Photographic fundraising: Civil war philanthropy

Abstract

With the development of the carte de visite in the 1850s, an inexpensive, reproducible, and highly portable image could be used for propaganda campaigns aimed at the heart and purse strings of a susceptible public. One measure of the popularity and versatility of the carte de visite may be found in its use as a vehicle for fund-raising during and after the American Civil War. Wounded soldiers, orphaned children, widows, and needy victims had their causes promoted by means of these small (2 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.) card-mounted, albumen photographs. The card mount provided space for a verbal appeal, to increase the impact of tlie photograph itself.     

Studio sample sheet

Abstract

This enormous studio sample sheet, featuring nearly 850 famous faces, and figures, spread across seven feet of thin canvas, was perhaps displayed in the window or behind the counter of a photographic establishment, or carried to small towns in England and abroad by a travelling studio salesman, in the hope of satisfying a popular demand for pictures of the Royal Family, political figures, stage and music hall performers, and celebrities of the day¹ (Figure 1). Each tiny photograph carries a number; there are about 32 of these reduced images on each 4 ½ × 5 ½ in. albumen print, and 27 such prints pasted along the length of the canvas. They appear to have been reproduced by photographing a composite layout of printed portraits, as the images lack the sharpness of prints made directly from the negative. The first in a series of portraits of a particular person is labelled, and successive numbered poses of that person follow, until the next series begins. Thus, Lilly Langtry is featured in 25 poses, in the upper left-hand corner of the canvas roll, (Figure 2) and in four or five other poses on two other albumen sheets. Queen Victoria is offered in ten different views, (Figure 3) and the very popular Princess of Wales in at least 25 (Figures 4 and 5). Almost all of these celebrated faces are English, although the youthful German Emperor is shown (see Figure 4). The pictures of the ‘Duke of York's Wedding Group’ enable us to date the prints as after 6th July 1893 (see Figure 5), so it is likely that these images were offered in Promenade size (7 ½ ? 3 ¾ in.) or Boudoir (8 ¼ × 5 in.) style, both of which were popular in the 1890s. However, the variety of studio settings and posing styles suggests that even older carte-de-visite and cabinet-card portraits were being enlarged and reissued in the larger formats popular in 1893.     

Mapping subalpine forest types using networks of nearest neighbour classifiers

Predictive vegetation mapping systems use a variety of remote sensing and other geospatial data in a mixture of empirical and biophysical models to predict vegetation characteristics. These systems are important tools for understanding and monitoring spatial patterns over the landscape. We have developed a system that partitions the geospatial data into resource gradients, indirect gradients and remotely sensed reflectance. These data are input to nearest neighbour classifiers and the resulting likelihoods are combined used Dempster's rule. We show that this system yields a more accurate classification than if the data were input to a single classifier.     

Corrosion under mixed flowing gas conditions of various connector coatings

This paper presents an investigation on the corrosion performance of Ni/Au, NiP/Au, Ni/NiP/Au and Ni/NiPd/Au electrical connector coating systems. The coating systems were exposed to 10 days Class III mixed flowing gas and were subsequently examined by X‐ray diffraction, focused ion beam microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy to evaluate the performance of each coating system. The Ni/Au coating system showed the worst performance followed by NiP/Au and Ni/NiP/Au. The Ni/NiPd/Au coated connector materials exhibited the least surface corrosion and this was attributed to a number of factors including a thicker coating system, more compact gold layer with fewer defects and a reduction in the electrochemical potential difference between layers reducing the local cell effect.     

ISSN exercise & sport nutrition review: research & recommendations

Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. For this reason, keeping up to date with the literature is often difficult. This paper is a five year update of the sports nutrition review article published as the lead paper to launch the JISSN in 2004 and presents a well-referenced overview of the current state of the science related to how to optimize training and athletic performance through nutrition. More specifically, this paper provides an overview of: 1.) The definitional category of ergogenic aids and dietary supplements; 2.) How dietary supplements are legally regulated; 3.) How to evaluate the scientific merit of nutritional supplements; 4.) General nutritional strategies to optimize performance and enhance recovery; and, 5.) An overview of our current understanding of the ergogenic value of nutrition and dietary supplementation in regards to weight gain, weight loss, and performance enhancement. Our hope is that ISSN members and individuals interested in sports nutrition find this review useful in their daily practice and consultation with their clients.     

Systems-based modeling of generation variability under alternate geographic configurations of photovoltaic (PV) installations in Virginia

With increased focus on renewable energy in our modern era, it is increasingly important to understand the impact of policies on the performance and reliability of regional energy systems. This research develops a model to understand how geographic dispersion of PV installations impacts the reliability of electricity generated from the total PV network, measured by the variance of the distribution of generated electricity. Using NREL data, beta probability distributions of sunlight (kWh/m²/day) in various regions of Virginia are estimated using a fitting method that minimizes the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test statistic. A Monte Carlo simulation model is developed to measure PV electricity generation from multiple centralized and dispersed configurations over 100,000 days of probabilistic sunlight.     

Isolation of Ambient Particles of Known Critical Supersaturation: The Differential Activation Separator (DAS)

A field-deployable instrument has been developed that isolates from an ambient aerosol those particles that have critical supersaturations, S_c, within a narrow, user-specified, range. This Differential Activation Separator (DAS) consists of two continuous flow diffusion chambers housed within a single enclosure. Particles are introduced into the upstream chamber referred to as the CCN remover (CCNR) near the centerline between a warm, water-soaked, plate and a cool, continuously circulated, water bath. Those particles that activate at the resulting peak supersaturation, S_p, grow quickly and fall into the water bath. The remaining aerosol enters the second chamber referred to as the CCN separator (CCNS), which differs from the CCNR primarily in the use of a salt solution in the lower bath. The imposed temperature differential establishes an S_p slightly higher than that maintained in the upstream chamber, while the presence of a salt solution at the lower boundary results in a subsaturated region in roughly the lower half of the chamber. Those particles having (S_p)_CCNR < S _c < (S_p)_CCNS activate in this chamber and begin to fall due to gravitational settling. Before reaching the lower bath, the droplets evaporate in the subsaturated environment and continue to travel towards the chamber exit. The previously activated particles in the lower half of the chamber and the unactivated particles in the upper half are extracted in separate flows that are subsequently dried. Calibration of the DAS was achieved by measuring the size distribution of separated particles when a polydisperse ammonium sulfate aerosol was introduced.     

Measurements of chemical warfare agent degradation products using an electrophoresis microchip with contactless conductivity detector

This paper reports on a microfluidic device for the screening of organophosphonate nerve agent degradation products. The miniaturized system relies on an efficient chip-based separation of alkyl methylphosphonic acids (breakdown products of Sarin, Soman, and VX nerve agents) followed by their sensitive contactless conductivity detection. Experimental parameters relevant to the separation and detection processes have been optimized to yield high sensitivity (with 48-86 microg L(-1) detection limits), fast response (50 s for a three alkyl methylphosphonic acid mixture), high precision (RSD = 3.8-5.0%), and good linearity (over the 0.3-100 mg L(-1) range). Applicability to natural (river) water samples is demonstrated. The new microsystem offers promise for monitoring degradation products of chemical warfare agents, with advantages of speed/warning, efficiency, portability, sample size, and cost compared to conventional ion chromatography or capillary electrophoresis systems.