Work was fun today. What am I saying? It’s ALWAYS fun! So…work was fun today, as usual. I have been asked to work on another project and leave the Art Project alone for a bit. It’s cleaning up oil painting records in prelude to a big photographic project.
The records (there’s 230 of them) are all pretty good and just need a little tweak here and there but some work needs to be done on the People register where it links.
I researched lots of interesting people today. Among them was ‘Honest’ George Graham. He was a horologist and scientific instrument maker who lived from around 1673 until 1751. While he was an amazing guy anyway, his obituary speaks volumes about him. This is what was printed after he died:
His temper was not less communicative than his genius was penetrating, and his principal view was not either the accumulation of wealth, or the diffusion of the same, but the advancement of science and the benefit of mankind. As he was perfectly sincere, he was without suspicion; as he was above envy he was candid, and as he had a relish for true pleasure he was generous. He frequently lent money, but never could be prevailed upon to take any interest; and for that reason he never placed out any money on government securities. He had bank-notes which were thirty years old by him when he died; and his whole property, except his stock-in-trade, was found in a strong-box, which, though it was less than would have been heaped up by avarice, was yet more than would have remained to prodigality.
Sounds like a wonderful guy to me!
Another interesting chap today was the one who pioneered the idea of transporting beef around the world in cold storage. He was Australian. Actually he was born in Scotland but he thought of the idea of freezing meat while working in the newspaper industry in Australia.
His name was James Harrison and he lived from 1816 to 1893. He kept trying to achieve the holy grail of sending dead cow to the UK but each time it failed. Between attempts, he’d return to his job as the editor of the Melbourne Age. Amazing guy.
