American Genius: Nineteenth Century Bank Locks and Time Locks

Book Description

Designed to protect America's riches from every threat, these beautiful devices represent the evolution of lock technology during the nineteenth century, its most creative period. Many of the hand-crafted masterpieces are decorated with beautiful engraving and casting, despite the fact that their mechanical interiors would rarely be seen. They reflect the great pride in creative workmanship and the mechanical genius that characterized America at the time. Here for the first time is a comprehensive compendium of these marvels of complexity and their the fascinating history. Stunning photographs by Anne Day and learned text by the authors illuminates a remarkable but little-known chapter in American technological achievement. Over 400 color photographs.

Customer Reviews:

A Must-Have for the Collector.......2007-04-04

Collectors will love the beautiful pictures and extensive information about vault clocks found only in this book.

Best I've Seen on the Subject.......2007-01-19

Fabulous photos with information you'll not see anywhere else. If you collect vault clocks you got to have this book.

An American Masterpiece Is More Like It.......2006-12-14

Beautiful is the very first word that comes to my mind when I opened up the new book American Genius by David and John Erroll. Never before has there been such a book to chronicle the history of men and their companies, that began, evolved and transformed the bank lock and time lock industries of the early America. As I began to read this book from cover to cover, the text quickly bore evidence as a living testimony to years of dedicated research. However, a book of this nature with only text could never do this historical subject justice. The beauty of the craftsmanship, detail and ingenuity of these mechanical masterpieces can truly only be appreciated through the exquisite visual images captured by renowned photographer Anne Day.

American Genius contains hundreds of beautiful, full color photographs to complement the text. Where an image might normally be worth a thousand words, Ms. Day's photos will leave you speechless.

When I think of the word "text", I'm likely reminded of a schoolbook or study guide of sorts. Yes, this book is full of history and stories, never compiled together in one place before, less the vision that began in the mind of John Erroll. But American Genius is so much more as it brings to light the obscure, the forgotten and coveted pieces of mechanical wonders that spoke of an era long gone, when a man's word was more precious than life itself. When he was proud to sign his work and stand behind it. Likely never considering those of us in the future that would ponder over the majesty and splendor of these masterpiece inventions.

Only 21 pages out of the 350 plus are without photographs or illustrations of one kind or another. Hardly a paragraph is written without a footnote. Three hundred and seventy-six annotations, presenting exhaustive documentation, further bear witness and evidence of all that has been written and assembled here. There is little room for conjecture or supposition within this volume, as the commentary exhaustively chronicles the facts of these mechanical masterpieces and their makers.

Much of what is seen and spoken of throughout this volume, is the embodiment of John Mossman's Collection. The balance of the masterpieces, covered in the book, reside in the personal collection of the author, John Erroll. The Mossman Collection is now permanently displayed at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York City. Many of our readers might be familiar with the Mossman Collection, as it is expressly covered in the book Lure of the Lock. However, you will find upon first assessment, American Genius is in a class by itself. Unmatched excellence is the attribute shouted from cover to cover of this tome.

Whether relatively new or an old timer to the lock industry shall not matter, for the authors of American Genius have blended beautiful and captivating photographs, with an eloquent lexis for all to enjoy.

There are sure to be many who will acquire this book that have nothing to do with our industry. Simply because of its own grandeur, American Genius will prevail on its own, far ahead of any predecessor of similar nature. It has no rival. Others are still in the painful process of writing books to further complement the history of locks from varied perspectives. The bar has now been set extremely high.

As a consequence of this exceptionally published manuscript, there are many of us who hope to see this work advance the circulation of new, lost or forgotten information, as well as surface additional examples of these masterpieces from years ago now long gone.

John Erroll is the curator for the Mossman Collection held at the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of New York City. A retired clinical psychologist, now able to see the fruits of his many years of labor, a labor of love and passion exploding from the pages of American Genius.

My personal thanks to John, David, Anne and all the other individuals whose contributions have made American Genius much more than I ever could have imagined, and certainly more than worth waiting for.

All the royalties and proceeds from the book go to support the programs of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York. The General Society was founded in 1785 and started a free school and library in 1820. The school provides continuing education at no cost to members of the building trades so they may advance themselves in diverse fields ranging from project management to CAD/CAM for architects. The library offers public membership and focuses on the useful arts, building trades, construction and architecture.

John T. Grist, CML, CPS, CJS, CAI, GSAI
American Lock Collectors Association, Vice-President
North Georgia Security, President

Steiff(R) Bears and Other Playthings Past and Present

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Steiff(R) Bears and Other Playthings Past and Present
Dee Hockenberry
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Toys | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0764311204

Book Description

This beguiling book takes you to the fantasy world the Steiff*r toy company has been busily creating for over one hundred years. In over 860 beautiful color photographs, you will discover more than one thousand toys, some as recent as yesterday and most many decades old. A menagerie of stuffed animals awaits, including the beloved teddy bears, as well as cats, dogs, birds of every sort, denizens of the forest, and wildlife from the Savannah. Puppets, dolls, and wheeled toys also grace these pages, accompanied by large studio figures and enchanting mechanical villages filled with busy figures. The book includes a preface by Susanna Steiff Pinyuh, the great grand niece of the company's founder, Margarete Steiff. Also included are catalog copy displaying many items produced by the firm, and an examination of the company's identifying marks. Values are included in the captions. This delightful book is a must for every toy collector.

Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact (Technical Revolutions and Their Lasting Impact)

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Excellent perspective on the Age of Synergy (1867-1914)

Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact (Technical Revolutions and Their Lasting Impact)
Vaclav Smil
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0195168747

Book Description

The period between 1867 and 1914 remains the greatest watershed in human history since the emergence of settled agricultural societies: the time when an expansive civilization based on synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation was born. At its beginnings in the 1870s were dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs. Its peak decade - the astonishing 1880s - brought electricity - generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, the gramophone, cars, aluminum production, air-filled rubber tires, and prestressed concrete. And its post-1900 period saw the first airplanes, tractors, radio signals and plastics, neon lights and assembly line production. This book is a systematic interdisciplinary account of the history of this outpouring of European and American intellect and of its truly epochal consequences. It takes a close look at four fundamental classes of these epoch-making innovations: formation, diffusion, and standardization of electric systems; invention and rapid adoption of internal combustion engines; the unprecedented pace of new chemical syntheses and material substitutions; and the birth of a new information age. These chapters are followed by an evaluation of the lasting impact these advances had on the 20th century, that is, the creation of high-energy societies engaged in mass production aimed at improving standards of living.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent perspective on the Age of Synergy (1867-1914).......2006-09-21

I was in Powell's technical book store not looking for anything in particular, when I found exactly what I was looking for! I've always been interested in the history of technology, but often the books/articles seem to miss the big picture. Smil gets the big picture, and presents it in an accessible fashion. He puts an interesting perspective on many of the inventions that you are familiar with, and some that you are not-- providing a thorough discussion on energy related topics, as well as covering steel making and the Haber-Bosch process. His writing has an interesting personal perspective, and he provides detailed documentation and interesting illustrations. What a wonderful book. A must read for anyone interested in technology, and the history behind many of the things we now take for granted.

An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature

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the past [and future] costs of New Orleans?

An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature
Craig E. Colten
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Wetlands | Ecosystems | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Urban Planning & Development | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm

ASIN: 0807132004

Book Description

Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city." How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis. Craig E. Colten traces engineered modifications to New Orleans's natural environment from 1800 to 2000 and demonstrates that, though all cities must contend with their physical settings, New Orleans may be the city most dependent on human-induced transformations of its precarious site. In a new preface, Colten shows how Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the inability of human artifice to exclude nature from cities and he urges city planners to keep the environment in mind as they contemplate New Orleans's future. Urban geographers frequently have portrayed cities as the antithesis of nature, but in An Unnatural Metropolis, Colten introduces a critical environmental perspective to the history of urban areas. His amply illustrated work offers an in-depth look at a city and society uniquely shaped by the natural forces it has sought to harness. AUTHOR BIO: Craig E. Colten is the Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography at Louisiana State University. Before returning to academe in 1996, he worked with state government in Illinois and as a private consultant in Washington, D.C. His previous books include The American Environment; The Road to Love Canal; Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs; and Louisiana Geography.

Customer Reviews:

the past [and future] costs of New Orleans?.......2005-10-06

Colten wrote this book in 2004. Or perhaps even earlier. Now, in October 2005, going through its pages, one is struck by how prescient are so much of his musings. Even the title takes on deeper meaning after the recent hurricanes.

In all the current to-do about rebuilding New Orleans, many people could do far worse than to read his history of the town. Colten shows the decades (or centuries) of effort that went into protecting it from nature. Perhaps it is a tribute to those efforts that indeed, they did protect New Orleans for so long. Until 2005.

The book also gives valuable perspective on whether we should indeed rebuild much of New Orleans. The early, emotive response by many evacuees has been to completely rebuild. Yet at what cost? After some $200 billion or more, are we just recreating a target-rich environment for future storms? Colten's narrative points out the key need for a port in that location. But, culture aside, that need is not the same as a need for 500 000 inhabitants, many of whom might service the tourist sector.

Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (Writing Science)

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Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (Writing Science)
Friedrich A. Kittler
Manufacturer: Stanford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Communication | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

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History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0804732337

Love of the Land: Essential Farm and Conservation Readings from an American Golden Age, 1880-1920

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Love of the Land: Essential Farm and Conservation Readings from an American Golden Age, 1880-1920

Manufacturer: Cambria Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1934043338

Book Description

Love of the Land: Essential Farm and Conservation Readings from an American Golden Age, 1880-1920 features an unprecedented collection of historical, interdisciplinary essays that reconstruct for the contemporary reader the dynamic dialogue between agriculturist and ecologist. Reflecting the contemporary convergence of agricultural and environmental histories into a larger, land-centered narrative, the highly readable essays in this nearly five-hundred-page anthology present the pioneering words of the academics and agriculturalists, capitalists and conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists, and policymakers and politicos who labored to bring the disparate fields of conservation and agriculture into organic whole. Love of the Land offers a comprehensive, groundbreaking treatment of ecological themes ideal for students and researchers of agricultural and environmental thought. "Zachary Jack's Love of the Land fills a need. It provides a wide-angle view of early U.S. agricultural and conservation thought, which were major influences on both the economy and ethic of this developing country. Especially impressive are the encompassing array of writers - farm, conservation, political, and literary figures; the selected excerpts - each with a message that resounds; and finally the book's preface - worth reading again after finishing the book's last page." Duane Acker, former Assistant Secretary for science and education, U.S. Department of Agriculture and President Emeritus, Kansas State University "This anthology ambitiously takes you on a mind-stretching adventure into our national past, and our future. It offers, actually, an interdisciplinary short course - a compact curriculum - about the dynamics and varied dimensions of rural development and conservation in America... You may appreciate knowing from the start that you have not been dumped on your own into a loose collection of readings. You realize you are led by a compiler who cares and knows much about this subject, ranged widely and thoughtfully in choosing the readings, adds much to them and is leading you helpfully through them." James F. Evans, Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Communications and Journalism, University of Illinois

Mexican Modernity: The Avant-Garde and the Technological Revolution

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Mexican Modernity: The Avant-Garde and the Technological Revolution
Rubén Gallo
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Mexico | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0262072645

Book Description

In Mexican Modernity, Ruben Gallo tells the story of a second Mexican Revolution, a battle fought on the front of cultural representation. The new revolutionaries were not rebels or outlaws but artists and writers; their weapons were cameras, typewriters, radios, and other technological artifacts, and their goal was not to topple a dictator but to dethrone nineteenth-century aesthetics. Gallo tells the story of this other revolution by focusing on five artifacts that left a deep mark on the literature and the arts of the 1920s and 1930s: the camera and its novel techniques for seeing the modern world; the typewriter and its mechanization of literary aesthetics; radio and poetic experiments with wireless communication; cement architecture and its celebration of functional internationalism; and the stadium and its deployment as a mass medium for political spectacle.

Gallo traces the ways artists and writers, armed with these artifacts, revolutionized representation by breaking with the traditional modes of production that had dominated Mexican cultural practices: Tina Modotti rose against the conventions of "artistic" photography by promoting a radically modern photographic aesthetics; typewriting authors rejected the literary precepts of modernismo to celebrate the stridencies of mechanical writing; and young architects abandoned older building materials for the symbolic strength of reinforced concrete.

Gallo uncovers a secret history of Mexican modernity that includes a number of fascinating episodes: the pictorialist backlash against Modotti and Edward Weston; the postcolonial Remingtont typewriter; Mexican radio in the North Pole; the campaign to aestheticize cement through journals and artistic competitions; and the protofascist political spectacles held at Mexico City's National Stadium in the 1920s.

Assembling Art: The Machine and the American Avant-Garde

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Assembling Art: The Machine and the American Avant-Garde
Barbara Zabel
Manufacturer: University Press of Mississippi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 157806595X

Book Description

As the machine age roared at full tilt in the early twentieth century, avant-garde artists saw opportunities to buck the past. In welcoming the new technologies, they created the art we now identify as modernist.

Assembling Art gives a vivid account of this American avant-garde revolution in the production of art. Challenged by unprecedented technological advancement, artists embraced collage, montage, and the striking juxtaposition of incongruent materials and ideas.

By appropriating disparate icons from visual and material culture---the skyscrapers of New York or the body of the black entertainer Josephine Baker or cigarette packaging---artists re-conceived and revitalized the relationship between art and life. There was no particular "school" of early American moderns. The artists' approaches were diverse, ironic, and individualistic. However, one phenomenon does seem to inform much of the work produced in this era: the pervasiveness and power of machine technology.

This book focuses on the automaton, still life, portraiture, and jazz to illuminate machine-age art. Case studies of four artists? work in a range of media exemplify these?--Man Ray's rayographs, Stuart Davis's tobacco paintings, Alexander Calder's wire sculptures of Josephine Baker, and Gerald Murphy's avant-garde ballet Within the Quota. These show how the machine played a crucial role in the formation of American modernism and how the American avant-garde devised new identities to suit radically changed realities.

By interweaving biography and art history and by synthesizing a wide spectrum of approaches from cultural and gender studies, Assembling Art offers provocative insights into the ways this art registers tensions between genders and races, between elitist and popular cultures, and between transatlantic national cultures.

Imagining Future War: The West's Technological Revolution and Visions of Wars to Come, 1880-1914 (War, Technology, and History)
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Imagining Future War: The West's Technological Revolution and Visions of Wars to Come, 1880-1914 (War, Technology, and History)
Antulio J. Echevarria
Manufacturer: Praeger Security International General Interest-Cloth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Weapons & Warfare | Military | History | Subjects | Books | Biological & Chemical | Control | Conventional | Nuclear
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
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Savage Century: Back to Barbarism (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Savage Century: Back to Barbarism (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

ASIN: 0275987256

Book Description

Rapid and momentous technological changes at the turn of the 20th century forced military professionals and educated civilians to envision the future of war and warfare, especially during an age where nations found themselves aggressively competing for dominance on the world stage. Antulio J. Echevarria II offers a comparative study of these predictions to assess who "got it right" and why. He concludes that professionals were particularly adept at predicting the warfare of the immediate future by framing their discussions in terms of solving tactical problems, but they were much less successful at thinking of the long-term. Unburdened by the necessity of strategic problem-solving, educated amateurs were allowed more flexibility to imagine the long-term future of warfare, and, at times, proved to be remarkably accurate. Echevarria organizes his study by comparing visions of future wars on land, at sea, undersea, and in air. In each instance professionals and amateurs had their own distinctive imaginings. Among the notable speculators included in this book are science fiction author H.G. Wells and military theorist Ivan Bloch. This approach to the study of warfare is one of those rare examples of a book that can appeal to and inform a wide cross-section of readers.

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Trademark Designs of the Twenties

Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Drawing | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Technology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0486268586

Book Description

Over 850 trademarks registered in the 1920s offer artists, designers, and students of Americana a comprehensive look at how graphic artists of this often flamboyant period combined typography and design to "sell" a company and its products, which range from food to furniture to fabrics. Captions identify each company.

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