Science, American Petroleum Institute Style


This is the first of a series of posts this week drawn from wonderful resources available to us thanks to the Prelinger Library's vast collection of stock footage, made available for free at Archive.org.

A friend turned me on to this short film a year ago or so and I now show excerpts of it to great effect in my American cultural history class. Everyone loves the white-coated scientists turning complex molecules into toothbrushes.

They love the big finish even more: Martians discover the secret to building a society of plenty and to overcoming tyranny: oil---of course---mixed with "competition: more for all."

But that doesn't do it justice. You just have to watch it yourself.

Popular posts from this blog

A Novel History of Psychology

Image
BOOK REVIEW: Vanessa L. Ryan, Thinking Without Thinking in the Victorian Novel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012) ——————————————— Science and (the study of) literature are growing closer together. From  Stanford's Literary Lab  and a recent New York Times piece on the Digital Humanities  to reading Austen in an MRI machine  and so-called " Literary Darwinism ," there's both controversy and a certain cache (and maybe even a little cash) in bringing scientific techniques and the study of literature closer together. This is your brain on Austen ( http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/images/mri_reading_news.jpg ) So what about the study of science and the study of literature? History of science, say, and literary history? The short answer is that it's happening in English departments, but not so much in History. Why? More on that below. Work on the interplay between science and literature has been dominated by scholars of the Victorian novel. G...
Read more

The Strength of American Materials -- An Environmental History of Engineering Science

Image
From the Franklin Institute's General Report on the Explosions of Steam-Boilers     One of the many pleasures of writing "Tocqueville's Ghost" for HSNS ( discussed on AmericanScience here ) was revisiting Ann Johnson's  “Material Experiments: Environment and Engineering Institutions in the Early American Republic,” from Osiris  in 2009. It's a fascinating essay and makes a convincing case for rethinking the sort of science and engineering going on at West Point and in the Corps of Engineers in the early nineteenth century. Johnson shows how the West Point/Corps project adapted the French Polytechnique model in research as well as teaching, creating in the process a very productive "research school." She shows how prominent men of science like Alexander Dallas Bache carried on later celebrated work (most prominently his steam-boiler experiments, above) that owed much to their time working with Joseph Totten and the Corps of Engineers at Fort Adams. ...
Read more

Barred Owl

Image
Ever since I read Owl in the Shower with my class this year, I have had a fascination with the Barred Owl.  This is a great realistic fiction novel that tells the tale of the struggle of the 1980's between the logging companies and the naturalists.  It is an endearing story and one that my children loved. It is hard to find a specific book on barred owls.  You may have to read a general Owl book, but this one actually has a section specifically about barred owls.   This book tells about several types of owls and includes facts and drawings. Website: National Geographic   has a great section on barred owls including real photographs. Video clip:   The vocal calls of the barred owl. Barred Owl fishing... More resources to come!
Read more