JF Ptak Science Books // Blog Bookstore

Elevator Cables, 1943

Selection and Maintenance of Elevator Cables.  American Chain and Cable Company, Bridgeport, Ct., 1943.  8"x 5", 64pp. Original (thick) wrappers. Very nicely designed. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their 10mm "LC" perforated stamp on bottom center front wrapper and their rubber stamp surplus on page 3.  

Scarce. NO copies located in WorldCat. 

$175

Interior Open Spaces in Cities and Reduction of Poor Health and Crime (1883)

Timothy Newell, M.D. The Sanitary, Physical, and Educational Advantages in Interior Open Areas in Large Cities. A Paper read Before the American Public Health Association. Boston, Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1883. 9x6 inches, 11pp. Original wrappers. Provenance: Brown University, and then the Library of Congress. Small “LC” perforated stamps on title and last page; LC surplus/duplicate rubber stamp on rear wrapper. Good copy. NO COPIES located in WorldCat/OCLC  $150

On the efficacy and use of park and open spaces in cities for the good of the health of the population.

Referred to as “a valuable paper” in the Report of a Conference on Charities and on Other Subjects Pertaining to the Prevention of Suffering, Pauperism, and Crime, published by the Charity Organization Society of Baltimore City, 1887.

Among  [Newell's]  published   papers are:   "What Changes Does Physiology Demand in  our School
System ?" read before the American Social Science Association at Saratoga, in 1876, and published in
the Sanitarian; as chairman of  a committee on school  hygiene, of  the  Rhode  Island  Medical
Society in 1875, he made a full report with  a series of resolutions, which were copied into several sani-
tary journals   and  commented;   "Interior  Open Spaces in Large Cities," read before the American
Public Health  Association.   He is also the  author of several  pamphlets  published  annually  for  ten
years  by the Public Parks Association,  and is author of  the  "Cyclopedia of Domestic Medicine  and
Hygiene," Bradley &  Woodruff,  Boston, 1890, a volume of 700 pages and 200 illustrations.”
--Physicians and Surgeons of America (Illustrated), a Collection of Biographical Sketches of the 
Regular Medical Profession. 1896. 

Filling Up the Harbor: NYC, 1935

Liberty Landing, by Charles E. Palliser (architect) and Frederick W. Capon (Designer and Delineator), Jackson Heights, NYC, September 16, 1935. Offset printed from typed originals. 13x8.5", 5 leaves, with one original photograph (4x11"). With original wrappers (detached).  Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate stamp on title page.  Good condition. $750

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

I recently uncovered an interesting, unpublished and probably not-acceptable engineering report to extend the ports capacity in the Hudson River at New York City--the ports of the  area being famously over-busy for a long period of time, especially right before World War II.  Charles Palliser and Frederick W. Capon presented a proposal in 1935 for a unification of the port and airport facilities to take care of the overcrowding and overworked problem.

What they came up with was Liberty Landing, a mile-long and half-mile-wide facility that nearly bumped into the Statue of Liberty (and hence its name).  The plan called for backfilling the “flats” that were just south of Jersey City, as “the natural formation of these were very favorable”, which meant that the airport-port combo would extend all the way into the harbor to the edge of the channel, which would put it further out than the Statue of Liberty, which would also be just hundreds of feet away from the end of the north runway.

Also attached to the backfill and new land would be a one-mile-long floating dock.  Oh my!

The floating island would also have vehicular tunnels that connected it to Staten Island and the Battery.  There were facilities for seaplanes, airplanes, railroads, dirrigbles, and trucks, plus a military installation, a custom’s house and the US Mail Service, so that all commerce would converge at this one point, which sounds interesting (for about 20 seconds). 

This is a good candidate for the “Better Left Undone” award for 1935.

As I look at the photograph of the aerial view of the plan it strikes me that if the designers increased the surface area by only 125% or so they could’ve connected the new facility with Governor’s Island AND Brooklyn, building a land bridge from Jersey City to Coney Island—a superbly bad idea to cap an already strongly bad idea. 

The report is called, simply, Liberty Landing, and published by the architect in Jackson Heights, NYC, 16 September 1935.  This is also the U.S. Copyright Deposit copy (accepted 10 October 1935), which is where the history of this project ends.

The Super-Safe Fireproof House of Tomorrow, Today (ca. 1935)

The Super-Safe Home of the Future, published by the Brick Manufacturers' Association of America, Cleveland, Ohio, [1933] with the lead article by Andrew Rebori (1886 -1966, American architect who was a member of the Chicago School of architecture--from a Wiki biography).  278x218mm, 50pp.  Printed paper wrappers, and printed on a heavier slick paper. Nice copy save for some compression marks on some of the pages. $95  Scarce: only  three copies located in WorldCat/OCLC (Columbia, Northwestern, and Oregon). The drawing of the house on the cover is that of a completed project which was included in an exhibition of homes for the Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago in 1933-4. 

This is a manufacturer's catalog for the construction of a fireproof, tornado-proof building of brick construction.  There are 14 plans for houses of different flavors, including a photo of the elevation of the completed project.  "A moderately price indestructible small home of reinforced brick masonry...all brick from the footings of the basement walls to the roof, including stairways, floors and partition walls, there is not an ounce of combustible material in it anywhere. In addition to  being absolutely fireproof its heavy reinforcement renders it immune to tornado or earthquake stresses..." Also: "under ordinary conditions in most localities it can be built for not to exceed $5,000."

[Cover]

A Good Piece of Thinking on Air Raid Shelters in the U.S., February 1942

Horace W. Peaslee, Air Raid Shelter Requirements ("An address delivered February 23, 1942, at the National Training Conference on Aerial Bombardment Protection".)

Peaslee was Chair of the Committee on Civilian Protection of the American Institute of Architects. 11x8.5, 16pp, offset publication printed on both sides, gathered by a staple at top left.  Nice copy. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate stamp on the back page. $95

If you think Peaslee's name seems familiar to you, it probably is--he is perhaps best remembered for being the designer of the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington showing the raising of the flag at Suribachi.

This is an interesting work, and Peaslee has an unusual, conversational style of writing as he basically thinks out loud about the issue of air raid shelters--and he starts right at the beginning, asking if they should be built in the U.S. at all. And if so, they shouldn't be built small, but very large, to accommodate a lot of people, explaining that individuals building their own private shelters may give rise to panic and then a run on supplies that were otherwise needed for the fighting war effort. So, overall, it is a pretty good piece of thinking, seeing how Peaslee asks and then answers all sorts of questions of himself.  This was simply a good piece of thinking. 

[The image above will become clearer when enlarged.]

A Great Map of the "Other" London Underground: the Sewer System, 1880

JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

In order ot have an Industrial Revolution, you need people, and the people (given the times) needed to live close to where they would work. Large number of people all living in close proximity to work means that they need to live close together; close together means that there needs to be essential services, like water. And of course with water you need a place for it all to "go"--and perhaps the "goingest" of water in the city would be for waste. So, if you can't get rid of waste, then you have no Industrial Revolution. Or something along those lines.

In any event that leads me into this fantastic map of the "other" London underground, the sewer system, the alternative outflowing lifeblood of the great city.

• [The London Sewer Map.] 16x20", lithographed in colors, printed in 1881.  Heavily repaired along folds on verso with acid-free tape.  Somewhat brittle.  A decent copy of a map on problematic paper.  $125

The map appears in the Report of the Results of an Examination Made in 1880 of Several Sewerage Works in Europe, by Rudolph Hering, in the Annual Report of the National Board of Health 1881 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1882), pp. 99-223.

And a detail:

Sumptuous and Large Depiction of the Old Testament "Creation", 1886

JF Ptak Science Books 

I'm in the midst of making several posts relating to a group of large (27x21") chromolithographs of the mosaics in San Marco (sumptuously published by Ferdinand Ongania in Venice in 1886.  The main part of this image is the story of creation, starting in the innermost circle of images, where we find the creation of light (and darkness),  and the rest, followed by the larger concentric circle showing the starry realms, the creation of the birds and fishes, then the land-based animals, and then (around "12 o'clock" on the second circle) comes the creation of life in Adam, where it all seems to go downhill.  In the outer ring we see the creation and presentation of Eve, the various temptations, the nakedness realizations and then the banishment--not all together a happy ending.  But the artwork is lovely, highlighted in gold. 

• [Creation Myth] Chromolithographic image from  Basilica di San Marino du Venezia, published by the prolific Ferdinand Ongania in 1886, 27x21", 68x53cm. Very good condition. $550   
• Ongania's work is an exhaustive study of the iconic building, the publication being known chiefly I think for its very large and sumptuous chromolithographs of the building's architecture, art, and endless detail. It forms two volumes of an overall monumental 12-volume epic, though these were complete in themselves.

 Image printed on a  very thick paper that will now crack if you try the double-fold test, so although the paper is stable you do not want to bend it, though you wouldn't want to do that, anyway.  Also all of the margins are not necessarily included in the photos--there were certain limitations in making the photographs, and some margins just didn't make ti entirely into the picture. IF you want more full images, please let me know and I'll send a jpeg detail shot.

Massively Detailed "Hyper" Geometric Mosaics, San Marco, 1886

JF Ptak Science Books

The following four engravings appeared in the massive La Basilica di San Marino du Venezia, published by the prolific Ferdinand Ongania in 1886.  It is an exhaustive study of the iconic building, the publication being known chiefly I think for its very large and sumptuous chromolithographs of the building's architecture, art, and endless detail. It forms two volumes of an overall monumental 12-volume epic, though these were complete in themselves.

But then there are these engraving, in wonderful black-and-white, showing with fantastic detail and with a deft touch the mosaics of the basilica.  I believe that there were six overall but I sold two some time ago and hadn't made a digital record of them.  Since I have these and another 22 images from that great work, and since I can't seem to find them online, I thought to make at least rudimentary photographs of them and share.  (Making the pictures was a little problematic, as they are pretty large at 27x21", so some of the lines are a little parabolic, though I think they're good enough given limited time to spend on them--also each image is at least 2 meg, so they can stand some amount of enlarging.)

The engravings (again, they are large at 27x21", 68x53cm, and are packed with detail). They are printed on a  very thick paper that will now crack if you try the double-fold test, so although the paper is stable you do not want to bend it, though you wouldn't want to do that, anyway.  Each sheet has a protective paper guard attached to it on the left side, covering the entire image--the reason why you may see a shadow along one long side is just from the rolled-back protective sheet not getting completely out of the way.  Also all of the margins are not necessarily included in the photos--there were certain limitations in making the photographs, and some margins just didn't make ti entirely into the picture. IF you want more full images, please let me know and I'll send a jpeg detail shot. 

These are large and gorgeous pieces of art, and have a certain value of beauty outside their architectural context. (The images are also very clickable.)

Mosaic engraving 1: $500

 

Mosaic engraving II:  $550

Couder's Visionary Architecture: Industrial/Scientific CIty (1842)

JF Ptak Science Books 

(Jean Baptiste) Amedee Couder wrote L'Architecture et l'industrie comme moyen de perfection sociale, a fine work that was published in Paris (by Brockhaus et Avenarius) in 1842.  The work presents Couder's rather stroing visionary plans for a perfect city of industrial and scientific harmony, laid out in suggestively-fractal harmony, with the suggestions of a Renaissance-laden snowflake design. Whatever it was, it was beautiful to look at, at least on paper, though I'm not so certain that I'd care to live in the canyonlands of stone and shadow on the other side of the garden wall of the perfect scientific-industrial conclave. 

JF Ptak Science Books   re: Post 1794

Kiesler, Frederick.  Architecture as Biotechnique.  Offprint:  Architectural Record, 1940. 12x9 inches, pp 60-75.  Original printed wrappers.  Nice copy.  There's a little bit of dust soiling around the edges of the pamphlet, and a ex-ownership mark on the back cover' there's also a 1/4-inch perforated "LC" stamp at the very bottom of the front cover, as this was part of the Library of Congress' Pamphlet Collection and a Copyright Office copy of the pamphlet. Rare.  SOLD

Frederick Kiesler (Director of the Laboratory of Design-Correlation, Columbia (University)  School of Architecture) has been called one of America's most influential non-building architects of the 20th century for his influence on a generation of modern thinkers and builders.  In a rare pamphlet--an offprint, actually-- called "Architecture as Biotechnique", which was a separate printing of an article Kiesler wrote for the Architectural  Record in 1939  (and printed in 1940, and appearing under the interior title of "Design Trends"), there is a very enticing peep into the future.  Kiesler was looking at ways of making his architecture more "organic", more in touch with the people who would live inside the building, a radical thinker on the design of living space,  and wrote about these ideas in a longer piece called Endless House in which he explained his "design-correlations" in 1937. 

[The cover of the Architectural Record article, which I find to be, well, highly unusual.]

His descriptions of his work escape me some, making me feel as though I've started the article in the middle, when in fact I'm just starting--mainly because of some unfamiliar usages of common words that have been redesigned by the author to mean something else or more...plus the deeply theoretically architectural stuff.  But the article starts with his study of the genetics of architecture and building design, and finishes with eight pages or so on the design for a differently-functioning piece of everyday house interaction--the bookshelves of a library.

It is in the section on the library that Kiesler includes a "Metabolism-Chart of Mobile-Home-Library" (and by this he's talking about a movable library within the home and not a library for a mobile home), the bottom part of which shows the evolution of the way in which information is presented in the library.  The "cultural nucleus" or the way in which the data is presented and the way the presented obecjt is stored, and starts with the scroll in 2000 BC (with pigeon-hole storing), then the bound volume  (stored on shelves, 1445 AD), then the the microfilm (stored by "filing", in 1937-1950 AD), all of which are leading up to "opto-phonetics", stored in photo-cell-unit(s), in 2000 AD.  The evolutionary part in all of this is the increase in concentration/direction, an ease in visual and manual efforts, as well as easing "torsal" ("bending, leaning, rising, turning") and "pedal" efforts (walking, moving, standing), making the acquisition and control of the data in the library over time.

Now Kieser doesn't actually decribe (here, anyway) what he means by photocell-driven opto-electronic information device, but in 1939/40, when this piece was written,, most of what this machien might be was left to the creative imagination--but the fact that Kiesler has come to this at all with the year 2000 as a probable time for its arrival is fairly remarkable. 

It is also interesting to see Kiesler's forensic analysis of the range of human motion regarding the selection of books from shelves (and using a Vesalius image for his 5'6" person):

Notes:

"The term "biotechnique" appeared first in my treaties on "Town Planning" as "Vitalbau", in De Stijl, No. 10/11, Paris 1925 and in America first in Hound and Horn, May 1934."--Kiesler, from his introduction.

"Introjection and Projection, Frederick Kiesler and his Dream Machine", an interesting read,  by Stephen Phillips, in Architecture and Surrealism, by Thomas Mical.