Taken in the spring of 1894, and originally published as part of an article by T.C. Martin called “Tesla’s Oscillator and Other Inventions” that appeared in the Century Magazine (Vol. 49, issue 6, April 1895, p. 930).

You can see the same picture in the online archive of the Century Magazine as well as read the article it illustrated. Here is the original caption from the magazine:

Fig. 13 Similar experiment, the high-tension current being passed through the body before it brings the lamps to incandescence. The loop is held over the resonating coil by Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain). (From a flash-light photograph)

This post is for a friend whom I shall now call Doctor.

The dog’s name was Nipper:

In 1898, three years after Nipper’s death, Francis painted a picture based on a photograph of Nipper listening intently to a wind-up Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph, substituting a disc gramophone for the phonograph. On February 11, 1899, Francis filed an application for copyright of his picture “Dog Looking At and Listening to a Phonograph.” Thinking the Edison-Bell Company might find it useful, he presented it to James E. Hough who, in a move that would eventually result in Edison exiting the record business altogether, promptly said, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.” On May 31, 1899, Francis went to the Maiden Lane offices of The Gramophone Company with the intention of borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black horn on the painting. Manager, William Barry Owen suggested that if the artist replaced the entire machine with a Berliner disc gramophone, the Company would buy the painting. A modified form of the painting became the successful trademark of Victor and HMV records, HMV music stores, and RCA. The trademark itself was registered by Berliner on July 10, 1900. (wikipedia)

More info about Nipper over at DesignBoom.

Techno Tuesday is a comic drawn by Andy Rementer:

Andy Rementer is a creative person based in Philadelphia. He received a bachelors degree from The University of the Arts in 2004. From 2005 to 2007 he worked for Fabrica, while living in Treviso, a small town in northern Italy. He currently divides his time between graphic design, cartooning and illustration. […] Aside from doodling Andy enjoys Italian meals, playing the banjo and drinking coffee. (more)

Check his personal website for more of his work.

About Elliot Landy:

Elliott Landy (born in 1942) is a photographer best known for his iconic photographs of rock musicians. A 1959 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, ten years later he was the official photographer of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. His photographs have appeared on the covers of such magazines as Rolling Stone, LIFE, and The Saturday Evening Post. Landy’s portraits have also graced the covers of many of the best known albums of the era, including such classics as Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Van Morrison’s Moondance, and The Band’s second album, eponymously titled The Band. From 1967 to 1969, Landy travelled with and photographed Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison. He has published several collections of his work. (wikipedia)

Check the same photo on his official website.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The Statue of Liberty as a female counterpart of Hobbes’ Leviathan (Lazarus’ poem is mentioned in Auster’s novel Leviathan); the United-States as the land of the “wretched refuse”. Is this the “community of those who are without community” (“all of us, from now on” writes Jean-Luc Nancy) ? Read more about Lazarus’ poem on wikipedia.

About the exhibition From Haven to Home:

From Haven to Home is a Library of Congress exhibition marking 350 years of Jewish life in America. The exhibition features more than two hundred treasures of American Judaica from the collections of the Library of Congress, augmented by a selection of important loans from other cooperating cultural institutions. (more)

The man on the photo is Popcorn Sutton. He was the object of the documentary The Last One (2008). Find out more about the film over at the Sucker Punch Pictures official website. If you don’t know what’s a moonshiner, try wikipedia.

I found about Popcorn Sutton over at the American Dream Tumblr blog. I recommend it. Cheers.

Life – Hosted by Google: Crowd enjoying a hot 4th of July at Coney Island beach. Photo by Andreas Feininger, Brooklyn, NY, US, July 04, 1946.