Books offered by JF Ptak Science Books

Taxes and Business Survivng Nuclear Holocaust, 1967

ITEM: Social and Behavioral Factors in the Implementation of Local Survival and Recovery Activities (written by William Chenault, Richard Engler and Peter G. Nordhie in August 1967. Published by Human Sciences Research, Inc., of McLean,Virginia.  11x8  87pp+xiipp+3pp.   Fine condition.   $125

JF Ptak Science Books   Post 1430

In the entirety of the text of Social and Behavioral Factors in the Implementation of Local Survival and Recovery Activities (written by William Chenault, Richard Engler and Peter G. Nordhie in August 1967) there is little evidence that its authors fought to rid themselves of their Thesaurus of Obfuscation.  A dissected version of their effort would've made for good, clean fun, adding their bits to a Menckenian database of extraordinarily-written governmentese, but since all of this involved surviving thermonuclear war, the "fun" part is obliterated.  What, exactly, was it that the authors were trying to accomplish?  Perhaps in all of it they weren't constructing anything devious at all--perhaps their incredible assault on meaning was simply written in a language understood by their audience.  That, or they really didn't intend to have heard what they were trying to say,, if there was anything that was being said at all. (This report is available from our blog bookstore.)

The baseline to this pamphlet is this:  that in a post-thermonuclear war United States there will be survivors; the survivors will have "hardships", but the hardships will be overcome; the key issue is to get survivors to work together to put the country back on its feet militarily and economically;  survivors will need "incentives" to work together; the strong will survive, and others will have to be thrown under the bus.  There will be worries about compensation for destroyed property, shipping schedules, trust in money, and a certain amount of debt forgiveness.  There will be tax--sales tax.

There is no mention of the amount of death or the continuation of the dying in the year or two post-attack, but there is a graph, and the graphs not pretty.  It doesn't get very much mention. 

“...communities of [nuclear] disaster struck individuals need to define their needs and activities in the immediate context of the community”. pg. 5.

 “The tendency of nuclear disaster is to isolate communities..” pg 6

I've written often on this blog¹ about spectacularly bad thinking in planning for post-Apocalypse thermonuclear war America, mostly on government/agency reports that write about the impossible being done by survivors in impossible ways, painting the specter of impossibility and liquid death in turgid, unprovable prose.

This study reports of the ways in which American society can survive and rebuild following a devastating nuclear/thermonuclear war. The authors list five consequences of “severe attack”:

#1. Tremendous destruction of property...

#2. Disruption of transportation and shortage of fuel for motive power together with an associated disruption of regional specialization and significant breaks in geographical continuity.

#3. Drastic reorientation of effective economic demand”

#4 . General disruptions of normal interindustry flows

#5. Shortages of technical and professional manpower in some fields.

I particularly like #3. Also the use of words like “shortages” and “disruption”.  And why they stopped there I really don't know. 

Much of the report is an examination of how to get the surviving elements of society back on its feet via carrot-and-stick methods, coaxing people into working together, with the eventual goal of restructuring the country, building America back again, observing capitalism, the tax codes, exchanging labor exchange units for goods and services.

“Personal and group motivations would continue to be related to economic organization and production as they are in the preattack society” (pg 1)

“It follows that the nature and direction of many recovery activities will be determined by national, not local, requirements” (pg 3)

“Individuals must be motivated to implement policies and perform activities dictated by national economic interests”. (pg 4)

It is assumed that the character of the post-attack country would be pretty much the same as it was before thermonuclear war, and that we all want to return there. The report states that one of the most important elements of that society is the military and its capacity to protect people and industry. Therefore the survivors of nuclear war must be induced to work on a national scale to maintain the military and thus the stability of whatever was left of society, in spite of the fact that “in the heaviest attack, the loss of familiar landmarks, relationships and dependencies would be unsettling to survivors”.  (I'm not sure what “dependencies” relates to, whether they are child or the need for pharmaceuticals or the need to watch the news on television. This is unclear.)

Generally, there are a host of activities suggested to compel compliance, depending on where a community is in a 9-part destruction grid. There are incentives like food and water, medical treatment, and of course loan forgiveness. These inducements must be considered because enforcing compliance militarily is not an option, as the report states:

“It is doubtful whether a very widespread employment of a force to secure participation in recovery activities is feasible” (pg 7)

Meaning I guess that the U.S. Armed Forces will no the enforcing mandatory compliance schedules for recovery—or at least they weren't writing about it “preattack”.

But the authors clearly assume that there will be something approximately preattack life in the post-attack world. Amidst the horror and chaos, we read that

“Businessmen, in particular, but others as well, would experience disturbing and subtle changes in familiar institutions and in such bases of mutual trust as methods of establishing or verifying credit...or estimating delivery dates”--pg 11.

“Disturbing and subtle” changes to delivery, indeed.

We further read of “widespread readjustments of status, status symbols, and values” (page 11) which no doubt would come if all of your possessions were burned up, or lost or destroyed in some way, along with the owner. It is definitely difficult to maintain status relationships in the evidence of no status and no relationships. Of course this whole deal is complicated by the issue that status symbols are also relationships and associations, much of which could also be gone in the same fire cloud.

If your valuables and house and such weren't destroyed, then you were expected to go out and work for the community, and not spend your time inside your house protecting it from people who didn't have anything.  This issue is sort of addressed here:

"Measures for the control of displaced persons, obviating the necessity of individuals devoting their time to the protection of their homes, represent one form of indirect influence on the motivation of potential workers to abandon maintenance activities." (pg 50).

Which means, I think, that there will be some sort of control or protection so that people don't need to spend their time securing their possessions. 

But the thing that will make people work for the greater good, the compliance with the orders of rebuilding the country, will be "economic incentives...or a penalty for nonparticipation)".  Payment would be made with money or food.  The next incentive:  housing, or "more desirable dwelling places for those participating in recovery activities".    It remained to be seen though in this report what it was specifically that represented "recovery activities" or how the compensation per work bit was handed out. 

One way to raise the necessary capital to fund this post-attack world was through taxes, "a structure of indirect taxes could be developed, with higher rates applied to non-essential goods".  (pg 53).    On the other hand, just a few paragraphs later, the authors discuss getting rid of an income tax in favor of direct taxes, which means that taxes survive  the atomic nightmare. 

This continues on and on, a cascade of some wincing ideas tumbling over themselves, settling into a confusing mist of wording and logic that is difficult to translate.  Perhaps that was the inention.  Perhaps not.  There's not much left in the bottom of a smoking, radioactive hole, except for smoke and radiation.

Lastly, I wonder why “post-attack” is hyphenated in these reports and “preattack” isn't?

Notes

1. See for example Bad Grandeur, Predicting Post-Nuke USA (1966) and the Loss of 76% of all Authors

The Nonsense of Strategically Meaningful Phrases, Finding Pillows int eh Post-Nuclear Attack World, 1968

Ueber-Spectacular Understatement Department, the Happy Post-Apocalyptic America and the "Awkwardness of Nuclear Holocaust, and others.)

An Uncommon Mathematical Biography

Porro, Francesco.  "Notize Intorno alla Vita de agli Scritti di Guiseppe Zecchini Leonelli, Matematico Cremonese."  Published in Rome, Typografia delle Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche,1886.  Offprint:  Bulletino di Bibliografia e di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche, tomo XVIII, Nov-Dec, 1885.  10x8 inches, 22pp.  In the original wrappers.  Removed at some distant point from a larger bound volume. Nice condition.  $95

I found the following biographical information on Leonelli in The Academy, 20 April 1878, page 348:

"In the year XI. of the old French Republic (1802-3) Zecchini Leonelli, born at Cremona in 1776, two years after Flower's death, and hence at twenty-six years of age, printed (he himself «ays "public," but M. Hoiiel says, "Leonelli n'avait pas mis son ouvrage dans le commerce,") his now celebrated Supplement Logarithmique, one single copy of which is known to exist, in the library of the city of Bordeaux, bearing the inscription: "Ex dono Autoris." Leonelli became subsequently physical assistant of Prof. Mossotti at Corfu, where he died in 1847. His book, -which is in every respect remarkable, was reprinted in 1875 with a biographical notice, by M. Hoiiel, professor of pure mathematics at Bordeaux, for 4 fr., and I recommend every one who is interested in the subject to order a copy of the •publisher, Gauthier-Villars, in Paris. In the original memoir, which Leonelli submitted to the French Academy,he rediscovered Briggs's method. In one of the paragraphs added to his own impression of that

Original Blueprints for the SCP of the UNIVAC, 1950-1955

Original Blueprint Block Diagrams of the “Steering Wheel” of the First Commercially Available Digital Computer, the UNIVAC I

 Three items, as follows.

(1) (Untitled Blueprint) of the Schematics of the Main Computer and Supervisory Control Panel of the UNIVAC I. 18X24 inches. Printed in purple on off-white paper, Undated, ca. 1950-1955.

Condition: the blueprint has eight old folds from when it had been quarter-folded many years ago. There is some amount of yellowing and some browning along fold lines. The sheet of paper itself is still strong and far from brittle. An old two-inch tear has been repaired on the reverse with acid-free Japanese tissue adhesive. In general, this is a better-than-Good item, conservatively speaking.

(2) (Untitled Blueprint) of the Supervisory Control Panel for the UNIVAC.

18x24 inches. Printed in brown(ish) ink on off-white paper. Undated, ca. 1950-1955.

Condition very similar to the item above.

The blueprint shows the entire schematic for the supervisory control panel, a unit which in effect controlled the computer (which was an assembly of units some of which could be operated independently of the SCP).

UNIVAC Computer System
"The first commercially available electronic computer, UNIVAC I, was also the first computer to handle both numeric and textual information. Designed by John Presper Eckert, Jr., and John Mauchly, whose corporation subsequently passed to Remington Rand, the implementation of the machine marked the beginning of the computer era. Here, a UNIVAC computer is shown in action. The central computer is in the background, and in the foreground is the supervisory control panel. Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC machine to the U.S. Bureau of Census in 1951."--

OFFERED WITH:

Supervisory Control Operations. Copyright 1950, Eckert-Mauchly Corp, subsidiary of Remington-Rand. Dated 5/22/1950. Mimeographed sheets, stapled, 11x8.5 inches, 20pp.   Fine condition.

(Please write for pricing.)

Elegant Chronological Representation of Ancient World History

Elegant Chronological Ancient World History

This is a beautiful chronology interspersed with both single-word and lengthy annotations of events, all elegantly displayed and presented.  For example, the first entry:  :”Cain, the First Man Born of Woman, he followed husbandry, he murdered his Brother, and went to live in the land of Nod, where he built the first city, and named it after his first son, Enoch:  his posterity were called the Children of Man”  (all this being printed in about 2-point in a 1.5” square).  The set of six engravings:  $450

"From Adam to the Maccabee" Sheet 1:

 

Printed on six sheets of  9x12” heavy  paper by Wilkinson in London, 1808. 

Very finely printed and very nicely colored by hand—both uncommonly so. 

The sheets are entitled:

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the First Age of the World, or the Ante-Diluvian Patriarhs

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the Second Age of the World, or the Post-Diluvian Patriarches from the Deluge to the Call of Abraham, including the Foundation of Nations and the Origins of Languages

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the Third Age of the World from the Call of Abraham to the Exodus or the Israelites leaving Egypt.

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the Fourth Age of the World, from the Exodus  from Egypt to the Dedicating the Temple by Solomon, including the Judges and High Priests

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the Fifth Age of the World…to the Babylonian Captivity, including the High Priests, with the Kings of Judah and Israel

--Chrono-Genealogical Chart of the Sixth Age of the World from the Babylonian Captivity to the Incarnation of the Messiah, including the Sovereigns of the Maccabees. 

A Child’s Image of the 15th President as General during the Seminole Wars, Florida

A Child’s Image of the 15^th President as General during the Seminole Wars, Florida

Graphite on paper, being a very naïve  and lovely drawing of Zachary Taylor.  6x 8 inches.  $450

Zachary Taylor was born at Montebello, Orange County, Va., on Nov. 24, 1784. Embarking on a military career in 1808, Taylor fought in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Seminole War, meanwhile holding garrison jobs on the frontier or desk jobs in Washington. A brigadier general as a result of his victory over the Seminoles at Lake Okeechobee (1837), Taylor held a succession of Southwestern commands and in 1846 established a base on the Rio Grande, where his forces engaged in hostilities that precipitated the war with Mexico. He captured Monterrey in Sept. 1846 and, disregarding Polk's orders to stay on the defensive, defeated Santa Anna at Buena Vista in Feb. 1847, ending the war in the northern provinces.

Though T aylor had never cast a vote for president, his party affiliations were Whiggish and his availability was increased by his difficulties with Polk. He was elected president over the Democrat Lewis Cass. During the revival of the slavery controversy, which was to result in the Compromise of 1850, Taylor began to take an increasingly firm stand against appeasing the South; but he died in Washington on July 9, 1850, during the fight over the Compromise. He married Margaret Mackall Smith in 1810. His bluff and simple soldierly qualities won him the name Old Rough and Ready.

Massive Display of All of the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1909

Panorama of the British Navy at its Height  1909, 15 x 90 inches

The Illustrated London News Panorama of the Force We Must Maintain:  a Navy Adequate in Strength to ensure our Shores from Invasion, our Empire from Hostile Attempts, and our Trade from Destruction in War.

Two long, folding sheets published as a special supplement in the “Illustrated London News”, March 27, 1909, after paintings by Norman Wilkinson.  Each sheet 45 inches long and are intended to be joined,  and so make a very impressive 15”x90” display.  

The images of the ships are very detailed, and the key at the bottom identifies 183 warships (with notes on tonnage, armament, speed and age).   The pair, $450

 

An Unusual RAND (CIA) Document on the Cuban Revolution of 1961

“The American people are entitled to know whether we are intervening in Cuba or intend to do so in the future…The answer to that question is no. What happens in Cuba is for the Cuban people to decide.”--Secretary of State Dean Rusk, April 17, 1961, 2 days in to the CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba. 

James Farmer.  Notes on the 1961 Cuban Revolution.  US Air Force Project Rand Report, May 1, 1961.  Internal Rand Document published (with fittingly bad timing) May Day 1961 on the failures of the “Cuban revolution”—the same day as Castro’s May Day speech proclaiming his overwhelming victory. 

Farmer states in his opening line:  “If tacticians and political scientists can learn from errors, the first 1961 Cuban Revolution should be invaluable”. 

Farmer evidently was sending a message in this medium as he refers again and again to the “first 1961” Cuban Revolution”.    $300

David Bohm on the "New" Plasma, 1949

Bohm, David and E.P. Gross.  "Theory of Plasma Osciallations A, Origin of Medium-Like Behavior." (pp 1851-1863).  "Theory of Plasma Oscialltion B, Excitations and Damping of Oscillations". (pp 1864-1877).   Both papers in the same issue of The Physical Review, volume 75/number 12, 15 June 1949.  Original printed wrappers.  Very good condition.  $195

From the Niels Bohr Library,  "Interview with Dr. David Bohm, by Lillian Hoddeson, at the home of the Bohms, Edgware, London, May 8, 1988". 

Hoddeson:

Returning to Bohm and Gross, the first paper develops a theory of an unbounded plasma, and the mechanism for such oscillation. The second one includes the collisions and instabilities produced by part of the sharply defined velocity, and excitation and the damping of oscillations. The last one is on boundary effects. This then laid the basis for the work you then did with Pines.

Bohm:

Yes, it helped there. It helped lay a basis. It wasn’t a complete basis, but it helped clear up quite a few questions that had to be cleared up in order to do this other work about what we meant by a plasma, and so on, and how it all worked.

From the PROLA website: 

"Received 13 January 1949; published in the issue dated June 1949

A theory of electron oscillations of an unbounded plasma of uniform ion density is developed, taking into account the effects of random thermal motions, but neglecting collisions.

The first problem considered is that of finding the frequencies at which a plasma can undergo organized steady-state oscillations of small enough amplitude so that a linear approximation applies. It is found that long wave-length oscillations of plasmas with a Maxwell distribution of electron velocities are characterized by the steady-state dispersion relation ω²=ω_P²+(3κT/m)(2π/λ)². Here ω_P is the plasma frequency, T the absolute temperature of the electron gas, λ the wave-length, and ω the angular frequency of oscillation. It is also shown that organized oscillations of wave-lengths smaller than the Debye length for the electron gas are not possible.

The theory is then extended to describe the processes by which oscillations are set up. It is found that, for a given wave-length, a plasma can oscillate with arbitrary frequency, but that those frequencies not given by the steady-state dispersion relation describe motions in which, after some time, there is no contribution to macroscopic averages. These additional frequencies lead asymptotically only to microscopic fluctuations of the charge density about the organized oscillation of the plasma. In this way, one can describe the manner in which the system develops organized behavior.

The treatment is then applied to large steady-state oscillations for which the equations are non-linear. One obtains solutions in which particles close to the wave velocity are trapped in the trough of the potential, oscillating back and forth about a mean velocity equal to that of the wave. One can also obtain non-linear traveling pulse solutions in which a group of particles, moving as a pulse, creates a reaction on the surrounding charge, which traps the particles and holds them together."

John Todd on Erroir in Digital Computation, 1965

Todd, John.  "The Problem of Error in Digital Computation."  Offprint in mimeo of Todd's contribution to L.B.  Rall's Error in Digital Computation, (1965).  11x8, 38pp, offset printed.  Staple bound.  Very good condition.  $125

Obituary of Prof. Todd (1911-2007, professor at the California Institute of Technology) from Caltech (2007): 'Todd's legacy and impact on modern-day mathematics can be seen in his contributions to analysis, linear algebra, and computation. His work was a precursor to and helped shape the foundation for today's computer science field. An emeritus professor at the California Institute of Technology, Todd developed the first undergraduate courses at Caltech in numerical analysis and numerical algebra, which play a key role in scientific computing..."

Review from The Computer Journal, 1966:  " 'The Problem of Error in Digital Computation', by John Todd.
Starting with the assertion that it does not appear feasible to perform rigorous error analyses of the traditional kind
for all algorithms, or to accompany all computations by automatic error analyses, Professor Todd argues that we need to change our standards of acceptability. He surveys interpolation, square roots, eigenvalues of symmetric matrices, Monte Carlo methods, good error estimates and controlled numerical experiments. He prefers "cheap" error estimates, i.e. those which can be had fo r a fraction of the work needed to produce the result itself. The controlled numerical experiments are to be carried out on new algorithms using specially prepared sets of test data. Only algorithms which perform well in the experiments or are otherwise interesting need be subjected to more complete error analysis."

WIlliam Karush, 1962

Karush, William (1917-1997, Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1942). Mathematical Programming, Man-Computer Search and System Control.  SDC (System Development Corporation), Santa Monica, California.  Published 16 May 1962, SP-828.  11x8 inches, 33pp (mimeographed (?)) sheets, staple bound.  Very good condition.  $150

Abstract: "This analysis falls into two main parts -- the first describes some current research work in mathematical programming and related fields; the second presents some general aspects of computer methods and applications which may influence the future work of researchers in mathematical methods of system optimization throughout the country." (Author)

"William Karush (1 March 1917 – 22 February 1997) was a professor emeritus of Cal State Northridge, and is a mathematician  best known for his contribution to Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. He was the first to publish the necessary conditions for the inequality constrained problem in his Masters thesis, although he became renowned after a seminal conference paper by Harold W. Kuhn and Albert W. Tucker."-_Wiki mathematical biography.