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Jefferson-Designed Chemistry Lab Discovered In UVA Rotunda (virginia.edu)

Posted by timothy on from the bunsen-wasn't-around-yet dept.

schwit1 writes: An ongoing two-year renovation of the University of Virginia's Rotunda has revealed a chemical lab designed by Thomas Jefferson that dates from the 19th century. Workers uncovered the early science classroom behind a wall on Monday, according to the university. The room was sealed in one of the lower-floor walls of the iconic Rotunda in the mid-1840s and protected from a fire in 1895 that destroyed much of the building's interior. The chemical hearth inside was originally built as a semi-circular niche in the Rotunda, with two fireboxes that provided heat. Brick tunnels underneath the building led fresh air to fireboxes and workstations, while ducts carried away the fumes and smoke. Students at the time worked at five workstations cut into stone countertops.

22 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. A truly rare find by iamacat · · Score: 4, Funny

    An American politician who understood and respected science - this must have been the last time in nation's history that this occurred.

    1. Re:A truly rare find by The+Real+Dr+John · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed. I wonder if it is possible to ever go back to having intelligent people running the government. The trend seems to have been the obverse.

      --
      A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
    2. Re:A truly rare find by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
      To be fair, a gentleman of our generation judging another gent's behavior a century and a half ago is a bit presumptive.

      You could still purchase another man then.

      Like it or not, it's statistically likely you had to be a tiny bit pro-slave back then to make ends meet as a southern farmer.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:A truly rare find by sumdumass · · Score: 2

      There are plenty of them in today's world too. The thing is, they do not worship science like some seem to unknowingly do and they do not ignore the dangers of unrestricted access to dangerous chemicals.

    4. Re:A truly rare find by Nutria · · Score: 2

      not much different from a typical modern "American politician".

      How many modern American politicians could write the Declaration of Independence and found a University?

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    5. Re:A truly rare find by chipschap · · Score: 2

      I have to agree. Though it's quite common to use 21st century thought and practice to pass judgment on someone from another era where thought and practice differed greatly, there's some logic lacking in that. We might say that we're glad society has advanced since earlier times (to the extent that it has; I see both gains and losses), but to claim that someone such as Jefferson should be condemned for being a man of his era is a bit much.

      Of course for some people (I'm thinking of a poster just below this thread), anything is excuse enough for an anti-American rant combined with a complete willingness to ignore the history of his/her own country, which undoubtedly can be criticized at least as much.

    6. Re:A truly rare find by slimjim8094 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know it's fun to be holier-than-thou, but moral absolutism has just as many problems as moral relativism. Everybody was doing lots of things throughout history that they thought were OK. Today, we do things we think OK. Why are you so positive that the clock of ethics has stopped as of Friday October 16 2015 and will not change in the future? Let's pick a plausible-enough example... What if in 200 years there is such a population crunch that we need a "cap and trade" on new babies, and procreation and birth control are such that... I don't know, unsafe sex without a permit was as morally risky as driving drunk and for similar reasons? If you had a stance that such things as the choice to have a child are individual concerns and not the governments', that might be viewed as just as backwards, wrong, and dangerous as slavery. Your descendants might think "how could he be so stupid? why didn't he see the evil? it's so obvious!"

      There are at least as many ethical standards that might change in 200 years as those that probably won't. I assume you're just as happy to be called evil then for your stances that seems downright progressive today.

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
    7. Re:A truly rare find by tmosley · · Score: 2

      [Citation needed]

      Show us the proof that the sex was non consensual. The slave in question was his dead wife's half sister. I doubt he would rape one of her relatives.

      He thought long and hard on the subject, and came to the conclusion that simply dumping slaves out onto the street with no training was a recipe for disaster for everyone involved, and indeed he spent time and money training his slaves up and then freed them. But training is expensive and time consuming, and they breed very quickly.

      He did, however, lead the effort to implement one of the world's first bans on the slave trade.

      But hey, fuck him and fuck all his actions and get rid of his entire legacy, including the constitution, because he owned slaves in accordance with social norms even as he tried to change them.

    8. Re:A truly rare find by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      To be fair, a gentleman of our generation judging another gent's behavior a century and a half ago is a bit presumptive.

      You could still purchase another man then.

      Like it or not, it's statistically likely you had to be a tiny bit pro-slave back then to make ends meet as a southern farmer.

      Plenty of civilised people both in the US and elsewhere had decided that slavery was morally unacceptable by that stage in history.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. Remember when... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remember when it was not only permissible, but actually admirable to perform chemical experiments? To the point where even legislators would do so, as part of their well-rounded intellectual life?

    No? Neither do today's legislators and law-enforcement officials, apparently.

    1. Re:Remember when... by quenda · · Score: 2

      Jefferson is well know to have grown marijuana. This was probably a meth lab, which explains why it was so well hidden.

    2. Re:Remember when... by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Jefferson is well know to have grown marijuana. This was probably a meth lab, which explains why it was so well hidden.

      "Pray, sayeth my name."
      "Jefferson."
      "Thou art correct, by Jove!"

      --
      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
    3. Re:Remember when... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, I mean, Ben Carson, who is not only a medical doctor but has conducted extensive scientific medical research, is being lynched for not acting the way that liberal white people on CNN have decided a black man should act.

      Oh, wait, you don't think he counts because there's an "R" next to his name, which makes racism OK.

      Ben Carson is an amazingly intelligent and successful man. Yet he has come up with the most spectacularly bone-headed statements since he entered political life.

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/...

      http://thinkprogress.org/polit...

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    4. Re:Remember when... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 2

      Since Ben Carson isn't actually a legislator, I think you're supporting my point.

      To be fair, we do have a very few contemporary counterexamples to my cynical comment:

      The retirement of Rep. Rush Holt (D., N.J.), who for 16 years was the House’s resident astrophysicist, represents the latest in a string of departures by members trained in the sciences.

      His exit leaves Reps. Bill Foster (D., Ill.) and Jerry McNerney (D., Calif.) as the only remaining members who hold doctorates in the natural and hard sciences out of the 535 senators and representatives in the 114th Congress, according to the Congressional Research Service.

      One caveat: this information is taken from that liberal rag, The Wall Street Journal, which is probably just parroting "reality's well-known liberal bias".

  3. But that wasn't all! by Megane · · Score: 4, Funny

    They also found a Novell Netware server behind the wall, still up and running after all these years.

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  4. Oh man by laserhead · · Score: 2

    Agreed. I wonder if it is possible to ever go back to having intelligent people running the government. The trend seems to have been the obverse.

    You still think the problems for US is not have the right people to have the power? The biggest problem is the system.

    1. Re:Oh man by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All systems that govern others eventually attract sociopaths.

    2. Re: Oh man by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      The Koch brothers political contributions tend to be pro-freedom. Buffet is pretty consistent about contributing to the anti-freedom side, and using political influence to continue the practice of shipping crude oil on his trucks. Buffet is corrupt.

      Gates' record is mixed. The anti-malaria campaign is good. The development of Common Core, which Gates contributes to, aims for politically ignorant worker-drones.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    3. Re:Oh man by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 2

      The bigger the country (or the bigger the jurisdiction smaller than a country, where any kind of federalism applies) the bigger the pool of sociopaths to draw from, and the more likely you'll have really horrible ones rise to the top.

      It shows.

      --
      There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
    4. Re: Oh man by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      The Koch brothers political contributions tend to be pro-freedom.

      If you define freedom purely as the absence of obstacles to making money, I suppose that's true enough.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  5. Anti-Governent Racist's Chemical Stockpile by Baldrson · · Score: 2

    Obviously a domestic terrorist threat.

    --
    Seastead this.
  6. It's just a hearth, not a lab by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    "Lab" sounds like a whole room. This is a hearth that was built in a corner of a room, and subsequently covered up.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.