I love the web!

My last posting was about Madison Smartt Bell's Toussaint Louverture. That led me to his more recent book, Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution. I got interested in Lavoisier's wife, Marie-Anne Pierrette, and in turn to her suitor (after Lavoisier was executed in the French Revolution), Pierre Samuel Du Pont and second husband Benjamin Thompson Count Rumford. That took me to the invention of the restaurant in post revolutionary France, and invention made possible by Rumford's stove!

Rumford was especially interesting -- an American-born savant who was as innovative and scientifically important as Benjamin Franklin, and who rose to very high office in Bavaria and was knighted by the British, the inventor of the wax candle, Rumford fireplace, double boiler, and pressure cooker. Since he first spied for the British and then served as a British officer against the revolutionaries, Rumford seems to be neglected by American historians.

Madame Lavoisier too was fascinating. She was not only beautiful, but an artist trained by David, and herself a competent chemist who assisted her husband and managed his scientific legacy, but a linguist who did (and published) French translations of important English scientific works.

Even Du Pont, the father of the founder of the American industrial empire, was interesting. He was a leading economist, friend of Jefferson, who immigrated to the United States, and who helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.

Hypertext linkages provide a great boon to those of us surfing the web to follow a track of this kind. Even more important are the search engines and sites like Amazon.com which make "the long tail" available on command. What intellectual riches are available now at one's figertips!