MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2018 Activities by Sponsor - History

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Handset Printing at the Beaver Press Print Shop

Jeffrey Ravel, Professor and Head of History, Anne McCants, Professor of History and Director of Concourse

Add to Calendar Jan/09 Tue 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/10 Wed 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/16 Tue 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/17 Wed 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/23 Tue 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/24 Wed 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.
Add to Calendar Jan/25 Thu 01:30PM-05:30PM 10-801 (Barker), Bring a text of 150 characters, including spaces.

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Limited to 3 participants
Attendance: Repeating event, participants welcome at any session
Prereq: None

Have you ever wanted to set type the way Johannes Gutenberg and Benjamin Franklin did?  Print your own political pamphlets and broadsides?  Design greeting cards and announcements?  Now you can do these things and more at The Beaver Press Print Shop, MIT's own handset printing press, located on the eighth floor of Barker Library, Room 10-801.  The press was built in 21H.343 during Spring 2016; learn more here and here.  We will be holding open printing hours from 1:30 to 5:30 on the days listed below.  Space is limited, so please sign up here.

Sponsor(s): Concourse, History
Contact: Jeffrey Ravel, E51-255C, 617 253-4451, RAVEL@MIT.EDU


Old Food: Sourdough Bread Basics

Anne McCants, Professor of History

Add to Calendar Jan/11 Thu 10:00AM-03:00PM Burton Conner

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/08
Limited to 12 participants
Prereq: None

From the Fertile Crescent to the Klondike gold rush sourdough bread baking has been a fundamental component of human existence.  Come learn all the steps of making a true sourdough bread from start to finish.  And enjoy getting to eat the result!  No baking experience required but wear clothes you don’t mind getting flour on.  Depending on the number of participants we may make other kinds of bread as well.  No fee, but sign-ups limited to 15.

Please click here to register.

 

Sponsor(s): History
Contact: Anne McCants, E51-263, 617 258-6669, amccants@mit.edu


Old Food: Sourdough Bread Basics

Anne McCants, Professor of History

Add to Calendar Jan/31 Wed 10:00AM-03:00PM Burton Conner

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/26
Limited to 14 participants
Prereq: None

From the Fertile Crescent to the Klondike gold rush sourdough bread baking has been a fundamental component of human existence.  Come learn all the steps of making a true sourdough bread from start to finish.  And enjoy getting to eat the result!  No baking experience required but wear clothes you don’t mind getting flour on.  Depending on the number of participants we may make other kinds of bread as well.  No fee, but sign-ups limited to 14.

Please click here to register.

Sponsor(s): History
Contact: Anne McCants, E51-263, 617 258-6669, amccants@mit.edu


Roman warships in Experiment: Reconstruction and Sailing Tests

Hans Moritz Guenther

Add to Calendar Jan/26 Fri 01:30PM-02:30PM Marlar Lounge 37-252

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up
Prereq: none

Roman warships in Experiment: Reconstruction and Sailing Tests

Warning: This talk is non-astronomical and contains actual videos and possibly sound. After the climax of its power internal struggle weakened the military position of the Roman Empire. A series of attacks in the 2nd and 3rd century AD forced an adjustment of the military strategy in central Europe. Instead of further expansion, the borders of the empire were increasingly fortified. In Germany this lead to the construction of an impressive naval fleet on the rivers Rhine and Danube. Several of the boats have been excavated. Our team has attempted a reconstruction of two types of vessel, the "navis lusoria" and the "Oberstimm" with a level of detail down to the hand-smithened nails with the correct metallurgy. A series of three working boats have been built in original size. I will show pictures of the reconstruction phase, but concentrate on the on-the-water tests we have performed with different teams to access the speed, maneuverability and sailing performance of these boats. Particularly in sailing the possibilities far exceeded the expectations. This result indicates a much larger operating radius of these vessels than previously estimated and thus a much higher flexibility of the river defense scheme which the empire relied on to keep the barbarians at bay. See, e.g.: this movie


Sponsor(s): Kavli Institute for Astrophysics , History
Contact: Debbie Meinbresse, 37-241, 617 253-1456, MEINBRES@MIT.EDU