LINDA HALL LIBRARY HEDGEHOGNUMBER 62 • FALL 2018 INSIDE Kansas City Engineer Gives Back to the Library pag e 8 The Unusual Suspects pag e 10 The Napoleonic Internet pag e 1 2 President’s Message Library News Print Is Here A Good Way To to Stay at the Start Your Saturday Linda Hall Library This fall’s Second Saturday Conversations offer an eclectic mix of topics of interest. arlier this year, Publisher’s Weekly Learn more at lindahall.org. E reported that 682 million printed books were sold in 2017, or 8 million September 8, 11:00 a.m. more than in 2016. This follows a 3.3 Sports Concussion Awareness percent increase in 2015. In fact, the Dr. Michael A. Rippee, assistant professor number of books sold each year since 2013 has increased of Neurology at the University of Kansas over the previous year. If the printed book allegedly is on Medical Center life support, this is a surprising sign of vitality. October 13, 11:00 a.m. Printing arrived in the West from Asia over 500 years ago, To Be Announced spreading rapidly throughout Europe and the New World, increasing literacy and access to knowledge. A resilient November 10, 10:00 a.m. technology, printing has persisted due to its utility and the lack How Do I Become an Engineer? of a viable alternative until the advent of digital technology. Designed for high school and college Print’s demise is not imminent, but it is endangered. Eventually, undergraduate students, the event will all newly-created knowledge will only be recorded digitally. include a panel discussion with engineers, and a discussion with members of area As a receptacle of intellectual history, the printed record engineering schools. must be preserved. Contrary to belief, the sum of all human knowledge has not been digitized, and given its magnitude, December 8, 11:00 a.m. it is unlikely that it ever will be. But we must remember that Coffee with the Curator digitized information is not safe from decay. It is fragile and A discussion of Flying Machines must be refreshed regularly or else suffer from progressive and early aviation. degradation until it is unreadable. Currently, the only way to assure intellectual history’s continued availability is to retain printed publications. Where Were You When We Landed on the Moon? Retaining scientific information in print is at the heart of the Where were you when Neil Armstrong Linda Hall Library’s mission, and the investment in ensuring the said, “One small step for (a) man. collection’s longevity through conservation and preservation One giant leap for mankind”? The is considerable. To that end, our climate-controlled stacks are Library is collecting memories of the free of dust and harmful contaminants. While our collections night of July 20, 1969 for its Spring continue to be digitized for ease of use, print will not be set exhibition celebrating the 50th aside in favor of electronic formats. As “guardians of science’s anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon collective intellectual heritage,” we will strive to secure the long- landing. We’re also collecting images term survival of the printed record, and its availability for use. of memorabilia. Both of which will be used on a special web page to commemorate the anniversary. Send images and recollections to VP for Lisa M. Browar, President Communications Jon Ratliff at ratliffj@ On the cover: U.S. Patent 398,984 to R.J. Spalding “Flying Machine,” patented lindahall.org. March 5, 1889. 2 Library News Record Number of Fellows to Conduct Research The Linda Hall Library is pleased to announce the recipients of its research fellowships for the 2018-19 academic year. These scholars will receive financial support to travel to Kansas City between June 2018 and August 2019 to conduct research in the Library’s extensive collections. The 16 scholars comprise the largest fellowship cohort in the Library’s history. Notices will appear in the Hedgehog Express e-newsletter and on social media regarding upcoming research presentations by fellows. The Library will begin accepting applications for 2019-20 in September with an application deadline in January 2019. Learn more about the fellows and the application process at lindahall.org/research/fellowships. Jordan Bimm Rebecca Egli Rocio Gomez 2018-19 Linda Hall Library Fellows Edward Halley Barnet (Stanford Gerard Fitzgerald (George Mason Gustave Lester (Harvard University) Residential Fellow University) Residential Fellow University) Travel Fellow Homo Musicus: The Early Modern The Nature of War: An Environmental Interstate Geology: Mapping Musical Science of the Body History of Industrialization in the the Raw Materials of Industry, United States During World War I 1809-1867 Jordan Bimm (York University) Residential Fellow Sadegh Foghani (University of Stefan Peychev (University of Putting Mars in a Jar: The Military South Carolina) Residential Fellow Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Origin of Astrobiology Engineering the Revolution: Residential Fellow American Pragmatism, French Fire and Water: The Hydrothermal Katrin Boniface (University of Thermodynamics, and the Formation Landscapes of the Balkans in California, Riverside) Travel Fellow of Religious and Political Thoughts Western Travel Literature Manufacturing the Horse in 20th-Century Iran Brent Purkaple (University of John Bukowski (Juniata College) Rocio Gomez (University of Oklahoma) Travel Fellow Travel Fellow Arkansas) Residential Fellow Visualizing the Unseen: Mathematics at the Time of the Victors and Vanadium: Scientific The Jesuits and Optical Illusions Development of Calculus Discovery in the Age of Revolutions in Early Modern Europe Rebecca Egli (University of Emily Herring (University of Leeds) Peter Soppelsa (University of California, Davis) Residential Fellow Residential Fellow Oklahoma) Travel Fellow Seeds of Misfortune: Food, Crop Philosophical Biology: The Reception The World War on Rats Diversity, and the Simplification of of Henry Bergson’s Creative Evolution American Nature in French and British Biology Henry Zepeda (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) Aaron Fine (Truman State Mira Kohl (Tulane University) Residential Fellow University) Travel Fellow Residential Fellow The Epitome Almagesti: Critical Color Theory: A Critical Introduction A Railway for South American Unity: Edition and Study Bolivian and Brazilian State Building along the Frontier, 1935-1964 Library News continued on page 14 3 Cal Rodgers at the controls of the Vin Fiz. “Calbraith Rodgers Makes His Last Flight.” Fly Magazine, vol. 4, no. 7, 1912. By Richard P. Hallion 4 albraith Perry “Cal" Rodgers (1879-1912) is one of the most intriguing, enigmatic, and ultimately tragic of early American aviators. An ever- present cigar, cloth cap, and rough jacket gave him the appearance of a working-class laborer, but he came from a distinguished and well-to-do military family, his ancestors including Captain Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew Perry. A childhood illness robbed Rodgers of much of his hearing, and the military career he earnestly desired (he went to Columbia University instead). Rodgers was an adventurous and outstanding all-around athlete and sportsman, though impulsive and given to a reserved, even taciturn, moodiness. Rodgers took up aviation, attending the Wright School at Dayton and soloing after just 90 minutes of instruction. He proved this two months after graduation when he won a $11,285 (approximately $285,000 in 2018) prize at a Chicago air competition. In the fall of 1910, just seven years after the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst announced a $50,000 prize (worth approximately $1.3 million in 2018) for the first aviator to complete a flight across the United States from coast to coast in 30 days or less. Hearst’s challenge was a formidable one, and only five aviators took it up. Of these, Harry Atwood and Earle Ovington, both veteran pilots, seemingly had the best chance. But Atwood could not secure financing, and Ovington crashed at his start and abandoned his attempt. Thus, only Robert Fowler, James Ward, and Rodgers competed. Fowler left first, taking off on September 11, 1911 from San Francisco’s Golden State Park. Ward, flying a Curtiss biplane, left from New York’s Governor’s Island on September 13. Rodgers left last, taking off from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on 5 Rodgers followed rail lines across the country and took a southernly route after departing Kansas City to avoid the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada. Ward, Baldwin, ed. “First Transcontinental Flight.” Flight: A Pictorial History of Aviation. Simon & Schuster, 1953. September 17 in a brand-new Wright Model EX (for parts and materials, with a Pullman car and coach “Experimental”) biplane constructed specially for him. for Rodger’s mechanics and the pilot’s relatives. Built of cloth-covered strut-and-wire-braced spruce By the time Rodgers took off, his rivals Fowler and spars, ribs, and longerons, the Model EX spanned Ward were delayed following accidents that threw not quite 32 feet, with a length of just over 21 feet. them off-schedule and eventually frustrated their Powered by a four-cylinder, 35-horsepower Wright own hopes of success. In contrast, Rodgers’ first water-cooled engine, it had a maximum speed of day aloft went so smoothly that he believed he approximately 52-miles per hour, carried 15 gallons could reach Chicago in four days. But this proved of gasoline, and had a flight endurance of three a cruel illusion: the next day he suffered the first of and a half hours. Its pilot sat in the open, exposed an eventual five serious crashes, though, with the to the elements. help of some solicitous citizens and local authorities at Middletown, New York, Rodgers, and their To finance his flight, Rodgers struck a deal with mechanics had the plane back in the air in just Armour & Company, marketing a grape-flavored two days.