[WikiEN-l] Descriptive/proscriptive
Daniel P.B.Smith
dpbsmith at verizon.net
Sat May 15 12:38:30 UTC 2004
>
> I don't even see why this is an argument---it's so completely
> ridiculous
> to have recipes in an encyclopedia, barring some famous ones, that I'm
> baffled people are actually seriously defending the idea.
>
> -Mark
The problem I have is that some people are enunciating as a general
principle that encyclopedias should be "descriptive, not proscriptive."
I don't understand that and I believe it runs contrary to the
historical concept of an encyclopedia.
It's a question of degree. You, for example, acknowledge the legitimacy
of including "some famous ones." I'd be interested in knowing which
ones you feel qualify.
Personally, I'd certainly expect "Oysters Rockefeller" to be in an
encyclopedia and to include some discussion of whether it does or does
not contain spinach, and give at least one representative recipe. Quite
possibly one from the "spinach" camp and one from the "no spinach"
camp.
In the case of food dishes that are of obvious cultural importance,
representative recipes are relevant. Again, as the level of depth of an
article increases, we would begin with general principles (hollandaise
sauce is made from butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice or vinegar) but
obviously an article that gave the ingredients without explaining how
you turn them into hollandaise sauce is not covering the topic very
fully.
We don't need the recipe for Aunt Nettie's famous Marshmallow-Anchovy
Surprise Omelette that she always used to bring to the church potluck,
but it should be OK to say more about meatloaf than that it "is made
with seasoned ground meat (usually ground beef or a combination of
ground beef and other ground meats), which is formed into loaf shape
and baked."
Consider the passage from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition
which I will present later below. The whole article about the telegraph
is full of detailed circuit diagrams and mechanical diagrams at a level
which goes _far_ beyond the schematic illustration of basic principles.
Much of the Britannica 11th is at what might be called the
engineering-handbook level of depth and detail. From the information
given in "Telegraph" article, you could almost build a "Varley's Double
Cup insulator," or wire up a sounder for duplex working by either the
differential method or the bridge method.
In recent decades, encyclopedias in the United States have been
marketed to parents as a means of giving their high-school students an
"edge" in school, and the level of detail and maturity of discourse has
accordingly been dumbed down. The 11th edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica was clearly written by highly educated adults for highly
educated adults. The World Book seems to be written a high-school
textbook level; the current Britannica at, at best, a college level.
There is little of the "engineering-handbook-level" detail in it.
Like the Britannica 11th, Wikipedia is written (mostly) for adults by
adults. And, since Wikipedia is not paper, There should be no
artificial restrictions on the level of detail and depth in an article.
In many topics, once we get beyond an introduction with schematic
diagrams and general principles, we will naturally get into specifics
of actual practices.
My copy of the "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" has recipes in it:
REMOVING CARBON DEPOSITS FROM FLASKS
First rinse flask with acetone or carbon disulfide to remove traces
or tar. Add a few grams of magnesium nitrate. Heat gradually over
a free Bunsen flame until water is all expelled and magnesium
nitrate melts. Rotate the flask to distribute the melt
and continue the heating till the brown fumes of nitric oxide
cease to evolve. Finally cool and dissolve the residual
magnesium oxide in dilute acid by boiling.
That's from an extensive section entitled "Laboratory Arts and
Recipes." If that's not a "how-to," I don't know what it is.
Now, here's a tiny part of what the Britannica 11th has to say about
telegraph operation. Descriptive or proscriptive?
In order to maintain a system of telegraph lines in good working
condition, daily tests are essential. In the British Postal
Telegraph Department all the most important wires are tested every
morning between 7:30 and 7:45 A.M. in sections of about 200 miles.
The method adopted consists in looping the wires in pairs between
two testing offices, A and B (fig. 4); a current is sent from a
battery, E, through one oil of a galvanometer, g, through a high
resistance, r, through one of the wires, I, and thence back from
office B (at which the wires are looped), through wire 2, through
another high resistance, r, through a second coil on the
galvanometer, g, and thence to earth. If the looped lines are both
in good condition and free from leakage, the current sent out on
line I will be exactly equal to the current received back on line 2;
and as these currefits will have equal but opposite effects on, the
galvanometer needle, no deflection of the latter will be produced.
If, however, there is leakage, the current received on the
galvanometer will be less than the current sent out, and the result
will be a deflection of the needle proportional to the amount of
leakage.
The galvanometer being so adjusted that a current of definite
strength through one of the coils gives a definite deflection of the
needle, the amount of leakage expressed in terms of the insulation
resistance of the wires is given by the formula
Total insulation resistance of looped lines = 3/4R(D/d 3/4);
in which R is the total resistance of the looped wires, including
the resistance of the two coils of the galvanometer, of the battery,
and of the two resistance coils r and r (inserted for the purpose of
causing the leakage on the lines to have a maximum effect on the
galvanometer deflections). In practice the resistances r, r are of
Io,000 ohms each. The deflection observed on the galvanorneter when
the lines are leaky is d, while D is the deflection obtained through
one coil of the galvanometer with all the other resistances in
circuit; anu assuming that no leakage exists on the lines, this
deflection is calculated from the constant of the instrument, i.e.,
from the known deflection obtained with a definite current. For the
purpose of avoiding calculation, tables are provided showing the
values of the total insulation according to the formula,
corresponding to various values of d. If the insulation per mile,
i.e.; the total insulation multiplied by the mileage of the wire
loop, is found to be less than 200,000 ohms, the wire is considered
to be faulty. The climatic conditions in the British Islands are
such that it is not possible to maintain, in unfavourable weather, a
higher standard than that named, which is the insulation obtained
when all the insulators are in perfect condition and only the normal
leakage, dtie to moisture, is present.
There are three kinds of primary batteries in general use in the
British Postal Telegraph Department, viz., the Daniell, the
bichromate, and the Leclanch. The Daniell Batteries, type consists
of a teak trough divided into five cells by slate partitions coated
with marine glue. Each cell contains a zinc plate, immersed in a
solution of zinc sulphate, and also a porous chamber containing
crystals of copper sulphate and a copper plate. The electromotive
force of each cell is 1.7 volts and the resistance 3 ohms. The
Fuller bichromate battery... (etc. etc.)
--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net alternate:
dpbsmith at alum.mit.edu
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
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