Why bother with tentative research?
Our astronomer ponders the state of the science in the middle of the last century, when things were so different and difficult.
If it’s worth doing. . .
Articles Tagged with old technology
The distance to the stars
A matter of small and big numbers
Having mentioned the difficulty of finding the distances to stars last week, our astronomer tries to put some unfamiliar numbers within your grasp.
Why an f-stop?
It’s all the astronomers’ fault
Our photographic consultant is reminded how complicated things are for beginners, no matter how straightforward it all seems to the professionals.
How big is a picture?
Returning to the Brownie format
The photographs that came out of this Kodak Brownie camera from the 1930s may be the best size ever found.
The radio and the epee tip
The strange endurance of obsolescence
Why do some things keep on being used when an up-to-date replacement is clearly much better?
For the long run
One of our consultants has been working on a genealogical project this past week. It prompts some thoughts on the difference between science and scholarship as well as the longevity of documents.
Simplified lightning
The rise and fall of the flashbulb
Our photographer illustrates the evolution of technology through something once ubiquitous, now obsolete.
Making it easy makes it hard
Simplicity is good, but not always
Photography can seem very complicated, so cameras made for non-experts are often highly simplified. This can make them difficult to use.
When science is an art
The experimentalist’s skill
Some scientists have an unusual skill for extracting precise data from their instruments. Sometimes this leads others to question their results.
Learning from a master
The expert may not be the best teacher
As we mentioned last week, our navigator was out of the office teaching a professor how to use his sextant. Having decades of experience in both the observations and the calculations involved, he certainly has a firm grasp of the subject. But that’s not always the quality you need in a teacher.