For a while now I’ve been trying to work out how the original Chemistry Building functioned. It’s undergone enough renovation at this point that much of its original sense has vanished. But a couple of things have turned up recently that provide great guidance. First, I came across the folder of photos that I talked about here. Then I found a copy of the plan for the first floor while looking through a map drawer full of William Ward Watkin materials. (If we have a detailed set of drawings for the building, I’ve never found them.) The floor plan is a revelation:
The very first thing I noticed was the huge stock room (more about this later) but then right next to it the Colloid Lab. I just happen to have a picture of the interior of that lab and its equipment, which looks quite impressive:
I can also tell you who this lab belonged to: Harry Weiser, who was head of the Chemistry Department for over three decades as well as Dean for almost two:
Bonus: Back in the day those colloid chemists were pretty saucy fellows. I found this in his scrapbook.
You missed the REALLY surprising thing: the presence of a “girl’s room” (might I add palatial) on the first floor and NO “boy’s room.” VERY advanced for its time, I would think, especially considering all the classrooms and labs. In Abercrombie where I “live”, I don’t believe there was a “girl’s room” in the original building.
I’m surprised at you, Don. I didn’t miss it–more to come next week!
Men’s room on the second floor, no doubt. I’m guessing the size was driven more by the proximity and size of the lecture hall.
(i) that Weiser photo, especially the way the face is moodily lit from the side and how it’s all silhouetted against the rows of light through the blinds, is beautiful and (ii) I really like the hand lettering in the saucy colloid chemist’s (HG’s) illustration — particularly that eccentric M.
I thought that was just an illustration of a Mobius Strip (?sp).
I don’t see any Mobius strip … but like that odd “M” in “Chemistry” and the 16mm film curling artfully down from the projection reel on the right side.
Is “HG” identified anywhere inside the booklet?
Doesn’t that curling film strip create a Mobius strip?
If it doesn’t, then I’m going to break my slide rule!
There’s a half-twist in the film beneath the sheaf of grain. But a Möbius strip is a closed loop that has a half-twist … thus the material making loop has but a single surface (not the two front-and-back surfaces that you’d expect, but just a single surface). The film spilling from the reel in the booklet cover does not make a closed loop, so I don’t believe it would be called a Möbius strip.
Please don’t break your slide rule. It’s an endangered species!
“… an endangered species!”
So am I.
🙁
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