(Roughly) Daily

From the “Data is Beautiful” thread on Reddit,  Tjukanov‘s rendering (from OpenStreetMap) of “All The Roads and Nothing But Roads.”

See also his “Optimal routes by car from the geographic center of the contiguous United States to +3000 counties.”

* Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

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As we gas up, we might spare a thought for Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel; he died on this date in 1633.  The Edison of his era, he was an empirical researcher and innovator whose constructions and innovations covered measurement and control technology, pneumatics, optics, chemistry, hydraulics and pyrotechnics.  He was known for his Perpetuum Mobile ( a clock), an incubator for eggs, a portable stove/oven able to hold heat at a constant temperature by means of a regulator/thermostat, his design of a solar energy system for London (perpetual fire), his demonstration of air-conditioning, his creation of lightning and thunder “on command,” and and his construction of fountains and a fresh water supply for the city of Middelburg.  He was involved in the draining of the moors around Cambridge (the Fens), developed a predecessors of the barometer and thermometer, and built a harpsichords that played on solar energy.

But he is perhaps best remembered as the architect and builder of the first navigable submarine.  Created for the British Navy, it was tested at depths of 12-15 feet, and could stay submerged for up to three hours (air tubes with floats went to the surface to provide the craft with oxygen).

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