"The 'Fun' and 'Magic' of Nomographic Calculation"

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

After an overview of the tremendous importance of diagrams, graphs, and related tools in calculation and computation, Tympas will focus on the elaborate class of nomograms (or nomographs). Nomograms were used extensively in engineering and science throughout the 20th century. Examples of their general use, as well as their specific use in chemical engineering and the chemical sciences, will be given. Tympas will also introduce the hypothesis that nomography helps us understand how calculation and computation have actively shaped society and nature, rather than been a passive representation.

Aristotle Tympas is an assistant professor elect on the history of technology in modernity in the philosophy and history of science department at the University of Athens in Greece. He serves as a member of the management committee of a European network of historians and as vice president for public relations of the International Master Program ESST (European Science, Society, and Technology). A specialist in the history of computing and automation in use, Tympas has published a series of articles on the history of the social meaning of the analog/digital technological relationship.