STATUTE LABOUR ON ONTARIO TOWNSHIP ROADS, 1849–1948: RESPONDING TO A CHANGING SPACE ECONOMY

Statute labour has been neglected in the existing literature on roads in 19th- and early 20th-century Canada, despite its being the fundamental mechanism of township road construction and maintenance. This paper clarifies the operation and role of statute labour, discussing its advantages and disadvantages. Analysis of the historical geography of the declining use of statute labour in later-19th- and early-20th-century Ontario argues that factors of local politics and the increasing strength of regional political institutions such as the Good Roads Association and the provincial government bureaucracy must be placed alongside more obvious technological explanations. Just as statute labour became increasingly inadequate in meeting the local road transport needs of a changing space economy by the turn of the century, individual action and local municipal politics found themselves increasingly constrained by the strengthening of the administrative and financial power of higher levels of government – part of the process by which rural Ontario became integrated into a regional and provincial economy. Parmi les études sur les systèmes routiers au Canada aux 19^ème et 20^ème siècles il n'existe que très peu de discussions sur la corvée – malgré le fait que la corvée était le mécanisme principal de la construction et de l'entretien des routes municipales. Cet article clarifie le fonctionnement et le rôle de la corvée, par une discussion sur ses avantages et ses désavantages. Nous examinons, du point de vue de la géographie historique, le déclin de la corvée qui est survenu au tournant du 20^ème siècle en Ontario, à cause de certains éléments politiques dans les municipalités et à cause de la force croissante d'institutions politiques régionales telles que « The Good Roads Association » et la bureaucratie du gouvernement provincial. Ces facteurs ont eu sur les systèmes routiers un effet aussi important que les changements technologiques. La corvée est devenue de plus en plus insuffisante pour maintenir les routes municipales de l'économie dynamique au début du 20^ème siècle, et en même temps, les individus et les conseils municipaux locaux ont perdu beaucoup de leur pouvoir face au pouvoir administratif et financier des échelons supérieurs gouvernementaux. Néanmoins, c'est par ce processus que l'Ontario rurale s'est intégrée aux économies régionales et provinciales.     

The Ballast Trade: An Economic Driver In Seventeenth- And Eighteenth-century Newcastle Upon Tyne

The domination of the economy of Newcastle upon Tyne by the coal industry during the seventeenth- and eighteenth - centuries is well known. Many ships arriving to collect a cargo of coal did not carry cargo but carried ballast, often in the form of sand or gravel. Over many years a vast quantity of ballast was deposited along the banks of the river, often spilling into the water, causing obstruction to river traffic. The management of ballast became a major pre-occupation for the Burgesses of Newcastle and a complex organisation evolved to manage the problem. Ships masters paid fees to the town to deposit ballast at ballast staiths which was then conveyed to the ballast hills at some distance from the river. The cumulative amount of these fees provided a substantial income both to the town and the Ballast Conveyors who leased and ran the ballast staiths, resulting in significant competition between the leading citizens in the town to obtain a lease to work a ballast shore. The ballast trade and its associated social, political and business networks played a very important and previously little understood role in the economy of Newcastle during this period.     

Did Ancient Egyptian Ships have Keels? The evidence of Thonis‐Heracleion Ship 17

This paper presents the debate over the presence or absence of keels in the construction of Egyptian ships of the dynastic period. It contains an analysis of ship representations and models dating to the 18th–20th dynasties of the New Kingdom (c.1539–1077 BC) that provide evidence for the introduction of keels in Egyptian shipbuilding, and new archaeological material from excavations at Thonis‐Heracleion that sheds more light on the question.     

Eine Frage der Politik: Wissenschaft und Ideologie im 21. Jahrhundert

A Political Matter: Science and Ideology in the 21^st Century . In the last two decades, history of science and science studies have been quite reluctant to adopt the notion of ideology when analyzing the dynamics of science. This may be an effect of the decreasing popularity of neo‐marxist approaches within this disciplinary field; but it is also due to the fact that alternative approaches have been developed, for example Michel Foucault's notion of problematization, Roland Barthes' semiotic mythology, Bruno Latour's re‐interpretation of the ontological difference between fact and fetish in science, or Donna Haraway's semi‐fictional re‐narrations of the techno‐scientific world. This contribution undertakes to sketch the impact of two strands of 19^th century immanentism on the authors named above, and on their use of concepts related to the notion of ideology, namely fetish, fetishism, myth and mythology respectively. It is argued that in some respect, Marx' concept of commodity fetishism is worth being re‐examined, since it articulates a dialectical relation of ‘reality’ and ‘seeming’, and its impact on Barthes' mythology is deeper than it might appear at first glance.     

South American Palm Seeds (Orbignya sp.) in Dutch Shipwrecks

Abstract

In this note we report the discovery of some palm seeds (Orbignya sp.) from three shipwrecks in the Netherlands. They all date from the second half of the 17th century. Some palm seeds, published as Attalea funifera, were already known from the Dutch coast.     

Governor Stone: Analysis of an 1877 Two-masted Schooner from the Gulf of Mexico

This article details the historic preservation documentation and construction analysis of the 1877 American 2-masted schooner Governor Stone , a National Historic Landmark. Governor Stone 's construction reflects its intended use as a general freight and oyster schooner, and to a lesser degree its geographic origin along the Gulf of Mexico. While the physical environment of the Gulf Coast necessarily constrained the size of these vessels, 2-masted schooners of the Gulf Coast generally exhibit similarities with their contemporary functional equivalents of other American regions rather than stylistic elements unique to their geography.
© 2004 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

在总结历史经验中理解和构建科学理论体系

中共十七大报告中关于经济问题的论述把经济规律与我国改革开放的实践历程相结合,充分体现了理论来自实践又指导实践的历史唯物主义的科学方法。十七大报告关于经济方面的论述有六个新提法:经济"发展"方式替代了经济"增长"方式,体现了对实践经验的总结和理论认识的深化;注重协调、调控和规划,体现了经济体制转轨进程中宏观调控的新特点;翻两番由"总量"到"人均",体现了经济发展水平与经济发展目标的新阶段;关注初次分配中的公平,要提高劳动报酬在初次分配中的比重,体现了收入分配领域在发展变革中的新动向;在过去提"工业化、城镇化、市场化、国际化"的同时增加了"信息化",首次在党代会报告中写入"廉租房制度",体现了生产力与城市化发展的新要求;将区域经济发展与国土开发联系起来,首次提出"推动区域协调发展,优化国土开发格局"和"主体功能区定位",体现了区域经济发展的新阶段与新思路。     

LOCALIZING HISTORICAL CLUES USING IRT AND PETROGRAPHIC ANALYSES AT VILLA MIRABELLO,MONZA (ITALY)*

The rebuilding of Villa Mirabello started in 1666. Built on designs of Gerolamo Quadrio, the project refurbished and enlarged a smaller 16th century country house (‘casa da nobile e da massaro’). Archival documents report on the remodelling, which consisted of selective demolition of portions of the structure, re‐using most of the masonry as the core of the new building, and the reinforcement of retained masonry by insertion of ‘ceppo’ stone quoins to update new exteriors. The aim of Quadrio was to create an elegant and sumptuous mansion, suitable for noble owners such as Giuseppe Durini and his family. The plan and a small part of original finishing (‘marmorino’ plaster decoration) are recognizable nowadays. Nevertheless, there are many questions in interpretation when one compares the documents and the building. That is, Cardinal Angelo Durini made a major modification in the 18th century, and further minor changes were made in the 19th century. Although these latter modifications did not alter the plan, they changed the distribution of rooms and masked both decoration and finishing. After over 20 years of neglect, Villa Mirabello is now close to being restored. Architects in charge ordered a preliminary set of diagnostics to assess damage and study the historical evolution of the building. Integration of IR thermography (IRT) and endoscopy allowed restorers to detect the structure's texture underneath the plaster, and to detect openings filled with masonry. Moreover, archive documents confirmed these results and, above all, defined a date for the use of specific building techniques. This research constitutes a reference for buildings set in the same time and location that do not have significant archival documentation. Active IRT provided useful information for structural assessment (such as location of arches, chimney stacks, different thickness of wall, wooden elements, voids, beams etc.) and for crack pattern evaluation. This information directs design professionals working on this conservation project, and helps define the costs of intervention.     

Mary Ellis (1897–1907): Workhorse of the South Australian Mosquito Fleet

In 2006, as part of the Flinders University Maritime Archaeology Field School, Department of Archaeology staff and students excavated and recorded the remains of the Australian-built ketch Mary Ellis . Colonial-period Australian shipbuilding has, for the past 20 years, been considered one of the most important themes in Australian maritime archaeology. This paper presents a summary of field investigations and a preliminary interpretation of the shipwreck, which adds to the slowly-building dataset on this theme of Australian maritime archaeology.
© 2008 The Authors