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Important Sci/Tech History Up For Auction In UK

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-bet-the-light-bulbs-still-work dept.

mikey_man380 writes "Reuters reports that some original Edison light bulbs and extremely important scientific documents will be auctioned off in the UK. The box of original light bulbs used in court by Edison to defend his patent rights will be up for auction in the United Kingdom. Other important historical items to be included in the auction are Albert Einstein's first scientific essay, a first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and an alchemical manuscript by Isaac Newton."

6 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Should be in a museum by kisanth88 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These things should be in a museum and on display for all people to see.

    All of the above are some of the foundations of the modern world.

    They are some of the building blocks for the technological revolution of the 20th century.

    It would be a shame for these to be in some private collection out of view of the world.

    -John

    1. Re:Should be in a museum by Kadin2048 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah that was my first thought, too. I hope that whoever ends up buying them, will at least loan them out to a museum where they can be properly protected and exhibited.

      I can't blame the person who found the Edison lightbulbs in their attic for wanting to sell, though, considering what they're probably worth.

      --
      "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
    2. Re:Should be in a museum by Cadallin · · Score: 2, Insightful
      And what, precisely, would you do with it? Unless you are literate in the Latin used for technical literature in the 17th century (which all of Newton's official work is written in) It'd simply be a matter of, "Ayup, these scans contain images of one of Newton's treatises on Alchemy, isn't that awesome?"

      I don't even really disagree with you, I'm enough of a pack rat of information that I would want to have such scans, or even the original book, but it would merely be a curiosity, as I lack the expertise to DO anything with it at all.

    3. Re:Should be in a museum by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      first edition "origin of species" only interesting as a novelty for librarians? You are clearly unaware of the thousands of people who visit the British Library every year to view "novelties" such as this. Would you consider the gutenberg bible, magna carta, and DaVinci's notebook to also be "novelties?"

  2. Re:Just goes to show... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Oddly enough, many key technological inventions from lighting to radiotelephony happened in Russia first. Funny how it took American capitalism to deliver almost all of the technology you actually used to compose that pointless message.

  3. Create backups for history by JavaManJim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I worry about the occasional fire disaster overtaking museums and their irreplaceable contents. This happens more often than we think. For example the Library at Alexandria Egypt fire, the 1988 Leningrad Library Fire, the Duchess Anna Amalia library fire, and many many more.

    So imagine the 23 bulbs be divided up into several batches and distributed to have a couple on each continent. Taking the large view we should create two Smithsonian type museums with approximately duplicate contents.

    Biblical fragments (i.e papyri, uncial fragments, and minuscules) have been distributed thusly. There are more than 600 fragments that compose modern bibles and those fragments are all over the world.

    It never hurts to have backups. Even outside of IT.

    Thanks,
    Jim Burke