The Helmholtz Curves: Tracing Lost Time (Forms of Living)

247 Pages·2014·22.09 MB·English

by  Henning Schmidgen, Nils F. Schott

The Helmholtz Curves
Stefanos Geroulanos and Todd Meyers, series editors
The Helmholtz Curves
Tracing Lost Time
Henning Schmidgen
Translated by Nils F. Schott
f o r d h a m u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s
n e w y o r k 2 0 1 4
Copyright © 2014 Fordham University Press
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without the prior permission of the publisher.
This work was originally published in German as Henning
Schmidgen, Die Helmholtz- Kurven: Auf der Spur der verlorenen
Zeit © 2009 Merve Verlag Berlin.
The translation of this work was funded by Geisteswissenschaften
International—T ranslation Funding for Humanities and Social
Sciences from Germany, a joint initiative of the Fritz Thyssen
Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Off ce, the collecting
society VG WORT, and the Börsenverein des Deutschen
Buchhandels (German Publishers & Booksellers Association).
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014930561
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
C o n t e n t s
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1. Curves Regained 26
2. Semiotic Things 41
3. A Research Machine 55
4. Networks of Time, Networks of Knowledge 85
5. Time to Publish 115
6. Messages from the Big Toe 130
7. The Return of the Line 147
Conclusion 172
Chronology 179
Notes 183
Bibliography 215
Index 221
I l l u s t r a t i o n s
1. Helmholtz Curves No. I, “Autographic Curves
of a Muscle” (1851) 2
2. Helmholtz Curves No. II, “Autographic Double
Curves of a Muscle” (1851) 3
3. The difference between “dogmatic” and “historical”
accounts of scientif c developments 24
4. Draft of Helmholtz’s “Deuxième note,” written by his
friend and colleague Emil du Bois-R eymond (ca. 1851) 32
5. Projection of a beating frog heart in the lecture hall of
Johann N. Czermak’s private laboratory in Leipzig (1872) 35
6. Projection polygraph for use in lecture halls (1868) 36
7. Marey’s depiction of the myograph according to
Helmholtz (1868) 38
8. Walter B. Cannon in front of curve recordings in
Harvard University’s physiology laboratory (1940) 46
9. Schematic pre sent at ion of Helmholtz’s “Curves No. I”
(f g. 1) in the accompanying note, “Explication
des épreuves” (1851) 50
10. Schematic pres ent at ion of Helmholtz’s “Curves No. II”
(f g. 2) in the accompanying note, “Explication
des épreuves” (1851) 51
11. Enlarged detail from Helmholtz’s “Curves No. II”
(f g. 2) (1851) 52
12. General view of the frog frame (1850) 59
ix
x Illustrations
13. Detailed lateral view of the frog frame (1850) 60
14. Galvanometer (1876) 63
15. Application of the Pouillet method for meas uri ng
short intervals of time in ballistics (1852) 64
16. Gauß’s observatory for precise meas urem ents of terrestrial
magnetism in Göttingen (1837) 68
17. Components of a Gauß-W eber telegraph (1838) 70
18. A page from Helmholtz’s “Mea surem ents” (1850) 80
19. A page from the laboratory logbook Hermann and
Olga Helmholtz kept from March to June 1850 81
20. Illustration of a system of electrical clocks (1852) 90
21. Illustration of the Breguet chronometer used by Matteucci
in his time-m easuring experiments on suspended frog
samples (1847) 97
22. Reaction time experiment with chronoscope according
to Hipp (1874) 106
23. Two views of Hipp’s writing telegraph developed on the
“American model” (1852) 107
24. Map of the distribution of time to electrical clocks set up
in public spaces in Paris (1881) 110
25. Pneumatic public clock in Paris, Place de la Madeleine, not
far from Proust’s Boulevard Haussmann apartment (1880) 112
26. Main off ce of the théâtrophone in Paris (1892) 113
27. French depiction of telegraph code trees (ca. 1800) 136
28. Telégrafo/Telegraph, drawing by Francisco de Goya
(ca. 1824–2 8) 138
29. Illustration of central components of Helmholtz’s curve
drawing machine (1852) 154
30. Noncongruent double curves of a worn-o ut nerve-m uscle
sample (1852) 157
31. Congruent double curves, shifted because of the stimulation
being applied in different places (1852) 157
32. Congruent double curves, in which a check mark marks
whether the muscle was f rst stimulated at a point closer
or more distant on the nerve (1852) 159