Abie2d ago
Master coinage!
#histsci #histtech https://www.futilitycloset.com/2026/03/16/charged-words-2/
Charged Words - Futility Closet

Electrical terms that Benjamin Franklin appears to have been the first to use, at least in print in English: armature battery brush charged charging condense conductor discharge electrical fire electrical shock electrician electrified electrify electrized Leyden bottle minus (negative or negatively) negatively non-conducting non-conductor non-electric plus (positive or positively) stroke (electric shock) uncharged This list is from Carl Van Doren’s 1938 biography. “Though he never lost sight of what was being done in electricity during his whole lifetime, he was perfectly willing to have his contributions to it absorbed in the enlarging science. They were absorbed, and it is now...

Futility Closet
Sara Pritchard4d ago
The fantasy (and hubris) of technological objects when they are in fact envirotechical things #histtech #envhist #envirotech

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cpmjppob3kswdrpr4oeo4cof/post/3mh3m2qyruk2z
Sara PritchardMar 12
Thinking about Joel Tarr's classic book, The Search for the Ultimate Sink. And the power of metaphors: sink vs. "crematorium" for satellites. #envhist #histtech

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f3jxtgz7tnwvzkpgzb6wsqqj/post/3mgu7vjfkcc2y
Sara PritchardMar 11
On this 15th anniversary of 3.11, #Fukushima as an envirotechnical disaster www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1093/... #envirotech #histtech #envhist #disasterstudies

An Envirotechnical Disaster: N...
AbieMar 9
Les étoiles artificielles sont moins funky que leur nom pourrait le laisser penser...
#histsci #histtech
https://colluniv.sorbonne-universite.fr/les_yeux_dans_les_etoiles/
Thony CFeb 28

The extraordinary, Renaissance, Swiss clockmaker; Jost Bürgi, was born 28 February 1552 #histsci #histtech

https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/a-swiss-clockmaker

A Swiss Clockmaker

We all have clichéd images in our heads when we hear the names of countries other than our own. For many people the name Switzerland evokes a muddled collection of snow-covered mountains, delicious…

The Renaissance Mathematicus
Thony CFeb 25

Englands first printed-globe maker. Emery Molyneux #histsci #histtech

https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/englands-first-printed-globe-maker/

Sara PritchardFeb 17
The #envhist #histtech of night skies, #night, #nightscapes, and space during a formative century of emergent #lightpollution 🌌🌠

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:vfktz6qe6vy7serr3wqutpzt/post/3melwhuadvt2u
Sara PritchardFeb 13
#TransformingNight 🌌💡🌃 🤩 #LightPollution #ArtificialLight #ALAN #Night #Darkness #LightJustice #envhist #envhum #envjustice #histtech #histsci #sts #Anthropocene
Fabienne GallaireJan 26
#artsci #histtech
https://social.coop/@afewbugs/115961376989473694
Jules she/her (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Different galls have different concentrations of tannin. @[email protected] used oak marble galls in the photos (named for obvious reasons) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andricus_kollari. Historically though in Europe the best ink was made from imported Aleppo galls from Syria - apparently Jane Austin was very particular about her ink and this was what she used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynips_quercusfolii I can't find the reference in the book right now, but a common name for Aleppo galls was apparently mad apple of Sodom!

social.coop