Newsletter of the Mercurians, in the Society for the History of Technology
Volume 11, No. 1, November 1998
Session Planning: 1999 and 2000
Robert Arns Awarded IEEE Prize
Toward a History of Information Systems
Misreading the Supreme Court: A Puzzling Chapter in the History of Radio
Access Denied: The Beginning and End of the Information Society
Book Review
Universal Service
As part of the festivities of last month's SHOT conference, Mercurians rose to the early-morning challenge of a breakfast meeting, held jointly with the Jovians, as is our custom. After a good measure of caffeine, juices, and some overpriced carbohydrate sources, we shared a lively exchange, as is also our custom. At the top of the agenda was how we might smuggle a wider variety of carbohydrate sources into next year's meeting. Once the organizers were charged with looking into the possibilities, the meeting moved on to an animated discussion carried over from earlier years, namely the matter of setting up a Mercurians Web site. The upshot and follow up of that discussion can be found in a separate article.
The heart of the meeting, as always, was the round of introductions, during which attendees shared tales of their year's accomplishments and tribulations (including dripping mercury-as in poison-and the trials and rewards of experiments with new technologies). The pleasure of listening to reports on completed dissertations and published books added to the excitement of hearing about ongoing projects.
As always, we extend an invitation to new and longtime Mercurians alike to introduce themselves by sending us statements for inclusion in future newsletters. Please contact Pam Laird (plaird@carbon.cudenver.edu) with those contributions, as well as with additions or corrections to your e-mail addresses.
We would very much like to know about books or museum exhibitions that we ought to review. Please also send us reports on your recent activities, or queries if you would like to contribute an article or essay on your current project. We are always glad to include information pertinent to the many interests that Mercurians share.