Danny Robb

Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination

Behind The Raven’s melancholy lies a theory of composition shaped by magazines, machines, and modernity.

By: Danny Robb

daily.jstor.org/edgar-allan-...

#books #literature

If anyone hasn't read it yet, Marie Tharp's reflection on her career is one of the coolest things.

"I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together: mapping the world’s vast hidden seafloor."

news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/07/24/m...

Shoemaker calculated "trajectories for individual fragments ejected from Copernicus" to help explain rays and secondary craters. Here's a diagram from the paper, and a picture of the Teapot ESS explosion.

Paper:
digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/m...

Photo:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Op...

In 1961, Eugene Shoemaker used Earth analogs to help distinguish between impact and volcanic craters on the moon:

"Many craters on the moon are surrounded by a system of rays resembling the ejecta patterns around nuclear-and high-explosive craters"

He used Teapot ESS and Copernicus to illustrate:

Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination - JSTOR Daily Behind The Raven’s melancholy lies a theory of composition shaped by magazines, machines, and modernity.

Edgar Allan Poe claimed that he wrote The Raven with a formulaic method. He was fascinated by the idea of mechanical reasoning, and this infused his writing. This was driven in part by the dramatic technological transformations in his lifetime.

#histSTM #poetry

daily.jstor.org/edgar-allan-...

Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination - JSTOR Daily Behind The Raven’s melancholy lies a theory of composition shaped by magazines, machines, and modernity.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination daily.jstor.org/edgar-allan-...

Edgar Allan Poe’s Mechanical Imagination - JSTOR Daily Behind The Raven’s melancholy lies a theory of composition shaped by magazines, machines, and modernity.

Edgar Allan Poe claimed that he wrote The Raven with a formulaic method. He was fascinated by the idea of mechanical reasoning, and this infused his writing. This was driven in part by the dramatic technological transformations in his lifetime.

#histSTM #poetry

daily.jstor.org/edgar-allan-...

For Women's History Month - a thing I wrote.

lroc.im-ldi.com/images/1093

My goal was to highlight interesting lunar features imaged by LRO that were named for lesser-known scientists. Blagg Crater, named for Mary Adela Blagg, is located in Sinus Medii.

I requested that the crater be reimaged.

Excerpts from a NASA public info publication in my collection. This one, from December 1976, is a special issue of the VIKING PROJECT BULLETIN, a newsletter NASA mailed out free upon request.

A nice relic of pre-Internet days.

I post one of these in its entirety on my Patreon every Sunday.

For your Saturday enjoyment, here is Gene Shoemaker leaning in front he left and Kuiper on the right looking at the first Ranger images of the moon at JPL.

China's Chang'e-6 lunar lander may have solved one of the great Moon mysteries: Why does its far side look totally different than the side that faces us?

A huge impact 4.3 billion years ago partially melted the Moon's mantle & made it lopsided, according to a new study. 🧪🔭

eos.org/articles/pri...

Io from the Juno spacecraft on February 3, 2024. The night side can be seen in reflected light from Jupiter. The quality of this dataset is truly stunning.

Sixty years ago today, on February 3, 1966, Luna-9 was the first spacecraft to survive landing on the surface of another world. It is wild to think that the Space Age is so young that there are still millions alive now who were adults when this happened.

The First Lunar Lander and the Great Moon Dust Debate - JSTOR Daily In 1966, the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon, helping to resolve questions about the nature of the lunar surface.

60 years ago, Luna 9 gave us our very first images from the lunar surface. The pictures dropped into a debate about the nature of the Moon, and scientists rushed to interpret them.

#HistSTM 🗃️ #moon

daily.jstor.org/the-first-lu...

The Hidden Aesthetics of Early Astrophotography - JSTOR Daily Behind the transformative star photographs of the 1880s lay a complex collaboration between astronomers and engravers.

Astronomers in the 19th c. hoped that photography would help mechanize observation, but judgement still crept into their processes. Engraving and printing astronomical images required collaboration--and aesthetic choices.

#histSTM 🗃️ #astronomy

daily.jstor.org/the-hidden-a...

The Hidden Aesthetics of Early Astrophotography - JSTOR Daily Behind the transformative star photographs of the 1880s lay a complex collaboration between astronomers and engravers.

Astronomers in the 19th c. hoped that photography would help mechanize observation, but judgement still crept into their processes. Engraving and printing astronomical images required collaboration--and aesthetic choices.

#histSTM 🗃️ #astronomy

daily.jstor.org/the-hidden-a...

Spectacle on Other Worlds The first spacecraft from Earth to touch another world carried no people, but it did carry a unique sort of flag. Early on the morning of September 14, 1959, the Soviet space probe Luna 2 impacted …

Luna 2 and Mariner 4 both carried nationalistic symbols. What do they tell us about the motivations of early space explorers?

invertingvision.com/2026/02/02/s...

NASA ends support for planetary science advisory groups Culling limits agency’s ability to tap independent advice

NASA ends support for planetary science advisory groups

www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #PlanetSci

The Radioactive Reindeer Problem - JSTOR Daily Cold War nuclear testing left troubling levels of Cesium-137 in caribou, prompting years of research into Arctic fallout and its risks to human health.

Scientists studying reindeer/caribou early in the Cold War made a startling discovery. It led to a major public health investigation, turning Canada and the Arctic into nuclear spaces.

#histSTM 🗃️

daily.jstor.org/the-radioact...

Christiaan Huygens' & his wave theory of light #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/11/12/f...

Magnetic Variations – X Mapping the variation Over this series we have tracked the discovery of magnetic variation and the gradual realisation that it was a real phenomenon and not just a malfunction of badly made or adjusted compasses. &…

Among his many achievements Edmond Halley, who was born 8 November 1656, was the first to map the magnetic variation in the Atlantic #histsci
thonyc.wordpress.com/2024/06/26/m...

My new article is up:
thespacereview.com/article/5093/1

One was boosted by military and Cold War interests and the other (on Naomi Oreskes's reading) was delayed by them. #histSTM

How Lunar Photography Brought the Heavens Down to Earth (Gift Article) No explorers ever traveled farther from home than the Apollo astronauts. As artists, they’re still underrated.

Whether you like science or art or history or space travel, I promise this will be the best thing you read all week.
🧪🔭

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The Erie Canal at 200 - JSTOR Daily Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.

The Erie Canal was completed 200 years ago today. It was a major achievement for the early US, and for New York in particular. But the canal meant different things to different people, and over time, its significance evolved.

🗃️

daily.jstor.org/the-erie-can...

The Erie Canal at 200 - JSTOR Daily Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.

The Erie Canal was completed 200 years ago today. It was a major achievement for the early US, and for New York in particular. But the canal meant different things to different people, and over time, its significance evolved.

🗃️

daily.jstor.org/the-erie-can...

On the left is a diagram from the same book published in 1794 in the quoted post below for its chapter on eclipses. On the right is the current diagram for the Wikipedia entry on eclipses. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it I suppose. 🔭

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

Darwin's geological training shaped his scientific identity. He took classes from professors on opposite sides of a major geological debate. One was dull, the other exciting-but he learned a lot from both, and from field excursions in Wales.

#Histsci 🗃️ #geology

daily.jstor.org/mad-about-ge...

“Mad About Geology”: Charles Darwin’s Origin Story - JSTOR Daily At university and in the field, Darwin trained his scientific thinking as would a geologist, seeking causal explanations for observed natural phenomena.

Darwin's geological training shaped his scientific identity. He took classes from professors on opposite sides of a major geological debate. One was dull, the other exciting-but he learned a lot from both, and from field excursions in Wales.

#Histsci 🗃️ #geology

daily.jstor.org/mad-about-ge...

I have two articles in The Space Review this week. Here is one of them. thespacereview.com/article/5085/1