1. THE AFTERLIFE OF
ETHER
VICTORIAN PSEUDOSCIENCE,
ETHER, & JOHN DAVIDSON
Lisa Hager
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager
http://bit.ly/tamucc0121
Pronouns: she, her, hers & they, them, theirs
2. THE AFTERLIFE OF ETHER
• The conceptual afterlife of pseudoscientific knowledge
• The brief history of ether in the nineteenth century
• John Davidson’s use of ether in his poem “Fleet Street”
(1909)
• Ether’s continued influence on twenty-first century
steampunk
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
3. THE AFTERLIFE OF ETHER
• The conceptual afterlife of pseudoscientific knowledge
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
4. CONCEPTUAL AFTERLIFE OF PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC
KNOWLEDGE – PHRENOLOGY
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
From People’s Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge (1883)
5. CONCEPTUAL AFTERLIFE OF PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC
KNOWLEDGE – PHRENOLOGY
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
A Few of Cesare Lombroso’s Criminal Types
6. THE AFTERLIFE OF ETHER
• The conceptual afterlife of pseudoscientific knowledge
• The brief history of ether in the nineteenth century
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
7. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
William Thomson, 1st Baron
Kelvin
James Clerk Maxwell
ETHER IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
9. Woodcut of John Davidson by
Robert Bryden
Poets of the younger generation
1902 by William Archer
The Magazine of poetry and literary
review, Volume 8 (1896) The Peter
Paul Book Company
Contemporary portraits
By Frank Harris 1915
James Russell, photographer
Portrait of John Davidson by
William Rothenstein
The Yellow Book, Vol. 4 (1895)
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
10. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
Davidson, John. “Epilogue.” The Triumph of Mammon. London: E. Grant Richards, 1907.
161.
JOHN DAVIDSON AND ETHER
11. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
London: E. Grant Richards,
1909.
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
13. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
A bus makes its way down Fleet Street towards St Paul’s Cathedral,
London, circa 1888. Photograph: London Stereoscopic Company/Getty
Images
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
14. 1) Read the stanzas and circle any mentions of “ether.”
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
15. 1) Read the stanzas and circle any mentions of “ether.”
2) Consider the following questions:
• How do you see Davidson using ether?
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
16. 1) Read the stanzas and circle any mentions of “ether.”
2) Consider the following questions:
• How do you see Davidson using ether?
• How does it relate to the street’s bricks, the rings of
Saturn or both?
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
17. 1) Read the stanzas and circle any mentions of “ether.”
2) Consider the following questions:
• How do you see Davidson using ether?
• How does it relate to the street’s bricks, the rings of
Saturn or both?
• What is its function in the vision of the universe that
he gives us?
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
JOHN DAVIDSON’S “FLEET STREET”
18. THE AFTERLIFE OF ETHER
• The conceptual afterlife of pseudoscientific knowledge
• The brief history of ether in the nineteenth century
• John Davidson’s use of ether in his poem “Fleet Street”
(1909)
• Ether’s continued influence on twenty-first century
steampunk
lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
19. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || she, her, hers or they, them, theirs || @lmhager
STEAMPUNK & TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ETHER
