FORTUNE, October 1949, Timing a Fair Day's Work complete article

A.Durer Underweysung der Messung, a Course in the Art of Measurement, Nuremburg 1525..Measurement through a Viewing Frame.01 diagram for alchemical calculation.

Percy A. Sigler measures slips ,"He knows Why You Fall" 1948

USG MEASURES CARS 1952

IMAGES OF THE PLUMB LINE

02 a diagram of an orrery c1720. Measuring the Stars.

03 from John Norden's Intended Guide for English Tourists 1625, and the first recorded example of the triangular distance chart.

04 book cover, design by Frans Masereel

05 from The Shepherds' Calendar , Paris 1493.

06 Engraving of suveying equipment from the Royal Encyclopedia, 1788 - 90

07Adams Small Quadrant, from the Navigation section of the Royal Encyclopedia 1788 - 1790, detail 9 x 14cms

08 Jacob Leupold, Theatrum Arithmetico-Geometricum.. . 1727. An early calculating machine.

09 some visual conventions advert for South Wind Car Heaters Sept. 1946 (detail) 13 x 20cms
 

10 A Surveyor Measures Charles Estienne and Jean Liebault, Maison Rustique, or The New Country Farme , translated into English by Richard Surflet and printed by Adam Islip in 1616. "How to reduce all sorts of grounds into a square for the better measuring of it." Engraving of surveying equipment from the Royal Encyclopedia, 1788 - 90

11 Charles Saltonstall, The Navigator, printed by Hurlock, London in 1636 and a fine indication of the self-image of seafaring folk.12 Title Page to Mattthew Hostus semi-historical treatise (1532) on the various numeral systems found in Renaissance literature.

13 Leonard Digges, A Boke named Tectonicon briefly shewyng the exacte measurynge and speady recknyngenall maver Lande, squared Tymber, Styone, Steaples, Pyllers, Globes ,Marsh, London, 1566.

14, 15 A Tailor Measures from Bloomingdale's Illustrated 1886 Catalog, (Fashions, Dry Goods and Housewares , reproduced in facsimile by Dover Books, New York , 1988

 


MEASUREMENT
 
SHORT NOTES FOR A MEASUREMENT PROJECT. You will have already have discussed the implications of this word and this concept.It is the purpose of this session to reinforce the centrality of Measurement to human conduct. It seeks to persuade you that measurement is power ;
 
over the passage of time;
over physical distances from one place to another;
to assemble and synthesise ideas in the mind.

WHAT IS MEASURED ?
DISTANCE WHO MEASURES ?
TAILOR
NAVIGATOR
MAPMAKER
SURVEYOR
 
1. Images on Slide.
1.1. The image of Geometry; William Blake, Newton , millboard print, 1795.
1.2. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors ,1543, NG London
1.3 Chartres Cathedral , west front; rose window and labyrinth, measurement to reinforce doctrine.
1.4. Westminster Abbey, Tiled Pavement, Quincunx and the pursuit of the End of the World.
2. Film Compilation.
2.1 Surveying and Mapmaking I, The Nineteenth Century. Triangulating India with a chain. A film sequence demonstrating how accurate surveying plotted the sub-continent.
2.2 the Measurement of Human Time, Taylorism and the Cult of Time and Motion studies.
2.3 Chaplin, Modern Times , the Feeding Machine, a response to Taylorism.
2.4 Surveying and Mapmaking 2 The Twentieth Century. Computer projections of submarine contour.
2.5 The Kennedy Assassination , Measurement as political weaponry
 
BOOKLIST
 
Mike Darton and John Clark, The Dent Dictionary of Measurement , Dent London 1994 and a delightful and comprehensive account.
 
L.Hogben, Man Must Measure ,Transatlantic Books 1948; Arturo Schwarz, The Complete Works of Duchamp ,Thames & Hudson 1969; look up Duchamp's probing at the standard metre. Linda Dalrymple Henderson, The Fourth Dimension and Modern Art, Univ.of Calif Press 1978.
 
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, Bantam London 1988; G.J.Whitrow, Time in History OUP Oxford 1988;
 
Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt, an investigation into the Kennedy Assassination, Sidgwick & Jackson London 1988; one example of the ingenuity applied to calculation and the death of kennedy - surely the most calulated event in the history of human conduct. The more systematically measurement is applied - the more confusing the picture gets. Kent Hieatt, Short Time's Endless Monument , Kennikat, Port Washington, 1960 (1972) The symbolism of the Numbers in... EPITHALAMION . One of the most effective and persuasive of all literary detective investigations, showing Spencer's ability to link narrative with line number.