Talk:Ferdinand Verbiest

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A fact from Ferdinand Verbiest appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 23 March 2008 (check views). A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/March.

This was top of the Main Page DYK list on Easter Sunday (afternoon). I think FV would have been pleased with the timing!

• ...that in 1669, the Jesuit missionary and astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest persuaded the Kangxi Emperor to remove a month from the Chinese calendar?

EdJogg (talk) 00:47, 24 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beijing Ancient Observatory.

• Beijing Ancient Observatory -- how come that page doesn't mention Verbiest, nor Verbiest's page mention the Observatory?????

• Fairfield University page - very good stuff, also suggests that the painting IS of Verbiest, with Chinese features. Plenty of scope for DYKs from here. Now included as ref, but formatting needs work!

• US-based Chinese (history) site -- absolute goldmine! , including big section on astronomy. This page is about Verbiest and includes a painting (origin unspecified) with photos/descriptions of his instruments on subsequent pages...(better than photos on Commons, unfortunately)

• History of telescopes -- good section on the 'competition', and the current state of the Observatory

• Belgium official history page!

• http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=52 -- already used in article -- covers more than just the car

• Blog by Jerry Everard about a visit to the Observatory museum. Good starting point for the article upgrade.

• Ferdinand Verbiest Institute

• Engraving... at Washington State University

Pages that mention his steam 'car'...(difficult to isolate from the Wikipedia mirrors).

Note that Googling "verbiest car -wikipedia" is more productive than including 'steam':

• The Oldest Precursor of the Automobile - Ferdinand Verbiest's Steam Turbine-Powered Vehicle Model Society of Automotive Engineers (Paperback, 1995) by Horst O. Hardenberg (Author) Amazon page - includes ISBN etc -- added to article

• http://www.usfca.edu/ricci/exhibits/fusion/lectures/mir3.htm -- useful -- mentions basis on an aeoliopile by Giovanni Branca
  • Thumbnails of images from Hardenberg's book -- showing that model had five wheels!
• several refs in Jstor (subscription required)

• Five Cool Hybrids To Consider In 2008 (Part 1), by James Raia, states: "Verbiest was a renowned astronomer. But he also spent more than a decade developing a four-wheeled vehicle that could be powered by steam or horse. It was the first hybrid and it was short-lived." -- was this the same as the 'toy', or something different?

• The Wheels of Invention...Keep on Rolling -- (casual style) article covering development of wheeled transport. Includes suggestion that Verbiest's 'car' was "...kept at China's beautiful Winter Palace until recently, when it mysteriously disappeared. According to written reports, this little car could chug along at a fairly brisk pace, but when the water ran out so did the ride."

• Autoworld Brussels - Early history -- includes REAR view of Verbiest's model, showing how drive was achieved

• B&W photo of the aeolipile-driven model -- NOTE looking at the Genealogy article (below) it is likely this was NOT Verbiest's design (hence Brumm model is incorrectly attributed!)

Original refs used on other pages

The timeline entry is of limited worth, when compared to other refs found subsequently.
The worth of the book reference is unknown.

• "SA MOTORING HISTORY - TIME LINE" (PDF). Government of South Australia.
• Setright, L. J. K. (2004). Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car. Granta Books. ISBN 1-86207-698-7.

Not just Verbiest's car...

• Belgian site - history of cars from origins to 1900 (top page) -- you know what? Verbiest was Belgian....try searching in 'Belgian' and you'll find what you're looking for, like this (Verbiest)!! (Google translation)

• Généalogie de l’automobile (Google translation) -- excellent coverage of vehicle history, with illustrations -- Actually it was by Herge (Tintin) -- need to update links here and at History of steam road vehicles

EdJogg (talk) 16:46, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Added 5th Feb 2008 was an amendment to show that the model was 61cm long. The next edit added the following 'reference', although it was not inserted in-line:

• Williams, Guy R. The World Of Model Cars, 1976, Rainbird Reference Books Limited

I have remove these from the text as they were added by an anon editor (who has not edited another article) and I have been unable to corroborate them on-line. They have been retained here for future use, and re-instatement if verification is possible.

EdJogg (talk) 14:00, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Verbiest, depicted in the guise of a Chinese priest-astronomer. (Painting by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1675 (British Museum))

The above appears in the caption of Image:Chinese astronomer 1675.jpg but the artist's article states he lived from 1797 to April 14, 1861. Is the date or the artist wrongly attributed? -84user (talk) 13:00, 21 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]