#books

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in 1895.

Joseph Conrad's novel Almayer's Folly is published in London by T. Fisher Unwin, as Conrad's first published work, after retirement from his career at sea. It marks the first appearance of his pseudonym.

"Almayer’s Folly" sets the stage for Conrad's exploration of isolation and moral ambiguity, themes he would continue to explore in later works such as "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord Jim."

Almayer’s Folly at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/720

An edition of Almayer's folly a story of an eastern river by Joseph Conrad. Almay's Folly: A young man's daring escapades in the American West, filled with thrilling adventures and unexpected twists.

quoted Video night in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer (Vintage departures)

Pico Iyer: Video night in Kathmandu (1989, Vintage Books) No rating

Religion was a drug to some and and drugs were a religion to others. In Kathmandu some people lapsed into a narcotic haze and called it Buddhist serenity, while others had opiate dreams and called them visions. "Drugs" and "gurus," they told themselves, were almost anagrams; the high and the holy were virtual synonyms.

— Video night in Kathmandu by  (Vintage departures) (Page 83 - 84)

#books #PicoIyer

British Physicist & Mathematician Hertha Marks Ayrton was born in 1854.

She became a recognized expert on the electric arc, a type of electrical discharge that was little understood at the time. Her research clarified the causes of hissing & flickering in arc lamps and contributed to improving the design and consistency of the lamps. She developed the "Ayrton fan" or "flapper," a device intended to clear poisonous gases from the trenches in World War I.

Portrait of Hertha Ayrton wearing a fur coat in a vintage black and white photograph. Hertha Ayrton (1854–1923), British mathematician and engineer. Unknown author, for en:Bain News Service (publisher) - George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, LCCN 2014716701.
Illustration from The Origin and Growth of Ripple-mark. By Mrs. Hertha Ayrton. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A84: 285 (1910) Communicated by the late Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S. Received April 21, 1904; received in revised form May 26, 1904; read June 16, 1904.a

A city at peace in a world at war. ‘The Stockholm Run’ is a fast-paced thriller set in Scotland and Sweden during World War Two. It uses many real settings, transported eight decades back in time.

This modern photograph shows the Lydmar Hotel, which occupies a superb waterfront location in Stockholm. During the war this building housed the German legation and its presence is important as the story builds towards its dramatic climax.

Find out more:
http://www.kenlussey.com/tsr/index.html

The image shows a modern view of the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm. The stone and pale beige coloured building has a frontage that is three bays wide, and it rises to five storeys plus an attic level. It appears to broaden as it retreats from the frontage. Several people are walking past in the foreground and the sky is blue. The front cover of 'The Stockholm Run' is shown in the bottom right corner.

American mathematical physicist J. Willard Gibbs died in 1903.

Gibbs' most celebrated contributions were in the field of thermodynamics, particularly concerning the phase rule, chemical potential, and Gibbs free energy—a concept named after him. The Gibbs free energy is particularly critical in predicting the direction of chemical reactions and phase changes. His book, "Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics," laid the foundation for modern statistical mechanics.

Maxwell's sketch of the lines of constant temperature and pressure, made in preparation for his construction of a solid model based on Gibbs's definition of a thermodynamic surface for water (see Maxwell's thermodynamic surface) James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) - P. M. Harman (ed.), The Scientific Letters and Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, vol. 3, 1874-1879, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 232, plate IV. J. C. Maxwell's sketch of the thermodynamic surface for a water-like substance, based on a theoretical construct proposed by J. W. Gibbs. The curves are "isothermals and isopiestics drawn by help of the Sun."
Portrait of American mathematical physicist J. Willard Gibbs, taken about 1895 Photograph taken around 1895. According to his student Lynde Wheeler, of the existing portraits, this is the most faithful to Gibbs's kindly habitual expression. Unknown author - Scanned from the frontispiece for Raymond J. Seeger, Men of Physics: J. Willard Gibbs, American Mathematical Physicist par excellence, (Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1974). Used also as the frontispiece for Lynde P. Wheeler, Josiah Willard Gibbs, The History of a Great Mind, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951). No copyright notice or attribution is given in either book.

I finished reading this last night, absolutely recommend it.

A tale of a fierce middle aged female pirate with knee problems, she still manages to fight chaos, magic and mysterious beings.

This book will get a place on the shelf instead of being passed on.

Picture of the book The Adventures of Amina-al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty. The cover is mostly blues and red, with the title in gold and author name in white.