Elephant bones for the Middle Pleistocene toolmaker.

The use of bone as raw material for implements is documented since the Early Pleistocene. Throughout the Early and Middle Pleistocene bone tool shaping was done by percussion flaking, the same technique used for knapping stone artifacts, although bone shaping was rare compared to stone tool flaking. Until recently the generally accepted idea was that early bone technology was essentially immediate and expedient, based on single-stage operations, using available bone fragments of large to medium size animals. Only Upper Paleolithic bone tools would involve several stages of manufacture with clear evidence of primary flaking or breaking of bone to produce the kind of fragments required for different kinds of tools. Our technological and taphonomic analysis of the bone assemblage of Castel di Guido, a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy, now dated by 40Ar/39Ar to about 400 ka, shows that this general idea is inexact. In spite of the fact that the number of bone bifaces at the site had been largely overestimated in previous publications, the number of verified, human-made bone tools is 98. This is the highest number of flaked bone tools made by pre-modern hominids published so far. Moreover the Castel di Guido bone assemblage is characterized by systematic production of standardized blanks (elephant diaphysis fragments) and clear diversity of tool types. Bone smoothers and intermediate pieces prove that some features of Aurignacian technology have roots that go beyond the late Mousterian, back to the Middle Pleistocene. Clearly the Castel di Guido hominids had done the first step in the process of increasing complexity of bone technology. We discuss the reasons why this innovation was not developed. The analysis of the lithic industry is done for comparison with the bone industry.

Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR FT-IR) Spectroscopy as a Forensic Method to Determine the Composition of Inks Used to Print the United States One-cent Blue Benjamin Franklin Postage Stamps of the 19th Century.

Through the combined use of infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sampling, the composition of inks used to print the many different types of one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamps of the 19th century has been established. This information permits a historical evaluation of the formulations used at various times, and also facilitates the differentiation of the various stamps from each other. In two instances, the ink composition permits the unambiguous identification of stamps whose appearance is identical, and which (until now) have only been differentiated through estimates of the degree of hardness or softness of the stamp paper, or through the presence or absence of a watermark in the paper. In these instances, the use of ATR Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) spectroscopy effectively renders irrelevant two 100-year-old practices of stamp identification. Furthermore, since the use of ATR sampling makes it possible to obtain the spectrum of a stamp still attached to its cover, it is no longer necessary to identify these blue Franklin stamps using their cancellation dates.

J. M. Despréaux' lichens from the Canary Islands and West Africa: an account of a 19th century collection found in an English archive.

This is an historical and descriptive account of 28 herbarium specimens, 27 lichens and an alga, found in the archives of Charles Chalcraft, a descendant of the Bedford family, who were dye manufacturers in Leeds, England, in the 19th century. The lichens comprise 13 different morphotypes collected in the Canary Islands and West Africa by the French botanist J. M. Despréaux between 1833 and 1839. The collections include samples of "Roccella fuciformis", "R. phycopsis" and "R. tinctoria" (including the fertile morphotype "R. canariensis"), "Ramalina crispatula" and "R. cupularis", two distinct morphotypes of "Sticta", "S. canariensis" and "S. dufouri", "Physconia enteroxantha", "Pseudevernia furfuracea var. ceratea" and "Pseudocyphellaria argyracea". The herbarium also includes authentic material of "Parmotrema tinctorum" and a probable syntype of "Seirophora scorigena". Most of these species are known as a source of the purple dye orchil, which was used to dye silk and wool.

A new 3D information acquisition method of micro-drilling marks on ancient perforated stone bead through micro-CT.

Drilling is one of the most complex techniques for making ancient stone or jade implement or adornment. However, related research on ancient stone or jade drilling technology lags behind, for there are rare records or discovery of the ancient drilling tools. Drilling marks are very useful information for analysis and research of the ancient drilling techniques. The traditional information acquisition methods are very difficult to apply effectively on smaller perforations. In this paper, we introduced a new nondestructive method to solve the observation difficulty problem. The ancient bead was scanned by 3D-µCT system. Then through T-FDK algorithm, improved NL-means denoising algorithm and high accurate calibration, the 3D geometrical information of micro-drilling marks on outer and inner wall of the perforation were reconstructed. The experimental results proved that this method can provide key information for the analysis of the ancient stone drilling technique and ancient jade authentication.

Systematic blade production at late Lower Paleolithic (400-200 kyr) Qesem Cave, Israel.

Qesem Cave is assigned to the Acheulo-Yabrudian cultural complex of the late Lower Paleolithic period. The 7.5 m deep stratigraphic sequence is dated to 400-200 ka (thousands of years ago). It is mostly attributed to the Amudian blade-dominated industry, one of the earliest blade production technologies in the world. In this paper, we present the results of a detailed study of five Amudian assemblages from Qesem Cave and suggest two trajectories for the production of blades at the site. We argue that the reduction sequences of blades at Qesem Cave represent an innovative and straightforward technology aimed at the systemic and serial production of predetermined blanks. We suggest that this predetermined blank technology shows planning and intensity that is not significantly different from Middle Paleolithic Mousterian technological systems. Furthermore, this well-organized serial manufacture of cutting implements mainly for butchering might indicates that a significant change in human behavior had taken place by the late Lower Paleolithic period.

The intractable cigarette 'filter problem'.

BACKGROUND: When lung cancer fears emerged in the 1950s, cigarette companies initiated a shift in cigarette design from unfiltered to filtered cigarettes. Both the ineffectiveness of cigarette filters and the tobacco industry's misleading marketing of the benefits of filtered cigarettes have been well documented. However, during the 1950s and 1960s, American cigarette companies spent millions of dollars to solve what the industry identified as the 'filter problem'. These extensive filter research and development efforts suggest a phase of genuine optimism among cigarette designers that cigarette filters could be engineered to mitigate the health hazards of smoking. OBJECTIVE: This paper explores the early history of cigarette filter research and development in order to elucidate why and when seemingly sincere filter engineering efforts devolved into manipulations in cigarette design to sustain cigarette marketing and mitigate consumers' concerns about the health consequences of smoking. METHODS: Relevant word and phrase searches were conducted in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library online database, Google Patents, and media and medical databases including ProQuest, JSTOR, Medline and PubMed. RESULTS: 13 tobacco industry documents were identified that track prominent developments involved in what the industry referred to as the 'filter problem'. These reveal a period of intense focus on the 'filter problem' that persisted from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, featuring collaborations between cigarette producers and large American chemical and textile companies to develop effective filters. In addition, the documents reveal how cigarette filter researchers' growing scientific knowledge of smoke chemistry led to increasing recognition that filters were unlikely to offer significant health protection. One of the primary concerns of cigarette producers was to design cigarette filters that could be economically incorporated into the massive scale of cigarette production. The synthetic plastic cellulose acetate became the fundamental cigarette filter material. By the mid-1960s, the meaning of the phrase 'filter problem' changed, such that the effort to develop effective filters became a campaign to market cigarette designs that would sustain the myth of cigarette filter efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that cigarette designers at Philip Morris, British-American Tobacco, Lorillard and other companies believed for a time that they might be able to reduce some of the most dangerous substances in mainstream smoke through advanced engineering of filter tips. In their attempts to accomplish this, they developed the now ubiquitous cellulose acetate cigarette filter. By the mid-1960s cigarette designers realised that the intractability of the 'filter problem' derived from a simple fact: that which is harmful in mainstream smoke and that which provides the smoker with 'satisfaction' are essentially one and the same. Only in the wake of this realisation did the agenda of cigarette designers appear to transition away from mitigating the health hazards of smoking and towards the perpetuation of the notion that cigarette filters are effective in reducing these hazards. Filters became a marketing tool, designed to keep and recruit smokers as consumers of these hazardous products.

[From natural growth to artificial composition: the use of artificial materials in endoprosthetics from a cultural-historical perspective]. / Verwendung von Fremdmaterialien in der Endoprothetik: Ein medizinhistorischer Beitrag.

The use of artifical materials in joint replacement is not self-evident. A paradigm change can be observed. Beginning in the 18th century orthopedic surgery became possible because of a change of the idea of man. Natural growth was seen as ideal solution in orthopedic surgery until the 19th century. Yet in the aftermath the point of view changed to a more technical determined approach. Until the middle of the 20th century the terms "efficieny" and "ability" became more and more important. Joint replacement with artificial materials was generally accepted and led to an enormous accelaration in the development of new materials and surgical techniques.

[Development of the chemical industry in the Kingdom of Poland till 1914]. / Rozwój przemyslu chemicznego w Królestwie Polskim do 1914 roku.

The chemical industry in the Kingdom of Poland developed on the turn of the 19th century. Earlier, in the field of industry in the Kingdom one could observe only two lines of the chemical industry: aliphatic and soap, and gas-producing and coal gas. The beginnings of the first mentioned line appeared on the turn of the 18th century, and the second branch--in the half of the 19th century. The development of chemical industry was stimulated by foreign capital expenditure, mainly by German capital. A significant impact on foreign capital expenditures within chemical industry on territories of Russian Empire, and also in the Kingdom as the most industrialized part of Empire, had tariffs. Thanks to the direct capital expenditures in the Kingdom foreign investors got an access to the receptive Russian market using the potential and technological thought of their establishments--'mother' firms. In 1913 a share of foreign capital in chemical industry in the Kingdom was 20, 30%. By dint of foreign capital expenditures in the years 1900-1913 production's value in chemical industry rose from 12 to 40 millions and 900 thousands roubles. The foreign capital, however, used to invest only in the most industrialized provinces of the Kingdom--Warsaw and Piotrków. And the greatest concentration of chemical industry could be observed just in the above-mentioned provinces. In the years 1904-1913 a number of establishments fluctuated there from 88.09 to 81.18%, and the employment--from 91.83 to 91.09%. This tendency could be observed till the outbreak of World War I. The Polish and Jewish capital that invested in chemical industry, did not have such financial resources. The investors' establishments were not large and technologically under-developed. However, the Polish and Jewish capital invested in the local market, particularly in agricultural provinces of the Kingdom.

Material experiments: Environment and engineering institutions in the early American republic.

In nineteenth-century America, strength of materials, an engineering science, focused on empirical research that yielded practical tools about how to predict the behavior of a wide variety of materials engineers might encounter as they built the nation's infrastructure. This orientation toward "cookbook formulae" that could accommodate many different kinds of timber, stone, mortar, metals, and so on was specifically tailored for the American context, where engineers were peripatetic, materials diverse, and labor in short supply. But these methods also reflected deeper beliefs about the specialness of the landscape and the providential site of the American political experiment. As such, engineers' appreciation of natural bounty both emerged from and contributed to larger values about exceptionalism and the practical character of Americans.

Transfer of occupational health problems from a developed to a developing country: lessons from the Japan-South Korea experience.

Many corporations move their manufacturing facilities or technologies from developed to developing countries. Stringent regulations have made it costly for industries to operate in developed, industrialized countries. In addition, labor costs are high in these countries, and there is increasing awareness among the general public of the health risks associated with industry. The relocation of hazardous industries to developing countries is driven by economic considerations: high unemployment, a cheaper labor force, lack of regulation, and poor enforcement of any existing regulations make certain countries attractive to business. The transfer of certain industries from Japan to Korea has also brought both documented occupational diseases and a new occupational disease caused by chemicals without established toxicities. Typical examples of documented occupational diseases are carbon disulfide poisoning in the rayon manufacturing industry, bladder cancer in the benzidine industry, and mesothelioma in the asbestos industry. A new occupational disease due to a chemical without established toxicities is 2-bromopropane poisoning. These examples suggest that counter-measures are needed to prevent the transfer of occupational health problems from a developed to a developing country. Corporate social responsibility should be emphasized, close inter-governmental collaboration is necessary and cooperation among non-governmental organizations is helpful.

Landscape-scale variation in hominin tool use: Evidence from the Developed Oldowan.

The relationship between artifact manufacture, use, and discard in the Developed Oldowan is complex. Here we use digital-image-analysis techniques to investigate the intensity of reduction in single-platform cores of the Developed Oldowan of the Okote Member, Koobi Fora Formation. Data suggest that this method provides a more accurate measure of reduction intensity than previous applications of a unifacial-scraper model. Assemblages of single-platform cores excavated from extensive lateral exposures of the Okote Member provide insights into the relationship between raw-material availability and discard patterns. Variation in reduction intensity suggests that tools are not always discarded in patterns that would be predicted by the availability of raw material. Further, it appears that hominin transport decisions involved an assessment of the potential use-life of certain forms. Many aspects of Developed Oldowan technology conform to previously developed models of curated technologies.

Are Upper Paleolithic blade cores more productive than Middle Paleolithic discoidal cores? A replication experiment.

It is widely believed that the change from discoidal flake production to prismatic blade-making during the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe led to enhanced technological efficiency. Specifically, blade-making is thought to promote higher rates of blank production, more efficient and complete reduction of the parent core, and a large increase in the total length of cutting edge per weight of stone. Controlled replication experiments using large samples, computer-assisted measurements, and statistical tests of several different measures failed to support any of these propositions. When resharpened, the use-life of flake edges actually surpasses that of blades of equivalent mass because the narrower blades are more rapidly exhausted by retouch. Our results highlight the need to replace static measurements of edge length that promote an illusion of efficiency with a more dynamic approach that takes the whole reduction sequence into account. An unexpected by-product of our replications was the discovery that real gains in cutting-edge length per weight of stone are linked to surface area. There is now a need to test the proposition that all the perceived advantages currently bestowed upon blades only occurred during the shift from macroblade to bladelet production. If our results are duplicated in further experiments, the notion of "economical" blades will have to be rejected and alternative explanations sought for their appearance in the early Upper Paleolithic. While Aurignacian bladelet (Dufour) production could signal the advent of composite tool technology (wooden handles or shafts with bladelet inserts), this does not help to explain why macroblades were also produced in large numbers. We may need to reexamine the notion that macroblades were of more symbolic than functional significance to their makers.

Large cutting tool variation west and east of the Movius Line.

Norton et al. (2006) compared "handaxes" from Korea and two basins with Acheulean assemblages (Olorgesailie, Kenya and Hunsgi-Baichbal, India). The authors found significant morphological variance between Eastern and Western handaxes, leading them to conclude that East Asian tool forms were not morphologically similar to typical Acheulean implements. We test this finding using a larger array of localities, and find some metrical overlaps between handaxes and cleavers in the West and East. We indicate the role of convergence in lithic assemblage formation, but we also raise the possibility that handaxes and cleavers in the Luonan Basin (China) may represent evidence for Acheulean stone tool manufacturing methods.

Putting ochre to the test: replication studies of adhesives that may have been used for hafting tools in the Middle Stone Age.

Substantial frequencies of Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithics from Rose Cottage and Sibudu Caves in South Africa have red ochre on their proximal and medial portions. Residue studies suggest that the tools were hafted and that the ochre may be part of the adhesive used for hafting the tools. Replication studies show that ochre is indeed a useful loading agent for adhesive; however, there are other potential loading agents. It is also possible to use unloaded plant resin, but this agent is brittle and difficult to work with. It appears that people living in the MSA had wide knowledge of ingredients suitable for hafting tools, and that they chose different adhesive recipes because of the required properties of the adhesive. Brittle, unloaded adhesive allows a projectile head to disengage its haft and implant itself in an animal; robust adhesive keeps a spearhead safely in its shaft.