Johann August Philipp Gesner (1738–1801). A Review of His Essay “The Language Amnesia” in The Bicentennial Anniversary of His Death

On the 200th anniversary of Johann August Philipp Gesner's death, this paper summarizes and discusses a paper on language amnesia published in 1770. The author had clear knowledge of selective mental impairments resulting from brain diseases, and of separate mental representations for words and their underlying concepts. However, to explain the language impairment, Gesner suggested that it would not be caused by focal damage to a specific anatomic and functional unit of the mind, but is the consequence of a general sluggishness of the mental processes.     

侯马东周祭祀遗址出土玉器材质的矿物学测试及产源分析

山西侯马西高及晋田热力公司东周祭祀遗址4件出土玉器残片样品经过比重测试、红外光谱物相分析、X射线粉晶衍射分析、显微结构观察及稳定同位素等矿物学测试和产源分析,发现其中的西高(J580、J332)和热力公司(JK728)3件样品是来自新疆和田地区的闪玉石,热力公司(JK659)样品是蛇纹石化大理岩。     

Radiocarbon Dating of the Turin Shroud: New Evidence from Raw Data

In 1988, three laboratories performed a radiocarbon analysis of the Turin Shroud. The results, which were centralized by the British Museum and published in Nature in 1989, provided ‘conclusive evidence’ of the medieval origin of the artefact. However, the raw data were never released by the institutions. In 2017, in response to a legal request, all raw data kept by the British Museum were made accessible. A statistical analysis of the Nature article and the raw data strongly suggests that homogeneity is lacking in the data and that the procedure should be reconsidered.     

古代青铜器修复钎焊用钎剂与钎料的改性研究

锡铅钎料和氯化锌钎剂的烙铁钎焊是传统的工艺方法。由于氯化锌钎剂中含有大量的氯离子,对青铜物的长期保存带来不利的影响。本工作通过对钎剂筛选和复配及钎料的选择,研制了针对青铜物修复钎焊用新型无氯钎剂和含银钎料匹配,并在8种古青铜模拟试样上进行一系列性能测试,结果表明新型无氯钎剂和含银钎料匹配有良好的工艺性、抗腐蚀性、可获得高强度的钎缝。新型无氯钎剂和含银钎料匹配在青铜物修复中应用结果表明,新型无氯钎剂和含银钎料有较好的钎焊工艺,钎焊接头饱满光亮,对于不同时期及不同合金的青铜物具有很好的钎焊性,钎焊后青铜物存放半年,钎焊接头依然保持光亮,焊缝周围没有出现锈蚀物和氧化现象。用新型无氯钎剂替代传统氯化锌钎剂,并且和含银钎料匹配进行古青铜的钎焊是可行的,改良后的钎剂进行青铜物修复过程符合物保护原则,避免了钎剂在钎焊过程中产生的气体对操作人员身体健康的影响。     

The colourless glass of Iulia Felix

The present paper focuses on 85 colourless glass samples selected among the recycling cullet found in the Roman ship Iulia Felix, wrecked off the town of Grado (province of Udine, North Italy) in the first half of the 3rd century AD, with the aim of examining their chemical composition, investigating similarities within and between the three established group types (cups, plates, bottles), and comparing the chemical compositions of the Iulia Felix glass samples with groups reported in the literature for colourless glasses. Chemical analyses, performed by X-ray fluorescence and electron microprobe, indicate that the samples were all soda-lime–silica in composition, with natron as flux, according to typical Roman production technologies. Chemical data are treated by multivariate statistical tools, such as cluster analysis and the NPC test. Statistical analyses allow us to conclude that the Iulia Felix colourless glasses were produced by at least two different production technologies related to group type, confirming the trend recently identified in the literature. In addition, the trace element patterns (particularly those of Sr, Zr and Ba) suggest that beach sand with differing amounts of alkali feldspars was predominantly used as raw material, like those specifically mentioned by Pliny for glass production.     

Clyve Jones and Parliamentary History

The ‘constitutional revolution’ which occurred in Ireland after 1691 meant that parliamentary management became one of the prime functions of the viceroyalty. Interest focused on the Commons, where supply legislation was drafted. But the upper House, though smaller, less busy, and on the whole more easily managed, could not be ignored, since it could still cause major problems for government. The situation for the incoming ministers in 1714 was problematic, since the Lords had been a tory stronghold, and the ‘Church party’, buttressed by the bishops, remained powerful. The situation was a mirror image of Westminster in 1710, when Robert Harley's tory ministry had to cope with a whig-dominated house of lords. This essay analyses the means by which Lord Lieutenant Sunderland (1714–15), and his successors, Lords Justices Grafton and Galway, brought the Irish upper House under control, constructing a court party with some of the elements which Clyve Jones has identified as having been crucial to Harley's strategy in 1710–14: moderate or non-party men, pensioners and placemen depending on government largess, new episcopal appointments and a block creation of peerages. In Ireland it was the new peers who played the most important part. The whigs were able to make some inroads into the episcopal bench, previously a stronghold of toryism, until the issue of relief for dissenters rekindled anxiety over the maintenance of the ecclesiastical establishment, prefiguring future problems.     

Polarized light microscopy casts new light on plants used to make tapa

Information about plant materials of construction in artefacts advances knowledge about human history, agriculture, trade, migration and adaptation to new environments. Typically, materials identification in artefacts made from plants is problematic, since processing, age, dirt and surface treatments can mask identifying features, while ethical considerations relating to sampling limit the use of some analytical techniques. The study tests the usefulness of polarized light microscopy for identifying the New Zealand and Pacific plant species used to make tapa, indicating birefringent and morphological characteristics that can be used to differentiate fibres at the level Moraceae (Pacific; from genera Artocarpus, Broussonetia and Ficus) and Malvaceae (New Zealand; from genera Hoheria and Plangianthus).     

单檐歇山式木构古建抵抗极端烈度地震试验调查研究

为更好地保护我国古建筑,基于《单檐歇山式古建筑抗震性能振动台试验》的相关成果,研究了强震作用下我国明清官式木构古建的抗震性能,制作了与该论文相同的试验模型,进行了振动台试验。通过对模型输入烈度逐渐增强的1940年El-centro波,并考虑地震波为水平双向作用,分析了强震作用下不同构造的试验现象,开展了详细的震后调查,获得了不同构造在强震作用下的抗震性能和震害机制。结果表明:强震作用下,我国明清官式木构古建的振动形式表现为柱架、斗拱、梁架及屋顶的近似同步往复摇摆;主要震害包括柱底偏移、榫卯节点开裂、拔榫、斗拱偏移及错位、额枋-垫板分离、墙体倒塌等,但承重木构架受损不严重,结构未产生倒塌。其良好抗震性能的原因与古建筑的构造特征密切相关。     

自贡盐业铁工具的防锈保护

通过对馆藏盐业铁工具的锈层性状及结构的检测分析,并结合当地环境气候特征,认为其继续锈蚀的机制是电化学循环机制,提出除去有害锈、涂料封护的CLFJ防锈法。CLFJ防锈法处理生成的表面膜经防锈性检测,耐CuSO_4滴液、耐盐水性及耐水性指标全部合格,经模拟自然暴露3年条件下工业大气浸蚀的加速实验表明,馆藏条件下防锈时效性指标达5年以上;同时,表面膜呈现出贴近原貌的铁锈色。     

A Tale of Two Train Journeys: Lawrence Bragg,C. P. Snow and The ‘Two Cultures’

It was during two train-journey meetings with the physicist William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1971) that both Charles Percy Snow's (1905–1980) civil service career and, if the anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the ‘two cultures’ metaphor originated. The first part of this paper is concerned with the background, consequences and significance of the first of these journeys: Kettering station in 1939. It will address the somewhat hazy record of Snow's wartime work found in existing accounts, and argue that Snow's wartime experience helped shape his characterisation of the scientific side of his ‘two cultures’. The second part of this paper deals with Bragg's intellectual influence on Snow, tracing the former's interest in ‘two cultures’ arguments prior to probable encounters between the two on the Cambridge to London train in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including a historically hazy one in which together they allegedly coined the famous phrase. In examining their early relationship, it becomes clear that Bragg was a key influence and support in Snow's career as an administrator and as a cultural commentator.