VMs: On the use of quills

[jporter@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Julie Porter)]

It has been quite some time since I have had anything to say. Even this is
a bit of a digression. My interest have flown more into the history of
computing; Aka Babbage and the Ada myth, along with Alan Turing and "The
theory of Morphogenisis. [Then there is the project I have to restore a
Wurlitzer calliope and convert it and 700+ rolls of music to MIDI.]  Did I
mention I was addicted to reading the Vms list?

For those who are somewhat new to the list, Inspired by W. R. Bennett's
"... Problem solving with the computer." I did a prototype Voynich
Postscript font back in the dark ages of the list about 8 or 10 years ago.
(Has it really been that long?) This prototype font was expanded by others
and became the foundations of many of the other fonts in use. (I was one of
the knowlageable font people at Apple prior to 1998, and did much of the
font QA testing.) I was alway sort of fond of the splat character, which I
introduced into my proto Vms font.

I would like to point out that quills were used by several prominent
authors into the early 20th century. Charles Dickens (1812 to 1870) is the
most notable. He refused to switch to steel nibbed pens.

John Muir (founder of the serra club and the idea of National Parks.) lived
until 1912 or so. He also insisted on using a quill. The house where he
wrote his books is now a museum run by the U.S National park service. This
is in Martinez California. (28 miles north west of San Francisco.) Here
visitors can sign their name in the guest book with a quill. (using water
soulable ink that washes out easy.) I was a volunteer,at this NHS, so I
became familure with sharpening the quill & the fun the general public has
using it. BTW Muir is also to be on the california quarter, so I think
people now know who he was.

Long time readers might remember that I am active with the Renaissance
faire and the Dickens Christmas fair, in San Francisco.  Where we recreate
three blocks of 19th century London in the "Cow Palace" with about 800
actors playing Dickens characters. My character is "Mrs. General" from
_Little Dorrit._ Aka: Nobody's problem or Nobody's fault.

A few years back I was working with the printer at the DCF. I sat at a desk
with a quill in full view of the public and wrote articles for the printer
to publish.  Many pages, including a 20 page short story. Photographs of
the printshop are still on my website:
<http://www.delectra.com/jporter>

Most people tend to hold the quill upside down (or backwards) to try and
hold massive amounts the ink into the center when writing with it. Some try
and split it like a steel nib. The quill contains natural pores. The idea
is to slash the quill at an angle to open the pores, along the leading or
root edge. The center of the quill is hollow and sometimes contains a foamy
substance. The ink does not go into this, it wicks up along the leading
edge ,where there is a natural rib. The pen knife *must* be razor sharp.
(see Dickens' _Little Dorrit_ for what a pen knife is capable of.) In
_Martin Chuzzlewit_ Dickens describes making archetectuarl drawings with
the quill.

When I write, I tend to get about a paragraph or so between inking.
Surpirsingly the quill stayes sharp for at least a page. Usually it is a
matter of keeping the pores open. Writing with a quill *is* like using
Adobe illustrartor.

Be careful when looking at some aspects of history. These can become
mitigated by the myths and popular legend of the prior generation. For
example the steel quill was a dismal failure, more so that 8 track tape. It
was not really prolific until the mid 19th century (Cheap steel) There are
lots of refrences such as in the Rachael Feild Book, "Hitty" to the
preference of quill.

Reservior pens, remain a niche, which was quickly superseeded by the ball
tip.  Which actually was and is used on reservior pens. I doubt that steel
nibs were popular for much more than a generation if even that. The ones in
use now nothing like the ones use in the late 1800s. If ever there was a
product that was not popular it was a steel nib pen, which is probably why
there were so many attemtps to improve it. Then Louis B Mayer of M.G.M
decreed that he would never make a film where people wrote with quill
feathers again, probably becouse the actors were actually using steel nibs.


Quills are common and everywhere, I have even used pigeon quills to write
with. Birds tend to shed the quill feathers. The Dickens gig came about
when I found a seagull feather and started writing with it. Goose an Turkey
are probably the standard, the others work just as good. look around on the
ground the next time you are out for a walk and see how many you can find.


Regards to ink,

I have a packet of Jas. Townsent & son Powdered ink. There is only a 1994
copyright on the package. The price tag says "Eastern National." It does
say that this is water souluable and non-toxic. I do know that some of my
friends who do the American Civil war re-enactments were replicating old
letters and such. So this form of thing is available from "Suttlers" who
cater to the re-enacting crowd. So there are quite a few ink's to
experiment with.

About 2 weeks ago, the San Francisco chronicle, ran an article about ink,
and the US company that makes most of it. (sun Chemical) While aimed at the
printer market. (Bubblejet ink 90 percent distilled water is the most
expenisve liquid presently.)

These articles might still be archived on the website sfgate.com for July
26 2004.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/26
/BUGL57SEPA1.DTL
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/2
6/BUGL57SAL81.DTL>

As for more to the topic. I am like others enjoying the Mr. Sids. (If I did
not have so much else to do (like look for remunerative work) I would love
to play with some of the color deconv plugins.

On the other hand, I am still trying to figure out what has been learned
about the Vms (that can be agreed on by the majority)  not in Bennett,
Courier or D'Imperio. Sometimes I think that the author of the Vms has come
up with a good aproximation of perpetual motion. Or is the Vms a product of
Charles Dickens' "Circumlocution office?"


-julieP

P.S. for more on Morphogenisis and some rather Vms like imagry take a look
at this site.
<http://www.swintons.net/jonathan/turing.htm>

I am sort of wondering if Turing heard of the Vms while at Blechly Park and
this is where he got the interest in trying to mathematecally define the
growth of plants? An interesting exercise for the reader would be to
determine if the Vms plants follow the Fibonacci and fractal constructs
found in the prototype plants the Vms plants seem to be derived from. While
I am interested in the text of the Vms I am wondering if something related
to the Morphgenisis work Turing et all might lead to a way to statistically
map the differences in the plants?

While writing this missive, I had this weird thought pop into existance.
Has anyone ever tried and relate the statistics of the Vms text repetitions
to the GATC of a DNA sequence?

-jP


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