Important Sci/Tech History Up For Auction In UK 97
mikey_man380 writes "Reuters reports that some original Edison light bulbs and extremely important scientific documents will be auctioned off in the UK.
The box of original light bulbs used in court by Edison to defend his patent rights will be up for auction in the United Kingdom. Other important historical items to be included in the auction are Albert Einstein's first scientific essay, a first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" and an alchemical manuscript by Isaac Newton."
Should be in a museum (Score:5, Insightful)
All of the above are some of the foundations of the modern world.
They are some of the building blocks for the technological revolution of the 20th century.
It would be a shame for these to be in some private collection out of view of the world.
-John
Re:Should be in a museum (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't blame the person who found the Edison lightbulbs in their attic for wanting to sell, though, considering what they're probably worth.
Re:Just goes to show... (Score:1, Insightful)
Create backups for history (Score:5, Insightful)
So imagine the 23 bulbs be divided up into several batches and distributed to have a couple on each continent. Taking the large view we should create two Smithsonian type museums with approximately duplicate contents.
Biblical fragments (i.e papyri, uncial fragments, and minuscules) have been distributed thusly. There are more than 600 fragments that compose modern bibles and those fragments are all over the world.
It never hurts to have backups. Even outside of IT.
Thanks,
Jim Burke
Re:Should be in a museum (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't even really disagree with you, I'm enough of a pack rat of information that I would want to have such scans, or even the original book, but it would merely be a curiosity, as I lack the expertise to DO anything with it at all.
Re:Should be in a museum (Score:1, Insightful)