived London Metropolitan Commission of Sewers from 1848. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for two years from 1855.
Robert’s father George died in 1848 aged 67. Robert died on October 12 1859 at his London home aged 55. Brunel had died one month earlier on 15 September 1859. Robert was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Thomas Telford. Queen Victoria gave special permission for the cortege to pass through Hyde Park and 3,000 tickets were sold to spectators. In his eulogy, he was called ‘the greatest engineer of the present century’. In his will he left nearly £400.000.
Stephenson was well respected by his engineering peers and had a lifetime friendship with Joseph Locke, a rival engineer during his career. In fact, Locke was a pallbearer at his funeral. Another such friendship was with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who often helped Stephenson on various projects. One major topic, on which the two were very much opposed, was Brunel’s advocacy of ‘atmospheric’ railways; railways on which locomotives were driven by compressed air in sealed tubes. Stephenson was convinced that the idea would not work, and although it was tried out on a small scale in a few places, Stephenson was right.
The Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is named after George and Robert Stephenson.
[edit] In fiction
Stephenson appears as a character in the anime film Steamboy, in that world having apparently lived until 1866. In the English dub of the film his character also speaks with a rather posh stereotypical English accent and not the northern tones Stephenson used.
[edit] Trivia
* Irish band 'The Revs' wrote a song referencing Robert Stephenson - 'Robert'.
[edit] Bibliography
* Rolt, L.T.C. (1960) George and Robert Stephenson: The Railway Revolution, London: Penguin, ISBN 0-14-007646-8
* Robbins, Michael (1981) George and Robert Stephenson, London: Her majesty’s Stationery Office, ISBN 0-11-290342-8
* Haworth, Victoria (2004) Robert Stephenson: Engineer and Scientist, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: The Rocket Press, ISBN 0-9535-1621-0
* Smith, Ken (2003) Stephenson Power: The Story of George and Robert Stephenson, Newcastle upon Tyne: Tyne Bridge Publishing, ISBN 1857951867
* Dugan, Sally (2003) Men of Iron, London: Channel Four Books, ISBN 1-4050-3426-2
[edit] External links
* Portuguese written article about Robert Stephenson
* The Robert Stephenson Trust
* The Robert Stephenson Centre (with pictures)
* Robert Stephenson information at Structurae
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early life
* 2 Locomotive designer
* 3 Bridge builder
* 4 Other aspects of his life
* 5 In fiction
* 6 Trivia
* 7 Bibliography
* 8 External links
[edit] Early life
He was born in 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle, the only son of George Stephenson and his wife, Fanny. At the time, George and Fanny were living in a single room and George was working as a brakesman on a stationary colliery engine. In 1804 the family moved to a cottage in West Moor when George was made brakesman at Killingworth Colliery. In 1805 Fanny gave birth to a daughter who died after a few weeks. The next year Robert’s mother died of consumption. George then went and worked in Scotland for a short time, leaving the infant Robert with a local woman. However, George soon returned to West Moor, and his sister Nelly came to live at the cottage to look after Robert.
George had received virtually no formal education and he was determined that his son would have the education that he lacked. Because of his great aptitude for engineering, George was promoted in 1812 to be an enginewright, a skilled job with responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the colliery machinery. His wages were therefore much improved. Robert was sent to a primary school in Longbenton, near Killingworth until the age of eleven. He was then sent to Doctor Bruce’s Academy in Percy Street, Newcastle. This was a private institution and Robert would have been studying alongside the children of well-off families. Surprisingly his fellow pupils failed to see any remarkable signs of talent. Whilst at the Academy, Robert became a reading member of the nearby Literary and Philosophical Society.
Father and son studied together in the evenings, improving George’s understanding of science as well as Robert’s. They also built a sundial together, which they placed above the front door of their cottage. The cottage subsequently became known as Dial Cottage. It is preserved today as a monument to them.
[edit] Locomotive designer
After his education at the Bruce Academy, an apprenticeship to Nicolas Wood, the manager of Killingworth Colliery, and a period at the University of Edinburgh, Robert went to work with his father on his railway projects, the first being the Stockton and Darlington Railway. In 1823, when he was 20, Robert set up a company in partnership with his father, Michael Longridge and Edward Pease to build railway locomotives. The firm, Robert Stephenson and Company, was situated in South Street, off Forth Street in Newcastle. The works, known as the Forth Street Works, were the first locomotive works in the world, and it was here that the locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway were built. The first locomotives produced there were, Locomotion, Hope, Diligence and Black Diamond The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until the mid-twentieth century, and the original factory building still exists, at Forth Street in Newcastle, as the Robert Stephenson Centre. George used Locomotion in 1825 for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington line, which Robert had helped to survey.
In 1824, a year before the Stockton and Darlington line opened, Robert went off to South America for three years, to work as an engineer in the Colombian gold mines. His decision seems unusual, and there have been suggestions that it was caused by a rift with his father, but there is no evidence of this. When he returned in 1827, his father was building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. George was living in Liverpool directing proceedings, so Robert took charge at the Forth Street Works and worked on the development of a locomotive to compete in the forthcoming Rainhill Trials, intended to choose a locomotive design to be used on the new railway. The result was the Rocket, which had a multi-tubular boiler to obtain maximum steam pressure from the exhaust gases. Rocket competed successfully in the Rainhill Trials, none of its competitors completing the trial. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened in 1830 with a procession of eight trains setting out from Liverpool. George led the parade driving the Northumbrian, Robert drove the Phoenix and Joseph Locke drove the Rocket. Following its success, the company built locomotives for other newly-established railways, including the Leicester and Swannington Railway. It became necessary to extend the Forth Street Works to accommodate the increased work.
On 17 June 1829, Robert married Frances Sanderson in London. The couple went to live at 5 Greenfield Place, off Westgate Road in Newcastle. Unfortunately they were not married long. In 1842, Robert’s wife, Fanny as she was known, died. They had no children and Robert never re-married.
In 1830 Robert designed Planet, a much more advanced locomotive than Rocket. Stephenson’s company was experiencing stiff competition from other locomotive manufacturers. Up until then, locomotives had their cylinders placed outside the wheels, as this was the easiest arrangement. It was thought that, placing the cylinders inside the wheels was a more efficient arrangement and this was done on Planet. However there was thought to be an increased risk of broken crank axles. There was friction between Robert and his father over this question. The locomotive, when completed, was found to produce much more power than previous designs. It was used on the Camden and Amboy Railway in the USA.
In 1833 Robert was given the post of Chief Engineer for the London and Birmingham Railway, the first main-line railway to enter London, and the initial section of the West Coast Main Line. That same year Robert and Frances moved to London to live. The new line posed a number of difficult civil engineering challenges, most notably Kilsby Tunnel, and was completed in 1838. Stephenson was directly responsible for the tunnel under Primrose Hill, which required excavation by shafts. Early locomotives could not manage the climb from Euston Station to Chalk Farm, requiring Stephenson to devise a system that would be draw them up the hill by chains using a steam engine near The Roundhouse. This impressive structure remains in use today as an Arts Centre. The London and Birmingham Railway was completed at an enormous cost of £5.5 million, compared with the cost of £900,000 for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
[edit] Bridge builder
Robert constructed a number of well-known bridges to carry the new railway lines. In 1850 the railway from London to Scotland via Newcastle was completed. This required new bridges for both the Tyne and the Tweed and Robert designed them both. He designed the High Level Bridge, at Newcastle upon Tyne as a two-deck bridge supported on tall stone columns. Rail traffic was carried on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower deck. Queen Victoria opened the bridge in 1849. Robert also designed the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed for the same line. It was an imposing viaduct of 28 arches and was opened by Queen Victoria in 1850. At last the railway ran all the way from London to Edinburgh. In the same year Robert’s, Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, was opened. This bridge had the novel design of wrought-iron box-section tubes to carry railway line inside them, because a tubular design using wrought-iron gave the greatest strength and flexibility. The Conwy railway bridge between Llandudno Junction and Conwy was built in 1848 using a similar design. The Conway and Britannia bridges were such a success that Robert applied the design to other bridges, two in Egypt, and the 6,588 feet long Victoria Bridge over the St Lawrence River at Montreal in Canada. This was built as one long tube made up of 25 sections. Other bridges include, Arnside Viaduct in Cumbria, and a joint road and rail bridge in 1850 over the River Nene, at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire.
One of Stephenson's few failures was his design of the Dee bridge, which collapsed under a train. Five people were killed. He was heavily criticized for the design, even before the collapse, particularly for the poor choice of materials, which included cast iron. In fact, he had used cast iron for bridge designs before, as had Brunel, but in this case it is thought that he used longer girders (98 feet) than used previously and that this may have contributed to the failure. Robert had to give evidence at the inquest and this proved to be a harrowing experience. Fellow engineers such as Joseph Locke and Brunel refused to criticise Stephenson, even though they rarely used cast iron themselves.
[edit] Other aspects of his life
He served as Conservative Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death. Paradoxically, given his background, he was a right-wing Tory, hostile to free trade, and anxious to avoid change in almost any form. He was a commissioner of the short-lived London Metropolitan Commission of Sewers from 1848. He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for two years from 1855.
Robert’s father George died in 1848 aged 67. Robert died on October 12 1859 at his London home aged 55. Brunel had died one month earlier on 15 September 1859. Robert was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Thomas Telford. Queen Victoria gave special permission for the cortege to pass through Hyde Park and 3,000 tickets were sold to spectators. In his eulogy, he was called ‘the greatest engineer of the present century’. In his will he left nearly £400.000.
Stephenson was well respected by his engineering peers and had a lifetime friendship with Joseph Locke, a rival engineer during his career. In fact, Locke was a pallbearer at his funeral. Another such friendship was with Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who often helped Stephenson on various projects. One major topic, on which the two were very much opposed, was Brunel’s advocacy of ‘atmospheric’ railways; railways on which locomotives were driven by compressed air in sealed tubes. Stephenson was convinced that the idea would not work, and although it was tried out on a small scale in a few places, Stephenson was right.
The Stephenson Railway Museum in North Shields is named after George and Robert Stephenson.
[edit] In fiction
Stephenson appears as a character in the anime film Steamboy, in that world having apparently lived until 1866. In the English dub of the film his character also speaks with a rather posh stereotypical English accent and not the northern tones Stephenson used.
[edit] Trivia
* Irish band 'The Revs' wrote a song referencing Robert Stephenson - 'Robert'.
[edit] Bibliography
* Rolt, L.T.C. (1960) George and Robert Stephenson: The Railway Revolution, London: Penguin, ISBN 0-14-007646-8
* Robbins, Michael (1981) George and Robert Stephenson, London: Her majesty’s Stationery Office, ISBN 0-11-290342-8
* Haworth, Victoria (2004) Robert Stephenson: Engineer and Scientist, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: The Rocket Press, ISBN 0-9535-1621-0
* Smith, Ken (2003) Stephenson Power: The Story of George and Robert Stephenson, Newcastle upon Tyne: Tyne Bridge Publishing, ISBN 1857951867
* Dugan, Sally (2003) Men of Iron, London: Channel Four Books, ISBN 1-4050-3426-2
[edit] External links
* Portuguese written article about Robert Stephenson
* The Robert Stephenson Trust
* The Robert Stephenson Centre (with pictures)
* Robert Stephenson information at Structurae
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