The Afterlife of Ether

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

8. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
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”

12. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
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

20. lisa.hager@uwc.edu || @lmhager || she, her, hers & they, them,
STEAMPUNK & TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ETHER

21. 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