JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
There aren't many illustrations of steamboats in the great physics/chemistry journal, Annalen der Physik. Rarer still is seeing a plan for such a vessel that includes something that is seldom included--can you find it? I've made an enlargement of it and posted it below the first image.
Here it is ("O"):
This identifies the "water closet", the bathroom, noted as "O", in two locations.
It seems to be little more than a tiny closet with a box with a hole in it, but, well, there it is.
I suspect that this is the first and last time a W.C. is pictured in one of the most important scientific journals in history.
Notes:
The engraved plate is found in Annalen der Physik, series I, vol 53; vi, 446pp., 1816, in the article "Noch einige neuere Zeitungs-Nathrichten, Dampfshiffe betreffend... (with a small folding plate, with two views of the vessel), pp 110-119. The volume also includes the following steamboat-related papers:
- "Einige geschichtliche Nachrichten von der Erfindung der Dampf-Schisffahtr..." pp 63-70;
- Robertson Buchanan, "Ueber die sogennten Dampfboote...", pp 70-77;
- Isaac Weld. "Die erste Serreise mit einem von einer Dampsmachine bewegetn Schiffe, vom Glasgow in Schotland um Cap Landsend nach London", pp 77-102;
- "Zwei schriben an Herrn Isaac Weld...die Dampf-Schiffharht und dem merkwurdigen...pp 102-110;
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