I couldn’t resist a little AI generated assistive imagery; courtesy Dall-E
I may have mentioned before how our lives revolve around the academic year, so the end of schools is essentially our beginning of summer, even though it happens in May for us. Early May. In Florida, though, summer may have well been in place for months already, weather wise.
The Prowler (1981): This is only the first and not the last example that graduation parties are not a good idea.
Graduation Day (1981): we have many many movies featuring Linnea Quigley.
House of Sorority Row (1982): I’ve seen enough movies to know not to do pranks, ever.
Hide and Go Shriek (1988): For their graduation party, a bunch of goofballs decide to hide in a furniture store after closing and party all night. Thankfully, a deranged killer comes after them. Please note: This is not the same movie as The Initiation (1984).
Can’t Hardly Wait (1997): we revisited this a while ago when indulging in some teen movie nostalgia and have since added it to our shelves.
Victor Laughter in ‘Transmission of Photographs by Wireless’ in Popular Electricity in Plain English. v.3 n.3 pg.254
While I was being distracted by the little known 1909 precursor to solar panels when helping researchers, I noticed something else in Popular Electricity in Plain English that astonished me. One of the authors who had written about Cove’s sun harnessing experiments, Victor Laughter, had also been written about for his own experiments in wirelessly transmitting photographs in 1910! A quick search online for Victor Laughter provided none of the usual answers, no Wikipedia entry, no casual mention to his inventions. So, of course, I had to find out more.
Victor Laughter was born in Mississippi in 1988 and by twelve was likely orphaned living in the Waverly Institute, along with his sister Belva (Bensman, n.d.). Also around the age of 12, Laughter built his first experimental wireless set (Bensman, n.d.). Belva would marry and move to Memphis, making Memphis the home to which Victor would often return before residing their permanently. He would perfect and advertise his wireless telegraphy set when he was twenty (‘Inventor Tells About First Set,’ 1931), quickly following this with the publication of his book the Operator’s Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Handbook published by Drake and Company in 1909. It was the most complete guide to wireless at the time, now believed to be the first book on radio (‘Victor Laughter, Radio Pioneer, Dies,’ 1966), and would sell over 30,000 copies over two printings (Bensman, n.d.).
Before getting too much further, it will be useful to understand the state of radio at the turn of the 20th century. Prior to 1920, radio, known as wireless, was extremely experimental. Most wireless telegraphy, later radiotelegraphy, prior to WWI was morse code that would turn the transmitter on and off producing the dot and dash pulses of radio waves. The waves being sent and received could not carry a voice until Reginald Fessenden invented the heterodyne receiver in 1901 (Wireless Telegraphy, 2023). Wireless telegraphy became an exciting new hobby and challenge for anyone with the time and access to equipment needed (Halper, 1999). These hobbyists made important discoveries and advancements that would cement radio’s importance in the upcoming war and as a commercially lucrative opportunity thereafter.
In 1910 Victor Laughter would take on the position of editor for Hugo Gernsback’s Modern Electrics magazine, all the while publishing consistently in Popular Electricity in Plain English and serving as Technical Director and Secretary for the American Wireless Institute of Detroit (Bensman, n.d.; Massie & Perry, 2002). His wireless transmission of photographs was highlighted in the Popular Electricity in Plain English 1910 article: “Transmission of Photographs by Wireless.” This invention, which would be an early example of a facsimile transmission, isn’t mentioned much elsewhere and may have been an experiment that was left by the wayside similar to those described by McCormack (1913):
“In later years other experimenters tried to develop improved high-frequency spark transmitters–Victor Laughter himself wrote an article about William Dubilier’s efforts along these lines in the June, 1911 Modern Electrics. (A second article on Dubilier appeared in the January, 1912 issue–this time followed two months later by a letter from Laughter, complaining that Dubilier was now claiming credit for a transmitter design actually developed by Laughter). And in spite of the optimism Laughter expressed in this article about the future of his system, no high-frequency spark system for audio transmissions was ever developed to the point that it was successfully put into commercial service.”
Victor Laughter pictured in ‘Inventor Tells About First Set’ (1913). Battle Creek Enquirer. 13 Sep 1931. pg 17
Victor Laughter would also transfer or sell most of his invention patents to various companies and organizations (‘Inventor Tells About First Set,’ 1931). His first three patents, prior to 1911, were sold to Dr. Lee DeForest of the North American Wireless Corporation which would soon after go bankrupt, transferring all assets to the Radio Corporation of America (Bensman, n.d.). So the further development of many of his ideas would end up in the hands of others. He seemed most committed to developing and improving wireless broadcasting. In 1913 he had arranged to set up his equipment on the roof of the Tri-States station in the Falls Building in Memphis. Laughter called the press to his experiment testing the area limits of a broadcast and had more reporters and his brother in law waiting at a house two miles away (McCormack, 1913; Bensman, n.d.; ‘Victor Laughter, Radio Pioneer, Dies,’ 1966). Victor Laughter would also be credited with one of the first broadcasts of a live performance by W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues, in 1914 (Halper, 1999).
“Our research during the war aided materially in the commercial development of the industry. The Superheterodyne was the work of our development”
Victor Laughter (‘Inventor Tells About First Set,’ 1931)
In 1917 Victor Laughter was mustered into the army, where he would work in the U.S. Signal Corp. as a First Lieutenant and keep radio communication the the front lines in operation until 1919 (‘Inventor Tells About First Set,’ 1931; Bensman, n.d.). After the war he worked in St. Louis and Memphis doing a variety of jobs, dealing radio parts, and helping the design of Clarence Saunders’ first automated grocery (‘Inventor Tells About First Set,’ 1931; Bensman, n.d.). He continued to patent inventions which he invariably assigned to other parties. By 1931 he had 18 patents, and by his death in 1966 he had 25. He also continued to work with Hugo Gernsback’s and to contribute articles to Radio Electronics magazine, the successor to Modern Electronics (‘Victor Laughter, Radio Pioneer, Dies,’ 1966; Bensman, n.d.).
Massie, K. & Perry S. (2002) Hugo Gernsback and Radio Magazines: An Influential Intersection in Broadcast History. Journal of Radio Studies. 9(2): 264-
” Transmission of Photographs by Wireless” (1910) Popular Electricity in Plain English. v.1 n.1: p 254
Victor Laughter, Radio Pioneer, Dies. (1966) Memphis Press-Scimitar, Friday September 30, 1966
For Earth Day, April 22nd, we have a mostly thematic list. I’ve already talked about Aerial America, and it is a great way to be awed by the earth, and disturbed sometimes about what we are doing to it. If you are into apocalyptic futures then Water World(1995) and Mad Max (1979) might offer the right kind of vibe.
So far we have found one movie that specifically calls out Earth Day, and, yes, we will be watching it:
Easy A (2010): “Don’t forget, tomorrow’s Earth Day.”
I recently opened up my genealogy records and snooped around the information that my mother and I had gathered more than a decade ago. And, I started looking around on the web for additional information and media to pad out our combined records. Just the other day Evergreen podcasts recently re-posted an interview that Col. Logan Weston gave on Warriors in Their Own Words. Col. Logan Weston is my great-uncle, served in the special ops force Merrill’s Marauders during WWII, and wrote about his experiences in his book The Fightin’ Preacher. I am terribly proud of my grandmother’s brother and enjoy hearing stories about him and his service to our country. I hope y’all will enjoy the listen as well.
There are plenty of thematically appropriate and dramatic representations of Passover in the movies. We will be taking a slightly sleepier and round about approach with Phenomena (1985) because sometimes we just need a comforting and familiar horror movie. What? Didn’t know that a European horror movie set in a girls school had anything to do with Passover? It’s easy to miss.
We may also track down “A Rugrats Passover” (1995). I am a sucker for cartoon holiday specials.
I might be running out of room in the modest space I have allotted myself for my vintage recipe pamphlets. I find it fascinating how the culmination of industrialization, new kitchen appliances, changing class structure, war, depression, and post war boom meant that EVERYONE – including electric companies, food suppliers, government agencies, and more – wanted to teach us how to cook at the end of the 19th century through and past the 1960s. Well, online collections of recipe pamphlets don’t take up space. Here are some:
George Cove’s third solar panel. Source: “Harnessing sunlight”, René Homer, Modern Electrics, Vol. II, No.6, September 1909.
My work sends me looking for all kinds of things that I would never, if entirely directing my own research, be compelled to search and learn. I am grateful for this. This is how I learned about George Cove and his solar electric generator…a little known 1909 precursor to solar panels. The Resilience article “How to Build a Low-Tech Solar Panel?” goes into detail on Cove’s work.
With the picture caption of the photograph from the Resilience article, I was able to find two articles about Cove’s work at the time:
I don’t know about you, but my professional life has been filled with discussions on AI generated text and art. The release of and growing proliferation of AI generated and assisted work has people asking many questions about originality, copyright, ethics, plagiarism, and more. I am discussing none of that here.
Instead, I decided to play with one of the AI art generators – an artificial intelligence program trained to create artwork based on a text prompt by synthesizing or learning from a collection of ‘training material’ gathered from various sources. Taking inspiration from one of my most popular posts to date, I wondered if Dall-E could give me a rendition of Spirited Horses that would’ve been compelling in similarity to Henri LeRoy’s had it been a contemporary of that work.
That most popular post is “Chromolithography and the Mystery of Henri and Anita LeRoy,” wherein I attempted to figure out the true authorship of a picture that I inherited from my grandmother, finding out all about chromolithography along the way. If you need a reminder, the first picture in the following gallery is what is often called ‘Spirited Horses’ with the signature of LeRoy. From what I was able to find out, the following two may have been issued as some kind of collect-all-three deal. The final picture is pretty darn similar in my opinion, issued by another chromolithographic company, Prang Co.
Spirited Horses in StormWild HorsesHorses in a Storm, Prang Co.
Well, I tried a couple prompts with Dall-E. The first try: “spirited horses in the style of a Victorian chromolithography,” said to me that the AI didn’t really know what I meant by chromolithographic style. Chromolithography was more a technique, but as a technique rooted very firmly to one main time period, I think they did have a look about them. A look that these four results did not capture.
I picked the last one, the one I thought most like my ‘Spirited horses’ and had the AI generate a few variations. The variations went to weird places.
For my next prompt I kept with the chromolithography word and tried: “chromolithography of horses running from a storm.” A couple of the examples here reminded me of the Prang, Co. image.
So I tried variations on the last one again.
Overall the experiment was interesting. I can see that the text prompt I give is of supreme importance. So, I tried ‘painting of two horses, one black and one white, with the black horse in the foreground, running from lightning.’ The results were different than the two previous tests but not any more ground breakingly similar to the chromolithographic prints I had studied previously.
Was I trying to get something that looked like an existing picture? Maybe. I’m not sure really. Knowing that the AI is trained on existing images from other artists has led many to worry that the images that result are copies, infringing on other artists rights. Of course each art AI I have played with is obviously trained on different images. If Henri LeRoy’s original Spirited Horses was in the training set, would I have gotten a more similar result from the AI? My playing around isn’t really meant to answer those questions. There are researchers trying to do this exactly: get a generated image that obviously infringes on one of its training images.
Mardi Gras Massacre (1978) : a serial killer roams the streets of Mardi Gras to make sacrifices to a Peruvian god. Not a repeater for the Schmidt house.
Dracula 2000 (2000) : the costume parade is not Halloween, it is Mardi Gras and the action takes place primarily in New Orleans when a recently re-awakened Dracula trails havok through the city with the colleagues of Van Helsing on his tail.
Mardi Gras (1958) : as yet unseen by us musical with Pat Boone
Interview with a Vampire (1994) : so natural and yet it almost slipped my mind
Flesh and Fantasy (1943) : provided we can get a hold of it, this occult anthology seems right up our alley at the Schmidt house
A Woman’s Secret (1992) – Italian thriller with Margeaux Hemingway.
Hatchet (2006) – gory slasher!
Death Spa (1988) – gory supernatural thrillery thing. Why does everyone keep going to this place?
“The Perfect Foil” Murder, She Wrote (S2.E21) – Jessica Fletcher is visiting a distant cousin during Mardi Gras when he is accused of murder during a costume party.
A few years ago I was inspired to overhaul my closet. I wanted to alter things that, with a little change, could be made more wearable. I wanted to weed out things that stood in the way of me finding the pieces I like to wear. And, I wanted to make sure I had a ready supply of outfits that made me feel powerful, playful, and attractive. I wanted my daily attire to delight me, to become a special part of my day instead of simply a necessary one.
And then I was introduced to Disneybounding by the various YouTubers I was watching. Disneybounding, to my understanding, is creating an outfit that evokes your favorite Disney character without overstepping Disney’s regulations on adult costumes, or even wearing something that looks like a costume. Relatedly, historybounding involves dressing to evoke a fashion period from the past, either by dressing in vintage or reproduction styles or by creating an outfit that resembles them.
The best part of everyday cosplay is that it includes completely normal everyday clothing. I just needed to obtain some key items for my wardrobe to make sure I had pieces to put together an outfit I thought evoked the character I had in mind. For instance, I already had a red and green striped shirt so all I felt I really need to evoke Freddy Kruger were some brown gloves. I obtained some snazzy black and white wingtip-esque t-strap shoes as the final pieces for a Joker outfit. Otherwise, creating the outfits just challenged me to think about the pieces in my closet a little differently – like I was pulling markers from a box to color in a character.
I have been both searching for, and working on, the perfect honey cake recipe for some time now. I love honey, especially the flavor varietals produced by honey from certain plants and locations. But I don’t love how heavy honey cakes can be, thus the search. So far, I have come up with a pretty good recipe for small cakes:
Originally had a 1/2 c of vegetable oil in with a 1/2 c of apple sauce, but the last time I made them I used a whole cup of apple sauce and forgot the oil – they came out wonderful. And by wonderful I mean, they were light and springy, admittedly a little sticky to the touch on the outside, but not heavy like many honey cakes can be.
I also gave this recipe a try recently:
Spiced Honey Cake from 1938 Season to Taste – Spices.. and How to Use Them
I also gave the Spiced Honey Cake recipe from a 1938 “Season to Taste” baking pamphlet. It too was not overly heavy, but it didn’t taste as strongly of honey. The lack of heaviness and honey flavor were both probably due to only 1/2 cup of honey.
