Journal and Proceedings

of the

Royal Society of New South Wales

2019

Volume 152 Part 2

Numbers 473 & 474

“... for the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy ...”

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

OFFICE BEARERS FOR 2019

Patron Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC Governor of New South Wales President Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO FRSN PhD (UCL) FAA Vice-Presidents Emeritus Professor D Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CChem FRSC FRACI Mr John Hardie FRSN FHEA FGS MACE Ms Judith Wheeldon AM FRSN BS (Wis) MEd (Syd) FACE Hon. Secretary (Ed.) Emeritus Professor Robert Marks FRSN MEngSci ResCert PhD (Stan) Hon. Secretary (Gen.) Mr Bruce Ramage MRSN Hon. Treasurer Mr Richard Wilmott MRSN Hon. Librarian Dr Ragbir Bhathal FRSN PhD (UQ) FRAS FSAAS Hon. Webmaster Emeritus Professor Lindsay Botten FRSN PhD (Tas) Councillors Dr Mohammad Choucair FRSN PhD (UNSW) Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM FRSN PhD (Mon) FRACP FRCPSC Dr Laurel Dyson BSc(Hons) BA(Hons) PhD (Syd) MRSN Dr Donald Hector AM FRSN BE(Chem) PhD (Syd) FIChemE FIEAust FAICD Professor Nalini Joshi AO FRSN PhD (Prin) FAAS The Honorable Virginia Judge FRSN Mr Stuart Midgley MRSN Emeritus Professor Bruce Milthorpe FRSN BA PhD (ANU) Grad Dip Ed Dr Susan Pond AM FRSN DSc (UQ) FRACP FTSE FAHMS FAICD Honorary Professor Ian Wilkinson FRSN PhD (UNSW) Southern Highlands Ms Anne Wood FRSN Branch Representative Executive Office The Association Specialists

EDITORIAL BOARD Em. Prof. Robert Marks FRSN FRSA MEngSci ResCert MS PhD (Stan) – Hon. Editor Prof. Richard Banati FRSN MD PhD Prof. Michael Burton FRSN MA MMaths (Cantab) PhD (Edinb) FASA FAIP Dr Len Fisher OAM FRSN BA BSc(Hons) MA MSc PhD (UNSW) FRSC FRACI FInstP FLS Dr Donald Hector AM FRSN BE(Chem) PhD (Syd) FIChemE FIEAust FAICD Em. Prof. David Brynn Hibbert AM FRSN PhD (Lond) CChem FRSC FRACI Dr Michael Lake BSc (Syd) PhD (Syd) Dr Nick Lomb BSc (Syd) PhD (Syd) FASA FRSA Prof. Timothy Schmidt FRSN BSc (Syd) PhD (Cantab)

Website: http://www.royalsoc.org.au

The Society traces its origin to the Philosophical Society of Australasia founded in Sydney in 1821. The Society exists for “the encouragement of studies and investigations in Science Art Literature and Philosophy”: publishing results of scientific investigations in its Journal and Proceedings; conducting monthly meetings; awarding prizes and medals; and by liaising with other learned societies within Australia and internationally. Membership is open to any person whose application is acceptable to the Society. Subscriptions for the Journal are also accepted. The Society welcomes, from members and non-members, manuscripts of research and review articles in all branches of science, art, literature and philosophy for publication in the Journal and Proceedings.

2 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 157–159. ISSN 0035-9173/18/020157-03

Editorial: “The Old One does not play at dice”

Robert Marks Economics, University of New South Wales, Sydney E-mail: [email protected]

his issue contains three submissions — David Attenborough tells us1 that when Tpapers by Rendsburg, Holman, and he was a schoolboy in the 1930s, his science Anemaat — on, respectively, a Hebrew frag- master showed them a marvellous new sub- ment found in an old book in the Fisher stance that had been invented, called plastic. Library at Sydney University and how it It was light, it was cheap, and it could be was identified, the science of red meat in used for a multitude of things. In centuries NSW, and surviving drawings made during to come, the teacher said, people would the first days of the Colony at Botany Bay. look back in the twentieth century and say As I have remarked before, the Journal is that was the plastic period! That was, Atten- not the first choice for young academics, borough says, truer than the teacher knew, and so I look for possible submissions from because, yes, it had all those advantages, but older contributors. In this issue there are two the mere fact that it was indestructible meant commissioned papers: a long one by John that it could not be thrown away. Plastics Spence FRS on the history of measuring the manufacturers advised that once it was used speed of light and where that led to in 1905 it should be thrown away. But there is no and later, and a shorter one by Rob Burford “away:” plastic is so permanent that it does FRSN on the history of plastics (aka poly- not decay or rot. Hence our growing problem mers) over the past century or so. There is a with plastic waste, on land and in the oceans. paper by Barbara Gillam FRSN, reprinted Although his paper focuses on the advances from the journal Leonardo, where it is not in polymer chemistry that have resulted in very accessible. We hope that its appearance new plastics, Burford does make some sug- here results in greater exposure. There are gestions about this issue, through changes in five PhD abstracts, including one (by Tran) our behaviour and in new chemistry. that should have appeared in the print ver- My old friend John Spence has recently sion of the June issue, but did not. Finally, published a book (2019) on the history of there is an obituary of Ann Moyal FRSN measuring the speed of light, and the con- (1926–2019), who was the first recipient of sequences for our understanding of the the Royal Society’s History and Philosophy Universe that ensued, over a hundred years of Science Medal in 2014. She was also a ago, including Einstein’s 1905 paper, and co-author of mine. I am grateful to Stuart also indirectly to quantum physics. At my Macintyre AO, a former Dean of the Faculty request, he has written a paper that sum- of Arts at the University of Melbourne, for marises his book, published here. As Spence agreeing to write the obituary. 1 A message from naturalist Sir David Attenborough: Plastic Oceans, OceanVistaFilms, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1T79ZKJqM

157 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Marks — Editorial recounts, in 1900, despite the achievements complex numbers, were discovered by one of Newton and Maxwell and many others, man, four hundred years before quantum there were two puzzles in physics: the failure theory itself was developed. of the Michelson-Morley experiment and Ekert (2008) asks whether we have to use the black-body radiation problem. Solution Cardano’s discoveries (probability and com- of the first puzzle led to special relativity, plex numbers) to describe the world. Predic- and solution of the second led to quantum tive determinism is the view that, if at any theory, with all its weirdness. time we knew the positions and velocities I recently came across a fascinating “life” of all the particles in the universe, then, at of the Italian polymath, Jerome Cardano least in principle, we could calculate their (1501–1576), who has variously been behaviour at any other time, past or future. described as a gambler and blasphemer, This was the official dogma until quantum inventor and chancer, astrologer and astron- theory was developed a hundred years ago, omer.2 In notes he wrote in 1520 while still a which rules out sharp predictions of meas- student, much later posthumously published urement outcomes. Instead, we must use as a book, he was the first to attempt to probabilities. Moreover, causal determin- derive a law of probability applied when a die ism, in which every event is caused by, and is cast, as formulated in Cardano’s Formula. hence determined by, previous events, does This was over a hundred years before Leibnitz not always hold in a quantum world. After in 1676, and over two hundred years before some discussion of the connection between Laplace’s foundation of probability theory complex numbers and probabilities, and in 1774. As a gambler, Cardano was moti- how they unite in quantum theory, Ekert vated to understand this to win at dice. As an concludes that we cannot avoid probabil- inventor he invented the forerunner of the ity and complex numbers in describing the Cardon universal joint which facilitates the world. We cannot avoid quantum theory. transmission of torque between two shafts In a letter to Max Born4 in 1926, Ein- positioned at various angles. And, in his pio- stein said “Quantum theory yields much, neering work at solving cubic equations, he but it hardly brings us close to the Old One’s derived numbers that were multiples of the secrets. I, in any case, am convinced He does square root of minus one, at a time when not play dice with the universe.” I believe even negative numbers were suspect.3 He that Einstein could not accept the abandon- thought such entities (imaginary numbers) ment of predictive determinism that occurs were useless rubbish. It’s surprising to realise in quantum theory. He could not accept that the two basic ingredients of modern the probabilistic nature of the theory. And quantum theory, namely probability and yet quantum theory is one of the pillars of modern physics and underlies so much of 2 Brooks (2017), who expounds the non-intuitive modern technology. It works. behaviours at the quantum scale in an amusing way. 3 Ekert (2008) tells a story about a mathematician sit- ting in a café and watching an abandoned house across 4 Max Born was Dame Olivia Newton-John’s maternal the street. After a while two people enter the house and grandfather, and a pioneer of quantum theory. The a little time later three people exit. How interesting, letter is dated 4 December 1926 and was translated thinks the mathematician, if another person enters by Irene Born Newton-John. See https://physicstoday. the house it will be empty again. scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.1995729

158 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Marks — Editorial

One of the scientific highlights of the past Dr Len Fisher FRSN has agreed to join year has been the publication on 10 April the Editorial Board of the Journal. Welcome, 2019 by the Event Horizon Telescope of the Len. The Editorial Board have given me first ever direct image of a black hole and advice and I should also like to thank Ed its vicinity, the supermassive black hole at Hibbert, Rory McGuire, and Jason Antony the core of the supergiant elliptical galaxy for their help in preparing this issue. Messier 87, 53 million light-years away. By nature, black holes do not themselves Balmain, 20 December 2019. emit any electromagnetic radiation other than the hypothetical Hawking radiation, so astrophysicists searching for black holes References must generally rely on indirect observations. Brooks, M. (2017) The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook, Scribe, Melbourne. This image took two years of processing data Cardano, G. (1663, 2015) The Book on Games from eight radio observatories recorded over of Chance: The 16th-Century Treatise on ten days in April 2017. Probability (Liber de ludo aleæ), Dover, New Denisovans, extinct cousins of Neander- York. thals, have been known only by scraps of Ekert, A (2008) Complex and unpredictable fossils from a Siberian cave, yet their genetic Cardano, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 47(8): 2101–2119, August. traces are found in modern humans, espe- Spence, J. C. H. (2019) Lightspeed: The Ghostly cially in Melanesia and Australia.5 This year, Aether and the Race to Measure the Speed of scientists used a new protein method to Light. O.U.P., New York. identify a jaw bone from the Tibetan Pla- teau as Denisovan — the first physical trace outside Siberia.

5 Genetic traces of Neanderthals (up to 2.5% of DNA) are found in all modern humans outside Africa.

159 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 160–187. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020160-28

A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Gary A. Rendsburg Rutgers University Email: [email protected]

Abstract Tis article presents the frst Hebrew “book within book” to be found in Australia. Included within the binding of an early printed Hebrew book entitled Torat Moshe (Venice, 1601), housed at Rare Books and Special Collections, Fisher Library, University of Sydney, is a small parchment fragment containing only nineteen Hebrew letters (comprising four complete words and portions of three others). Te article traces the path from discovery (frst observed by Alan Crown in 1984) to identif- cation (a medieval poem recited on the occasion of the circumcision ritual). Te poem is known from only fve other medieval manuscripts (London, Oxford, Erlangen, Jerusalem, New York), so that the small Sydney fragment is a crucial, albeit fragmentary, witness to a rarely attested and thus relatively unknown piece of medieval Jewish history and liturgy.

Introduction older parchment fragment found within the uring the past several decades, research- book binding contains a text already known Ders in (mainly) European libraries to scholars, though naturally each witness have discovered the remnants of medieval thereto (even a fragmentary one) is precious manuscripts within the bindings and fy- in its own right. leaves of early printed books. Te practice As with Latin and other European lan- of repurposing fragments of earlier manu- guages (English, French, German, Greek, scripts for the securing of bound books in etc.), so too with Hebrew. Within the bind- the early centuries of printing was relatively ings and fyleaves of early printed books widespread, especially since the sturdiness of (both Jewish and otherwise), one fnds a the no-longer-needed (?) parchment scraps considerable amount of earlier Hebrew made for a readily available and highly efec- material on the parchment scraps and strips tive resource.1 Today there is a worldwide used to secure the books. A worldwide digi- efort to identify and catalogue these frag- tal project, known as “Books within Books: ments, which typically are in Latin, given Hebrew Fragments in European Libraries,” that language’s domination in medieval has been established to aggregate all this Europe.2 In the vast majority of cases, the material, thereby allowing scholars around the globe to learn of each other’s discoveries. Te project is directed by Judith Olszowy- 1 For general introduction, with excellent images, see Schlanger of the University of Oxford and Hester (2018). the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris), 2 Te largest digital project is Fragmentarium: Digital with support from the Rothschild Founda- Research Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Frag- ments: https://fragmentarium.ms/. For a collection of tion Hanadiv Europe, and is hosted at its essays on the subject, see Brownrigg & Smith (2000).

160 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

own dedicated website: http://www.hebrew cover of Fisher MS Nicholson 52 (his per- manuscript.com/. sonal Hebrew lexicon, written in his own Typically, the manuscript fragments hand, as a learner’s guide) where one reads reveal familiar texts: Bible, Mishna, Tosefta, the inscription, “While an octogenarian Sir Talmud of the Land of Israel, Babylonian Charles Nicholson was Studying Hebrew. Talmud, various collections of Midrashim, G.E.S.” (see Fig. 1).4 commentaries, etc. — though once again, Alan D. Crown created a detailed type- each witness to an ancient or medieval text written catalogue of these documents during constitutes a precious treasure. On occasion, the 1970s and 1980s, entitled Hebrew a less well-known text is revealed, in which Manuscripts and Rare Printed Books, Held in case the manuscript fragment may have even the Fisher Library of the University of Sydney greater intrinsic value. (Sydney: Wentworth Press), 1st edition, 1973 As one can tell from the subtitle of the / 2nd edition, 1984. Crown’s descriptions of “Books within Books” project, the vast major- the individual documents retain their value ity of the fragments are housed in European until the present day. collections, even though the website includes As an aside, I note here that some of the (or will include, as more material is uploaded Nicholson manuscripts and books previ- to the site) documents currently in Israel, ously were owned by the Duke of Sussex, Tunisia, Canada, and the United States. To Prince Augustus Frederick (1773‒1843), the long list of countries registered at the son of King George III; others were owned “Books within Books” website, we now may by Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Craw- add Australia. ford (1812‒1880); and still others were purchased from Moses Wilhelm Shapira Fisher Library (1830‒1884).5 Fisher Library of the University of Sydney As I teach my students, each manuscript contains a fne collection of several dozen has multiple narratives: a) when, where, how, Hebrew manuscripts, Torah scrolls, incu- nabula, and other early printed books, all housed in its Rare Books and Special Col- 4 It is tempting to identify G.E.S. with George Salting, the Australian-born British art collector (1835–1909), lections division. Te majority of these with whom Nicholson was quite close, as suggested to documents once were owned by none other me by Wallace Kirsop (Monash University), a student than Sir Charles Nicholson (1808‒1903), of Nicholson's career as a book collector (see previous note) (pers. com., 28 May 2019). As Professor Kirsop guiding light of the University during its quickly added, though, Salting did not use a middle early years, including service as its second name or initial. An internet search revealed one such Chancellor (1854‒1862).3 As is well known, instance with middle initial E.: https://arcade.nyarc. the great polymath’s interests spanned med- org/record=b1109630~S7 — but this constitutes very slender evidence on which to build even a working icine and antiquities, and many points in hypothesis. Otherwise, the identity of G.E.S. remains between. Less well known is the fact that he elusive. also studied Hebrew, perhaps while younger, 5 For the Duke of Sussex and his library, see Gillen though certainly during the ninth decade (1976, pp. 175–179), even if the author gives short of his life, as is indicated on the inside front shrift to the Duke’s Hebraica collection. For the Earl of Crawford, see Barker (1978). For Shapira, see now Tigay (2017), esp. pp. 57–60 for connections to 3 For general orientation, see Kirsop (2007). Charles Nicholson.

161 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney by whom, and for whom it was written (or Torat Moshe (Venice, 1601) in the case of incunabula, the parallel infor- Attention is drawn here to the frst print- mation); b) who owned the manuscript (or ing of the complete Hebrew work known early printed book) over the course of the as Torat Moshe, lit. “Te Torah of Moses,” centuries; and c) how it came to reside in the the Pentateuch with commentary by Rabbi library which serves as its present custodian. Moses Alshekh (1508‒1593),8 based on his During my recent tenure as Mandel- public sermons, printed in Venice by the baum Visiting Professor at the University well-known printer Giovanni Di Gara,9 in of Sydney (mid-March through mid-May, the year 1601 (see Fig. 2). Tis item was not 2019),6 I had occasion to inspect the entire included in the frst edition of Crown’s cata- collection, with Crown’s catalogue always at logue, though it does appear in the second my side.7 If I may be permitted a personal edition, on p. 30. When Crown wrote his aside, I should mention that I knew Alan description, the work was still uncatalogued Crown (1932‒2010) relatively well (espe- (that is, it bore no shelfmark), though in the cially given the distance between our two intervening years it now bears the designa- countries), from our frst meetings at the tion RB 5101.2. Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Stud- As far as can be determined, the book ies (then housed at Yarnton Manor) during is not amongst the documents owned by the 1990s through to my frst visit to Sydney Sir Charles Nicholson, for his book plate in 2004. Alas, Professor Crown died shortly appears in all of those that he owned (save before my second visit to Sydney in 2011. for the scrolls, obviously), and/or the acces- As I inspected the Hebrew manuscripts at sion documentation records his prior owner- Fisher Library, during this my third visit to ship. In the case of RB 5101.2, no book plate Australia, with Alan Crown’s catalogue in is present, nor is any other helpful infor- hand, it was, accordingly, like having an old mation present, nor do the library records friend serving as my guide. preserve any such information. Which is to say, the accession documentation seems 10 6 During this two-month period I was associated both to be lost in the mists of time. As such, with Mandelbaum House (a residential college) and the Department of Hebrew, Biblical, and Jewish Stud- 8 In Crown’s catalogue, the author is referred to as ies, though I also should add that this was the third Moses Alsheik. I have adopted the spelling of the occasion on which I held this visiting position (prior surname Alshekh as it appears in the authoritative visits were in July–August 2004 and February–March Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (Preschel and Derovan 2011). I here express my gratitude to both institutions 2007). In the older Jewish Encyclopedia the surname for their warm hospitality, with special mention of Ms. is presented as Alshech (Friedländer 1906). Naomi Winton at the former and Prof. Ian Young at the latter. See also the next footnote. 9 For information on the printer, see Busi (2007). 7 My research at Fisher Library was facilitated by the 10 Te usual array of handwritten notes (all in Hebrew) kind assistance ofered by Julie Price, Julie Sommer- indicating prior ownership appear at the top of the feldt, and Fiona Berry, librarians par excellence in Rare title page (see Fig. 2) and in the blank fyleaf pages, Books and Special Collections, to whom I express my both in the beginning and at the end (see Fig. 3 for deep gratitude. As always, my wife Melissa A. Rends- one example). Te latter mentions the city of Eiben- burg provided assistance in manifold ways, including schütz / Ivančice (Moravia), so that we know that the ofering another set of perspicacious eyes to detect vari- volume was present there c. 1800 (see caption to Fig. ous jots and tittles which otherwise may have escaped 3 for further details). My gratitude to Joshua Teplit- my attention. sky (University of Stony Brook) for his reading of the

162 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney there is no direct connection between this not directly relevant to the topic at hand, but early printed volume and Nicholson, but I no one should ever pass up the opportunity thought I would begin the narrative (as I to mention the printing press established by have done above) with information about this aristocratic Jewish woman, Doña Reyna the second Chancellor of the University of Nasi, in the late 16th century.11 Sydney, for his persona and collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts nicely sets Te “Book Within Book” Fragment the stage for the present account. And now for the “book within book” (see Figures 5 and 6), which already Crown rec- Sidebar: Torat Moshe: Genesis ognised (see Fig. 7). I quote him here in (Constantinople, 1593) extenso (for my comments, indicated by the Moreover, while not directly relevant to the superscript letters, see below): current project, one cannot mention Torat Te volume is of interest for its binding Moshe by Moses Alshekh without the fol- which is original and is worthy of a full lowing short side excursion. Note my word- description. As with many Italian bind- ing above, “the frst printing of the complete ings of the period pieces of Hebrew man- [emphasis added] Hebrew work known as uscript have been incorporated into the Torat Moshe”, with reference to the Venice, spine. Manuscript pieces of the type have 1601, edition. Te word “complete” needs to turned up in considerable number in a be included here, because the frst part of the recent study of the Italian state archives commentary, relating to the book of Genesis at Cremonaa and are regarded as a living only, was printed in Constantinople in 1593 Geniza.b Only a small piece of manuscript (as noted by Crown, see Fig. 7). is visible in the spine of this volume where Tis earlier printing constitutes a story the leather casing at the base [sic]c of the in its own right. In brief, the earlier, shorter spine has crumbled. Here a thin piece of version of Torat Moshe was printed by the parchment has been used as a lining. Te great Doña Reyna Nasi (1538‒1599), wife/ words widow of Dom Joseph Nasi (1525‒1579), appointed as Lord of Tiberias and Duke of ’ani zokher w….. Naxos by the Ottoman sultans. After her ’anokhi sh(w….. husband’s death, Doña Reyna used the ’at nst… family fortune to establish a printshop in can be distinguished. Tese words are not her palace “in Belvedere near the great city of found in such juxtaposition in the Old Constantinople, under the rule of our lord, Testament so the source must be some the great and powerful king, Sultan Murad other Hebrew text. Little can be said [= Murad III (r. 1574‒1595)], may his glory about the script from the few words to be be exalted” (to quote the title page, for which seen other than that they have a Gothic see Fig. 4). To repeat, this earlier printing is 11 For further information on Doña Reyna Nasi and on Torat Moshe by Moses Alshekh, see the delightful long inscription. However, none of the information and informative essays by Brener (2016, 2017). I here contained within the handwritten notes helps us in express my deep gratitude to Ann Brener (Library of our quest regarding the accession of the volume to the Congress) for her comments on the draft version of University of Sydney Library. this article.

163 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

angularity and look like the lettering to Now that I have inspected the volume, espe- be found in German-Hebrew manuscripts cially its binding, I am able to present the of the thirteenth century. [Crown 1984, Hebrew text here with greater accuracy: אני זוכר ה] [p. 30 אנכי שו] -a Since Crown wrote these words in 1984, as indi cated above, Hebrew “books within books” have את נסת] ,been found throughout Europe and elsewhere though clearly Italy still holds prime position in In sum, the nineteen visible letters comprise regards to both quality and quantity, no surprise given that Hebrew printing began in Italy.12 four complete words and portions of three b Geniza is the Hebrew word for “storeroom.” By others. Upon seeing the text, I agreed with far the most famous such storeroom is the Cairo Crown’s assessment that “these words are not Geniza located in the Ben Ezra Synagogue. During found in such juxtaposition in the [Bible, the period of the 1860s through 1890s, c. 300,000 documents dating mainly from the 10th‒14th cen- and thus] the source must be some other turies were removed from the premises. About Hebrew text.” Fortunately, today we have an two-thirds of these are housed in the Cambridge online database of all (or nearly all) Hebrew University Library, while the other one-third are distributed among approximately seventy librar- literature, created by the Academy of the ies and private collections in Europe, Israel, and Hebrew Language (Jerusalem), known as North America.13 To the best of my knowledge, Maʾagarim (literally “gatherings, collections, there are no Cairo Geniza documents in Australia. When the “books within books” documents frst databases”): https://maagarim.hebrew-acad emerged in Italian libraries, the term “Italian Geniza” emy.org.il/. Tis database, in turn, will serve was coined. Once scholars realised that such docu- as the basis for the Historical Dictionary of ments were to be found throughout European (and the Hebrew Language project, covering the other) collections, the term morphed into “Euro- pean Geniza.” entire 3000-year history of the language and c Te visible portion of the medieval manuscript its literature, in the same way that the Oxford is actually at the top of the spine, not the base. English Dictionary surveys, details, and ana­ Crown was an expert Hebraist, so this is not a case lyses the history of English. of holding the book the wrong way; rather it must be simply an honest mistake. For the nonce, however, scholars are able to access the database, both for its concord- When Crown produced his catalogue on the ance and for its “free text” search. I selected ʾani zoker “I אני זוכר typewriter in the 1980s, it was difcult to the two-word phrase switch back-and-forth between English and remember” from the above snippet, since Hebrew, and even the addition of diacritical this is the only legible portion of the docu- marks was a challenge. Accordingly, when ment containing at least two complete words, I frst read Crown’s transcription, before and entered the selection into the “free text” inspecting the Hebrew itself, I was unsure search window. My attempt was immedi- about certain words and indeed letters. ately rewarded. Te ffth “hit” under this ’ani zokher w….. operation yielded the desired composition ’anokhi sh(w….. (see Fig. 8). Note that the highlighted words ʾani zoker “I remember” are followed אני זוכר …at nst’ by strings of letters that accord perfectly with 12 For details, see Hill (2013). what is legible in our binding fragment. 13 For general introduction, see Hofman & Cole Trough this operation, I learned the (2011). identity of the text: a piyyuṭ, or liturgi-

164 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney cal poem, on the occasion of a baby boy’s research of this kind in our contemporary circumcision. What Alan Crown had not world, because BL MS Or. 2772 is fully been able to uncover, I was able to identify available online: http://www.bl.uk/manu with a few keystrokes. Such is the world in scripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=or_2772. Te poem which we live today, with research tools at is spread over two pages, fol. 200r (bottom) our disposal that earlier scholars could not and fol. 200v (top) (see Figures 11 and 12).15 have imagined. I must emphasize here that Trough the Maʾagarim and British Crown’s inability to identify the text, and Library searches, I now had the full piyyuṭ mine as well, does not constitute a refection at my disposal. Based on the usual method of our scholarly abilities (or lack thereof), for of entitling medieval Hebrew poems by their אלהיכם אני זוכר as we shall see, our poem is rarely attested incipits, our poem is called ,ʾɛlohekɛm ʾani zoker hab-bərit “O God הברית ,within the annals of Jewish liturgy, custom and practice. I recall the covenant.” With this information in hand, I turned to the authoritative refer- Te Full Poem: “O God, ence work of Israel Davidson, ʾOṣar ha-Šira I Recall the Covenant” ve-ha-Piyyuṭ = Tesaurus of Mediaeval I further learned that the manuscript proto- Hebrew Poetry, 4 vols. (New York: Jewish type for this piyyuṭ at the Maʾagarim data- Teological Seminary, 1924‒1933), to deter- base is British Library MS Or. 2772 (= Mar- mine if the poem is registered there — and goliouth no. 658), with the latter designation indeed it is (Davidson 1924‒1933, vol. 1, p. referring to George Margoliouth, Catalogue 209, no. 4571). Davidson’s sources were of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in three printed siddurim (sg. siddur = prayer the British Museum, Part II (London: British book for daily and Sabbath use) and Museum, 1905), pp. 278‒281 (the frst page maḥzorim (sg. maḥzor = prayer book for fes- הדרת קדש (of which is reproduced here, see Fig. 9).14 tivals and special occasions): a Te manuscript is a Jewish festival prayer Hadrat Qodeš “Holy Splendour” (Venice, -Šaʿar haš שער השמים (book, according to the Ashkenazi (i.e., 1599‒1600); b German) rite, dated to 1326. A perusal of Šamayim “Gate of Heaven” (Amsterdam, Derekh ha-Ḥayyim דרך החיים (the Margoliouth catalogue pages revealed 1717); and c that our little poem is labeled as no. 53 (see “Way of Life” (Stettin, 1862).16 Below we will Fig. 10). Tis allowed for easier location of return to the earliest of these three printings, the poem within the large manuscript (310 folios), because the medieval scribe had numbered the individual components in the 15 I here extend heartfelt thanks to Zsófa Buda, manu- margin, using Hebrew numerals: in our case script cataloguer at the British Library, Asian and Afri- can Studies, for her kind assistance. In the wake of my ,Once again, it is good to perform email to her (17 April 2019) about this manuscript .53 = נג she very quickly identifed the specifc location of the

14 poem on fols. 200r‒200v, thereby obviating the need Margoliouth’s project is a work of prodigious scholar- for me to search and scroll at the website. ship, reaching more than 1200 pages spread over four volumes, published between the years 1899‒1915. 16 Davidson 1924‒1933, vol. 1, p. 209, no. 4571, with For a comparable work, see below, n. 31. Te reader cross-references to the sources listed on pp. liii, lxxx- will recall that British Museum manuscripts of this viii, and lx, respectively. (Davidson lists everything in nature were transferred to the British Library upon alphabetical order, for easy referencing, while I have the latter’s ofcial establishment in 1973. placed the three sources in chronological order).

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the one from Venice, 1599‒1600, though b Literally, ‘your (pl.) God’.17 we jump ahead of our story. c Te name of the brook where the prophet Elijah 18 Here follows the full poem, as presented hid (1 Kings 17:1‒7). According to Jewish folklore, Elijah attends each circumcision, with an honorary in BL MS Or. 2772, with poetic lineation chair set in place for him, hence, he is invoked here. (as opposed to a layout per the manuscript In addition, according to Jewish tradition, Elijah is lines); my attempt at an English translation; the harbinger of the Messiah,19 as refected in the following lines. and my annotations marked by superscript d Heb. goyim, lit. “nations,” in this context, Gentiles. letters. Te scribe of BL MS Or. 2772 Te role of destroying the Gentiles is not necessar- included the Hebrew vowels (per the prac- ily part of Jewish messianic expectation, but given tice with most prayer books, etc.), though I the continuous attacks on Jewish life and religion in Christian Europe (blood libels, accusations of have omitted them here for simplicity’s sake. host desecrations, massacres by Crusaders, disputa- In addition, the Hebrew text includes a spe- tions, book burnings, expulsions, etc., etc.), one can cial mark to indicate the end of a poetic line; understand the Jewish poet’s hope that Elijah would I have transcribed that mark with the stand- avenge these actions. e Te Hebrew word ṭov “good” is written in the ard English full stop (period). Finally, note left margin of BL MS Or. 2772, fol. 200r, last line, that the Hebrew poem includes a rhyme added there after it was accidentally omitted by scheme, with each line ending in the syllable the scribe. -rit (starting with the word bərit “covenant” f The Hebrew term ʾaḥarit “end of time” refers in line 1), a technique which cannot be here to the Messianic Age. reproduced in English translation.

לברית מילה 17 lit. ‘your God’ (as ,אלהיכם Te use of the form אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית. opposed to “O God” or some other form), is charac- teristic of a specifc genre of piyyuṭ which developed הנה אנכי שולח לשארית. lit. “your ,אלהיכם in medieval Ashkenaz. Te word את נסתר בנחל כרית. אני יהוה God,” is invoked as an echo of the phrase ופנה לפניו גוים יכרית. I am the Lord your God,” which appears in“ אלהיכם טוב the special Qeduša “sanctifcation” prayer for Musaf מבשר ושלום באחרית. additional service) on Sabbath and Festivals, at which) אומר לציון מלך אלהיך זהרית. -point poems of this genre were inserted into the ser ובדברי vice (see also annotation g ahead). Te three-word For the covenant of circumcision:a Hebrew phrase, in turn, occurs 34x in the Bible (28x O God,b I recall the covenant, in the Torah, 5x in the Prophets, and 1x in Judges), though in the present instance the Qeduša prayer cites Behold, I send to the remnant. Numbers 15:41. For numerous examples of piyyuṭim lit. “your God,” see ,אלהיכם Te one hidden in the Cherith Brook.c beginning with the word And he will turn towards him, destroying Davidson 1924‒1933, vol. 1, pp. 209‒210, nos. 4563‒4605. See also the nine such liturgical poems d the Gentiles. registered by Hollender (2005, pp. 297‒298). For Heralding good and peacee for the end-of- general discussion, see Fleischer (1975, pp. 448‒449). time.f For easy reference, see also the Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohekhem. Saying to Zion, ‘King, your God’, shining- kərit, puns on כרית ,forth. 18 Te Hebrew form of the name כ-ר-ת g the verb k-r-t “cut,” since in Biblical Hebrew And with the words of. usage, one “cuts a covenant.” See further below, n. 26. a Recall that in Judaism, circumcision is the sign of 19 In the New Testament, this role is flled by John the the covenant (see Genesis 17). Baptist, for which see Matthew 11:12‒14, 17:10‒13, Luke 1:13‒17, etc.

166 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

g Each of the poems in this collection ends with this Ktiv database (even though it served as the ,u-b-dibre qodšəka basis for the database)21 — but ובדברי קדשך phrase, shorthand for “and with the words of your holiness,” thereby send- Maʾagarim ing the precentor back to this point in the Qeduša to repeat, at least three other manuscripts prayer (see n. 17). include the poem.22 For the record, the three additional manu- Additional Medieval MS Evidence scripts are: for Our Short Poem 1. NLI Ms. Heb. 34o1114, an Ashkenazi With the full poem now in hand, I next maḥzor (prayer book for festivals and spe- sought to determine whether this piyyuṭ is cial occasions), dated to 1418 — with our attested in other manuscripts, or whether poem on fol. 189v (see Fig. 13).23 the British Library manuscript is a unique 2. Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürn- testimony thereto (besides the later printed berg, Erlangen, Germany, Ms. 1267, an volumes registered by Davidson). If the latter, Ashkenazi siddur (daily prayer book), our little fragment, used in the binding of a Worms, 14th century — with our poem book printed in Venice in 1601 and cur- on fol. 220r (see Fig. 14).24 rently housed in Fisher Library, would gain much greater prominence. 3. Te Jewish Teological Seminary of My frst step was to use Facebook at its America (J.T.S.), New York, Ms. 8972, best, via the Hebrew Codicology and Pale- an Ashkenazi maḥzor (prayer book for ography group. Without disclosing my “dis- festivals and special occasions), dated to th th covery” (albeit via Alan Crown’s ground- the 13 ‒14 centuries — with our poem 25 breaking work) of the binding fragment in on fol. 92b (see Fig. 15). Tis version of Sydney, I simply asked members of the group if anyone knew of another attestation 21 Tose in the know will fnd this situation some- of our poem. Within minutes, Yisrael Dubit- what ironic, because the Ktiv project is run by the sky of the National Library of Israel (Jeru- National Library of Israel, while the Maʾagarim pro- ject is directed by the Academy of the Hebrew Lan- salem) (NLI) responded with the sought- guage, both located on the Givat Ram campus of the after information. Using the NLI’s database Hebrew University (Jerusalem). Moreover, the two of Hebrew manuscripts, Ktiv: Te Interna- buildings are about 500 metres from one another, a short seven-minute walk, which the present author tional Collection of Digitized Hebrew Man- has strolled on many occasions. uscripts (http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nlis/en/ 22 Regarding my use of the phrase “at least,” see ahead. manuscript), Dubitsky was able to identify Incidentally, binding fragments also are included in in short order three additional manuscripts the Ktiv project, in addition to their availability at the that contain our poem for the circumcision Books within Books project, discussed above. ritual.20 As he informed me, somewhat oddly 23 Available at: http://beta.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/ BL MS Or. 2772 was not included in the NNL_ALEPH000044735/NLI. 24 Information about this manuscript avail-

20 able at: http://beta.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/NNL_ Naturally, I was aware of the Ktiv project, but as ALEPH000170927/NLI. I here extend my thanks I had not yet mastered its search capacity, I was and to Elisabeth Dlugosch of the Universitätsbibliothek remain very grateful to Yisrael Dubitsky, especially Erlangen-Nürnberg for her kind assistance in obtain- since he works with the database on a daily basis. And ing the image which appears as Fig. 14. not only for this gesture, but for an ongoing email exchange regarding the various manuscripts (April‒ 25 Available at: http://beta.nli.org.il/he/manuscripts/ May 2019). NNL_ALEPH003468718/NLI.

167 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

28 the piyyuṭ includes an additional fve-word Sciences and Humanities. Te Institute named for the great Israeli scholar who) ידעו זאת :line inserted before the fnal line may all who cut the covenant founded the project, now deceased29) seeks“ כל כרותי ברית know this.”26 to create a database of all poems, piyyuṭim, etc., attested in Hebrew manuscripts, from Now, the Ktiv project contains by far the both the Cairo Genizah (per its name) and largest database of Hebrew manuscripts in beyond.30 Does the database, I asked, con- the world, but its search capacity is only as tain any additional witnesses to our poem, good and as up-to-date as the information which I had not uncovered via the above- contained therein (hence the phrase “at least described steps (Ktiv, Maʾagarim, Davidson, three other manuscripts” used above). Which etc.)? Cohen responded immediately to my is to say, the information is continually query with a positive answer, yes, in one inputted by devoted cataloguers and special- other manuscript, Bodleian MS Michael 573 ists, but each of the thousands of manu- = Neubauer, no. 1099, an Ashkenazi siddur scripts must be studied for all its component c. 1400, with the latter designation referring parts, a lengthy and difcult process. Tis is to the standard catalogue, Adolf Neubauer, especially true for siddurim and maḥzorim Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the (where one would expect to fnd our piyyuṭ), Bodleian Library (Oxford: Clarendon Press, since there was no fxed liturgical tradition 1886), cols. 303‒306, no. 1099.31 (See Fig. within Judaism, with each community fol- 16 for the catalogue entry and Fig. 17 for lowing its own rite, using diferent prayers, our poem as it appears in the manuscript.) diferent versions of prayers, diferent orders In sum, at the present state of our knowl- ,O God“ אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית of prayers, etc., etc. Tis stands in contrast, edge, the poem for example, to manuscripts of Bible, Mishna, I recall the covenant” is attested in fve medi- etc., where the contents does not difer rad- eval Hebrew manuscripts: London (BL), ically from one manuscript to the other, save Jerusalem (NLI), Erlangen, New York for the order of the books or the tractates. (J.T.S.), and Oxford (Bodleian). אלהיכם אני זוכר Hence, if the presence of O God, I recall the covenant” in BL“ הברית

MS Or. 2772 was not detected in the Ktiv 28 Te website of the Institute is: search conducted by Yisrael Dubitsky, then https://www.academy.ac.il/Branches/Branch. perhaps there is another testimony to our aspx?nodeId=830&branchId=348. poem in another manuscript somewhere. 29 Ezra Fleischer (1928‒2006): https://en.wikipedia. My next step, accordingly,27 was to con- org/wiki/Ezra_Fleischer. tact Sarah Cohen, researcher and cataloguer 30 As such, the project is not intended to replace David- of the Ezra Fleischer Institute for the son’s Tesaurus, whose information derives almost exclusively from early printed books, but rather to Research of Hebrew Poetry in the Genizah, augment it. an ongoing project of the Israel Academy of 31 Neubauer’s project is another work of prodigious scholarship, reaching more than 600 pages. For a comparable work, see above, n. 14. I here express my thanks to Rahel Fronda and César Merchán-Hamann ”,k-r-t “cut כ-ר-ת Tus literally, with the Hebrew verb 26 per Biblical Hebrew usage. See also above, n. 18. (both of the Bodleian Library, Oxford) for their assis- tance regarding MS Michael 573, including procure- 27 At the suggestion of Yisrael Dubitsky of the NLI. ment of the image in Figure 17).

168 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Once More: the lettering to be found in German-Hebrew Te “Book within Book” Fragment manuscripts of the thirteenth century.” With With this long expedition into the arcane so little to go on, and with no knowledge but ever enlightening world of medieval of the other witnesses to our little poem, Hebrew manuscripts, we now return to the Crown was spot on, such was his expertise in small parchment fragment used to bind the codicological and paleographical matters.32 frst printing of the complete Torat Moshe Moreover, I hasten to add that Crown’s held by Fisher Library. As indicated above, true expertise was in all matters Samaritan, only nineteen letters are visible (see the tran- including the scribal traditions of this small scription above), but they are sufcient to but important religious community.33 Note allow us to identify the text as a sixth (albeit further that the Samaritans use a diferent fragmentary) copy of the medieval liturgical alphabet than the Jews, so that expertise O God, I recall in the one scribal system (in this case, the“ אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית ,poem the covenant,” recited on the occasion of the Samaritan one) does not automatically trans- circumcision ritual. Note that all fve of the late into expertise in the other (in this case, manuscripts described above emanate from the Jewish one). And yet, to repeat, Crown the Ashkenazi orbit, with one of the fve was able to localise our parchment fragment pointing ostensibly to Worms. based solely on the “Gothic angularity” of I say “ostensibly” here because, while the the 19 extant Hebrew letters. manuscript does not contain a colophon In sum, this short poem was part of medi- with explicit information regarding Worms, eval Ashkenazi liturgical practice, recited on its contents reveal this to be the case. Worms the occasion of the circumcision ritual, but it was one of the major Jewish communities in appears to have enjoyed no currency outside the Middle Ages, along with its neighbour- this German-centered community. Further- ing cities Mainz/Mayence (to the north) and more, the author of the poem, as with so Speyer (to the south), and its specifc liturgi- many of the Jewish prayers, remains anony- cal traditions are well known and easily dis- mous. cernible. All three cities are situated on the From Germany to Venice Rhine River in modern-day Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate), with the remains of So how did the small parchment fragment the medieval Worms and Speyer communi- containing this poem reach Venice? Te ties in particular still very much visible (cem- route is well known, per the description etery in Worms, synagogues and ritual baths by Brad Sabin Hill: “Jews did not print in th in both cities, etc.). Te present writer has Germany in the 15 century, possibly due had the opportunity to visit the three cities on several occasions (most recently, with his 32 Tat said, Judith Olszowy-Schlanger (University of wife Melissa, in June 2018). Oxford/École Pratique des Hautes Études), one of the foremost experts on Hebrew paleography, informs Te signifcance of the Ashkenazi prov- me that to her eye the script more likely derives from enance of the fve aforementioned manu- 14th-century Germany. scripts is realised when we recall Alan 33 See especially the edited volume: Crown (1989), Crown’s description of the script, with refer- which remains the basic reference work until the pre- ence to the “Gothic angularity [resembling] sent day; along with the more specifc authored work: Crown (2001).

169 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney to restrictions placed by the German guilds. ritual was incorporated into the large two- Te frst Hebrew presses were founded in volume printed prayer book published under Italy, mostly by Ashkenazic Jews who had the title Hadrat Qodeš “Holy Splendour” (in apprenticed with local Christian printers or vol. 1, p. 321a) (Venice, 1599); and with learned of the art in Germany and moved the manuscript no longer needed, two years south to practice” (Hill 2013, p. 233). One later a fragment thereof was included in the such German Jew, perhaps c. 1500 or per- binding of Torat Moshe, a commentary on haps later in the 16th century, brought his the Torah by Rabbi Moses Alshekh (Venice, prayer book (in manuscript form) with him 1601). to Italy; a century later, or some decades later, Oh, to be transported back in time, more with printed siddurim and maḥzorim now than four centuries ago, to witness the scene readily available, the old manuscript was cut of printers with their movable type and up for reuse, with the parchment strips now bookbinders with their parchment scraps serving to reinforce the spines and fyleaves and other leather materials, all busy at work of bound books. in the enterprise overseen by Giovanni Di With this information at hand, we return Gara. Somewhere in that scene, our two to the aforementioned Hadrat Qodeš “Holy books were created — and one of them Splendour” volumes, a large two-part maḥzor eventually made its way to Rare Books and printed in Venice in 1599‒1600, for which Special Collections, Fisher Library, Univer- Davidson had recorded the presence of our sity of Sydney. אלהיכם אני זוכר O God, I Is there more of our poem“ אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית little poem O God, I recall the covenant” to be“ הברית recall the covenant”. Important to note is the fact that, while printed in Venice, the found within the binding of the Fisher liturgy contained within Hadrat Qodeš fol- Library copy of Torat Moshe? Or are there lows the Ashkenazi rite (as announced on additional Hebrew fragments, perhaps from the title page and per the contents), and not another composition, to be found therein? the Italian one. (See Fig. 18 for the title page, Presumably yes, though herein lies a crucial and Fig. 19 for the printed version of the issue: would anyone wish to dismember an poem.) Most striking, however, is the fact original book binding from 1601 to learn that this volume was printed by the selfsame the answer?34 Te binding too is a work of Giovanni Di Gara, with whom our story art (in addition to Figures 5 and 6, see now began (see above). also Figures 20 and 21), so for the moment, We can, therefore, complete the picture the question rests without an answer. Per- with relatively high confdence. Our anony- haps one day, indeed one day soon, an mous German Jew migrated to Venice, with emerging technology will allow penetration his prayer book in hand; eventually this through the outer binding to reveal the manuscript made its way into the printing layers that lie below.35 house of Giovanni Di Gara. If said individ- ual arrived late in the 16th century, perhaps 34 Tough I realise that some people have performed he himself was employed in the printshop, such operations to reveal more manuscript fragments. assisting the master Venetian printer. In 35 In fact, should the underlying text ever be read, and ,O God‘ אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית either case, the piyyuṭ for the circumcision should more of the poem I recall the covenant’ be present, it would be very inter-

170 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

For example, while I do not know whether book” item to be found not only in Australia, the required technology is the same or not, but within the southern hemisphere.36 Such given the variables (ink, age, etc.), one nev- was my main purpose in writing this article: ertheless may point to the recent “virtual to publicise this point. unrolling” of the burnt Hebrew scroll found As the article developed, however, it in the Ein Gedi synagogue, revealed to con- attained an additional, somewhat unex- tain the frst two chapters of the book of pected goal: to demonstrate to interested Leviticus (see Figures 22‒24). Te scroll readers the path of scholarship, especially (dated to c. 300 C.E.) was excavated in 1970, in the digital age, emanating from a brief but it was too brittle and fragile to unroll, encounter with a small fragment of medieval and hence it sat in the Israel Antiquities Hebrew writing incorporated into the spine Authority storehouse for 35 years, until com- of a book by a bookbinder in Venice more puter specialists used micro-CT scanning than 400 years ago. in 2015 to expose its contents (Segal et al. 2016). I must imagine that such or similar Acknowledgements technology would be able to penetrate book I here acknowledge, with gratitude, the bindings of much more recent vintage. following individuals, who in one way or another provided kind assistance and/or fos- From Venice to Sydney tered my research in Sydney: Julie Price, Julie Earlier, I intimated that if the sole additional Sommerfeldt, Fiona Berry, Naomi Winton, medieval testimony to our poem in Fisher Ian Young (all at the University of Sydney), Zsófa Buda (British Library), Rahel Fronda אלהיכם Library was the complete version of O God, I recall the covenant,” and César Merchán-Hamann (both of the“ אני זוכר הברית in British Library MS Or. 2772, the signif- Bodleian Library, Oxford), Elisabeth Dlu- cance of the small 19-letter fragment would gosch (Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen- rise exponentially. In the end, such is not the Nürnberg), Sarah Cohen (Ezra Fleischer case, since, as seen above, three additional Institute for the Research of Hebrew Poetry manuscripts (located in Jerusalem, Erlangen, in the Genizah, Jerusalem), Judith Olszowy- and New York) were identifed via the search Schlanger (University of Oxford and École engine at the Ktiv database, and then the Ezra Pratique des Hautes Études), Joshua Teplit- Fleischer Institute database revealed another sky (University of Stony Brook), Wallace manuscript (Bodleian Library, Oxford). Kirsop (Monash University), my wife Nonetheless, Australia can be proud that Melissa A. Rendsburg (Rutgers University), one of its largest libraries provides a relatively and most signifcantly Ann Brener (Library rare window into a time long ago and a place of Congress, Washington) and Yisrael far away. To be sure, this small manuscript Dubitsky (National Library of Israel, Jeru- fragment is the frst Hebrew “book within salem). Teir individual contributions to the current project are noted at the appropriate esting to learn if the manuscript includes the reading places above. refected in the printed version of Hadrat Qodeš “Holy Splendour.” For the diferent recensions, see the cap- tions to Figures 13, 14, and 15. Should such prove to 36 I have uploaded the fragment to the Books within be the case, the scenario presented herein would be Books website, where scholars now may access the confrmed by this fnal piece of evidence. information. See Fig. 25.

171 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

References in the Middle Ages, Keter, Jerusalem. Reprint: Barker, N. (1978) Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Te Magnes, Jerusalem, 2007. lives and collections of Alexander William, 25th Friedländer, M. (1906) “Alshech, Moses”; Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres, and in Singer, I. (ed.), Jewish Encyclopedia, James Ludovic, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Funk & Wagnalls, New York, vol. 2, Earl of Balcarres, Roxburghe Club, London. 758‒759. Available online at: http://www. Brener, A. (2016, March 14) “A tale of two jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1317- Hebrew patronesses.” Blog entry at the alshech. Library of Congress, retrieved from https:// Gillen, M. (1976) Royal Duke: Augustus blogs.loc.gov/loc/2016/03/a-tale-of-two- Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773‒1843), hebrew-patronesses/. Sidgwick & Jackson, London. Brener, A. (2017, April 5) “Te poetry of Hester, J. L. (2018, June 11) “Te surprising plagiarism.” Blog entry at the Library of practice of binding old books with scraps of Congress, retrieved from https://blogs.loc. even older books,” Atlas Obscura. Retrieved gov/international-collections/2017/04/the- from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ poetry-of-plagiarism/. book-waste-printed-garbage. Brownrigg, L. L. & Smith, M. M. (eds.) Hill, B. S. (2013) “Printing, Hebrew”; in Khan, (2000) Interpreting and collecting fragments of G. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language medieval books; Proceedings of the Seminar in and Linguistics, Brill, Leiden, vol. 3, 233‒262. the History of the Book to 1500; Anderson- Hollender, E. (2005) Clavis Commentariorum Lovelace, Los Altos Hills, CA, USA / Red of Hebrew Liturgical Poetry in Manuscript, Gull Press, London. Brill, Leiden. Busi, G. (2007) “Di Gara, Giovanni”; in Hofman, A. & Cole, P. (2011) Sacred trash: Skolnik, F. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Judaica, the lost and found world of the Cairo Geniza, Macmillan, Detroit, MI, USA, vol. 5, Schocken, New York. 659‒660. Kirsop, W. (2007) “Sir Charles Nicholson and Crown, A. D. (1973/1984) Hebrew his book collections,” Te Australian Library manuscripts and rare printed books, held Journal, 56, 3, 418‒427. in the Fisher Library of the University of Margoliouth, G. (1905) Catalogue of the Sydney, Wentworth Press, Sydney; 1st Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts in the edition, 1973 / 2nd edition, 1984; available British Museum, Part II, British Museum, online at: https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/ London. handle/2123/13358. Neubauer, A. (1886) Catalogue of the Crown, A. D. (ed.) (1989) Te Samaritans, J. Hebrew manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, C. B. Mohr, Tübingen. Clarendon Press, Oxford. Crown, A. D. (2001) Samaritan scribes and Preschel, T. & Derovan, D. (2007) “Alshekh, manuscripts; Texte und Studien zum antiken Moses”; in Skolnik, F. (ed.), Encyclopaedia Judentum, vol. 80; Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen. Judaica, Macmillan, Detroit, MI, USA, vol. Davidson, I. (1924‒1933) 2, 10‒11. ʾOṣar ha-šira ve-ha- Segal, M., Tov, E., Seales, W. B., Parker, C. S., piyyuṭ = Tesaurus of mediaeval hebrew poetry, 4 vols, Jewish Teological Seminary, New Shor, P., & Porath, Y. (with an Appendix by York. Reprint: Ktav, Hoboken, NJ, USA, A. Yardeni) (2016) “An early Leviticus scroll 1970. from En-Gedi: preliminary publication,” Textus 26, 29‒58. Fleischer, E. (1975) Širat ha-Qodeš ha-ʿIvrit = Hebrew Liturgical Poetry Tigay, C. (2017) Te lost book of Moses, Harper bi-Me ha-Benayim Collins, San Francisco, CA, USA.

172 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Illustrations

Figure 1: Inside front cover of Fisher MS Nicholson 52, personal notebook with simple Hebrew lexicon handwritten by Charles Nicholson whilst he was learning Hebrew, presumably sometime after 1885. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

173 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 2: Title page of Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing, in the University of Sydney Library collection. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

174 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 3: Handwritten note, in Hebrew, on the back fyleaf of Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing, in the University of Sydney Library collection. Te inscription appears to be the lament for a Jewish community destroyed, with citation of Psalm 137:7. Te last ’all the people who are here (in) our community of Eibenschütz‘ כל העם אשר פה קהילתנו אייבשיץ phrase reads (= Ivančice, Moravia). Tis information allows us to place the volume in a particular locale c. 1800, but it does not assist us in our quest to understand how the book reached the University of Sydney Library. My gratitude to Joshua Teplitsky (University of Stony Brook) for his reading and deciphering of this ownership note. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

Figure 4: Torat Moshe, earlier version, containing the commentary to Genesis only (Constantinople, 1593), printed by Doña Reyna Nasi, who established a printshop in her home ‘in Belvedere near the great city of Constantinople, under the rule of our lord, the great and powerful king, Sultan Murad, may his glory be exalted’ (to quote the title page). (Source: https://tablet.otzar.org/, used with kind permission.)

175 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 5: Te bound volume of Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing. Note the Hebrew manuscript fragment at the top of the spine. See Figure 6 for close-up. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

Figure 6: Te Hebrew manuscript fragment at the top of the spine of the printed book, Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

176 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 7: Catalogue entry by Alan Crown (p. 30). I have transcribed and annotated the long fnal paragraph (including the Hebrew transliteration) above.

Figure 8: Te ffth ‘hit’ at the Maʾagarim database (https://maagarim.hebrew-academy.org.il/), upon .’I remember‘ אני זוכר my searching for the two-word string

177 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 9: George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, Part II (London: British Museum, 1905), p. 278, the frst of four pages detailing BL MS Or. 2772 (= Margoliouth no. 658). (Used with permission granted by the British Library.)

Figure 10: George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, Part II (London: British Museum, 1905), p. 279b (bottom), with indication of our short poem as item no. 53 in the list. (Used with permission granted by the British Library.)

178 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 11: British Library MS Or. 2772, fol. 200r (bottom), with the rubric and frst four lines of the in the margin, serving נג poem (the opening word is written extra-large). Note also the Hebrew letters as the numeral = 53. (Photo credit: © Te British Library Board.)

Figure 12: British Library MS Or. 2772, fol. 200v (top), with the fnal two lines of the poem and the rubric. (Photo credit: © Te British Library Board.)

Figure 13: NLI Ms. Heb. 34ᵒ1114, an Ashkenazi maḥzor (prayer book for festivals and special occasions), dated to 1418 — with our poem on fol. 189v. Tis version lacks the initial word in line 2 ,(ʾanoki אנכי ʾani instead of אני) ’behold’, and uses a diferent form for the word ‘I‘ הנה ,of the poem also in line 2. (Image: Courtesy of the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem.)

179 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 14: Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany, Ms. 1267, an Ashkenazi siddur (daily prayer book), Worms, 14th century — with our poem on fol. 220r. Tis version changes at the end-of-time’, thereby repeating the last word‘ באחרית shining-forth’ to‘ זהרית the last word from in the previous line. (Image: Courtesy of Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.)

Figure 15: Jewish Teological Seminary of America, New York (J.T.S.), Ms. 8972, an Ashkenazi maḥzor (prayer book for festivals and special occasions), dated to 13th‒14th centuries — with our poem on fol. 92b (bottom). Tis version of the piyyuṭ lacks the vowel points, includes an additional line ’ləbaśśer ‘to herald לבשר ʾanoki ‘I’, and reads the infnitive אנכי ʾani ‘I’ instead of אני see above), uses) məbaśśer ‘heralding’. (Image: Courtesy of the Library of the מבשר instead of the gerund/participle Jewish Teological Seminary.)

180 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 16: Adolf Neubauer, Catalogue of the Hebrew Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), col. 306b (near the top), with special attention to line 7, where the entry an abbreviated form of the title of the] אל׳ אני זוכר .for the circumcision ritual’]: a‘] לברית מילה .reads: δ piyyuṭ].

Figure 17: Bodleian MS Michael 573 = Neubauer, no. 1099, an Ashkenazi siddur c. 1400 — with our poem on fol. 145v. (Used with kind permission of the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Photo: © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.)

181 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 18: Title page of Hadrat Qodeš ‘Holy Splendour’, Part 1, maḥzor for Sabbaths, Festivals, etc., according to the Ashkenazi rite, printed in Venice, 1599, by Giovanni Di Gara. Te title page also indicates that within the volume are poems for special occasions such as weddings and circumcision rituals. (Source: https://tablet.otzar.org/, used with kind permission. Also available at: http:// hebrewbooks.org/11581.)

182 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

O God, I recall the covenant’, in Hadrat Qodeš‘ אלהיכם אני זוכר הברית Figure 19: Te printed version of ‘Holy Splendour’, Part 1, maḥzor for Sabbaths, Festivals, etc., according to the Ashkenazi rite, printed in Venice, 1599, by Giovanni Di Gara, p. 321a. Te printed version, incidentally, includes the additional line present in the J.T.S. manuscript (see above, Figure 15), plus there is a textual variant in line 4 of ’yakrit ‘destroy יכרית hakrit ‘destroying’ (infnitive serving as gerund) instead of הכרית ,the poem, to wit (with future sense). (Source: https://tablet.otzar.org/, used with kind permission. Also available at: http://hebrewbooks.org/11581.)

183 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 20: Front cover of Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing. Somewhat worn, but its original beauty and workmanship is still discernible. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

184 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 21: Back cover of Moses Alshekh, Torat Moshe (Venice: Giovanni Di Gara, 1601), frst printing. Somewhat worn, but its original beauty and workmanship is still discernible. (Photo credit: Gary A. Rendsburg — used with kind permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, Te University of Sydney Library.)

185 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 22: Te burnt Ein Gedi scroll, discovered 1970, in the Byzantine-period synagogue at the site. (Image: Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.)

Figure 23: Image of the virtually unrolled Leviticus scroll from Ein Gedi, Israel, c. 300 C.E., produced by micro-CT scanning. (Image courtesy of Seth Parker, Digital Restoration Initiative, University of Kentucky, U.S.A.)

186 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Rendsburg — A Hebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of Sydney

Figure 24: Reverse image of the virtually unrolled Leviticus scroll from Ein Gedi, Israel, c. 300 C.E. Published in Segal et al., 2016, p. 33. (Image courtesy of Seth Parker, Digital Restoration Initiative, University of Kentucky, U.S.A.)

Figure 25: Screen shot of the entry for RB 5101.2 at the website of the “Books within Books: Hebrew Fragments in European Libraries” project (http://www.hebrewmanuscript.com/). Registration is required for access to the database, though it is free. For our Sydney fragment, go to: http://www. hebrewmanuscript.com/bwb-database/collection-by-city/270.htm.

187 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 188–202. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020188-15

Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales: A case study

Benjamin W. B. Holman Centre for Red Meat and Sheep Development, NSW Department of Primary Industries, PO Box 129, Cowra, NSW 2794, Australia Email: [email protected]

Abstract Meat scientists are tasked to advance the red meat industry in New South Wales. Tis research has already provided valuable insights and measurable opportunities. Examples include investigations into Spirulina supplementation efects on lamb productivity and meat quality; optimisations to the precision and accuracy of laboratory-based meat science tools that refect consumer experience; innovations in meat packaging technology; recommendations for long-term storage thresholds for frozen and chilled red meat; analyses of dark cutting and beef colour evaluations to predict carcass value; assessing the usefulness of novel colorimeters for meat colour appraisals; suggestions of novel forage-types that enhance red meat healthiness; and exploration of the means to accelerate the ageing process for beef. Each of these provides strong scientifc foundations on which the New South Wales red meat sector can build to ensure meat quality and safety. Tis assurance is imperative to afrm market access, con- fdence and position; optimising production and processing efciencies that mitigate economic and environmental cost; and boost the sector’s social licence and broader recognition as a comparatively clean and green industry. Meat research must be dynamic so that New South Wales can beneft from its unique capability to deliver meat to match market specifcations. Keywords: Red Meat; Meat Quality; Smart Packaging; Preservation; Technique Optimisation; Con- sumer Appeal.

Introduction active contributors to shaping the future of dvancement of the red meat industry in the red meat sector, and often claim patron- ANew South Wales towards a secure and age of its accomplishments (Coleman, 2018, sustainable future deserves merit. In 2017, Lockie, 2015). Tese historic links should for example, this sector contributed approxi- not be taken for granted. mately $17.2 billion to the State’s annual Meat scientists strive to improve and grow turnover and provided a livelihood for more the red meat sector and doing so, remain than 50,000 workers, many of whom live committed to optimising both the con- in rural communities (MLA, 2017). But sumer’s experience and industry efcien- beyond economic and employment value, cies. Tis includes research that identifes advancement in the red meat industry is production system efects on red meat so potentially more signifcant because it is as to: enhance its nutritional value (healthi- engrained into our national identity. Austral- ness) and eating qualities; optimise meat ians are proud of our international reputa- storage practices to deliver superior pres- tion for clean, green and safe produce; we are ervation, reduce waste and permit greater market access and growth; fnd packaging

188 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales technologies that boost retail-potential and acids, vitamins, minerals, and fats (Holman intelligently inform prospective custom- and Malau-Aduli, 2013). Tis application ers; and equip processors with methods to as a livestock feed is further enhanced by better achieve market specifcations (both Spirulina having better land- and nutrient- domestic and abroad). Holistic and practical use efciencies when compared to conven- innovation within these themes is vital and tional feed-types (e.g. maize, wheat, barley, will deliver economic and societal benefts etc.) (Smetana et al., 2017). Furthermore, through a greater understanding of science- Spirulina is produced within nutrient-rich, in-agriculture. liquid mediums and this has prompted its Tis paper aims to highlight some such use to recapture nutrients otherwise lost recent achievements and share what has to current waste streams (Dismukes et al., been their tangible beneft to the New 2008). It is therefore unsurprising that Spir- South Wales red meat sector. Consequently, ulina has been the focus of recent investiga- it should be recognised that this paper is a tion. case study and does not aim to provide a Past research has reported several defnitive overview of all meat research pres- important observations when crossbred ently undertaken in New South Wales. It Merino lambs held under drought or non- should also be noted that in this paper, red drought conditions, were supplemented meat is used to only refer to bovine and ovine daily with one of three diferent Spirulina meats (beef and lamb); other publications levels (Holman et al., 2014d, Holman and may use broader defnitions. Malau-Aduli, 2014a). Lamb haematological metabolite profles demonstrated that Spir- Spirulina supplementation efects on ulina supplementation had no detrimental lamb productivity and meat quality impact on animal health and welfare traits Sheep raised for meat production can be cat- (Malau-Aduli and Holman, 2015a). Indeed, egorised by their feeding systems, viz. exten- the muscularity and growth-linked metabo- sive grazing systems that use traditional pas- lites, creatinine and Ƴ-glutamyl transferase, ture mixes or intensive supplement-driven were observed to increase with Spirulina sup- systems that use concentrate- or grain- plementation (Malau-Aduli and Holman, based diets (Ponnampalam et al., 2016b). 2015a). Tis was supported when lambs fed Whether a system is appropriate depends 100 g of Spirulina per day were observed to on animal genetics, feed resource availability, have superior growth rates and body condi- and market specifcations. Te implications tion scores to the control lambs (Holman et from feeding system selection on muscle al., 2012, Holman et al., 2014c). It should composition and meat quality traits are sig- be noted that this outcome was found in nifcant (Malau-Aduli and Holman, 2015b, spite of Spirulina having no observable efect Malau-Aduli et al., 2016). It is therefore on lamb feed intake – that is, its supplemen- important to validate the impacts of novel tation was not causing animals to consume feed-types and supplements prior to their additional basal feed resources (Holman and adoption. Te edible cyanobacterium Spir- Malau-Aduli, 2014b). Genetic-nutrition ulina (Arthrospira platensis) is one such novel interactions were apparent as SNP frequen- feed-type — primarily due to its protein-rich cies within the ovine ADRB3 and other genes content that includes many essential amino

189 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales indicative of lean carcass composition found ever, to capture reliable and robust data, such to vary with Spirulina supplementation, and panels can be relatively time-consuming then more so when lambs were held under and expensive. As a result, meat scientists drought conditions (Kashani et al., 2015a, often use laboratory-based proxy measures Kashani et al., 2017). Tese observations to quantify these traits. But, as true for all were confrmed through examinations of M. instrumental measures, their usefulness longissimus lumborum intramuscular fat con- ultimately depends on understanding their tent wherein levels declined with Spirulina reproducibility and representativeness — supplementation (Holman et al., 2014b). alternatively, their accuracy and precision. Tat said, the polyunsaturated fatty acid Shear force (SF) is a measure of the efort content of the remaining fat content did necessary to sever muscle fbres and is a increase to support the conclusion of Spir- routine instrument-based measure used as ulina’s beneft to improving the nutritional a proxy for the sensory testing of tenderness. value of lamb (Kashani et al., 2015b). Its association to meat myofbril structure Together, these outcomes suggest that and fat content has been confrmed using Spirulina can be adopted into existing small angle X-ray scattering synchrotron feeding systems to improve lamb produc- technology (Hoban et al., 2016) and laser tivity and the achievement of meat quality difraction particle size analyses (Silva et al., objectives. Furthermore, the prevailing dry 2018b). In addition, abattoir efects on car- conditions and inconsistent feed availabil- cass pH and temperature declines have been ity experienced by many New South Wales shown to be important factors that infuence lamb producers in recent times, emphasise SF values and therefore perceptions of meat the need for practical alternative and novel tenderness (Hopkins et al., 2015b). However, feed-types, such as Spirulina, to ensure eco- a survey of the SF methodology in articles nomic and community persistence. published in peer-reviewed animal and food science journals found these were, in gen- Validation of red meat eating-quality eral, not comprehensive enough to permit measurements correct result interpretation nor research Te quality of red meat is fundamentally repeatability (Holman et al., 2016a). It is determined by its appeal to consumers and likely that this failure could stem from an their subjective eating experiences. To better acknowledged non-standardised approach understand the appeal of red meat, consumer to SF determination viz. diferences between responses are often defned as major sensory method endpoint temperatures and cook characteristics, being: 1) tenderness, which method, tenderometers, blade type and is the mouthfeel or texture of the cooked crosshead speed selection, reported resistance meat; 2) favour, the combined perception and unit, fbre orientation, etc. (Holman et conveyed by the senses of smell and taste; 3) al., 2016a). Our research eforts to identify appearance or colour when the red meat is sources of variation in SF measures have retailed or displayed; and 4) juiciness or the prompted the identifcation of six techni- moistness experienced/induced upon masti- cal replicates as the lower limit for satisfac- cation (Ponnampalam et al., 2016b). A con- tory result precision (Holman et al., 2015a). sumer sensory panel (trained or untrained) Sample block status (frozen or thawed) and can be used to measure these traits. How-

190 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales weight prior to preparation were found to be 2017c). Furthermore, demographic efects important sources of variation that should be on this threshold proved negligible, although included when reporting SF results (Holman respondent nationality and gender did con- et al., 2017d). Furthermore, meat sample tribute to variation in the relative impor- preparation method (e.g. grill, microwave, tance of colour to beef value. Tese results sous vide, etc.) will infuence SF values and are valuable to assist in the correct interpre- also the degree to which these results refect tation of instrumental colour measures in consumer panel opinion (Silva et al., 2018a). terms of consumer colour appeal. Te adoption of these fndings could provide Te drip loss of beef has been used to meat researchers the tools to achieve a greater understand the juiciness trait of meat, more understanding of consumer preference. recently determined using the EZ-Drip Loss Likewise, the methods for instrumental method (Christensen, 2003). Tis method measurement of meat colour are not stand- was designed for use with pork, so it was ard, most likely because of the variety of necessary to confrm its suitability for beef. technologies applied to this task (Tapp et As such, we found an additional 48 hours al., 2011). Tis should be considered when of incubation was necessary to diferentiate comparing research fndings as even instru- between beef ageing groups (72 hours in ment aperture size, Illuminant and standard total) (Kilgannon et al., 2018). As a result, observer settings, and the muscle fbre ori- New South Wales beef processors are now entation on the measured surface have each better informed when using this tool to esti- been shown to impact on colorimetric vari- mate consumer perception. In addition, lipid ability. Larger aperture sizes, Illuminant A oxidation in red meat is often quantifed and 10° observer settings, and myofbrils using a thiobarbituric acid reactive substance orientated perpendicular to the measured (TBARS) assay, a process ostensibly provid- surface are found to best capture red meat ing insight into favour and other organolep- colour (Holman et al., 2015b, Holman and tic quality traits. In practice, this has resulted Hopkins, 2015, Holman et al., 2014a). Te in several TBARS thresholds that supposedly value of optimising colour measurement pre- prescribe consumer opinion of overall liking cision is based on the common knowledge of a red meat product (Campo et al., 2006). that consumers prefer red meat with a bright But research has shown that when two dif- red colour and the need for an instrument- ferent methods of TBARS quantifcation based, objective defnition for this trait. To were compared, no relationship between fulfl this requirement a web-based survey the results of these methods was observed was designed to distribute standardised pho- (Zhang et al., 2019). Furthermore, neither tographs of beef with known colorimetrics. of the results of the aforesaid two TBARS (Holman et al., 2016c). More than 2500 methods had a signifcant association to beef respondents from around the globe then sample favour liking and intensity, nor over- ranked these images and provided the data all liking when evaluated using an untrained necessary to establish that when a* values consumer panel (Zhang et al., 2019). Tis (being a measure of relative redness) were suggests that untrained consumers cannot equal to or above 14.5, beef colour may be detect abnormal favour development due considered as acceptable (Holman et al., to high levels of TBARS, an outcome poten-

191 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales tially resultant from the halo efect — being of New South Wales lamb to international the misevaluation of an organoleptic trait as markets (e.g. European Union, South Korea, a result of the bias or infuence of another Japan, etc.) where consumers use nutritional, (Larmond, 1977) — which is common to culinary and animal background informa- untrained sensory panels. Consequently, the tion to evaluate the worth of lamb (Fowler New South Wales red meat industry should et al., 2018, Holman et al., 2016b). Hence, use caution if adopting a TBARS limit to more research is required. describe beef shelf-life and retail potential. Innovations in meat packaging Nutritive value and eating quality of technology Australian lamb cuts Red meat packaging has evolved from its tra- Te prevalence of heavy lambs (> 25 kg) in ditional role as an inert barrier that protects the New South Wales fock has increased its contents from contamination and spoil- because of advances in animal genetics and age (Holman et al., 2018d). Recent innova- production efciencies. While this outcome tion has now designed complementary func- may have resulted from carcass weight being tions that enhance packaged meat quality, used to calculate carcass value and thus fnan- longevity and/or retail-potential. Tese can cial returns to the producer, heavier carcasses be defned using the term smart packaging are often discriminated against because of (Kerry et al., 2006). In practice, smart pack- their relative fatness and concerns regarding aging includes antimicrobial and antioxidant cut fabrication (Hopkins et al., 1995). Spe- coatings and inserts; sensors that commu- cifcally, when boned out, a heavier carcass nicate the degree of freshness or spoilage of will produce portions of excessive size and the packaged meat; engineering customisa- of a retail cost that is unsuitable for modern tions that advance consumer-ease, packaging households and unacceptable to the customer integrity and durability; leak and tamper- (Fowler et al., 2018). To overcome this chal- proofng technologies; and more sustainable lenge, it seemed productive to obtain a wider material options to mitigate environmental understanding of fabrication techniques in impacts (Holman et al., 2018e, McMillin, lamb and other livestock species, and use 2017). Te adoption of these emerging these insights to improve the retail poten- packaging technologies could prove advan- tial of larger lamb carcasses. Te publication tageous to the New South Wales red meat of an “Information Matrix for Cuts-Based industry and promote competitive access to Grading” (Hopkins et al., 2015a) provides important but geographically distant export this information; summarising lamb-cut markets. eating quality traits, nutritional value, rec- Nevertheless, several key observations, ommended cooking method and portion, outlined by Holman et al. (2018d), should and unique fabrication opportunities that be considered when exploring smart packag- merit commercial attention. It was apparent, ing responses to current industry challenges. however, that our understanding of these For instance, the cost of implementation is characteristics was not comprehensive, with a common hurdle for all such packaging paucities evident for many common lamb responses. Costs may be reduced through cuts (Hopkins et al., 2015a). Tese omis- improved economies of scale, device sim- sions could have implications on the access plifcation and disposability. In terms of red

192 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales meat, the smart packaging user should be traits (De Brito et al., 2017b, Ponnampalam clarifed prior to its adoption so the con- et al., 2016a). nectivity and potential impacts of the user- To explore these outcomes, a total of sixty- interface on its retail performance are under- two White Dorper lambs were fnished on stood. In addition, legislative requirements bladder clover, brassica, chicory + arrowleaf for packaging difer between markets and clover, lucerne + phalaris, or lucerne forages may infuence product access to the detri- before being slaughtered and their M. lon- ment of a continued or uninterrupted supply gissimus lumborum and M. adductor femoris chain. Secondary efects of smart packaging sampled (De Brito et al., 2016). Tese were must be clearly defned prior to usage: does a sectioned and assigned to ageing periods (5, packaging solution that improves shelf-life at 12 or 40 days) where they were vacuum- the expense of eating quality traits constitute packaged and held under refrigeration prior a suitable technology? Lastly, many smart to testing. Lambs fed chicory + arrowleaf packaging options have been repurposed clover or lucerne forages had the highest from other applications (e.g. medical and carcass fat depth and dressing percentages. engineering felds, etc.) than for red meat Bladder clover fnishing resulted in increased packaging, creating an imperative that this glycogen content in the M. longissimus lum- latter application be tested in situ and com- borum. However, no other meat quality trait, pared to conventional packaging to establish measured either within the laboratory or a potential advantage (Holman et al., 2018e). using an untrained consumer sensory panel, From these reviews, we can recommend that was observed (De Brito et al., 2016). Te the State red meat industry stakeholders con- fatty acid profle and shelf-life metrics for sider packaging as part of a broader solu- these same samples were also analysed. It tion to managing current challenges. Further, was found that chicory + arrowleaf clover these same stakeholders should ensure that resulted in the highest concentration of the actual and economic contributions per- health claimable fatty acids, including the taining to all packaging are understood prior long-chain omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentae- to adoption and implementation. noic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (De Brito et al., 2017a). Forage types Efect of forage type on lamb with higher vitamin E levels showed lower productivity and product quality lipid oxidation levels regardless of the ageing New South Wales sheep producers that use duration. Furthermore, sample retail colour extensive feeding systems would beneft stability was not infuenced by forage type from the identifcation of new forage types selection (De Brito et al., 2017a). that have high protein and low cellulose and Tese fndings were considered as a posi- hemicellulose contents (Fraser and Rowarth, tive outcome, as animal productivity could 1996). Tese characteristics promote animal be increased without any unfavourable growth rates, carcass weights and the ef- efect on lamb-eating qualities and shelf- cient use of natural resources. However, past life. Moreover, forage selection could be research has reported that some forages used used to improve the fatty acid profle and as novel feed-types have had a detrimental nutritional value of the lamb. Tis is perti- efect on red meat organoleptic and shelf-life nent as a high percentage of consumers have

193 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales expressed a demand for lamb with higher durations (lamb: 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks | levels of omega-3 fatty acids (62%) (Lamb beef: 0, 2, 3 and 5 weeks). Samples were et al., 2010). Even with this consumer trend, then frozen (if dictated and again on-site) it should be noted that Australian lamb is yet before being transported to the ‘Centre for to be overtly marketed in terms of its health Red Meat and Sheep Development: Meat claimable traits. Consequently, this informa- Research Laboratory’ where they were held tion highlights the niche marketing potential for the duration of their assigned frozen stor- available to New South Wales sheep pro- age periods (both: 0, 4, 8, 12, 24 and 52 ducers in diferentiating their product as a weeks). Frozen storage holding temperatures healthy option (Sinclair, 2007). were either –12 °C or –18 °C with freezers replicated. At the completion of their allo- Identifcation of storage thresholds in cated storage treatment, each sample was frozen and chilled red meat tested for instrumental measures of sensory Frozen lamb and beef each represent a sig- quality characteristics; display and shelf- nifcation proportion of New South Wales life; microbial loading of key spoilage and exports to global markets, where geographic safety organisms; lipid oxidation and fatty spread can make reaching them both expen- acid profles; and protein degradation and sive and time consuming (Malau-Aduli and oxidation markers (Holman et al., 2018c). Holman, 2014). Alternatively, red meat may It was found that frozen holding tem- be held chilled to enhance its eating quality perature efects were negligible. Tis sug- and deliver a higher value product, albeit gests that ­–12 °C could deliver comparable with a comparatively shorter period of pres- quality red meat to –18 °C across the stor- ervation to the former method. Combining age periods examined in this study (Holman chilled-then-frozen storage could therefore et al., 2017b). As –18 °C is conventionally permit quality enhancement associated with used, if adopted, this result ofers consid- chilled storage before the frozen storage can erable energy-saving potential to the New be used to halt and preserve product appeal South Wales red meat industry, reducing even after longer time periods (Coombs et waste and environmental impacts because al., 2017b). Tis could be valuable in man- of improved long-term storage and trans- aging product distribution and improving port efciencies (e.g. slower shipping speeds, market access, matching production gluts managing food wastage, etc.). Tat said, this more efciently to instances of heightened observation should be applied using –12 °C demand, and promoting more cost-efective as a “maximum temperature threshold” as transportation. industry would be best advised to use a lower To establish the efects of long-term frozen storage-holding temperature to allow chilled-then-frozen storage on red meat a margin of error for unforeseen temperature quality and safety traits, a total of 360 lamb interruptions. loins and 48 beef loins were randomly taken Red meat quality parameters were shown from the boning rooms of commercial New to vary as a result of diferent chilled-then- South Wales abattoirs. Tese were vacuum- frozen storage treatments, but when com- packaged (the beef frst being divided into pared to existing consumer thresholds the 4 equal portions); and held on-site for the variations were imperceptible (Holman et duration of their assigned chilled storage

194 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales al., 2017a). Moreover, there was insufcient peroxidase activity, TBARS and oxidation- detection of key spoilage microbes in beef to reduction potential, refected fatty acid pro- allow for statistical analysis, possibly due to fle variations (Coombs et al., 2018b). When the hygienic and commercially representa- compared against existing consumer thresh- tive LL1 source, although variation in water olds, these suggest a perceptible increased activity, glycogen content, pH and other marketability for red meat held under long- moisture parameters conducive to micro- term frozen storage durations with the extent bial proliferation were infuenced by chilled- of the increase dependent on the preceding then-frozen storage (Holman et al., 2017a). chilled storage period length. Nevertheless, while lamb lactic acid bacteria, Based on these observations, if New Brochothrix thermosphacta and Enterobacte- South Wales lamb and beef are efectively riaceae sp. loads increased with chilled storage, cold-chain managed so as to have low initial the latter two types then declined as ensuing microbial loads, it can be held over long-term frozen storage duration continued (Coombs chilled-and-frozen storage. Permitting such et al., 2017a). It should be noted that these storage durations would allow production microbial types are associated with meat and market demand variations to be stabi- spoilage rather than product safety. lised without a reduction in tenderness, the Colour stability proved the exception development of rancidity or other adverse as it became unacceptable earlier into efects that contribute to a diminished per- retail display periods when either chilled ceived value (Coombs et al., 2016a, Coombs or subsequent frozen storage periods were et al., 2016b). Such a management practice increased (Coombs et al., 2018a, Holman et would counter claims of reduced quality due al., 2017a). Tis is less of an issue while the to the chilled product moving to a frozen end-product is destined for restaurants, food state (e.g. accidentally frozen, etc.?) and then service or an additional value-adding process held for extended periods. Red meat display (e.g. sausages, mince, etc.), or when frozen life or colour stability was found to deterio- product is retailed as is, instead of thawed rate following either long-term chilled or prior to sale. Signifcantly, increased frozen frozen storage. Although this is not recom- storage periods produced beef fatty acid pro- mended, examples of this practice do exist in fle variations with unsaturated fatty acid some export markets. Hence, it would be levels declining as saturated fatty acid levels opportune to inform these markets of the increased (Holman et al., 2018b). Polyunsat- likely negative efect on consumer accept- urated and health claimable fatty acid levels ance and preferential purchase. also tended to decline with increasing chilled storage period, albeit insignifcant within Optimising dark cutting and colour the constraints of the experimental design evaluation to predict beef carcass (Holman et al., 2018b). Tis result needs to value be verifed as it has important ramifcations Dark cutting is problematic to the New for marketing New South Wales grass-fed South Wales beef industry and in an efort beef as a healthy meal option. On analysis, to discourage its prevalence, processors other lipid oxidation markers, including will generally discount and downgrade the value of these carcasses (McGilchrist et al., 1 Te longissimus lumborum muscle, or loin. [Ed.] 2014). Teir action is based on a preference

195 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales for bright red beef and as dark cutting beef ated with this assessment, it is important fails to match this criterion it is instead con- to be correct. Te Nix Pro Color Sensor™ sidered less fresh and of lower quality than (NIX) is an inexpensive novel colorimeter normal beef. Tis fundamental diference that measures and transfers colorimetric results from dark cutting carcasses having data to a paired smart device (Nix Sensor insufcient glycogen reserves to drive post- Ltd., 2018). Red meat is not a homogenous mortem acidifcation which can impact on substrate, so when testing the suitability of beef yield and quality characteristics. the NIX for beef analysis it was found that Although diferent in other countries, in seven repeat measures are necessary to mini- New South Wales, a trained operator will mise response variation and contribute to judge (grade) the exposed loin surface of a improved precision (Holman et al., 2018a). beef carcass as dark cutting or otherwise When compared to another colorimeter, within the frst 24 hours post-mortem (Pon- the NIX was found to capture colorimetric nampalam et al., 2017). Common to all trends typical to display and ageing periods grading approaches is their use of a single but had a lesser sensitivity than the widely marker muscle to grade and potentially dis- used HunterLab MiniScan™. While this sug- count the entire carcass. A comparison of gests a non-equivalency, the NIX remains three beef cuts from dark cutting and normal a useful tool for red meat colour appraisal carcasses found that at least the bolar blade (Holman and Hopkins, 2019a). Tis notion and potentially the forequarter of beef car- was reafrmed through its application in casses classifed as dark cutting, did not establishing a colorimetric threshold for refect the negative attributes of the striploin distinguishing dark cutting beef carcasses. and topside (Holman and Hopkins, 2019b). Based on the colour of the exposed M. lon- Tis outcome was supported by the difer- gissimus lumborum (loin) surface between ences in glycolytic derivate and pH declines the 12–13th rib, carcasses found to have a observed between these same beef cuts chroma value equal to or greater than 30.5 (Holman, unpublished). Consequently, it were also dark cutters — permitting a degree is reasonable to conclude that components of of acceptable error (Holman et al., 2019). a dark cutting beef carcass could be salvaged Tese fndings are expected to be useful in to regain a proportion of its undiscounted providing the New South Wales red meat value. Tis could mitigate some of the associ- industry with an objective alternative to ated economic and environmental impacts current methods of colour assessment: one incurred from maybe not-so-inferior meat that is simple, inexpensive and rapid. If production. adopted, this approach could prove valu- able in reducing the costs associated with Using a smart device app to improve staf training and retention, ensuring against objectivity of meat colour assessment subjective misrepresentation, and empowering As previously stated, colour is an impor- the industry to estimate other meat quality tant factor in the evaluation and grading traits based on colorimetrics. of beef carcasses, and conventional practice may involve subjective comparisons against standard references to gauge (dis)coloura- tion. Due to the economic penalties associ-

196 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales

Accelerated ageing without volatile compounds released upon cook- compromising quality for beef ing and their known association with beef Consumers are willing to pay a premium for organoleptic characteristics (Kilgannon, beef that is guaranteed as tender (Boleman et unpublished). Research is ongoing into al., 1997, Feuz et al., 2004) and ageing beef TTC efects on beef oxidative susceptibility provides a means by which New South Wales and yield so that the commercial implica- processors can capitalise on this opportunity. tions can be fully understood. Nonetheless, Currently, industry will routinely age beef these fndings have practical value within for approximately two weeks to allow for current industry safety and storage standards, enzymatic-mediated tenderisation. During and if adopted could minimise the resource this period the beef cannot be sold. Tis requirement for producing high quality beef. delay incurs many associated expenses (e.g. Conclusions over-heads, storage requirements and lost opportunity) which could be reduced if the From these examples of research being ageing procedure was to be accelerated. Past undertaken in New South Wales, it is obvi- research has identifed storage temperatures ous that a scientifc foundation is vital to as important to ageing efcacy (Coombs uphold the wholesome reputation of New et al., 2017b), these are often described as South Wales red meat across its global supply passive efects rather than those of an active chain. Such research would improve red management tool. meat industry access to high value markets, Recent research has aimed to establish achieve better information fow along their time-temperature guidelines for industry to supply chains, advance lamb and beef eating adopt for ageing beef so as to safely achieve quality traits in line with consumer expec- improved beef quality within a reduced time- tations, and reduce associated production line. To test this, 320 beef M. longissimus and processing costs. It should be noted that lumborum portions were subjected to one of positive achievement in this sector extends 72 unique temperature-time combinations well beyond the barbeque, but encompasses (TTC) that were warmer and shorter than broad improvements to New South Wales industry representative controls (~ 1 °C). economic and societal security. Recogni- From these it was found that beef can tion of these contributions should prompt a achieve comparable safety and eating qual- commitment that ensures continuous expert ity, determined using both instrumental and meat research capacity in New South Wales untrained sensory panel analyses, in a shorter so that its red meat sector remains innovative period of time to conventional practice if and reactive to changing consumer demands. increased temperature is applied (Holman et At least, the themes discussed above should al., 2018f, Kilgannon et al., 2019). However, encourage interest, conversation and con- based on current Australian safety guidelines tribution from the broader community into (CSIRO, 1995), the authors instead recom- shaping the future of the red meat industry. mended the adoption of shorter, cooler TTC Acknowledgements that achieve the comparable outcomes (Kil- Te author is grateful for the continued sup- gannon et al., 2019). Tese quality results port and guidance from his family, many were further supported by the analysis of mentors, teachers and friends who have

197 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales proven instrumental to this research. Te and lipid oxdiation parameters" Meat Science, support provided from industry R&D 136, 116-122. groups, NSW Department of Primary Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., van de Ven, R. J., Friend, M. A. & Hopkins, D. Industries, and the broader red meat com- L. (2016a) Comparing chilled and frozen munity is also appreciated. Te author is also storage on lamb sensory quality parameters. thankful to the paper’s referee for their valu- 62nd International Congress of Meat Science able and constructive comment, provided and Technology (ICoMST), Bangkok, THA. from their peer review. 37. Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., van References de Ven, R. J., Friend, M. A. & Hopkins, D. L. (2016b) Efect of chilled storage (up to Boleman, S. J., Boleman, S. L., Miller, R. K., 8 weeks) on lamb meat quality traits. 62nd Taylor, J. F., Cross, H. R., Wheeler, T. L., International Congress of Meat Science and Koohmaraie, M., Shackelford, S. D., Miller, Technology, August 14-19 Bangkok, THA. M. F., West, R. L., Johnson, D. D. & Savell, CSIRO (1995) Australian standard for J. W. (1997) "Consumer evaluation of beef of hygienic production of meat for human Journal of known categories of tenderness," consumption. Collingwood, AUS: Animal Science, , 75 1521-1524. Commonwealth Scientifc and Industrial Campo, M. M., Nute, G. R., Hughes, S. I., Research Organisation (CSIRO). Enser, M., Wood, J. D. & Richard, R. I. De Brito, G. F., Holman, B. W. B., McGrath, (2006) "Flavour perception of oxidation in S. R., Friend, M. A., van de Ven, R. J. & Meat Science, , beef" 72 303-311. Hopkins, D. L. (2017a) "Te efect of forage- Christensen, L. B. (2003) "Drip loss sampling types on the fatty acid profle, lipid and m. logissimus dorsi Meat Science, in porcine " protein oxidation, and retail colour stability , 63 469-477. of muscles from White Dorper lambs" Meat Coleman, G. (2018) "Public animal welfare Science, 130, 81-90. Animal discussions and outlooks in Australia" De Brito, G. F., McGrath, S. R., Holman, B. Frontiers, , 8 14-19. W. B., Friend, M. A., Fowler, S. M., van de Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., Collins, Ven, R. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2016) "Te D., Friend, M. A. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017a) efect of forage type on lamb carcass traits, "Efects of chilled-then-frozen (up to 52 meat quality and sensory traits" Meat Science, weeks) on lamb m. longissimus lumborum 119, 95-101. Meat Science, , quality and safety" 133 86-97. De Brito, G. F., Ponnampalam, E. N. & Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., Collins, Hopkins, D. L. (2017b) "Te efect of D., Kerr, M. J., Friend, M. A. & Hopkins, extensive feeding systems on growth rate, D. L. (2018a) "Efects of chilled-then-frozen carcass traits, and meat quality of fnishing (up to 52 weeks) on an indicator of protein lambs" Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science oxidation and indices of protein degradation and Food Safety, 16, 23-38. M. longissimus lumborum Meat in lamb " Dismukes, G. C., Carrieri, D., Bennette, N., Science, , 135 134-141. Ananyev, G. M. & Posewitz, M. C. (2008) Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., Friend, "Aquatic phototrophs: efcient alternatives M. A. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017b) "Long- to land-based crops for biofuels" Current term red meat preservation using chilled and Opinion in Biotechnology, 19, 235-240. Meat frozen storage combinations: A review" Feuz, D. M., Umberger, W. J., Calkins, C. R. Science, , 125 84-94. & Sitz, B. (2004) "US consumers' willingness Coombs, C. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., to pay for favor and tenderness in steaks as Ponnampalam, E. N., Morris, S., Friend, M. determined with an experimental auction" A. & Hopkins, D. L. (2018b) "Efects of Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, chilled and frozen storage conditions on the 501-516. lamb M. longissimus lumborum fatty acid

198 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales

Fowler, S. M., Hoban, J. M., Melville, G., "Efect of long term chilled (up to 5 weeks) Pethick, D. W., Morris, S. & Hopkins, D. L. then frozen (up to 12 months) storage at two (2018) "Maintaining the appeal of Australian diferent sub-zero holding temperatures on lamb to the modern consumer" Animal beef: 3. Protein structure degradation and a Production Science, 58, 1392-1398. marker of protein oxidation" Meat Science, Fraser, T. J. & Rowarth, J. (1996) "Legumes, 139, 171-179. herbs or grass for lamb performance?" Holman, B. W. B., Coombs, C. E. O., van de Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Ven, R. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017b) Efect Association, 58, 49-52. of frozen storage (up to 24 weeks) at diferent Hoban, J. M., Hopkins, D. L., Kirby, N., temperatures on beef loin eating quality. In: Collins, D., Dunshea, F. R., Kerr, M. G., Troy, D. J., McDonnell, C., Hinds, L. & Bailes, K., Cottrell, J. J., Holman, B. W. B., Kerry, J., eds. 63rd International Congress Brown, W. & Ponnampalam, E. N. (2016) of Meat Science and Technology, August "Application of small angle X-ray scattering 13th-18th Cork: IRE. Wageningen Academic synchrotron technology for measuring ovine Publishers, 81-82. meat quality" Meat Science, 117, 122-129. Holman, B. W. B., Flakemore, A. R., Kashani, Holman, B. W. B., Alvarenga, T. I. R. C., van A. & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. (2014b) de Ven, R. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2014a) "Spirulina supplementation, sire breed, sex "Infuence of myofbril orientation on lamb and basal diet efects on lamb intramuscular colour measurement and colour stability" fat percentage and fat melting points" Archivos Latinoamericanos de Producción International Journal of Veterinary Medicine: Animal, 22, 147-150. Research and Reports, 2014, 1-9. Holman, B. W. B., Alvarenga, T. I. R. C., van Holman, B. W. B., Fowler, S. M. & Hopkins, de Ven, R. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2015a) "A D. L. (2016a) "Are shear force methods comparison of technical replicate (cuts) adequately reported?" Meat Science, 119, 1-9. efect on lamb Warner–Bratzler shear force Holman, B. W. B., Hoban, J. M. & Hopkins, measurement precision" Meat Science, 105, D. L. Te nutritive value and eating quality 93-95. of Australian lamb cuts. Animal Production Holman, B. W. B., Collins, D., Kilgannon, A. 2016, July 4-7 2016b Adelaide, AUS. K. & Hopkins, D. L. (2018a) "Te efect of Australian Society of Animal Production and technical replicate (repeats) on Nix Pro Color New Zealand Society of Animal Production, SensorTM measurement precision for meat: A 1141. case-study on aged beef colour stability" Meat Holman, B. W. B. & Hopkins, D. L. (2015) Science, 135, 42-45. Lamb colour stability measurements are Holman, B. W. B., Coombs, C. E. O., Morris, subject to Illuminant and viewing angle S., Bailes, K. & Hopkins, D. L. (2018b) selection. 61st International Congress of "Efect of long term chilled (up to 5 weeks) Meat Science and Technology (ICOMST), then frozen (up to 12 months) storage at two August 23-28, Clermont-Ferrand, FRA. diferent sub-zero holding temperatures on ICOMST. beef: 2. Lipid peroxidation and fatty acid Holman, B. W. B. & Hopkins, D. L. (2019a) profles" Meat Science, 136, 9-15. "A comparison of the Nix Color Sensor Pro™ Holman, B. W. B., Coombs, C. E. O., Morris, and HunterLab MiniScan™ colorimetric S., Kerr, M. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017a) instruments when assessing aged beef colour "Efect of long term chilled (up to 5 weeks) stability over 72 h display" Meat Science, 147, then frozen (up to 12 months) storage at two 162-165. diferent sub-zero holding temperatures on Holman, B. W. B. & Hopkins, D. L. (2019b) beef: 1. Meat quality and microbial loads" "Contrasting the quality traits of aged bolar Meat Science, 133, 133-142. blade, topside and striploin cuts sourced from Holman, B. W. B., Coombs, C. E. O., Morris, dark cutting and control beef carcasses" Meat S., Kerr, M. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2018c) Science, 149, 24-30.

199 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales

Holman, B. W. B., Kashani, A. & Malau- Holman, B. W. B. & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. Aduli, A. E. O. (2012) "Growth and (2014a) "Efect of spirulina (Arthrospira body conformation response of genetically platensis) supplementation on wool quality divergent Australian sheep to spirulina in purebred and crossbred Merino lambs fed (Arthrospira platensis) supplementation" pasture and lucerne hay basal diets" Journal of American Journal of Experimental Agriculture, Agricultural Science, 6, 120-127. 2, 160-173. Holman, B. W. B. & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. Holman, B. W. B., Kashani, A. & Malau- (2014b) Feed intake variations in crossbred Aduli, A. E. O. (2014c) "Efect of spirulina lambs supplemented with spirulina. 10th (Arthrospira platensis) supplementation World Congress on Genetics Applied to level and basal diet on liveweight, body Livestock Production (WCGALP), August conformation and growth tratis in genetically 17-22, Vancouver, CAN. WCGALP. divergent Australian dual-purpose lambs Holman, B. W. B., Mao, Y., Coombs, C. E. during simulated drought and typical pasture O., van de Ven, R. J. & Hopkins, D. L. grazing" Small Ruminant Research, 120, 6-14. (2016c) "Relationship between colorimetric Holman, B. W. B., Kashani, A. & Malau- (instrumental) evaluation and consumer- Aduli, A. E. O. (2014d) "Wool quality traits defned beef colour acceptability" Meat of purebred and crossbred Merino lambs Science, 121, 104-106. orally drenched with spirulina (Arthrospira Holman, B. W. B., Ponnampalam, E. N., platensis)" Italian Journal of Animal Science, van de Ven, R. J., Kerr, M. G. & Hopkins, 13, 387-391. D. L. (2015b) "Lamb meat colour values Holman, B. W. B., Kerr, M. J., Morris, S. & (HunterLab CIE and refectance) are Hopkins, D. L. (2019) "Te identifcation of infuenced by aperture size (5mm v. 25mm)" dark cutting Australian beef carcasses using Meat Science, 100, 202-208. Nix Pro Color Sensor™ colour measures, and Holman, B. W. B., van de Ven, R., Mao, Y., their relationship to bolar blade, striploin Coombs, C. E. O. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017c) and topside quality traits" Meat Science, 148, "Using instrumental (CIE and refectance) 50-54. measures to predict consumers' acceptance of Holman, B. W. B., Kerry, J. P. & Hopkins, beef colour" Meat Science, 127, 57-62. D. L. (2018d) "Meat packaging solutions to Holman, B. W. B., Van de Ven, R. J., Coombs, current industry challenges: A review" Meat C. E. O. & Hopkins, D. L. (2017d) "Efect Science, 144, 159-168. of beef pre-cooking status (frozen v. thawed) Holman, B. W. B., Kerry, J. P. & Hopkins, D. and sample weight on shear force evaluation" L. (2018e) "A review of patents for the smart Food Analytical Methods, 10, 3235-3238. packaging of meat and muscle-based food Hopkins, D. L., Holman, B. W. B., Fowler, S. products" Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & M. & Hoban, J. M. (2015a) Te nutritive Agriculture, 9, 3-13. value and eating quality of Australian lamb Holman, B. W. B., Kilgannon, A. K., Kerr, cuts, www.sheepcrc.org.au/publications/ M. J. & Hopkins, D. L. (2018f) Holding publications/utilising-heavy-lamb-carcases. temperature and time efects on colour php, Sheep CRC Ltd trading as CRC for stability (CIE colorimetrics) of aged beef. Sheep Innovation: Armidale, NSW. 32nd Biennial Conference of the Australian Hopkins, D. L., Holman, B. W. B. & van de Societry of Animal Production: ANIMAL Ven, R. J. (2015b) "Modelling lamb carcase PRODUCTION. Charles Sturt Univeristy, pH and temperature decline parameters: Wagga Wagga, AUS. Relationship to shear force and abattoir Holman, B. W. B. & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. variation" Meat Science, 100, 85-90. (2013) "Spirulina as a livestock supplement Hopkins, D. L., Wotton, J. S. A., Gamble, and animal feed" Journal of Animal Physiology D. J., Atkinson, W. R., Slack-Smith, T. and Animal Nutrition, 97, 615-623. S. & Hall, D. G. (1995) "Lamb carcass characteristics 1. Te infuence of carcass

200 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Holman — Te science of red meat and its importance to New South Wales

weight, fatness and sex on the weight of trim Larmond, E. (1977) Laboratory methods for and traditional cuts" Australian Journal of senosry evaluation of food. CAN: Ottawa Experimental Agriculture, 35, 33-40. Research Branch, Department of Agriculture. Kashani, A., Holman, B. W. B. & Malau- Lockie, S. (2015) Australia's agricultural Aduli, A. E. O. (2017) "Single nucleotide future: Te social and political context. polymorphisms of the ovine ADRB3 gene Report to SAF07 - Australia's Agricultural in crossbred Australian sheep supplemented Future Project. www.acola.org.au: Australian with spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) Coucil of Learned Academies. cyanobacterial microalgae" Biomedical Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. & Holman, B. W. B. Journal of Scientifc and Technical Research, 1, (2014) "World beef production". In: Cottle, 1-6. D. & Kahn, L. (eds.) Beef Cattle Production Kashani, A., Holman, B. W. B., Nichols, P. and Trade. Collingwood, AUS: CSIRO Press. D. & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. (2015a) "Efect Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. & Holman, B. W. B. of dietary supplementation with spirulina (2015a) "Efect of spirulina supplementation on the expressions of AANAT, ADRB3, on plasma metabolites in crossbred BTG2 and FASN genes in the subcutaneous and purebred Australian Merino lambs" adipose and Longissimus dorsi muscle tissue International Journal of Veterinary Science and of purebred and crossbred Australian sheep" Medicine, 3, 13-20. Journal of Animal Science and Technology, 57, Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. & Holman, B. W. 1-8. B. (2015b) "Molecular genetics-nutrition Kashani, A., Holman, B. W. B., Nichols, P. D. interactions in ruminant fatty acid & Malau-Aduli, A. E. O. (2015b) "Efect metabolism and meat quality". In: Khatib, of level of spirulina supplementation on the H. (ed.) Molecular and Quantitative Animal fatty acid composition of adipose, muscle, Genetics. New Jersy, USA: John Wiley & Sons heart, kidney and liver tissues in Australian (Wiley-Blackwell). dual-purpose lambs" Annals of Animal Science, Malau-Aduli, A. E. O., Holman, B. W. B., 15, 945-960. Kashani, A. & Nichols, P. D. (2016) "Sire Kerry, J. P., O’Grady, M. N. & Hogan, S. A. breed and sex efects on the fatty acid (2006) "Past, current and potential utilisation composition and content of heart, kidney, of active and intelligent packaging systems for liver, adipose and muscle tissues of purebred meat and muscle-based products: A review" and frst-cross prime lambs" Animal Meat Science, 74, 113-130. Production Science, 56, 2122-2132. Kilgannon, A. K., Holman, B. W. B., Mawson, McGilchrist, P., Perovic, J. L., Gardner, G. A. J., Campbell, M., Collins, D. & Hopkins, E., Pethick, D. W. & Jose, C. G. (2014) D. L. (2018) Optimising the EZ-Drip "Te incidence of dark cutting in southern method for aged beef drip loss determination. Australian beef production systems fuctuates 64th International Congress of Meat Science between months" Animal Production Science, and Technology (ICOMST). Melbourne, AUS: 54, 1765-1769. ICOMST. McMillin, K. W. (2017) "Advancements in Kilgannon, A. K., Holman, B. W. B., Mawson, meat packaging" Meat Science, 132, 153-162. A. J., Campbell, M., Collins, D. & Hopkins, MLA (2017) State of the industry report: Te D. L. (2019) "Te efect of diferent Australian red meat and livestock industry. temperature-time combinations when ageing www.mla.com.au/globalassets/mla-corporate/ beef: Sensory quality traits and microbial research-and-development/documents/ loads" Meat Science, 150, 23-32. industry-issues/state-of-the-industry-v- Lamb, T. A., van de Ven, R. & Hopkins, D. L. 1.2-fnal.pdf: Meat and Livestock Australia (2010) Importance of iron and omega-3 fatty (MLA). acids to lamb consumers. Proceedings of the Nix Sensor Ltd. (2018) "How do you measure 28th Australian Society of Animal Production color in your industry?". www.nixsensor.com/ July 11-15, Armidale, AUS. 112. quality-control-solutions: Nix Sensor Ltd.

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Ponnampalam, E. N., Holman, B. W. B. & Silva, D. R. G., Holman, B. W. B., Kerr, M. J., Kerry, J. P. (2016a) "Impact of animal Morris, S., Ramos, E. M. & Hopkins, D. L. nutrition on muscle composition and meat (2018b) "Efect of homogenisation speed and quality". In: Przybylski, W. & Hopkins, centrifugation on particle size analysis of beef D. L. (eds.) Meat Quality: Genetic and and the relationship with shear force" Meat Environmental Factors. New Jersey, USA: Science, 143, 219-222. CRC Press (Taylor & Fracis Group). Sinclair, L. A. (2007) "Nutritional Ponnampalam, E. N., Holman, B. W. B. & manipulation of the fatty acid composition of Scollan, N. D. (2016b) "Sheep: Meat". In: sheep meat: a review" Journal of Agricultural Caballero, B., Finglas, P. & Toldrá, F. (eds.) Science, 145, 419-434. Te Encyclopedia of Food and Health. Oxford: Smetana, S., Sandmann, M., Rohn, United Kingdom: Academic Press. S., Pleissner, D. & Volker, H. (2017) Ponnampalam, E. N., Hopkins, D. L., Bruce, "Autotrophic and heterotrophic microalgae H., Li, D., Baldi, G. & Bekhit, A. E. D. and cyanobacteria cultivation for food (2017) "Causes and contributing factors and feed: life cycle assessment" Bioresource to "dark cutting" meat: Current trends and Technology, 245, 162-170. future directions: A review" Comprehensive Tapp, W. N., Yancey, J. W. S. & Apple, J. K. Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 16, (2011) "How is the instrumental color of 400-430. meat measured?" Meat Science, 89, 1-5. Silva, D. R. G., Haddad, G. B. S., Fontes, Zhang, Y., Holman, B. W. B., Ponnampalam, P. R., Holman, B. W. B., Ramos, A. L. S., E. N., Kerr, M. G., Bailes, K. L., Kilgannon, Hopkins, D. L. & Ramos, E. M. (2018a) A. K., Collins, D. & Hopkins, D. L. (2019) "Using microwave cooking to evaluate "Understanding beef favour and overall tenderness and its relationship to sensory liking traits using two diferent methods for analysis" Journal of Texture Studies, 49, 612- determination of thiobarbituric acid reactive 618. substance (TBARS)" Meat Science, 149, 114- 119.

202 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 203–215. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020203-13

Drawing in the Colony

Louise Anemaat Executive Director, Library & Information Services and Dixson Librarian, State Library of NSW Email: [email protected]

Abstract Before photography, recording images required drawing or painting, and, without printing, reproduc- ing images required copying by hand. This paper discusses drawings dating back to first European settlement in New South Wales, specifically a large collection of 745 zoological and botanical draw- ings from the 1790s which was bought by the State Library in 2011. Who were the artists? Which were the originals and which the copies? Answers are not easily obtained. We can however enjoy the images, very well preserved.

Introduction1 food shortages and rationing, and a crippling ur usual picture of the convict colony sense of isolation, of having been dumped, Ofounded in January 1788 at Sydney abandoned and forgotten, but there were Cove focuses, rightly, on extremes of hard- also people who found the time and space to ship, isolation and punishment, the sudden explore and observe, and to draw and record dispossession of Indigenous cultures, on the the strange new world that they found in environmental and psychological impacts of NSW. colonisation, isolation and distance. This has prompted us to look more closely The stories we tell are of crimes and mis- at natural history drawings, and the practice demeanours, and the slow conquering of a of drawing during roughly the first twelve or landscape that at the time was considered so years of the colony. both alien and inferior. Today the impression Drawing in the Colony remains of a nation built on near starvation, suffering, floggings and hangings and a sense Drawing started early in the colony. The of utter futility. first drawing likely to have been made in But could our ideas about the First Fleet the colony was of a Grass Tree, drawn on have become just a little lazy? 11 February 1788, just two weeks after the Of course, there is truth in these endur- arrival of the fleet of eleven convict ships ing stories. Life in the colony was without at Sydney Cove, by surgeon Arthur Bowes question a difficult, bewildering and alien- Smyth (Illus. 1). ating experience. The climate was harsh The literature devoted to the art of Aus- and unfamiliar, the environment was chal- tralia’s First Fleet is thick on the ground and lenging and unpredictable. There were dire it is rare for new material to surface to add to the canon of existing drawings but this is exactly what occurred in 2011 when a large 1 A lecture given at the Australian National Maritime collection of 745 botanical and zoological Museum, on 15 June 2019, under the auspices of drawings from the 1790s appeared on the the Australiana Fund. The article is extracted from Anemaat (2014). market, from a private aristocratic library

203 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Anemaat — Drawing in the Colony held at Knowsley Hall near Liverpool, Eng- present as a tangled knot of problems — land, and owned by the 19th Earl of Derby. drawings held privately, or held in collecting The drawings had been compiled during the institutions in the United Kingdom, Ger- 1790s by a now forgotten but then widely many, New Zealand and Australia. known and acclaimed botanist, Aylmer Only some very, very few of the drawings Bourke Lambert. They were acquired for are signed, and can therefore be formally the collection of the State Library of NSW ascribed to a small number of either naval in 2011. and convict artists, or ships’ surgeons. Attri- butions then are uncertain. Two artists who consistently signed their drawings were Midshipman George Raper, who had a distinctive personal style; there is a lovely sinuousness in his drawings (Illus. 2). Thomas Watling, a convict with art train- ing, also signed his work against the explicit instructions of his overseer and patron, First Fleet Surgeon-General John White. Watling 1: Grass tree or “A View of the Tree at had been transported for forgery, escaped en Botany Bay, wh yields ye Yellow Balsam, & route at Cape of Good Hope, and eventually of a Wigwan,” 1788/Arthur Bowes Smyth. arrived in NSW in 1792. Watercolour (Mitchell Library ML Safe 1/15 no. 6 FL1607156)

The emergence of these drawings prompted new, detailed art historical analy- sis of the traditions of natural history art production and its convention of copying and trans-Pacific dissemination. And I think it is fair to say that while we knew the collec- tion was something special, we didn’t quite know exactly what we had at the time. What could the sudden emergence of a large, previously unknown collection of natural history drawings from NSW, add to our understanding of those early years of the colony? 2: “Bird and flower of Port Jackson,” or We will look more closely at how this col- Kookaburra (Dacelo novæguineæ), 1789/George lection fitted in with other, known collec- Raper. Watercolour. (Raper Collection drawing tions from the same period, why and how its no. 57. Natural History Museum, London) appearance has made us look again at what we thought we knew. Adding to the confusion is the fact that The various sets and collections of water- that the strong demand for images of new colour drawings from the same period still species amongst gentlemen, and occasionally women, amateurs of science in Britain meant

204 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Anemaat — Drawing in the Colony that copying was rife — in England which is perhaps not surprising, but also in NSW, and possibly also on board, shared by officers on board returning ships, or even copied by Company Artists in India during stopovers. Accordingly, art historians and curators have, for convenience, assigned comparable works into a couple of broad stylistic and tem- poral groupings: “The Port Jackson Painter” and “The Sydney Bird Painter,” for instance. Though each of these implies a single art- ist’s hand at work, the Port Jackson Painter probably refers to at least six, possibly eight, different artists. The Sydney Bird Painter attribution refers to at least two people — 3: Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, one superior artist and one far less talented. 1837/William Derby. Oil on canvas. Courtesy To complicate things even more, the early The Rt Hon. The Earl of Derby history and provenance of the drawings has for almost every collection become obscured. Some of these related collections have been held by cultural institutions for decades, for over a century, but the connections between them have largely gone unnoticed. The Derby Collection We now refer to the Knowsley Hall drawings as the Derby Collection for the 13th Earl of Derby (Illus. 3) who had purchased the collection in 1842, following the death of his friend, Aylmer Bourke Lambert (Illus. 4). Lambert had compiled the collection during his lifetime. The public emergence of this collection has been a little like finding that lost piece of a jigsaw at the back of the sofa. Comparing and considering this newly emerged collection of drawings alongside 4: Frontispiece Lambert (1803–07) other known collections has shown them to be intimately interconnected. Three volumes we knew were well docu- The collection consists of 745 natural mented copies of drawings from the iconic history drawings bound into six volumes. Watling Collection compiled by John White Half had not been seen since at least the who had lent his collection to botanist 1940s; the existence of the other half was Alymer Bourke Lambert in 1797. Lambert completely unrecorded. then had White’s drawings copied. Since

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1902 the Watling Collection has been held Copying in London’s Natural History Museum while Copying has become a central part of the Lambert’s copies have been in the Derby story of drawing and art practice in the library since Lambert’s death in 1842. colony: copying was a valid way of circulat- We know the background and contexts ing drawings, a way of responding to the of many of Lambert’s drawings because fascination of the new, of feeding the appe- Lambert was such a prolific and enthusias- tite of people like Sir Joseph Banks and their tic letter-writer to his friend, James Edward extensive like-minded networks, to possess Smith, founder of the Linnaean Society, their own drawings, to assist their publishing London. Lambert’s letters to Smith are now ambitions, to fill in gaps in their knowledge. held in the Linnaean Collection. Lambert, Quite the extent of the copying that took Derby and Smith were friends and passion- place in London and particularly in Sydney ate enthusiasts for natural history. Cove had not been fully appreciated. In par- Despite their extensive correspondence, ticular the extent to which artists in NSW three of the six volumes from the Derby were working together or in reference to each library appear completely unrecorded and other. It quickly became apparent that the undocumented before 1842, when acquired same images appear, again and again, re-used by Derby from Lambert’s estate. by different artists, and now part of differ- The drawings, bold and striking examples ent collections in different institutions and of Australian birds, plants, fish, a handful of different countries. mammals and a single scene, that in 1788, Which set of drawings might be the origi- with the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney nals is unknown, or perhaps no longer know- Cove, were so strange and wondrous, puz- able. The quality and style of the known sets zling and new they seemed almost the stuff of early NSW drawings are variable but there of fairy tales. As responses to those bewilder- are clues to a possible genealogy, to a pos- ing and captivating first encounters, draw- sible primacy, of which image might be the ings such as these are like a time capsule that source for others. connects us with the unique pre-European The Derby collection includes a single natural environment in the Sydney basin. scene of Norfolk Island (Illus. 5) which is, Because they have only very rarely been in fact, a copy of two drawings, one by Raper consulted during the last century or more, and the other unsigned, showing the wreck- the images are also incredibly fresh and new: ing of the Sirius off Norfolk Island (Illus. there is no fading, little deterioration. 6, 7). Which drawing came first? Did one What the Library acquired with this col- person record the events in a drawing, and lection is a large piece of a much bigger, the other make a copy? Or have they been 200-year-old natural history puzzle that tells created by two separate witnesses to the same us so much about the value and the uses of events, working from the same viewpoint? drawings, about the fascination that the Brit- One was George Raper, who we know was a ish felt for the natural world they found in witness to the wrecking. We don’t yet know NSW in 1788, and about responses to the new and the unfamiliar, to a world in which who drew the other. “nature was reversed”. A few story threads started to emerge.

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7: “A View of the West side of Norfolk Island and the manner in which the crew and provisions were saved out of His Majesty’s Ship the Sirius, taken from the West side of Turtle Bay after she was wreck’d,” ca 1790/Port Jackson Painter. Watercolour (Watling Collection drawing no. 22. Natural History Museum, London)

is a bland and uninteresting drawing. The drama and detail of what is actually unfold- ing and what the loss of the Sirius meant for 5: “A View of the West side of Norfolk Island the colony, were unimportant to a copyist in taken from the west side of Turtle Bay,” ca 1797/ artist unknown. Watercolour (Derby Collection a London drawing room. ML PXD 1098, vol. 1 FL357843. Mitchell But how do you determine the genealogy, Library, State Library of NSW) or primacy of drawings? Determining Primacy First, the contents of the many collections — around 2,000 watercolours that originated from the first decade of European settle- ment in Australia — were crosswalked to each other. The lack of provenance, and the absence of signatures or dates mean though that one needs to look for other clues to understand a possible genealogy of the draw- ings. 6: “The Melancholy Loss of His Majesty’s Ship Pentimenti, those changes or adjustments Sirius, Wreck’d on Norfolk Island, on Friday made in a drawing, can often indicate pri- Noon March 19th 1790,”/George Raper. Watercolour (Raper Collection, drawing no. 23. macy. An artist creating a work may re- Natural History Museum, London) position the subject of a drawing either to improve or correct it. These changes are not Stripped bare of the desperation of the always evident in subsequent copies but as wrecking, the people and the desperate activ- in the drawing of a Masked Lapwing from ity — everything that made the original the Derby Collection, the lead in the white drawings genuine and dramatic — the copy paint used at the time to obscure a correction

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has discoloured to black over time, revealing the alteration quite clearly to the naked eye (Illus. 8, 9). Usually, more detail is included in the original work and some of this detail is lost each time a drawing is copied. Or it could be embellished. Copying is a fairly loaded word in the art world these days. Copying in the context of colonial drawings did not mean creat- ing identical drawings. And it did not mean forgeries. It meant there was a strong correlation, a conformity between some or all of the ele- ments in a drawing. Drawings might easily be compositionally different but still be copies. A copyist might break down ele- ments of an image and create several draw- ings to reflect the various elements in the original. Or the reverse: several smaller draw- 8: Masked lapwing or Spur winged plover ings might be copied and combined into a (Vanellus miles), 1790s/artist unknown. single work. Copies might incorporate all Watercolour (Derby Collection ML PXD 1098, elements of a drawing or select only some vol. 4 FL345345. Mitchell Library, State Library components. of NSW) Artists might repeat elements of each other’s drawings, eliminate or substitute components. Detail might be lost in copies. Backgrounds might disappear or reappear elaborated and embellished. Sometimes, though, even the smallest omission is glaring, important and, at times, inexplicable. The Wattle Bird, drawn by the Sydney Bird Painter, accurately depicts the bird with two wattles, one each side of its head (Illus. 10, 11, 12). Other versions seemingly replicate it perfectly but for one critical detail, the omission of a wattle that is then repeated in the subsequent copy. It is difficult to reconcile the possibility that 9: Detail of Masked lapwing or Spur winged plover (Vanellus miles), 1790s/artist unknown. the correct drawing could be anything other Watercolour (Derby Collection ML PXD 1098, than the original. vol. 4 FL345345. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)

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12: “Wattled Bee-eater,” ca 1797/artist unknown. Watercolour (Derby Collection ML SAFE PXD 10: Red Wattle-Bird (Anthochæra carunculata), 1098 vol. 1 f. 37 FL357938 Mitchell Library, 1790s/Sydney Bird Painter. Watercolour (ML State Library of NSW) Safe PXD 226 f. 60 FL8966136. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW) This copying also suggests that artists were working together or in reference to each other, and, more than that, suggests the possibility that they were sharing draw- ings, and copying each other’s work in little de facto drawing schools. Who were the Artists? Who were the artists? We still can’t put names to drawings in many, many cases but we can often identify categories of artist. The quality of drawings by convict artists is often variable. Some are poorly executed. Others show the style traits of allied trades or professions such as the more decorative techniques of ceramics painting which are typically characterised by more dispersed arrangements of flowers and leaves, hinting 11: “Wattled Bee-eater” (Anthochæra carunculata), 1788–1793/Port Jackson Painter. Watercolour at previous occupations of convict artists (Watling Collection, Natural History Museum, (Illus. 13). Convict artists included obvious London Watling drawing — no. 166) professional artists, such as Thomas Watling.

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14: “Taking of Colbee & Benalon. 25 Novr 1789”/William Bradley. Watercolour (ML safe 1/14 FL1113938 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)

A style of sorts emerged to meet naval requirements. Naval drawings often feature precise frame lines usually in-filled with beige or pink watercolour inside heavy black lines (Illus. 14). The inclusion of scales of 13: Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum), feet was also common. 1788–1794/artist unknown Watercolour (DGD 38 f. 1 FL1000688 Dixson Galleries, State Yet drawings with naval origins are per- Library of NSW) haps easier to recognise by omission, by what was seemingly not taught rather than what Surgeons, such as Arthur Bowes Smyth, was. Life drawing, for example, was not in were often amateur artists with an interest the curriculum of the Royal Navy and those in recording the medicinal properties of officers who did venture into this area show plants, and drawing was also part of a suite little skill or aptitude for it. There is little of compulsory skills required for progression evidence that naval artists learned and honed though the ranks of the Royal Navy, needed the technical conventions of representing to record the coastal profiles and features of perspective or scale. places passed, named or claimed. More often than not it seems engravings Naval art training was certainly basic and prints, rather than paintings, were used in comparison with, for example, train- to copy for practice, and the effect of this can ing received at the Royal Academy of Arts. be seen in many drawings that originated Copying the work of others to learn and in NSW. improve was part of a long tradition of art Shading, volume and tone in engravings training, which mostly began with copying, are built up through the use of spaced, taper- the purpose precisely to practise, refine and ing lines, or by cross hatching. The effect of perfect technical conventions and methods. this can be seen in naval drawings which often Copying was a bread-and-butter skill in the replicate the effect of engraving lines rather art world more generally. than the more painterly technique of blend-

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15: Detail of Illus. 2 above

17: Norfolk Island Pigeon (Hemiphaga novæseelandiæ spadicea), 1790s/Sydney Bird Painter. Watercolour with gold leaf on head and throat (ML PXD 226 f. 84 FL8966160 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW) [now extinct — Ed.]

India because of the extensive and expert use of gold leaf (Illus. 17). Analysis of the materials used in colonial drawings, and technical knowledge of early 16: Little Grebe (Podiceps ruficollis), 1790s/ colonial drawings, goes to the heart of the Sydney Bird Painter. Watercolour. (ML SAFE many mysteries and confusion which sur- PXD 226 no. 95 FL8966171 Mitchell Library, round the history of early colonial art in Aus- State Library of NSW) tralia. This is an area which is surprisingly little understood and traditional connois- ing colour with a brush (Illus. 15). Blending seurship has not resolved the ambiguities. can be seen in the work of more skilled artists One of the few remaining opportunities for such as the Sydney Bird Painter, suggesting further exploration and comparison has been the possibility that this talented but uniden- technical observation and analysis. tified artist was not a naval artist (Illus. 16). One of the unexpected features of early colonial drawings from this period is the The Use of Gold Leaf in the Drawings inclusion of metallic leaf — gold, silver and The Sydney Bird Painter’s drawings are in alloy — in a surprisingly high number of a volume of a hundred drawings that came drawings of NSW subjects. into the collection of the State Library of In the absence of provenance informa- NSW in 1902. Its provenance is completely tion, it has simply been presumed that these unrecorded and for the last three decades drawings, while they might be of a NSW it has been believed to have been drawn in subject, could not possibly have been cre-

211 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Anemaat — Drawing in the Colony ated in NSW, not only because of the lack of skill required to apply gold leaf but also because the availability of gold in the early settlement in Australia was considered to be so unlikely as to be impossible. Yet X-ray fluorescence analysis showed the metals observed in early NSW colonial drawings not only looked like gold, they were in fact either gold leaf of a surprisingly high purity, or silver, or Dutch metal, used as a gold substitute in cheaper jewellery. The surprise is that the presence of gold 18: Detail from Sydney Bird Painter, showing leaf and other metallic leaf is in fact quite gold leaf. Micrographic photograph by Kate so widespread in natural history drawings Hughes (ML SAFE PXD 226 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW) of NSW subjects, and that it has been so skilfully applied, used to create iridescent gently beating the thicker foil to something effects in the wings, eyes, heads and throats that is less than wafer thin. of birds, or the sheen in fish. The presence of gold leaf certainly marks The idea that gold and silver leaf, and the these drawings out as something to be expertise to apply it would have been avail- valued, something that was considered to able in NSW seems unlikely. be important. Their use is a clear sign of the Yet the technique of laying down gold value placed on NSW drawings. leaf and layering it with watercolour to imitate the appearance of gold shimmer- Sydney Countrysides, and ing through the paint was well known, the Watermarks materials were available well before the First Volume 4 of the Derby Collection is one Fleet sailed from England in 1787 (Illus. 18). of those previously unrecorded volumes, Naval officers often supplied their own art thought at the time of acquisition in 2011 materials. George Raper’s will included the to have been drawings created in England dispersal of his art materials after his death. rather than NSW. There is also an intriguing reference, in the The volume is distinguished by draw- journal kept by First Fleet surgeon Arthur ings of giant birds in Lilliputian land- Bowes Smyth, where he refers to some of scapes thought to represent the English the officers giving red cloth and gold foil to countryside (Illus. 19). The park-like the Aborigines which they twisted into their qualities depicted in the drawings accord hair (Bowes Smyth, ML Safe 1/15).2 Gold with the frequent comments of the British foil is thicker than very fine gold leaf, thick that the land around Sydney and inland enough to support its own weight and be reminded them of parks with tracks wind- twisted, as Bowes Smyth described. Gold ing through them. We have, wrote surgeon leaf, as can be seen in drawings, is created by George Worgan, “a great extent of parklike Country … with extraordinarily luxuriant

2 Bowes Smyth, ML Safe 1/15)

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20: “J Whatman 1794” watermark. (Photograph by Kate Hughes) 19: Hawkesbury duck or Australasian shoveler (Anas rhynchotis), 1790s?/artist unknown. Here the interest was more in what the actual Watercolour (Derby Collection ML SAFE PXD designs might tell us. 1098 vol. 4 FL345396 Mitchell Library, State Watermarks, the faint manufacturer’s Library of NSW) design that can be seen in paper when held up to light, are unique to each mill (Illus. 20). grass.”3 John Hunter described “the Woods Handmade from wire and incorporated into here … resemble Deer parks, as much as if the framed moulding that holds the pulp they were intended for that purpose,”4 and used to make an individual sheet of paper, Arthur Phillip noted that the grass is “as fine watermarks leave a design mark in the fin- as in any Park in England.”5 ished paper. Because they’re handmade, even These estate-like effects are now under- within a single paper mill, each watermark stood to have resulted from the systematic from each moulding will be unique. So management of the land by Aboriginal exactly matching watermarks tell us that the people who regularly burned the growth and papers were formed in the same paper mould. created grasslands and networks of tracks.6 Across collections of drawings of NSW So, could these drawings have originated subjects we have now found papers that have in NSW rather than England? been created not only in the same paper mill We looked systematically at the papers but in the exact same paper mould, includ- used and their watermarks. The interest was ing drawings in Volume 4 of the Derby Col- not so much in the dating of watermarks, lection thought at the time of acquisition though that’s also interesting. The evidence to have been created in England but now of dated watermarks can only ever be indica- reconsidered as possibly, even probably, cre- tive of the genealogy of drawings rather than ated in NSW. conclusive: they give a not-before date, but Paper supplies were limited in NSW and not an end date, for the creation of drawings. were replenished only as ships arrived, so there is a strong possibility that previously 3 Worgan, ML Safe 1/114 unrelated watercolour drawings on paper 4 Hunter, Safe DL MS 164 bearing exactly matching watermarks could 5 Phillip to Banks, ML/DL Series 37.08 in fact have been created if not simultane- ously, then within a limited timeframe using 6 See the discussion of fire-stick farming in Gammage (2012). [Ed.] the same limited stock of paper.

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Watermark analysis of drawings of NSW What became clear was that, from the subjects has strengthened the argument that very beginning of European colonisation in unprovenanced drawings, previously dis- Australia, far more people were drawing and missed as non-colonial in origin and long describing what they were seeing and experi- thought to have been created in England or encing and recording life in NSW than we can even India because they were so skilful and yet put names and faces to. Cultural activities, because they used gold leaf, were drawn in writing extended accounts, recording impres- the colony, helping to establish the history sions in letters and journals, drawing what and context of the collections. they saw and did, not only found a foothold in the struggling colony, they flourished. We Conclusions realise that from the very earliest days of the So we are pulling together dispersed sets of settlement, against terrible odds and great drawings that can now be sourced to NSW at physical and psychological hardship, in a place the time of their creation, linking together for of punishment and with so much uncertainty, the first time works not previously connected. there was also space for creative responses. And so, in such a small community as Looking at the collections of drawings Sydney Cove, it becomes easy to imagine anew has opened new patterns to under- that drawings might have been circulated stand other possible histories. They engage and shared, repeated, honed, refined and with, even challenge, some of the mythology copied in much the same way as stories and about the early European past in Australia. gossip. Research based on letters and dia- They question where our perceptions and ries from the colony as well as auction sale ideas have come from, and they expose new records describing the dispersal of collections and different sources of information, creat- brought back to England from NSW has ing different perspectives on past experience. now been added to rich data derived from The emergence of the Derby Collection of technical observation and analysis. drawings prompted new, detailed art histori- Comparing the many related sets of cal analysis of the traditions of botanical art drawings from the early colonial period has production and its convention of copying provided evidence that helps determine the and dissemination. Importantly, the Collec- history and chronology of these foundation tion helps demonstrate that the colonisation Australian drawings, to understand how, and of Australia was not just physical and cul- where, they were created, using science and tural occupation of the land but intellectual observation to advance art historical infor- engagement with it. mation. To repeat, the impression remains of a Responding to and investigating the nation built on near starvation, suffering, drawings as primary evidence of colonial art floggings and hangings, and a sense of utter practice also alerted us to the precariousness futility. And, to an extent, that is certainly of thinking that we know history, that we true, but survival was not just a matter of know what happened and have all the infor- food and shelter, it was also very much psy- mation. These collections raised questions chological. we had not previously thought to ask; they Importantly, these collections present a suggest possibilities we had not considered. view of the early settlement as a culturally

214 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Anemaat — Drawing in the Colony richer, more expressive community than above the isolation, despair and hardship of commonly thought, expose new lines of a remote penal colony, and to retain a sense investigation and encourage us to look more of humanity and connectedness with each deeply at our history through the prism of other, and with home. collections. They are evidence of a healthy They laid the foundation for ways of engagement, for many, with unfamiliar and responding to the land as awe-inspiring or challenging surroundings. alienating, as endless resource or precious They exist, in part, as a tribute to our heritage, as terra nullius or a land that had incessant inquisitiveness about what lies been actively managed for millennia, dichot- outside our reach, what is beyond our cur- omies that still challenge Australia today. rent knowledge and comprehension, and the compulsion to try to make sense of it. They References signal the enduring nature of human vitality Anemaat, Louise (2014) Natural Curiosity. Unseen Art of the First Fleet, Sydney: and curiosity, of the need to push boundaries NewSouth Publishing. and explore, and to try to understand the Bowes Smyth, Arthur, illustrated journal titled world and our place in it. ‘A Journal of a Voyage from Portsmouth to All this is not to suggest that the colony New South Wales and China in the Lady wasn’t patriarchal, authoritarian and control- Penrhyn … by Arthur Bowes Smyth, Surgeon ling. It was principally a place of punishment. …’ 1787–1789; being a fair copy compiled ca. 1790. Ms. ML Safe 1/15, Mitchell Library, But in spite of this there were people who State Library of NSW. saw an opportunity, who were intrigued, Gammage, Bill (2012) The Biggest Estate on even enchanted, by what they found. Earth: How Aborigines made Australia, Sydney: Through drawings it becomes possible Allen & Unwin. to imagine the natural world of the Sydney Hunter, John, untitled journal kept on board the Sirius during a voyage to New South basin in 1788; to demonstrate that the con- Wales, May 1787–March 1791. Ms. (SAFE/ vict colony at NSW was a far more active DLMS 164, Dixson Library, State Library of and expressive cultural community than NSW). commonly thought. This has the potential to Lambert, Aylmer Bourke (1803–07), A change perceptions of Australia as a nation. Description of the Genus Pinus … Some Account of the Medicinal and Other Uses of Collections such as these have the capac- various Substances Prepared From the Trees of ity to shake up and challenge the stories we the Genus Pinus, London: White. tell about the foundations of British colo- Phillip, Arthur, letter to Sir Joseph Banks, 16 nisation in Australia. They are a powerful November 1788. Ms. (SAFE ML/DL Series reminder of how our collections both reflect 37.08, Mitchell Library and Dixson Library, State Library of NSW). and inform, but also obscure, our under- Worgan, George Bouchier, letter written to his standing of history and ourselves. brother Richard Worgan, 12–18 June 1788. They are direct evidence that in late 18th Includes journal fragment kept on a voyage century NSW more people than we can to New South Wales with the First Fleet on yet identify and name found ways to rise HMS Sirius, 20 January 1788–11 July 1788. Ms. ML Safe 1/114, Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

215 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 216–241. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020216-26

Speed limit: how the search for an absolute frame of reference in the Universe led to Einstein’s equation E =mc2 — a history of measurements of the speed of light

John C. H. Spence ForMemRS Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ, USA E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract Tis article describes one of the greatest intellectual adventures in the history of mankind — the history of measurements of the speed of light and their interpretation (Spence 2019). Tis led to Einstein’s theory of relativity in 1905 and its most important consequence, the idea that matter is a form of energy. His equation E=mc2 describes the energy release in the nuclear reactions which power our sun, the stars, nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations. Te article is about the extraordinarily improbable connection between the search for an absolute frame of reference in the Universe (the Aether, against which to measure the speed of light), and Einstein’s most famous equation.

Introduction fxed speed with respect to the Aether frame n 1900, the feld of physics was in turmoil. of reference. If we consider waves running IDespite the triumphs of Newton’s laws of along a river in which there is a current, it mechanics, despite Maxwell’s great equations was understood that the waves “pick up” the leading to the discovery of radio and Boltz- speed of the current. But Michelson in 1887 mann’s work on the foundations of statistical could fnd no efect of the passing Aether mechanics, Lord Kelvin’s talk1 at the Royal wind on his very accurate measurements Institution in London on Friday, April 27th of the speed of light, no matter in which 1900, was titled “Nineteenth-century clouds direction he measured it, with headwind or over the dynamical theory of heat and light.” tailwind. Tis could not be reconciled with In it, he cited the recent failed attempts by Maxwell’s work, which treated the Aether Michelson and Morley to detect the Aether, as a fxed frame of reference. Only Einstein and the black-body radiation problem as the was to clarify all of this in one of his great two great unsolved problem of physics. Te papers of 1905, by introducing his theory of Aether was a ghostly invisible vortex foam relativity, and later that year the mass–energy­ believed to fll all space and to provide an equation which it predicted. absolute stationary reference frame, through Te solution of the frst problem identi- which the Earth was speeding along at about fed by Kelvin led to Einstein’s relativity in 70,000 mph around the Sun, creating an 1905; the solution of the second led to the “Aether wind” on Earth. Maxwell had suc- birth of quantum mechanics. By this time cessfully used this concept of the Aether to the ageing Kelvin had become very opinion- derive his equations, with light travelling at a ated. Like Max Planck, he had worked on the problem of the energy balance between light emitters and absorbers in black-body 1 Kelvin (1901).

216 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light radiation. He was well known not to be a colm Longair (2003)7 are particularly rec- good listener, unlike the great physicists Ray- ommended. leigh and Stokes. J.J. Tomson, the discov- erer of the electron in 1897, said of him, in Te speed of light before Rømer this regard, that “he was a counter-example Two great questions have perplexed scien- to the idea that a good emitter is a good tists from the time of the ancient Greeks: absorber.” how can light reach us from the distant stars Author’s Note: In view of the technical across the vastness of empty space — what sophistication of many of the ideas, the dif- medium supports the light waves or par- fculty of seeing things through the eyes of ticles in a vacuum? — and at what speed a mediæval philosopher and mystic such as does it travel — is it instantaneous, as most Kepler, for example, and the subtlety of his- believed, or does it take time, as the Greek torical context (our view of the past depends philosopher Acragas (BC 490–435) believed, on the present) I’ve tried to emphasize so that when we look at the stars we are the underlying concepts and personalities looking back in time? In addition to his great instead, and to explain them in clear simple book Elements on geometry, Euclid had also language, perhaps to the point of oversim- written a book on Optics (Burton 1945), in plifcation. Much fuller historical detail, which he suggested that vision was based context, interpretation and mathematical on rays (“visual fre”) shooting out from the analysis can be found in the extensive list eye at the things we look at, and in this way of references, particularly in the texts by was able to explain changes in perspective. Whittaker (1910),2 Darrigol (2000),3 Hunt (In fact the eye receives light from the sun (1994),4Weinberg (2015)5 and Filonovich refected from objects). Euclid avoids trying (1986),6 and other professional historians to explain why we cannot see at night. Gali- of science. Te books by Richard Holmes leo, in a book published in 1638, speculates (2008), Richard Rhodes (1986), and Mal- on the speed of light, proposing experiments using people on mountain tops signalling to each other with shuttered lanterns to meas- ure the speed of light. Since that speed is 2 Whittaker is comprehensive, advanced and authori- about 186,000 miles per second, this could tative, with full mathematical analysis in modern notation. British emphasis, and later editions with never have worked, but it was actually tried important changes. experimentally in 1667 by the Florentine 3 A comprehensive, modern historical view, providing Academy. depth and insight. Equations in all four systems of Studies by Fermat and Descartes in 1637 units, and relationship between them. of the phenomenon of refraction, the bend- 4 An excellent account of those who came after Max- ing of light rays entering a new medium, well (Lodge, FitzGerald, Heaviside, Hertz, Larmor) were based on the concept of a refractive and their contributions as founders of modern classical electrodynamics. index, the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to that in the medium, using Snell’s 5 An excellent survey of the history of astronomy from the Greeks to the time of Newton, with simple math- ematical derivations in appendices. 7 A superb account of the history of fundamental theo- 6 An excellent short account of the topic of this article, retical concepts in physics, together with all equations with simple equations. in consistent modern form.

217 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light law.8 Tis work, and that of Christiaan Huy- of physics (Cohen 1940). But the story starts gens in his 1679 book Traité de la Lumière earlier, in 1598, when Ferdinand II, the King left the community of scientists divided for of Spain, established a prize for the determi- more than a century into two groups. Tere nation of longitude. Tis is the distance, for were those (“corpusculists”) who believed example, which a ship might travel around that light was a stream of particles which the equator. By keeping the noon-day sun sped up on entering a denser medium, and overhead (or the Pole Star in the same posi- those (“undulationists”), like Huygens, who tion at night) they could be sure they were believed it was a wave which slowed down. sailing along the equator, that is, at constant Te modern view is that light travels as a latitude. Spain was losing many ships at sea wave and arrives as a particle. due to poor navigation and piracy, and the None of this answered the old question military and commercial value of a reliable of what medium supports starlight in the method of longitude determination was clear. vacuum of outer space, as air does for sound- Knowing that ships must stick to the equa- waves. It was known that the speed of sound tor to avoid getting lost, pirates could lie waves is given by the square root of the elas- in wait anywhere along their path. In 1610, tic modulus (Young’s Modulus,9 a measure with his newly improved telescope, Galileo of the stifness of a material) divided by the had discovered some of the moons of Jupiter, square root of its density. For the enormous including Io. He realized that the eclipses speed of light, one had to assume that the of Io, as it disappeared behind Jupiter every Aether (flling the vacuum of outer space) 42.5 hours could be used as a universal clock had a density similar to steel, but was also (ticking every 42.5 hours) for mankind, since 3600 million times stifer than steel. At the it could be seen from anywhere on Earth. So same time, it must not impede the motion by using these eclipses to keep track of time of the planets, and it must be invisible, and at home in Spain while sailing around the permeate all forms of matter. Yet physicists world, and using the maximum height of clung to this notion of an Aether well into the Sun each day to determine local noon, the twentieth century — it is fair to say that it would be possible to measure the time- no physicist born before about 1900 (includ- diference between home and one’s current ing Michelson himself, and even Lorentz, location. Tis time diference, as we all know whom we will meet later in this essay) would from international air travel, can tell us how say with certainty that it did not exist. far around the world we have travelled. A twelve-hour time diference takes us halfway Ole Rømer around the planet. In 1676 the Danish scientist Ole Rømer was Galileo’s method was fne, and has been the frst to make a reasonably accurate meas- used on land for centuries since, but he did urement which gave the speed of light, in not win the prize because the ships rocked one of the greatest experiments in the history too much to allow accurate sightings of the eclipses of Io through a telescope. (Harri- 8 On refraction. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ son’s chronometer, with its torsion pendu- Snell%27s_law [Ed.] lum immune to the rocking of ships, did not 9 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young%27s_ appear until 1761.) In 1671, Cassini, the modulus [Ed.]

218 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light head of the Paris Observatory (still standing should be equal to the distance between today) decided to test Galileo’s method by Paris and Uraniborg divided by the circum- measuring the longitude diference between ference of the Earth. Paris (longitude zero) and one of the few But Rømer noticed that some of the Io places whose longitude was known. Tis eclipses were up to ten minutes late. He was Tycho Brahe’s old observatory at Urani- attributed this to the fact that light travels borg (now a Brahe museum) on the island with a fnite speed. Tis was a remarkably of Hven near Copenhagen. Cassini asked bold assumption at the time for a very young his colleague Professor Bartholin at Copen- scientist. Te situation is shown in Figure 2, hagen to do this, and Bartholin took along in the original fgure published by Rømer in his graduate student Ole Rømer, shown in 1676 in his paper, which eventually appeared Figure 1. Bartholin, a mathematician, later in English in the Philosophical Transactions of became famous for his discovery of birefrin- the Royal Society. If the Earth were stationary gence. Te group made many observations at L (or moving near H), an observer on the of Io at recorded times before Rømer took Earth would measure a time interval of 42.5 the observations back to Paris for analysis. hours between eclipses, the times at which Tey had found that the time diference Io (moving anticlockwise) frst appears from between when the Sun was directly over- behind Jupiter at D. But if the Earth moves head in Paris and in Uraniborg was about from L to K while Io is performing its orbit, forty-two minutes, due to the rotation of the measured time between eclipses will be the Earth. If Uraniborg had been due west of longer by the time it takes light to travel Paris on the equator (it isn’t), then the ratio from L to K to catch up with the Earth. Te of forty-two minutes to twenty-four hours Earth moves at about 30 Km per second or 18.6 miles per second relative to the Sun, and so moves about 2.8 million miles between eclipses. On the other hand, if, six months later, the time between eclipses is measured while the Earth is moving toward G in an anticlockwise direction, light will have less distance to travel and this time will be shorter. Tis was Rømer’s explanation for the variations in orbital periods of Io found among many observations at Uraniborg. His explanation gave the strongest evidence to date that light does not travel instantane- ously, and if the diameter of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun were known, and hence the Earth’s speed, it could be used to estimate the speed of light with reasonable accuracy for the frst time.

Figure 1. Ole Rømer. (From Google Images.)

219 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

of all this, and we can compare Newton’s “action at a distance” theory of gravity, which assumed (incorrectly) that gravitational forces act instantaneously across the Uni- verse, with his acceptance of a fnite speed for light. Newton’s ideas on gravity owed much to Robert Hooke. Since Kepler’s laws (Love 2015), which provided a simple relationship between the period of a planet and the radius of its orbit, were well known at this time, the approximate radii of all the planetary orbits could be found from their known periods Figure 2. Rømer’s original diagram (1676). Te once that of one (the Earth) had been found. Sun at A, orbited by the Earth at K with Jupiter Rømer, a Protestant in Catholic France, at B and its moon Io at C. (From Cohen 1942.) eventually had to leave Paris due to prejudice against his religion. He became Professor of Rømer made a prediction in September Mathematics at Copenhagen University and 1678 at an address to the Académie des Sci- Astronomer Royal. Tere were many notable ences in Paris that the November 9 eclipse achievements in his later career, including his of Io would be late by ten minutes. He appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme added that he could further estimate that Court of Copenhagen, Mayor of Copenha- it would take light eleven minutes to travel gen, and his reform of the tax system. In from the Sun to Earth (the modern value is science he invented the epicycloid gear shape eight minutes and nineteen seconds). Te for reducing gear friction, and devised the confrmation of this prediction brought modern two-point “Fahrenheit” temperature him immediate recognition and established scale, essentially inventing the thermometer. his reputation as a scientist. Te delay was He was unlucky in that practically all of his important, since it would lead to errors in observations were destroyed in a fre at his navigation. By using the best estimate then observatory in 1728, but some were rescued available for the distance between Earth and by his devoted assistant Peder Horrebow, as Sun (one Astronomical Unit, or AU), and vividly described in his book (still in print, knowing the Earth’s period of a year, and in Latin (Horrebow 1735)). Rømer also sent hence its speed, one could then also estimate observations to friends, which have survived, the speed of light. Te best estimate of one and maintained a “commonplace book” for AU, due to Cassini, had been obtained by notes, entitled Adversaria, which he kept by the highly inaccurate method of parallax, his window at the library of the University and was rather fortuitously only in error by of Copenhagen. Remarkably, this book was about 6%. In fact it was Christiaan Huygens discovered, still there, early in the last cen- who, in 1690, frst used Rømer’s time delay tury, and has since been published. A modest measurement to get a speed for light, which and generous man, he died in 1710. Figure was within 15% of the modern value. 3 shows him at work in his observatory. Newton (who met Rømer during his visit to England in 1679) duly took note

220 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

Copernicus and Kepler (the frst to show that planets moved in an elliptical orbit), see Hoyle (1973). Te parallax method for measuring distances is shown in Figure 4. But for the nearest star, this angle is equiva- lent to observing a one-inch diameter disk at a distance of 4.2 miles. A telescope was clearly needed. It was not until 1838 that Bessel provided an accurate measurement to a nearby star using parallax.

Figure 3. Rømer’s transit telescope. Note pendulum clock and counterweights. (From Figure 4. Te principle of parallax used to Horrebow 1735.) measure stellar distances from Earth. Te Earth orbits the Sun around the circle AB with Measuring the cosmos diameter D. A planet is shown at C against a background of fxed stars at right. A diferent Rømer had measured a time delay, and to group of background stars will be seen behind the convert this to the speed of light he needed planet if we observe frst from A, then six months accurate distance measurements. Te Greek later from B. Tis allows angle Q to be measured. astronomer Eratosthenes (BC 276–194) had If the baseline AB is known, the distance DC can be found by trigonometry. Te diameter of the used measurements of the length of the Earth can also be used as a baseline. shadow of a stick at the same time in two cities to give an estimate of the size of the But for the Earth–Sun distance (one AU), the Earth within 15% of the correct value. Te most important improvement on Cassini’s Greek’s estimate of the Sun–Earth distance value came with the Transit of Venus expedi- (actually about 93,000,000 miles), although tions during the eighteenth century (Wulf based on sound trigonometric principles 2012). Figure 5 (left-hand fgure) shows an (such as the right-angle triangle which occurs amateur astronomer’s photograph taken in at half-moon) were at least twenty times too Melbourne of the 2012 transit, when Venus small, since they had no method for meas- passed across a line drawn from the Earth to uring angles accurately (Weinberg 2015). the Sun, so that its shadow is seen as a black Astronomers became obsessed with deter- dot crossing the Sun’s bright disk. Using a mining the path and predicting the motions lens (or a pin-hole) in the window facing the of the planets, and measuring the distances Sun, this image of the Sun can be projected to the Sun, planets and stars. For a simple onto an opposite wall in a dark room, and mathematical description of the methods the motion of Venus traced out as it crosses used by early astronomers such as Ptolemy, the Sun over a period of hours, the time

221 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light being noted. Jeremiah Horrocks, who died at in London. Te method proposed by Halley the age of 22, did exactly that in 1639 from and Gregory is similar (but more compli- a house (still standing) near Preston in the cated) than that shown in Figure 4, but now UK, and from this observation obtained a using the width of the Earth as a baseline. value of the Earth–Sun distance of about 60 Observations of the transit from opposite million miles (Aughton 2004). But predict- sides of the Earth at the same moment will ing when these transits would occur, and show Venus projected onto a diferent point the times and places on Earth from which on the Sun’s disk in the shadow images. If they could be seen, was no easy task. Kepler many such observations are made across the (1571–1630) had made approximate pre- Earth at known times, simple Euclidean dictions, and James Gregory in 1663 had geometry together with Kepler’s laws will shown how the Earth–Sun distance could be show that the distances between Earth and obtained from a similar transit of Mercury. Sun (and to Venus) can then be found, given Te Venus transits occur in pairs eight years the diameter of the Earth, the latitude and apart about once a century. longitude of the observations, and their local time. Telescopes and pendulum clocks were therefore the equipment taken by astrono- mers to all corners of the Earth in this frst international scientifc collaboration in 1761, organized by the Académie Française in Paris, resulting in tracings of the images of the transit drawn on paper. Many disas- ters attended this frst attempt, from disease Figure 5. At left, amateur astronomer’s (dysentery), bad weather, war (between the photograph of the 2012 Transit of Venus. Taken in Melbourne Australia using 300 mm lens on French and British), piracy, inaccurate lon- June 6 2012 between 9.45 am and 10.45 am. gitude determination, and perhaps a cloudy Nikon D7000 camera with adjustable neutral sky at the time of the transit, or a transit density flter to attenuate the sun’s light, fast which occurred just before sunrise. shutter speed, small aperture. ISO 100. Venus Much was learnt from these problems, (the black dot near the bottom) is shown crossing the sun’s disk. At right, Venus (bright dot) is and national rivalry became a spur to greater photographed near the Moon. (Author's copy.) eforts for the second transit in 1769. Te collaboration was organized by the Royal With the advent of Newton’s theory of Society and strongly supported by George II, elliptical planetary orbits (consistent with Catherine the Great, the Académie Française, Kepler’s laws), more accurate predictions Benjamin Franklin, and including James became possible, and it was Edmund Halley Cook. About 250 astronomers contributed (1656–1742) who predicted the transits of from many nations at 130 locations. Points 1761 and 1769, suggesting their use to deter- of observation included Baja California (in mine the Astronomical Unit (AU). Halley, Mexico, south of Phoenix, Arizona) and who died before it could be done, was a col- Tahiti (by Cook), the selection depend- league of Newton, Hooke and Wren around ing partly on the need to use locations of the time of the founding of the Royal Society known longitude and good transit visibility.

222 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

instructions to respect any native peoples, since “no European nation has any right to occupy any part of their country,” and to explore the “unknown land of the South, Terra Australis Incognito.” He chose the island of Tahiti at Point Venus, the name it has retained, on which to set up his tel- escopes and clocks in 1769, one of the few places in the Pacifc ocean whose latitude and longitude were accurately known, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 6. A summary of the observations of the 1761 and 1769 Transit of Venus observations across the sun’s disk, as seen from diferent locations and times on earth. Te Venus parallax angle (akin to angle Q in Figure 4) is, for example, the angle between lines 1 and 3 measured down the page, based on the known angular diameter of the sun. Te uppermost line across from the Figure 7. Cook’s Endeavour at Fort Venus, 1769 observations was observed from Tahiti, a Matavai Bay, Tahiti, for Transit of Venus lower one from Paris. (From European Southern observations in 1769. (Author's copy.) Observatory web page, Transit of Venus.) As Cook wrote in his diary: Figure 6 shows the published results, giving Tis day prov’d as favourable to our pur- the tracks of Venus’s shadow across the Sun pose as we could wish, not a Clowd was to for both expeditions. Te fnal publication be seen the whole day and the Air was per- and analysis of all the results in Philosophi- fectly clear, so that we had every advantage cal Transactions in 1771 gave a distance of we could desire in Observing the whole 93,726,900 miles for the Earth–Sun dis- of the passage of the Planet Venus over tance, difering by less than one percent from the Suns disk: we very distinctly saw an the modern value. Tis was a great triumph Atmosphere or dusky shade round the for international collaboration and the sci- body of the Planet which very much dis- ence of the enlightenment: the President of turbed the times of the Contacts particu- the Royal Society, Joseph Banks, commented larly the two internal ones. Dr. Solander that “Te science of two nations may be at observed as well as Mr. Green and my peace, while their politics are at war.” self, and we difer’d from one another in We have detailed records of Cook’s role in observing the times of the Contacts much all this, as part of his voyage of exploration more than could be expected. Mr Greens to Australia in Endeavour, with 94 men and Telescope and mine were of the same Mag- 8,000 pounds of sauerkraut against scurvy nifying power but that of Dr Solander was (Beaglehole 1968). Cook was given written greater than ours.

223 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

After many adventures (Holmes 2008), with the constant wind direction, regard- Cook returned to England and a hero’s wel- less of the direction the boat was headed, come, with his observations intact and a vast seemed to turn with the boat, even when array of new botanical species collected by the wind direction was steady, which was Banks. Te First Fleet colonizing Australia hard to understand. For sailors, this rela- arrived from Britain soon after at Botany tive velocity efect is familiar: the faster you Bay in 1788. go when windsurfng, the more the wind Te movement of Venus across the Sun appears to swing around to come from a darkens the Sun very slightly. Detecting this more forwardly direction. For Bradley, the darkening is one method which is now used wind was akin to light arriving from a dis- in the search for new planets around stars tant star, the boat akin to the Earth. Tis (exoplanets). A dip in a star’s brightness is observation explained to him how the appar- sought as a planet crosses a line from the star ent direction of starlight11 could depend to Earth. Tis is exactly what happens in a on the Earth’s velocity across the stream of Venus transit under much better understood photons falling on Earth from an overhead conditions, which can be used to accurately star. His work gave much greater confdence measure and calibrate the efect. Venus dark- and credibility to Rømer’s earlier result, at ens our sun to 99.9% of its unobstructed a time when many still believed that light value, showing how difcult is this search travelled instantaneously, or did not accept for exoplanets. the Copernican idea that the Earth orbits the Sun. James Bradley — the aberration of Bradley undertook his observations from starlight his house near Kew in London, using a tel- James Bradley (1693–1762) is crucial to the escope mounted vertically against the inter- history of lightspeed measurement because nal side of a chimney, so that he could lie in his entirely new astronomical method pro- comfort on a couch below it looking upward vided the frst experimental evidence in sup- for observations over many years. He chose a port of Copernicus’s theory that the Earth star near the Pole Star and set out to measure orbited the Sun, and because of the support parallax, hoping to support the theories of it provided for Einstein’s relativity. Bradley, his near-contemporary Newton. But his star in his 1729 publication,10 provided irrefuta- appeared to move in a small circle through- ble evidence for a fnite speed for light, while out the year, when he compared the direc- also producing a measurement of the time tion of the axis of his telescope with that of for light to travel from Sun to Earth within a plumb bob, which gave the local vertical 2% of the modern value (Stewart 1964). Te direction. (Any motion of the plumb bob story is told that he had his crucial idea while was damped by immersing the bob in water). sailing on the Tames, comparing the direc- Tese changes in the direction of the light tion of the wind with that of a weather vane from a star can also be understood from the on his boat when it turned. Te vane, which way in which we must tilt an umbrella for- one would think would always be lined up ward, when walking in the rain. Te faster we walk, the more tilt is needed. Similarly, a 10 See https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ abs/10.1098/rstl.1727.0064 11 Its aberration.

224 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light telescope will need to be pointed ahead of a Terrestrial lightspeed measurements star to see it, in the direction of the Earth’s To really pin down the speed of light, by 1800 motion across the starlight. Equivalently, it had become clear that what was needed if the telescope is not tilted, the photons was a terrestrial measurement of this speed. entering it will hit the sides of the telescope In 1833, Professor Charles Wheatstone at tube, as the Earth carries the tube forward, King’s College London had the idea to meas- before they reach the observer’s eye. Brad- ure the speed of electrical pulses (which travel ley could show that the tangent of this tilt at about the speed of light) running along angle is = v/c, where v is the speed of the a long wire, by use of a rotating mirror to Earth, and c the velocity of light, as shown � image electrical sparks at either end (Keithley in Resnick (2018). Tis constant became 1999). Wheatstone was an early developer of of crucial importance in Einstein’s theory. � the printing telegraph, and he later consulted His method therefore gave the speed of the with Kelvin on the Atlantic telegraph. He Earth’s motion around the Sun, given, for started out making musical instruments13 and example, Huygens’ value for the speed of studying acoustics. Te “Wheatstone Bridge” light. Alternatively he could estimate the for precision electrical measurements which speed of light using, for example, Cassini’s he is mainly remembered for was actually value for the Earth–Sun distance to obtain invented by a colleague, Christy, but ana- the speed of the Earth in orbit. His work lyzed and promoted by Wheatstone. He was was also important for the debate concern- also responsible for using spectral analysis of ing the existence of the Aether, supposedly electrical sparks to identify elements in the at rest in the Universe and supporting the electrodes, the forerunner of spectroscopy. His propagation of light waves. One resolution rotating mirror apparatus remains in the base- to the paradoxes confronting physics in ment museum of King’s College. An electrical 1900 was the “complete Aether drag” idea spark, viewed in a rotating mirror, caused an that the Aether was fxed to the Earth, rotat- electrical pulse to travel over a quarter of a ing with it, a most unlikely scenario. In that mile of wire on a drum, emerging to make event, no tilt of Bradley’s telescope would another spark, viewed in the same mirror. be needed, since the lightwaves are fxed to During the time the pulse travelled down the the Aether. Bradley’s careful systematic work wire, the mirror had rotated slightly, causing a over many years was a major contribution to displacement of the two images of the spark. the development of quantitative methods in By measuring this displacement, and knowing astronomy. He had shown that indeed “the the speed of rotation of the mirror, he could Earth moves,”12 supporting Copernicus, and calculate the time it took for the electrical in contradiction to the Church’s teaching at pulse to travel a quarter of a mile, and hence the time of Galileo, even if Einstein was later the “speed of electricity.” Te mechanism, to show that all motion is relative. which I have studied, is a modifed clockwork carriage clock. His 1834 publication gave the speed as 250,000 miles per second, somewhat larger than the speed of light.

12 Ed.: Galileo is said to have murmured, “E pur si 13 Ed.: Wheatstone invented the Wheatstone English muove” — and it yet moves. concertina around 1830.

225 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

François Arago (1786–1853) frst pro- notes intact. He was rewarded by election posed using Wheatstone’s method in 1838 to the Académie des Sciences, appointed to to address the questions raised by Descartes’ a chair, and given a residence at the Paris and Fermat’s work, by comparing the speed Observatory for life. He was active in the of light in air with that passing through development of photography, the railways water. His light source was a spark, split and telegraph system, gave public lectures into two beams, one passing along a tube on astronomy for 35 years, and wrote invalu- of water, and both then refected by a rotat- able memoirs of deceased Académie mem- ing mirror. If the beam passing through bers. It was said of him that his “rapidity and the water slowed down, it would support facility of thought, his happy piquancy of the wave theory, if it sped up, it would style, and his extensive knowledge peculiarly support the particle theory. Arago spent a adapted him to the position he was given as decade unsuccessfully trying to make this perpetual secretary of the Académie in 1830.” work. Arago, a very liberal republican, him- With the fall of King Louis-Philip, Arago self had a most adventurous life (Lequeux joined the provisional government in 1848, 2016). Educated at the École Polytechnique, the “year of revolutions,” becoming minister the story is told that Napoleon Bonaparte of War and also of Marines and Colonies. requested in 1803 that all students sign a In these positions he managed to improve petition supporting his appointment as rations and abolish fogging in the navy, and Emperor. François refused, to which Napo- to abolish slavery in the French colonies. He leon, on noting that he came top of the class is remembered by street names, schools, an responded “One can’t send down the top auditorium and statues in Paris. student. If only he’d been at the bottom …” Arago’s student Hippolyte Fizeau (1819– Soon after, Poisson appointed him secretary 1896) collaborated closely with a colleague to the Paris Observatory. With Biot, he was Leon Foucault (1819–1868) on many sent to Spain to map out a meridian arc, in projects at the Paris Observatory, until it order to determine the length of the metre, dawned on them both that the problems defned after the French Revolution as one with Arago’s apparatus could be addressed by ten-millionth of the distance from the equa- sending the light beam back on itself from tor to the North Pole. (And also very close a stationary mirror (Tobin 1993). Fizeau, to the length of a pendulum with a two- who was more theoretically inclined than second perio.). Unfortunately his surveying Foucault (a superb experimentalist) decided activities were misunderstood by the local on the scheme shown in Figure 8 using a population as those of a spy for a French rotating toothed wheel, whereas Foucault invasion, and the twenty-two year old was adopted a rotating mirror, which proved imprisoned in the Bellver fortress in 1808. a little more accurate. In Fizeau’s scheme He soon escaped in a fshing boat to Algiers, (Figure 8), light passes through the gap but was once again captured by pirates and between teeth in a rotating wheel, to be imprisoned at Palamos. After release and refected back from a mirror at the far end. further adventures, including a trek along By the time light returns, the gap has been the North African coast from Bougie to replaced by a tooth, and the light (viewed Algiers, he reached Paris with his meridian from the side at S) is blocked. Te speed of

226 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

ingenious optical arrangement, for if M1 is rotated slowly in a continuous stream of light (so that the fnite speed of light does not afect matters at all), the image of S1 refected back is not displaced at all, regard- less of the angle of rotation of the mirror M1. Figure 8. Fizeau’s apparatus for measuring the At high rotation speeds, the light is chopped speed of light, showing rotating toothed wheel up into pulses by the beam from the rotating T, source of light at S and detector at D. Te mirror scanning across the fxed mirror M2. light passes between the teeth, but by the time it comes back from the mirror a tooth has moved around to block it. the wheel was adjusted until the light could either be seen (through the next gap) or not seen. With the wheel rotating at 1000 revo- lutions per second, and a thousand teeth on the wheel, he only needed about a thousand feet for the round-trip of the light, travelling Figure 9. Foucault’s rotating mirror system for at about a foot every nanosecond (10­–9s). measuring the speed of light. Te mirror M1 Te source was set up at his father’s house rotates continuously about the normal to the in Suresnes, and the mirror 5.4 miles away page, sweeping the beam across mirror M2. at Montmatre, so that a speed of only 12 revolutions per second was sufcient. His His mirror (Figure 10) was driven by a bel- result, in 1849, for the speed of light, was lows-powered air-turbine (based on a siren), 3.14 × 108 m/s, against the modern value built for him by his friend Cavaille-Col, of 2.99 × 108, an error of about 5%, but who had built the Notre Dame pipe organ. only slightly larger than the astronomical Te tone generated by a fast rotating mirror measurements of the time. Te result won could be compared with a piano, to give him the Triennial Prize created by Emperor the frequency, as Wheatstone had frst done, Napoleon III for 30,000 francs, or six times or more accurately using another toothed the annual salary of his rival Foucault at the wheel and a stroboscope. Michelson used Paris Observatory. a tuning fork. Te light source was focused Leon Foucault spent twelve years perfect- sunlight, using a moving heliostat mirror ing his method, shown in Figure 9. Light which compensated for the rotation of the sent from the source S1 via the rotating Earth to keep the Sun’s focus stationary. Te mirror M1 to the stationary mirror M2 will optical path could be folded by additional be refected back to M1 after it has turned mirrors, for a total length of 20 metres. His slightly, moving the fnal image to S2. By result, published in 1862, was 298,000 ±500 plotting the displacement between S1 and km/s, very close to the value we use today. S2 against the rotation speed of M1 he Foucault also measured the speed of light obtained a straight line whose gradient gave in water, resulting in an intense race with the speed of light. But this was a particularly Fizeau, who had done the same using his

227 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light method. Te work was reported in Paris Fresnel, Huygens and Young newspapers as “measuring the distance to Around 1650, Grimaldi, a Jesuit priest, the sun in the laboratory.” Foucault reported reported the fuzzy shadow edge cast by a his result slightly before Fizeau, and both sword blade, which was hard to explain if results supported the (correct) idea that light light consisted of small particles travelling in slows down in water, and is a wave. It was, straight lines. Leonardo da Vinci had previ- of course, Foucault, who in 1851 erected ously suggested that light was a wave. Alter- the huge pendulum in the dome of the natively, if light was a wave, like sound, why Panthéon in Paris which directly revealed did it not travel around corners? As evidence the Earth’s rotation (Tobin 1993). Tis is for interference efects accumulated, support simply understood if we imagine the pen- for a wave theory of light increased steadily dulum at the North Pole, swinging in a fxed throughout the nineteenth century, until plane (fxed by the starting push, not by any one of Einstein’s 1905 papers established absolute frame of reference) with the Earth the modern idea that light travels as a wave, rotating below. but arrives as a particle. Newton had been ambivalent: his “Newton’s rings” (and his explanation for the colours in soap bubbles) supported a wave theory, but most of his writing supported light as a stream of parti- cles. Here is what Newton writes about the wave–particle duality in 1704 in his book Opticks: If a stone be thrown into stagnating water, the waves excited thereby continue to arise in the place where the stone fell into the water, and are propagated from thence in concentric circles upon the surface of the water to great distances. And the vibra- Figure 10. Foucault’s 1862 rotating mirror (the tions or tremors excited by vibrations in black disk at center), driven by compressed air the air by percussion continue a little time from a pipe-organ pump. (From Tobin 1993.) from the place of percussion in concen- Tese rotating mirror measurements were tric spheres to great distances. And in like continued with increasing accuracy until the manner, when a ray of light falls on the 1920s by Albert Michelson, Marie Cornu surface of any pellucid body and is there and others. Cornu worked through the time refracted or refected, may not waves of of the siege of Paris in 1870 by Bismarck vibration, or tremors, be thereby excited and the Paris Commune, in which Paris was in the refracting or refecting medium at more severely damaged by shelling than at the point of incidence … and are not these any time before or since, as shown in con- vibrations propagated from the point of temporary photographs. Messages were sent incidence to great distances ? And do they out in balloons and returned by homing not overtake the rays of light, and by over- pigeons during the siege. taking them successively do they not put

228 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

them into the fts of easy refection and beyond a coin, illuminated face-on by a easy transmission described above. small light source from the front, which Te three great champions of the wave theory was clearly absurd. When Arago, the chair were Christiaan Huygens (1629–1695), of the committee, demonstrated exactly this Tomas Young (1773–1829 ) and Augustin- spot experimentally using a 2-mm metal disk Jean Fresnel (1788–1827). Huygens was led glued to a glass slide, Fresnel was awarded to his wave theory, perhaps the frst, around the prize. (A very small source of light must 1678 from observations of “Newton’s cradle” be used to observe this efect, in a very dark (actually invented by Robert Hooke), a line room, to provide spatial coherence.) Tis of steel balls in contact, suspended by strings, experiment, now demonstrated regularly as sold now at museum stores. When the using a laser light source in student labora- frst is struck, the last one jumps of the end, tories, has become known as “Arago’s bright while the intermediate balls appear to remain spot,” and provided decisive support for the stationary. (In fact, a pulse of elastic energy wave theory of light. Fresnel also demon- is transmitted at the speed of sound). He strated that the undulations of light waves imagined space flled by an Aether consist- were transverse (like ocean waves), not lon- ing of minute hard invisible balls, support- gitudinal like sound. Tis created a serious ing the pulse propagations of light. Inspired problem for supporters of the Aether, since also by observations of ripples in a still pond any elastic medium would support both when a stone is dropped into it, his wave- longitudinal and transverse waves. But most front construction, showing every point on signifcantly for our story this brilliant sci- a wavefront acting as a new source of waves, entist produced a theory of Aether drag in became one of the most important ideas ever 1818. Accepting that the refractive index was in science. Tis led to Fresnel’s mathematical a ratio of light speeds, Fresnel postulated formulation of near-feld light propagation that the Aether wind becomes compressed and difraction in 1818, well before Max- when it passes through a medium such as well’s equations for light. Te mathematics glass or water, modifying the refractive index in Fresnel’s 1818 paper is identical to that and changing the speed of light. His predic- found in any modern textbook on near-feld tion agreed nicely with the measurements of difraction. Tis accounts for the blurring in Fizeau on the speed of light in moving water, an unfocused image, an important efect in which changed with the water speed. We all forms of imaging, from light microscopes now know that this was fortuitous, as Max to telescopes, but particularly in semicon- von Laue showed in 1907. Einstein’s theory ductor lithography, where it can limit the predicts just this result without assuming the size of transistors. existence of any Aether, using his relativistic Fresnel was a highly religious civil engi- velocity addition formula. Tis fortuitous neer during the time of Napoleon. In 1817, agreement was greatly to confuse scientists Fresnel submitted his thesis to the Académie throughout the nineteenth century, during des Sciences for its Grand Prix on the topic which experimental evidence in support of of difraction. Poisson, a committee member, Fresnel’s Aether drag theory accumulated. pointed out that Fresnel’s theory predicted Te acceptance of Fresnel’s theory added a bright spot in the centre of the shadow to the shock when Michelson’s work failed

229 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light to fnd any evidence of an Aether wind in is how he described his experiments in 1803 1887. But the work Fresnel was most proud (Young 1845): of (which he insisted be recognized on his I made a small hole in a window shutter, tombstone) was his invention of the Fresnel and covered it with a piece of thick paper, lens used in lighthouses (Levitt 2013), which which I perforated with a fne needle. saved many lives at sea with its collimated For greater convenience of observation, I search-light beam, rotated around the hori- placed a small looking glass without the zon. window shutter in such a position as to Unlike Arago, Fresnel did not read or refect the sun’s light in a direction nearly speak English. He was therefore unaware horizontal, upon the opposite wall, and to of the work of the great polymath, Tomas cause the cone of diverging light to pass Young, his contemporary in London, who over the table on which were several little had already, in 1801, provided irrefutable screens of card paper. I brought into the evidence that light was a wave in one of the sunbeam a slip of card about one thirti- greatest experiments in the history of phys- eth of an inch in breadth, and observed ics. Young’s many achievements, including its shadow, either on the other wall or on translation of the Rosetta stone, the defni- cards held at diferent distances. Beside the tion of Young’s Modulus and surface tension fringes of color on each side of the shadow, in materials science, the frst correct defni- the shadow itself was divided by similar tion of kinetic energy, and his explanation parallel fringes, of smaller dimensions … for the accommodation of the human eye, Now these fringes were the joint efects of are well known (Robinson 2006). Inspired the portions of the light passing one each by the water waves seen in a shallow trough, side of the slip of card, and infected, or he demonstrated controlled interference rather difracted, into the shadow. For, a between light waves for the frst time. Here little screen being placed a few inches from the card, so as to receive either edge of the

Figure 11. Te drawing Young published to show interference between waves from two diferent small sources at A and B. Te interference is constructive around D and E. (Te sources A and B could alternatively be points where two small stones hit a still pond at the same time). (From Robinson 2006.)

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shadow on its margin, all the fringes which nam, where travellers reported the strange had before been observed in the shadow phenomenon of a completely static water on the wall disappeared … level for one entire day every fourteen days, In other words, the interference fringes in between which there was only a single slow the shadow region caused by light passing tide, increasing and falling.15 around either side of the card and overlap- Fresnel, unaware of Young’s work, had ping at the viewing screen disappeared if he rediscovered interference efects in 1815, but blocked the passage of light on one side of acknowledged Young’s priority in a letter the card, demonstrating interference. But to him in 1816. Following Fresnel’s death, Young is much more famous for a second Arago in his memoir of him writes vividly of similar experiment around 1807 in which his encounter with Young and particularly he used a needle to make two small holes in his wife: an illuminated card. On a distant screen he In the year 1816, I passed over to Eng- saw the interference fringes shown in Figure land with my learned friend M. Gay- 11. It is not entirely clear that he actually Lussac. Fresnel had then just entered in did this experiment, unlike the frst, but the most brilliant manner into the career these “Young’s fringes” are readily formed of science by publishing his Mémoire sur in this way using modern equipment, and la Difraction. Tis work … became the have been described by Richard Feynman14 frst object of our communication with as “containing all the mystery of quantum Dr. Young. We were astonished at the mechanics.” Tis is because, using a light numerous restrictions he put upon our source so weak that only one photon at a commendations, and in the end he told time leaves the source (even an hour apart), us that the experiment about which we it will be found that the dots at the detector made so much ado was published in his screen indicating arrival of photons slowly own work on Natural Philosophy as early build up, like a Pointillist painting, into the as 1807. Tis assertion did not appear to pattern of interference fringes seen by Young us correct, and this rendered the discussion when using continuously fowing light. How long and minute. Mrs Young was present, does each photon know where to arrive to build and did not appear to take any interest up this pattern? Quantum mechanics predicts in the conversation, but, as we know, exactly this phenomenon, but the underly- that fear, however puerile, of passing for ing reasons are not understood, and form the learned ladies — of being designated blue- background for much of the debate about stockings — made the English ladies very quantum weirdness (Gribbin 2014). reserved in the presence of strangers, our It is interesting that Newton had antici- want of politeness did not strike us till pated the discovery of interference, in which the moment Mrs Young rose up suddenly overlapping waves coming from diferent and left the room. We immediately ofered directions can build up wave height. Newton our most urgent apologies to her husband, had used this idea to explain the tides at when Mrs Young returned, with an enor- Batsha Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin in Viet- mous quarto under her arm. It was the

14 Feynman (1992), p. 130. 15 See Cartwright (2003).

231 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

frst volume of the Natural Philosophy. She wrote that he “considered radiation as a high placed it on the table, opened it without species of vibration in the lines of force which saying a word, and pointed with her fnger are known to connect particles and also masses to a fgure where the curved line of the of matter together,” a brilliant physical insight difracted bands, on which the discussion for the time. His second crucial discovery turned, appeared theoretically established. relevant to the speed of light was rotation of Arago, writing here not long after the French the direction of polarization of light passing Revolution (Liberté! Égalité! Fraternité!), and through a medium subject to a magnetic a liberal at heart, perhaps wants us to under- feld: the magneto-optical efect. Tis was stand that the educated (“blue-stocking”) the frst experimental connection between ladies of France were more “liberated” than electricity and light, apart from the electri- their English counterparts. cal sparks studied by Benjamin Franklin in thunderstorms. William Tomson (later Electromagnetism in the 19th century Lord Kelvin) formulated a mathematical Te understanding that light was an electro- theory of the efect, which provided the magnetic wave, related somehow to electro- crucial displacement currents for Maxwell’s statics (stationary charges) and magnetism theory. Tese arose from spinning mag- (the magnetic felds which arise when charges netic vortices, or idler wheels, in his Aether are in motion), came slowly throughout the medium, as shown in Figure 12. In his three nineteenth century (Darrigol 2000, 2012). great papers from 1861 (Simpson 2006)16, At the start of that century, these two topics Maxwell constructed a mechanical model were considered entirely unrelated, and the of an elastic Aether which would support nature of electricity was not understood the propagation of electromagnetic waves. at all. Te towering fgure responsible for Tese were based in turn on ideas taken from the synthesis and foundation of the entire Fourier’s theory of heat, from existing work subject of electrodynamics was James Clerk on fuid dynamics (electricity could be imag- Maxwell (1831–1878). Maxwell’s theory ined as a fowing fuid), and on Newton’s was largely based on the work of the great equations for elastic media describing the experimental genius Michael Faraday, about forces between electrical charges and cur- whom much has been written (Tompson rents established previously by Coulomb and 1901). For our purposes, two of Faraday’s Ampere. In his last paper of 1865, based on discoveries were critical: frst, his invention energy-conservation methods, he discards of what is now called Field Teory. Here, on the Aether scafold entirely. Te paper ends seeing metal flings line up in arcs on a card with a simple prediction for the speed of placed across the poles of a horseshoe magnet, light (independent of the speed of any light Faraday imagined that they lay along lines source) in terms of the two “elastic” con- of tension (feld lines) in the Aether, like stants of the Aether only, constants we now rubber bands (with sideways forces). Per- describe as the permittivity and permeability haps he bumped the magnet, causing the of a vacuum. Heaviside later described the grains of metal to vibrate, since in a letter Aether as “a dielectric.” It was the symmetry to Maxwell he also suggests that this might be the mechanism of electrical radiation. He 16 Simpson (2006) contains Maxwell’s three great papers on electrodynamics and detailed analysis.

232 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light in these equations created by the displace- of the Earth’s orbit, is v = 308,000,000. ment current (a time-varying magnetic feld Hence the velocity of light deduced from produces an electric feld, and vice-versa) experiments agrees sufciently well with which provided the important clue for Ein- the value of v deduced from the only set of stein in his 1905 relativity paper. Maxwell’s experiments we as yet possess. Te value of great book of 1873 contained his twenty v was determined by measuring the elec- equations in an appendix, later reduced to tromotive force with which a condenser the modern four equations by Heaviside in of known capacity was charged, and then 1884. discharging the condenser through a galva- By accurate measurement of the perme- nometer, so as to measure the quantity of ability and permittivity using a current bal- electricity in it in electromagnetic measure. ance of his own devising (described below Te only use of light used in the experiment as “measuring the quantity of electricity”), was to see the instrument. Te value of v Maxwell was able to deduce the speed of found by M. Foucault was obtained by light from his formula. In 1864, announcing determining the angle through which a one the greatest discoveries of 19th century revolving mirror turned, while the light science (that light was an electromagnetic refected from it went and returned along wave), he wrote: a measured course. No use whatever was Te velocity of light in air, by M. Fizeau’s made of electricity or magnetism. experiments, is v = 314, 858, 000, accord- Te agreement obtained seems to show ing to the more accurate experiments of M. that light and magnetism are afectations Foucault it is v = 298,000,000. Te velocity of the same substance, and that light is an of light in the space surrounding the Earth, electromagnetic disturbance propagated deduced from the coefcient of aberra- through the feld according to electrody- tion and the received value of the radius namic laws. It seems almost miraculous that Maxwell could arrive at these Lorentz-invariant equa- tions (meaning that the speed of light is con- stant as measured in diferent moving frames) by using Newtonian equations (known not to be Lorentz invariant). Maxwell’s work is one of the greatest examples of the way in which physicists used an imaginary system, in this case the elastic Aether, as a metaphor on which to base a mathematical model. Einstein, who said that “imagination is more important than knowledge,” was to show that the metaphor was superfuous. But, without it, we would not have Maxwell’s Figure 12. Maxwell’s model of the elastic Aether equations, the basis of all modern electrical with spinning vortices, used for his theory of light waves, from his 1862 paper. (From Simpson engineering and telecommunications. 2006.)

233 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

Maxwell, whose wife Katherine was highly religious, could recite long passages from the scriptures. He was a skilled horse-rider, played the guitar and wrote much occasional verse. His biographers (Campbell & Garnett 1884) give a charming portrait of Maxwell at work in his laboratory, quoting from one of his letters in 1878 soon after the telephone was invented: We have all been conversing on the tel- Figure 13. Lord Kelvin (on deck at center of ephone. Garnett actually recognized the group) on board the HMS Agamemnon (US voice of a man who called by chance! But Niagara in distance) during the laying of the frst the phonograph will preserve for posterity transatlantic telegraph cable in 1857. Morse code the voices of our best singers and speakers. was expected to run under the Atlantic at the I have been making a clay model of Prof speed of light — it didn’t! (Provided to the author W. Gibbs’s thermodynamic surface. from US Navy archives.) Campbell, who knew Maxwell well, writes light. Kelvin explained that the capacitance of him: of the wire spread out the pulses. Te frst He had a strong sense of humour, and message from Queen Victoria to President a keen relish for witty or jocose repar- Buchanan took 16 hours for 99 words — at tee … his mirth was never boisterous, the a rate of 0.2 bits per second! Maxwell died outward sign being a peculiar twinkle and in 1879, eight years before Heinrich Hertz brightness of the eyes. Of serenely placid discovered radio waves. temper, genial and temperate in his enjoy- ments, infnitely patient, he at all times Albert Michelson and the Aether wind opposed a solid calm of nature to the Albert Michelson, the frst American to vicissitudes of life (such as his painfully win the Nobel prize, was born in Poland, protracted death of bowel cancer) … In to a family who soon moved to San Fran- experimental work he was very neat- cisco. President Grant supported him at the handed. When working, he had a habit of Annapolis Naval Academy, where he gradu- whistling softly a sort of running accompa- ated in 1872. Soon after he dedicated his life niment to his inward thoughts. He could to experimental science aimed at locating that pursue his studies under distractions such absolute frame of reference in the Universe, as loud conversations. Ten he would take the Aether (Michelson 1903). In Helmholtz’s his dog into his confdence, and would say laboratory in Berlin he invented his famous softly, at intervals “Tobi, Tobi … it must be interferometer (perhaps derived from the so. Plato, thou reasonest well.” He would Jamin interferometer17) and published frst then join in the conversation. results from it in 1881. Here he sought to It was around this time that the Atlantic tel- measure a diference in the speed of light run- egraph cable was laid, as shown in Figure ning across, and along the Aether wind, but 13. Engineers were bafed when the Morse code signals did not arrive at the speed of 17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamin_interferometer

234 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light found none. Like the Jamin, his interferom- eter benefts greatly by division of the ampli- tude of the wavefeld across the entire area of the wavefeld, rather than Tomas Young’s weaker division of wavefeld at two points. It is likely that Michelson got the idea for his great experiment from the article Maxwell wrote for the 9th edition of the Encylopædia Britannica in 1878, the year before he died, in which he assumed that the Aether was fxed to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, around which the Sun orbits. Maxwell pro- posed using Rømer’s method frst to measure Figure 14. Michelson’s interferometer, used the speed of light traversing the Earth’s orbit to detect any motion of the earth through the around the Sun in one direction, and then Aether. To reduce vibration the optics were to repeat this when the light coming from mounted on a fve-foot square sandstone slab a foot thick, and the supporting brick pier reached Jupiter to Earth was travelling in the oppo- down to bedrock. To allow it to be rotated site direction, after Jupiter had gone half way smoothly, the interferometer foats on a trough around its orbit around the Sun. Maxwell had of liquid mercury, which also relieved any stresses written to a colleague of Michelson’s, David in the materials. (From Shankland 1964b.) Todd, asking for the required astronomical data on Io’s orbits, in a letter which Michel- son read in 1879. (Einstein was fve days old). two paths, running, say, across and along Maxwell pointed out that his proposal was a the direction of the Aether wind, and then stronger one-way “frst-order” efect than the recombined, to interfere. Tese interfer- round-trip “second-order” measurements of ence fringes are extremely sensitive to the Fizeau and others. smallest diferences in the speed of light Discouraged by the negative result and along the two paths. Like water waves on a lack of response to his 1881 Berlin paper, fowing river, they expected the light waves Michelson despaired of a further career in to pick up, as a tailwind, the speed of the physics. But he found himself at dinner Aether wind, thus moving the interference in Baltimore with the Lords Kelvin and fringes. Repeating observations six months Rayleigh in 1884, who had read his paper later, when the Earth had reversed its veloc- and strongly encouraged him to try again ity through the Aether, they expected to see in his new position at Case Western Uni- changes in the positions of the fringes, but versity. An extended correspondence thus did not. Tey could also rotate the entire began between Michelson and Rayleigh. interferometer, which foated on mercury Te famous interferometer which Michel- (Morley’s idea) to look for fringe movement, son and his colleague Morley built at Case but any movements were negligible. Tey is shown in Figure 14, which Michelson could detect an Aether wind velocity as small spent two years perfecting. Briefy, coherent as 5 km/s, compared to the Earth’s speed of light from a sodium lamp is divided into about 30 km/s.

235 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

Tus was published in 1887 what some in the direction of motion, so that if matter have described as “the greatest null result in consisted of charged particles, it should the history of science,” that the speed of light shrink. FitzGerald, a scientist generous with is to be the same in any direction (Shankland his highly creative ideas and supportive of 1964a). Not often mentioned in textbooks others, also pre-empted the discovery of is their conclusion that the hypothesis of a radio (FitzGerald 1883). Lorentz had sug- stationary Aether (an absolute frame of refer- gested, before Einstein’s 1905 paper, the ence in the Universe) was untenable. Most even more astonishing idea that time itself scientists were extremely reluctant to accept slows down if you go fast enough, relative this idea, since it suggested the alternative to someone at home, as had Larmor (1900). and highly implausible idea of “complete In summary, around 1900, when Lord drag,” that the Aether was fxed to the Earth Kelvin spoke at the Royal Institution, the and rotated with it, or, as Michelson sug- situation was as follows: gested in his paper, his work supports the 1. Maxwell’s equations, which provided a “partial drag” theories, in which a layer of constant velocity of light, suggested an Aether near the surface of the Earth was absolute reference frame, supporting a sta- dragged around with it. An important tech- tionary Aether through which the Earth nical discussion followed in the literature as moved. to what exactly was being measured — the 2. Michelson’s experiment: no stationary phase (wavefront) or the group (pulse) veloc- Aether, possibly George Stokes’ improb- ity, led by Rayleigh. It was concluded that all able “complete drag” theory, where the experiments measured group velocity except Aether is attached to the Earth and rotates Bradley’s, which measured phase velocity. with it. Einstein: the great clarifcation 3.Te violation of the Galilean transforma- Te last years of the nineteenth century tion for light. Unlike waves on a river, the produced a frenzy of intellectual activity speed of light waves did not seem to add in the efort to make sense of all this, with to the speed of the Aether “current.” the most important contributions coming 4.Te aberration of starlight — no “com- from Hendrick Lorentz (the physicist Ein- plete drag.” No tilt of a telescope is needed stein admired the most), George FitzGerald, if the Aether is fxed to planet Earth. and later Henri Poincaré. FitzGerald was the 5. Excellent agreement of several measure- frst to suggest, in a completely overlooked ments of Aether drag with Fresnel’s theory, paper in 1889 (in the obscure new Ameri- such as Fizeau’s demonstration that the can journal Science), the apparently crazy speed of light in fowing water was pro- idea that objects (such as Michelson’s inter- portional to the water speed. ferometer) would contract in the direction 6.Newton’s laws were independent of iner- of their motion at high speed, accounting tial frame under Galilean transformation, for Michelson’s null result. Tis was con- but Maxwell’s were not — the speed of sistent with Heaviside’s earlier publication light was the same in every frame. Iner- showing that the feld lines and potential tial frames are those moving with constant surface around a moving charge do contract speed with respect to each other.

236 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light

Tere were three ways to reconcile these at frst harder to understand (Pais 1982)18. results: First, fnd the Aether, an absolute Te agreement with Fresnel’s theory turned frame of reference. Second, repair Maxwell’s out to be fortuitous, as we have mentioned. equations, so that they obeyed a Galilean Einstein’s paper contained other new results: transformation. Tird, fx Newton’s equa- a derivation of a new relativistic transverse tions, so that they obeyed the new Lorentz Doppler efect, and a relativistic treatment transformation, which kept the speed of of the aberration of starlight using the cor- light constant in all inertial frames. rect velocity addition law. Te breakthrough Einstein’s 1905 paper on “Te electro- came with his new understanding of the dynamics of moving bodies,” in which he relativity of simultaneity and time dilation, introduced relativity, clarifed and reconciled which reconciled all these results, and led all these issues at a stroke, by incorporat- to a completely new understanding of the ing both seemingly crazy ideas (time dila- nature of time itself. tion and length contraction), abolishing Einstein realized that time intervals are the Aether entirely, and claiming that the measured by the coincidence of events, but speed of light was a constant (given by Max- these depend on the relative velocity of well’s value), independent of the speed of its observers, as we explain below. source. Tis means that the speed of light Einstein’s paper made two assumptions, coming toward you from car headlights at that the speed of light was the same in all night does not depend on the speed of the inertial frames, and that all physics experi- car. With no Aether, and a constant speed ments (such as games of snooker played on of light, the result of Michelson’s experiment smoothly running trains going at diferent was immediately explained. With extraor- speeds in diferent directions) should give dinary confdence for a twenty-six year old the same results in all inertial frames. Tese patent attorney in Bern, Einstein (who had frames were co-ordinate systems moving portraits of Faraday, Newton and Maxwell in with constant velocity with respect to each his ofce) chose the third option, modifying other, one of which could be “stationary.” Newton’s equations to make them Lorentz He provided the correct transformation rule invariant, the change that produced E = mc2 to allow the stationary observer to predict in another paper published later in 1905. what an observer in a second moving frame Tis means that mass m is a form of stored (such as a car moving at constant speed) energy E, as released in the nuclear reactions would measure, regarding events seen from in our sun and the stars (Rhodes 1986). both frames. Tis “Lorentz transformation” But sorting out this mess was an achieve- had been published the previous year (1904) ment of genius — whereas the symmetries by Lorentz, derived in electrodynamics from in Maxwell’s equations and the results of the the requirement that light have Maxwell’s Michelson-Morley experiment supported his velocity in all inertial frames. Einstein does notion that all motion was relative, the results not reference this paper, although he was from the aberration of starlight and Fizeau’s well aware of the work of Lorentz and fnding that the speed of light depended on the speed of a moving water medium, were 18 Pais (1982) is the best biography of Einstein, con- taining much historical and technical information from someone who worked with him.

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Michelson. His derivation of the Lorentz replacements for Newton’s laws, due to his transformation is based on entirely diferent immense authority. As one professor in phys- physical arguments. He then applied this ics has commented “in physics, mathemat- transformation to the measurement of time ics can easily be a substitute for thought,” a and length intervals and so predicted time view which Tomas Young wrote strongly dilation and length contraction. Te essence in support of. (Young wrote his equations of one of these physical arguments (and of in words.) A recent delightful and amusing special relativity) can be described as follows. book discusses the exaggerated importance Imagine fying from Sydney to Canberra given to the “beauty” criterion for new equa- at night. Assume that the lights of both cities tions in the sub-atomic high-energy particle are turned on at the same instant. A person physics community (Hossenfeld 2018). Tis on a high mountain exactly midway between was never the case for Einstein, especially as the cities would see both city lights come on a young man, for whom physical intuition at once. But for an observer in a fast aircraft, always came frst. In his later years he did since light has fnite speed, during the time turn increasingly toward more formal math- the light was travelling from Canberra to ematical manipulations in his unsuccessful the aircraft, the aircraft would have moved pursuit of his unifed feld theory. forward a little. For that observer the Can- berra lights were indubitably turned on frst. Conclusion Tis is the relativity of simultaneity, and the Tis remarkable intellectual history of ideas important point is that both observers are started with Newton’s action-at-a-distance correct, and every observer in a diferent principle, the idea that gravity and light act frame would judge the sequence of events instantaneously across the Universe. Tis diferently. Because Einstein’s theory does held sway until the time of Rømer and not allow causal infuences to travel faster Bradley, who provided the frst strong experi- than light, it is not possible to violate causal- mental evidence for a fnite speed for light. ity in this way: events cannot precede their Tese measurements were vital in helping cause. Te relative simultaneity paradox to provide a time and distance scale for the arises from the nature of space–time itself. Universe, solar system and Earth (important Extending this type of argument led Einstein for Darwin’s theory). Competing explana- to the idea that moving sticks get shorter (as tions for refraction brought disagreement measured in a stationary frame) and moving between those who thought light was a wave clocks run slow (compared to a stationary and those favouring a particle model in an clock). Tis has been demonstrated many elastic, invisible Aether which somehow times, for example by sending one of two could not support longitudinal waves. synchronized clocks on the space shuttle and Tomas Young next showed that light, comparing them on return.19 split into two beams, can be recombined to It was said that it was easier to understand produce interference fringes, in exact accord- the mathematics of special relativity than ance with a wave theory of light. Faraday, the the physics of it, and very difcult to accept great experimentalist, was the catalyst for many major theoretical insights. He saw in 19 Ed.: sat-nav systems successfully adjust for these his iron flings tensioned lines of force, along efects. which waves might travel, giving birth to

238 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light feld theory and a fnite velocity for light. His Hughes) by one of the greatest experimen- discovery of the rotation of the polarization talists and theoreticians, Heinrich Hertz of light led Maxwell to the concept of his dis- in 1887 (Hertz 1893, Fahie 1899). Hertz placement feld. Later, this helped to explain applied Maxwell’s equations to his discov- how radio waves propagate, as FitzGerald ery (at frst called “invisible light”) and pro- was the frst to understand. Magnetism, moted the adoption of Maxwell’s work in electrostatics, and optics were unifed by Europe, despite the alternative formulation Maxwell, with his mechanical model of the of his supervisor, Professor Helmholz. Nor Aether, later discarded, and his demonstra- have we discussed “superluminal” schemes tion that light was an electromagnetic wave, for communicating at speeds faster than for which he provided a constant speed (in light (Herbet 1988), closely related to Bell’s terms of electrical constants) which did not theorem (Mermin 1990), today’s quantum depend on the speed of the source of the encoding methods using entangled states, light. Tis added support for the existence and quantum computers (Gribbin 2014, of a frame of absolute rest in the Universe, Gerry & Bruno 2013). Sufcient to say that the Aether, which supported the propagation no superluminal schemes have succeeded. of light waves. Greek astronomy, radio, Hughes, entangled Fresnel’s Aether drag theory supported states and Bell’s theorem are discussed in experiment for a century, while the brilliant more detail in Spence (2019). terrestrial measurements of Fizeau, Fou- Te speed of light is one of a very small cault and Michelson both improved on the number of fundamental constants in phys- accuracy of lightspeed measurements and ics which truly determine the nature of our addressed the problem of light propagation Universe and the form of matter within it. in a moving medium. Tis culminated in It is the constant c in Einstein’s most famous Michelson’s null result, which gave the same equation E = mc2 linking mass and energy, speed for light in all directions on a moving and its measurement has driven advances in Earth. technology, notably in interferometry, GPS Poincaré and Lorentz anticipated many navigation and astronomy, by some of the of Einstein’s 1905 results but retained the greatest builders of scientifc instruments. idea of an Aether. Einstein fnally wrapped Te speed of light has been described by S. it all up and clarifed everything in 1905 in R. Filonovich (1986) as the constant which a theory which also, as a result, could extend provides “a clear manifestation of the unity Newton’s laws to the very high energies and of our physical world.” And the discovery speeds of nuclear physics and so predict the that light does not travel instantaneously energy release from atom bombs. His theory tells us, as we look up into the night sky at connects space and time through the speed distant stars, that we indeed are looking back of light. in time. Te history of the measurement of Tis brief history of measurements of the speed of light follows one of the great- the speed of light and of the concept of the est intellectual adventures in human history, Aether has overlooked many fascinating asso- at the heart of progress in science over the ciated discoveries, such as the discovery of last four hundred years, and central to the radio (anticipated by the remarkable David

239 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Spence — A history of measurements of the speed of light wave–particle duality, the idea that light can Campbell, L. & Garnett, W. (1884). Te Life be thought of as either a wave, or a particle. of James Clerk Maxwell. Macmillan, London. We must end this odyssey by pointing out Cartwright, D.E. (2003). Te Tonkin tides revisited, Notes & Records of the Royal Society that the speed of light is no longer meas- of London, 57(2): 135–142. ured: it was given a defned value in terms Cohen, I.B. (1940). Roemer and the frst of other standards (of length and time) in determination of the velocity of light (1676). 1983 (Barrow 2002). In May 2019 the last Isis, 31, No. 2, pp. 327-379. international standard based on an artifact Darrigol, O. (2000). Electrodynamics from Ampere to Einstein. O.U.P., Oxford. (the kilogram of mass) was also eliminated Darrigol O. (2012). A History of Optics from and re-defned in terms of other standards.20 Greek Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. In trying to understand the nature of the O.U.P., Oxford. medium which conveys light in vacuum, we Einstein, A. (1905). On the electrodynamics might end by observing that the modern of moving bodies. Annalen der Physik 17, no. quantum feld theory of the vacuum state 891, 50. Fahie, J.J. (1899). A History of Wireless (supporting, for example, the zero-point Telegraphy 1838–1899. Blackwood, London. energy and the Higgs boson) perhaps just Feynman, R.P. (1992). Te Character of replaces one kind of Aether with another. Physical Law. Penguin, London. Filonovich, S.R. (1986). Te Greatest Speed. Acknowledgements Mir Publishers, Moscow. I am grateful to Professors K. Schmidt and FitzGerald, G.F. (1883). On a method of producing electromagnetic disturbances of A. Howie for useful conversations. A referee comparatively short wavelengths. In Report made useful suggestions. on the 53rd Meeting of the British Association p. 405. References FitzGerald, G.F. (1889). Te ether and the Aughton, P. (2004). Te Transit of Venus: Te Earth’s atmosphere. Science, 13 (328): 390. Brief Brilliant Life of Jeremiah Horrocks, Fresnel, A. (1826). Mémoire sur la difraction de Father of British Astronomy. Weidenfeld & la lumière. Gauthier-Villars, Paris. Nicolson, London. Gerry, C. & Bruno, K. (2013). Te Quantum Barrow, J.D. (2002). Te Constants of Nature. Divide: Why Schrödinger’s Cat is Either Dead Vintage, Random House, New York. or Alive. O.U.P., New York. Beaglehole, J.C. (1968). Te Journals of Gribbin, J. (2014). Computing with Quantum Captain Cook. C.U.P., Cambridge. Cats: From Colossus to Qubits. Prometheus Bradley, J. (1728). A letter from the Reverend Books. Kindle Edition. Mr James Bradley Savilian Profes or of Herbert, N. (1988). Faster than Light: A tronomy at Oxford, and FRS to Dr Superluminal Loopholes in Physics. Dutton, Edmond Halley A tronom. Reg. &c.ſſ giving New York. anſ account of a new di covered motion of Hertz, H. (1893). Electric Waves. Dover the fx’d stars. Philosophicalſ Transactions of the Edition, New York. Royal Society, Series A, Vol.ſ 35, Issue 406, p. Hibbert, D.B. (2017). Standards and units: 637 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ a view from the President. Journal & pdf/10.1098/rstl.1727.0064 Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Burton, H.E. (1945). Te optics of Euclid. Wales 150: 143-151, 2017. Journal of the Optical Society of America 35, Hirschfeld, A.W. (2001). Parallax. Henry Holt, 357. New York. Holmes, R. (2008). Te Age of Wonder. How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty 20 See Hibbert (2017) on its demise. [Ed.]

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and Terror of Science. Harper Collins, New Rhodes, R. (1986). Te Making of the Atom York. Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York. Horrebow, P. (1735). Basis Astronomiæ. Public Robinson, A. (2006). Te Last Man who Knew Domain. Everything. Pi Press, New York. Hoyle, F. (1973). Nicolas Copernicus. Harper, Rømer, O. (1677). A demonstration New York. concerning the motion of light, Hunt, B. (1994). Te Maxwellians. Cornell communicated from Paris, Philosophical University Press. Transactions of the Royal Society, No. 136: 887, Huygens, C. (1690, 2018). Traité de la Lumière, June 25. Où Sont Expliquées les Causes de ce Qui Luy Shankland, R.S. (1964a). Te Michelson- Arrive dans la Refexion, Et dans la Refraction, Morley experiment. American Journal of Forgotten Books, London. Physics, 32, 16. Keithley, J.E. (1999). Te History of Electrical Shankland, R. S. (1964b) Te Michelson- and Magnetic Measurements. IEEE Press. Morley experiment. Scientifc American, Kelvin, W.T. Baron (1901). Nineteenth 211(5): 107–115. century clouds over the dynamical theory of Simpson, T.K. (2006). Maxwell on the heat and light, Te London, Edinburgh, and Electromagnetic Field. Rutgers University Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Press. New Brunswick. Science, 2: 7, 1–40. Spence, J.C.H. (2019). Lightspeed: Te Ghostly Larmor, J. (1900). Aether and Matter. C.U.P., Aether and the Race to Measure the Speed of Cambridge. Light. O.U.P., New York. Lequeux, J. (2016). François Arago. Springer, Stewart, A.B. (1964). Te discovery of stellar New York. aberration. Scientifc American, 210, 100. Levitt, T. (2013). A Short Bright Flash. Tompson, S.P. (1901). Michael Faraday, his Augustin Fresnel and the birth of the modern Life and Work. Cassell & Co., London. lighthouse. Norton, New York. Tobin W. (1993).Toothed wheels and rotating Love, D.K. (2015). Kepler and the Universe. mirrors. Vistas in Astronomy, 36, 253–94. See Prometheus Books. New York. also, Te Life and Science of Leon Foucault by Longair, M. (2003). Teoretical Concepts in W. Tobin. C.U.P., (2003). Physics. C.U.P., Cambridge. Weinberg, S. (2015). To Explain the World. Mermin, D.N. (1990). Boojums All Te Way. Harper. New York. C.U.P., Cambridge. Whittaker, E.T. (1910). A History of the Michelson, A.A. (1903). Light Waves and their Teories of Aether and Electricity: From the Uses. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Age of Descartes to the Close of the Nineteenth Newton, I. (1704). Opticks. Dover Century. Longmans, Green, London. Publications (1952). New York. Wulf, A. (2012). Chasing Venus: Te Race to Pais, A. (1982). Subtle is the Lord. O.U.P., Measure the Heavens. Knopf, New York. Oxford. Young, T. (1845). A Course of Lectures on Resnick, R. (2018). Introduction to Special Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts. Relativity. Wiley India Reprint. New Delhi. Taylor & Watson, London.

241 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 242–250. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020242-09

Polymers: a historical perspective

Robert Burford FRSN Emeritus Professor, School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW Sydney Email: [email protected]

Abstract Tis commissioned paper outlines the emergence of new forms of synthetics and plastics as our under- standing of polymer chemistry has advanced.

Synopsis phenols and styrene are “polymerised” to olymers have been ubiquitous since form thermosets,1 including phenol for- simple gaseous molecules began to form maldehyde “Bakelite” thermosets, but are P 2 life-giving organic structures many millions also present in thermoplastics including of years ago. Today, we rely upon proteins polystyrene and related materials such as comprising twenty amino acids, as well as styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) and ABS.3 Te DNA and RNA with many fewer nucleic manufacture of Bakelite is often viewed as acids. Similarly, many fbres and plants the birth of the synthetic polymer industry. comprise carbohydrate polymers: we and Te enormous growth both in diversity and other animals use these and protein-based volume of thermoplastics is a feature of the polymers for our diet. Hence, organic earth’s 20th century, dismissively called the “plastics surface has an enormous diversity of natu- age.” Again, important but sometimes ser- rally occurring polymers, sometimes called endipitous discoveries are a feature of this macromolecules. period, but the associated large-scale produc- Today, these continue to feed and clothe tion introduced multinational corporations us, and much more, but the beginning of originating mainly in Europe, the US and man-made materials might be considered Japan. to be the transition from entirely natural From the late 1930s, polymers based on materials to either substitutes or modifed ethylene and propylene, gases formed from macromolecules. Tis period might be clas- “cracking”4 of naphtha or ethane/propane, sifed as the “precursor age” of synthetic have become commonplace. Teir versatility polymers. It originates from the early 19th and low cost have led to packaging and other century and is an exciting period of amateur single-use modes, which, in the absence of science, entrepreneurship and considerable careful social behaviour, contribute mark- skulduggery. A theme that continues today edly to unacceptable waste. Tis period of is the replacement of conventional materials commoditisation is characterised by a transi- with improved or cheaper substitutes. tion from gleeful acceptance from the 1940s Te second period relates to entirely syn- to the ’60s to misgivings and apprehension thetic polymers which have as raw materials in the 21st century. small molecules that arise from processing of coal or oil. Aromatic compounds such as 3 Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

242 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective

Te First Age of Polymers In this environment the opportunity for Te beginnings of human exploitation of entrepreneurial inventors to make and sell natural polymers might date from the use of new and desirable articles was compelling, timber, including fre, many millennia ago. and examples described below either replace Te use of natural fbres including various scarce natural substances, or introduce new wools is another prehistoric example. materials with novel properties. In this age, More recently, the creative application of much work was conducted by energetic and an isolated polymer might start from the creative, but somewhat uneducated, ama- recreational use of coagulated rubber from teurs. Hevea braziliensis by the Aztecs and others Although the primary focus in this paper in Mesoamerica, as observed by Europeans is on plastics and to a lesser extent thermo- in the 15th and 16th centuries. setting materials, the exploitation of natural Te history of rubber is fascinating, as it rubber illustrates several common themes. combines great wealth with slavery, not just Natural rubber was available from South in South America, but in South East Asia America in the 18th century, and those con- and in Africa. Tis was convincingly broad- trolling the plantations and essentially slave cast by the late Professor Peter Mason (1979). labour were becoming enviably wealthy. It is also documented extensively, for Opera houses, trams, electricity and much example in Stahl (1984) and Fenichell else was built in the Amazon beside a deci- (1996). Tis latter text provides excellent mated native population. Saplings of these case studies that are drawn upon elsewhere “rubber trees” were smuggled from South in this paper. America and the survivors propagated in Here the emphasis is placed upon the Kew Gardens. Tese in turn became the deliberate manufacture of either new but forebears of the globally distributed rubber modifed materials that can be processed plantations: pest species replacing native to take on desired forms, or, later, entirely trees. new synthetic polymers (predominating in Te next chapter was the need to make the Second Age). In many ways, however, synthetic rubber to overcome the difcul- synthetic polymers cannot match natural ties in sea transport of natural rubber to the materials and this remains an aspiration. UK and the US. Te project was one of the Te industrial age can be characterised underappreciated technical achievements of not only by the harnessing of energy via the WW2. When I worked at the Australian Syn- steam engine, but also the mass conversion thetic Rubber Company in the 1970s, secret of raw materials into refned or intricately codes both for raw materials and products, a produced products such as woven cotton legacy of the war, were still being used! and woollen garments. An examination of Te transformation from a soft fowing any technology museum will reveal a mul- and impure material to one that might be tiplicity of complex machines designed to more valuable and useful was beset with tech- value-add starting materials into consumer nical challenges. Such challenges had to be articles. overcome with a combination of mechanical changes as well as chemical modifcations.

243 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective

Natural rubber comprises cis poly iso- for invention of a credible substitute. Gun prene, with (as we now know) a molecular cotton (cellulose nitrate) was already known. weight of about 106 atomic mass units. Such Admixtures in solvent (collodion) were a high molecular weight makes the material developed by John Hyatt in the 1860s to hard to process (“tough as boots”) and with encase wood pulp and bone mixtures. Ulti- poor adhesion qualities, which limits its fur- mately a suitable substitute was realised and ther deployment. Tis was addressed using the prototype remains (although the prize a crude masticator known as the Hancock was not awarded), but Hyatt’s main discov- “pickle,” akin to a torture instrument with ery was to follow. multiple arrays of intermeshing teeth. Te Tis was the addition of camphor to nitro- modifed rubber was a marked improvement cellulose to make the material malleable, and on the naphtha-dissolved rubber used by millable into a thin coherent mass. Tis Charles Macintosh in the 1820s to water- product — celluloid — patented in 1869, proof garments. became the key product of the American Soon after, Charles Goodyear sought to Celanese Corporation, and celluloid formed improve the properties of “India Rubber” the basis of photographic flm technology (named from the Caribbean Indies and and greatly afected both the photographic from the ability of the polymer to erase and movie industries. Hyatt himself left to pencil markings) with essentially no knowl- begin the hotel company that bears his name edge of chemistry at all. He tried numerous to the present time. experiments with little success over more In assisting the Powerhouse Museum con- than a decade, with Goodyear in and out of servation team in Sydney, I’ve had the oppor- debtor’s courts and prisons. It was however tunity to learn of the polymers available from the entirely accidental exposure of rubber about 1880 to the 1940s (from the Penfold latex to spilt sulphur on a stove that led to collection,5 amassed on a global tour) and crosslinking, or vulcanisation, a technol- to the present time. A surprisingly small ogy still conducted today. Despite his 1844 number of polymer families existed, but in patent, Goodyear died impoverished. Tis a diversity of manifestations. Many forms of is a representative example of an important ivory substitutes were available, sometimes and enduring but accidental discovery. with casein (milk protein) derived polymers. A second important discovery was the Celluloid materials, either cellulose nitrate modifcation of cellulose ester to render the or acetate, were also well represented. Te material both transparent and malleable. Te former are dangerously unstable, whilst the origins are fascinating and relevant. Te Vic- acetate also loses acetic acid to leave brittle torian era was largely decorated with ivory: cellulosic residues. Tis is a major concern piano keys, hairbrushes, knife handles and much else. Particularly challenging items were billiard balls, those having the best 5 During the period 1929–55, the Powerhouse “click” made from the middle, clear grained Museum director Arthur de Raymond Penfold became section of Ceylonese elephants’ tusks. Such fascinated by plastics, the new material, and stated: “Te way they stirred the imagination of the public was the supply and demand problem that is as much a marvel as the wizardry of the modern a reward of $10,000 in gold was ofered organic chemist who gave us the great invention.” (Taylor 2010)

244 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective for the movie industry, with many endan- in quite recent textbooks, and kettles were gered cellulose acetate flms still at risk. employed in Australia until the 1970s. Another extensively represented polymer Although liquid precursor mixtures were is Bakelite, phenol formaldehyde often flled also made that could fll moulds, once heat with wood four or fbres: the default mate- and pressure were applied the solid made rial for telephones, piano rolls and much was permanent. Such a “thermoset” remains else. Te Powerhouse Museum and similar resistant to heat and stress, and Bakelite rep- institutions have vast collections of items resents the frst entirely synthetic polymer made from Bakelite and similar thermosets. with no naturally occurring precursor. Te Tis historic material is notably still used synthetic plastic age had begun. for saucepan lids and handles, and allied Early applications included electrical thermosets are used in modern electron- insulators (which continued being made ics including mobile phones. Hence even after WW2), billiard balls (replacing cel- ancient polymers can be enduring. luloid) and lawn/carpet bowls (familiar to Whilst celluloid became enormously suc- older readers!). In contrast to many earlier cessful through Eastman’s Kodak business, a inventors, Baekeland was well educated truly synthetic material was soon to emerge. and positioned to exploit and improve Leo Baekeland6 had initially developed a upon many other discoveries. Although not superior flm7 for Eastman for which he was impoverished, he appears to have died lonely extravagantly rewarded. Although the reac- and eccentric. tion between phenol and formaldehyde was Te period from 1910 to the 1930s was an known by Adolf Bayer in 1872, and casein, exciting time for the industrial discovery and made from milk protein and formaldehyde, manufacture of new polymers, including had also been invented in 1899 and is still linear polymers such as polyvinyl chloride used for buttons, the production of a valu- (PVC) or “vinyl” in 1926 and polystyrene able insulating material made using phenol in 1931 that could be truly plastic, that is, and formaldehyde (Bakelite) was delayed made into a fuid and be re-mouldable. Both until 1907. these polymer types had antecedents, with Baekeland used high temperatures and for example polystyrene being known as pressure to overcome volatile gas formation the non-pungent solid form of styrene and that had rendered prior materials unsuit- called “metastyrene.” able. Tis is another example of persistence Nicholson’s 1997 text explains that the and sometimes counter-intuitive ideas that term “polymerisation” was coined in 1870 extend beyond the basic chemistry leading to address the transformation of a molecule to successful invention. Similar reactors for with one physical form to another quite these and Novolac8 resins are still provided diferent one but with the same empirical formula (polystyrene from styrene in 1866). 6 Te Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland devel- Tis was done in the absence of polymerisa- oped Bakelite in Yonkers, New York, in 1907. Te frst tion theory as known today. issue of Plastics magazine, October 1925, featured It was also a fascinating time from an Bakelite on its cover. academic and theoretical perspective as the 7 Velox photographic paper, in 1893. concept of what the molecular structure 8 Synthetic shellac.

245 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective of a polymer entailed was fercely debated. PVC in 1926, polyethylene in 1933, Tefon Whilst Emil Fischer had carefully synthe- in 1938, metallocene catalysts and conduct- sised proteins with molecular weights up to ing polymers (including polyaniline) all 4200, according to Stahl’s paper he did not entail lucky breakthroughs. Te inspiring formulate a detailed structure. Tere were aspect of the polycondensation activities of other opinions supporting high molecular Carothers was the intentional and systemic weight molecules, particularly with synthetic nature of that creative chemistry. polyisoprene, but the conventional wisdom, Carothers was associated with the which linked synthetic polymers with many development of polychloroprene in 1932 naturally occurring systems, was of colloidal (DuPont trade name Neoprene) which has aggregates. many properties superior to natural rubber, It was Hermann Staudinger who con- but Carothers is best known for polycon- vincingly invented the term and concept densation polymers, including polyesters of “macromolecules” in 1922, for which he and polyamides and nylon. Many of the was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1953, rather fascinating commercial aspects of the latter than the established associative model. He are given in Chapter 6, “Nylon” in Fenichell published papers starting from 1920 which (1996, pp. 19–22). remain rigorous today, relating initially to A concise (8-page) and authoritative polystyrene and polyoxymethylene and then online document from the American Chem- to many others.9 Again according to Stahl’s ical Society (2000)10 is also recommended. record, Herman Mark, then an X-ray crystal- Te ACS stated in 2000 that about half the lographer and subsequently a pioneer in the industrial chemists in the US were working forefront of polymer chemistry, mediated in polymer chemistry. between the protagonists. With hindsight it seems simple to take Such intense debate is not unusual. Te well-known reactions between dibasic11 availability of new information by neutron and diacid small molecules to make amides scattering added fre to the debate about and esters. Indeed I used this to illustrate to chain alignment in crystallisable polymers, undergraduate students, (with mixed suc- for which some supporters came to blows at cess), the systematic nature of chemistry. A a conference in the early 1980s! A key factor simple monoester reaction (ethyl acetate), in science and medical Nobel Prize success is followed by more complex reactions and the unexpected nature of the research. then a di-ester reaction to form the poly- Te increasing awareness and adoption of ethylene terephthate (PET, 1941) used in the macromolecular concept aligns well with soft drink bottles followed. Te di-amide the amazing research by Wallace Carothers reaction to give the DuPont nylon followed at DuPont. Many polymer discoveries are by 1935. accidental, not only by amateur chemists but also by “the prepared minds” who see the value of the unexpected, including quite 10 Commemorative Booklet—Te Establishment of recent fndings. Hence, the discoveries of Modern Polymer Science By Wallace H. Carothers (PDF) 9 See “Te Foundation of Polymer Science by Her- 11 Dibasic: containing two carboxylic acid –COOH mann Staudinger (1881-1965)” groups.

246 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective

A key challenge was to increase molecular were used in large volumes, and were also weight so that chains can entangle and not employed as laminates and coatings. only ofer adequate mechanical properties, From the 1940s to the 1970s a very sub- but also to form fbres, and this requires stantial expansion in industrial polymer extremely high conversion. According to manufacture occurred globally, including the ACS article: in Australia. PVC, polystyrene, synthetic By the time DuPont started building its rubber, polyethylene (PE) and polypropyl- frst plant in Seaford, Delaware, in 1938, ene (PP, 1954) were all made, with several more than 230 chemists and engineers Australian plants being in the vanguard. had worked on the project at one time or Te slurry process used by Shell for PP in another at a cost of $27 million. Rosehill, NSW, and the Ziegler process for polybutadiene (invented in 1928) by the Both polyesters and polyamides remain suc- Australian Synthetic Rubber Co. were some cessful moulded plastics and fbres, with PET of the frst globally. in particular now a large volume, cheap com- Today PE and PP are ubiquitous and modity polymer. represent well over half the volume of poly- Whilst nylon was indeed an amazing poly- mers made globally. Tis refects the enor- mer, with 800,000 pairs of stockings sold on mous growth in polymers based on ethylene 15 May 1940 alone, and many parachutes and propylene, both gaseous intermediates, saving lives when the US entered WW2 in either from cracking of naphtha (a kerosene- 1941, there are other more sobering aspects. like fraction from oil refning) or dehydroge- Carothers himself committed suicide in nation cracking of saturated natural hydro- 1937, a year after his marriage. And to some carbon gases. extent the stockings were promoted on a Teir manufacture, however, has been lie, that they, unlike silk, were claimed not challenging and adventurous. Low-density to run. (LDPE) or branched polyethylene was and Te Second Age of Polymers remains the result of extremely high pres- If the Penfold collection of polymers is sure equipment that only became possible analysed, it becomes clear that only a small in the 1930s. When ICI scientists some- fraction in volume of those we are familiar what randomly explored how a mixture of with now are represented. During the 1940s, benzaldehyde and ethylene would behave, perusal of the newly published Australian they carefully noted that the ethylene hadn’t Plastics Journal reveals from both papers and magically disappeared but had formed a thin advertisements that available plastics were coating: polyethylene (or polythene); the confned to cellulosics, Perspex (poly methyl beginnings in 1933 of a strategically impor- methacrylate, 1934), polystyrene, polyvinyl tant and subsequently lucrative industry. chloride and newly available polythene in Accounts by those involved vary some- 1933. Te latter was by today’s measure what, reducing the chance element, but extremely expensive, a plastic bag costing remain vital historical records; for exam- about a day’s salary. Synthetic rubbers and ple, Raf & Allison (1956, Chapter 1) and many thermosetting resins including urea McMillan (1979, pp. 10–14). Replicate and melamine formaldehyde compounds experiments failed until the trace of an oxi-

247 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective dant in the benzaldehyde was realised to be Teir low density (less than water, even the key to success in making LDPE. Again in bulk form) and high durability, especially multiple fortuitous accidental incidents when stabilised, contributes to their being a came into play. commonly found part of the waste stream Tis material was a valuable for it repre- both on land and in water. sented the frst fexible insulator and was It is perhaps difcult to believe the excite- initially employed for submarine cables, but ment and easy adoption of plastics in the more crucially for radar.12 1950s and 1960s. However, conventional LDPE remains a signifcant global mate- precursors made from ceramics and glass, rial today, despite its low modulus and melt- as well as metals, were often heavy, brittle ing point. It has a “softness” and transparency or liable to rust. Tere was also a fascination that makes it “user friendly,” and it contin- with the new and synthetic, and plastics did ues to have an important place in packaging, not have the connotations that they have where toughness can be equally important. today. Although the scene where Dustin LDPE, along with other polyolefns, is used Hofman is advised, “I have only one word, extensively for single-use applications and is Plastics” in the 1967 movie Te Graduate heavily represented in plastics waste streams. might be viewed as somewhat cynical or A second and dramatic development was ironic, it possibly just refects a small turn- the discovery and use of catalysts to make ing point from popular consumer embrace. both a new family of polythenes (Karl Although research in biological macro- Ziegler in 1953) with linear chains (high- molecules was being undertaken in Aus- density polyethylene HDPE) and poly- tralian universities in the 1950s, synthetic propylenes (Giulio Natta) where the ste- polymers became a focus from the 1960s, reoregularity about each second backbone with the establishment for example of the carbon is controlled.13 Te history of this Polymer Division of the Royal Australian is detailed in McMillan’s book and much Chemical Institute and their annual Austral- has been recorded in standard polymer sci- ian Polymer Symposia. Tese have not only ence textbooks, in the Nobel Prize of 1963 attracted many famous international author- Records, and in technical papers and maga- ities, but also showcased top Australian aca- zines. HDPE and isotactic polypropylene demics, several becoming leading fgures in comprise about half the volume of all poly- subjects from emulsion polymerisation to mers, refecting their excellent mechanical newer types of synthesis (for example, RAFT, and thermal properties and low cost. Teir reversible addition-fragmentation chain uses extend beyond single-use packaging to transfer polymerisation) and much else. strong containers, hot water jugs, casings for CSIRO has had a very strong impact, irons, and, now, banknotes in many coun- examples being the shrink-proofng of tries. wool using nanothickness coatings of pol- yurethane (invented in the 1930s), and the introduction of polymer banknotes in 1988. 12 During WW2 it was a state secret. Incidentally, Fenichell’s text (1996, p. 28) Annalen 13 In 1963 Ziegler and Natta were awarded the Nobel mentions that the Swiss editor of Prize in Chemistry for their discoveries in the science and technology of polymers.

248 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective der Physik und Chemie, J.C. Poggendorf, problem in the eyes of the public. Atti- stated in 1846 in relation to nitrocellulose: tudes towards plastic products are becom- Your glass-like paper is splendid. I hope ing more negative. Tis problem must be you can make it thick enough to use for addressed. New technologies to minimize window panes … Might it not also make and recycle waste must be developed … . a good replacement for ordinary paper for If we do not have this mindset, we may bank notes? fnd more and more environmental road- Te Hawke Government brought into being blocks appearing. In other words, we have Cooperative Research Centres in 1991 to to move from being problem creators to encourage a combination of research provid- problem solvers. To the scientifc com- ers to assist Australian industry. Te CRC for munity these are intriguing challenges. Polymers undertook many demanding chal- [MacLachlan, 1990]. lenges, ranging from agriflms that degraded Te annual volume of plastics produced in a controlled way, to cables that endure overtook all metals and glass several dec- fres.14 ades ago and continues to increase globally Te Tird Age: Is Te Honeymoon (although manufacturing has declined in Over? Australia). High-volume, low-cost poly- mers continue to provide many solutions Te low-cost and continuingly improving to societal challenges, from cataract lenses properties of polymers, combined with to lighter-weight motor vehicles and aircraft. growing afuence and increasing population, Perhaps the afordability of many polymers have all contributed to seeing an enormous has made them the subject of individual volume of discarded polymer waste. Such and industrial carelessness. A concise and outcomes should come as no surprise. As thoughtful commentary was given by Paul early as 1944, Fleck wrote: Moritz in 2019. Plastics have a very defnite and very useful Such waste issues have come to the fore- future ahead of them, but undesirable front of politicians, media and the public, publicity and wrong design can blast that and already some remedies are emerging. career. Fully recyclable PET bottles are now avail- More recently, in a prophetic 1989 address, able for beverages, and trends to thinner Dr A. MacLachlan, then Senior V-P, Tech- packaging are evident. However, much needs nology at Du Pont, stated: to be done, as identifed by the Australian One of the most important challenges Packaging Covenant, including changes in for the future of the polymer industry is public and corporate values. Clever technical refning the processes used to make and solutions are inevitable, and in Australia this form polymers and the methods used to is already being encouraged by a Coopera- dispose of them. Whilst it has been esti- tive Research Centre for Plastics Recycling. mated that only 8% of the waste generated Changes in social behaviour and a changing in the United States is synthetic polymers, economic agenda both need consideration, their durability and visibility magnify the and will take time.

14 Andrady & Neal (2009) paint a similar picture [Ed.]

249 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Burford — Polymers: a historical perspective

References McMillan, Frank M. (1979), Te Chain American Chemical Society, Division of the Straighteners: fruitful innovation, the discovery History of Chemistry and Te Ofce of of linear and stereoregular synthetic polymers, Communications (1999), Te Foundation Macmillan Press, London. of Polymer Science by Hermann Staudinger Mason, Peter (1979), Cauchu, the weeping (1881–1965), Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, wood: a history of rubber. ABC, Sydney. ACS-GDCh. Moritz, Paul (2019), “Perhaps people, not American Chemical Society, Division of the plastics, are the problem,” Chemistry in History of Chemistry and Te Ofce of Australia, Sept./Oct. Communications (2000), Commemorative Nicholson, J. W. (1997), Te Chemistry of nd Booklet—Te Establishment of Modern Polymer Polymers, 2 ed., Royal Society of Chemistry, Science By Wallace H. Carothers, Wilmington, London. Delaware, ACS. Raf, R. A. V., and J. B. Allison (1956), Andrady, Anthony L., and Mike A. Neal Polyethylene, Interscience, New York. (2009), “Applications and societal benefts of Stahl, G. Allen (1984), “Development of a plastics,” Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. modern polymer theory.” Chemtech, 493-4 Jul 27; 364(1526): 1977–1984. (August). Fenichell, Stephen (1996), Plastic: Te Making Taylor, Erika (2010), Conservator’s Corner: of a Synthetic Century, HarperBusiness. Investigating our plastics collection. Fleck, H. R. (1944), Whither Plastics? Te https://maas.museum/inside-the- Possible Uses of Plastics in Industry Science and collection/2010/04/14/conservators-corner- Art, English Universities Press. investigating-our-plastics-collection-2/ MacLachlan, A. (1990), “Polymers: an industrial perspective,” Chemtech, 20, 590.

250 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 251–267. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020251-17

Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in early Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

Barbara J. Gillam FRSN Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Email: [email protected]

Abstract Aboriginal painting has been largely treated as conceptual rather than perceptual and its visual impact little examined. In this article, the author shows the perceptual skill and innovation demonstrated by Aboriginal bark painters in depicting fgure-ground and occlusion. Tis has heuristic value for studying occlusion perception and adds visual meaning to the conceptual meaning of the paintings.

Introduction1 was the success of the Dreamings exhibition boriginal people lived in Australia for at the Asia Society, New York, in 1988. Aover 40,000 years before European set- Australian Aboriginal painting is now tlement in 1788. Tey had a rich ceremonial widely regarded as a serious form of modern culture with beliefs and stories about crea- art (McLean 2011, Petitjean 2010) with a tion, ancestral beings and the land. Tese strong visual impact. Aboriginal writer stories had longstanding visual expression Djon Mundine describes an exhibition he in rock art, body painting and sand drawing. curated in Dusseldorf in 1993 as follows: Beginning in the early 20th century, “Antjara was hung as a visual art show. It Aboriginal people in several locations mini- was supposed to generate a visual-emotional mally afected by European settlement were response; to engage the senses and the imagi- encouraged by anthropologists, missionaries nation” (Mundine 2013). and others to depict their stories in a more Although the visual impact of Aborigi- permanent form. In Arnhem Land, in the nal painting is often mentioned (Tuckson far north of Australia, painters developed an 1964, Ryan 1996, Coleman 2004). it has existing tradition of using natural ochres on received surprisingly little analysis. As Ryan bark stripped from trees, while in the desert says, “most of the writings on Aboriginal art regions of central Australia, acrylic paints … tell us what it is about rather than why it on boards were used. Remarkably, these compels the viewer as great art compels the early paintings aroused international inter- viewer” (Ryan 1996, p. 128). An empha- est among institutions and collectors, not sis on “what it is about” is characteristic of as cultural artifacts but as art. A critical step anthropologists, who study Aboriginal art as an expression of cultural and spiritual themes (Berndt et al. 1982, Sutton 1988, Morphy 2010). In line with their focus on 1 A reprinted version of Barbara Gillam, “Figure- meaning, anthropologists have described Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings,” Leonardo, Vol. 50, No. 3, Aboriginal painting “as having a more heav- pp. 255–267, 2017, reprinted courtesy of Te MIT ily conceptual than perceptual approach to Press.

251 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings representation” (Sutton 1988, p. 36). Simi- this is true, Aboriginal art is nevertheless larly, Morphy, the foremost expert on the art perceptual. It depicts real-world properties of the Yolngu peoples of Eastern Arnhem and relations. Like all art, Aboriginal art Land, says: draws on the responses of the human visual Yolngu, rather than using techniques of system, honed by evolution and experience visual representation to imitate the real- to register properties of the environment ity of the seen, are more concerned with relevant to our species. Cultural factors and conveying the reality of the unseen. In this skill determine just what aspects of visual respect, then, Yolngu art might also be experience are emphasized in any given art deemed more conceptual than perceptual tradition, but all traditions must draw on a (Morphy 2007, p. 88). common repertoire of visual responses, and these go well beyond our ability to perceive Both authors deny that Aboriginal paint- 3D layout from linear perspective. ing is “illusionistic,” by which they seem to Aboriginal painting strongly empha- mean that it does not attempt to create an sizes the ground, which is of paramount illusion of reality. While I fully acknowl- importance for hunter/gatherers. Ground is edge the conceptual and spiritual purpose depicted both on a small and a large (even car- of Aboriginal art, as a psychologist working tographic) scale, but usually as if below rather in visual perception, I also see it as strongly than receding from the observer (Berndt et perceptual in ways I describe here. al. 1982). Not surprisingly, the perceptual Despite stressing the essentially concep- responses Aboriginal painting draws upon are tual nature of Aboriginal painting, anthro- those relating to perceiving fgures, surfaces pologists nevertheless do mention visual fea- and locations (or their symbolic representa- tures.2 To understand the apparent paradox tives) on or in the ground, interacting with here, it is necessary to unpack what is meant one another and often overlapping (partially by “perceptual.” Traditional western art has occluding) one another. Aboriginal paint- tended to depict vistas; scenes receding into ing uses occlusion relations rather than linear the distance as projected to a single view- perspective to depict depth. It may also com- point. To do this, Renaissance artists suc- bine local perceptual efects to create visual cessfully analyzed the mathematics of linear impressions and conjunctions that could not perspective (Alberti 1435). When anthro- exist in the real world. pologists say that Aboriginal art is more con- Here I analyze the depiction of fgure- ceptual than perceptual, they seem to mean ground relations and surface occlusion in that it is not “perspectivistic” — it does not early (mid-20th century) Aboriginal bark attempt to depict the projection of a scene painting from “the classical period” (Sutton from a single viewpoint nor even a single 1988, p. 36). time frame. It does not attempt to simulate Unlike linear perspective, which has a retinal image of the real world. Although received a great deal of attention in the art history literature, the depiction of occlu- 2 Morphy (2007) has drawn attention to the shim- sion, although ubiquitous in painting, is mer produced by rarrk, or cross-hatching, in Yolngu painting, as well as fgure-ground reversals and other surprisingly neglected (Kanizsa & Mas- visual properties to be discussed later. Sutton (1988) sironi 1989). Tese authors attribute this discusses symmetry.

252 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

neglect to a misapprehension that occlusion properties of the two-dimensional represen- relations are cognitive interpretations rather tation to create the impression that one of than immediate perceptual responses (Kah- two adjoining surfaces is the foremost one neman 2002). A similar view may account and thus “owns” the common border and for anthropologists being aware of certain that the other surface does not end at the depictions of fgure/ground relations in Abo- border but extends behind the front surface. riginal painting without considering them How can these impressions be conveyed “perceptual.” in a painting with an immediate phe- Te perceptual problem to be solved by nomenological (perceptual) impression of painters is that an object or surface intended occlusion relations? Tis requires the skilled to appear partially behind another (i.e. par- application of perceptual principles, which tially occluded by it in the feld of view) must have been the subject of scientifc study. accommodate the fact that the two surfaces Tese considerations apply to Aboriginal will often be adjoined in a two-dimensional art, which as I shall show is very concerned representation, sharing a common border. with occlusion and depicts it with consider- In real-world viewing, the depth cues of ste- able sophistication and imagination. Figure 1 reopsis and motion parallax are available to shows some quite early Aboriginal paintings resolve the depth order of surfaces. However, that seem to have occlusion depiction as the a painter (or even a photographer) must use major feature.

a b

Fig. 1. Early bark painting featuring occlusion. (a) Water basket, 1905, 69 × 38.5 × 29 cm, A338, South Australian Museum; (b) David Malangi, Serpent at Gatji waterhole, 1969, 45.1 × 28.9 cm, MCA (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.)

253 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

terson and Salvagio found that if the ground color between c aa c successive convex shapes, like those in Fig. 2c, is varied, the fgural dominance of those shapes is reduced [21]. a Occlusion at T-junctions Figure-ground research examines the shape factors that cause d b one area to take possession of a border and appear as a fgure. b However, shape is not the only factor that infuences appar- dd ent occlusion. Te boundary of an occluding surface ofen cuts of more remote contours forming “T junctions” at the intersection. Te occluding surface edge forms the top of the Ts and the occluded contoursb form the stems (see Fig. 3a) [22,23]. T-junctions become much stronger occlusion cues when the line forming the top of the Ts is curved or when it is not at right angles to the stems [24]. Tis can be seen by comparing Fig. 2. Illustrating some fgure/ground principles. (a) Parallel contours defne Fig. 3a with Figs 3b and 3c, and refects the ecological fact that Fig. 2.fgure; Illustrating modeled after W. Metzger,some Gesetze fgure/ground des Sehens (Frankfurt principles. am Main: an edge cutting of a set of contours is more likely to be an Waldemar Kramer, 1953) pp. 25–32; (b) Binyinyiwuy, Rain snakes, c. 1960, (a) Parallel41.5 × 26.4 contours cm, MCA (© Aboriginal defne Artists fgure; Agency Ltd.); modelled (c) Convex areas after occluding edge if it is unrelated to those contours. We use the tend to form fgures with concave areas forming ground, modeled after terms “orientation contrast”c and “curvature contrast” to refer MetzgerG. Kanizsa (1953); and W. Gerbino, (b) “Convexity Binyinyiwuy, and Symmetry in Figure-Ground Rain snakes , to the cases shown in Figs 3b and 3c, respectively. e Organization,” in M. Henle, ed., Art and Aesthetics (Springer: New York, c. 1960,[1976]) pp.41.5 25–32; ×(d) Faces26.4 and vasecm, alternate MCA as fgure, (© from E.Estate Rubin, of Te sense of occlusion is also stronger for a line when the ArtistSynsoplevede licensed Figurer (Copenhagen: by Aboriginal Gyldendalske, 1915). Artists Agency it forms T-junctions with stems unrelated to each other in orientation, length, separation, etc., having high disorder Ltd.); (c) Convex areas tend to form fgures with [25,26].Fig. For example3. Diferent in Fig. 3d, thearrangements line along the bottom of ofT-junctions. SCiEnTiFiC STuDiES OF OCCluSiOn concave areas forming ground, modelled after the fve(a) shapes “Top” elicits anorthogonal increasingly strong to stems;sense that it(b) is “top” not KanizsaPsychologists & Gerbino have explored (1976, the perception pp 25–32); of occlusion (d) Facesand occluding the shapes as their disorder (entropy) increases. border ownership in three major paradigms: fgure-ground, Tis refectsorthogonal the ecological to factstems; that a set(c) of “top”unrelated curved; objects (d) stems and vaseocclusion alternate at contour as T-junctions fgure, fromand amodal Rubin completion. (1915). are veryare unlikely disordered to be aligned but along with a linear linear edge unlessalignment; that (e) as d Tese each refect perceptual responses to diferent aspects edge is an occluding edge. We refer to this factor as “entropy of the ecological properties of occluding/occluded surfaces. contrast.”but Interestingly, with a “subjective the occlusion in contour.” Fig. 3d can be Basedshown on fgures IScientifc shall frst briefy describeStudies the efects of revealedOcclusion by these para- to be “perceptual”by Gillam rather & thanChan “conceptual” (2002). by the observa- digms, then show how Aboriginal painting uses them, ex- tion [27] that a “subjective” occluding contour appears when Psychologiststends them and have sometimes explored deliberately theviolates perception them. the physical contour is removed (see Fig. 3e). of occlusionFigure-Ground and border ownership in three an area that will increase the likelihood of majorTe paradigms:oldest form of perceived fgure-ground, occlusion studied sciocclusion- it appearing to be the fgure rather than the entifcally is fgure-ground, frst described by the at contourDanish psychologist T-junctions, Edgar Rubin and [19]. amodal Using 2D comple- (back)ground. He found that areas whose drawings, Rubin juxtaposed black and white areas shapes are symmetric, surrounded, predomi- tion.side Tese by side each with common refect borders perceptual between them responses to diferent(see Fig. 2) [20].aspects He explored of the the 2D ecological properties of proper- nantly convex and with parallel sides tend an area that will increase the likelihood of it appear- to be seen as fgure, while adjoining areas ties ofing tooccluding/occluded be the fgure rather than the (back)ground. surfaces. I shall He found that areas whose shapes are symmetric, that are asymmetric, surrounding, nonpar- frst surrounded,briefy describepredominantly the convex efects and with paralrevealed- by theselel paradigms, sides tend to be seen then as fgure, show while how adjoining Aboriginal allel and predominantly concave tend to be areas that are asymmetric, surrounding, nonparal- seen as ground (for examples, see Fig. 2). paintinglel and predominantlyuses them, concave extends tend to them be seen andas some- ground (for examples, see Fig. 2). Te fgure takes Te fgure takes ownership of the common timesownership deliberately of the common violates border and them. has a shape determined by this border. Te adjacent area, hav- border and has a shape determined by this ing lost the border,Figure-Ground appears as background, extend- border. Te adjacent area, having lost the ing behind the area seen as fgure. Te ground does Te notoldest appear to formhave shape of because perceived it is not bounded. occlusion border, appears as background, extending Two adjacent regions with balanced fgural proper- Fig. 3. Different arrangementsbehind of T-junctions. the (a)area “Top” orthogonalseen toas stems; fgure. (b) “top” not Te ground studiedties may scientifcally alternate between fgure is fgure-ground, and ground status orthogonal frst to stems; (c) “top” curved; (d) stems are disordered but with linear alignment; (e) described(see Fig. 2d).by Ofthe relevance Danish to later psychologist discussion, Pe- Edgaras d but with a “subjectivedoes contour.” not Based appear on fgures by toGillam have and Chan shape [25]. because it is not bounded. Two adjacent regions with Rubin (1915). Using 2D drawings,Gillam, Rubin Figure-Ground and Occlusion Depiction in Early Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings 257 juxtaposed black and white areas side by side balanced fgural properties may alternate with common borders between them (see between fgure and ground status (see Fig. Fig. 2).3 He explored the 2D properties of 2d). Of relevance to later discussion, Peter-

3 Figure-ground is a continuing focus of research on mans et al. 2012). Rubin’s principles have been con- perceptual organization. (For a summary, see Wage- frmed and others added (e.g. Palmer & Ghose 2008).

254 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings a b

Fig. 4. Paintings from Central Arnhem Land. (a) Dawidi, Dhalngurr, 1967, 54 × 78 cm, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.); (b) David Malangi, Te Hunter’s Tree — Gurrmirringu, Ancestor, 1965, 106 × 68.2 cm, State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.). son & Salvagio (2008) found that if the form the stems (see Fig. 3a) (Ratoosh 1949, ground colour between successive convex Rubin 2001). shapes, like those in Fig. 2c, is varied, the T-junctions become much stronger occlu- fgures dominance of those shapes is reduced. sion cues when the line forming the top of the Ts is curved or when it is not at right Occlusion at T-junctions angles to the stems (Gillam et al. 2014). Tis Figure-ground research examines the shape can be seen by comparing Fig. 3a with Figs factors that cause one area to take possession 3b and 3c, and refects the ecological fact of a border and appear as a fgure. However, that an edge cutting of a set of contours shape is not the only factor that infuences is more likely to be an occluding edge if it apparent occlusion. Te boundary of an is unrelated to those contours. We use the occluding surface often cuts of more remote terms “orientation contrast” and “curvature contours forming “T junctions” at the inter- contrast” to refer to the cases shown in Figs section. Te occluding surface edge forms 3b and 3c, respectively. the top of the Ts and the occluded contours

255 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

Te sense of occlusion is also stronger Paintings with Minimal Occlusion for a line when it forms T-junctions with A number of early bark paintings, espe- stems unrelated to each other in orienta- cially those from Western Arnhem Land, tion, length, separation, etc., having high depict either a single fgure or a number disorder (Gillam & Chan 2002, Gillam & of separated fgures on a single homogene- Grove 2011) For example in Fig. 3d, the line ous ground (see supplemental Appendix 1; along the bottom of the fve shapes elicits an appendixes provided with online version increasingly strong sense that it is occlud- of this article4). Overlap is almost entirely ing the shapes as their disorder (entropy) avoided in this tradition, which seems to increases. Tis refects the ecological fact that be infuenced by the rock art common in a set of unrelated objects are very unlikely Western Arnhem Land. Because these paint- to be aligned along a linear edge unless that ings show little juxtaposition of surfaces or edge is an occluding edge. We refer to this overlap, they are of limited interest for the factor as “entropy contrast.” Interestingly, study of occlusion. the occlusion in Fig. 3d can be shown to be Central Arnhem Land painters often cover “perceptual” rather than “conceptual” by the the entire feld with luxuriant details form- observation (Gillam & Chan 2002) that a ing a complex, integrated organization with “subjective” occluding contour appears when very little background visible. In the exam- the physical contour is removed (see Fig. 3e). ples shown in Fig. 4, the contours of one Amodal Completion and Relatability form often follow the contours of another, so that there is minimal overlap. Tere are Another common visual outcome of occlu- nevertheless subtle occlusion efects. In Fig. sion is that contours cut of by an occluding 4a, by Dawidi, a snake fgure appears to bend surface often continue on its other side. Such out of and back into the picture, with its a continuation is usually accompanied by head becoming a sacred cabbage palm. Te “amodal completion” or the apparent con- powerful sense that the palm is occluding tinuation of the interrupted contours behind something behind it is (unusually) based the apparently occluding surface, even on its perspective bending rather than on though the continuation is not sensorially T-junctions. Figure 4b, by David Malangi, present (Michotte et al. 1964). Amodal com- is discussed by art historian Nigel Lendon, pletion requires the two disjointed elements who points out the role of the tree as struc- to be “relatable” (joinable by an uninfected tural architecture and the presence of multi- curve) (Kellman & Shipley 1991). ple vantage points in the painting, with some Occlusion in Bark Paintings of fgures depicted in plane and some in eleva- Arnhem Land tion (Lendon 2004). Overlapping features, which Lendon also mentions, seem sparse, Aboriginal bark painting has used all the although the thin white occluding vine with principles described in the previous sections its curvature contrast, reinforces and softens to varying degrees. Its interest for vision the rigid structural architecture of the tree. science derives from the innovative ways Te subtle occlusion in this painting con- fgure/ground and occlusion are depicted and manipulated to serve narrative and sym- 4 See the issue web page, at https://royalsoc.org.au/ bolic purposes. council-members-section/436-v152-2

256 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings trasts with the much bolder occlusion in Figure 5b shows one of Mawalan’s paint- the snake painting shown in Fig. 1b, also ings incorporating the Dhuwa clan design. by Malangi. On the left panel, the horizontal strips appear to occlude the vertical strips based on Eastern Arnhem Land; Incorporating T-junctions and a degree of entropy contrast Clan Designs (the stems of the Ts outline surfaces with a Te painting of the Yolngu people of Eastern variety of shapes that are cut of by a single Arnhem Land is particularly conducive to linear contour). Te goanna (lizard) on the occlusion manipulation, because of its use right panel is seen as occluding the back- of clan designs. Tese are repeating geomet- ground strips, based on curvature contrast, ric patterns, which often form backgrounds convexity and the relatability of the horizon- as well as standing for a variety of features tal contours across its body, giving a sense such as fre, sand hills or water. Te two of amodal completion. Interestingly, the best-known clan designs are associated with winding fgure on the middle panel, which diferent Yolngu kin groups, or moieties. Te represents the goanna’s track, also appears to pattern of alternating vertical and horizontal occlude the background strips, even though strips is associated with the Dhuwa moiety they are not relatable across it. Curvature (Fig. 5b), while the diamond-shaped honey contrast between track and strips seems design is associated with the Yirritja moiety sufcient here to support the perception of (Fig. 5a). Te honey design is especially con- occlusion without amodal completion. ducive to fgure-ground reversal. For exam- Figure 6a, painted in 1946, is a more ple, on the upper left of Fig. 5a, the black abstract painting in which vertical and diamonds alternate as fgure with the lighter horizontal strips are in a complex arrange- hourglass shapes. ment of textures and layers maintaining the All three aspects of occlusion perception orthogonal relationships of the clan design. studied by psychologists (fgure-ground, It is difcult to imagine that Mawalan was contour junctions and amodal completion) not thinking of perceptual as well as nar- play a role in the seminal paintings of Yolngu rative efects when arranging the textures painter Mawalan Marika (circa 1908–1967) and geometries for this picture. Te whole of the Dhuwa moiety. Tese factors will be composition gives an impression of complex discussed as they are used complementarily depth layering based on nested T-junctions. to create occlusion efects in a chronologi- Mawalan’s work in Fig. 6b, from 1948, is a cal succession of his paintings from 1941 tour de force of occlusion efects. It includes up to 1958. Other paintings by Yolngu art- many examples of the clan design, largely ists will be introduced where relevant. Of using nonorthogonal components, so that particular interest for perceptual psychol- orientation contrast adds a strong additional ogy are the cases where Mawalan and others sense of occlusion. Furthermore, the snakes manipulate or violate the known “principles” are perfect for giving a sense of occlusion of fgure and ground. In some cases, the fg- by curvature contrast, since they are seen ureground impression nevertheless survives, against backgrounds of linear contours. Tey while in other cases it seems to be deliber- also terminate a variety of contours, with ately destroyed. entropy contrast enhancing the sense of

257 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

a b

Fig. 5. Two major Yolngu clan designs (Eastern Arnhem Land). (a) Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, Lany’tjung story (Crocodile and Bandicoot), 1959, 193 × 72 cm, AGNSW (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.); (b) Mawalan Marika, Djang ’kawu at Yalangbara, 1941, 102 × 53cm, Australian Museum (© Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency). Note fgure-ground reversal. occlusion. But the really interesting inno- Te snakes in Fig. 6b suggest another vation is the presence of nested occlusions novel perceptual efect. Tey are starkly (up to four layers of contours superimposed black against a patterned surround. Tis on each other by a succession of orientation gives them a sinister ambiguity, suggestive contrasts [see lower left]). Tis produces not of either a fgure or a hole or both at once. only a very strong impression of occlusion Figure 7a, by Gimindjo, shows even more but also considerable depth. clearly the tendency of a black region within

258 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings a b

Fig. 6. Paintings by Marika with strong occlusion features. (a) Mawalan Marika, Yalanbara, 1946, 45 × 45 cm, Macleay Museum (© Mawalan Marika/ Copyright Agency); (b) Mawalan Marika, Te Wagilag Sisters, 1948, 56 × 42 cm, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (© Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency a context of texture to appear as a hole. Te fgure and ground. Te necks and tails of the hole has considerable visual depth, presum- goannas merge into the background strips. ably because of its lack of surface quality in Tis is clearly symbolic of the belongingness contrast with the patterning of the surround- of the goanna to the land and perhaps its ing ground. Gimindjo’s painting also illus- tendency to be at least partially camoufaged trates another feature of a number of bark by it. Te goanna was also a clan totem for paintings. Te orientations of the bands of Mawalan. Morphy describes other examples texture next to the snake change their angle of Yolngu painting in which fgures merge systematically around its curved outline, with a design or become absorbed into it by as if dragged around by the snake’s move- buwayak, or the process of becoming invisi- ment. Figure 7b, by Mawalan, shows similar ble, for example by reproduction of the same changes in the orientations of background design within the body of the fgure and in contours associated with the snake’s chang- the background outside (Morphy 2007). ing curvature. In both cases, the lack of inde- A much later picture by Mawalan, Hunt- pendence of the fgure (the snake) and the ing Scene (1959) (Fig. 8b), depicts animals pattern surrounding it militate against seeing on various backgrounds. It is interesting that occlusion by orientation contrast, although the scenes with bufaloes, which are intro- curvature contrast and texture diferences are duced animals, have chaotic backgrounds, still present. Appendix 2 shows more exam- while the scenes with native animals have ples of fgure infuencing ground. backgrounds that are more calm and orderly. Another Mawalan painting (Fig. 8a) Tis may be symbolic. Te bufaloes are shows another kind of relationship between dangerous and disruptive in the context of

259 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

b

a

Fig. 7. Paintings in which the fgure infuences the ground. (a) Gimindjo, Te Gadadangul snake, 1960, 68.6 × 46 cm, MCA (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.); (b) Mawalan Marika, Wagilag Creation Story, 1966, 116 × 40 cm. Courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art (© Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency).

260 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

a b

Fig. 8. Further paintings by Marika. (a) Mawalan Marika, Goannas at Yalangbara, 1959, 73.98 × 40.64 cm, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (© Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency); (b) Mawalan Marika, Bark painting (hunting scene), 1959, 102.9 × 62.3 cm, AGNSW (© Mawalan Marika/Copyright Agency). Panels with introduced animals (top right and bottom left) have chaotic backgrounds. Panels with native animals (top left and bottom right) have orderly backgrounds.

Aboriginal life and, unlike the native ani- other). Clearly parallelism and convexity mals, move roughly across the terrain. Te are sufcient here to support fgure without painting has another interesting detail. Te continuity of background. snakes on the upper left appear as fgure, A later painting by Mawalan, Tribesmen while the irregular regions between them at Sea and Land (Fig. 9a), is very diferent appear as ground, providing another exam- from his earlier paintings in that it totally ple of E. Rubin’s fgural principle of paral- disrupts fgure and ground relations. Te lelism (Rubin 2001). Te goannas, sharks many and varied fgures of people, boats and and snake in the panel at the bottom left spears are strewn across the painting at vari- all appear strongly as fgures, even though ous orientations. Tey do not occlude each the background changes its contrast polarity other and are all the same light brown color. behind them (i.e. the background is darker However, the background is not homoge- on one side of the fgure and lighter on the neous as in earlier traditions of depicting

261 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings a b

Fig. 9. Paintings with deliberately disordered ground. (a) Mawalan Marika, Tribesmen at sea and land, 1958, 101.4 × 58 cm, MCA (© Mawalan MarikaCopyright Agency); (b) Munggurrawuy Yunupingu, Creation story, 1970, 156 × 65 cm, NMWC, Utrecht (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.). multiple fgures demonstrated in Appendix be related to the efect of ground inhomo- 1. It is a chaotic mixture of irregular patches geneity shown in their (much later) studies. of black, dark brown and white with some Figure 9b shows a less dramatic example of patches attached to the fgures and some not. the background disorder efect, also by a Te fgures only become obvious after local Yolngu painter. scrutiny. By destroying the homogeneity of Layering in Aboriginal Bark Painting the ground, Mawalan has demonstrated a major advantage of a homogeneous ground An important feature of certain Western and in the depiction of a scene: It allows multiple Central Arnhem Land bark painting is the fgures to be seen more or less in parallel. segregation of texture into two layers. Tis Although Mawalan fgures and patches of efect occurs as early as 1937 in a work by ground are much more varied in shape, size Yilkari Katani (Fig. 10). An arrangement and orientation than those used by Peterson of thin lines is superimposed on a coarser and Salvagio (2008), his disorder efect may texture of crosshatched alternating dark

262 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

a form of what Morphy (2011) refers to as “buwayak” in which low luminance contrast produces a ghostly appearance appropriate to the depiction of sacred ceremony and ancestral beings. Figure 11a, a much later painting by Katani, uses these combined efects to depict the Mayadin ceremony. Te beings outlined by the thin lines tend to look transparent as well as ghostly so long as their inner texture has the same spatial frequency as the background. Te central snake on the other hand looks ghostly without appearing transparent because it has a diferent spatial frequency from the background. Te rain- bow snake (Fig. 11b) by Mawurndjul shows a similar ghostly efect within a single fgure, with the snake’s internal outlines barely vis- ible against a coarser cross-hatched texture. Mawurndjul is a master at depicting ances- tral beings and ceremonies. In his painting in Appendix 5A the outlines of the rainbow snake are again almost camoufaged by lack of luminance contrast with the back- ground of broader cross-hatching. One of the yawkyawk girls of the title (these are one such being) is partly absorbed within the snake by their common texture. Appendix Fig. 10. Yilkari Katani, Wagilag Sisters Dhawu, 4B shows Mawurndjul painting his version 1937, 126 × 68.5 cm, Donald Tomson Collection (© Albert Djiwada) of the Mayadin ceremony, with layering but without the ghostly efect of Katani’s version and light areas. Te patterns appear to seg- (Fig. 11a), because of strong luminance con- regate into two layers, with the fne lines trast between the layers. appearing as a nearer grid through which Occlusion Depiction with a Strong the coarser pattern can be seen. Appendix Conceptual Purpose 4 shows later, more compelling examples of Figure 12a is another painting by Malangi, segregation into layers. John Mawurndjul’s in which he manipulates fgure and ground painting (Appendix 3a), by comparison with to create a polysemic efect. Te pelican on Yirawala’s (Appendix 3), suggests that segre- the lower left is seen against a land back- gation is enhanced when the coarser grid is ground above and a sea background below. relatable across the contours of the fne grid. Te background behind the fgure changes A later development enhances the spir- for a semantic purpose without destroying itual efect of layering by combining it with its fgural status perceptually.

263 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings a b

Fig. 11. Te fne/coarse layering efect combined with low luminance contrast to depict ancestral beings. (a) Yilkari Katani, Myth of the Wawilak Sisters, before 1957, 39 × 78 cm, Museum der Kulturen, Basel (© Va 905); (b) John Mawurndjul, Ngalyod — the rainbow serpent, 1985, 125 × 59 cm, AGNSW (© John Mawurndjul/Copyright Agency).

Figure 12b by Djunmal (1966) depicts the moeties is fully modal, while the upper forms of communication between the two and lower crossings are amodal, with per- moieties of the Yolngu people of eastern ceived completion occurring on the basis of Arnhem Land and includes a rich mixture contour relatability (despite a lack of texture of occlusion efects. To the left is the clan relatability). Tese diferent forms of con- design of the Yirritja moiety and to the nection suggest both fully public and more right the design of the Dhuwa moiety. Te private forms of communication between middle crossing of the vertical strip dividing the moieties.

264 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings a b

Fig. 12. Paintings in which conceptual meaning is linked to occlusion relationships. (See text for interpretations.) (a) David Malangi, Te time of the dream, 1965, 70.5 × 57 cm, MCA (© Estate of the Artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.); (b) Djunmal, Te Djan’kava cross back to the mainland, 1966, 187 × 54.5 cm (© Estate of the artist licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency Ltd.) Courtesy National Museum of Australia; (c) Jimmy Wululu, Niwuda, Yirritja native honey, 1986, 144 × 60 cm, NGA (© Jimmy Wululu/Copyright Agency).

Figure 12c by Wululu depicts the honey cells of his clan design but also refers at another level to a post-funeral ceremony in diagonal passes in front of the column partly which the bones of the deceased are placed occluding it. Tese efects both depend on in a painted hollow log (depicted verti- T-junctions and relatability. Arranging the cally in the centre of the painting) while edges of the diagonals to be in line with the the soul enters the ancestral realm (Cubillo diamonds within the column creates a cer- & Caruana 2010). One diagonal passes tain tension between perceiving occlusion behind the centre column, while the other and non-occlusion. Te carefully organized

265 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings c efects, such as changing ground, disruption of ground, nested occlusions and texture lay- ering, are explored. Although this was not their purpose, these paintings, like Rubin’s (2001) demonstrations, have considerable heuristic value for scientists interested in the perception of occlusion. I have also pointed to possible concep- tual meanings specifcally associated with the depiction of fgure-ground and occlusion and their disruption. Even if one’s interest in Aboriginal art is solely conceptual, a greater awareness of its visual meaning should enhance this appreciation. Acknowledgements I thank Marilyn Wise and Michael Bell for help with the fgures; Mary Peterson, Mari- lyn Wise and two anonymous referees for comments on the MS; Howard Morphy for encouraging me to pursue this project; and Katja Heath for invaluable help in editing and organizing permissions and copyright. Te copyright agencies and galleries and museums have generously waived fees for this reprint. References Alberti, L.B., (1435) Della Pittura, translated by John R. Spencer, On Painting (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, 1956). Berndt, R.M., Berndt, C.H., & Stanton, J.E. (1982) Aboriginal Art: A Visual Perspective (Methuen). spatial relationships in this painting (char- Coleman, E., (2004) “Appreciating ‘traditional’ Aboriginal art aesthetically,” Journal of acteristic of Wululu) undoubtedly relate to Aesthetics and Art Criticism 62, No. 3, its ceremonial meaning. 235–247. Cubillo, F., & Caruana, W., eds. (2010) Conclusion Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art: Figure-ground and occlusion are skillfully Collection Highlights (Canberra, National depicted in Aboriginal bark painting. Per- Gallery of Australia). ceptual principles known to psychologists, Gillam, B.J. (2017) “Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in early Australian such as convexity, parallelism and contrast, Aboriginal bark paintings,” Leonardo, 50, No. are used in interesting ways, while novel 3, pp. 255–267.

266 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Gillam — Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in Australian Aboriginal bark paintings

Gillam, B.J., & Chan, W.-M. (2002) Morphy, H. (2007) Becoming Art: Exploring “Grouping has a negative efect on both Cross-Cultural Categories (Oxford: Berg subjective contours and perceived occlusion Publishers). at T-junctions,” Psychological Science 13, No. Morphy, H. (2011) “Documentation of 3, pp. 279–283. works of art,” in Larrakitj: Te Kerry Stokes Gillam, B.J., & Grove, P.M. (2011) “Contour Collection (W. Perth: Australian Capital Entropy: a new determinant of perceiving Equity Pty Ltd.). ground or a hole,” Journal of Experimental Mundine, D. (2013), “Ich bin ein Anatjara: Psychology: Human Perception and twenty years later,” Artlink Indigenous 13, No. Performance 37, pp. 750–757. 2, p. 52. Gillam, B.J., Wardle, S.G., & Vecellio, E. Palmer, S.E., & Ghose, T. (2008) “Extremal (2014) “Orientation contrast and entropy edges: a powerful cue to depth and fgure- contrast in the genesis of subjective contours ground organization,” Psychological Science 19, along thin lines,” Perception 43, pp. 7–22. pp. 77–84. Kahneman, D. (2002) “Maps of bounded Peterson, M.A., & Salvagio, E. (2008) rationality,” from Nobel Prize Oration. “Inhibitory competition in fgure-ground Cognition is slow and deliberate compared to perception: context and convexity,” Journal of perception, which is immediate and efortless. Vision 8, No. 16 pp. 1–13. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic- Petitjean, G. (2010) Contemporary Aboriginal sciences/2002/kahneman/lecture/ Art: Te AAMU and Dutch Collections Kanizsa, G., & Gerbino, W. (1976) (Utrecht: National Museum of World “Convexity and symmetry in fgure-ground Culture NMWC). organization,” in M. Henle, ed., Art and Ratoosh, P. (1949) “On interposition as a cue Aesthetics (Springer: New York) pp. 25–32. for the perception of distance,” Proceedings Kanizsa, G., & Massironi, M. (1989) of the National Academy of Science 35, pp. “Presenza amodale e integrazione mentale 257–259. nella rappresentazione pittorica,” in A. Garau, Rubin, E. (1915) Synsoplevede Figurer ed., Pensiero evisione in Rudolf Arnheim (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske). (Milan: Franco Angeli) pp. 134–162. Rubin, N. (2001) “Te role of junctions in the Kellman, P., & Shipley, T.A. (1991) “A theory perception of surface completion and contour of visual interpolation in object perception,” matching,” Perception 30, pp. 339–366. Cognitive Psychology 23, pp. 141–221. Sutton, P. (1988) “Responding to Aboriginal Lendon, N. (2004) “Innovation and its art,” in P. Sutton, ed., Dreamings: Te Art meanings,” in No Ordinary Place: Te Art of of Aboriginal Australia (New York: Georges David Malangi (Canberra: National Gallery Braziller) pp. 36–37. of Australia) pp. 52–58. Tuckson, T. (1964) “Seeing Aboriginal art as McLean, I. ed. (2011) How Aborigines Invented art,” in McLean (2011), p. 81. the Idea of Contemporary Art: Writings on Wagemans, J., Elder, J. H., Kubovy, M., Aboriginal Contemporary Art (Brisbane: Palmer, S. E., Peterson, M. A., Singh, M. Institute of Modern Art). & von der Heydt, R. (2012) “A century Metzger, W. (1953) Gesetze des Sehens of Gestalt Psychology in visual perception (Frankfurt am Main: Waldemar Kramer) 1. Perceptual grouping and fgure-ground Michotte, A., Tinès, G., & Crabbe, G. (1964) organization,” Psychological Bulletin 138, No. “Amodal completion of perceptual structures” 6, 1172–1217. in G. Tinès & A. Costall, eds., Michotte’s Experimental Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge, 2013) pp. 140–166.

267 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, p. 268. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020268-01

Tesis abstract

Efcient Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for large data sets by data subsampling

Doan Khue Dung Dang Abstract of a thesis for a Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to Te University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

ayesian statistics carries out inference in several model settings. Te fnal contri- Babout the unknown parameters in a bution shows that the subsampling HMC statistical model using their posterior dis- scheme can also be applied to a thermody- tribution, which in many cases is computa- namic integration method to estimate the tionally intractable. Terefore, simulation marginal likelihood. methods such as Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Sequential Monte Dr. Doan Khue Dung Dang Carlo (SMC) are frequently used to approxi- mate the posterior distribution. SMC has E-mail: [email protected] the attractive ability to accurately estimate the marginal likelihood, although it is com- URL: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ putationally more expensive than MCMC. ynlqve0z84tqasz/thesis_2.pdf Nevertheless, both methods require efcient Markov moves to deal with complex, high- dimensional problems. While Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) is a remedy in many cases, it also increases the computational cost of the algorithms appreciably, espe- cially for large data sets. Tis thesis presents some novel methods that focus on speed- ing up inference by combining HMC and data subsampling. Te frst contribution is a Metropolis-within-Gibbs algorithm that successfully speeds up standard HMC by orders of magnitude in two large data exam- ples. I then show that the new approach can be incorporated into other HMC implemen- tations such as the No-U-Turn sampler. Te next contribution is an extension of the frst method to SMC for Bayesian static models, which gives comparable results to full data SMC in terms of accuracy but is much faster

268 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, p. 269. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020269-01

Tesis abstract

First impressions bias on sound sequence learning on multiple timescales: an order-driven phenomenon in auditory mismatch negativity

Jade D. Frost Abstract of a thesis for a Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to Te University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

umans are prone to systematic biases require engagement of additional, higher- Hin perception that impact rationality order resources. First-impression bias shows in judgement. First-impression bias occurs that the network uses contextual information when judgement is overly afected by infor- at sound sequence onset to modulate MMN mation presented during an initial encoun- amplitude to probabilistic changes thereafter. ter. Using the amplitude of a specifc brain Our data show that frst-impression bias is a response, the mismatch negativity (MMN), remarkably robust and long-lasting phenom- our team discovered that the brain is prone enon that can be interrupted if participants to this bias efect during the very early stages undertake an attention-demanding task of sound-sequence learning preceding know- whilst hearing multi-timescale sequences or ing awareness. In our research program, we are provided with accurate foreknowledge aim to determine which experimental condi- about sound structures before sequence tions expose or modify frst-impression bias exposure. In interpreting these data, we dis- efects on sound-pattern learning on mul- cuss how models assuming only local sound tiple timescales. Predictive coding models probabilistic information drives the MMN- assume the brain is hierarchically organised generating process cannot explain bias efects and uses perception to make inferences about on MMN amplitude. Rather, the bias is a the sensory world whilst updating predic- striking example of a hierarchical inference tions about incoming sensory information. process incorporating attentional resources Recurring comparisons between bottom-up that considers the potential relevance of input and top-down predictions consider sound information and its stability over time. environmental noise, and determine the inferential modelling process. MMN, an Dr Jade Frost event-related response evoked by violating Faculty of Science regularity in a structured sound sequence, is Te University of Newcastle an example of a prediction error signal. Its Callaghan NSW 2308 presence informs on prediction model con- AUSTRALIA tent whereas its amplitude informs on model confdence (or precision). Prediction error E-mail: [email protected] amplitude to a pattern violation is largest when model confdence is very high and may URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1387378

269 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 270–272. ISSN 0035-9173/19/02270-03

Tesis abstract

Te rôle of mitochondrial DNA in the post-injury infammatory response following major trauma

Daniel McIlroy Abstract of a thesis for a Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to Te University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

rauma is the leading cause of death in Te primary aim of this thesis was to Tthe developed world in those aged under characterise the efect of post-injury non- 45 years. Te main potentially modifable life saving orthopaedic surgery on circulat- cause of late death after injury is post-injury ing mtDNA levels. No study had looked multiple organ failure (MOF). Early MOF at the efect of surgical intervention on is characterised by a lethal combination of levels of mtDNA after initial injury and systemic infammatory response syndrome possible sources of mtDNA release. Ini- (SIRS) which is underpinned by neutrophil tially a pilot study of 35 trauma patients proliferation and “priming” as a result of who subsequently underwent orthopaedic the initial injury and haemorrhagic shock. surgery was performed, primarily measur- If primed neutrophils are then exposed to a ing cell-free mtDNA and nuclear DNA “second hit” then dysregulated neutrophil- (nDNA) with sequential plasma measure- driven infammation can occur, resulting ments over a 5-day perioperative period with in end organ sequestration, parenchymal comparison to 20 healthy control subjects. damage, MOF and ultimately death. Interest mtDNA levels continued to rise over the has increased in endogenous drivers of the 5-day observation period following surgery innate immune system that exert a potent and had no correlation to markers of cell- pro-infammatory efect by activating patho- necrosis either in the form of direct muscu- gen recognition receptors (PRRs), which are loskeletal injury, or secondary infammatory designed to respond to pathogen associated end organ injury. Whilst nDNA levels were molecular patterns (PAMPs) found in bac- elevated when compared to healthy con- teria. Endogenous factors that can trigger trols, no increase was observed in the 5-day this response in the absence of sepsis have observation period. Elevated mtDNA perio- been termed “alarmins” or damage associ- perative levels were directly correlated with ated molecular patterns (DAMPs). Mito- the magnitude and early timing of surgical chondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a potently pro- intervention. mtDNA levels were inversely infammatory DAMP, which has been found proportional to the volume of crystalloid to be highly elevated in the post-injury state. infused, indicating a possible rôle for ade- Mitochondrial DAMPs have also been asso- quate resuscitation in modulating circulat- ciated with neutrophil-mediated end organ ing mtDNA levels. A positive trend between injury. mtDNA levels and incidence of post-injury SIRS and MOF was observed, but this failed

270 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales McIlroy — Te rôle of mitochondrial DNA in post-injury infammatory response to reach statistical signifcance. Tis led to that mtDNA might trigger NETosis through the genesis of the hypothesis that the per- a PRR mediated pathway. In the next paper sistently elevated mtDNA levels may have we studied the efect of exposing healthy a primary infammatory source. neutrophils and post-injury perioperative Te secondary aims of this thesis were neutrophils to physiological concentrations threefold. Firstly, to determine whether of mtDNA we had measured in our initial there was a primary infammatory source of pilot over the 5-day observation period. We mtDNA, namely focusing on possible neu- then conducted a series of positive control trophil extracellular trap (NET) formation experiments using phorbol myrisate ace- or “NETosis”. Secondly, to determine what tate (PMA), a known potent stimulator of factors may propagate and infuence mtDNA NETosis. NETs were triggered after trauma release. Finally, to investigate mechanisms and healthy neutrophils were exposed to for modulating circulating mtDNA levels mtDNA. Notably the NETs formed in following injury and subsequent surgery by response to mtDNA were mtDNA-NETs in looking at DNase activity. NETosis is char- both trauma and healthy neutrophils, how- acterised by the release of chromatin in con- ever trauma neutrophils were less responsive formational net-like structures in response compared to healthy control neutrophils. to sepsis, however some authors had shown Tis observation was thought to be possi- that under certain conditions NETs could bly due to the exposure of trauma neutro- be composed of mtDNA (mtDNA-NETs). phils to high levels of mtDNA after injury Te next study performed focused on dem- and surgery causing prior mtDNA-NET onstrating whether NETs were formed after production. NETs formed in response to injury and subsequent surgery and what type PMA exposure were composed almost exclu- of DNA they were composed of. Te pres- sively of nDNA (nDNA-NETs). Finally, ence of NETs had been postulated after trau- we studied the plasma activity of DNase matic injury by one group based on observed alongside mtDNA and nDNA concentra- high concentrations of cell-free DNA but tions in a much larger cohort of trauma they failed to defne any microscopic evi- patients (n=103) compared to our initial dence of NET formation. In our next paper pilot (n=35). Circulating DNase isotypes we defnitively demonstrated that NETs were are responsible for the digestion of extracel- formed after injury and subsequent surgery lular DNA whether mtDNA or nDNA and and also in response to elective orthopaedic also digest NETs. DNase activity was signif- hip replacement surgery. Tis was achieved cantly reduced compared to that measured microscopically using fuorescent DNA avid in healthy controls. Tis greater powered dyes to demonstrate the presence of confor- study did reveal a statistically signifcant mational DNA-NET structures. Molecu- positive correlation between perioperative lar genetic analysis of the NETs formed in mtDNA levels and SIRS but not MOF, response to injury and subsequent surgery or despite a strong trend. in response to elective surgery alone revealed Our data suggest that after traumatic that the NETs were mtDNA-NETs. Due to injury, the timing/magnitude of surgery molecular similarities between mtDNA and and adequacy of resuscitation infuence bacterial DNA (bDNA) we hypothesised the levels of circulating mtDNA. Neutro-

271 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales McIlroy — Te rôle of mitochondrial DNA in post-injury infammatory response phils contribute a signifcant amount of the potential administration of exogenous mtDNA through mtDNA-NET formation DNase in the post-injury and peri-operative in the post-injury and perioperative period. recovery period. mtDNA can essentially drive its own release through a positive feedback loop. Tis Dr Daniel McIlroy occurs through circulating mtDNA trigger- Faculty of Health and Medicine ing further mtDNA-NET release, resulting Te University of Newcastle in a vicious cycle of dysregulated infam- Callaghan NSW 2308 mation and associated SIRS with a likely AUSTRALIA link to post-injury MOF. Most excitingly the fnding of reduced DNase levels in the E-mail: [email protected] face of high mtDNA levels. Tis may ofer up a novel therapeutic target for modula- URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1389042 tion of aggressive post-injury SIRS, through

272 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 273–274. ISSN 0035-9173/19/02273-02

Tesis abstract

On “being frst:” reconsidering Australian higher education equity policy through a comprehensive analysis of the aspirations of prospective frst-in-family students

Sally Patfeld Abstract of a thesis for a Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to Te University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

n the pursuit of greater equity and methods study augments policy interest in Iexpanded access to higher education, a school students’ aspirations, as part of the discourse of widening participation has widening participation agenda, by focusing been foregrounded within the Australian on prospective FiF students (aged 8–18 years) higher-education sector in recent decades. enrolled in primary and secondary govern- Tis agenda has largely focused on moving ment schools in New South Wales. Moving towards proportional representation for six beyond the simplistic notion of “raising aspi- equity target groups that have been inscribed rations” that has been embedded within this within policy for more than 25 years: people agenda, a sociological lens was used to frame from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, the study, with Arjun Appadurai’s theory of people from regional and remote areas, the “capacity to aspire” and Pierre Bourdieu’s people with disabilities, people from non- concepts of “capital,” “habitus,” and “feld” English-speaking backgrounds, women in utilised to develop a theoretically informed non-traditional areas of study, and Indig- understanding of access to higher education enous people. While the higher-education for prospective FiF students. Quantitative landscape has transformed over this period, data in the form of annual online surveys these groups remain core to conceptualisa- completed by students (n = 6,492; catego- tions of equity within policy and practice, rised as prospective FiF or non-FiF) from 64 fundamentally shaping how educational ine- schools were linked with socio-demographic qualities can — and should —be addressed. and prior academic achievement records, in Tis thesis contributes to current debates order to establish a portrait of prospective calling for reform of the national higher- FiF students and their educational aspira- education equity framework by investigating tions. Qualitative data in the form of focus a group of students who have received com- groups conducted in a subsample of 30 paratively little attention within the widen- schools were utilised to gain a deeper under- ing participation agenda and the Austral- standing of the formation of aspirations for ian context more broadly — students who university among prospective FiF students would be “frst in family” (FiF) to hold a (n = 198). university-level qualifcation. Drawing on Collectively, these data challenge exist- data collected as part of a four-year longi- ing policy by showing that FiF status con- tudinal project (2012–2015), this mixed- stitutes a distinct equity category. While my

273 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Patfeld — On “being frst” analysis demonstrated that many prospec- existing equity categorisations. My study tive FiF students had overlapping socio- draws attention to ways in which school demographic characteristics with one, or a students who are “frst” in their families to number of, the existing equity target groups, pursue higher education may need extra sup- FiF status did not simply overlap these cat- port. Greater recognition of this population egories. Specifcally, prospective FiF students of students must not only occur once they were more likely to identify as Indigenous have arrived at university, but also during the and come from lower socioeconomic status period of early aspiration formation over the backgrounds in comparison to their non- course of primary and secondary schooling. FiF peers. However, FiF students were more My study brings to light this period as an likely to come from English-speaking back- important juncture for supporting prospec- grounds, which is in contrast to the equity tive FiF students, with schools and universi- policy focus on students from language ties playing a critical role in informing, nur- backgrounds other than English. In addi- turing, and resourcing aspirations, and thus tion, some prospective FiF students did not facilitating pathways into higher education. ft into any of the existing equity categories at all. Dr Sally Patfeld Moreover, my analysis illuminated the Faculty of Education and Arts nature of FiF status beyond its relation- Te University of Newcastle ship with the existing equity target groups. Callaghan NSW 2308 Overall, non-FiF students were more likely AUSTRALIA to aspire to university in comparison to prospective FiF students at all year levels E-mail: [email protected] covered in the study (Years 3–12 inclusive), even when taking into account factors such URL: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1388189 as those defning the existing equity groups, and measures of academic achievement. Many of the prospective FiF students who aspired to university faced limited access to knowledge of higher education within their families, with their parents imparting sup- port and advice through the promotion of values and attitudes. In addition, the capac- ity to aspire to higher education varied among prospective FiF students depending on the capital they could access and deploy via their familial and non-familial networks, which in turn brought some students closer to higher education. Given this analysis, I argue that FiF status should be recognised within higher-educa- tion policy and practice as discrete from the

274 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, p. 275. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020275-01

Tesis abstract

Quantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride

Trong Toan Tran Abstract of a thesis for a Doctorate of Philosophy submitted to University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

ealization of quantum technologies Dr Trong Toan Tran, Rdemands successful assembly of cru- School of Mathematical and Physical Sci- cial building blocks. Quantum light sources, ences, lying at the heart of this architecture, have Faculty of Science, attracted a great deal of research focus University of Technology Sydney, during the last several decades. Optically Sydney NSW 2007 active defect-based centres in wide band- AUSTRALIA gap materials such as diamond and silicon carbide have been proven to be excellent E-mail: [email protected] candidates due to their high brightness and photostability. Integration of quantum emit- URL: https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/ ters on an on-chip integrated circuit, how- handle/10453/125170 ever, favours low dimensionality of the host materials. In this thesis, we introduce a class of novel quantum systems hosted in hexago- nal boron nitride (hBN) — a wide bandgap semiconductor in the two-dimensional limit. We demonstrate that the quantum systems possess a record high single photon count rate, exceeding 4 megahertz at room tem- perature, extremely high stability under high excitation at ambient conditions, and fully linear polarized emission. Spin-resolved den- sity functional theory calculation suggests that the defect centre is an antisite nitrogen vacancy. Furthermore, we demonstrate engi- neering of quantum emitters from hBN by a range of nanofabrication techniques and that resonant excitation of the emitters is achievable. Coupling of quantum emitters in hBN to plasmonic particle arrays is also demonstrated, showing several times the Purcell enhancement factor.

275 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 276–278. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020276-03

Obituary Ann Veronica Helen Moyal AM, FRSN, FAAH

23 February 1926–21 July 2019

nn’s mother named her after the heroine Guide to the Manuscript Records of Australian Aof H.G. Wells’ scandalous novel of a Science (1966) and embarked on a biogra- rebellious New Woman — and, though both phy of the colonial geologist (and founder of mother and father raised her in the comfort- the Royal Society), W. B. Clarke. A book of able respectability of Sydney’s North Shore, documents on Scientists in Nineteenth-Cen- Ann broke many barriers.1 tury Australia (1975) appeared subsequently. Upon graduating in 1946 with frst-class By this time she had accompanied her third honours in history from the University of husband, the mathematician José Enrique Sydney, Ann Hurley worked as a research Moyal, to the Atomic Energy Laboratory in assistant for W. C. Wentworth (then gather- Illinois and, while working as science editor ing information on communists) and John for the University of Chicago Press, she pub- Carrick (research ofcer for the New South lished an arresting article on the problems of Wales branch of the Liberal Party). A scholar- the Argonne laboratory. ship took her to the University of London in In 1971 Ann took up a lectureship at the 1949, but she soon abandoned postgraduate NSW Institute of Technology (now UTS), research to work for Nicholas Mansergh at from where she produced an equally strin- the Royal Institute of International Afairs gent account of the mismanagement of the and then Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Australian Atomic Energy Commission. By whom she helped write his recollections of this time her interest in the history of science Men and Power, 1917–1918 (1956) in the extended to science policy and she had a spell British government during the Great War. at the celebrated Science Policy Research Ann would return to academic employ- Unit at Sussex University. Her appointment ment, but never for long. At the ANU from to Grifth University in 1976 was to direct 1959 to 1962 she laid the foundations of the Social Policy Research Centre at Grif- the Australian Dictionary of Biography, while fth, an arrangement that broke down during the two titular editors, Manning Clark and 1979 in an acrimonious dispute over her Malcolm Ellis, did combat, and then worked impossible teaching burden. Never cowed with Earle Page on his memoirs, Truant Sur- by authority, Ann was disconcerted by the geon (1963). As a joint research associate of way her academic colleagues bowed to its the Research School of Social Sciences and misuse. For the rest of career she would work the Academy of Science, she produced a as an independent scholar. She did so at frst as an associate of 1 Ann Moyal was the inaugural winner of the RSNSW Henry Mayer’s department of politics at History and Philosophy of Science Medal in 2014. the University of Sydney. Mayer, a restless Te late poet, Les. A. Murray, dedicated his 1993 poem, “Te Tube”, to her. [Ed.] and irreverent polymath, encouraged her

276 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Ann Moyal, 1926–2019 to accept a commission to write a history Woman of Infuence: Science, Men and His- of telecommunications in Australia. Clear tory (2014), took up particular aspects of her Across Australia (1984) met with acclaim, and dealings with all three. Her range of friend- deservedly so for it integrated the techno- ships was large, and to the end she kept them logical dimensions with the role of govern- up, curious, encouraging and supportive. ment, the men and women who stafed the Ann Moyal was a Fellow of the Royal Postmaster-General’s Department and the Society of New South Wales (and contrib- profound efects of telecommunications on uted articles to its Journal & Proceedings right Australian life. up to 2019) and the Australian Academy of In the course of this project Ann moved the Humanities, and was awarded honorary with her husband to Canberra, where she doctorates by the ANU and the University became editor of the ANZAAS bimonthly of Sydney. She was appointed a Member journal, Search. It was here also that she of the Order of Australia in 1993 for her produced A Bright & Savage Land: Scien- “contribution to the history of Australian sci- tists in Colonial Australia (1987), two strik- ence and technology, especially the writing ing works of natural history, Platypus (2001) of its history.” Tat citation understates her and Koala (2006), and an edited edition of achievement, as does the level of her honour. W. B. Clarke’s correspondence, Te Web of She was a path-breaker who worked across Science (2001). A visiting scholar in several domains of knowledge, an exceptionally university departments, she was profoundly intelligent woman with unshakeable prin- out of sympathy with the changes made to ciples. universities in the 1990s, from which a — Professor Emeritus Stuart Macintyre, AO, number of her friends resigned, and with FAHA, FASSA the assistance of Warren Horton, then Director-General of the National Library, Select Bibliography she established the Independent Scholars Aitken, Max (Lord Beaverbrook) (1956) Men Association. Ann made the Petherick Room and Power, 1917–1918, Hutchinson, London. of the National Library her base of opera- Moyal, Ann (1971) “Change in Argonne tions and used its manuscript collections National Laboratory: a case study,” Science 174 Issue 4004: 30–38. to write a brief and compelling life of Alan Moyal, Ann M. (1975) “Te Australian Moorehead (2005), the journalist, biographer Atomic Energy Commission: a case study in and historian whose life as a writer reaching Australian science and government,” Search, a popular audience exemplifed her ideal of Vol 6(9): 365–384. the independent scholar. Moyal, Ann (1976) Scientists in Nineteenth Tere were other works that appeared Century Australia: A Documentary History, Cassell Australia. in this fnal phase of Ann’s life, including a Moyal, Ann (1984), Clear Across Australia: biography of her third husband, Maverick A History of Telecommunications, Nelson, Mathematician (2006). Her own volume of Melbourne. memoirs, Breakfast with Beaverbrook (1995) Moyal, Ann (1986). A Bright & Savage Land: carried the subtitle “Memoirs of an Inde- Scientists in Colonial Australia, Collins, Sydney. pendent Woman,” and ranged memorably across her adventures. A later volume, A

277 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Ann Moyal, 1926–2019

Moyal, Ann (1989). Women and the Telephone Moyal, Ann (2017) “P. A. M. Dirac and in Australia: A Study prepared for Telecom the maverick mathematician.” Journal & Australia, Melbourne, Telecom. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Moyal, Ann (1995) Breakfast with Beaverbrook: Wales 150: 188–194. Memoirs of an Independent Woman, Hale & Moyal, Ann (2017) “Creative foundations. Te Iremonger, Melbourne. Royal Society of N.S.W.: 1867 and 2017.” Moyal, Ann (2001) Platypus: Te Extraordinary Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Story of How a Curious Creature Bafed the New South Wales150: 232–245. World, Smithsonian Press, Washington DC. Moyal, Ann, with Robert Marks. (2019) Moyal, Ann (2003) Te Web of Science: Te “Te scientists and Darwin’s Te Origin of Scientifc Correspondence of the Rev W. B. Species in nineteenth century Australia. A Clarke, Australia’s Pioneer Geologist, Australian re-evaluation.” Journal & Proceedings of the Scholarly Publishing. Royal Society of New South Wales 152: 5–26. Moyal, Ann (2005). Alan Moorehead: A Mozley Moyal, Ann (1966) Guide to the Rediscovery, National Library of Australia, Manuscript Records of Australian Science, Canberra. Australian Academy of Science in association Moyal, Ann (2005) “Te Rev. W. B. Clarke with Australian National University Press, and his scientifc correspondents.” Journal & Canberra. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Murray, Les. A. (1993), Dog Fox Field: Poems, Wales 138: 31–38. Farrar Straus & Giroux, New York. Moyal, Ann (2006) Maverick Mathematician: Page, Earl (1963) Truant Surgeon: Te Inside Te Life and Science of J. E. Moyal, A.N.U. Story of Forty Years of Australian Political Press., Canberra Life, edited by Ann Mozley,2 Angus and Moyal, Ann (2008) Koala: A Historical Robertson, Sydney. Biography, Melbourne, CSIRO Publishing. Wells, H. G. (1909) Ann Veronica, A Modern Moyal, Ann (2012) “Friends, savants and Love Story, T. Fisher Unwin, London. founders: W. B. Clarke and J. D. Dana.” Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of 2 E. Mozley was her second husband. New South Wales 145: 54–58. Moyal, Ann (2014) A Woman of Infuence: Science, Men and History, U.W.A. Publishing, Perth.

278 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 152, part 2, 2019, pp. 279–289. ISSN 0035-9173/19/020279-11

Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Te 2019 programme of events — Sydney

Held at the State Library of NSW (SLNSW), Shakespeare Place, Sydney; Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts (SMSA), 280 Pitt Street, Sydney or otherwise stated.

Wed 6 1270th Ordinary Fiona McDougall, Macquarie Human-associated bacteria and Feb Meeting University antibiotic resistance in grey-headed fying foxes 2018 RSNSW Scholarship winners, Evelyn Todd, University of Using genetics to improve athletic at SLNSW; Sydney performance in thoroughbred horses 3MT presentation Mr Chuhao Liu, University of Finding the best-ftting jeans for Wollongong railway foundations Mon Annual Meeting of Helen Cook, GNE Advisory Legal considerations pertaining 25 the Four Societies to nuclear energy as an option for Feb 2019 Australia Held in conjunction with the Nuclear Engineering Panel of the Sydney Branch of Engineers Australia, the Australian Nuclear Association and the Australian Institute of Energy. Held at Allens. Tue SMSA/RSNSW Dr. Wesley J. Watkins IV, Jazz Jazz and democracy 26 Speaking of music, and Democracy Project Feb lecture 1 at SMSA Wed 6 1271st OGM and Katherine Belov, School of Life Using genomics to conserve Mar open lecture at and Environmental Sciences, Australia’s biodiversity SLNSW University of Sydney Tu SMSA/RSNSW Suzanne Burdon Mary Shelley, scientist, and 21 Women and Science, Frankenstein Mar lecture 1 at SMSA Wed 3 1272nd Ordinary Emeritus Professor Brynn Measuring what we can: or how to Apr Meeting and 152nd Hibbert, School of Analytical lose weight on May 20th Annual General Chemistry, UNSW Meeting at SLNSW Tu 2 SMSA/RSNSW Susannah Fullerton OAM Ada Lovelace, without whom we May Women and Science, FRSN might not have computers lecture 2, at SMSA

279 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019

Fri 10 Annual Dinner: Guests of honour: Te Society’s Te new feld of atomic electronics May Distinguished Vice-Regal Patron, Her Fellow’s Lecture Excellency Te Honourable and presentation of Margaret Beazley AO QC, the Society’s 2018 Governor of NSW and awards, at Swissôtel Michelle Simmons FRS FAA FTSE DistFRSN Australian of the Year 2018 ARC Laureate Professor Scientia Professor of Physics, UNSW Wed 5 1273rd Ordinary Dr Kate Faasse School of Tis talk may cause side efects: Jun Meeting Psychology UNSW nocebo efects in medicine at SLNSW Tu RSNSW/SMSA Professor Lesley Hughes FRSN Climate change and our life support 20 Women and science: Dept. of Biological Sciences system Jun lecture 3, at SMSA Macquarie University Wed 1274th Ordinary Emeritus Professor Robert Past, present and future of polymers: 3 Jul Meeting Burford FRSN UNSW is the plastics age over? at SLNSW Mon RSNSW/SMSA Emerita Professor Barbara Visual perception in Aboriginal art 23 Jul Women and science: Gillam FASSA FRSN School of lecture 4, at SMSA Psychology, UNSW Wed 1275th Ordinary Professor Peter Shergold AC Democracy under challenge: how 7 Aug Meeting FRSN, Chancellor, Western can we restore a sense of citizenship? at SLNSW Sydney University National Science Week (NSW) talks held at SMSA. Mon NSW talk 1 Dr Ragbir Bhathal FRSN Aboriginal astronomy 12 Aug Tues NSW talk 2 Emeritus Professor Robert Unexpected results — Australian 13 Clancy AM FRSN science to 1950 Aug Tu NSW talk 3 Dr Josh Harle Machine aesthetics of the human 15 body Aug, 12:30 Tu NSW talk 4 Professor Mikhail Prokopenko Computer modelling of epidemics 15 FRSN, University of Sydney Aug, 18:30

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Wed Poggendorf lecture Professor Robert Park School Cereal killers: how plant diseases 14 at University of of Life and Environmental afect food security Aug Sydney Sciences University of Sydney Fri UNSW Centre for Professor Elizabeth Blackburn Te telomere efect 16 Ideas event, the AC FAA FRS DistFRSN Dept. Aug inaugural Gerald of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Westheimer Lecture UC San Francisco Wed 1276th Ordinary Professor Hans Pols FRSN Physicians as public intellectuals: 4 Sep Meeting Head, School of History Indonesian physicians in the Dutch at SLNSW and Philosophy of Science East Indies University of Sydney 3MT presentation Miss Lingzhi Kang, University Biofabricated platforms for wound of Wollongong healing and skin regeneration Tu Sci-Fi Series — Te Professor Emma Johnston Te Flying Eyes: How ecologists are 19 future is here, at the AO, Dean of Science, UNSW using new technology to see hidden Sep National Maritime Sydney, RSNSW Clarke Medal worlds Museum Recipient Professor Andy Pitman, Te day after tomorrow: What does Director, ARC Centre climate change mean for us? of Excellence for Climate Extremes Associate Professor Tracy Deep Blue Sea: Solving the coral Ainsworth, Scientia Fellow, reefs crisis Centre for Marine Science & Innovation, UNSW Mon RSNSW/SMSA Anne Harbers Electricity, astronomy, and natural 23 Women and science: history: from colonial Sydney Sep lecture 5, at SMSA to Royal Sweden, and a ladies’ academy of science in between Wed 2 1277th Ordinary Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith Bodies and minds in animal Oct Meeting Te University of Sydney evolution at SLNSW Tu RSNSW/SMSA Susan Pond AM FTSE Women at the frontiers of biotech 17 Women and science, FAHMS FRSN Oct lecture 6, at SMSA Wed 6 1278th Ordinary Professor Herbert Huppert FRS Te Beginning of Weather Nov Meeting FRSN University of Cambridge Forecasting: Matthew Maury, at SLNSW Robert FitzRoy FRS, and L. F. Richardson FRS

281 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019

Tu RSNSW and Four Hosted by Her Excellency Te Making SPACE for Australia 7 Nov Academies Forum, Honourable Margaret Beazley Government House, AO QC, Governor of NSW Sydney and Patron of the Royal Society of NSW Held in cooperation with the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Tue Joint AIP, RSNSW, Professor Jodie Bradby ANU Diamonds and high pressure 12 and RACI Open physics Nov Lecture 2109, at UTS Held in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Physics, RSNSW and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Tu RSNSW/SMSA Emerita Professor Ann Green An accidental astronomer 21 Women and science, FTSE FASA FAIP FRSN Nov lecture 7, at SMSA Wed 5 1279th Ordinary Royal Society of NSW All-integrated mid-infrared laser Dec Meeting followed 2019 Jak Kelly Award: sources by the Society’s Gayathri Bharathan, Christmas Party Macquarie University at SLNSW

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Te 2019 programme of events — Southern Highlands Held at the Mittagong RSL, 1st Floor, Joadja/Nattai Rooms.

Tu 21 Feb Prof Rodney Croft Te Efect of Non Ionisation Electro- Te Australian Centre for Electromagnetic magnetic Radiation on our Health Bioefects Research (ACEBR) Tu 21 Mar Susannah Fullerton OAM Te Life and Diary of Samuel Pepys. Author. President of the Jane Austin Society of Australia. Patron of the Rudyard Kipling Society of Australia Tu 18 Apr Prof Richard Kemp Psychology of Eyewitness Memory UNSW School of Psychology Tu 16 May Dr Damian Wrigley Te Importance of a Seed Bank in ANU Botanical Gardens Future Preservation of Plant Species Tu 20 Jun Prof Ken Baldwin Nuclear Energy Director of the Energy Change Institute at ANU. Deputy Director of the Research School of Physics and Engineering. Tu 18 Jul Dr Christian Heim and Dr Caroline Heim Understanding the Mental Health Crisis and how your Relationships can save you Tu 15 Aug Prof Rick Shine AM Sequencing the Cane Toad Genome School of Life and Environmental Sci- (DNA) ences, Uni of Sydney Tu 19 Sep Dr Rebecca Carey Volcanology Volcanologist, Senior Lecturer Earth Sci- ences, University of Tasmania Tu 17 Oct Dr Ian Bryce Te Physics of the Mind: Exploring Rocket Scientist and Ethics Teacher sentience, freewill, and morality Tu 21 Nov Dr Steven Harrison Porcelain through History — Discov- eries and analyses of ancient porce- lain from around the world

Te 2019 programme of events — Hunter Branch

Wed 9 Oct Inaugural Meeting, Hunter Professor Hugh Durrant- Industries of the Branch of the Royal Society of Whyte FRSN, NSW Chief Future NSW, and open lecture, at the Scientist and Engineer Newcastle Club

283 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019

Awards 2019 1) James Cook Medal 2019 — Scientia Professor Matthew England Te James Cook Medal is awarded from time to time for outstanding contributions to both science and human welfare in and for the Southern Hemisphere. Professor Matthew England, of the UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, is recog- nised as one of the world’s foremost experts in how the world’s oceans control regional and global climate on time scales from seasons to millennia. His feld of research spans physical oceanography and climate dynamics, where he has written seminal papers on Southern Ocean water-mass formation, Antarctic ocean-atmosphere-ice interactions, climate modes of variability, and ocean ventilation processes. Importantly, in the context of the James Cook Medal, England has a sustained track record of outstanding research and discovery in areas that make an impact on human welfare, both here in Australia and across other regions of the Southern Hemisphere, including improved predictions of rainfall and climate variability, discoveries of the oceanic drivers of severe drought and fooding rains, and quantifcation of the impacts of climate change and the fate of ocean pollution. 2) Edgeworth David Medal 2019 — Professor Si Ming Man Te Edgeworth David Medal is awarded each year for distinguished research by a young scientist under the age of 35 years for work done mainly in Australia or for contributing to the advancement of Australian science. Professor Si Ming Man, of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University, is an outstanding young researcher in the feld of innate immunology, attaining a full professorship only six years after his PhD graduation. Six of his recent papers are recognised as “highly cited,” being in the top 1% of the feld. His research has identifed a class of disease-fghting “killer” proteins, produced by the cell, which can directly attack bacteria, causing these pathogens to die and release signals that can rapidly trigger activation of the immune system. Further studies have shown that immune receptors have critical roles in preventing gut infammation and the development of colorectal (bowel) cancer, while most recently he has discovered that toxins from foodborne bacteria can be detected and blockaded by immune receptors to prevent sepsis. 3) Clarke Medal for Geology 2019 — Professor Dietmar Müller Te Clarke Medal is awarded each year for distinguished research in the natural sciences conducted in the Australian Commonwealth and its territories. Te felds of botany, geology, and zoology are considered in rotation. For 2019, the medal was awarded in Geology. Professor Dietmar Müller, of the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, is inter- nationally renowned for discoveries that have transformed our fundamental understanding of the Earth’s evolution, environments and geological resources. Many of these discoveries were made possible only through Müller’s international research eforts in building a Virtual Earth Laboratory to “see” deep into the Earth in four dimensions (space and time), opening

284 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019 up the Earth’s dynamic history going back 200 million years. His scientifc discoveries are outstanding, with contributions to the feld including age and tectonic evolution of the ocean basins, earthquake hazard mapping, Australia’s intraplate stress through time, sea foor image analysis, the evolutions of continental basins and margins, and linking plate tectonics and mantle convection to Australia’s surface topography through time. 4) History and Philosophy of Science Medal 2019 — Professor Evelleen Richards Te Society’s History and Philosophy of Science Medal is awarded each year for outstanding achievement in the History and Philosophy of Science, especially the study of ideas, institutions, and individuals of signifcance to the practice of the natural sciences in Australia. Professor Evelleen Richards, an Honorary Professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, is an Australian scholar of outstanding achievement and international standing. Her work is particularly notable in that she has made signifcant contributions to answering key questions in the history of science, especially in the history and historiography of evolutionary theory, as well as to the study of contemporary research policy in science and medicine. Her studies in the contextual history of evolutionary biology are internationally regarded as ofering a major advance in the understanding and interpretation of the scientifc past. Her recent book on the genesis and reception of Charles Darwin’s concept of sexual selection, Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection, has generated substantial international impact, being awarded the 2018 Suzanne J. Levinson Prize of the U.S. History of Science Society. Equally remarkable during her career has been her engagement with the history and socio-politics of medicine and their policy implications, demonstrating the importance of historical and sociological analyses in illuminating medical practices and policy, particularly in relation to clinical trials and drug regulation. 5) Walter Burftt Prize 2019 — Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh Te Walter Burftt Prize is awarded every three years to a resident of Australia or New Zealand for research in the pure or applied sciences that is deemed to be of the highest scientifc merit, judged according to scientifc output published during the preceding six years. Professor Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, of the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW Sydney, is renowned for his research and development in the areas of liquid metals, atomically thin materials and ingestible sensors. He is a prolifc researcher, recognised in 2018 by Clarivate Analytics as a “Highly Cited Researcher.” Over the past six years, his contributions have been frequently frst-in-world and have set the agenda for research felds internationally in areas such as two-dimensional (2D) materials, liquid metals and microfuidics, and point- of-care diagnostic systems and sensors. 6) Jak Kelly Award 2019 — Mrs Gayathri Bharathan Te winner of the Jak Kelly Award for 2019 is Gayathri Bharathan from Macquarie Uni- versity. Her research pursues the development of mid-infrared fbre lasers for medical and spectroscopic applications.

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Te Jak Kelly Award encourages excellence in postgraduate research in physics. Te winner was selected from a short list of candidates who made presentations at a recent joint meeting at UNSW of the Australian Institute of Physics NSW Branch, the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and the Royal Society of NSW. 7) Royal Society of New South Wales Scholarships 2019 Te Royal Society Scholarships, valued at $500, together with a complimentary year of associate membership of the Society, are awarded annually in order to acknowledge outstand- ing achievements by young researchers in any feld of science. Applicants must be enrolled as research students in a university in either NSW or the ACT on 1 January in their year of nomination. For 2019, the RSNSW Scholarships have been awarded to: • Ms Emma Austin — Te University of Newcastle • Mr Shayam Balaji — Te University of Sydney • Mr Michael Papanicolaou — University of Technology Sydney and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research • Mr Tomas Pettit — University of Technology Sydney

286 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019

Note on Gazetting Te Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales is managed by the New South Wales Parliamentary Counsel’s Ofce and has published Government notices, regulations, forms and orders since 1832. It went on line in 2001 and since 2014 is only to be found at https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/gazettes.

On the initiative of RSNSW Fellow Robert Whittaker AM FRSN, the Society approached His Excellency the Governor to formally gazette fellows of the Society. All current fellows were included in the frst gazetting in 2018, and subsequently at the beginning of each year fellows elected in the previous year will appear in the Gazette. As the Gazette of Tursday 31 January 2019 says: “His Excellency, General Te Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d), Gov- ernor of New South Wales, as Patron of Te Royal Society of New South Wales and in furtherance of the aims of the Society in encouraging and rewarding the study and practice of Science, Art, Literature and Philosophy, is pleased to advise and acknowledge the election of the following as Fellows and Distinguished Fellows of the Society.”

287 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Proceedings, Awards, Gazetted Fellows — 2019

Fellows Proven leaders and experts in their feld, entitled to use the post nominal FRSN. Please note Professorial titles — including adjuncts, conjoint, and professors of practice — have been used where applicable. Details as to their feld of expertise, their resident university (or universities) or institution may be ascertained from the Royal Society of New South Wales.

AMAL, Scientia Professor Rose Amal AC FRSN HUSH, Associate Professor Julia Hush FRSN AUSTIN-BROOS, Professor Emerita Diane Austin- HUTCHINSON, Chancellor Ms Belinda Hutchin- Broos FRSN son AM FRSN BATHURST, Te Honourable Chief Justice Tomas JEFFERY, Dr, Major General, Te Honourable Philip Bathurst AC FRSN QC Michael Jefery AC AO(Mil) CVO MC FRSN BELOV, Professor Katherine Belov FRSN KARA, Professor Sami Kara FRSN BHATHAL, Dr Ragbir Bhathal FRSN KARSKENS, Professor Grace Karskens FRSN BIRD, Professor Trevor Bird FRSN KINGSFORD, Professor Richard Kingsford FRSN BLACKBURN, Air Vice Marshal John Blackburn KIRBY, Te Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG AO FRSN FRSN BORODY, Professor Tomas Borody FRSN LOOSLEY, Mr Stephen Loosley AM FRSN BROADBENT, Chancellor Dr Jillian Broadbent AO MacDONALD, Professor Heather MacDonald FRSN FRSN MACKIE, Professor Vera Mackie FRSN BUTLER, Rear Admiral (USA) John Butler CBE MASON, Te Honourable, Sir Anthony Mason AC FRSN DSM(US) KBE FRSN QC CARMICHAEL, Professor David Carmichael FRSN MIDDLETON, Emeritus Professor Jason Middleton CARTER, Emeritus Professor John Carter AM FRSN FRSN CHOUCAIR, Dr Mohammad Choucair FRSN MORONEY, Commissioner (Rtd) Dr Kenneth COMPTON, Professor Mark Compton AM FRSN Moroney AO FRSN COVELL, Emeritus Professor Roger Covell AM NEW, Associate Professor Elizabeth New FRSN FRSN OZDOWSKI, Commissioner (Rtd) Dr Seweryn DAVIS, Emeritus Professor Jeremy Davis AM FRSN Ozdowski AM FRSN DI PIETRO, Commodore Vincenzo Di Pietro AM PALMER, Mr George Palmer AM FRSN QC CSC FRSN POND, Dr Susan Pond AM FRSN DOOLEY, Professor Anthony Dooley FRSN QUILTY, Dr Ben Quilty FRSN EDMOND, Professor Gary Edmond FRSN RICHARDS, Honorary Professor Evelleen Richards FARNSWORTH, Dr Alan Farnsworth AM FRSN FRSN HARRIS, Chancellor Mr James Harris FRSN SAHAJWALLA, Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla FRSN HARRISON, Conjoint Professor Alexander Harrison FRSN SENGELMAN, Major General Jefrey Sengelman DSC AM CSC FRSN HIBBERD, Professor Adrian Hibberd FRSN SHARPE, Ms Wendy Sharpe FRSN HILTON, Dr John Hilton FRSN SILBERBERG, Dr Ronald Silberberg AO FRSN HINTZE, Sir Michael Hintze AM FRSN SMITH, Professor Lee Smith FRSN HUPPERT, Emeritus Professor Herbert Huppert FRS FRSN SPENCE, Vice Chancellor and President Dr Michael Spence AC FRSN HUSH, Dr David Hush FRSN

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STODDART, Professor Sir James (Fraser) Stoddart VANN, Vice Chancellor and President Andrew Vann FRS FRSN FRSN STORRIER, Dr Timothy Storrier AM FRSN WATERHOUSE, Emeritus Professor Richard Water- SWAN, Professor Peter Swan AO FRSN house FRSN TABBAA, Commissioner (Rtd) Ms Inaam Tabbaa WELLINGS, Vice Chancellor and President Professor AM FRSN Paul Wellings CBE FRSN THOMAS, Mr Robert Tomas AM FRSN WILLIAMSON, Professor Geordie Williamson FRS FRSN TISDELL, Professor Christopher Tisdell FRSN WILLIS, Professor George Willis FRSN TORERO, Dr Jose Torero FRSN ZHAO, Professor Chuan Zhao FRSN TROWELL, Dr Stephen Trowell FRSN

Te following had been previously admitted as Fellow of the Society but were not appropri- ately attributed in the NSW Government Gazette:

FLAMBAUM, Scientia Professor Victor Flambaum FRSN GRIFFIN, Dr Desmond Grifn AM FRSN HILL, Emeritus Professor Stephen Hill AM FRSN HERRMANN, Dr Jan Herrmann FRSN IRISH, Associate Professor Muireann Irish FRSN MOYAL, Dr Ann Moyal AM FRSN ROBERTS, Scientia Professor John Roberts FRSN TAYLOR, Professor Mark Taylor FRSN

289 Archibald Liversidge: Imperial Science under the Southern Cross Roy MacLeod Royal Society of New South Wales, in association with Sydney University Press ISBN 9781-9208-9880-9 When Archibald Liversidge frst arrived at the University of Sydney in 1872 as Reader in Geology and Assistant in the Laboratory, he had about ten students and two rooms in the main building. In 1874, he became Professor of Geology and Mineralogy and by 1879 he had persuaded the University Senate to open a Faculty of Science. He became its frst Dean in 1882. In 1880, he visited Europe as a trustee of the Australian Museum and his report helped to establish the Industrial, Technological and Sanitary Museum which formed the basis of the present Powerhouse Museum’s collection. Liversidge also played a major role in establish- ing the Australasian Association for the Advance- ment of Science which held its frst congress in 1888. Tis book is essential reading for those interested in the development of science in colonial Australia, particularly the felds of crystallography, mineral chemistry, chemical geology and strategic minerals policy.

To order your copy, please complete the Liversidge Book Order Form available at: http://royalsoc.org.au/publications/books/McLeod_Liversidge_Order_Form.pdf and return it together with your payment to: Te Royal Society of NSW, (Liversidge Book), PO Box 576, Crows Nest NSW 1585, Australia or contact the Society: Phone: +61 2 9431 8691 Fax: +61 2 9431 8677 Email: [email protected] Te Royal Society of New South Wales

Information for authors

Details of submission guidelines can be found in the on-line Style Guide for Authors at: https://royalsoc.org.au/society-publications/information-for-authors Manuscripts are only accepted in digital format and should be e-mailed to: [email protected] Te templates available on the Journal website should be used for preparing manuscripts. Full instruc- tions for preparing submissions are also given on the website. If the fle-size is too large to email it should be placed on a CD-ROM or other digital media and posted to: Te Honorary Secretary (Editorial), Te Royal Society of New South Wales, PO Box 576, Crows Nest, NSW 1585 Australia Manuscripts will be reviewed by the Editor, in consultation with the Editorial Board, to decide whether the paper will be considered for publication in the Journal. Manuscripts are subjected to peer review by at least one independent reviewer. In the event of initial rejection, manuscripts may be sent to other reviewers. Papers (other than those specially invited by the Editorial Board) will only be considered if the content is either substantially new material that has not been published previously, or is a review of a major research programme. Papers presenting aspects of the historical record of research carried out within Australia are particularly encouraged. In the case of papers presenting new research, the author must certify that the material has not been submitted concurrently elsewhere nor is likely to be published elsewhere in substantially the same form. In the case of papers reviewing a major research programme, the author must certify that the material has not been published substantially in the same form else- where and that permission for the Society to publish has been granted by all copyright holders. Letters to the Editor, Discourses, Short Notes and Abstracts of Australian PhD theses may also be submitted for publication. Please contact the Editor if you would like to discuss a possible article for inclusion in the Journal. Te Society does not require authors to transfer the copyright of their manuscript to the Society but authors are required to grant the Society an unrestricted licence to reproduce in any form manuscripts accepted for publication in the Journal and Proceedings. Enquiries relating to copyright or reproduc- tion of an article should be directed to the Editor. Volume 152 Par t 22019 Numbers 473 & 474 CONTENTS

Rober t E. Marks:Editorial: “The Old One does not play at dice” 157 SUBMIT TED PAPERS Gary A.Rendsburg:AHebrew “Book within Book” at Fisher Library, University of 160 Sy dney. Benjamin W.B.Holman:The science of red meat and its importance to New South 188 Wales: A case study. Louise Anemaat:Drawing in the Colony. 203 COMMISSIONED PAPERS John C. H. Spence:Speed limit: howthe search for an absolute frame of reference in the 216 Universe led to Einstein’s equation E = mc2 —ahistor y of measurements of the speed of light. Rober t Burford:Polymers: a historical perspective. 242 REPRINTED PAPER BarbaraJ.Gillam:Figure-ground and occlusion depiction in early Australian Aboriginal 251 barkpaintings. PhDTHESIS ABSTRACTS: Doan Khue Dung Dang:Efficient Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for large data sets by 268 data subsampling. Jade D. Frost:First impressions bias on sound sequence learning on multiple timescales: 269 an order-driven phenomenon in auditorymismatch negativity. Daniel McIlroy:The rôle of mitochondrial DNA in the post-injuryinflammator y 270 response following major trauma. Sally Patfield:On“being first:” reconsidering Australian higher education equity policy 273 through a comprehensiveanalysis of the aspirations of prospectivefirst-in-family students. Tr ong Toan Tran:Quantum emission from hexagonal boron nitride. 275 OBITUARY Stuar t Macintyre:Ann Veronica Helen Moyal AM, FRSN, FAAH, 1926−2019 276 2019 PROCEEDINGS. 279 INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS Inside Back Cover

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Published December 2019