Vintage film, TV, documents, and photographic footage from down the years

[Ewan]

I'd predict this would be too long for most folks interest to see them through, but.....

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JtN-cCFgGVE

1,359,596 views 1 Jul 2025 #WaterWheel #EarthScience #Craftsmanship
In this "Earth Uncovered" full immersion documentary, watch the oak log from previous episode transformed into a water wheel axle. See mill experts hew it into an octagonal beam, shape it into a precise cylindrical shaft on the pivot bearing, and fit iron pins with glowing rings. Perfect for history buffs—subscribe for more every few days!

Original source material: Sabershausen / Hunsrück 1964. Gabriel Simons, Das LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte. CC 4.0.
Die Dorfmühle 2 - Drehen einer Mühlenwelle
/ @alltagskulturenimrheinland

[Tintin]

16th Century Manuscript which includes Galileo's Handwriting

Shared by a church deacon Daniel Silliman on X. Here's the Smithsonian article published February, 27th

A Scholar Recognized the Inscriptions in the Margins of This Manuscript. The Scribbles Turned Out to Be Galileo’s Handwritten Notes

Found in a 16th-century copy of an ancient astronomy treatise, the annotations suggest that the trailblazing scientist studied Earth-centric models before lending his support to heliocentrism

Christian Thorsberg - Correspondent
February 27, 2026
Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...tes-180988269/



Galileo's handwritten notes in a 1551 copy of Ptolemy's Almagest: National Central Library of Florence

Notes, annotations and a Bible verse handwritten by a young Galileo Galilei around 1590 have resurfaced in a copy of the ancient world’s most influential astronomy text. Experts say the discovery could reshape the public’s understanding of Galileo’s motivations and the beliefs that led to his world-changing scientific contributions.

Historian Ivan Malara spotted the inscriptions in January while leafing through a 1551 copy of the Almagest at Italy’s National Central Library of Florence. Malara realized that a loose page in the text—a second-century C.E. astronomical manual by the Greco-Roman polymath Ptolemy, which asserts that Earth is at the center of the universe—contained a transcription of Psalm 145. The handwriting was reminiscent of Galileo’s, an astronomer often lionized as the “father of modern science.” Additional annotations in the book’s margins similarly matched Galileo’s hand.

“Archival research does not always repay the efforts of those who undertake it; more often, it results in patient waiting, silences, false trails,” writes Malara for Il Sole 24 Ore, according to a translation provided by the Italian newspaper. “Sometimes, however, it happens that perseverance, together with a bit of luck, is rewarded by a discovery capable of changing the perspective of a gaze that has become accustomed.”

Malara sent a late-night email to two of Italy’s leading Galileo experts, who quickly confirmed his hunch, reports Science magazine’s Joshua Sokol. The handwriting match is supported by two accounts of the astronomer’s proclivity for praying before studying the Almagest—a habit that would explain the Bible verse’s presence. Several annotations also closely match the language of passages written by Galileo around this time.

“I regard the attribution of the marginal notes to Galileo as fully secure,” Michele Camerota, a historian at the University of Cagliari who was one of the scholars first contacted by Malara, tells Science.

Science lovers might be surprised to learn that Galileo was captivated by Ptolemy’s Earth-centric teachings in youth. Today, the astronomer is perhaps best known for championing Nicolaus Copernicus’ heliocentric model, which (correctly) posited that Earth and the other planets orbit the sun. Galileo defended this view, which rivaled the teachings of the powerful Catholic Church, at the expense of his freedom. He was ostracized and, in 1633, placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life.

The new discovery offers a more complete picture of why and how Galileo came to diverge from his geocentric roots in favor of the Copernican model. Although the two schools of thought are fundamentally opposed, they’re based on similar mathematical and astronomical structures, notes the Florentine library in a statement.

“[Galileo] has been presented as a big-picture sort of guy—not interested in the nitty-gritty technical details of astronomy,” James Evans, a historian of astronomy at the University of Puget Sound, tells Science. Galileo’s careful study of the Almagest, however, indicates that he was “a profound connoisseur of Ptolemy’s sophisticated mathematical demonstrations,” writes Malara for Il Sole 24 Ore.

Malara plans to publish his findings in the Journal for the History of Astronomy in the coming months. The historian’s forthcoming paper will include a more systematic analysis of Galileo’s annotations, placed in the context of previous investigations.

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Here's the image with the Psalm 145 margin scrawl:

[Bill Ryan]

Party at the top of the Great Pyramid of Cheops in the 1940s: