Details

Subjects:

Rühlmann, Christian Moritz. Allgemeine Maschinenlehre.
Mechanical engineering.
Technology -- History.
Technology.
History.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Drawings (visual works)
Technical drawings.
Manuscripts, German.
Manuscripts, Digital.

Language:

German.

Biography/History:

Judge, attorney, and educator of Cincinnati; born in Peine (near Hannover), Germany, in 1845; studied mechanical engineering in Hannover and Berlin; emigrated to Cincinnati in 1867, where he worked as a teacher and entered the law profession.

Summary:

Drawings of machines, grouped by type, such as sewing machines, presses, scales, water wheels, turbines, cranes, steam engines, and locomotives, arranged to illustrate the development of the machines and accompanied by historical notes which often refer to the inventor and give citations to works dated as late as 1864, made while the author was a student at the Polytechnic Institute in Hannover, now Leibniz Universität Hannover. The title page refers to the Vorträgen (Lectures) of Dr. Rühlmann, probably related to the four-volume encyclopedia of mechanical engineering titled Allgemeine Maschinenlehre, published by Christian Moritz Rühlmann, professor of mechanical engineering at Chemnitz; the first volume was published in 1862. A printed table concerning the performance of various locomotives, with a reference to an exhibition of 1862, is bound in near the end of the manuscript (f. 195) and folds out.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. ii recto).
Foliation: Paper, i + 200 + i; [i-ii, 1-198]; leaves 10-15 paginated in ink, 1-12, upper center.
Layout: Written in up to 27 long lines on text pages (generally verso sides, facing illustrations on recto sides); margins impressed in each leaf.
Script: Written in cursive script by August H. Bode.
Decoration: Over 160 full-page technical illustrations in ink, including 2 foldouts (f. 13-14) and 16 with color added; ornamental title page combining technical and botanical elements and a workman with the motto Arbeit des Lebens Würze (Work, the spice of life) and a man in uniform with the motto Kenntniss ist Macht (Knowledge is power).
Binding: Cloth with gilt title Skizzen (Sketches) on upper cover.
Origin: Written in Hannover in 1864 (title page, f. ii recto).

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Howard Douglas Bode (bookplate inside upper cover), son of the author; over the bookplate is written a note that begins "The sketch book of my father August H. Bode"; the remainder of the note is difficult to read.
Formerly owned by Samuel Koslov.
Sold at auction at Christie's as part of Samuel Koslov's collection, 12 Nov. 1996, lot 376, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2016.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 117 (LJS 163).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 163.

Contributor:

Bode, Howard Douglas, former owner.
Koslov, Samuel, former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

809068402

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page