50 Years Ago

Credit: Stamp Design Royal Mail Group Ltd (1970)

The black-and-white print released by the Post Office fails to do justice to the 1s 9d stamp which will be on sale from April 1 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820. Designed by Marjorie Saynor, a freelance designer making her first venture into stamp design, the stamp shows from left to right Sir William Herschel, Francis Baily (of Baily’s beads fame) and Sir John Herschel against a delightful pink background. The telescope represents the reflector completed by William Herschel at Slough in 1789 which apparently was never a technical success because of mounting problems. But the inclusion of Herschel’s telescope is appropriate because it features on the seal of the society. A first-day cover service is being provided by the Royal Astronomical Society at a cost of 6s 6d. For 17s 6d, however, the deal includes an authentic signature of the president, and Sir Bernard Lovell claims to have made £40 for the society already.

From Nature 21 February 1970

150 Years Ago

Dr. Tyndall, in his lecture upon Haze and Dust, says “that if a physician wishes to hold back from the lungs of his patient, or from his own, the germs by which contagious disease is said to be propagated, he will employ a cotton-wool respirator;” … May I ask if there is any necessity for the unsightly respirators one sees over the mouths of people during the winter months and cold evenings? Has not Nature already provided us with an efficient one — one which, on experiment, will doubtless prove to be quite as trustworthy as the artificial one, without any of its inconveniences? I refer to the hair-sieve with which the sinuosities of the nasal passages are supplied; the hairs besetting its path freeing the indrawn air from contaminating particles of dust, whilst it is effectually warmed in its inward passage … Apart from the use of respirators, en passant, I may perhaps be allowed to echo the opinion of our best medical men in saying that the mouth is not the organ for respiration; if it were, should we not find the olfactory nerves developed there also? ... It is a well-known fact, that people who habitually breathe through the nose are less liable to infectious diseases and pulmonary complaints, one very common benefit derived by such who sleep with the mouth closed, is that they never awake with the painful and disagreeable sensation produced by a parched throat and cracked lips. This may be a small matter, but I think it is deserving of attention. When we break Nature’s laws we must pay the penalty.

From Nature 17 February 1870