Charles Wachsmuth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | September 13, 1829 |
| Died | February 7, 1896 (aged 66) |
| Known for | Crinoid fossils |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Paleontology |
| Institutions | Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University |
Charles Wachsmuth (September 13, 1829 – February 7, 1896) was a German-American paleontologist and businessman. After emigrating to the United States, he became a renowned expert on the Paleozoic fossil animals known as crinoids. He and his collaborator, Frank Springer, published numerous articles on the subject and built an exceptional collection of crinoid fossils. The culmination of his work was the two-volume "Monograph of the North American Crinoidea Camerata", coauthored with Springer and published posthumously in 1897.
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Transcription
What is reddit? For much of The Internet reddit is the gateway to everything interesting going on in the world. Checking reddit.com is like reading the daily newspaper except that reddit is - timely - interactive - personalized - participatory - horrifilying absorbing at times ...basically, *good*. The way it works is that people submit links to reddit (blog posts or images or videos) and other people vote those links up or down. It's a simple idea but it makes reddit into a list of the best stuff that people are reading or watching on The Internet right now. The name is a contraction of 'Read It' as in: I already read it on Reddit, which if you spend significant time on the site, is what you'll say to everyone who tries to show you anything. It's a kind of awesome curse. Because there are no editors on reddit you never know what you're going to find but you can bet it's going to be funny or interesting or enranging because 1,000s of other people have already voted that it's something to see. Think of it this way: if Google is where you go to search for things, then reddit is where you go to see the things that people have found. But reddit is not just one list of stuff: reddit is a beautiful fractal with sections, called subreddits. If you just like politics or programming or funny image captions or sports or world news there are subreddits that list only that stuff. And there's going to be a subreddit for your city or country or region. Love a TV show that ended years ago? There's a subreddit where people are still talking about it as though it just aired. Tech have geeks their technology and flag geeks have their vexillology and -- and on the off chance you're interested in something the doesn't yet exist, just press a button and a new subreddit is born. Each subreddit works just like the main page: an updating list of interesting stuff according to the people interested in that stuff. And when a subreddit grows large it can be terrifyingly good at this: for example AWW, a section devoted to adorableness, is a GLOBAL 24-HOUR-A-DAY BATTLE TO FIND THE CUTEST IMAGES EVAR! Turns out if you give people with baby animal photos a place to have their baby animal photos compete the result is the highest density of cuteness human civilization has yet created. But without editors running the site, how does that sorting process work? There's no time to get into the code, but you can think of it like this: Links people sumbit are balloons floating up and down the list. When someone votes up a link it adds a bit of helium and a down votes sucks out little bit of helium. Periodically reddit puts weights on all of the balloons -- giving newer links that show up later a chance to compete against the ones that have been around longer. This method is shockingly good at sorting stuff, be it international politics or pictures of computer setups. Of course, when a website covers the whole of human endeavor things get weird: like subreddits for only photos of birds... with arms or only photos of hitler... with socks and then there are always the other kinds of photos humans like to look at and sometimes collections of horrifying things that cannot be unseen. So yeah, this has taken a turn for the worse. But remember reddit can be weird not because reddit is weird but because humans are weird. And the great thing about reddit is that it changes to suite you: as you join subreddits you like and leave those you don't the main page becomes *yours*: listing all the best stuff from all the subreddits you follow and leaving out stuff from the ones you don't. So reddit is lot like life: it is what you make it. But links are only the tip of the redditberg, because people can discuss the links and this is where the true heart of reddit lies. Most forums on The Internet are hideous, but Reddit ain't your grandma's bulletin board. Just as that baloon sort method finds the best links there's some math that's more complicated (and less explainable) that finds the most interesting comments in a discussion and brings them to the top. And reddit displays comments in a way that encourages back-and-forth discussions. (Unlike some *other* comment systems). This sorting and threading means that the discussion of a link on reddit is always more interesting than the link itself. So there are subreddits that are nothing *but* discussion: such as Change My View for debates or Ask A Scientist where experts answer questions. Or there1s 'IamA' where people say what they are "I am a fireman" or "I am an Escort" or "I am a prison guard" and answer questions from the comments. And because people on reddit are anonymous, discussions are way more interesting and open than if people were forced to use their real names. ::cough:: YouTube & Google+ Integration ::cough:: Though, with anonymity you'll find that not everyone's private thoughts exposed are beautiful. And sometimes it can be uncomfortable to see what the faceless group thinks about a topic. But luckily reddit has a way to deal with comments you think are unhelpful. And despite people who act badly it's clear that reddit can only exist because the majority of people, even when anonymous, are good. But this anonymity isn't required, however so you'll also find Actors and Authors, Presidents and prime ministers all on reddit answering questions from the community. And reddit really is a community with it's own culture and history and that increasingly has an effect on the physical world with things like: meeting up in person and raising money for charity and defending the Internet and helping a family be with their sick child and holding the word's largest secret santa and sending teachers the supplies they need. With its rapid-fire democracy and shocking quick reactions, reddit can sometimes makes you feel more like a citizen of the Internet than a citizen of your own country. But in the end it's hard to understand reddit without just jumping in and commenting and voting, which you really should. And once you get the hang of the place, you'll wonder how you ever Internetted before. [After credits] P.S. If you are already a user of reddit and love the site, you should consider buying some reddit gold to support it. I was surprised to learn while making this video that despite its increasing popularity reddit still isn't profitable. So if, like me, you use reddit *all day* it's more than worth a couple bucks a month.
Early life
Wachsmuth was born on September 13, 1829, in Hanover, Germany. His father, Christian Wachsmuth, was a lawyer and member of the Frankfurt parliament who intended his son to follow him in the legal profession. However, ill health forced Charles to leave school at age sixteen. His physician recommended a career in business. In 1852, he emigrated to the United States and worked in New York as an agent for a Hamburg shipping firm until 1854.[1]
The climate in New York did not agree with Wachsmuth and after recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia he moved west in 1855 and settled in Burlington, Iowa. That same year he married Bernandina Lorenz and opened a grocery store.[2]
Paleontology
Poor health continued to plague Wachsmuth. His doctor recommended outdoor exercise and suggested fossil hunting as a pleasant and healthy pastime. Wachsmuth soon found that the local limestone formations held an extensive array of the Paleozoic fossil animals known as crinoids. Eventually, the region would be recognized as one of the world's richest sources of these fossils.[1]
Wachsmuth became an enthusiastic collector and student of crinoid fossils. His health finally improved and he turned over the operation of his business to his wife so that he could devote all his time to his new passion. Over the next few years, the collection grew to the point where it began to attract the attention of scientists across the country. Geologists Amos Worthen and Fielding Meek borrowed specimens while preparing their geological survey of Illinois. In 1864, Louis Agassiz came to Burlington to meet Wachsmuth and view his collection.[3]
By 1865, the grocery business had made Wachsmuth financially independent. He and his wife traveled first to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to visit Agassiz and the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Next, the Wachsmuths continued on to Europe where they examined museum collections and collected fossils to take home. His last stop was the British Museum in London where he was pleased to learn that the reputation of his collection in Burlington had preceded him.[1][2]
When Wachsmuth returned to Burlington in 1866, he devoted all his energies to the continued collection and study of crinoid fossils. In 1866 he coauthored his first paper with Agassiz student William H. Niles, showing that the Burlington formation was actually composed of two geological horizons. At this time, Wachsmuth preferred to focus on research and let others publish.[1]
In 1869, Frank Springer, a young attorney, began to practice law in Burlington. Springer had studied natural history at the University of Iowa but decided that law was a more practical career. In Burlington, he soon made friends with Wachsmuth and joined him in the collection and study of crinoids. In 1872, Springer moved his law practice to New Mexico but continued to collaborate with Wachsmuth and returned to Burlington whenever possible.[4]
In 1872, Agassiz visited Burlington again and was impressed by the growth of the collection and the quality of the fossils. He purchased the collection for $6,000 and hired Wachsmuth to take charge of the entire crinoid assemblage at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. Agassiz encouraged Wachsmuth to study the literature on crinoids and publish his own findings. Wachsmuth held this position until Agassiz's death in December, 1873.[5]
Wachsmuth traveled to Europe and Asia in 1874, bringing with him a small collection of crinoid fossils which he sold to the British Museum for £80. He returned to Burlington the same year and set out to build another, even larger collection of fossils.
With the help of his wife and Frank Springer, the new collection of crinoids soon rivaled any in the world. Because of his health, Wachsmuth spent winters collecting fossils in the warmer climate of the American South. Springer traveled to Europe and brought back an extensive selection of fossils from England, France, Russia, and Bohemia. Other fossils from around the world were purchased or acquired in trade. Wachsmuth built a special, fireproof museum behind his home to store the fossils. In addition a comprehensive library of crinoid literature was gathered.[2][6]
Wachsmuth and Springer published their findings in a variety of scientific journals. They were not interested in naming and describing new species but instead concentrated on issues of morphology and classification. The culmination of their work was the two-volume "Monograph of the North American Crinoidea Camerata" (1897), published by the Museum of Comparative Zoology after Wachsmuth’s death. This work fundamentally revised contemporary crinoid taxonomy.[1]
After a period of declining health, Wachsmuth died on February 7, 1896. Springer maintained the museum and library in Burlington for another fifteen years and then donated the collection to the Smithsonian.
Wachsmuth was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America, the Iowa Academy of Science, the Imperial Society of Natural Sciences of Moscow, and corresponding member of the Philadelphia Academy of Science.[7]
Works
Wachsmuth contributed to a variety of regional and national scientific journals, often with Springer as his coauthor.[1]
- 1866. Evidence of two distinct geological formations in the Burlington limestone (with Niles)
- 1877. Notes on the internal and external structure of Paleozoic crinoids
- 1877. Revision of the genus Belemnocrinus and description of two new species (with Springer)
- 1878. Transition Forms in Crinoids (with Springer)
- 1879-1886. "Revision of the Palaeocrinoidea" (with Springer)
- 1897. "Monograph of the North American Crinoidea Camerata" 2 vol. (posthumously, with Springer)
Notes
Sources
- Bather, Francis Arthur (1896). "Obituary. Charles Wachsmuth". Geological Magazine. 33: 189–192. doi:10.1017/s001675680013078x.
- Caffey, David L. (2006). Frank Springer and New Mexico. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 98–111. ISBN 1585444642.
- Goldstein, Daniel (1999). "Wachsmuth, Charles". In Garraty, John A. (ed.). American National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1301731.
- Keyes, Charles Rollin (1896). "An Epoch in the History of American Science". Annals of Iowa. 2 (5): 345–364. doi:10.17077/0003-4827.2084.
- "Memorial of Charles Wachsmuth". Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science. 4 (1): 13–16. 1896.
- Biographical Review of Des Moines County, Iowa. Chicago: Hobart Publishing Company. 1905. pp. 159–160.
External links
This page was last edited on 11 February 2024, at 18:13