So far all the mining stories I have posted put me in a pretty good light. That is natural because I told them to my children when they were small, and a father certainly wants his children to think of him in a favorable light. They are all strictly and completely true. However here is another true story which puts me in a less favorable light.
Before I arrived at the Four Aces Claim in late May of 1955, the company’s hired cat skinner (skilled Caterpillar bulldozer operator) had made a considerable network of roads in the Chinle shale. Since this formation is soft and thus erodes into a gentle slope, this was easy. Just blade along pushing what you cut over the side. With a D-8 this makes a roadway a bit over 8 feet wide (because of what is pushed over the side), more than adequate for a jeep. A second pass would be needed for roads on which our water truck could drive since it was very heavy when full.
I have always liked to drive fast. I am also inpatient. So one day I was driving to a place where a hired drilling crew was working. I drove too fast around a curve and got onto the edge of the roadbed which gave way. The jeep rolled about three times side-over-side down the gradual slope. Fortunately the company jeeps were fully enclosed with reinforced cabins. Thus I was a bit scared but completely unhurt. The jeep landed perfectly solidly on its side when it stopped rolling, so I easily climbed out the window that was up. I walked some distance in the hot sun to where I was going. Fortunately there was another company man on site that day. I told him what had happened “the outer edge of the road gave way under my jeep and it rolled down hill” absolutely true, but I probably did not go into detail on why it had happened. We drove back in his jeep. He was furious because I had not known enough to turn off the ignition. Thus an electrical spark could have ignited the leaking gasoline. Fortunately it hadn’t.
We got our bulldozer and the winch mounted on the back was enough to pull the jeep back onto the road. The top was pretty beat up, but I was able to drive it back to the little parking area in front of our tunnel.
We had no way to communicate with the outside world, so it was more than a week before our boss, my friend Dr. Richard V. Gaines, arrived on a periodic visit to the site. Of course he noted the banged up-jeep immediately. I was too embarrassed to explain what had happened until he asked. I knew I should have brought it up right away without making him ask.
I don’t remember the details of the sequel. I expect I drove the jeep up to Blanding and the company paid to have it completely fixed. These jeeps were fitted with quite a bit of expensive gear, so they were well worth fixing.
Dick Gaines hired me again the next year to be a Mining Engineer, so I guess I did not do many other bad things.
The only other negative thing I remember from that summer is completely psychological. I usually like the night and I enjoy being alone so I have spent many nights alone in the wilderness. However one night during a four-day period without seeing another human being at the Four Aces Claim, I became irrationally spooked. I did not do anything unusual, but I vividly recall my sense of dread. It was over in that one night.
For more than 70 years I have been a serious book collector (VERY impecunious at first). Now I need to begin clearing out my house of the over 7,000 books we have. The largest part are about the scientific exploration of the American West.
N.B. The date is the most recent date (going back from the present) where I have found the family name. In most cases when the name shows up again much earlier, I have not repeated it.
Palmer, Windle1841, Spencer1810, Froggatt1806, Wright1773, Fricknall1775, Sharpe1777, Ashmore1780, Smith1765, Johnson1750, Middleton1720, Norman1659, Fletcher1685
McDougall, Cowperthwaite, Tuthill1791, Hedden1772, Moor1735, Riggs1700, Ely1747, Mackrel1768, Perkins1715, Thurston1740, Goldsmith1746, Buchanan1680, Jones1668, Wells1666, Kinge1641, Burton1616, Gooch1584, Woolmer1560
Kitchell, Allen1773, Farrand1750, Minton1754, Bates1713, Ward1713, Hare1720, Bruen1679, Wheeler1695, Hayward1682, Bond1648 Kimball1635, Pierson1650, Lawrence1651, Sheaffe1602, Mitchell1618, Baldwin1628, Bates1610, Corbman1603, Bowle1575, Jordan1580, Barnes1540, Harman1536, Harwood1545, Holford1540, Bull1563, Halsey1591, Glover1583, Scott1596, Reynolds1580, Whatlock1568, Wells1572, Howard1532, Carey1540, Gamage1515, Morgan1529, Andrews1510, Booth1521, Brerton1505, King1533, Hunt1543, Kinge1519, Bryan1516, Boleyn1501, Otley1480, Hendley1480, Bryan1488, Bourchier1468, Tylney1477, Saint John1486, Whitney1497, Moleyns1424, Tailboys1462, Vaughan1457, Ap Dafydd(?)1474, Spencer1480, Leigh1460, Aylesbury1443, Milbourne1469, Dormer1460, Bulkeley1445, Carrington1480, Cheney1420, Heron1453, Touchet1431, Bradshaw1426, Mathew1440, Beeston1390, Warren1380 (Warenne1380), le Bruyn1396, Hulgreve1370, ç≈ Ipstone1400, Mowbray1391, Whalesborough1381, Tendring1365, Fitzalan1366, Rocheforde1366, Beaumont1363, Northwood1363, Raleigh1384, de Thorpe1388, de Hastings1352, Scales1339, Mylde1343, Segrave1338, Bohun1350, Bacon1336, Thornton1335, De Vere1334, Arderne1345, Stafford1345, Walesbreu1330, Stoke1362, Rosse1350, De Pilkington1340, de Hanham1347, de Praers1340, Hart1337, de Everingham1331, Hamaps1328, Eton1365, Hillary1325, Baynard1322, DeEaton1321, Wyleby1316, Lynford1315, De Bosco1314, Ufford1317, Plantagenet1320, Foliot1315?, Warren1313, Badlesmere1312, Lyne1309, de Saye1308, De Leigh1305, Eshe1298, DeNerford1292, DeStockport1291, Wichingham1290, DeFelton1289, Becard1288, Hengrave1288, De Cornwall1285, De Courtney1287, Norwich1286, Ros1280, Coleville1265, Pulford1260, Lusignan1255, Corbet1225, Fitzwalkelyn1235?, De Sanford1231, Zouche1211, Ferrers1182, Marshal1192, Valletort1191, Taillefer1188, Basset1180, De Clare1172, Montfort1155, Braose1149, Pantolph1162, Dunstanville1180, Biset1179, Quincy1178, Saunford1174, Nolebec1164, Toeni1158, Bagot1145, FitxBagot1120, De Peverel1114, O’Toole1114, Pitres1130, de Brampton1130, Cornwall1150, Gatinais1112, Talvas1110, Chaworth1101, Ferrers1100, Anjou1092, Maine1092, Vitre1069, Lancaster1088, Totnes1084, Neufmarche1096, Meolgte1085?, Venus1083, Evreux1082, Caper1080, Bourgogne1080, Baldrick1075, Chateau-du-Loir1055, Beaugency1030, Clare1050?, Beauffou1014, Borrel1000, de Tosney990, Eu990, Roucy985, Chevreuse980, Carcassonne975, Macon974, Chalons941, Caldecott925?, Eysteinsson912, Denmark885, Ardennes856, Aude850, Carolingian822, Auvergne832, Bosonid835, Amiens830, Rognvaldsdottir825, Aragon820, Olaffson816, Sigursdottir806, Welf805Gascona804, Gudrodsson800, Maasgau795, Kent784, Paris784, Autun780, Eysteinsdottir780, Sachsen775, Halfdansson770, Dagsdottir772, Blois770, Hornbach765, Schwaben758, Lombardia750, Charlemagne(747-813)Pamplons747, Eriksdottir730, Francs724,
One route of my descent from Charlemagne
Theodore Windle Palmer (1935-?), Elizabeth McDougall (1902-1972), Walter McDougall (1870-1961), Hugh McDougall (1834-1900), Julia Ann Kitchell (1804-1870), Joseph Kitchell (1779-1847), Abraham Kitcell (1736-1807), Joseph Kitchell (1711-1779), Sarah Bruen (1679-1745), John Bruen (1646-1695), Obadiah Bruen (1606-1680), John Bruen (1560-1625), Dorothy Holford (1540-1587), Thomas Holford (1520-1569), -?), Margery Brerton (1505-?), Ralph Brerton (1472-1520), Emma (Carrington) Brerton (1455-1520), John Carrington (1400-1453), Elizabeth Warren (1380- ?), Sir John III Warenne (1343-1387), Sir Edward DeWarenne (1321-1368), John Warenne ”Earl of Surrey” (1286-1347), William Warenne (1256-1286), John Warenne (1231-1305), William Warenne “5th Earl of Surrey”(1166-1240), Hamelin of Anjou “Vicomte, 5th Earl of Surrey, d’Anjou” Plantagenet) de Warren(1130-1202), Geoffrey V Anjou (1113-1151), Foulques V “The Young, Jerusalem” Anjou (1092-1144), Foulques IV “Fulkthe Rude”Anjou de Gatinais (1043-1109), Geoffrey II “Ferreol Hammer” (Gatinais) Anjou (1000-1046), Beatrice Macon (974-1002), Ermentrude “Adelaide” (Roucy) Reims (963-1005), Alberade Lorraine(930-973), Giselbert Lorraine (890-939), Hersent Carolingian (865-897), Charles II Carolingian (823-877), Lothaire I Italia Carolingian (795-855), Louis I “The fair, the pious” des Francs, Carolingian(778-840), Charlemagne
Rich, Davis, candee1784, Candee1761, Stevens1737, Sherman1740?, Merriam1700, Dunbar1701, Smith1712, Beecher1675, Bristol1649, Coit1640, Goodyear1654, Lamberton1640, Lewen1614, Baxter1575, Ogilvie1597, Halamore1590, Paynter1590, Denis1585, Sage1590, Antron1547, Thomas1573, Douglas1561, Leslie1539, Dighton1556, Walton1520, De Lacy1521, Sutherland1520, Gordon1510, Falconar1510, Mitchell1508, Keith1505, Erskine1513, Irvine1488, Mailing1500?, Dunbar1494, Wilton1480, Savile1496, Urquhart1485, Symmes1480, Wilkinson1475, Stansfield1449, Soothill1400, Gascoigne1404, Pilkington1383, Wyman1370, Thornhill1335, De Verdon1351, Mowbray1362, Capenhurst1348, Barden1346, DeWevers1335, Drakelowe1320, Franke1312, Musters1316, Thirkell1350, Mauduit1320, Bury1310, De Reresby1300, Becard1288, Radcliffe1280, Gawthorpe1267, Lungvillers1232, Fitzwilliam1313, De Greystoke1266, Ellis1288, Percy1285, Meschines1180, Newhall1240, de Beauchamp1229, Lacy1222, Neville1244, De Govis1258, De Plesley1235, Talboner1268, Bolton1222, Aldwaldley1260, Manston1240, De Clare1252, De Harcourt1285, Longespee1208, Marshal1200, Quincy1208, Baliol1200, Goldthorpe1305, Salisbury1191, Hillum1184, De Stuteville1162, Aubigny1174, Veteripont1185, Gloucester1160, Brus1160, de Berkeley1170, Bruce1165, Vitre1164, Fitzpatrick1150, MacMurrough1145, Coucy1107, Mercia1074, Fitzrobert1130, Leuven1121, DeMeschines1145, Picquingy1138, Uchtred1144, De Saint Hilary1132, Gand1120, Galloway1118, Dunbar1126, de Clare1156, Folketon1110, Caenmor1109, Aumale1103, Meschines1102, DeMortimer1100, Mandeville1140, Montihery1080, DeBalliol1079, Bourgogne1078, Montgomerie1074, Betuwe1023, Clermont1058, Lascelles1050, DeBurgundy1040, Pagnel1076, Champagne1070, Flaitel1040, Gournay1035, Montdidier1045, Giffard1034, Bretagne1034, Fitzwilliam1074, Marle1054, Avaranches1046, Brusse1036, Boves1022, Hesbaye778, 1020, Paynel1020, Fontenay1045, Picquigny1042, De Crecy1040, Luxembourg1028, St Sauveur1016, Normandie1000, Falaise1003, Kiev1011, Auvergne992, Paganell990, Avranches1054, Fitzgilbert1007, DePinkey1023, Sigurdsson987, Regenwaldsdatter990, DeReviers988, Svyatoslavich960, Porphyrogenta963, d’Anjou = de Bretagne952, de Blois983, Brionne953, Alberada975, Provence973, Hlodvirsson960, MacAlpin970, Lubech944, Flanders941, Romanus938, Theophano940?, Lekapene940, Karbonopsina940?, Lorraine935, Flandre889, Sachsen913, Senlis911, Bourges887, Ringelheim878, Bayeux872, France871, Franken870, Carolingian865, Morvois862, Friesland858, Vermandois910, Robrtian890, Wessex877, De Haithabu834, Friuli837, Moselle830, Italia830, Orleans830, Bobbio820, Paris820, Billung806, Welf805, Klak800, Liutfride800, Helgesdatter800, Danmark852, Wettin788, , Grapfield800, Cunegonde797, Toulouse797, Jutland799, Fridleifsson796, de Alsace790, Aquitaine790, De Gellone785, Franks784, Fezensac782, Haraldsson781, de Artois780, Hesbaye778, deSaxony775, Sens770, von Riparian770, Hornbach774, Dreini760, Schwaben758, Worms755, Charlemagne(747 to 813), von Wormsgau745, Austrasia734, de Laon732, Lambert720, Bayern758,
Another route of my descent from Charlemagne
Theodore Windle Palmer (1935-?), Elizabeth McDougall (1902-1972), Grace Gilbert Davis (1866-1926), Theodore Rich Davis (1839-1890), Harriet Newell Rich (1815-1876), Angelina Painter (1784-1856), Thomas Painter (1760-1847), Joseph Painter (1731-1766), Shubal Painter (1698-1785), Thomas Painter (1670-1747), Mercy Lamberton (1640-1677), George Lamberton (1604-1646), Christopher Lamberton (1570-1621), Cassandre Dighton (1556-1618), Agnes De Lacy (1521-1584), Agnes Savile (1496-1568), Nichoolas Savile (1470-1500), Nichoolas Savile (1440-1477??), Anne Gascoigne (1404-1482), William Gascoigne (1380-1422), Elizabeth Gascoigne (1362-1396), Elizabeth Mowbray (1340-1391), Alexander Mowbray (1314-1368), John Mowbray (1286-1322), Roger de Mowbray (1254-1297), Roger Mowbray (1220-1266), William Mowbray (1178-1223), Nigel “Nele” de Mowbray (1146- 1191), Nigel Aubigny (1064-1129), Roger Mowbray (1119-1188), Roger Aubigny (1036-1084), William d’Aubigny (1010-1056), Neil Saint Saveur 980??-1040), Roger St Sauver (940-1026), Spota Senlis (911-972), Hubert of Senlis (911-972), Pepin Senlis (876-922), Pepin II de Vermandois (839-893), Pepin I “Count of Senlis Peronne and St. Quentin” Vermandois (815-893) Bernard III Carolingian (797-818), Pepin I Carloman Carolingian (767-810), Charlemagne (747-813)
Hale, Warner1787, Knowlton1750, Watkins1728, Metcalf1710, Bicknell1720, Hathaway1690, Tiffany1698, Robinson1696, Leffingwell1672, Adams1695, Noyes1655, Burt1667, Smith1669, Goodhue1670, Boltwood1649, Bushnell1650?, Kenrick1652, Bradford1661, Loring1660?, Cutter1610, Brown1630?, Shepard1629, Dorman1674, Leffingwell1672, Boltwood1649, Grant1637, Wilson1613?, Humphrey1601, Gernor1626, Fairbanks1625?, Richards1627, Cantize1556, Leigh1538, Holden1520, Purchase1556, Holland1575, Bond1555, Lambert1540, Kreables1530?, Winterfloord1551, Hobbe1551, Carpenter1590, Hanson1562, Dillen1562 Morton1536, Gresham1536, Barker1525, Bluther1522, Blake1555, Mitchell1508, Turvin1504, Markham1502, Thorne1520?, Littleton1501, Hill1500, Wrington?1498?, Bourman1497, Wilburgham1400, GFoulthures1252, raham1456, Sprencheaux1450, Savage1450, Coles1469, Whiting1480?, Ashton1431, Stanley1430, Ridley1425, Wynnesbury1424, Wallop1416, Southwyn1415, Ripple1460, Swetenham1413, Bird1410, Brerton1486, Goushill1405, Byron1393, De Overton1390?, Golborne1389, Glover1387, Carpentier1303, Harrington1386, DeWarenne1378, Venables1375, Fitzalan1366, Swynnerton1375, Deweavers1363, Longslow1330, Bickerton1320, DeHull1320, Thornton1318, DeMalpas1359, DeCheney1359, Lebird1357, Beke1355, Hulme1355, de Buntingsdale1352, Egerton1348, Danyers1348, Liskeard1303, Ford1322, Crossley1275?, De Vernables1226, De Tourmignies1219, Brabant1200, Gelre1187, Alsace1163, Dunkeld1145, Bayern1169, Limburg1139, De Gouye1070, Armagnac1045, Vedome1017, De Melun1042, Rheinbeck1117, De Gueldres1117, Arnstein1128, Wittelsbach1140, Looz1151, Loraine1142, Sulzbach1109, Saffenberg1113, d’Anjou1105, Boulogne1104, Von Northeim1079, Huntingdon1074, Capet1080, Von Wassenberg1091, Zutphen1090, Odenkirchen1100, Lengenfeld1125, de Looz1120, Gueldres1117, Sachsen1054, Formbach1050, Atheling1045, Lens1054, Vermandois1065
Barnes, Gill1797, Foote1772, Wooding1727, Cooper1731, Bishop1745, Leek1685, Sperry1694, Potter1698, Mansfield1702, Harrison1715, Hubbard1655, Hitcheson1660?, Peck1672, Leek1611, Thomas1675, Rose1673, Curtis1640, Bracy1634, Bisby1610, Thompson1650?, Parker1645, Potter1637, Drake1610,
I do not know who all my pictures disappear. I will try to post them separately.
I have just built two new three dimensional puzzles for the Oregon Mozart Players Auction on April 7. I call them Chinese puzzles because my mother’s father had a number of similar puzzles given to him by missionaries in China. I am surprised not to see anything quite like these on the inter-net. Here are pictures showing the 32 pieces in each puzzle.
Puzzle #1: The cover on this puzzle is Cocobolo. (Dalbergia retusa) family Fabaceae (bean family, Leguminosae for old folks like me) from Central America.
Both puzzles have a simple red oak box which van be slipped over them when they are assembled on the cover provided
The picture below shows the Puzzle #1 partially assembled. In reality one should always start from one flat face on the cover and build up to the opposite flat face.
Puzzle #2 below with a cover of fragrant Verawood, Bulnesia arborea family Zygophyllaceae from Central and South America. The fragrance lasts for years.
Puzzle #2 partially assembled.
The puzzle pieces are cut out of a block of thin pieces of interesting woods glued together. Here is the list of woods I used.
Bocote = Cordia spp. family Boraginaceae from Mexico and Central America
Lacewood = Cardwellia sublimis family Proteaceae from Australia.
Purpleheart = Peltogyne spp. family Proteaceae from Central and South America.
Redheart = Erythroxylum spp. family Erythroxylaceae from Central and South America.
Red Oak = Quercus rubra Northeastern US and Canada
Rosewood = Dalbergia nigra family Fabaceae from the tropics worldwide.
Yellowheart = Euxylophora paraensis, family Rutaceae from Brazil.
Many people find these three dimensional puzzles hard to assemble. They come in a box with a lid. The puzzle should be assembled on the lid and then the box can be slid over it. I am willing to put the puzzle together up to three times over the next year. If this is actually needed I will give hints to make the process easier.
Come to the Auction and BID!!
I have written previously of this famous, tragic historical story. So many historical stories that are too-good-to-be-true are not true, but the Emperor Ming Huang really did have to escape to Shu losing his beloved early in the trip.
I have also written previously about the subtle meaning of the Chinese word for blue-green.
I don’t have all the volumes of “Science and Civilization in China” because it really is expensive, but I do have most of them, as well as the full set of the condensation. Joseph Needham seems almost superhuman, and I enjoyed learning more about him from Simon Winchester, whose other books are also interesting.
[[More than enough for today!]]
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May 11, 2008
The Road to Shu 蜀への道
And speaking of the Road to Shu– while I fear my traveling days are behind me (at least for awhile), still I cannot help, in splendid longing, to hope one day to see the Kingdom of Shu.
The Kingdom of Shu.
Divided from the rest of the empire by tall mountains and deep valleys, it has long been a place of exile where emperors and kings sent those in disfavor. Our monk Xuanzang, himself, fled to Chengdu when the Sui dynasty collapsed in 618. Countless many of China’s famed scholar-artists have traveled there as well– either in forced or in self-exile. Living in rustic huts, these scholar-artists composed some of the finest poetry and calligraphy in Chinese history.
It should come as no surprise, then, that our Tang Emperor would flee West into the mountains of Shu when the time came to escape certain death at the hands of An Lushan and his men.
The Metropolitan Museum has a famous Tang painting called Emperor Xuanzong’s Flight to Shu. Unfortunately, I can’t find an online reproduction. Somehow, though, even without the actual image in front of me, I can still see them there in my mind: the Emperor and his party on the Road to Shu. In what is a Tang processional painting, there is a long line of men on horseback, each carrying banners of the emperor or weapons (swords or bow and arrows)– except for one lonely figure in brilliant crimsome robes. The Emperor. His head is turned back in the direction from which they had just come. Probably trying to get one last glimpse of his beloved– now dead.
Tang poet Bai Juyi (Pai Chu’i 白居易, or HAKURAKUTEN 白楽天) wrote of the Emperor’s tremendous lonliness:
His majesty, covering his face, could not save her,
He turned to look back, his face streaming with blood and tears…
Under Mount Emei, a scattering of marching men,
Flags and banners colorless in the fading sunset
君 王 掩 面 救 不 得。回 看 血 淚 相 和 流。黃 埃 散 漫 風 蕭 索。雲 棧 縈 紆 登劍 閣。 峨 嵋 山 下 少 人 行。旌 旗 無 光 日 色 薄。
Known for its silk broacdes and bamboo products. I think it was the Han Emperor’s man Zhang Qian, who during his miraculous Journey West (even earlier than Xuanzang’s great journey) was stunned to find the products of Shu in the markets of Daxia (the ancient Greek state of Bacrtia). He was baffled to find Chinese products this far West– especially considering the Xiongnu (sometimes perhaps erroneously referred to as the Huns) had placed a huge trade embargo on any movement of goods in the area. How did they get past the barbarians, he wondered?
Well, apprently there was an alternate route (isn’t there always?) west through India.
The Brocades of Shu (蜀錦) have been legendary for 2000 years for their vibrant colors. Shipped far and wide, one of my books has a map showing the route they traveled to market– from Chengdu, they moved east to Chang’an; then from Chang’an west through the Jade Gate (and most probably also east toward Japan). The other “unofficial” route (the one that so intrigued the Han Emperor) was south from Chengdu to Kunming and then straight west into India, moving north to Bactria.
“Green waters and blue mountains– the Road to Shu was hard “
As Shu waters flow green, Shu mountains show blue,
His majesty’s love remained, deeper than the new.
White moon of loneliness, cold moon of exile.
Bell-chimes in evening rain were bronze-edged heartbeats.
蜀江水碧蜀山青， 聖主朝朝暮暮情。 行宮見月傷心色， 夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。 天旋地轉迴龍馭， 到此躊躇不能去
**
May 12,
The day after I wrote this post, Sichuan was hit by a massive earthquake. A whopping 8 magnitude earthquake, the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake caused 40,000 plus deaths. The images on the news each night of the collapsed schools are heartbreaking.
**
A few days later– with Shu still unshakeably on my mind– I inadvertently purchased my first-ever audio book, The Man Who Loved China. I have long felt a kind of aversion to audio books, but had been debating buying this particular one since I didn’t particularly want to wait for the paperback edition to come out. A few accidental clicks and flicks and it was downloaded before I even realized what was happening… (the story of my life!)
Simon Winchester is a man attracted– it seems– by natural disasters and maverick scholars. His book on the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary is one I have also been meaning to read for years. In fact, I have been meaning to read many of Winchester’s books for years.
For the audio book, the author himself is narrating the story– which if you haven’t heard about it already– is on the life of Joseph Needham, most famous for his monumental Science and Civilization of China series. The many volumes of the series are quoted in so much of everything you read in English about China– they are also incredibly expensive books– all 15 or so volumes.
One reviewer remarked that
“Science and Civilisation in China” is a work so massive and so detailed it is almost impossible to imagine reading all of it, much less writing it, even if it does rank, as Needham biographer Simon Winchester writes in “The Man Who Loved China,” “among the great intellectual accomplishments of all time.”
I’ve only just started listening, but the early part of the story also happens to take place in Sichuan– during the 1940s. This was before Chongqing was the super mega-city it is today. (Chongqing is no longer even part of Sichuan — reporting directly to Beijing like a Province). At the time Needham arrived (traveling to Western China over The Hump from Calcutta), Chongqing was the capital of China– itself in exile.
It was the city not only of the government-in-exile, but was the place where all the country’s intellectuals, scientists and revolutionaries had fled. It was also where a large portion of the art collection had been hand-carried and then hidden in caves in the surrounding hills. Lying along the Yangzi, the city was known for its spicy food, exquisite brocades and pretty women. It was also known for the hundreds of slimy steps leading up to the city from the river.
Arriving, Needham was in bliss. After nearly half a lifetime of studying all things Chinese (not to mention being deeply in love with a Chinese woman), Needham remarked in his diary during his first few days in Chongqing that,
It was the China of which he dreamed. He stepped of the plane at Kunming’s military airstrip into a crisp early spring afternoon…Everything seems so strangely familiar– after having thought of China for so long. And yet, it is also like a dream.
By the time he reached the ornate buildings of the consulate, he was immediately and uncontrollably happy; everything instantly delightful…
If you haven’t noticed, this is a love story. Chongqing was (as Barthes wrote about Paris) Adorable– and China was the beloved.
And, being a love affair (because, yes, I believe people can fall in love with places every bit as much as they can with people) the reviewer’s compaint below, I think is unwarranted– indeed, I think what has become known as “Needham’s Grand Question” is the less interesting aspect of the story; indeed the question itself is deeply flawed, I think.
So there is much to learn from “The Man Who Loved China,” an enjoyable, breezy read, well suited for reading on the chaise longue, gin-and-tonic in hand. But there is also a telling, unresolved paradox running through Winchester’s tale. After an early and hugely successful career as a biochemist, capped off by being named a member of the ultra-prestigious Royal Society at the tender age of 41, Needham devoted the remainder of his life to, on the one hand, documenting how technologically far ahead China had been for millennia when compared to the West, and on the other hand, striving to understand why Europe suddenly jumped in front — a monumental tectonic shift that dominates the reality of globalization to this day.
That, again, is “the Needham question,” and the great irony is that despite the 24 volumes, 15,000 pages and 3 million words written by Needham and his collaborators and successors, we still don’t have a satisfactory answer to that question. It could be that very indeterminacy that explains why Winchester devotes far more time to telling us about Needham’s rambunctious, irrepressible love life and his freewheeling socialist politics than he does to teasing out the implications of this central conundrum. If Needham was baffled, what hope for a mere biographer? But that’s a shame, because the Needham question is a challenge that forces all students of China, or, for that matter, students of the history of science, or of history in general, to wrinkle their brow. A truly satisfactory appraisal of Needham’s life would make “the Needham question” a central theme, rather than sequester it off in a few paragraphs in an epilogue.
Couldn’t disagree more.
I haven’t gotten to the end which is where Winchester apparently tries to tackle the Big Question. However, Jonathon Dresner at Frog in a Well explains the hype in his post Needling Needham. You can follow the links if you’re interested. His response to Winchester’s NYT op-ed is short but sweet– in one paragraph he pretty much takes care of the “needling” question—- that is, if one even accepts that the Question (which begs several questions in itself) is a valid one in the first place. See this, for example.
Why didn’t China invent the steam engine? Was China even on that particular technological course? And does scientific development happen in a vacuum anyway? It’s kind of like spending time wondering why Japan isn’t Canada? Yes, expatriats do sit around pondering questions which boil down to just that.
**
The Road to Shu is Hard. Another Tang dynasty poem, it was written by Li Bai (李白). Yes, the road to Shu is hard. It is so today as much as ever it seems. One of my favorite translations of the famous poem is by Vikram Seth. Another version here is also worth looking at.
The Road to Shu is Hard
Ah! it’s fearsome–oh! it’s high!
The Road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the sky.
The Kings Can Cong and Yu Fu
Founded long ago the land of Shu
Then for forty-eight thousand years
Nothing linked it to Qin frontiers.
White Star Peak blocked the western way.
A bird tried to cut across Mount Emei–
And only when the earth shook, hills collapsed , and brave
men died
Did cliff roads and sky-ladders join it to the outside.
噫吁戯危乎高哉 ああ ああ 危ういかな 高いかな、
蜀道之難難於上青天 蜀道の難きは 青天に上るよりも難し、
蠶叢乃魚鳬 蠶叢（さんそう）と魚鳧（ぎょふ）と、
開国何茫然 国を開く 何ぞ茫然たる。
爾来四萬八千歳 爾来 四萬八千歳、
不興秦塞通人煙 秦塞（しんさい）と人煙を通ぜず。
西當太白有鳥道 西のかた 太白に当って鳥道あり、
可以横絶峨眉巓 以て峨眉の巓（いただき）を横絶すべし
地崩山摧壮士死 地は崩れ山は摧（くだ）けて壮士死し、
然後天梯石桟相鉤連 然るのち天梯石桟 相鉤連す。
**
On Green Waters and Blue Mountains (青緑山水)
Finally, before I quit Shu for the night– this is from another blog I stumbled upon explaining the wondrous colors of the Ming dynasty painting at the top of the page. T, who was also quitestruck by the painting, said, “It seems to depicts that preceise moment up on the mountain when Xuanzong lost both his country and his beloved. Gazing at the picture is almost like being able to participate in history itself.”
More than the painting, I think the famous Ming work of calligraphy (also part of the John B. Elliot Collection) below is unsurpassed in its swiftly descending and wildly commanding strokes for expressing the great emotion of “the moment” when all was lost.
Behold for yourself below:
The five traditional colours in China are white, black, red, yellow and blue-green. These correspond to metal, water, fire, earth and wood. The blue-green colour, qīng (青), is discussed in a footnote to John Minford’s translation of the Pu Songling story ‘The Snake Charmer’. Minford says that qīng is defined in dictionaries as “the colour of nature, a dark neutral tint, green, bluish-green, greenish-blue, blue, grey, black etc… when used of bamboo, hemp, peas, plums, moss, grass, olives, dragons, flies and tea, it is green; of the sky, the collar, orchids and porcelain, it is blue; of oxen and foxes, horses, cloth and hair, it is black.” The word qīng is used to describe the moss in Wang Wei’s poem ‘Deer Park.’
The painter Li Zhaodao (Li Chao-tao) was a contemporary of Wang Wei in early eighth century China. He was one of the originators of the qinglu (blue and green) style of landscape painting, which the JAANUS site describes as’heavily colored with mineral pigments, especially blue azurite *gunjou 群青 and green malachite *rokushou 緑青’ and ‘which pays much attention to realistic detail rather than seeking to create an atmospheric impression.’ Perhaps the most famous Tang dynasty blue and green landscape is The Emperor Ming-huang’s Journey to Shu, a copy of a composition sometimes attributed to Li Zhaodao.
![Photo: I am embarrassed to so blatantly plagiarize another person's essay, but so much of what is said here is very close to what I would have said if I had been writing. For reasons unknown (unknowable?) to me the picture of the Emperor Ming Huang's Journey to Shu is at the end not the beginning. This particular copy of one of the greatest of Tang Dynasty paintings is from the Freer Gallery. For years I had a reproduction hanging on my wall of a copy from the part of the Palace Museum collection which had stayed in Beijing, but unfortunately the print colors were not fast and the sun faded it until it was a poor reproduction of the luxurious original.
I have written previously of this famous, tragic historical story. So many historical stories that are too-good-to-be-true are not true, but the Emperor Ming Huang really did have to escape to Shu losing his beloved early in the trip.
I have also written previously about the subtle meaning of the Chinese word for blue-green.
I don't have all the volumes of "Science and Civilization in China" because it really is expensive, but I do have most of them, as well as the full set of the condensation. Joseph Needham seems almost superhuman, and I enjoyed learning more about him from Simon Winchester, whose other books are also interesting.
[[More than enough for today!]]
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May 11, 2008
The Road to Shu 蜀への道
And speaking of the Road to Shu-- while I fear my traveling days are behind me (at least for awhile), still I cannot help, in splendid longing, to hope one day to see the Kingdom of Shu.
The Kingdom of Shu.
Divided from the rest of the empire by tall mountains and deep valleys, it has long been a place of exile where emperors and kings sent those in disfavor. Our monk Xuanzang, himself, fled to Chengdu when the Sui dynasty collapsed in 618. Countless many of China's famed scholar-artists have traveled there as well-- either in forced or in self-exile. Living in rustic huts, these scholar-artists composed some of the finest poetry and calligraphy in Chinese history.
It should come as no surprise, then, that our Tang Emperor would flee West into the mountains of Shu when the time came to escape certain death at the hands of An Lushan and his men.
The Metropolitan Museum has a famous Tang painting called Emperor Xuanzong's Flight to Shu. Unfortunately, I can't find an online reproduction. Somehow, though, even without the actual image in front of me, I can still see them there in my mind: the Emperor and his party on the Road to Shu. In what is a Tang processional painting, there is a long line of men on horseback, each carrying banners of the emperor or weapons (swords or bow and arrows)-- except for one lonely figure in brilliant crimsome robes. The Emperor. His head is turned back in the direction from which they had just come. Probably trying to get one last glimpse of his beloved-- now dead.
Tang poet Bai Juyi (Pai Chu'i 白居易, or HAKURAKUTEN 白楽天) wrote of the Emperor's tremendous lonliness:
His majesty, covering his face, could not save her,
He turned to look back, his face streaming with blood and tears...
Under Mount Emei, a scattering of marching men,
Flags and banners colorless in the fading sunset
君 王 掩 面 救 不 得。回 看 血 淚 相 和 流。黃 埃 散 漫 風 蕭 索。雲 棧 縈 紆 登劍 閣。 峨 嵋 山 下 少 人 行。旌 旗 無 光 日 色 薄。
Known for its silk broacdes and bamboo products. I think it was the Han Emperor's man Zhang Qian, who during his miraculous Journey West (even earlier than Xuanzang's great journey) was stunned to find the products of Shu in the markets of Daxia (the ancient Greek state of Bacrtia). He was baffled to find Chinese products this far West-- especially considering the Xiongnu (sometimes perhaps erroneously referred to as the Huns) had placed a huge trade embargo on any movement of goods in the area. How did they get past the barbarians, he wondered?
Well, apprently there was an alternate route (isn't there always?) west through India.
The Brocades of Shu (蜀錦) have been legendary for 2000 years for their vibrant colors. Shipped far and wide, one of my books has a map showing the route they traveled to market-- from Chengdu, they moved east to Chang'an; then from Chang'an west through the Jade Gate (and most probably also east toward Japan). The other "unofficial" route (the one that so intrigued the Han Emperor) was south from Chengdu to Kunming and then straight west into India, moving north to Bactria.
"Green waters and blue mountains-- the Road to Shu was hard "
As Shu waters flow green, Shu mountains show blue,
His majesty's love remained, deeper than the new.
White moon of loneliness, cold moon of exile.
Bell-chimes in evening rain were bronze-edged heartbeats.
蜀江水碧蜀山青， 聖主朝朝暮暮情。 行宮見月傷心色， 夜雨聞鈴腸斷聲。 天旋地轉迴龍馭， 到此躊躇不能去
**
May 12,
The day after I wrote this post, Sichuan was hit by a massive earthquake. A whopping 8 magnitude earthquake, the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake caused 40,000 plus deaths. The images on the news each night of the collapsed schools are heartbreaking.
**
A few days later-- with Shu still unshakeably on my mind-- I inadvertently purchased my first-ever audio book, The Man Who Loved China. I have long felt a kind of aversion to audio books, but had been debating buying this particular one since I didn't particularly want to wait for the paperback edition to come out. A few accidental clicks and flicks and it was downloaded before I even realized what was happening... (the story of my life!)
Simon Winchester is a man attracted-- it seems-- by natural disasters and maverick scholars. His book on the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary is one I have also been meaning to read for years. In fact, I have been meaning to read many of Winchester's books for years.
For the audio book, the author himself is narrating the story-- which if you haven't heard about it already-- is on the life of Joseph Needham, most famous for his monumental Science and Civilization of China series. The many volumes of the series are quoted in so much of everything you read in English about China-- they are also incredibly expensive books-- all 15 or so volumes.
One reviewer remarked that
"Science and Civilisation in China" is a work so massive and so detailed it is almost impossible to imagine reading all of it, much less writing it, even if it does rank, as Needham biographer Simon Winchester writes in "The Man Who Loved China," "among the great intellectual accomplishments of all time."
I've only just started listening, but the early part of the story also happens to take place in Sichuan-- during the 1940s. This was before Chongqing was the super mega-city it is today. (Chongqing is no longer even part of Sichuan -- reporting directly to Beijing like a Province). At the time Needham arrived (traveling to Western China over The Hump from Calcutta), Chongqing was the capital of China-- itself in exile.
It was the city not only of the government-in-exile, but was the place where all the country's intellectuals, scientists and revolutionaries had fled. It was also where a large portion of the art collection had been hand-carried and then hidden in caves in the surrounding hills. Lying along the Yangzi, the city was known for its spicy food, exquisite brocades and pretty women. It was also known for the hundreds of slimy steps leading up to the city from the river.
Arriving, Needham was in bliss. After nearly half a lifetime of studying all things Chinese (not to mention being deeply in love with a Chinese woman), Needham remarked in his diary during his first few days in Chongqing that,
It was the China of which he dreamed. He stepped of the plane at Kunming's military airstrip into a crisp early spring afternoon...Everything seems so strangely familiar-- after having thought of China for so long. And yet, it is also like a dream.
By the time he reached the ornate buildings of the consulate, he was immediately and uncontrollably happy; everything instantly delightful...
If you haven't noticed, this is a love story. Chongqing was (as Barthes wrote about Paris) Adorable-- and China was the beloved.
And, being a love affair (because, yes, I believe people can fall in love with places every bit as much as they can with people) the reviewer's compaint below, I think is unwarranted-- indeed, I think what has become known as "Needham's Grand Question" is the less interesting aspect of the story; indeed the question itself is deeply flawed, I think.
So there is much to learn from "The Man Who Loved China," an enjoyable, breezy read, well suited for reading on the chaise longue, gin-and-tonic in hand. But there is also a telling, unresolved paradox running through Winchester's tale. After an early and hugely successful career as a biochemist, capped off by being named a member of the ultra-prestigious Royal Society at the tender age of 41, Needham devoted the remainder of his life to, on the one hand, documenting how technologically far ahead China had been for millennia when compared to the West, and on the other hand, striving to understand why Europe suddenly jumped in front -- a monumental tectonic shift that dominates the reality of globalization to this day.
That, again, is "the Needham question," and the great irony is that despite the 24 volumes, 15,000 pages and 3 million words written by Needham and his collaborators and successors, we still don't have a satisfactory answer to that question. It could be that very indeterminacy that explains why Winchester devotes far more time to telling us about Needham's rambunctious, irrepressible love life and his freewheeling socialist politics than he does to teasing out the implications of this central conundrum. If Needham was baffled, what hope for a mere biographer? But that's a shame, because the Needham question is a challenge that forces all students of China, or, for that matter, students of the history of science, or of history in general, to wrinkle their brow. A truly satisfactory appraisal of Needham's life would make "the Needham question" a central theme, rather than sequester it off in a few paragraphs in an epilogue.
Couldn't disagree more.
I haven't gotten to the end which is where Winchester apparently tries to tackle the Big Question. However, Jonathon Dresner at Frog in a Well explains the hype in his post Needling Needham. You can follow the links if you're interested. His response to Winchester's NYT op-ed is short but sweet-- in one paragraph he pretty much takes care of the "needling" question---- that is, if one even accepts that the Question (which begs several questions in itself) is a valid one in the first place. See this, for example.
Why didn't China invent the steam engine? Was China even on that particular technological course? And does scientific development happen in a vacuum anyway? It's kind of like spending time wondering why Japan isn't Canada? Yes, expatriats do sit around pondering questions which boil down to just that.
**
The Road to Shu is Hard. Another Tang dynasty poem, it was written by Li Bai (李白). Yes, the road to Shu is hard. It is so today as much as ever it seems. One of my favorite translations of the famous poem is by Vikram Seth. Another version here is also worth looking at.
The Road to Shu is Hard
Ah! it's fearsome--oh! it's high!
The Road to Shu is hard, harder than climbing to the sky.
The Kings Can Cong and Yu Fu
Founded long ago the land of Shu
Then for forty-eight thousand years
Nothing linked it to Qin frontiers.
White Star Peak blocked the western way.
A bird tried to cut across Mount Emei--
And only when the earth shook, hills collapsed , and brave
men died
Did cliff roads and sky-ladders join it to the outside.
噫吁戯危乎高哉 ああ ああ 危ういかな 高いかな、
蜀道之難難於上青天 蜀道の難きは 青天に上るよりも難し、
蠶叢乃魚鳬 蠶叢（さんそう）と魚鳧（ぎょふ）と、
開国何茫然 国を開く 何ぞ茫然たる。
爾来四萬八千歳 爾来 四萬八千歳、
不興秦塞通人煙 秦塞（しんさい）と人煙を通ぜず。
西當太白有鳥道 西のかた 太白に当って鳥道あり、
可以横絶峨眉巓 以て峨眉の巓（いただき）を横絶すべし
地崩山摧壮士死 地は崩れ山は摧（くだ）けて壮士死し、
然後天梯石桟相鉤連 然るのち天梯石桟 相鉤連す。
**
On Green Waters and Blue Mountains (青緑山水)
Finally, before I quit Shu for the night-- this is from another blog I stumbled upon explaining the wondrous colors of the Ming dynasty painting at the top of the page. T, who was also quitestruck by the painting, said, "It seems to depicts that preceise moment up on the mountain when Xuanzong lost both his country and his beloved. Gazing at the picture is almost like being able to participate in history itself."
More than the painting, I think the famous Ming work of calligraphy (also part of the John B. Elliot Collection) below is unsurpassed in its swiftly descending and wildly commanding strokes for expressing the great emotion of "the moment" when all was lost.
Behold for yourself below:
The five traditional colours in China are white, black, red, yellow and blue-green. These correspond to metal, water, fire, earth and wood. The blue-green colour, qīng (青), is discussed in a footnote to John Minford's translation of the Pu Songling story 'The Snake Charmer'. Minford says that qīng is defined in dictionaries as "the colour of nature, a dark neutral tint, green, bluish-green, greenish-blue, blue, grey, black etc... when used of bamboo, hemp, peas, plums, moss, grass, olives, dragons, flies and tea, it is green; of the sky, the collar, orchids and porcelain, it is blue; of oxen and foxes, horses, cloth and hair, it is black." The word qīng is used to describe the moss in Wang Wei's poem 'Deer Park.'
The painter Li Zhaodao (Li Chao-tao) was a contemporary of Wang Wei in early eighth century China. He was one of the originators of the qinglu (blue and green) style of landscape painting, which the JAANUS site describes as'heavily colored with mineral pigments, especially blue azurite *gunjou 群青 and green malachite *rokushou 緑青' and 'which pays much attention to realistic detail rather than seeking to create an atmospheric impression.' Perhaps the most famous Tang dynasty blue and green landscape is The Emperor Ming-huang's Journey to Shu, a copy of a composition sometimes attributed to Li Zhaodao.](https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/p480x480/576147_535193026532070_1189046693_n.jpg)
I hope to send this message to a number of friends individually over the next few days, but I will post it for the Facebook world. These will be nice events, but each of the organizations also needs your support through tickets or contributions.
http://www.oregonmozartplayers.org/auction/index.asp
Here is the menu (with the nice formatting all lost):
Theodore W. Palmer
Mathematical Ancestry
A list of my doctoral advisor, his doctoral advisor, his doctoral advisor, etc. as far back as records have been found. This is not a single list because quite a few people had more than one advisor. I follow the Mathematical Genealogy Project on multiple advisors without question. The letters and numbers on the left side give various ancestry chains with the number always denoting how many generations the person is before me. Each list is given with the oldest entry on top and the most recent entry on the bottom. One asterisk means that the person had two advisors, two asterisks means three advisors. So far as possible I give the degree earned, the University that gave the degree, the date of the degree.
Many of my mathematical ancestors are famous, I have bold faced just a few. Early academic ancestors were usually not mathematicians, and some were famous in their non-mathematical role.
So far as I know at the moment, the earliest dated degrees are for:
HHH30 Heinrich von Langstein Universite de Paris 1363MA 1375TheolD. The earliest doctorates granted in Europe were all, or almost all, in theology.
The first ancestry list is what I consider the main line.
A21 Unknown
A20 Balthasar Kaeuffelin Eberhard-Karls-Univeresitat Tubingen 1521 TheolD
A19 Jakob Beuerlin Eberhard-Karls-Univeresitat Tubingen 1551 TheolD
A18 Jacob Andreae Eberhard-Karls-Univeresitat Tubingen 1553 TheolD
A17 Johann Jacob Grynaeus
Eberhard-Karls-Univeresitat Tubingen 1564TheolD
A16 Sebastian Beck Universitat Basel 1610 TheolD
A15 Theodor Zwinger, Jr. Universitat Basel 1630 TheolD
A14 Peter Werenfels Universitat Basel 1649 TheolD
A13* Jacob Bernoulli Universitat Basel 1676 TheolD
A12* Johann Bernoulli Universitat Basel 1690, 1694 MD
A11 Leonhard Euler Universitat Basel 1726 PhD
A10* Joseph Louis Lagrange Universita di Torino 1754 BA
A9 Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier Ecole Normale Superieure 1797? PhD?
A8* Gustav Peter Lejeune Dirichlet
Rheinische Friederich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn 1827
A7* Rudolf Otto Sigisimund Lipschitz Universitat Berlin 1853
A6* C[hristian] Felix Klein
Rheinische Friederich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn 1868
A5 C[arl] L[ouis] Ferdinand Lindemann
Friederich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Numberg 1873
A4 David Hilbert Universitat Konigsberg 1885
A3 Erhard Schmidt Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen 1905
A2 Salomon Bochner Universitat Berlin 1921
A1 Lynn Harold Loomis Harvard University 1942
A0 Theodore W. Palmer Harvard University 1966
Alternatives:
A6* C[hristian] Felix Klein had another advisor.
B29 Allesandro Sermoneta ? ?
B28* Pietro Roccabonella Universita di Padova MD
B27* Pietro Pomponazzi Universita di Padova MA
B26* Giovanni Battista della Monte Universita di Padova MA
B25** Andreas (Andries van Wessel)Vesalius
Universite Catholique de Louvain Universita di Padova 1537 MD
B24 Matteo Realdo (Renaldus Columbus) Colombo
Universita di Padova 1544 MD
B23* Gabriele Falloppio Universita di Padova
Universita degli Studi di Ferrara 1547MD
B22 Hieronymus (Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente) Fabricius
Universita di Padova 1559 MD
B21* Salomon Alberti Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1564MA
Universita di Padova 1574 MD
B20* Andreas Schato
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1562MA, 1578 MD
B19* Melchior Jostel
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1583 MA,1600 MD
B18* Ambrosius Rhodius
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1600MA,1610MD
B17 Christoph Notnagel
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1630MA
B16* Johann Andreas Quenstedt Universitat Helmsted 1643MA
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1644 TheolD
B15* Michael Walther Jr.
Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenber 1687 TheolD
B14 Johann Pasch Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1683MA
B13* Johann Andreas Planer
Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1686, 1709MD
B12* Christian August Hausen
Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1713 PhD
B11 Abraham Gotthelf Kastner Universtat Leipzig 1739 PhD
B10* Johann Friederich Pfaff Georg-August-Universtat Gottingen 1786PhD
B9 Carl Friedrich Gauss Universtat Helmstedt 1799 PhD
B8 Christian Ludwig Geling Georg-August-Universtat Gottingen 1812PhD
B7 Julius Plucker Philipps Universtat Marburg 1823 PhD
A7* Rudolf Otto Sigisimund Lipschitz had another advisor.
C10 = B11 Abraham Gotthelf Kastner Universitat Leipzig 1739 PhD
C9 Karl Christian von Langsdorf Universitat Gottingen
Justus-Liebig Univeresitat Giessen, Univeresitat Erfurt 1781 PhD
C8 Martin Ohm Universitat Erlangen-Nuremberg 1811 PhD
A8* Gustav Peter Lejeune Dirichlet had another advisor.
D11 Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Beccaria ? ?
D10* = A10* Joseph Louis Lagrange Universita di Torino 1754 BA
D9* Simeon Denis Poisson Ecole Polytechnique 1800 PhD
D9* Simeon Denis Poisson had another advisor.
E11 Jean Le Rond d’Alembert ? ?
E10 Pierre-Simon Laplace ? ?
A10* = D10* Joseph Louis Lagrange
B10* Johann Friederich Pfaff had another advisor.
F23 Gaetano da Thiene ? ?
F22 Nicoletto Vernia Universita di Padova ?
F21* = B27* Pietro Pomponazzi Universita di Padova ? MA
F20 Vittore Trincavelli Universita di Padova ? MA, MD
F19** Theodor Zwinger College de France 1553 MA
Universita di Padova 1559 MD
F18 Petrus Ryff Universtat Basel 1584 MD
F17 Emmanuel Stupanus Universitat Basel 1613 MD
F16* Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius Universitat Leiden 1634
Universitat Basel 1637 MD
F15 Rudolf Wilhelm Krause Universitat Leiden 1671 MD
F14 Simon Paul Hilscher Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jenannn 1704MD
F13* Johann Andreas Segner
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1726MA 1734MD
F12 Johann Georg Busch Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen 1752MAMath
F11 Johann Elert Bode Handelakademie Hamburg Math/Astro
D10* = A10* Joseph Louis Lagrange
A12* Johann Bernoulli had another advisor.
G15 = F17 Emmanuel Stupanus Universitat Basel 1613 MD
G14 Johann Caspar Bauhin Universitat Basel 1649 MD
G13* Nikolaus Eglinger Universitat Basel 1660, 1661 MD
B12* Christian August Hausen had another advisor.
H17 Unknown
H16 Friedrich Leibniz Universitat Altdorf 1666
H15 Jakob Thomasius Universitat Leipzig 1643 PhM
H14 Otto Mencke Universitat Leipzig 1665 PhD
H13 Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen Universitat Leipzig 1685 PhD
A13* Jacob Bernoulli had another advisor.
J17 = H16 Friederich Leibniz Universitat Altdorf 1666
J16 Jakob Thomasius Universitat Leipzig 1643 PhilM
J15** Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitat Leipzig 1666 PhD Math
J14 Nicolas Malebranche ? 1672
B13* Johann Andreas Planer had another advisor.
K17 = G15 = F17 Emanuel Stupanus Universitat Basel 1613 MD
K16* Georg Balthasar Metzger Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1644
Universitat Basel 1650 MD
K15 Elias Rudolph Camerarius, Sr
Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen 1663MD
K14* Rudolf Jacob Camerarius
Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen 1684,1686MD
F13* Johann Andreas Segner had another advisor.
L26 Jacob ben Jehiel Loans ? ?
L25* Johann (Johannes Kapnion) Reuchlin Universitat Basel 1477 MA
Universite de Poitiers 1481 JD
L24* Philipp Melanchthon Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg 1511BA
Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubingen 1514MA
L23* Johannes Hommel Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1543MA
L22 Valentin Thau Universitat Leipzig 1555MA
L21 Paul Wittich Universitat Leipzig
Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1566MA Astron
L20* Duncan Liddel Universitat Viadrina Frankfurt an der Oder 1582MA
Universitat Breslau, Universitat Helmstedt 1596MD
L19* Gilbert Jacchaeus University of St. Andrews 1601PhD
Universitat Helmstedt 1603TheolD
Universiteit Leiden 1611MD
L18* Adolph Vorstius Universitat Leiden 1619 PhD
Universita di Padova 1622MD
L17* = F16* Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius
L16* Georg Wolffgang Wedel Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1667MD
L15 Johann Adolph Wedel Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1694MD
L14 Georg Erhard Hamberger Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1721MD
G13* Nikolaus Eglinger had another advisor.
M14 = G15 = F17 = K17 Emanuel Stupanus
K14* Rudolf Jacob Camerarius had another advisor.
N20 = B22 Hieronymus (Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente) Fabricius
Universita di Padova 1559MD
N19 Adriaan van den Spieghel
Universite Catholique de Louvain Universita di Padova 1603MD
N18* Werner Rolfinck Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg
Universita di Padova 1625MD
N17 Balthasar Widmarcter Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1640MD
N16* Johann Georg Macasius
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena1638, 1640MD
N15* = K16* Georg Balthasar Metzger
Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena 1644 Universitat Basel 1650MD
B15* Michael Walther Jr. had another advisor.
O17 Andreas Kunad ? ?
O16* Aegidius Strauch
Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1651MA 1657TheolD
J15** Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz had another advisor.
P17 Jan Janz Stampioen, Jr ? ?
P16* Christiaan Huygens Academie royal des sciences de Paris 1676
J15** Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz had still another advisor.
Q20 Johann Hoffmann ? ?
Q19* Moritz Valentin Steinmetz Universitat Leipzig 1550MA, 1567MD
Q18 Christoph Meurer Universitat Leipzig 1582MA Astron
Q17 Philipp Muller Universitat Leipzig 1604MA
Q16 Erhard Weigel Universitat Leipzig 1650 PhD Astron
N15* = K16* Georg Balthasar Metzger
B16* Johann Andreas Quenstedt had another advisor.
R26 Gaetano do Thiene ? ?
R25*= B28* Pietro Roccabonella Universita di Padova MD
R24** Niccolo Leoniceno Scuola Publica di Vicenza 1453BA
R23** = B26** Giovanni Battista della Monte Universita di Padova MA
R22* Bassiano Landi Universita di Padova 1542MD
R21** = F19** Theodor Zwinger College de France 1553MA
Universita di Padova 1559MD
R20 John Craig Universitat Basel 1580MD
R19* = L20* Duncan Liddel
Universitat Viadrina Frankfurt an der Oder 1582MA
Universitat Breslau
R18 Cornelius Martini Universitat Helmstedt 1592
R17* Georg Calixt Universitat Helmstedt 1607MATheolD
F16* = L17* Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius (see above)
K16* = N15* Georg Balthasar Metzger (see above)
L16* Georg Wolffgang Wedel had another advisor.
S20 = Q18 Cornelius Martini Universitat Helmstedt 1592
S19 Jacobus Martini Universitat Helmsted 1596MA
S18* Daniel Sennert
Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg 1594MA 1599MD
S17* = N18* Werner Rolfinck Martin-Luther-Universtat Halle-Wittenberg
Universita di Padova 1625MD
N16* Johann Georg Macasius had another advisor.
T19 = S19 Jacobus Matini Universitat Helmstedt 1596MA
T18* Georg Grosshain Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1629MA
T17 Johannes Musaeus Universitat Erfurt 1634MA
O16* Aegidius Strauch had another advisor.
U18 Unknown
U17 Abraham Klein (Calovius) Universitat Rostock 1632 TheolD
P16* Christiaan Huygens had another advisor.
V19 Unknown
V18 Marin Mersenne Universite Paris IV-Sorbonne 1611 MPh
V17* Frans van Schooten, Jr. Universitat Leiden 1635MLA
L17* = F16* Franciscus de le Boe Sylvius
R17* Georg Calixt had another advisor
W21 Unknown
W20 Johannes Stoffler Universitat Ingolstadt 1476MA
W19* = L24* Philipp Melanchthon
Ruprecht-Karls-Univesitat Heidelberg 1511BA
Eberhard-Karls-Universitat Tubngen 1514MA
W18 Johannes Caselius
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1560MA
Universitat Leipzig, Universita di Piisa 1566JD
S17* = N18* Werner Rolfinck
V17* Frans van Schooten, Jr had another advisor.
X31 Nilos Kabasilas ? ?
X30 Demetrios Kydones ? ?
X29 Manuel Chrosoloras ? ?
X28 Guarino da Verona ? 1408
X27 Vittorino da Feltre Universita di Padova 1416
X26 Thodoros Gazes Constantinople, Universita di Mantova 1433 MA
X25 Demetrios Chalcocondyles Mystras, Accademia Romana 1452MA
X24* Janus Lascaris Universita di Padova 1472MA
X23* Guillaume Bude Universite d’Orleans 1486
Universite de Paris 1491MA
X22 Jacques Toussain Universite de Paris 1521MA
X21 Adrien Turnebe College de France 1532MA
X20 Joseph Julius Scaliger College de France 1563MA
X19 Thomas Erpenius Universitat Leiden 1608MLA
X18* Jacobus Golius Universitat Leiden 1612MLA, 1621PhD
B18* Ambrosius Rhodius had another advisor.
Y23 Unknown
Y22 Ulrich Zasius Albert-Ludwig-Universitat
Freiburg im Breisgau 1501DL
Y21* Jakob Milich
Albert-Ludwig-Universitat Freiburg im Breisgau 1520MLA
Y20 Erasmus Reinhold Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1535MA
Y19* Caspar Peucer Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1545MA
L18* Adolph Vorstius had another advisor.
Z19 = N19 Adriann van den Spieghel
Universite Catholique de Louvain Universita di Padova 1603MD
N18 * = S17* Werner Rolfinck
S18* Daniel Sennert had another advisor.
AA20 = B22 Hieronymus (Girolamo Fabrici d’Acquapendente) Fabricius
AA19 Jan Jessenius Universitat Leipzig 1588MA
Universita di Padova 1591MD
T18* Georg Grosshain had another advisor.
BB27 Luca Pacioli ? ?
BB26* Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara Universita di Firenze 1483Astron
BB25* Nicolaus (Mikolaj Kopernik) Copernicus Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Universits de Bologne Univerita degle Studi di Ferrara,
Universita di Padova 1499JD Astron
BB24* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1535MA Astron
BB23* = Y19* Caspar Peucer
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1545MA Astron
BB22* = B21* Salomon Alberti
BB21* Emestus Hettenbach
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1576MA 1591MD
BB20* = B18* Ambrosius Rhodius
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1600MA 1610MD
BB19 Paul Rober Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1613MA
X18* Jacobus Golius had another advisor.
CC23 Unknown
CC22 Thomas Cranmer University of Cambridge 1515MA
CC21 Immanuel Tremellius University of Cambridge 1549 TheolD
CC20* Rudolph (Snel van Royen) Snellius Universitat zu Koln
Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Hedelberg 1572 MLA
CC19* Willebrord (Snel van Royen) Snellius Universitat Leiden 1607MLA
B19* Melchior Jostel had another advisor.
DD24 Unknown
DD23 Bonifazius Erasmi
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1509MA
DD22 Juhannes Volmar Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1515MA
DD21* = BB24* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1535MA Astron
DD20 Valentin (Valentius Otho) Otto
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1570MA Astron
F19** = R21** Theodor Zwinger had still another advisor.
EE24 Jan Standonck College Sainte-Barbe Unknown 1474
College de Montaigu Unknown 1490
EE23 Jacobus (Jacques Mason) Latomus
EE22* Nicolas (Nicolaes Cleynaerts) Clenard
EE21* Johannes (Johann Sturm) Sturmius
EE20* Petrus (Pierre de La Ramee) Ramus
L19* Gilbert Jacchaeus had another advisor.
FF23 = Y20 Erasmus Reinhold
FF22 Valentine Naibod Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg ?
Uniersitat Erfurt MA Astron
FF21* = CC20* Rudolph (Snel van Royen) Snellius
FF20 Jacous (Jacob Harmensz) Arminius
Q19* Moritz Valentin Steinmetz had another advisor.
GG20* = DD21* = BB24* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
R19* = T21* = L20* Duncan Liddel
W19* = L24* Philipp Melanchthon
Y19* = BB23* Caspar Peucer
CC19* Willebrord (Snel van Royen) Snellius had another advisor.
HH20 Ludolph van Ceulen ? ?
B20* Andreas Schato had another advisor.
JJ24 = DD23 Bonifazius Erasmi
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1509MA
JJ23 Johannes Volmar
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1515MA
JJ22* = BB24* = DD21* = GG20* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1535MA Astron
JJ21* = Z21* Sebastian (Theodoricus) Dietrich
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1544MA
L20* = R19* =T21* Duncan Liddel
BB20* = B18* Ambrosius Rhodius
CC20* = FF21* Rudolph (Snel van Royen) Snellius
EE20* Petrus (Pierre de La Ramee) Ramus had another advisor.
KK21 = X22 Jacues Toussain Universite de Paris 1521MA
GG20* = DD21* = BB24* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
B21* = BB22* Salomon Alberti
F21* = B27* Pietro Pomponazzi
R21* = F19* Theodore Zwinger
T21* = R19* = L20* Duncan Liddel
Y21* Jakob Milich had another advisor.
LL25 Unknown
LL24 Thomas a Kempis ? ?
LL23* Alexander Hegius ? 1474
LL22*
Z21* Sebastian (Theodoricus) Dietrich had another advisor.
MM22 = FF23 = Y20 Erasmus Reinhold
Martin Luther Universitat Halle-Wittenberg 1535MA Astron
BB21* Emestus Hettenbach had another advisor.
NN22* = B20* Andreas Schato
DD21* = BB24* = GG20* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
EE21* Johannes (Johann Sturm) Sturmius had another advisor.
OO25 Moses Perez ? ?
OO24* Girolamo (Hieronymus Aleander) Aleandro
Universita di Padova 1499MA, 1508TheolD
OO23 Rutger Rescius Universite de Paris 1513BA
OO22* Johannes Winter von Andernach
Universite Catholique Louvain, College Treguier 1527MA,1532MD
FF21* = CC20* Rudolph (Snel van Royen) Snellius
JJ21* = Z21* Sebastian (Theodoricus) Dietrich
R22* Bassiano Landi had another advisor.
PP23 = F20 Vittore Trincavelli
Z22* = X21* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
BB22* = B21* Salomon Alberti.
EE22* Nicolas (Nicolaes Cleynaerts) Clenard had another advisor
QQ24 Mattheus
QQ23 Jan (Johannes Campensis) van Campen
Universitr Catholique de Louvain, Universitat Ingolstadt 1519MA TheolD
JJ22* = BB24* = DD21* = GG20* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
LL22* Desiderius Erasmus had another advisor.
RR23 = EE24 Jan Standonck College Sainte-Barbe Unknown 1474
College de Montaigu Unknown 1490
NN22* = B20* Andreas Schato
OO22* Johannes Winter von Andernach had another advisor.
SS25 Unknown
SS24 Francois Dubois Universite de Paris 1516
SS23* Jacobus (Jacques Dubois) Sylvius
Universite Paris, Montpellier 1530
B23* Gabriele Falloppio had another advisor.
TT26 Pelope ? ?
TT25** = R24** Niccolo Leoniceno Scuola Publica di Vicenza 1453BA
TT24 Antonio Mussa Brasvola Universita degli Studi di Ferrara 1520MD
L23* Johannes Hommel had another advisor.
UU24 = KK22 = FF23 = Y20 Erasmus Reinhold
R23** = B26** Giovanni Battista della Monte had another advisor.
VV28 = X30 Demetrios Kydones
VV27* Georgias Plethon Gemistos
VV26 Basilus Bessarion Mystras 1436
VV25* = X24* Janus Lascaris Univerita di Padova
VV24 Musuro Univerita di Firenze 1486MA
T23* = F19* Theodore Zwinger
X23* Guillaume Bude had another advisor.
WW24 Geogius Hermonymus ? ?
BB23* = Y19* Caspar Peucer
LL23* Alexander Hegius had another advisor.
XX26 = X27 Vitorino da Feltre
XX25 Theodoros Gazes Constantinople Universita di Mantova 1433MA
XX24 Rudolf Agricola Universita degli Studi di Ferraro 1478MA
L24* = W19* Philipp Melanchthon
R24** =TT25** Niccolo Leoniceno had another advisor.
YY26 Vittorino da Feltre
YY25 Ognibene (Omnibonus Leonicenus) Bonisoli da Lonigo
Universita di Montova ?
X24* = VV25* Janus Lascaris
BB24* = DD21* = GG20* Georg Joachim von Leuchen Rheticus
OO24* Girolamo (Hieronymus Aleander) Aleandro had another advisor.
ZZ27 Cristophoro Landino ? ?
ZZ26* Angelo Poliziano Universita di Firenze 1477MA
ZZ25 Scipione Fortiguerra Universita di Firenze 1493MA
B25** Andreas (Andries van Wessel)Vesalius had another advisor.
AAA26* = OO22* Johannes Winter von Andernach
B25** Andreas (Andries van Wessel)Vesalius had still another advisor.
BBB30 Unknown
BBB29 Leo Outers Universite Catholique di Louvain 1485MA TheolD
BBB28 Maarten (Martinus Dorpius) van Dorp
Universite Catholique di Louvain 1504 MA, 1515TheolD
BBB27 Petrus (Pieter de Corte) Curtius
Universite Catholique di Louvain 1513MA, 1530TheolD
BBB26 Gemma (Jemme Reinerszoon) Frisius
Universite Catholique di Louvain 1529 MPh, 1536MD
L25* Johann (Johannes Kapnion) Reuchlin had another advisor.
CCC29 = Elissaeus Judaeus ? ?
CCC28* = VV27* Georgios Plethon Gemistos
CCC27 = VV26 Basilios Bessarian Mystras 1436
CCC26 Johannes Argyropoulos Universita di Padova 1444
R25* = B28* Pietro Roccabonella
T25* =B26* Giovanni Battista della Monte
BB25* Nicolaus (Mikolaj Kopernik) Copernicus had another advisor.
DDD27 Unknown
DDD26 Leonhard (Leonard Vitreatoris z Dobczyc) von Dobschutz
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski 1481 MA Astron
TT25** = R24** Niccolo Leoniceno Scuola Publica di Vicenza 1453BA
B26* = R23* Giovanni Battista della Monte
BB26* Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara had another advisor.
EEE28 = VV26 Basilios Bessarion
EEE27* Johannes Muller Regiomontanus
Universitat Leipzig, Universitat Wien 1457MA Astron
ZZ26* Angelo Poliziano had another advisor.
FFF28 = XX26 Johannes Argyropoulo
FFF27 Marsilio Ficino Universita di Firenze 1462MA
WW26* = OO22* Johannes Winter von Andemach
B27* = F21* Pietro Pomponazzi
VV27* = CCC28* Georgias Plethon Gemistos
VV27* Jacobus (Jacques Dubois) Sylvius had another advisor.
GGG28 Jean Tagault ? ?
EEE27* Johannes Muller Regiomontanus had another advisor.
HHH31 Unknown
HHH30 Heinrich von Langstein Universite de Paris 1363MA 1375TheolD
HHH29 Johannes von Grunden Universitat Wien 1406MA Astron
HHH28 Georg von Feuerbach Universitat Wien 1440MA Astron
B28* = R25* Pietro Roccabonella
CCC28* = VV27* Georgios Plethon Gemistos
Cooking at Summitville
By Theodore W. Palmer
I have already written about working as the Mining Engineer at Summitville Mine in the summer of 1956. The big old boarding house we reopened was next to the Reynolds tunnel at 11,300 feet elevation. When I arrived in mid-June there were 12 miners, a female cook and me.
The cook must have been a flatlander. She had set out to boil some potatoes when she arrived. At 11,300 feet elevation water boils at about 190 degrees Fahrenheit rather than 212 degrees at sea level. When I arrived, the potatoes were hard as a rock inside but covered with a thin black slimy coat. She quit in disgust.
Cooking a potato is a complex chemical/physical process involving starch grains, proteins, sugars and other components. The rates of these reactions have a factor involving an exponential term with Kelvin temperature (temperature above absolute zero) in the denominator of a negative exponent. For the first two reactions the numerator is quite large. Thus the time it takes to cook a potato by boiling is very dependent on the boiling temperature of water.
My friend Dr. Richard V. Gaines, who had hired me as Mining Engineer happened to know that I was a pretty good cook (back then). Except for Colorado law one could have 12 miners in a camp a day’s round trip from the nearest human habitation without a Mining Engineer, but definitely not without a Cook. So I filled both jobs for about a week before another cook arrived.
It was an education for me. The huge kitchen had big cast iron wood burning stoves along one long side. (It had served over 500 miners when last used.) It turned out that the stovepipes on the first two (the only ones I ever used) were in good shape and drew well so that starting a fire in the morning was not very hard. There was plenty of wood of all sizes that had been drying for a decade. Breakfast was simple: coffee, toast, eggs and bacon or ham, sometimes with fried potatoes or pancakes or even French toast. (When the ovens were hot it was easy to bake the potatoes before frying them the next day.)
The first day I was not prepared for how MUCH breakfast was needed. At 11,300 feet air pressure is usually a bit less than 10 pounds per square inch versus 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. Thus a person doing hard physical work at over 11,000 feet uses almost as much energy breathing the thin air as for the work itself. The human body produces energy by burning food. I learned that breakfast consisted of about a half a loaf of bread, half a dozen eggs, and half a pound of bacon for each miner! The previous cook had told me that they liked a dozen full sized sandwiches a piece for lunch (which they ate underground). 144 sandwiches ready by eight o’clock was a job, but easy since I always waked early.
I unfortunately do not remember suppers as well as the earlier meals. I am sure meat was obligatory and I know I served pork chops, steaks and probably stew. I liked spaghetti so that was probably common with tomato sauce and probably meat-balls. I am sure I did not have fresh or frozen vegetables or salad makings, so I probably used canned vegetables and I am sure I served fruit when ever I could.
During most days the temperature probably reached 60 degrees in the sun but it froze almost every night. An underground chamber maintains at the average year-long temperature which would have been about freezing, so the lack of refrigerators was not a problem. EXCEPT the boarding house was full of huge packrats as big as an average cat. They must have scurried all around while we were sleeping because if you left anything shiny out, it was sure to be gone by morning. Rodent teeth can cut through almost anything in a night’s work, so food had to be carefully protected.
I only had to go to town once to buy food. There were two jeep roads that connected Summitville to the outside world. I most commonly came and went through the town of Del Norte almost directly north of Summitville. Some one told me I would do better to buy groceries at Monte Vista which was about the same distance to the north east. Both roads were primitive and the only people one saw until very near town were occasional Basque sheep herders.
I know I served pork chops because I remember buying 150 pounds of them. I must have had a big shopping list but I don’t remember anything else specifically. I suppose the company had given me unlimited credit at the store, because I just signed a paper for the jeep full of food. I remember leaving for the store as soon as I had cleaned up after breakfast and worrying that I would not get back in time to cook supper. I evidently did get back in time because I never had any fight with the miners, and they certainly would not have wanted to wait for supper.
I got along very well with all the miners. I think they were all over 40, but hard rock miners age faster than most of the people I have known. Several had “rock”, silicosis, where the lungs are excessively scarred by tiny razor sharp chips of silica (quartz) that they had inhaled. The disease is a lot like tuberculosis and it shortens the life of most hard rock miners. (One of my heroes, Agricola, wrote about it in De re metallica in 1556 but the ancients were also aware of it.)
Good miners have to be smart because it is an inherently dangerous occupation. One has to think about every step. These were all good miners. I believe some but less than half had finished high school. I knew from their evening stories that most had played around some before marriage but had started mining as teenagers. Many had been to other hard rock mining camps in the west but none had been to the eastern United States.
Thus as a college student from the east who knew how to survey and do other things beyond their understanding I was a strange fish. I think my extreme youth kept me from being any kind of threat, and I was quite friendly with most, particularly the older ones. I was amazed at the deep knowledge of mining history that most of them had. Going back to ancient mining three or even four thousand years ago to the beginning of mining engineering less than a hundred years ago and to bloody strikes both in the west and even in the otherwise despised coal mines of the east.
This summer enriched my life immeasurably.
My Heroes
by Theodore W. Palmer
October 13, 2012
I do not remember a time when I did not have heroes to whom I looked with admiration. I suppose when I was very little they might have been imaginary characters in the books read to me.
My first definite hero was Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) the American inventor. Even as a small child I loved to find out more about people and things that interested me, so from age 6 to 8, I got paraded around a lot as an annoying smart-child who knew “everything” (lots more than most adults) about Edison. By about 8, I had understood that he had no interest in science, but only in things that had economic value and became ashamed of my earlier enthusiasm.
I suppose my next heroes were those whose names were around me on a daily basis, even though they were mostly dead. These would be:
Charles Sprague Sargent (April 24, 1841 – March 22, 1927): Founder of the Arnold Arboretum where we lived.
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903): Designer of the Arnold Arboretum and many other places I knew well. He also saw clearly that slavery was destructive to the American South, long before the Civil War and worked hard to reduce the misery of the soldiers in that horrible conflict.
Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 188): Leading American botanist, supporter of Darwinism and antagonist of the Arnold Arboretum for most of the last part of his life, but even so on the side of the good.
Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882): The person who gave us an understanding of our place in nature, more than anyone else.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR, January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945): He saved the United Sates of America from the Great Depression, and managed to arrange the defeat of Naziism. Without him it is not impossible that we could have gone the way of Germany.
Winston Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965): An inspiring hero of the Second World War.
With the partial exception of Churchill (who had only been a hero of his as a future and then actual war-leader since I was born), all of these were my father’s heroes. Every evening we sat down at table and had a very formal dinner with my father leading the conversation. These were the names that came up in a favorable light evening after evening. They were more real to me than most of the people I actually met.
I started this little essay with the hope of clarifying my current list of heroes. All of those in the last paragraph still qualify, but may not be near the top of my list.
I will try to list my current greatest heroes first, but of course there is not a simple linear order.
Abraham Lincoln (February 12 1809 – April 15, 1865): 16th President of the the United Sates of America. He is clearly first. I admire him so deeply! That a man who grew up in a home with no love of learning could become one of the greatest masters of the English language, and a person with a political understanding of the terrible times in which he lived beyond any one else is incredible. This was through ability, immense, persistant hard work and an overwhelming desire to do something useful in his life. He also maintained his humanity at a level beyond most anyone else who ever steadfastly fought a terrible war.
Captain James Cook (November 7, 1728 – February 14, 1779): Like Lincoln, he came from a humble background, and through personal ability and enormous effort got to be the greatest explorer of our species. He could not have accomplished these exploration without his interest in the lowly sailors (and their health) who worked his ships. He could not have done so much for science without his deep sympathy for the people he met all over the world.
William Clark (August 1, 1770 – september 1, 1838): I like to think of myself as a bit of a surveyor, and Clark is my greatest hero in this department. The map of the west he worked on for so long, had only one really serious mistake despite the paucity of reliable information he had at his disposal. Like Cook, he was able to understand the depth of the knowledge of the “primitive” people he met. Despite the terrible fate of the original inhabitants of this continent, he tried as much as possible at the time to help those he with whom he dealt.
Nelson Mandela (July 18, 1918 – ??): I cannot imagine how a person could spend, what for most of us are the best years of our lives, in prison at hard labor and not come out embittered. This man did it and showed great wisdom in leading his country towards a better future. Perfection is NOT required, nor complete success in one lifetime. What a hero! I am proud to have overlapped his life.
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826): 3rd President of the the United Sates of America. What a guy! Perfection is not a necessary qualification for being a great hero.
William Shakespeare (April 23?, 1564 – April 23, 1616): His understanding of human beings and what it means to be human, transcends that of anyone else. I derive enormous pleasure, and I hope a little understanding, by reading and re-reading his plays and seeing them performed.
Charlemagne (ca. 1742 – January 28, 814) Maybe he is on my list because he is a direct ancestor, but he encouraged learning and even decreed that there should be schools to teach girls to read in the Ninth Century.
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) 26th President of the the United Sates of America. I was not named for him, but he started the conservation movement in America, and tried to level the playing field between monopolies and ordinary people. He also wrote lots of good books including books for children.
Ernest Jesse Palmer (April 8, 1875 – February 25, 1962). My father, who grew up poor supporting his family from age 11, but became a significant botanical taxonomist through ability, hard work, and love of natural history.
I could include MANY musical composers, but will just mention the two at the top of my list:
Johann Sebastian Bach (March 31, 1685 − July 28, 1750).
Ludwig van Beethoven (December 16, 1772 − March 26, 1827): I do not know how I could have survived adolescence without his late string quartets and the Missa Solemnis. Many of the most wonderful times of my life have been provided by dozens of composers and those who reproduce their music.
I admire many people living and dead including women, but this seems like a long enough list of heroes. I was just listening to the opera Nixon in China on the radio which reminds me that I greatly admire anyone who has united China. From the First Emperor (Qin Shi Hung, ca. 259 – September 10, 210 BCE) to Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) many of these people have had horrible faults (certainly the first and the last did) but they have had the sustained political genius to accomplish something of enormous political scope. Human beings can never reach perfection, but should strive so that their most consequential activities leave the World better than they found it.
Theodore W. Palmer 