I was working a concept when a sudden wind gust blew away my subject
You think that was good, try this ...
Back in the Jurassic when I was a graduate student I had a part time job taking care of the Osteology lab in the Peabody Museum. I would sometimes also spend part of the time I needed to be in the lab, but not actively working, doing computer consulting and, during one period, drawing some maps for a paper that one of the profs was readying for publication. These were maps of the South Pacifc from about Tahiti west and were covered in various symbols representing the results of his findings. As the maps were very detailed ... island after island after island ... I drew them in a size of about 2.5'x4' although in publication they were to be about 2.5"x4".
One warm summer day I was working on the map while my dissertation advisor and the author of the paper was sitting at a table nearby doing some measurements on a cast of a specimen from China. Normally, one would not do serious measurements on a cast, but the original of this specimen was discovered in China before WWII and at one point in the midst of the war it and some other specimens were loaded on a boat with the idea of getting them safely out of the country and the boat subsequently disappeared. So, the three casts which had been made previously were now our only record of this specimen. Luckily, they were very fine work.
As the noon hour approaches, I decide that it is time for me to shoot some pictures of the maps and print them at the final size in order to assure myself that my choices of line weight, font, etc. would hold up in the reduction. I swing the drafting table to vertical, get out my trusty Leica IIIf and tripod and commence setting up the shot. Meanwhile, the professor takes off for lunch ... leaving this priceless specimen on the table in a "donut", a sort of stuffed round pillow used for supporting crania under study.
Remember that I said it was warm? Well, the windows were open, a breeze came up, and suddenly tilted the drafting board, which then fell over in a very odd way which brought the metal clad corner of the board directly down on top of the cast.
These casts were made of a very fine plaster, introduced in small amounts in a fairly liquid state to the mold, and swirled around until they had coated the surface in a thin layer, multiple layers being built up to provide the necessary strength. This approach provides very fine detail because of the thinness of the liquid in the beginning. However, this fine plaster is also very brittle and in this case it meant that not only did the cast break into many pieces, but in many places it also shattered into layers, the whole thing ending up in a pile of several thousand pieces, few of which were much bigger than a quarter.
When the first shock passed, I started having thoughts about how it *had* been nice to be a graduate student and wondering what it is that I would do next. Fortunately, when my professor returned ... and got over his shock ... he took all the blame on himself for leaving the specimen on the table unprotected while he went for lunch.
I was naturally relieved not to have to find a new profession, but I was extremely troubled by what I had destroyed and fretted about it for a couple of weeks. I then proposed to my professor that I be allowed to try to glue it back together again. This seemed like almost a foolish hope staring at the pile of fragments, some of which were about the size of a match head, but I had had some experience a few years earlier piecing together archeological pottery specimens and I knew of a glue preparation which would soak into the specimen and bind edges together with no separation. I worked on that thing for weeks in every spare moment, not showing anyone how I was doing. In the end, I succeeded in putting together the entire thing except for a cone shaped area about the size of a pencil eraser which was the point of impact where the plaster had been completely powdered. From reading distance one could see the fine hairlines all over the surface, but from 3-4' it looked to be in perfect condition. My professor was stunned and overjoyed when he saw the result and promptly sent me off to train with a fellow over in the Museum of Comparative Zoology who was a world expert in casting. I subsequently built a small casting program in the lab and was allowed to cast a number of specimens for other anthropologists around the world.
And yes, the maps looked fine when reduced and were used in publication.
Top that for a wind and photographic blunder story! |
