Showing posts with label Manufacturer and Builder Magazine. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

To our Readers -- March 7, 2012

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. This item, from the September, 1871 Manufacturer and Builder, introduces him as editor-in-chief after co-founder and co-editor Charles Callis Western passed away.

We are happy to congratulate our readers that we have made permanent arrangements with Prof. P. H. Van der Weyde as the editor-in-chief of THE MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER. Prof. Van der Weyde has been a co-laborer with Mr. Charles Callis Western, lately deceased, since the establishment of this journal, and has been the author of most of the original papers appearing in its pages. His well-known reputation is a guarantee that THE MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER will remain the best publication of its kind in this country, and inferior to none, even in Europe.

WESTERN AND COMPANY Publishers.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Reminiscences of an Active Life #14 -- March 9, 2009

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical. Here is the fourteenth part. He talks about his career as a teacher.

I don't know for sure, but New Brunswick Dutch Reformed College may be the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

The American Institute held an annual fair in New York City "for the encouragement of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and the arts." When the Army stopped using Castle Clinton, a fort which defended New York Harbor, it became Castle Garden, a site for entertainments.

Horace Waters manufactured keyboard instruments.

The Cooper Institute may be the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, a college specializing in adult education. Peter Cooper was an inventor and philanthropist.

Joseph Henry was a scientist and the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

The image comes from the first installment, in the February, 1893 issue.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Part Thirteen

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 3, March1894

(Continued from page 41.)

8th. Career as a Teacher. -- Of all the careers which I have followed, either simultaneously or successively, that of a teacher has been the most lucrative to me, and, what is more important, the most useful. This teaching was done by different means.

(a). By giving lessons as a private instructor.

(b). By lectures, either public or private.

(c). By writing articles on different branches of theoretical or practical science, and publishing them in scientific or technical periodicals.

(d). By giving a good example as a practical man, who did not confine himself to book learning.

(e). By editing and publishing in Holland a scientific magazine of my own.

(f). By editing, without salary, a daily paper in the interest of the working classes.

(a). As private instructor. The circumstances which made this business very lucrative, were that the government of the Netherlands concluded to raise the standard of all colleges and universities, by establishing a board of experts, the duty of which was to examine all candidates who sought admission to any institution for higher education, and which board was especially charged to see that all candidates had a fair knowledge of geometry and algebra; of geometry as far as the first six books of Euclid, and in algebra the ability to solve equations of the second degree.

This, of course, was very favorable to all teachers in those branches, and I had as many private pupils as I could attend to, and this all among the rich aristocracy, as, of course, poor people did not send their sons to universities, while the free instruction in the public schools did not include geometry, but sometimes only the first steps in algebra as a continuation of arithmetic.

For this very reason the general government made appropriations for the benefit of cities where there were no free schools for higher mathematical instruction, and ordered the local government in the city of my residence to appoint a teacher in descriptive geometry in the school of design. I was appointed as such, and occupied this position until 1849, when I removed to New York city, where I at once found all the private pupils that I could attend to. I gave private lessons in anything which I understood myself such as French, German, and even Dutch to some of the students of the New Brunswick Dutch Reformed College, who wanted to understand the language in which the fundamental documents of that sect had been written.

As by the efforts of my pious orthodox aunt I had received special private instruction in the meaning of those very documents, the Dutch Reformed students were much pleased with my explanations, and I believe that if my tendency had been in that direction, I might have obtained some position in that college, which some of my theological friends suggested, and offered to make efforts to that end, but my conscience induced me to decline respectfully teaching orthodoxy, and confine my religious labors to playing the organ, which I did to the very great satisfaction of all concerned; and by this means an opportunity was offered to obtain pupils in organ and piano playing, which occupation became so prosperous that very soon it overshadowed my other subjects of instruction. There were two reasons for this, first, that I had been thoroughly trained as a pianist, in which, at that time (1849), most piano teachers were lamentably deficient. In the fall of that year the American Institute had its yearly exhibition in Castle Garden, and making a visit there, I tried some of the pianos, when, to my surprise, several ladies and gentlemen gave me their addresses, with the request to call for the purpose of making arrangements to give piano lessons to their children. I became then first acquainted with the late Horace Waters, who engaged me to play every day for a few hours on his pianos; he said that I was just the man to show off a piano, as he usually sold the very piano which I had tried. He wanted me to play on no other piano than his, but this request I refused.

After the fair, he requested me to call at the piano store he had established in Broadway, where I taught pupils living outside the city, while soon parties clubbed together to have me come to teach eight or ten pupils. One day each week I spent in this way in Paterson, and another day in Kingston, which I reached by the night boat, and returned in the same way to New York, where I gave lessons in piano, organ, harmony and composition for four days, and played the organ on Sunday; so my time was well occupied. In addition to this, some teachers who had heard me improvise on the organ in church, took lessons in harmony and composition. This was during the first two or three years of my residence in New York (1849-1851), when I had rented rooms in the New York University.

So much for what relates to teaching music. Details relating to music in general, and not to its teaching, will be treated of under the head of Career as a Musician.

(b). Teaching by lectures, either public or private. My usefulness as a teacher was without doubt at its maximum while I was lecturing and teaching natural philosophy and chemistry in the Cooper Institute in New York for five years (1859-1864). I gave a lecture every night except Saturday and Sunday, and as I lived in the Institute building, I could be found any time by my students in case they had any question to ask, as well as by other callers wishing scientific information. As I considered myself as belonging to the Institute, which gave me salary and lodgings, I never charged anything for such services. This was very much approved of by Peter Cooper, who said that I acted in the spirit for which the Institute was established -- namely, to be useful to all.

I had my lodging-room immediately adjoining the laboratory and apparatus, and found this exceedingly time saving as well to myself as to others, who very frequently called to exhibit to me certain inventions they had made, and which, when practically applied, did not work as well as expected, and often did not work at all. It was useful to myself, and especially to the visitor, who often had to be convinced of his error by practical experiment, for which purpose all the apparatus was at hand, and could be used without cost to the Institute.

My old friend, Prof. Joseph Henry, secreiary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, followed the same manner of life as I did. He lived in the Smithsonian building, of which a portion was arranged for himself and family, with a separate entrance, and almost as often as I visited him, he was busy with some new subject of physical investigation.

A farmer once came to me with a bulky contrivance, which, according to his reasoning, should make water run up hill. He wanted me to try if I could not make it work. I put it in operation, and explained his false reasoning, and why it could not do what he intended. He supposed that a thicker pipe containing more water, should exert more pressure than a thinner pipe. I made him understand his error, and he left crestfallen. After a month he returned, and in answer to my question what he had now, he said: "Of course I must make water run up hill." It was an error similar to the previous one, which I again explained to him, and told him, in conclusion, that he ought to exercise his ingenuity in another direction. He promised to do so.

It was remarked to me that I should not lose my time with cranks. I answered that to convince a crank of his error, was almost as praiseworthy an act as to improve a sinner, and that, anyhow, my time belonged to the Cooper Union.

In regard to experimenting, I frequently impressed upon my class the advantages Providence has given to these who want to investigate nature, and the gratefulness we must feel for the gift, always adding the confession that, personally, it was with a feeling of deep gratefulness that I tried experiments, and that with profound reverence I watched the result. I felt as if I were preparing to ask a question of the divine power which governs all matter ; and it was with still greater reverence that I watched the result, and observed this carefully and respectfully. It always made the impression upon me that the divine creator of all things knew my desire and gave me the answer to my question by the facts which I observed.

(To be continued.)

Monday, February 9, 2009

Reminiscences of an Active Life #13 -- February 9, 2009

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Part Eleven

Part Twelve

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 2, February 1894

(Continued from page 21.)

7th. Career as an Inventor. -- Space did not permit me to add at the end of page 21, that I not only continue to take a keen interest in the progress of the natural sciences, but also intend to furnish some contributions to that progress, such as I have done in times past, either by pointing out new directions in which success may be expected, or by making practical improvements and exhibiting or publishing the same.

Thus, for instance, I was the first who advised Mr. Prescott of the Western Union Telegraph Company to apply the dynamo, in place of galvanic batteries, for the production of the currents required for their extensive system, which was then already outgrowing the capacity of all the batteries for which room could be found in their new building at the corner of Dey street and Broadway, so that additional batteries had been placed in other buildings.

I did not then realize the fact that it is much easier to introduce an improvement, if you give to those by whose instrumentality it has to be done, a chance to make some money out of it. Nobody could make money out of my advice except, ultimately, the company, and so nothing was done until a certain Mr. Field from California, who had been shrewd enough to push through the Patent Office the application of the dynamo, which he had not invented, to telegraphy, which also he had not invented -- in fact, the combination of Pacinottis and Grammes joint invention -- to the invention of Henry and Morse, and who asked $100,000 for his patent, which the Western Union Company paid, and of which Mr. Field obtained a part.

I had the satisfaction of seeing that my expectations were verified to such an extent that the Western Union Company do not use any more batteries at all, but transmit all their messages by means of dynamos, of which they have a great number, large and small, in their cellars. It is the same with the so-called ticker which transmits the condition of the stock market, and of which the office adjoins the Stock Exchange. Here powerful dynamos are located in the basement, while the operators work it on the top story by means of the most ingenious and complicated con
trivances and improvements, of which science is indebted to the genius of Mr. Scott.

In regard to the telephone, I did not confine myself to mere advice, but as soon as I found a description of the instrument as invented by the German schoolmaster, Reiss, in a newly-published German book, and in the Polytechnic Journal, I made telephones and exhibited them before the Polytechnic Section of the American Institute, which then was located in rooms in the Cooper Union building.

I improved the instrument by adding adjusting screws (which Reiss instrument did not have), so that I could regulate the pressure between the point and the vibrating plate. I regret that I did not patent this improvement, which is applied at the present time to all transmitters, and is of equal importance as the retracting spring to the sounder. The latter was a feature of the Page patent, which the Western Union Company bought from his widow, and was one of the claims which that
company set up in the prosecution of certain electric manufacturers who used it in some of their contrivances.

I also prepared a patent application explaining the substitution of the human voice for the sounder in the transmission of telegraphic messages. However, at the suggestion of some of my friends, that the manipulation of the telegraph key was so
handy, and was much easier than singing or tooting in the telephone, I abandoned the idea. This was fully a year before Prof. Bell applied for his telephone patent, as is proved by reports in the papers of that period, such as the Tribune and others.

As the telephone transmitted the pitch and duration of sounds perfectly, I used it only for musical melodies. I did not conceive how it could be possible that so simple an instrument could transmit articulate speech, which would involve the transformation of various sonorous vibrations in the air into articulate electric vibrations, to go through a wire, and that then these electric vibrations could be re-transformed into articulate aerial vibrations. I must confess that I do not yet fully understand all the details of this phenomenon, but know that it is an established fact.

One cause of my doubt, was that I had been carefully examining a talking machine then on exhibition, and was impressed with the complexity of its construction, and therefore expressed my opinion in the February number of the MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER for 1870, that we must not expect to be able to transmit all the various
letters of the alphabet as used in articulate speech, but only vibrations, differing in velocity and in duration (rhythm).

In the descriptions of Reiss' telephones and experiments, which then had happened to come to my knowledge, no mention whatever was made that spoken words had been transmitted and understood, wherefore my patent application was confined to the production of long and short sounds of various pitch -- in fact, to the imitation
of the dots and dashes of the sounder. However, my first and principal claim was very broad, and worded as follows: "1st. I claim the substitution of the human voice in place of the key, and the telephone receiver in place of the sounder, for the
transmission of telegraphic messages."

If this claim had been entered and granted (for which there was no reason to doubt, as it was both new and useful), it would have anticipated Bell, who applied long afterward; while in addition to this, my old telephones (of which an illustrated description will be given in the next issue of this journal) were far superior to any of the contrivances which Bell illustrated and described in his first application for a patent. They were soon entirely abandoned as useless.

In order to moderate some prevailing exagerated and sanguine expectations, I also expressed my conviction, that, considering the resistance and inductive impediments of a submarine conductor, there was no hope that we ever would be able to sing "Yankee Doodle" through the Atlantic cable so that our English cousins could hear and understand it.

(To be continued.)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #11 -- December 9, 2008

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Part Nine

Part Ten

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 12, December 1893

(Continued from page 249.)

6th. Career as a Theological Student. -- Previous to the events relating to the conflict of orthodoxy vs. progress, described in the last number of the MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER, I had passed, at the age of nineteen, an examination in the presence of the elders and deacons of the Netherlands Reformed Church, to which my ancestors had belonged for more than three hundred years, and I was, as a result of this examination, in company with about one hundred other young men and women, confirmed as a member of that confession. This ceremony took place in the large cathedral of my native town, Nymegen, with the customary solemnity.

Persistent Bible-reading was, on that occasion,very urgently recommended to us, and I made up my mind to read every morning a few chapters, so as finally to succeed in reading the whole book, and I commenced the task with the best intentions. As I had come to the conviction that reason is the most precious gift of God to man, which distinguishes him from the brute, I considered it a sin not to use it, and believed it a duty to apply it to the fullest extent; therefore I never read mechanically while thinking of something else, like some who say their prayers by rote; but when I reached chapters about which I had been catechised and understood, I went on to the next; also, when I found chapters which were irrelevant, or which I could not understand, and especially when they were decidedly indecent, such asI found in Ezekiel, I took the liberty of passing them by. In this way I became in a very few years acquainted with the whole Bible, to the great delight of my orthodox, pious aunt, who preferred that I should often read in the old family Bible, in great folio, with brass clasps, and explanatory notes in smaller type on the margin. I found that she was right, as these notes were often of great benefit; however, they were also an impediment to the prosperous achievement of the great task.

All this reading was done in the language of Holland, but the polyglot Bible was not neglected, especially for practice in the Latin text, which induced me to try my hand at translating from the old Roman authors who had attracted me by reason of their piety in regard to their pagan gods,and made a strong impression upon me, because it required nothing else than to substitute the monotheism of the Jews for the polytheism of the Romans to make the expressions very acceptable to every thinking being. One of them was that found in Marci Antonini "De Rebus Divinis Liber XII., v. 28." It begins thus: "Interrogantibus ubi Deos Conspicatus, etc." I will give only the translation of the sentence in full:

"If you are asked where the gods are to be seen, and how you know that they exist, and why you do them reverence, you answer that the gods are visible; that the wonderful results of their power, which you experience every day, prove to you that they exist, and compel you to do them honor, bow down before them, and adore them."

I found other passages similar to this, and also details regarding the development of the state of things which we see around us, in "Lucretius Carus; De Rerum Natura" (On the Nature of Things). I commenced to translate his introduction, and found that his explanation of the manner how nature came into the condition in which we see it, was based on gravitation, by which he explained how this divine power caused the heaviest things to collect low down; and the lighter things, such as water, above the bottom of the sea, and the lighter the air and vapors above the water; and the lightest, the fiery stars and all heavenly bodies to ascend to the firmament.

It was at that time unknown that the earth was a globe floating in space; the planetary system of Copernicus had not yet been discovered, but the earth was supposed to be flat, and at the bottom of the universe.

Intelligent Bible-reading makes it evident that the writers of the Bible in this respect knew no more than their pagan brethren; while their childish account of the creation of the world compares by no means favorably with that of the pagan writer, who attributes it to the laws working by the divine force of gravitation which pervades all matter.

No divine inspiration is claimed for this pagan writer, as is the case with the Bible of the Jews, which, in fact, is only a reflex of the erroneous notions of the writers, whoever they were. (One thing is certain at present, namely, that Moses never wrote the books attributed to him). When I compared these passages from the Roman author with my daily Bible-reading, it was clear that those of the Roman philosopher were far in advance of the understanding of the writers of the various parts of the Bible, for which divine inspiration is claimed.

If this claim were correct, these writings should be in unison with the progress of man's increasing knowledge; they should foreshadow the great truths discovered by astronomy and geology; but in place of this they offer only the erroneous notions of early ages, invented during the infancy of human knowledge, and do not reveal the higher truths which the pagan writer Lucretius Carus so forcibly brings forward.

(To be continued).

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #8 -- October 11, 2008

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 9, September 1893

(Continued from page 186.)

6th. Career as a Theological Student. At the time of my boyhood there were in Holland no Sunday-schools, nor Sunday-school teachers. Religious instruction was given by the preachers themselves, who, on certain week days, instructed classes which met at the preachers' respective residences, or, in case this was not convenient, in or near their church. Frequently such instructionwas also given by catechisers, who were licensed after examination, and who were paid by the parents of the pupils.

Being an only son, I was taken regularly to the church by my mother, and attended the catechising classes at the residence of one of the preachers, where I received instruction in the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and especially in Bible history, in which I took so much interest as to be always at the head of the class. However, a maiden aunt (my father's sister, to whom I have referred on page 33 of this journal) had her conscience disturbed by the idea that her only nephew did not receive enough instruction in thetheory of the orthodox Church, and that among the several private teachers who came to our house to instruct me in various languages and branches of knowledge, the most important of all -- religion was not represented; therefore she induced my father to engage a special catechiser in the person of an old maiden lady, for whose benefit an hour was interpolated between my other lessons, and who was especially charged by my aunt to give particular attention to my instruction in the 52 chapters of the Heidelberg catechism, and in the 72 articles of faith, as established by the National Synod of the United Netherlands, held in the city of Dortrecht in the years 1618 and 1619. She intended to do her utmost to have me prepared to become a preacher of the faith as set forth there, and in the defence of which our ancestors had so prominently distinguished themselves in the war with Roman Catholic Spain, and which resulted in the establishment of the Dutch Republic.

I went so successfully through this additional training, according to the report made by my teacher to my aunt, that, as a premium for my industry, she presented me with a polyglot Bible in large quarto, printed in four columns; the first was Hebrew, the second Greek, the third Latin,and the fourth German, according to the translation made by Martin Luther while he was imprisoned, apparently as a punishment for being a heretic, but, in fact, to protect him against the persecutions of fanatics.

I was then almost as familiar with the German and French as with my native tongue -- that of Holland -- and so this assisted me in understanding the Latin and Greek; the latter, however, I have now almost totally forgotten, except the letters, as these are frequently used in mathematical formulae, it kept them in my memory.

My father was in favor of learning first that which was first known by man. Thus, for instance, I had to learn geometry before algebra, because the former was earlier studied than the latter (Euclid 300 B. C., and Descartes 1660 A. D.,) a difference of almost twenty centuries.

In order to be consistent, he held, also, that I should study Hebrew first, as this was anterior to the other languages, the Old Testament having been originally written in Hebrew. So he engaged the son of a Rabbi to teach me Hebrew. The novelty of writing the other way -- from the right to the left -- amused me. The written Hebrew letters are very different from the printed letters, these being still more mutually unlike thanis the case with the printed and written German letters. I did not like the Hebrew much; it appeared to me to be a very poor language -- far inferior to the Latin, as well in the number of words at disposal, as in the force of expressing ideas, in which the Latin is superior to all others; that is, so far as I can judge. A peculiarity in writing and reading that language, is that the vowels are all placed above the consonants, like the accents in French, and that in some books these vowels, or accents, are omitted, so that one has to guess what word is intended. As this can only be successfully done after having attained an extensive knowledge of many words, it is a serious difficulty for beginners. If the Hebrew were as rich in words as the English, for instance, it would be a far more serious impediment than it is in Hebrew with its very limited vocabulary.

A peculiar event made my knowledge of Hebrew of great benefit to one of my cousins, who was a lawyer, and had been engaged in the prosecution of a Jew who was imprisoned for fraudulent practices. By order of the court, the correspondence to him and from him, in the interest of justice, had to be examined. To his great disappointment, my cousin found that it was written in Hebrew; but, remembering that I was studying that language, he brought the letters to me, when I found that it was simply German, written with Hebrew letters -- a very common practice among the German Jews, and the matter of translating them became an easy task.

The main impulse which induced my aunt to furnish me with extra religious instruction, was that among the leading clergymen a tendency was developing to abandon the Calvanistic orthodoxy and omit preaching St. Paul's doctrine of predestination; also avoiding references to the theory that God made man perfect, and that the first pair turned out to be a failure. On the contrary, some of the preachers went so far as to exhibit a tendency toward the doctrine of evolution, which was then already explained to the theological students in some leading universities. Once I told my aunt that my catechising preacher had said that the story of the snake seducing Eve was the result of an attempted explanation in words of very ancient hieroglyphs, symbols, or picture writings (thus, for instance, an ostrich feather was the symbol of truth, a snake the symbol of treachery, etc). Hearing this, my aunt grew indignant, and the result was the additional private teaching referred to above.

Besides the liberal opinions which commenced to take hold of many, the evolution theory began to prevail among the most advanced thinkers of Holland, while several books were published setting forth such doctrines long before Darwin published his book on The Origin of Species. This book, and other similar writings, found in Holland a more welcome reception than in any other country of Europe, and later meetings were held by those who fostered the same advanced views and a testimonial was gotten up, consisting of a beautifully-bound album containing the photographs of some hundreds of Darwin's admirers in Holland, with a letter thanking him for having given shape and a solid foundation to a doctrine they had fostered for many years, and which wanted only a master mind to be established as one of the turning points in the progress of human intelligence. There are, however, many in Holland, as well as in this country, who adhere to the orthodox doctrine of Calvin and do not want new-fangled notions regarding evolution and the improvement of our race, but say: Give us the old doctrine of a heaven of bliss for the elect, and eternal damnation for the rest -- a hell of fire and brimstone, with the devil as the chief actor. That's what we want, they say.

(To be continued.)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #9 -- September 7, 2008

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 10, October 1893

(Continued from page 205.)

6th. Career as a Theological Student. The tendency toward ultra-orthodoxy appears to be in the inverse ratio of the amount of information in regard to the nature of things surrounding us. Thus, for instance, in isolated farmhouses, or in out-of-the-way places, where the school instruction is entirely confined to the three R's -- reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic -- the tendency to accept as uncontrovertible truths the theories taught by ultra-orthodox Christian instructors, are adopted without the least hesitation, and this even in utter disregard of the fact that they often are in utter contradiction with well-established natural laws, based on incontrovertible mathematical truths, and verified by the experience of every thinking being.

On the other hand, observation proves that in large cities with a numerous population, and the consequent mutual intercourse and interchange of diverse opinions, a totally different condition of mind prevails, especially when there are also schools where various branches of knowledge are taught, such as geography, physical as well as descriptive; also the products of the earth -- mineral, vegetable and animal (usually known under the name of natural history); when, inaddition to all this, there are also higher schools, where instructionis given in the events through which the principal races of mankind have passed in the course of ages, we find always a tendency to discard ultra-orthodox views, and the most intelligent of the inhabitants show not only toleration of diverse opinions, but also a tendency to contribute their share to the intellectual advancement of the human race.

I had the good fortune to live for some years (1833 to 1839) in a locality where the inhabitants, were divided in the two opposite opinions described above, until at last an open warfare broke out. Of course the war was not physical, but exclusively intellectual; however, it rose at last so high, that the general government of the United Netherlands had to interfere and compel the opposite parties to obey the law and preserve order.

It may surprise American citizens who know that in the Netherlands, where perfect freedom of religious opinion prevails, the government was obliged to take sides, and had the legal power to do so. For this reason, it will be necessary to go back to the beginning of this century, when the basis of the peculiar system now prevailing there was laid. This system is that the clergymen of all denominations -- Christians and Jews, Protestants and Roman Catholics -- are independent of the membersof their church, as they all receive their salaries from the general government and not from the members of the congregations. This system originated in the acts of the first Napoleon, who, in the beginning of this century, confiscated all church property, and sold much of it at public auction, so as to provide funds for his large armies and continue his warfare against such European governments as were not under his control. He pacified the clergymen with the promise that the same salaries would be continued at the same rate as they had been enjoying.

When all the church property and the cash value received had been placed under the control of a newly-created department, that of Public Worship, to which Napoleon (with the sagacity which even his bitterest enemies admire) appointed the most suitable men, it turned out that a great saving was accomplished, as it was proved that the income of the property, sold or unsold, was far more than the salaries to be paid. The only losers by the new system were the different persons who in each church had the control of the funds and made the payments to the clergymen.

(To be Continued).

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #7 -- August 9, 2008

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical.

Here is the seventh part. He continues to discuss his and his son's careers as photographers.

His son Henry Van Der Weyde served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later emigrated to England, where he worked as a photographer. I have not located a photograph by PH, but the image this month was taken by Henry. It is from Tennis By John Moyer Heathcote et. al: "C. Saunders volleying the service from the pent-house."
The mention of Rembrandt as an influence on creative lighting reminded that earlier filmmakers tried to sell creating lighting as "Rembrandt lighting."
John William Draper was an American scientist and historian who died in 1882.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 8, August 1893

(Continued from page 146.)

5th. Career as a Photographer.The circumstances which induced my son, who was not a photographer, to take the lead in London and Paris in the new branch of making portraits by the aid of electric illumination, were as follows:

A London gentleman who wished to have his portrait in oil colors finished in the shortest possible time, but whose business did not allow him to occupy much time in sitting, was advised by my son to have a few photographic portraits taken, so as to make it possible to do some of the work in his absence. He at once applied to some photographic galleries, but was told that the daylight was so bad just then, that it was impossible to take pictures. My son, upon investigating this matter, was told by every photographer he visited, that the occurrence of frequent dark days in London was the cause of the loss of many thousands of pounds to the photographic profession. This made him conceive the idea of using electric illumination, which would at the same time furnish the advantages of giving the photographer full control of the light, which he could not have over the sun, and would make it possible to produce, by artistic management, effects not attainable by daylight, while at the same time the business could be conducted in the evening, when many people have a better chance to dress and sit for a few seconds to have their photographs taken, when on their way to the opera, dinner parties, etc.

My son communicated by letter his plan to me (in New York), and as I saw the great advantages to be gained, it resulted in an active correspondence. At the same time he tried to induce several photographers in London, one after the other, to adopt electric illumination, but not one of the many he visited would take the risk of what they considered a most hazardous undertaking, while some of them declared that they believed it to be utterly impossible, and predicted total failure.

Not discouraged, but, on the contrary, having his convictions of success strengthened by some experiments with large lenses, he concluded to establish an electro-photographic gallery in Regent street. For this purpose, he engaged a few experienced photographers as assistants, whose labor would consist only in the photographic manipulations required before and after the sitting, while my son was to confine himself to the management of the electric illumination, the posing, drapery, eto. His training as an artist gave him, in this regard, an advantage very rarely possessed by ordinary photographers, the great majority of whom have no idea of art.

I possessed, in a small degree, the same advantage, which became evident, when, fifty years ago, I attempted to make daguerreotype portraits. When my work was compared with that of the few professional photographers (who at that time supposed that it was absolutely necessary to place the sitter in the open air), its superiority was conspicuous. A traveling daguerreotypist visited the city of my residence, and made several portraits at the private houses of his patrons. He placed the sitters in the garden or rear yard of the house, which was often a narrow place between high walls, with no other illumination than that from the sky directly above. The result was that all his portraits had dark shadows under all projecting parts of the face, and were far inferior to my productions. This encouraged me to exhibit a number of my specimens in the leading bookstore, with the result that most of those who had patronized the traveling photographer requested me to take their pictures, offering to pay for them.

Thus far I had only made pictures of my friends gratuitously, out of pure interest in the new art; but in accepting the offers, I became at once a professional photographer, with considerable patronage. For this I was well prepared, having practiced with different methods of illumination, and soon had found that the best results were obtained if light was admitted directly from one side, through a large window, and when reflecting screens were placed at the other side to soften the dark shadows, which I had studied in some of Rembrandt's portraits, while I had even copied some of his etchings. Soon my reputation was established, especially among the ladies, who all looked much younger in my daguerreotypes. I must with gratefulness remember my old mother-in-law, who patiently sat for me when I made my experiments to find the proper way of illumination and study the effects of different painted backgrounds, such as landscapes, foliage, mountain views, etc., in which specialty I believe myself to have been a pioneer.

I must not omit to mention that my principal impulse to attempt portraits was obtained by the report that Prof. John W. Draper, of the University of New York, had succeeded in making them; it was especially for this reason that he was the first man I visited on my arrival in New York in 1849. When he found that I had studied his famous book on the chemical influence of the sun-light on plants, we became great friends. By his advice I hired two studios in the New York University building, where I resided and studied medicine until I was graduated in 1857 (see February number of the MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER).

He is one of the many eminent men whose loss by death I most sincerely regretted, and who always sent me a copy of his newly-published books, usually accompanied by a flattering letter.

(To be Continued).

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #6 -- July 5, 2008

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical.

Here is the sixth part. He continues to discuss his career as a photographer.

His son Henry Van Der Weyde served in the Union Army during the Civil War and later emigrated to England, where he worked as a photographer. I have not located a photograph by PH, but the image this month was taken by Henry. It is from Tennis By John Moyer Heathcote et. al: "C. Saunders volleying the service from the pent-house."

Roger (or Rogier) Van Der Weyde was a Fifteenth Century Flemish painter.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 6, June 1893

(Continued from page 123.)

(5th. Career as a Photographer. -- As stated before, I began to follow Daguerre’s advice, and made only pictures of outdoor objects. The first subject was a chimney top, visible across the street from a top-story window. This was very much admired, especially because it exhibited a peculiarity never before seen in art productions, namely, that every brick was represented, with details which required a magnifying glass to verify them; defects in the bricks, for instance, only visible by help of an opera glass, were found in the small picture when a magnifying lens was applied.

I went a step further, and attempted to make a picture of an object only visible by a telescope; this was a church spire at the horizon of an extensive fiat landscape seen from a window in the attic story. At first nothing of it was visible on the Daguerrean plate, not even by the strongest lens; but by narrowing the diaphragm which I used in front of the lens, and prolonging the time of exposure in proportion that the light reaching the plate was thus reduced, I succeeded in making an impression of the invisible spire, very distinctly recognized by the aid of a small magnifying lens. This also was another feat admired by my friends.

This, and similar experiments, set me speculating in regard to the future services which photography might render to astronomy, if at night it might not be possible to photograph invisible stars by long exposure to a camera attached to the heliostat, of which I had studied the illustrated description in Gravesande’s ”Elemens de Physique,” published in Leyden in 1744, plate 83, pp. 127-136, having its clock-work motion so regulated as to follow the movements of the stars, and so make a very long exposure possible -- say several hours.

When speaking about this to some friends, they said I was a visionary; but when I mentioned the subject to an old astronomer, he answered that if I lived long enough I might see this done. (Warning – Large pun ahead – JT) I thank my stars that I have reached the age to see such experiments of photographing constellations carried on as a regular practice in first-class observatories.

Notwithstanding the public in general had not the least idea of what photography promised to all whose mind was prepared to conceive the diversity of its applications, it is scarcely possible to realize the general surprise and delight produced by the new art, which at first had many doubters, who could not believe in what seemed to them almost miraculous results, until at last they were convinced by seeing an operation which at present (only fifty years later) has become so common that daguerreotypes are made by the nickel-in-the-slot process, and this often in some dark corner with the aid of electric light. This is another illustration of the material service which the sciences and arts can render to one another.

The nickel-in-the-slot process has perhaps reached its most extensive application in Coney Island, in regard to which locality we in New York are in doubt if we should be proud, or, on the contrary, should be ashamed. One thing is certain, that those who there practice this art for a living, ought to be ashamed of the pictures they produce, as well as those who indulge in that luxury and who exhibit them to their friends.

This reminds me very naturally of a few other localities where photographs are made by help of electric light. However, while Coney Island is low in the estimation of lovers of science, art and refined culture, the other localities stand high -- stand at the top of the pyramid with which we may compare the sum total of science and art. These localities are Paris and London.

I have the satisfaction of knowing that my oldest son, Henry Van der Weyde, was the first to introduce in London, and also in Paris, the use of the electric light for making photographic portraits. As he never studied photography, it may be of interest to many to know how he succeeded in outstripping the photographers of those two cities.

From early boyhood he exhibited a strong predilection for drawing, at which I was not at all surprised, as it is a family trait*, of which I was possessed myself; and so I did with him as my father did with me -- namely, helped and encouraged him, giving him at an early age a good teacher, and sending him later to a drawing class, where he studied statuary and living models. He became soon very expert in painting miniature portraits, for which he easily found profitable employment in New York among the leading photographers, until the civil war broke out, when he joined the Seventh Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., to leave for the protection of Washington, and later served in other regiments to the end of the war, when he returned with the rank of Brevet-Major, and, unlike others, he returned at once to his former occupation; as in the meantime I had moved to Philadelphia, having been appointed to a professorship in Girard College, he found an engagement with Gutekunst, the leading photographer there.

* The old master Roger Van der Weyde is one of the ancestors of the family.

(To be Continued).

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #5 -- June 7, 2008

William Henry Fox Talbot invented the calotype, the first photographic process to use a negative to produce a positive. The Doctor criticizes him for patenting his work.

The image comes from the first installment, in the February, 1893 issue.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 6, June 1893

(Continued from page 99.)

4th. Career as a Photographer.-- The French government published in 1839 the description of an invention made by Daguerre, and consisting in the production of pictures of natural objects by the chemical action of the light itself, requiring no artistic training, but only mechanical manipulation guided by the judgment and knowledge of the manipulator.

As soon as I had read the description, my love for experimenting in the fields of physics and chemistry induced me to bring this invention at once to a practical test, and after some failures in the first attempts, I succeeded at last, and became soon one of the pioneers in that interesting pursuit, which was especially fascinating by reason of its novelty and the astonishing results so easily obtained.

It is not as well known as it deserves to be, that the world is indebted to Arago for the immense progress made in that invention. It was his eloquence and powerful influence which induced the French government to prevent the taking out of a patent by the inventor, and the consequent monopoly which would have resulted when this art had become private property. Arago, therefore, proposed that the government should buy the secret of the method of Daguerre’s invention by granting him a pension of several thousand francs for the rest of his life, and then publish it for the benefit of the world at large.

Arago held that so important a step in the practical application of science for the benefit of art, would, for its full development, require that the combined activity of the brains of several men should be directed in this pursuit, by making the process public property, and not smothered by patent privileges and consequent monopoly. As proof, he pointed to England, where, several years previously, Talbot had made a similar invention, intended for the same purpose, but by entirely different methods, and took out a patent for it, so as to secure for himself the exclusive benefit of its application. Arago pointed out that no progress had been made in England, where this novel art had remained perfectly stationary. He predicted that if the details of Daguerre s invention were published to all the world, scores of investigators would be induced to apply their ingenuity and make experiments to find improved methods.

The results confirmed the anticipation of the great philosopher, who had previously become known over all the world as the discoverer of many new electric phenomena, and was also the principal founder of a new magneto-electric theory. He was acknowledged as a most fascinating speaker on scientific subjects, and it was by his eloquence that he induced the government to grant to Daguerre the liberal pension referred to above. Daguerre’s previous collaborator, Niepce, died a few years before Daguerre perfected the method, of which he gave a full description, explaining the different steps of the operation, which were then at once published by the French government.

After the details of this important invention were made public, they were at once translated in the different languages of Europe and soon published in different countries. In consequence of this, many scientists began experimenting, and met with more or less success in proportion to their ability in practical manipulation. Some of them even improved upon it, and published their improvements, which again stimulated others, so that in a very few years the art was so far developed that it became possible to make it the basis of a well-paying business, which, by further improvements, has been generally prosperous, and more so now than ever before. These improvements have been continued even to the present day, and will be described later.

The original invention of Daguerre consisted in three different manipulations: first, a thin plate of silver, or silvered copper, was taken, and after cleaning the polished surface carefully with a piece of cotton wadding, Paris red, and a few drops of alcohol, it was exposed to the vapor of iodine contained in a closed box, and when it had assumed a yellow color, it was placed in the focus of a camera obscura to receive the influence of different shades of light, pertaining to the image of exterior objects; after some ten or fifteen minutes it was taken out of the camera (guarding it carefully against exposure to daylight) and placed in a box on the bottom of which was a little iron cup with mercury in it, which was then heated to the temperature of 1800 Fah., when the picture appeared.

The third step was to remove the iodine film which was easily done by immersion in a solution of common salt, or, better, of hyposulphite of soda, by which washing the picture was made permanent and could be exposed to daylight, when the image was seen to be formed by an extremely thin film of mercurial vapor, or rather by an amalgam of silver and mercury, adhering to the plate.

The first improvement made on the process of Daguerre was to make the picture more permanent, as the mercurial film could easily be rubbed out. This was accomplished by a solution of chloride of gold and hyposulphite of soda, which was poured over the plate and heated over an alcohol lamp. The second improvement was to shorten the time of exposure, which was accomplished by adding to the previous exposure of the plate over iodine, a second exposure to the vapor of bromine. Then the film, which was an iodide of silver, was changed to the double film of iodide and bromide of silver, which was so much more sensitive to light that the time was reduced from about ten minutes to a single minute or half a minute, and even less.

As Daguerre had expressed the positive opinion that the process was only adapted to produce landscapes, I confined myself to those in the beginning. I had for some time been making a collection of lenses of different kinds, such as biconvex, plano-convex, periscopic, chromatic and achromatic, and was therefore not in need of calling in the help of venders of lenses (often calling themselves opticians, without understanding the a, b, c’s of optics). As I had more than one camera obscura, it was easy enough to adapt the proper lens to one of these cameras, make a wooden frame for a plate-holder to be substituted for the ground glass, and the principal part of the apparatus was complete, as the other parts -– the iodine box and mercurial-vapor box were comparatively mere trifles.

The explanation of the interesting facts I have related is very simple indeed, when we consider the fact that sunlight has the property of decomposing certain compounds. Thus, for instance, it acts continually on the leaves of plants, where it decomposes the carbonic acid always present in the atmosphere, and which is the product of the combustion of carbon and of the animal respiration. This almost magic influence of the sunlight separates the oxygen from the carbon, setting the oxygen free, which, being a gas, is diffused in the air, while, by the circulation of the sap in plants, the carbon is deposited as woody fiber under the bark, and so the plants grow. A similar action takes place in the Daguerrean process; the influence of the light, which differs in quantity in different parts of the silver plate, decomposes the combination of the silver with the iodine, setting the volatile iodine free and leaves the silver as a fine, delicate, spongy film on the surface, which then easily absorbs the mercurial vapor, forming a delicate amalgam.

(To be Continued).

Friday, May 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #4 -- May 9, 2008

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical.

Here is the fourth part. He continues his discussion of his career in electrical engineering.

Antonio Pacinotti was an Italian physicist who improved the dynamo. Zénobe Gramme was a Belgian electrical engineer who created the first dynamo useful in industry.

George B Prescott was the first chief electrician of the Western Union Telegraph Company. His nephew, Frank C Prescott, later became a newspaperman, a lawyer, and a Brigadier General in the California Militia. I assume the Mr Field whom Dr Van der Weyde describes was Stephen Dudley Field.

The image comes from the first installment, in the February, 1893 issue.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 5. May, 1893

Career as an Electrician (continued from p. 88). -- The statement made that the invention of the dynamo was primarily the result of the successive labors of Pacinotti in Italy and Gramme in France, is based on undeniable facts, recorded in the publications of the period in which those eminent investigators lived. These prove that this modern generator of electricity is, in fact, nothing but the electric motor of Pacinotti, which originally was intended to transform an electric current into a motive power, but of which Gramme inverted the function and used it for the transformation of a moving power into an electric current. The electric motor was, therefore, the predecessor, or parent, of the dynamo, which is, in fact, an inverted electric motor; and as any suitable machine of this kind can be put in operation by an electric current of whatever origin, if only sufficiently strong to move it, it is evident that a dynamo current will cause any suitable electric motor to be put in operation. This shows that the statement attributed to one of the foremost electricians, that the greatest invention of modern times is the inversion of the function of the dynamo (which means that when driven by a motive power it would generate motion in another dynamo), which statement has been going around in many electrical publications, is chronologically erroneous, and should read that the greatest invention of twenty years ago has been the inversion of the electric motor into a dynamo. If such a dynamo is sufficiently large and powerful, its current may drive a large number of small motors, at such a low cost that the voltaic batteries have been abandoned as a motive power on a practically useful scale, and are only used where very weak currents are sufficient, such as is the case with electric bells, alarms, for the telephone, private telegraphs, etc.

The latter word reminds me of the active part I took at an early period to advocate the introduction of dynamos for the transmission of telegraphic signals, and of which I wish to leave a record on the pages of the MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER.

In 1872 when the Western Union Telegraph Company was erecting the large building at the corner of Broadway and Dey street, New York, in which they were to move after its completion, as their limited quarters at the corner of Broadway and Cedar street became too narrow (especially in regard to the space necessary for the batteries required, some of which had to be placed in other buildings), I predicted that at the rate the business of this prosperous company was increasing, the new building, spacious as it was, would soon become too small to contain even the batteries needed, wherefore I advised Mr. Prescott, who then was at the head of the company, to substitute a few dozen dynamos to take the place of all the batteries, which were to occupy a whole floor above the operating room. This space could be utilized for other purposes, while I recommended that the dynamos be placed in the cellar and driven by steam power, without causing any vibration in the building, unavoidable in the use of dynamos, as these machines, in order to accomplish what was needed, had to be driven with very great velocity.

At that time the Gramme dynamo, with the Pacinotti continuous winding, was little understood, and only such machines as produced alternating currents, which were brought in the same direction by commutators, were known by the majority of electricians. They produced pulsating currents, utterly unfit for telegraphy; and this was the objection which Mr. Prescott offered against my plan. I assured him that the Gramme dynamo was not subject to this objection; but as, unfortunately, there was not such a dynamo in this country, he told me that he was soon going to Paris, and intended to investigate this matter. On his return, he stated to me that he found the current produced by this class of dynamos was perfectly uniform, a steady flow, like that from voltaic batteries, keeping the most sensitive galvanometer at a fixed declination, which was constant for a constant velocity of revolution, and only increased when the velocity was increased. He stated that he was satisfied that it could be done, but he hesitated to introduce the innovation, and consequently the whole spacious floor over the operating room in the new building was soon overcrowded with gravity batteries.

As I did not suppose that my idea was patentable, because I had neither invented telegraphy nor the dynamo, while the combination of two so well-known principles appeared to me not to be a patentable device, I made no effort in this direction. I soon found, however, that I was mistaken in this opinion, as soon afterward there arrived from California a certain Mr. Field, who had obtained a patent for this very device, and offered to sell his patent to the Western Union Company. He had devised a combination of six Gramme dynamos, one of which he used to magnetize the fields of the five others. This was an old principle which long before had been applied by Ladd in his current generator, in which he used two revolving armatures, one of which served to magnetize the field while the other served to produce the current to be used for the purpose intended.

Mr. Field arrived in New York just at a very favorable time, as the Western Union Company was compelled to increase again the amount of their battery power, and had actually no more room, as the whole extensive floor was full of batteries, and it was found that the only way out of the serious difficulty was to remove a section of the batteries and substitute therefor the six dynamos which could produce more than fifty times as much current as the battery cups they displaced. The result was, of course, a success, and could not be otherwise, as the current of such dynamos is perfectly identical in character with that of voltaic batteries; being much stronger, it had to be reduced by inserting artificial resistances, which at first consisted of platinum wire wound around cylinders of plaster of Paris. This expensive arrangement was, however, later changed to something better and simpler -- namely, incandescent lamps, which offer the important advantage of illuminating the surrounding space, which frequently is a dark cellar, as is now the case in the dynamo room of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

It was said that Mr. Field was paid $100,000 for his patent, but he told me later that he received a far less amount than that; but certain it is that if my advice, given gratuitously several years before, had been followed, it would have saved the Western Union Telegraph Company a considerable sum of money, not to speak of the bad blunder of not following my opinion, given from the first, to place the dynamos in the cellar on a solid foundation, in place of carrying them up, with the power required to drive them, to one of the upper floors of the very tall building. Surely Mr. Field, who superintended their placement, should have known better.

The result was what I had expected -- the whole building was in a continual state of vibration, so that it became utterly unfit to use the delicate instruments required to measure resistance, volts, amperes, etc., and the company was compelled to hire part of another building, for which some rooms over the store now occupied by Greeley in Dey street, opposite the Western Union building, were selected; connecting wires were stretched across Dey street to one of the upper floors of this building. I saw them in use when I had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with the nephew of Mr. Prescott, who had charge of this department. I found him to be a very intelligent, capable and obliging young gentleman, who took pleasure in showing and explaining to me the beautiful apparatus which the company had provided for the purpose of the measurements required to be taken, such as the resistance of the insulating covering of parts of submarine cables in megohms, as well as the static charge of which the inside conductor of a cable was capable, and which required the most delicate devices which have been invented for that purpose.

As might have been expected, it was not long afterward that the dynamos were removed to the cellar, where the steam power was close at hand, While the voltaic batteries on the upper floor were only used for short distances, such as local messages, etc., some of which, however, were soon displaced by pneumatic tubes connecting the main building directly with branch offices in New York city.

Since the great fire which nearly destroyed the building, all batteries have been discarded and a number of small dynamos substituted for all the work, so that at present there are not any voltaic batteries in use by the company, but every current needed is supplied by dynamos.

(To be Continued).

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #3 -- April 5, 2008

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde was born in Nymegen, Holland in 1813. He went on to live a remarkable life of achievement in the sciences and the arts. He died in America in 1895.

While serving as editor of Manufacturer and Builder Magazine, he wrote many articles, including the ones which gave this blog its name. In 1893 and 1894, he published a 23-part (!) memoir in the same periodical.

Here is the third part. He continues his discussion of an attempt to build a battery and electric motor that could power a lathe. Macedonio Melloni was an Italian physicist who studied the properties of heat. Antonio Pacinotti was an Italian physicist who improved the dynamo. Zénobe Gramme was a Belgian electrical engineer who created the first dynamo useful in industry.

Dr Van Der Weyde's comment that he considered the dynamo, "as the most lofty product of the combined ingenuity of the civilized human race," made me think of Henry Adams' comments in The Education of Henry Adams in the chapter "The Dynamo and the Virgin": "...but to Adams the dynamo became a symbol of infinity. As he grew accustomed to the great gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross."

I like the Doctor's comments about how much the world had changed for the better during his life and how much he expected it to change after.

The image comes from the first installment, in the February, 1893 issue.

Part One

Part Two

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 4. April, 1893

Career as an Electrician (continued from p. 59). -- Everything went on favorably for awhile (at least as far as superficial examination appeared to show), and the electric motor had become the admiration of all friends who saw it, especially after the man had been instructed how to shunt out, by means of a piece of wire, any cell which appeared doubtful, and when, by a galvanometric test, it proved defective, to substitute a freshly charged cell, without interrupting the current, and consequent motive power.

I had long before made an astatic galvanometer, of which the magnetized needles were made of pieces of watch spring, while the coil was made of fine wire covered with silk, which at that time was not in the ordinary trade, but had to be made to order in one of the European capitals, as well as the copper wire.

As the city of my residence had no industries of this character, it often taxed my ingenuity to procure what I wanted. Thus, for instance, I had saved for a long time the very fine wire covered with silk which I obtained from my mother, whose lace collars and caps were, according to the fashion of that time, stiffened with such wire, which at every washing had to be taken off and renovated.* Such stiffenings for lace were at that time sold in fancy stores of all widths desired; they were imported from England, and very well made. I bought some of the new material, disentangled its complexity so as to obtain the straight separate wires, and made several galvanometers, which rendered me great service for more than sixty years, and do so still. One of them was so sensitive that if I coiled up one end of the conducting wire into a little ball, heated this in an alcohol lamp, and touched it with the other end of the wire, which was cold, a deviation of the needle showed the existence of a current. This interesting little experiment was not original, but found by me in one of the Italian scientific periodicals. It was due to Melloni, who has made himself famous by his thermo-electric pile, which is the most delicate, and, in fact, the only instrument for the detection of slight differences of temperature in small bodies.

The apparent success of my motor was, however, a delusion and a snare. This became apparent when at last the great point, which lies at the bottom of all enterprises, was considered -- namely, the question: Does it pay?

Wages were low in Europe, especially at that time, and always much lower than here, while the materials consumed in the battery -- zinc and acids cost much more there than they do here now, thanks to the great improvements of manufacturing processes which have taken place. The result was that the most simple calculation of the cost of the battery showed that its maintenance was considerably more than the wages of the man, and then, very naturally, the idea was conceived to furnish the fly-wheel with a handle, and let the man turn the crank. This was found to be a very much more profitable arrangement, saving as it did the great cost of oxidizing the zinc and renovating the zinc plates, and the still more considerable cost of acids, salts and other substances which had also been tried, in order to find which of them was the best suited for the intended purpose.

Then I came openly forward and published an account of my experience, for the benefit of my co-laborers in the same field, of which the sub stance was this: "To my co-laborers on the great electric problem of the day: As long as we have no cheaper source of electricity than what we can obtain from voltaic batteries, it is of no use to make electric motors, because their cost of maintenance surpasses that of steam some fiftyfold, and even considerably more. Zinc, a product of art, costs much more than coal, while coal, a product of nature, costs only the labor of mining and transportation. Next comes the oxidation of the zinc, which is the source and origin of the electric current, and can only be obtained by expensive acids, or solutions of salts, or their equivalents, which, in fact, cost again as much as the zinc, or even more, while coal for its oxidation consumes only the natural atmospheric oxygen, which costs nothing."

The ultimate outcome of the experience obtained was published in detail in a scientific weekly published in Haarlem, Holland (entitled Algemeene Konst en Letterbode), March 15, 1844, in which I proved that in steam we have a cheap and powerful agent, while electricity is expensive and weak. I closed my communication with the following prophetic remark: "But how to obtain cheap and powerful electric currents is a question about which nothing is known at present. For its solution, the application of an entirely new, and, as yet, unknown principle will be required."

It took thirty more years of study and experimentation to find this entirely new principle.

Pacinotti, in Italy, started, in 1878**, the discovery of the new principle which I suggested, by inventing a motor with a continuously-wound coil, in which the current was intended to flow, and did flow, steadily in the same direction without interruption, or commutators for reversing the direction, which before that time was the only method known; and he stated in his description that if his motor was rotated by mechanical power with sufficient velocity, it would produce an electric current. He did not try this, but Gramme, in France, did, and the Gramme dynamo was born, which was the impulse to the construction of nearly infinite varieties of dynamos, which are still daily increasing, and cause those who are initiated in the details of their construction to watch with much interest every new step forward, and say to himself, What next?

I consider the dynamo as the most lofty product of the combined ingenuity of the civilized human race. The principles on which it is based developed themselves slowly from the experimental labors of the great men (too numerous to name here) who spent their lives in the investigations of the properties and laws of the great natural power of which the knowledge and application belong entirely to the nineteenth century. We leave, indeed, a glorious legacy to the generations of the twentieth century; let them proceed on the paths which the present generation has pointed out, and the results will be such as no one has the capacity to conceive.

Grateful as I am not to have been born a century earlier, when, without steam power, without steam navigation, without railroads, without gas, without electric telegraphy, heating, illumination, and electric transportation, the world was scarcely worth living in, still I envy the children of to-day who will be able to see the results of what those colossal dynamos will accomplish, which we now see constructed; and I regret deeply that at a period when the world has reached a point when the most startling and the most beneficial discoveries will be ripe for application, it will be time for myself and my contemporaries to leave the scene; but we trust that our posterity will progress in the same path that we have opened to lead humanity to the realization of the comprehensive word -- "Excelsior."

* The large collars seen in Queen Elizabeth’s portraits were stiffened in this way, and such collars were in her time much used even by gentlemen when in full dress.

** See the journal Nuovo Cimento.

(To be continued).

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life #2 -- March 9, 2008

Part One

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 3. March, 1893

Career as an Electrician (continued from p. 26). -- It is evident that the favorable reputation which was obtained for electric medical treatment was largely due to the circumstance that it was applied to men who had previously been overdosed with drugs, and whose digestive organs I left to nature. The result was that all the veterans wanted to take part in the electric treatment, so that I soon had the whole regiment at my disposal. This exactly suited me, and I considered myself fully as fortunate as the Abbé Nollet, one hundred years before, when he obtained, by order of the King of France, a whole regiment of soldiers to experiment upon with the then newly-invented electric appliances. In the same way the men were to me objects to experiment upon, and my experiments were made in various ways, such as insulating the one who supposed that he needed electric treatment most, keeping him charged by permanent connection with the prime conductor, while the electric machine was kept in motion, and letting the regiment pass by, every man in his turn drawing sparks from such parts of the charged man, and by such parts of the bodies of the passing column, as were supposed to need repair.

I remember vividly one man with an anchylosed knee joint, who claimed, after every treatment, that he could bend his knee a little more, while in fact I could detect no difference. Such is faith.

The reputation of the electric treatment spread also outside the barracks, and many others applied for the privilege of being charged, sparked or shocked. I accommodated them, as I was continually learning something by varying my experiments; so, in this sense, it did me a great deal of good, but I doubted if it did any good to the patients, and therefore I never charged anything. At that time I was not yet graduated as an M. D., and not entitled to the rights of doctors, who always charge whether they cure or not, and who also charge even when they kill the patient, of which quite recently I have been informed of a sad example.

All the experiments here mentioned were made with friction electric machines, either with a glass disk or the cylinder machine which I had made from a large bottle, as before described. In the meantime I continued my experiments with the voltaic pile, and, for the sake of chronological order, must mention that an attempt to verify Oersted’s fundamental experiment revealing the relation between electricity and magnetism, was made long before trying the two liquids suggested by Berzelius in 1833, and referred to on page 26 of the February issue of this journal.

I heard of this discovery of Oersted about the year 1829, in listening to a conversation between my father and Gen. Krayenhoff, who was an eminent physicist, had his large house filled with physical apparatus, enjoyed a pension, and at the age of between 70 and 80 found his greatest pleasure in physical research. He gave a lecture on physics every Thursday evening at his house, to which the physicians, druggists and principal school teachers of the city were admitted. As I was neither the one nor the other, I attended these lectures by special favor through his friendship to my father, and was the only boy among that audience.

Oersted’s fundamental experiment consists, as is well known, in the practical demonstration that a compass needle will always place itself at a right angle to the wire conducting the current. My first attempt to verify it was made with a current strong enough to pass a shock through a whole regiment of veterans, provided the weather was extra dry, but it failed. I soon commenced to understand that static electricity gives no flow of current like voltaic, and then applied the voltaic pile; this also failed, even after the column was cleaned and freshly re-erected. Then I took the liberty of calling on the kind old general, who smiled, and told me to follow him and he would show me. He conducted me to a room labeled “Electro-Magnetism,” and took a zinc plate about two feet square and placed it in a narrow copper trough of a little larger dimensions, lined with wooden strips so as to prevent metallic contact. It contained diluted sulphuric acid. Then he connected the copper and the zinc by means of two pieces of copper wire with the two ends of a strip of sheet copper placed under a compass needle and parallel to that needle, and the needle obeyed.

This, in combination with my own experiments, was my first lesson in what at present we call amperes and volts. The voltaic column has plenty of voltage, or pressure, but very little current, or amperes, and the deficiency of these was the cause of my failure. I understood then fully that the quantity of current increased with the size of the plates, while the pressure increased in the ratio of their number when connected in series, which means copper, zinc; copper, zinc, etc.; while their connection in parallel -- which means all the coppers joined, and also all the zincs -- makes the battery equivalent to one single cell of large size. I followed the method thus described, which was to discard the laborious and ineffective voltaic piles, and use instead cups containing the plates and the acids, which resulted in a complete revolution of electrical methods and in the results obtained.

It was not long after these experiments that the important discovery of Oersted began to bear fruit. It led, in less than ten years, to the invention of the electro-magnet by Sturgeon, and in a very few years more to its application for transmitting signals over long wires(electric telegraphy). It was exactly twenty years after Oersted's discovery that Morse obtained his patent for the electric telegraph (1840), which began to be put in practice four years later, and has during the succeeding half century grown to the most gigantic proportions.

The utilization of the electric current for mechanical purposes did not grow so rapidly, for the reason that, while for the transmission of signals a very feeble current is sufficient, for mechanical purposes a very strong current is required, in order to make the power obtained of practical utility. Of this fact my personal experience satisfied me at an early period. An account of this experience is added here, by reason of its usefulness and its bearing upon later improvements.

A great stimulus was given to experimenters in this line, when, in 1837, the newspapers announced that Jacobi, in St. Petersburg, was experimenting to propel a boat on the Neva by means of an electric engine. The stimulus was increased by a resolution of the representatives of the German Bund, assembled in Frankfort-on-the-Main, promising a premium of several thousand thalers to the inventor who would produce an electric motor capable of superseding the steam engine.

The text of their resolution is quite a curiosity when looked at in the light of our present knowledge of electricity. It should be considered that at that time the dynamo had not yet been invented, and, being utterly unknown, the only generators of electric currents were voltaic batteries. An abstract of their program ran about thus:

“Considering the serious calamities and frequent loss of life incident to the use of steam power, and the mildness and consequent safety of electric currents, it will be of great importance to supersede those dangerous engines and boilers by the safe electro-motors. Therefore the Bundestag has voted a premium of a hundred thousand thalers to electricians of any nationality who will invent and exhibit an electro-motor performing the functions of a steam engine.”

No wonder that many electricians went to work to make the desired practical electro-motor, and that the writer was one of them. Having then a good workshop, with all the conveniences needed, he began at once. The first question was: Which will be the most available construction? To bring this to a practical test, I made a series of some thirty or forty small working models, all of the same size, but of different construction, as well in principles as in details. The size was, on the average, 10 by 7 inches, the hight varied from 4 to 10, and even 12 inches. In most of them the axis of rotation was vertical, for convenience of construction, the intention being to test which of them could be moved with the smallest battery, and to select that which satisfied this test, and then build it on a large scale.

This was done. Six large electro-magnets of soft iron, horseshoe form, and some 40 pounds weight each, were furnished with proper coils (made of strips of sheet copper, as at that time only brass wire, and no copper wire, could be obtained in the trade). This furnished twelve poles, of which six were made stationary, while the other six revolved in front of them on a horizontal axis. This furnished a fly-wheel of some 150 pounds, and by means of a pulley and belt ran the lathe by means of a voltaic battery of six cups, provided that no work was done; but when it was attempted to turn a simple piece of wood, the application of the chisel stopped the rotation, and it was evident that more current was needed, so the battery was doubled to twelve cups. This was an improvement on the others, but was not quite satisfactory, and twelve more cups were added, making it a battery of twenty-four cups. This, however, involved so much labor to attend to the cleaning, etc., of the battery, that a man was hired to attend to this; a number of extra cups was furnished to substitute for such as needed renovation, so that the man was continually kept busy while the turner attended to the work at the lathe.

(To be Continued)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Monday, March 9, 2009

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 3, March1894

Monday, February 9, 2009

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 26, Issue 2, February 1894

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 12, December 1893

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 9, September 1893

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 10, October 1893

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 8, August 1893

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 6, June 1893

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume 25, Issue 6, June 1893

Friday, May 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 5. May, 1893

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 4. April, 1893

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Reminiscences of an Active Life.

BY DR. P. H. VAN DER WEYDE.

From Manufacturer and Builder, Volume XXV, Number 3. March, 1893

Favorite Blogs (in alphabetical order)

My Websites

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Followers

About Me

No Kings Since 1776

End Gun Violence

Harris/Walz 2024

Classic Movie History Project Blogathon

Chaney Blogathon

Total Pageviews

Popular Posts (Last 30 Days)

Labels