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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.

9 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 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.
  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 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
    2. 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.
  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. Re:Oh man by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All systems that govern others eventually attract sociopaths.