A to Z - Objectivity 39

Brady and Keith investigate the first and last entries of the card catalogue at The Royal Society.

Films by James Hennessy and Brady Haran

Some keywords: WGD, white, gloves, destiny, A, Z, first, last, C.C.H. Vander Aa, downs, Zwerak, Eustachius, St. Petersburg, Brading waiting, tapping fingers, Dutch Society, Harlem, sea downs, reclaimed land, Holland, Netherlands, Daniel Solander, Joseph Banks, Australia, wind, direction, prediction, classification, easterly, London Meridian, sailors, meteorological data, large table

[adamjbatten]

What about the oldest and the newest items in the collection?

[grayswandir]

The depth of knowledge acquired by librarians is beyond the comprehension of most of us.

[TedSpikes]

"No, usually people are interested in particular things." Such a great burn from Keith.

[lukasdon]

Can you look up an item which has not been consulted for a long long time? Which item has been collecting dust for the longest, without anyone taking a look at it?

There must be many items which nobody has looked at for >100 years, right?

[guspolly]

4:08 — Apparently calling something "a thing" in that context predates the Internet by a long, long time

[Pianoguy]

The downs is an area of sea of the coast of Kent by the town of deal
Frequently mentioned in Pepys diary where it was used as an anchorage for the navy, (maybe an episode on Sam Pepys?)

[shugaroony]

Eerie and beautiful, looking at the workings of scientists long gone. And what a beautiful voice Keith has.

[ragnkja]

I wish Mr Moore good luck in his search for the middle card.

[pawelkorzeniewski]

Why not do A to Z (as opposed to A and Z as presented here) as a longer project, i.e. the first (and possible also last) entry for every letter?

[Milgerato]

My ears pricked up when I heard the name "Solander". The Australian Institute of Marine Science has a research vessel called RV Solander. No doubt named after this man.

[ashkara]

These guys, especially Brady, are more special to me than most people I have met.

[robprebil]

I just watched Keith briefly appear in an American PBS/NOVA documentary about Benjamin Franklin and balloons! Brady - please make Keith an object in your series and give us his story!  Keep up the great work!

[AntFilledBeach]

I'm a viewer from the Netherlands, and i liked the letter from mr van der Aa, But I would like to see something from one of the greatest Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens. That would be really great ;-)

[Roeland]

As the original requester of the first and last card and as a Dutch viewer. Thank you very much for doing to video.
I think both are pretty interesting items but I have to agree that the second one is the more interesting one.
It really surprised me that the first item was actually a Dutch item while I am also from the Netherlands. What are the odds of that happening (Numberphile give me the answer I know you can do it).

[jmm]

That last record of wind charts and predictions reminds me of the old still out there weather broadcasts, that they also used for british spies during the ww2 days

[hsavietto]

Is there a Keith's Fan Club already?

[SlyPearTree]

I just discovered this channel a few days ago and I've been watching then in order from #1. If I had known as a boy than being a librarian could be so exciting then my life might have went a different way. As an avid reader and science nerd I knew library were exciting of course but librarian seemed similar to clerks to my younger self. Nothing against clerks but not many kids dream of becoming one.

[insu_na]

Woohoo, my comment was blurred out in this video!! I'm internet famous now!

[KarlFFF]

You could also map each drawer to a number and use that system to get a specific card.
So for something to do with pi you'd take the 3rd drawer first card, or the the drawer in the third row and first column and then take the first card, or the 31st drawer 4th card.
There should be many ways of mapping the catalog to numbers, but you get the basic idea of it. (Maybe do something with the Brady series discovered on numberphile...)

[Pianoguy]

The bottom section of the letter is talking about 'cholica pictorum', or painters colic from lead poisoning and why its more common. Could be something toward drinking vessels and production of drinks being contaminated with lead which was common at that time.