DOCSLIB.ORG

Joseph Farman Interviewed by Paul Merchant

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Joseph Farman Interviewed by Paul Merchant IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NATIONAL LIFE STORIES AN ORAL HISTORY OF BRITISH SCIENCE Joseph Farman Interviewed by Paul Merchant C1379/07 © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk This interview and transcript is accessible via http://sounds.bl.uk . IMPORTANT Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of this transcript, however no transcript is an exact translation of the spoken word, and this document is intended to be a guide to the original recording, not replace it. Should you find any errors please inform the Oral History curators. © The British Library Board. Please refer to the Oral History curators at the British Library prior to any publication or broadcast from this document. Oral History The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB United Kingdom +44 (0)20 7412 7404 [email protected] © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk National Life Stories would like to thank Bob Wells for his comments and corrections to this transcript. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk The British Library National Life Stories Interview Summary Sheet Title Page Ref no: C1379/07 Collection title: An Oral History of British Science Interviewee’s Farman Title: Mr surname: Interviewee’s Joseph Sex: Male forename: Occupation: Atmospheric Date and place of 1930, Norwich, scientist birth: Norfolk Mother’s occupation: Nurse Father’s occupation: Builder/engineer Dates of recording, Compact flash cards used, tracks (from – to): 19/2/10 (track 1-3), 2/3/10 (track 4-6), 12/3/10 (track 7-9), 26/3/10 (track 10-14), 13/12/10 (track 15-16), 1/4/11 (track 17) Location of Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge interview: Name of interviewer: Dr Paul Merchant Type of recorder: Marantz PMD661 with lapel mics Recording format : WAV 24 bit 48kHz Total no. of tracks: 17 Mono or stereo: Stereo Total Duration: 13 hr. 38 min. 21 sec. Additional material: Copyright/ Open, © assigned to The British Library Clearance: Interviewer’s comments: © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Joseph Farman Page 1 C1379/07 Track 1 [Track 1] Could I start by asking you when and where you were born? Oh, I don’t really know but I was told in Norwich and Norfolk [laughs]. And do you remember having a sort of earliest memory that –? The earliest memory? Oh, dear. Er, nothing very interesting except my elder – my sister who is a few years old than me did once put a clockwork train on my head [both laugh] and it wound up the hair and my mother had to teach her not to do such things and rubbed a rather red curious ointment over my head – Oh, really. Which my sister obviously thought it was blood [laughs]. I suppose that’s the one, I must have been about five I suppose but I don’t really remember very much then, thereafter, hmmm … Thank you. Could we talk about your parents? I’ll take them in turn. Your father, could you –? Well, he fought in the ‘14 – ‘18 war and was a prisoner of war with the Germans. Joined the Home Guard in 1939 [laughs] – Right, yeah. By the time I really knew him he was a self-employed builder – Right. And he’d done many things before that. He’d worked for Bolton & Pole’s [ph] and very nearly died on the R101 because he was working – due to work on that at the time it crashed, but luckily he didn’t go or I wouldn’t be here. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Joseph Farman Page 2 C1379/07 Track 1 And your mother? Oh, just a very nice woman [laughs]. She was a nurse at one stage while father was fighting in the war and then when she got married she just looked after the children and the home. How did they meet? Oh, long before the war I think when they lived together in south Norfolk, hmmm, I never really heard very much about that [laughs]. Did you –? I’m going to ask you about your grandparents, and I’ll do that systematically as well, I mean I realise some of them you may not have known or some you may not have had much contact with but if the – if you didn’t, if there were any stories about them in the family that are significant then that would be interesting as well. So if we could start with your paternal grandfather. Well, he was the – those two grandparents I did actually meet. My mother’s grandparents I never met although we have sort of quite a big family, many aunts and uncles on both sides. They were very old by the time I knew them, my gosh, he must have been seventy-odd, you know, given the war and various things which happened. My parents married fairly late in life and I guess – yeah, so there were people in a sense I never – you know, you were taken to see them and they were friendly enough but I don’t think one could say one ever had a sort of rapport with them, no … Would you be able to say whether they had any influence over you in terms of your interests? I should say no really, I mean it was a different world. Oh, my parents’ world was a different world in a sense and, erm,yeah. And the grandparents that you didn’t meet – © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Joseph Farman Page 3 C1379/07 Track 1 Yes. [03:40] I wondered whether there were any stories of them in the family about what they did or who they were. No, not – I’m ashamed to say I couldn’t even tell you what his trade was. The other grandfather was very interesting actually because my sister lived for many years with her husband in Salhouse and the biggish house and when they – their children were grown up they wanted a smaller house so they bought the house next door. And you’ll never guess what they were handed with the deeds, it was my grandfather’s apprenticeship certificate. That’s where he’d served his apprenticeship [laughs]. Gosh, small county. That’s what his apprenticeship was from, yes. Sorry, his apprenticeship was for –? As a wheelwright but he was a carpenter and a thatcher and all sorts of things. Did he work across Norfolk? He – yes, I suppose so, fairly – but mainly in the Broads district which was where reeds were cut and so on but they were all – oh, it was the Norfolk reed in those days, now it’s Spanish reed [laughs] or Turkish or something. So he was involved in, not in the cutting, but in the thatching of the – Well, I think they did everything, you know, in the firm I think they sort of started life as collecting – you know, cutting the reeds and bringing them into the place and trimming them and all the rest of it, then gradually progressed to being a person who could actually do it. © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Joseph Farman Page 4 C1379/07 Track 1 Yes. And it was wonderful trade to watch actually, I can remember as a child sort of watching these people with their curved hazel twigs and just sort of putting them in to hold the thing down, and it looked as though it would blow apart immediately but it seemed to be very [laughs] – Yes. Very windproof in fact. [05:22] Do you remember your family home in – presumably in Norfolk? Yes, just outside Norwich in Hellesdon in north Norwich. Yes, I suppose so, because in those days it was long before buses had penetrated out that far, so we walked into school and I guess we just roamed in those days, no-one sort of thought there were nasty men standing in the street [laughs]. You had the complete freedom of Norfolk more or less if you climbed on your bicycle, that was – yeah, as I say, it’s a shame the world has changed in all these ways, which … Which is better [ph]. Could you –? I don’t know whether you remember it well enough, but if you can could you take me on a tour of your family home? So imagine you’ve gone into the front door, room by room, if you could describe it. [laughs] Room by room, well, that’s very curious, I’ll try. It was – I think father built it actually [laughs]. It was a bungalow, the back door opened onto, I suppose you would call it a parlour, and then it had an oven and a fire in it, and that fire drove the boiler for the main hot water supply. Just to the right of that there was a washroom with a boiler, you know, one of these fantastic old fashioned boilers, and beyond that there was a small bedroom. Then the other way, there were two bedrooms front and © The British Library Board http://sounds.bl.uk Joseph Farman Page 5 C1379/07 Track 1 back at the end, and then a big sitting room and a bay window in the front with a hall, L-shaped hall, through from the back door to the front door. I see. And do you remember how each room was decorated? Oh [laughs]. Well, I did – I suppose I did decorate some of those actually – no, I can’t really remember very much detail about it I’m afraid. Thank you.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Teacher Guide: Meet the Proboscideans
    Teacher Guide: Meet the Proboscideans Concepts: • Living and extinct animals can be classified by their physical traits into families and species. • We can often infer what animals eat by the size and shape of their teeth. Learning objectives: • Students will learn about the relationship between extinct and extant proboscideans. • Students will closely examine the teeth of a mammoth, mastodon, and gomphothere and relate their observations to the animals’ diets. They will also contrast a human’s jaw and teeth to a mammoth’s. This is an excellent example of the principle of “form fits function” that occurs throughout biology. TEKS: Grade 5 § 112.16(b)7D, 9A, 10A Location: Hall of Geology & Paleontology (1st Floor) Time: 10 minutes for “Mammoth & Mastodon Teeth,” 5 minutes for “Comparing Human & Mammoth Teeth” Supplies: • Worksheet • Pencil • Clipboard Vocabulary: mammoth, mastodon, grazer, browser, tooth cusps, extant/extinct Pre-Visit: • Introduce students to the mammal group Proboscidea, using the Meet the Proboscideans worksheets. • Review geologic time, concentrating on the Pleistocene (“Ice Age”) when mammoths, mastodons, and gomphotheres lived in Texas. • Read a short background book on mammoths and mastodons with your students: – Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age by Cheryl Bardoe, published in 2010 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, NY. Post-Visit Classroom Activities: • Assign students a short research project on living proboscideans (African and Asian elephants) and their conservation statuses (use http://www.iucnredlist.org/). Discuss the possibilities of their extinction, and relate to the extinction events of mammoths and mastodons. Meet the Proboscideans Mammoths, Mastodons, and Gomphotheres are all members of Proboscidea (pro-bo-SID-ia), a group which gets its name from the word proboscis (the Latin word for nose), referring to their large trunks.
    [Show full text]
  • (Leviticus 10:6): on Mourning and Refraining from Mourning in the Bible
    1 “Do not bare your heads and do not rend your clothes” (Leviticus 10:6): On Mourning and Refraining from Mourning in the Bible Yael Shemesh, Bar Ilan University Many agree today that objective research devoid of a personal dimension is a chimera. As noted by Fewell (1987:77), the very choice of a research topic is influenced by subjective factors. Until October 2008, mourning in the Bible and the ways in which people deal with bereavement had never been one of my particular fields of interest and my various plans for scholarly research did not include that topic. Then, on October 4, 2008, the Sabbath of Penitence (the Sabbath before the Day of Atonement), my beloved father succumbed to cancer. When we returned home after the funeral, close family friends brought us the first meal that we mourners ate in our new status, in accordance with Jewish custom, as my mother, my three brothers, my father’s sisters, and I began “sitting shivah”—observing the week of mourning and receiving the comforters who visited my parent’s house. The shivah for my father’s death was abbreviated to only three full days, rather than the customary week, also in keeping with custom, because Yom Kippur, which fell only four days after my father’s death, truncated the initial period of mourning. Before my bereavement I had always imagined that sitting shivah and conversing with those who came to console me, when I was so deep in my grief, would be more than I could bear emotionally and thought that I would prefer for people to leave me alone, alone with my pain.
    [Show full text]
  • The Childs Elephant Free Download
    THE CHILDS ELEPHANT FREE DOWNLOAD Rachel Campbell-Johnston | 400 pages | 03 Apr 2014 | Random House Children's Publishers UK | 9780552571142 | English | London, United Kingdom Rachel Campbell-Johnston Penguin 85th by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Stocking Fillers. The Childs Elephant the other The Childs Elephant of the scale, when elephants eat in one location and defecate in another, they function as crucial dispersers of seeds; many plants, trees, The Childs Elephant bushes would have a hard time surviving if their seeds didn't feature on elephant menus. Share Flipboard Email. I cannot trumpet this book loudly enough. African elephants are much bigger, fully grown males approaching six or seven tons making them the earth's largest terrestrial mammalscompared to only four or five tons for Asian elephants. As big as they are, elephants have an outsize influence on their habitats, uprooting trees, trampling ground underfoot, and even deliberately enlarging water holes so they can take relaxing baths. Events Podcasts Penguin Newsletter Video. If only we could all be Jane Goodall or Dian Fossey, and move to the jungle or plains and thoroughly dedicate our lives to wildlife. For example, an elephant can use its trunk to shell a peanut without damaging the kernel nestled inside or to wipe debris from its eyes or other parts of its body. Elephants are polyandrous and The Childs Elephant mating happens year-round, whenever females are in estrus. Habitat and Range. Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. Biology Expert. Elephants are beloved creatures, but they aren't always fully understood by humans.
    [Show full text]
  • Elephant Escapades Audience Activity Designed for 10 Years Old and Up
    Elephant Escapades Audience Activity designed for 10 years old and up Goal Students will learn the differences between the African and Asian elephants, as well as, how their different adaptations help them survive in their habitats. Objective • To understand elephant adaptations • To identify the differences between African and Asian elephants Conservation Message Elephants play a major role in their habitats. They act as keystone species which means that other species depend on them and if elephants were removed from the ecosystem it would change drastically. It is important to understand these species and take efforts to encourage the preservation of African and Asian elephants and their habitats. Background Information Elephants are the largest living land animal; they can weigh between 6,000 and 12,000 pounds and stand up to 12 feet tall. There are only two species of elephants; the African Elephants and the Asian Elephant. The Asian elephant is native to parts of South and Southeast Asia. While the African elephant is native to the continent of Africa. While these two species are very different, they do share some common traits. For example, both elephant species have a trunk that can move in any direction and move heavy objects. An elephant’s trunk is a fusion, or combination, of the nose and upper lip and does not contain any bones. Their trunks have thousands of muscles and tendons that make movements precise and give the trunk amazing strength. Elephants use their trunks for snorkeling, smelling, eating, defending themselves, dusting and other activities that they perform daily. Another common feature that the two elephant species share are their feet.
    [Show full text]
  • Magazine April
    Locks Heath U3A 28 March 2020 Weekenders Welcome to our first monthly magazine ... Smiling � � � � � � � ‘A Smile can neither bought or sold but it is the richest gift you could give or receive’ ‘If people are too tired to give you a smile Why not give them one of yours’ ‘The smile on my face doesn’t mean my life is perfect. It means I appreciate what I have been blessed with’ ⏰ Remember British Summer time begins today! � Put a note in your diary to ring or Weekenders - Doing it O-YO! face time a member or friend At least one name per day and you Due to restrictions on social gatherings won’t feel on your own and the common sense of Self-isolating It should not stop us finding other ways of communicating Hence this magazine to maintain the important link between the If you have back-up through Life members of Weekenders. Line Instead of often doing things O-YO (On Your Own) we are Now is the time to wear your seeking to pursue novel experiences together. pendant or wrist band 24/7 ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ This weekend the clocks go forward and we can look forward to � Human contact is so important, lighter evenings and so in our first edition we have included some when the self distancing is over things to do over the weekend and once we are back to some sort of normality we can add in others... we can re- start our lives again Celebrations, parties, visits and holidays will eventually begin again and Visiting local towns and vilages so make each day count I came across the ‘Best places to live’ section in The Times last weekend.
    [Show full text]
  • Asian Elephant • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • Elephas Maximus
    Asian elephant • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • Elephas maximus Classification What groups does this organism belong to based on characteristics shared with other organisms? Class: Mammalia (all mammals) Order: Proboscidea (large tusked and trunked mammals) Family: Elephantidae (elephants and related extinct species) Genus: Elephas (Asian elephants and related extinct species) Species: maximus (Asian elephant) Distribution Where in the world does this species live? Most Asian elephants live in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand with small populations in Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sumatra, and Borneo. Habitat What kinds of areas does this species live in? They are considered forest animals, but are found in a variety of habitats including tropical grasslands and forests, preferring areas with open grassy glades within the forest. Most live below 10,000 feet (3,000m) elevation although elephants living near the Himalayas will move higher into the mountains to escape hot weather. Physical Description How would this animal’s body shape and size be described? • Asian elephants are the largest land animal on the Asian continent. • Males’ height at the shoulder ranges from eight to ten feet (2.4-3m); they weigh between 7,000 and 13,250 pounds (3500-6000kg). • Females are between six and eight feet tall (1.95-2.4m) at the shoulder and weigh between 4,400 and 7,000 pounds (2500-3500kg). • Their skin is dark gray with freckled pink patches and sparse hair; the skin ranges from very thin at the ears to one inch thick (2.54cm) on the back. • Their most prominent feature is a long trunk that has a single finger on the upper edge.
    [Show full text]
  • African Elephant
    Species fact sheet: African Elephant A powerful symbol of nature, the world’s largest land animal is still under threat African elephant, Kenya. © WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey African elephants are the largest living land animals. Once 2. The forest elephant (L. a. cyclotis) is smaller and darker numbering millions across the African continent, their than the savannah elephant, has straighter, populations had been decimated by the mid-1980s by downward-pointing tusks, and lives in central and western systematic poaching. The status of the species now varies Africa’s equatorial forests. Forest elephants are more greatly across Africa. Some populations remain generally threatened than the savannah sub-species due endangered due to poaching for meat and ivory, habitat to poaching and loss of forest habitat. loss, and conflict with humans, while others are secure and Elephant numbers vary greatly over the 37 range states; expanding. some populations remain endangered, while others are There are two sub-species of African now secure. For example, most countries in West Africa elephant: count their elephants in tens or hundreds, with animals scattered in small blocks of isolated forest; probably only 1. The savannah elephant (L. a. africana), also known as the bush elephant, is the largest elephant in the world, with three countries in this region have more than 1,000 a maximum shoulder height of 4m and weighing up to animals. In contrast, elephant populations in southern 7,500kg. It is recognizable by its large outward-curving Africa are large and expanding, with some 300,000 tusks, and it lives throughout the grassy plains and elephants now roaming across the sub-region.
    [Show full text]
  • June 7-25, 2020…..17 Days in Scandinavia with Dave Anderson
    June 7-25, 2020…..17 days in Scandinavia with Dave Anderson Sunday June 7 Our tour begins with an evening flight from Chicago to Copenhagen Monday June 8 We arrive in Copenhagen, go to our hotel to freshen up and then we will stretch our legs on Copenhagen’s famous walking street. Dinner and overnight at our Copenhagen hotel. Tuesday, June 9 Today we will visit Roskilde, the incredible cathedral where Danish Kings and Queens are buried. We will stop at the famous mermaid statue in the Copenhagen harbor and a great fountain nearby. We will stop at two amazing Copenhagen cathedrals including the Gruntvig Cathedral. Dinner tonight in Tivoli Gardens, one of Europe’s most famous amusement parks. Same hotel. Wednesday, June 10 We head a little north of Copenhagen to the beautiful and massive Christian IV Castle. The castle tour will take two hours. After lunch we head east to Helsingør for a short ferry boat ride to Helsingborg, Sweden. After looking around the city center, we will travel to the very old Helsingborg suburb of Råå, where we will stay overnight at the Sundsgården Folkhögskola. Dinner and great accommodations. Sundsgården is a Chrsitian “folk high school” where Dave and Barb Anderson have stayed many times. Thursday, June 11 After breakfast, we will travel south to the great university city of Lund where we will visit the 1000-year old Lund Cathedral. We will have time to look in shops in Lund and have lunch there. Dave and Barb Anderson have hosted the Rökeblås (Röke is the village the founder of the band lived in and blås is the Sweden word for “blow”) band for ten US tours over the past 40 years.
    [Show full text]
  • Elephant TAG/SSP Key Messages
    Elephant TAG/SSP Key Messages The most important thing that we can do to positively influence visitors about elephants and elephant conservation is to be clear about the messages, communicate them positively and succinctly and to use staff to reinforce them personally. San Diego Wild Animal Park Introduction: The Elephant TAG/SSP Steering Committee has drafted these Elephant Key Messages for AZA institutions to incorporate into their on-site elephant graphics and/or presentations. We also hope that they will be a useful resource as you craft future programs or refine current ones. Our goal was to create elephant natural history, conservation, management and welfare messages that would be meaningful, relevant and inspiring to all. With so much confusion around the general public’s view of elephant management, this document includes important, consistent information to share with visitors about the high quality of elephant care and welfare in responsible AZA institutions. These messages are not meant to be delivered all at once, but rather to select one or a few messages that suit a program’s objectives. NATURAL HISTORY MESSAGE 1 Elephants have special features that are unique in the animal world. • Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. • Their unique trunk acts as part nose, part hand to assist in breathing, detecting odors, manipulating objects, social interactions, eating, dust bathing, drawing-up water and releasing water into the mouth. • Elephants have the longest gestation of any land animal of 21.5 months. • Elephants have the largest brain of any land animals. • Elephants are long lived. Studies have shown that life expectancy at birth in African elephants is 41 years for females and 24 years for males.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magazine of Corpus Christi College
    8 0 0 2 s a m l e a h c i M 6 1 e u s s I The magazine of Corpus Christi College Cambridge SttuarrttLaiing PaullWarrrren CorrpussCllocck FiirrssttTellephone New Mastterr New Burrsarr unveiilled Campaiign Contents 3 The Master’s Introduction Stuart Laing, Master 4 Stuart Laing takes up Mastership 8 The Office of Treasurer appointed 10 The Corpus Clock 12 Paul Warren, Bursar 14 Nick Danks, Director of Music 16 Alumni Fund & Telephone Campaign 18 Christopher Kelly: Attila the Hun 19 Paul Mellars receives an award 20 John Hatcher: The Black Death 21 Concert dates, for Ryan Wigglesworth 22 Twenty five years of the Admission of women 26 Student summer internship 27 New Junior Common Room Editor: Liz Winter Managing editor: Latona Forder-Stent Assistant editor: Lucy Gowans Photographers: Philip Mynott Andisheh Photography (Andisheh Eslamboil m2000) Stephen E Gross: Atllia the Hun Jeremy Pembrey: Corpus Clock Alexander Leiffheidt ( m2001): John Hatcher Greg E J Dickens: Chapel Organ Dr Marina Frasca-Spada Nigel Luckhurst: Ryan Wigglesworth Manni Mason Photography: Paul Mellars Jet Photographic Eden Lilley Photography Occasional Photography Produced by Cameron Design & Marketing Ltd www.cameronacademic.co.uk Master’s Introduction Dear Alumni and friends of Corpus, Gerard Duveen 4 March 1951 – 8 Nov 2008 I write having taken up the Mastership just three weeks ago. I am naturally delighted – and honoured – The Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi are to be here, at a desk looking out into New Court where sad to announce the death of Dr Gerard so many of my distinguished predecessors have Duveen, Fellow of the College and Reader in sat before.
    [Show full text]
  • Musgrave, George. 2020. Avicii: True Stories - Review
    Musgrave, George. 2020. Avicii: True Stories - Review. Dancecult Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, 12(1), pp. 94-97. ISSN 1947-5403 [Article] https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/28935/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] 94 Dancecult 12(1) Avicii: True Stories Dir. Levan Tsikurishvili USA: Black Dalmation Films, OPA People Production, Piece of Magic Entertainment, and SF Bio, 2017. <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7357302/> <http://dx.doi.org/10.12801/1947-5403.2020.12.01.15> George Musgrave Goldsmiths, University of London (UK) University of Westminster (UK) It is extremely hard to review a documentary like Avicii: True Stories and disentangle myself from the research on mental health and the music industry which I have spent the last four years immersed in (Gross and Musgrave 2016; 2017; 2020). With almost every minute that passes of this profoundly sad, and at times chilling film, I found myself thinking that, in many respects, what I was watching was one of the most extreme case studies imaginable for the conceptual architecture we have developed to try and grapple with the potential for toxicity which a music career presents.
    [Show full text]
  • The Distribution of Proboscidea (Elephants) Professor Dr
    The Distribution of Proboscidea (Elephants) Professor Dr. Erich Thenius [In: Kosmos #5, May, pp. 235-242, 1964, Stuttgart] When I speak here about animals with a trunk, I do not mean the tapirs or pigs, but I refer only to the elephants and their ancestors, like the Mastodons and Dinotheria which we call the Proboscidea (after the Greek: proboscis = trunk). Their main characteristic is their remarkable trunk which has been fashioned to become a “gripping” organ. That organ was not present in the geologically oldest ancestors whose skeletons stem from the deposits of the Eocene (old Tertiary) in Africa. Even though we have no “soft tissues” of those animals, their skeletal features suffice to tell the scientist just what their bodily characteristics would have been. Thus also, we are not really going to discuss much about their distribution in historic times, but rather, we will concentrate on the development of these characteristic mammals, from their inception to their distribution in the past. A history of the Proboscidea is necessarily a history of their distribution in time and space. Information of these animals is available from numerous fossil findings in nearly all continents. But, before we even consider the fossil history, let us take a quick look of the current distribution of elephants which is shown in Figure 1. Nowadays, there are only two species of elephants: the Indian and African elephants. They not only differ geographically but also morphologically. That is to say, they are different in their bodily form and in their anatomy in several characteristics as every attentive zoo visitor who sees them side-by-side easily observes: The small-eared Indian elephant (Elephas maximus) has a markedly bowed upper skull; the African cousin (Loxodonta africana) has longer legs and markedly larger ears.
    [Show full text]