|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
|
OP
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
The context is an article about Sir Christopher Zeeman, the mathematician who founded the Maths Institute at the University of Warwick (UK) back in the 50s or 60s. Talking about how they tried to emphasise the social side of things at this new Institute, the article reads:
"Morning coffee and afternoon tea were served from elegant china in a comfortable common room where staff, graduates and visitors gathered for mathematical conversations. Greenglasses were available around the walls so that diagrams could be drawn at the drop of a saucer."
What are these greenglasses? I can't find the term in any of my dictionaries, and I'm curious to know.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
I've never heard of greenglasses. Maybe a glass version of a blackboard so you could see the diagram from both sides. Beats me why you'd want to see a math diagram from both sides though, I can't understand them from the front.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
I found this in an (other?) article on the history of mathematics at Warwick: ... we changed all the blackboards for greenglasses, which were made of glass with a rough surface on the front to take the chalk and green paint on the back that does not wear off.http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/general/institute/histories-small.pdf
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427
addict
|
|
OP
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 427 |
Yes, that's a different article, Sparteye, but at least it's got an explanation of the greenglasses in it! Thanks a lot. I'm pretty sure I've never seen this type of blackboard, though.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
The blackboards of the old school were absent from the Purlieu Street School. In their place were devices much like them—extensive flat things mounted on the walls, meant for writing—but these were green. What were we supposed to call them? Greenboards? Green blackboards? Why had this change come about? The official explanation was that yellow chalk on a green board would be easier on our eyes. To Raskol, that seemed unlikely. “They’re trying to confuse us,” he said, and he sighed and shook his head slowly, as if his suspicions about the true purpose of school had finally been confirmed by these green blackboards. (Years would pass before chalkboard [E.A.] became the general term, and during the intervening period of uncertainty the nation’s youth, innocent victims of a summertime revolution in the technology of wall-mounted writing surfaces, sat puzzled through millions of student hours pretending to listen to geography and geometry but unable to stop asking themselves, “What the heck should I call that thing on the wall?” [from Where Do You Stop, by Eric Kraft]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
My elementary school(Our Lady of Mercy--Marion Avenue, Bronx NY) had greenboards-
i didn't know/think they were made from glass, but we did call them 'blackboards'--tho, occationally, 'chalkboards'was used(or did i learn that word later?)
2 of the 4 classroom walls were covered with them.
often, with the overcrouded classes, students had seats next to a chalkboard, and would write small notes on them.
teachers had freedom to make the wall at right angles to the windows, or opposite the windows 'the front' of the class. (opposite was often chosen on north facing classrooms)
i remember being surprized in HS, that classes there had fewer students, and blackboards only on one wall.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I think them greenboard/chalkboards are different than the greenglasses things.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
maybe not..
The school also featured, according to news accounts of the day, such modern innovations as a public address system linking the principal's office to all rooms of the school and green glass chalkboards, replacing the old familiar blackboards. The new building was dedicated on May 14, 1950.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
well, I've had greenboards in my classrooms, and they weren't made of glass. I'm only saying...
you can even buy green chalkboard paint. we had a neat chalk table.
formerly known as etaoin...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
From a commercial site:
Writing surfaces in green glass, green steel and white steel
The glass writing surfaces ensure particularly easy chalking/erasing while the steel surface has the additional facility to accept magnetic aids. Drymarker pens are used on the white surfaces.
Intriguing question, Marianna! I never know what I'm going to learn here.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,351
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
477
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
