Author Archive

Sampurna Chattarji: Body Clock

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

The ticking inside her the noise of a metal insect, a bomb red wire blue wire that refuses to be defused, palms joining like the gesture of a jester, aerobic, yogic in his posture of willing time to stand still, one leg above the ground, for eternity. She listens to it ear to the ground, rail tracks, the white coat of a doctor. She bows to the artificial sun, turns her face to its yellow light, writes „arcadian rhythm” instead of „circadian rhythm”, and realizes, it’s time to call it a day.

Sampurna Chattarji

Athanasius Kircher: A magnetic bird (Archytas pigeon)

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 315

„Somewhere around the year 400 B.C., Archytas mystified and amused the citizens of Tarentum by flying a pigeon made of wood“, informs us Nasa’s „Brief history of rockets“. Kirchers adoption of Archytas’ pigeon  used magnetism as a  force for artificial movements in the air.

Athanasius Kircher: Shadows under water (Special sun dial) – Magnetically animated figure in a boat

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 318 (upper part)

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Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Judith Albert

Athanasius Kircher: Walking statue of Daedalus in the labyrinth. The paper figure contains a steel plate that responds to a hidden magnet (marked B) *

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 318 (lower part).

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Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Judith Albert

Athanasius Kircher: Magnetic wind indicator. A complicated form of weathervane. The eagle moved by the wind, turns a cogwheel, whose movement is transferred to a pointer on a dial. A the same time a hidden magnet floating in water turns a figure of Aeolus, whose sceptre points in the same direction.*

Friday, September 16th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 322.

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Athanasius Kircher: A sunflower clock. The flower turns naturally to the sun. A pointer fixed to the flower (F) indicates the time on a ring (DE) that encircles it *

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 644.

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Athanasius Kircher: Universal horoscope. By using a ship’s compass and a magnetic needle one could discover the time anywhere in the world *

Monday, September 12th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, fol. 284. (more…)

Kircher: Quoting Images?

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

[ZB Magnet 3] Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680), Magnes sive De arte magnetica tripartium ( Köln: Iodocus Kalcoven, 1643), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, Z 113, p. 51.