Author Interview: Jason Surrell and The Haunted Mansion

Tracy and Holly discuss Sir Humphry Davy's less than spectacular poems, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and the end of Davy's career and life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 Touko 202416min

Davy's career after his work in nitrous oxide included the invention of a miner's lamp designed to make mining safer. This invention came with a bit of controversy.  Research: "Britons take laughing gas merrily. Tories take it more seriously." The Economist, 27 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766770794/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c0888abb. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. "Erroneous element." Muse, vol. 20, no. 7, Sept. 2016, p. 7. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A466296806/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=795a6d0c. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. “Sir Humphrey Davy’s Harmful Emissions – November 2015.” Newcastle University Special Collections. 11/30/2015. https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2015/11/30/sir-humphrey-davys-harmful-emissions/ Adams, Max. "Humphry Davy and the murder lamp: Max Adams investigates the truth behind the introduction of a key invention of the early Industrial Revolution." History Today, vol. 55, no. 8, Aug. 2005, pp. 4+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A135180355/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2d163818. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. Buslov, Alexander BSc; Carroll, Matthew BSc; Desai, Manisha S. MD. Frozen in Time: A History of the Synthesis of Nitrous Oxide and How the Process Remained Unchanged for Over 2 Centuries. Anesthesia & Analgesia 127(1):p 65-70, July 2018. | DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000003423 Cantor, Geoffrey. “Humphry Davy: a study in narcissism?” The Royal Society. 4/11/2018. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0055#FN95R Cartwright, F.F. “Humphry Davy’s Researches on Nitrous Oxide.” British Journal of Anesthesia. Vol. 44. 1972. Davy, Humprhy. “Researches, chemical and philosophical : chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, or diphlogisticated nitrous air, and its respiration.” London : printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, by Biggs and Cottle, Bristol. 1800. Eveleth, Rose. “Here’s What It Was Like to Discover Laughing Gas.” Smithsonian. 3/27/2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-what-it-was-discover-laughing-gas-180950289/ Gibbs, Frederick William. "Sir Humphry Davy". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Humphry-Davy-Baronet. Accessed 3 April 2024. Gregory, Joshua C. “The Life and Work of Sir Humphry Davy.” Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933), Vol. 24, No. 95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43428894 Hunt, Lynn and Margaret Jacob. “The Affective Revolution in 1790s Britain.” Eighteenth-Century Studies , Summer, 2001, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer, 2001). https://www.jstor.org/stable/30054227 j Jacob, Margaret C. and Michael J. Sauter. “Why Did Humphry Davy and Associates Not Pursue the Pain-Alleviating Effects of Nitrous Oxide?” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences , APRIL 2002, Vol. 57, No. 2. Via https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623678 James, Frank A. J. L. "Davy, Humphry." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 20, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008, pp. 249-252. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2830905611/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c68d87c2. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. James, Louis. “’Now Inhale the Gas’: Interactive Readership in Two Victorian Boys' Periodicals, 1855–1870.” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2009. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.0.0062 Jay, Mike. “‘O, Excellent Air Bag’: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide.” 8/6/2014. Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-excellent-air-bag-humphry-davy-and-nitrous-oxide/ Jay, Mike. “The Atmosphere of Heaven: The 1799 Nitrous Oxide Researches Reconsidered.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London , 20 September 2009, Vol. 63, No. 3, Thomas Beddoes, 1760-1808 (20 September 2009). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647280 Knight, David. "Davy, Sir Humphry, baronet (1778–1829), chemist and inventor." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. February 10, 2022. Oxford University Press. Date of access 3 Apr. 2024, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7314 Lacey, Andrew. “Humphry Davy and the ‘safety lamp controversy’.” 7/22/2015. https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/jul/22/humphry-davy-lamp-controversy-history-science Neve, Michael. "Beddoes, Thomas (1760–1808), chemist and physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 03, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Apr. 2024, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1919 Polwhele, Richard. “Poems; Chiefly, The Local Attachment; The Unsex'd Females; The Old English Gentleman; the Pneumatic Revellers; and The Family Picture, Etc: Volume 5.” 1810. Roberts, Jacob. “High Times: When does self-experimentation cross the line?” Science History Institute Museum and Library. 2/2/2017. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/high-times/ Slosson, Edwin E. “A New Path to Oblivion.” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1923). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3693060 Thomas, John Meurig. “Sir Humphry Davy and the coal miners of the world: a commentary on Davy (1816) ‘An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines’.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 4/13/2015. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2014.0288 Thomas, John Meurig. “Sir Humphry Davy: Natural Philosopher, Discoverer, Inventor, Poet, and Man of Action.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , JUNE 2013, Vol. 157, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24640238 West, John B. “Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution.” American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Volume 307, Issue 9. Nov 2014. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajplung.00206.2014 Woods, Gordon. "Sir Humphry Davy." Chemistry Review, vol. 14, no. 4, Apr. 2005, pp. 31+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A131857918/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=4d341a27. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 Touko 202434min

Chemist Sir Humphry Davy is known for his work with nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. That early part of his career is the focus of part one of this two-parter. Research: "Britons take laughing gas merrily. Tories take it more seriously." The Economist, 27 Sept. 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A766770794/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c0888abb. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. "Erroneous element." Muse, vol. 20, no. 7, Sept. 2016, p. 7. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A466296806/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=795a6d0c. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. “Sir Humphrey Davy’s Harmful Emissions – November 2015.” Newcastle University Special Collections. 11/30/2015. https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/2015/11/30/sir-humphrey-davys-harmful-emissions/ Adams, Max. "Humphry Davy and the murder lamp: Max Adams investigates the truth behind the introduction of a key invention of the early Industrial Revolution." History Today, vol. 55, no. 8, Aug. 2005, pp. 4+. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A135180355/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2d163818. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. Buslov, Alexander BSc; Carroll, Matthew BSc; Desai, Manisha S. MD. Frozen in Time: A History of the Synthesis of Nitrous Oxide and How the Process Remained Unchanged for Over 2 Centuries. Anesthesia & Analgesia 127(1):p 65-70, July 2018. | DOI: 10.1213/ANE.0000000000003423 Cantor, Geoffrey. “Humphry Davy: a study in narcissism?” The Royal Society. 4/11/2018. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2017.0055#FN95R Cartwright, F.F. “Humphry Davy’s Researches on Nitrous Oxide.” British Journal of Anesthesia. Vol. 44. 1972. Davy, Humprhy. “Researches, chemical and philosophical : chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, or diphlogisticated nitrous air, and its respiration.” London : printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-Yard, by Biggs and Cottle, Bristol. 1800. Eveleth, Rose. “Here’s What It Was Like to Discover Laughing Gas.” Smithsonian. 3/27/2014. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/heres-what-it-was-discover-laughing-gas-180950289/ Gibbs, Frederick William. "Sir Humphry Davy". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Feb. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Humphry-Davy-Baronet. Accessed 3 April 2024. Gregory, Joshua C. “The Life and Work of Sir Humphry Davy.” Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933), Vol. 24, No. 95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43428894 Hunt, Lynn and Margaret Jacob. “The Affective Revolution in 1790s Britain.” Eighteenth-Century Studies , Summer, 2001, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer, 2001). https://www.jstor.org/stable/30054227 j Jacob, Margaret C. and Michael J. Sauter. “Why Did Humphry Davy and Associates Not Pursue the Pain-Alleviating Effects of Nitrous Oxide?” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences , APRIL 2002, Vol. 57, No. 2. Via https://www.jstor.org/stable/24623678 James, Frank A. J. L. "Davy, Humphry." Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. 20, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008, pp. 249-252. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2830905611/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c68d87c2. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. James, Louis. “’Now Inhale the Gas’: Interactive Readership in Two Victorian Boys' Periodicals, 1855–1870.” Victorian Periodicals Review, Volume 42, Number 1, Spring 2009. https://doi.org/10.1353/vpr.0.0062 Jay, Mike. “‘O, Excellent Air Bag’: Humphry Davy and Nitrous Oxide.” 8/6/2014. Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-excellent-air-bag-humphry-davy-and-nitrous-oxide/ Jay, Mike. “The Atmosphere of Heaven: The 1799 Nitrous Oxide Researches Reconsidered.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London , 20 September 2009, Vol. 63, No. 3, Thomas Beddoes, 1760-1808 (20 September 2009). https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647280 Knight, David. "Davy, Sir Humphry, baronet (1778–1829), chemist and inventor." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. February 10, 2022. Oxford University Press. Date of access 3 Apr. 2024, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7314 Lacey, Andrew. “Humphry Davy and the ‘safety lamp controversy’.” 7/22/2015. https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/jul/22/humphry-davy-lamp-controversy-history-science Neve, Michael. "Beddoes, Thomas (1760–1808), chemist and physician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 03, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 11 Apr. 2024, https://proxy.bostonathenaeum.org:2261/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1919 Polwhele, Richard. “Poems; Chiefly, The Local Attachment; The Unsex'd Females; The Old English Gentleman; the Pneumatic Revellers; and The Family Picture, Etc: Volume 5.” 1810. Roberts, Jacob. “High Times: When does self-experimentation cross the line?” Science History Institute Museum and Library. 2/2/2017. https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/high-times/ Slosson, Edwin E. “A New Path to Oblivion.” The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1923). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3693060 Thomas, John Meurig. “Sir Humphry Davy and the coal miners of the world: a commentary on Davy (1816) ‘An account of an invention for giving light in explosive mixtures of fire-damp in coal mines’.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 4/13/2015. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2014.0288 Thomas, John Meurig. “Sir Humphry Davy: Natural Philosopher, Discoverer, Inventor, Poet, and Man of Action.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , JUNE 2013, Vol. 157, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24640238 West, John B. “Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution.” American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Volume 307, Issue 9. Nov 2014. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/ajplung.00206.2014 Woods, Gordon. "Sir Humphry Davy." Chemistry Review, vol. 14, no. 4, Apr. 2005, pp. 31+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A131857918/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=4d341a27. Accessed 3 Apr. 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29 Huhti 202437min

This 2014 episode covers the Sultana, which sank the day after John Wilkes Booth was captured and killed for the murder of Abraham Lincoln So the maritime tragedy didn't make headline news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Huhti 202421min

Holly and Tracy discuss Ward McAllister as the ultimate historical mean girl. They also talk about how people were reacting to the Blitz when it was happening. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Huhti 202429min

Holly talks with previous podcast guest Dr. Rachel Lance about her new book "Chamber Divers," which details the WWII research that advanced underwater science. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Huhti 20241h

The Bradley Martin Ball is sometimes referred to as the last big moment of the Gilded Age. It was a very ostentatious event that sparked a lot of debate, and in some ways helped usher in the crumbling of New York’s Victorian-era society culture. Research: “Bradley Martin Ball.” New York Times. Feb. 7, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/02/07/117897311.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Bradley Martin Ball.” New York Times. Feb. 9, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/02/09/102399244.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Bradley Martin Ball.” New York Times. Feb. 11, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/02/11/100419295.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Bradley Martin Ball Burlesqued.” St. Francisville Democrat. March 27, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/221401970/?terms=%22Mrs.%20Radley%20Barton%27s%20Ball%22&match=1 “Bradley Martin Dies in London.” New York Times. Feb. 6, 1913. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/02/06/100387781.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Close, John Weir. “A Giant Cow-tipping by Savages: The Boom, Bust, and Boom Culture of M&A.” St. Martin’s Press. 2013. “Cost of the Big Ball.” Chicago Tribune. Feb. 10, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/349871575/?terms=Bradley-Martin%20Ball%22&match=1 “Dr. Rainsford’s Advice.” New York Times. Jan. 23, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/01/23/117896394.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Dr. Samuel Johnson on the Bradley Martin Ball.” New York Times. March 5, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/03/05/102084126.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Hutto, Richard Jay. “The Party of the Century.” Quest. February 1997. https://www.rickhutto.com/articles/BMBall.pdf Martin, Frederick Townsend. “Things I Remember.” New York. John Lane Company. 1913. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/thingsiremember01mart/page/n7/mode/2up “Martin’s New York Estate $1,277,341.” New York Times. May 9, 1913. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/05/09/100618128.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 MUCCIGROSSO, ROBERT. “New York Has A Ball: The Bradley Martin Extravaganza.” New York History, vol. 75, no. 3, 1994, pp. 297–320. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23182043 Musicians Are Indignant.” New York Times. January 30, 1897. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/01/30/102398699.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 “Newspaper Criticism.” The Kingston Whig-Standard.” March 29, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/783525093/?terms=%22Mrs.%20Radley%20Barton%27s%20Ball%22&match=1 “On Volcano’s Edge.” The Boston Daily Globe. Jan. 27, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/430760530/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Huhti 202435min

This 2020 episode shares the story of the ridiculously wealthy Croesus, which was likely fictionalized in a number of ways. It has become sort of a cautionary tale about pride and hubris, and what really has value in life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Huhti 202428min