14: Commodities, Centers, and Peripheries
Whenever people have achieved a surplus above and beyond mere subsistence, trade and the accumulation of resources have led to urbanization. Cities at the nodes of these trade networks have become centers of wealth, power, and culture. Artists and craftspeople often find patrons or markets for their work in cities, and government administrators and businesspeople often leave extensive records. So cities, both ancient and modern, are usually full of interesting information for historians.
But just because they offer so much information about the past, we should never suppose that cities were the only places that mattered. Often historians interested in culture, or politics, or social movements focus too much attention on the cities where art was displayed, where governments debated, and where workers demonstrated. This narrow focus can distort our understanding of the past by suggesting that everything that happened in the city originated in the city. In fact, cities have always been centers for the accumulation, processing, and consumption of resources that usually originate in the hinterlands that surround them.
As transportation improved, the hinterlands that were the sources of raw materials could be farther away. Grain from upstate New York farms could float down Erie Canal and the Hudson River to New York City. Cotton from Southern plantations could become cloth in Lowell mills. And silver mined in Potosí could become money in London and Beijing. In each case, New York, Lowell, London, and Beijing were just as dependent as they had ever been on their hinterlands, even though increasing distance might seem to obscure the relationship. It is important, as the distances widen and interactions become more complicated, to be careful we do not lose sight of the economic lifelines tying the centers with the peripheries.
In this chapter we will consider the rise of new cities and new hinterlands as Americans pushed westward. The cities that developed on rivers, lakeshores, and at railroad junctions benefited from the advances in transportation discussed previously. But the transportation would have been pointless and the cities would have remained empty without the surrounding rural areas that supplied foods, fuels, and building materials. And the commodity agriculture, meat production, and forestry that developed alongside the cities we will consider in this chapter likewise depended on urban businesses and populations who were both the processors and often the consumers of their products.
Porkopolis
Recall how we previously observed difficult-to-ship grain west of the Appalachians become distilled into more portable whiskey by early Americans. This conversion into a commercial product for a distant market had been possible because there was more grain harvested than local farm families needed to survive, and also because rural people needed cash to buy things they could not make for themselves. Distilling whiskey not only made their surplus grain easier to transport, it increased the grain’s value per pound, and it added variety and interest that plain grain or flour lacked. In modern business terminology, the farmers diversified and added value.
A similar increase in variety and value occurred when grain was fed to domesticated animals such as poultry, cattle, and pigs. Even in primitive conditions, most people prefer not to live by bread alone. In subsistence societies, domesticated creatures usually foraged for themselves or ate waste products not fit for humans. In some societies, animals have continued to occupy this default livestock niche (some contemporary food activists argue we should move back toward this approach). But in America, when there was a surplus, even foods that could be eaten by people were often fed to livestock. These animals became a luxury food for consumers and a living bank account for their owners. They stored the food energy of perishable surplus grains and vegetables in their flesh until there was a shortage, and then they were eaten. As time went on and surpluses became more dependable, meat became a commodity that farmers could raise and sell for cash.
Pigs are extremely efficient converters of surplus plant foods to meat. They are omnivores that grow quickly and are able to produce twice as much meat per pound of grain as sheep or cattle, which are ruminants and prefer grasses. A sow can be bred much earlier than a heifer, and will produce a litter of 6 to 12 piglets after only four months gestation. Pigs were a favorite of homesteaders and frontier farmers because they would eat anything. Pigs could be turned loose to forage for acorns and were a great help to farmers rooting up tree stumps to clear fields. And pigs became the frontier’s first big meat product raised for city markets because unlike beef, their flesh is easily preserved by smoking or by salting.
In the early 1800s, Buffalo New York and Cincinnati Ohio became centers of pork processing. Bacon and hams were smoked, and pork was salted and packed in barrels for storage and shipping. The earliest packers were merchants in frontier towns such as Chillicothe, Terre Haute, and Lafayette Indiana. As raising pigs for market became popular, farmers switched from the semi-wild razorback variety they had brought to the frontier, and began raising premium foreign breeds like the Suffolk, the Yorkshire, and the Poland China. Popular farm periodicals like The Prairie Farmer were filled with articles on the merits of different breeds and instructions on crossbreeding for improved results and hybrid vigor. Farmers became experts at calculating “the value of corn when sold in the form of pork,” which required them to know not only feeding yields and feed prices, but also to calculate transportation costs and risks, and to have some idea of the demand for their product in faraway markets. And as specialized processors built larger businesses in the cities, they needed access to capital.
The operating costs of a pork processor were high. Fixed costs of production were low, especially compared to eastern industries like textiles that required large factories and expensive machinery to operate. But a county pork processor might buy 6,000 hogs to pack in a season, which in the mid-1840s cost about $45,000. A city packer processing 15,000 hogs would need over $100,000 of cash or credit. Packing quickly became big business. By the 1830s America replaced Ireland as Europe’s source of cheap processed food. By the early 1840s, U.S. bacon and ham exports reached 166 million pounds. Shipments of processed pork were made easier by the growth of the rail network, but packers quickly realized that trains carrying barrels of salted pork could just as easily carry live animals. Railroads led to the concentration of packing in big cities such as Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis. But even in the 1850s, when Cincinnati was known as Porkopolis and processed over a quarter million hogs each year, the big cities only accounted for 40 percent of the business. By 1877, the Midwest was processing 2,543,120 hogs a year. Storage of ice for summer use allowed what had once been a seasonal business to continue year-round. With the rise of ice-packing, some pork processors moved back to smaller cities. The big city packers took advantage of refrigerated shipping to branch out into beef.
Beef on Ice
One of America’s forgotten industries that flourished during the nineteenth century was the ice business. Ice has been important throughout history, but in early America it was a luxury product costing hundreds of dollars per ton. Ice was traditionally cut from ponds or lakes in the winter, packed in sawdust, and stored in cellars or covered wells. In 1806, a 23-year old Harvard drop-out named Frederic Tudor bought a ship to carry a load of ice from his father’s farm in Saugus Massachusetts to the Caribbean island, Martinique. After successfully delivering Massachusetts ice to Martinique, Tudor convinced the governments of Cuba and several other islands to grant him a monopoly on ice imports. By 1833, Tudor was shipping ice to Calcutta, India. After a four-month journey half-way around the world, his ship’s cargo of 180 tons of New England ice had shrunk to only 100 tons, but Tudor still made a huge profit. Henry David Thoreau watched Tudor’s workers cutting ice on Walden Pond, and remarked in his journal, “The sweltering inhabitants of Charleston and New Orleans, of Madras and Bombay and Calcutta, drink at my well.” By 1865, two out of three homes in the Boston area had an icebox.
Like potash for soap and firewood for locomotive boilers, ice was something western settlers could quickly produce and sell for cash. Local entrepreneurs built icehouses near railroad lines and filled them from winter lakes. Midwestern pork packers like Gustavus Swift and Philip Armour saw an opportunity to expand their businesses. They were already shipping pork on ice, so why not ship chilled beef? Swift, Armour, and the other city packers contracted with icehouses along the rail lines, so their shipments could be kept reliably cold. Refrigerated rail cars first carried dressed beef from Chicago to Eastern cities in the late 1850s. But local butchers resisted this invasion of their market for many years, insisting that their freshly-killed local meat was tastier and safer. In 1878, Gustavus Swift developed the first practical ice-cooled refrigerated boxcar, or reefer. But adoption of the new technology was slow, and after ten years live cattle still outweighed dressed beef on the rails by four to one.
Because eastern butchers resisted the introduction of dressed beef and railroad companies did not want to risk losing the revenue they earned shipping live cattle, corporations like Swift and Armour built their own fleets of reefer cars. By 1900 the packers owned over fifty thousand refrigerated freight cars and the old local butchers were overwhelmed by their shipments of inexpensive chilled meat. A few years later, a new generation of city butchers was forced by the government to give up slaughtering animals altogether and to begin selling Chicago dressed beef.
Unlike pork, beef spoils rapidly when it is not refrigerated. The earliest solution to this problem had been to ship live animals to market, where they would be slaughtered as needed and their meat processed for immediate sale by local butchers. Cattle-raising grew in the first half of the nineteenth century from something done on semi-arid rangelands in California and Texas that were no good for crops, to a mainstream activity for midwestern farmers. Cattle grow much more slowly than pigs. But they are ruminants, which means they can eat not only the surplus grains that farmers fed to pigs, but field grass, hay, straw, and silage left over after wheat and corn was harvested.
Like pigs, cattle had been on the frontier from the earliest days of Euro-American settlement. Milk cows were common on family farms and oxen (neutered bulls) were preferred over horses as draft animals, due to their strength and endurance. When either of these animals came to the end of its productive farm life, they were slaughtered and eaten.
In the city, of course, there was less room for a family milk-cow. Although it was actually common in many cities for poor people to keep pigs that foraged the neighborhoods, urban cattle required large amounts of hay and had to be looked after. Many city-dwellers relied on dairymen for their milk and on their local butchers to kill and process their steaks and roasts. Herds of cattle were often walked across the plains in long cattle drives to a railhead where they would be loaded onto freight cars for shipment to distant cities. These animals might walk hundreds of miles from their rangelands to the railhead, resulting in tremendous weight loss. After arriving at their destinations, the cattle would have to be finished: fed for a while to regain their weight. And when they were processed by a local butcher, up to 60% of the animals’ mass would still have to be discarded as inedible waste.
Chicago beef packers saw an opportunity. Finishing and processing live animals shipped to eastern cities added to beef’s cost. And local butchers often threw away parts of the carcass that could be rendered into marketable products, especially if they could be processed in large volume. But dressed beef was highly perishable and had to be sold quickly after processing. In spite of their fleets of reefer cars, corporations like Swift and Armour were often forced to sell dressed beef below its cost of production, in order to move the product before it went bad. The big meat packers turned this liability into an asset, buying the urban market with low prices and using the profits from other product lines to subsidize their losses. Prices for Chicago dressed beef were slashed to a level at which butchers could not match them with fresh meat. Eastern city customers naturally wanted the largest cut they could get for their dollar, and the Chicago packers made sure it was theirs. Gustavus Swift’s instructions to his salesmen were, “If you’re going to lose money, lose it. But don’t let ‘em nose you out.”
The Jungle
Chicago’s famous Union Stock Yards were opened in 1864, on 320 acres of swampy land southwest of the city. Animal pens were connected to the railroads with fifteen miles of track. The Yards processed two million animals in 1870, and by 1890 they were processing 9 million animals a year. By 1900, after an expansion, the 475-acre stockyard employed 25,000 people and produced over 80 percent of the meat sold in America. The Yards contained nearly 2,500 livestock pens that could house 75,000 hogs, 21,000 cattle, and 22,000 sheep at the same time. The Yards used 500,000 gallons of water daily and pumped the waste into the South Fork of the Chicago River in an area that quickly became known as Bubbly Creek. According to Chicago tradition, the creek still bubbles, nearly a hundred years later.
Growth of the Chicago meat packing industry was resisted by butchers, distrusted by consumers, and criticized by labor activists. Most Americans at the beginning of the twentieth century lived on farms or in small towns, and valued the face-to-face relationships that were still a big part of their commercial lives. And accounts of the Chicago meat packing industry were shocking. Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, depicted the stockyards and packing plants as inhumane, unsanitary, and operated by corrupt businessmen who cut corners and victimized their immigrant workers. In a widely-read endorsement of The Jungle, famous author Jack London called the book “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of wage slavery.”
Although President Theodore Roosevelt was suspicious of Sinclair and considered him a dangerous socialist, he commissioned an investigation that quickly confirmed Sinclair’s sensational claims. The government report led directly to the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, designed to ensure that meat products used as food were processed under sanitary conditions and were correctly labeled. This type of regulation had never been needed when Americans slaughtered and processed their own farm animals or bought their meat from local butchers who they knew and trusted.
Small local companies lived and died by their reputations in a way that large, remote corporations did not. Government regulation was considered crucial to enforcing safety and quality controls in the stockyards and packing plants of Chicago because it was impossible for consumers to make corporations accountable the way they could their local butcher. What had once been a face-to-face, personal interaction between a merchant and the small community he was a part of had become a faceless transaction in a national market. The personal accountability that was part of face-to-face local commerce disappeared. Consumers were scattered and hard to organize, while producers were few and powerful. Ironically, although businessmen like Swift and Armour may initially have been offended by what they considered government intrusion into their operations, regulation may have actually saved their businesses by creating consumer trust in their processed meats, especially after people had read The Jungle.
The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act that followed it in 1906 made State Governments accountable for inspecting meat sold inside their borders, and made the Federal Government responsible for meat sold across state borders or exported. The USDA also provided meat grading (Prime, Choice, and Select) as an optional service for a fee. But health and safety inspections were mandatory and were paid for by the government.
Although meat packers such as Armour and Swift may not have welcomed inspectors, corporations actually received a valuable government service at taxpayer expense. USDA inspections cost the meat packers nothing, calmed the suspicions of consumers, and restored trust in the corporate brands. Local butchers, who had never needed government inspectors to convince customers that their shops were clean or their meat safe, found themselves at an extreme disadvantage after government inspectors began stamping sides of Chicago beef with dye stamps declaring the meat wholesome. When the new laws went a step further and declared butchers could not sell uninspected meat at all, and there were not enough USDA inspectors to visit every local slaughterhouse and butcher shop and certify them, local operators were forced to resell Chicago-packed meat or go of business. Criticized for interfering in free enterprise with their mandatory inspections, the government had actually wiped out the Chicago meat industry’s competition through regulation.
There are still a few local meat processors scattered about the Midwest to this day. We call them lockers, and they exist because some farmers still raise a few animals for their own family use, and because Midwesterners hunt deer. Lockers and their customers are not allowed to sell meat without USDA inspection, although a few of the larger lockers are beginning to offer inspection services to livestock producers who want to sell their meat to local customers. Lockers are also allowed to process uninspected carcasses for a fee, which has traditionally been their main business. Every package of meat cut for home use at a locker must be marked with a stamp reading “NFS”, Not for Sale.
As a result of USDA regulations implemented a century ago, it is very difficult for local entrepreneurs to return to the business model of the pre-Jungle era, when customers knew their merchants and producers lived and died by their personal integrity and the quality of their products. Locavores and libertarians such as Virginia farmer-author Joel Salatin have criticized today’s regulatory regime, claiming it unfairly protects global food corporations from competition by small producers. Critics of the current system suggest the global concentration of meat processing has gone too far, but the trend shows no signs of stopping. America’s largest pork packer, Smithfield Foods, was recently purchased by the Shuanghui Group of China for nearly $5 billion. And criticism of the wasteful and inhumane nature of modern corporate food processing is at least as intense as it was when Sinclair wrote The Jungle, as we will see in Chapter Eleven.
Lumber & Modern Homes
In addition to processing rural foods for national markets, urban industries depended on raw materials from their hinterlands. Eastern cites grew around industries like the textile mills along the Merrimack River, processing cotton from Southern plantations. Western cities surrounded by undeveloped country became conduits for the natural resources of the frontier. In addition to meat-packing, Chicago became a center of the lumber industry.
Cutting trees in frontier forests was traditionally a winter activity, beginning each November after the harvest. Winter logging camps filled with Midwestern farmers or their sons, eager to supplement the season’s farm produce with some cash earnings. Another reason logging was a winter activity was because it was difficult to get white pine out of the woods at any other time. Pine forests were often boggy, and sixteen-foot sections of tree trunk were easier to slide over frozen roads. Lumbermen stacked the logs on horse-drawn sleds they drove over iced logging trails. Logs were then piled beside frozen streams throughout the winter, waiting for the spring snow-melt that would carry the timber downstream to a lake. Most of the timber that made its way to Chicago was floated across Lake Michigan. Timber came from Michigan, Wisconsin, and as far away as Minnesota. In 1879, The Lumberman magazine reported that “There is not today a navigable creek in the state of Michigan or Wisconsin [or] Minnesota, upon whose banks, to the head waters, the better grade of timber is still standing within a distance of two to three miles.”
One of the major markets for Midwestern lumber processed in Chicago was house-building. Dimensional softwood lumber of the kind we are familiar with today made a new style of construction possible. Hardwood-framed, post and beam construction required special skills. A new technique called balloon-framing allowed houses to be built by relatively unskilled carpenters. Early American houses had been built of local hardwoods and had often been constructed in community efforts like the barn-raisings still held in traditionalist communities. Balloon houses were so easy to build that shoppers could buy them from mail order catalogs. In 1908, Chicago-based Sears Roebuck Company published its first Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans, which included 44 designs ranging in price from $360 to $2,890. Sears rail-shipped more than 70,000 catalog home kits between 1908 and 1940, in 370 designs. The ready-to-build kits included everything but concrete and bricks for their foundations. Competing regional and national companies sprang up, and the balloon construction style quickly became universal among American house-builders.
Lumber production in the Great Lakes region peaked in the early 1890s and then fell sharply when the industry moved to the Pacific Northwest. The cut-over area covered several states, and the forest was usually clear cut. While removal of the Midwest’s forests created potential new farmlands, the debris left by the cut-over first needed to be cleared. Clearing the branches and debris left when pine forests were cut was often accomplished with fire, leading to some of the worst forest fires in American history. But sometimes the environmental impact on remote, resource-producing hinterlands is harder to see than the growth and profit being generated in the processing cities. Contemporary media and history often celebrate the achievements of innovators and entrepreneurs in the centers, without counting the costs to environments, communities, and people on the peripheries. Our failure to charge these peripheral costs against the profits created at the center happens so frequently that, as mentioned in earlier chapters, economists have coined the term externality to describe it.
For example, while the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 made national news, a much larger blaze that had completely destroyed Peshtigo Wisconsin two days earlier did not. The Peshtigo fire, a direct result of the cut-over, killed 1,500 people in the town of only 1,700, or five times the number who died a couple of days later in Chicago. But unlike Chicago’s fire, the Peshtigo disaster was largely ignored at the time and has been virtually forgotten by historians outside Wisconsin.
Similar disasters in the cut-over region included the Great Michigan Fire of 1881, when over a million acres burned, the Hinckley Minnesota fire of 1894, and the Cloquet Minnesota fire of 1918. The deaths and destruction caused by these fires were tangible costs of Chicago’s lumber industry. But they were faraway and external to the calculation of Chicago lumber corporations’ profits. The fires were a cost of doing business, but the cost was socialized while the profits were privatized. In a final irony, to the disappointment of would-be farmers, the boosters who advertised the cut-over as a promising new agricultural region were wrong. Cut-over pine-forest soils turned out to be thin and easily eroded in floods that became more frequent once there were no live tree roots left to hold the soil and absorb rainfall.
The Mill City
Chicago was not the only Midwestern city that depended on resource-rich hinterlands for its growth. During the early decades of American history, as we have seen, farmers grew wheat for home use and milled it at local grist mills. Surplus flour was packed in barrels by merchant millers and shipped to eastern markets. But as railroads made western farmlands more accessible, urban merchants built mills of their own and began buying unprocessed grain directly from farmers.
The creation of global markets, the building of national consumer brands, and the reduction of the farmer to a mere raw material supplier all happened simultaneously in the flour-milling business. Chicago was one center of this consolidation. Another was Minneapolis, home of the familiar brands Pillsbury and General Mills, whose Gold Medal Flour can still be seen on supermarket shelves across America.
When farmers milled their grain locally and sold it close to home, people were able to buy flour from producers they trusted. The quality of the farmer’s wheat and the care the miller took processing it into flour mattered. Even factors such as a farmer’s reputation in the community or whether he paid his debts on time could influence a customer’s buying decisions. Consumers bought from people they trusted, and often from people with whom they had long-term relationships. Farmers were also able to take advantage of long-term local relationships when it was time to sell their harvests.
Personal accountability and face-to-face relationships were swept away when farmers began carting their grain to elevators by the railroad for shipment to big-city flour mills. The bulk elevator was an innovation developed in another mill city, Buffalo, in the late 1820s after the opening of the Erie Canal. Elevators allowed large quantities of grain to be handled rapidly and stored together. Wheat might still be hauled to the elevator by individual producers in bags with the farmer’s name on it. But as soon as it was unloaded the grain went into bulk storage bins where it was mixed with everyone else’s grain. A particular farmer’s special attention to his fields, or to timing his harvest and drying and threshing his grain carefully, was lost along with his identity. Everyone’s grain went into the same railroad cars and when the trains arrived in Minneapolis, it did not even really matter where they had come from. Trains from all across the Midwest converged on Minneapolis because its millers had developed a new technology called the rolling mill, and in the final decades of the nineteenth century the Mill City became the world leader in flour production.
When Minnesota became the 32nd state in 1858, the population of Minneapolis had been only about five thousand. The town had grown up around the Falls of St. Anthony, where the power of the first major waterfall on the Mississippi River was used to saw lumber and grind flour. By 1870, there were about 13,000 people in the growing city and large-scale flour mills had taken over the river in much the same way textile corporations had taken over eastern rivers. Twenty years later, when the flour-milling industry reached its peak, Minneapolis had grown to over 165,000 and the Mississippi was lined with corporate mills, connected by a dedicated Stone Arch railroad bridge crossing the river between them.
Grain production surged as farmers devoted more acres to easy-to-sell cash crops. As supply increased, the price farmers received at the elevator for a bushel of wheat fell from $1.06 in 1870 to 63¢ in 1897, and corn dropped from 43¢ to 30¢. Farmers understood they were overproducing, but they also believed the game was rigged against them.
To make matters worse, when farmers entered the market to buy equipment, they once again felt they were on the wrong end of a system that pitted wealthy city corporations against powerless rural folk. In 1902 Wall Street financier J. P. Morgan merged the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, the Deering Harvester Company, and three smaller farm machine companies into the International Harvester corporation. After the biggest merger of its time, the farm equipment market consisted of 29 million farmers (38 percent of the American population), but only one $120 million corporation they could buy harvesters from.
Economic imbalance between corporations in the center and farmers at the periphery led to political mobilization. Farmers joined groups like the National Grange, began cooperatives to sell their produce and to buy equipment and supplies, and helped create the Populist political movement. The People’s Party never won a Presidential election, although their candidate, William Jennings Bryan, served as Secretary of State to Woodrow Wilson. But they elected several Midwestern Governors and dozens of Congressmen. Populists were key to the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act and to its application against monopolies. In 1914, following the breakup of Standard Oil, International Harvester became the next target of an antitrust suit (it survived).
The pattern of urban processing centers depending on resource-producing hinterlands repeated as Americans moved westward. This was not the only way growth could have occurred in America. It was the result of legal, political, and cultural choices. Enabled by transportation and encouraged by demand from urban consumers, products such as meat, lumber, and flour that had once been produced locally and used by customers who knew the producers, became standardized commodities in national markets. As these markets expanded, large corporations benefited from their access to capital and their ability to create national brands like Sears Modern Homes, Swift Premium Bacon, and Gold Medal Flour. But another, sometimes hidden factor in this change was the government’s role in subsidizing these central processors by ensuring product safety and establishing standards of quality. And the effectiveness of concentrated economic power when it is pitted against small, scattered and often disorganized opponents should not be underestimated.
Recognizing how quickly America changed from a society of farmers and small-town people doing business with neighbors, to an impersonal national and ultimately global market where billions of consumers buy from a few immense corporations is crucial to understanding the present. The centers are now global, and the periphery now includes most Americans. New technology and new markets helped the American West grow, and led to our society of prefabricated homes and processed foods. But in the long run, the centers accumulated more economic and political power than the periphery. City corporations gained the upper hand, partly by business and technical innovation, but partly by ignoring external costs at the periphery and by taking advantage of government subsidies. That is, economic and political power have helped some people benefit more than others from this change. The point is not that change should not have happened, but that if we understand what actually happened, we may be better equipped to consider where we go from here.
Further Reading
- William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. 1991.
- Charles Postel, The Populist Vision. 2007.
- Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World. 2011.
- Upton Sinclair, The Jungle. 1906.
Media Attributions
- 3c06375u by Harper's Weekly © Public Domain
- Cincinnati-in-1841 by Klauprech and Menzel © Public Domain
- 03169v by Ehrgott & Krebs Lith. © Public Domain
- Ice_Harvesting,_Massachusetts,_early_1850s by Gleason's Drawing Room Companion © Public Domain
- Early_refrigerator_car_design_circa_1870 by Lordkinbote © Public Domain
- Cowboy1902 by Unknown © Public Domain
- Birdseye_View_of_Union_Stock_Yards_by_Rasher,_1890 by Charles Rascher © Public Domain
- Chicago_meat_inspection_swift_co_1906 by H. C. White Co. © Public Domain
- Livestock_chicago_1947 by John Vachon © Public Domain
- 4a23065v by Detroit Publishing Co. © Public Domain
- Sears_Magnolia_Catalog_Image by Sears Modern Homes © Public Domain
- pm010495 by T.M. Fowler & Co. © Public Domain
- MillsDistrict-MPLS-1895 by Frank Pezolt © Public Domain
- 38_00392 by Joseph Keppler © Public Domain


1.2: Identifying Arguments
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The best way to identify whether an argument is present is to ask whether there is a statement that someone is trying to establish as true by basing it on some other statement. If so, then there is an argument present. If not, then there isn’t. Another thing that can help in identifying arguments is knowing certain keywords or phrases that are premise indicators or conclusion indicators. For example, recall Sally’s abortion argument:
Abortion is morally wrong because it is wrong to take the life of an innocent human being, and a fetus is an innocent human being.
The word “because” here is a premise indicator. That is, “because” indicates that what follows is a reason for thinking that abortion is morally wrong. Here is another example:
I know that the student plagiarized since I found the exact same sentences on a website and the website was published more than a year before the student wrote the paper.
In this example, the word “since” is a premise indicator because what follows it is a statement that is clearly intended to be a reason for thinking that the student plagiarized (i.e., a premise). Notice that in these two cases, the premise indicators “because” and “since” are interchangeable: I could have used “because” in place of “since” or “since” in the place of “because” and the meaning of the sentences would have been the same. In addition to premise indicators, there are also conclusion indicators. Conclusion indicators mark that what follows is the conclusion of an argument. For example,
Bob-the-arsonist has been dead for a year, so Bob-the-arsonist didn’t set the fire at the East Lansing Starbucks last week.
In this example, the word “so” is a conclusion indicator because what follows it is a statement that someone is trying to establish as true (i.e., a conclusion). Here is another example of a conclusion indicator:
A poll administered by Gallup (a respected polling company) showed candidate x to be substantially behind candidate y with only a week left before the vote, therefore candidate y will probably not win the election.
In this example, the word “therefore” is a conclusion indicator because what follows it is a statement that someone is trying to establish as true (i.e., a conclusion). As before, in both of these cases the conclusion indicators “so” and “therefore” are interchangeable: I could have used “so” in place of “therefore” or “therefore” in the place of “so” and the meaning of the sentences would have been the same.
Table 1 contains a list of some common premise and conclusion indicators:
| Premise Indicators | Conclusion Indicators |
|---|---|
| since | therefore |
| because | so |
| for | hence |
| as | thus |
| given that | implies that |
| seeing that | consequently |
| for the reason that | it follows that |
| is shown by the fact that | we may conclude that |
Although these words and phrases can be used to identify the premises and conclusions of arguments, they are not failsafe methods of doing so. Just because a sentence contains them does not mean that you are dealing with an argument. This can easily be shown by examples like these:
I have been running competitively since 1999.
I am so happy to have finally finished that class.
Although “since” can function as a premise indicator and although “so” can function as a conclusion indicator, neither one is doing so here. This shows that you can’t simply mindlessly use occurrences of these words in sentences to show that there is an argument being made. Rather, we have to rely on our understanding of the English sentence in order to determine whether an argument is being made or not. Thus, the best way to determine whether an
argument is present is by asking the question: Is there a statement that someone is trying to establish as true or explain why it is true by basing it on some other statement? If so, then there is an argument present. If not, then there isn’t. Notice that if we apply this method to the above examples, we will see that there is no argument present because there is no statement that someone is trying to establish as true by basing it on some other statement. For example, the sentence “I have been running competitively since 1999” just contains one statement, not two. But arguments always require at least two separate statements—one premise and one conclusion, so it cannot possibly be an argument.
Another way of explaining why these occurrences of “so” and “since” do not indicate that an argument is present is by noting that both premise indicators and conclusion indicators are, grammatically, conjunctions. A grammatical conjunction is a word that connects two separate statements. So, if a word or term is truly being used as a premise or conclusion indicator, it must connect two separate statements. Thus, if “since” were really functioning as a premise indicator in the above example then what followed it would be a statement. But “1999” is not a statement at all. Likewise, in the second example “so” is not being used as a conclusion indicator because it is not conjoining two separate statements. Rather, it is being used to modify the extent of “happy.” In contrast, if I were to say “Tom was sleeping, so he couldn’t have answered the phone,” then “so” is being used as a conclusion indicator. In this case, there are clearly two separate statements (“Tom was sleeping” and “Tom couldn’t have answered the phone”) and one is being used as the basis for thinking that the other is true.
If there is any doubt about whether a word is truly a premise/conclusion indicator or not, you can use the substitution test. Simply substitute another word or phrase from the list of premise indicators or conclusion indicators and see if the resulting sentence still makes sense. If it does, then you are probably dealing with an argument. If it doesn’t, then you probably aren’t. For example, we can substitute “it follows that” for “so” in the Bob-the-arsonist example:
Bob-the-arsonist has been dead for a year, it follows that Bob-the-arsonist didn’t set the fire at the East Lansing Starbucks last week.
However, we cannot substitute “because” for “so” in the so-happy-I-finished-that-class example:
I am because happy to have finally finished that class.
Obviously, in the latter case the substitution of one conclusion indicator for
another makes the sentence meaningless, which means that the “so” that
occurred originally wasn’t functioning as a conclusion indicator.
Exercise
Which of the following are arguments? If it is an argument, identify the conclusion of the argument.
- The woman in the hat is not a witch since witches have long noses and she doesn’t have a long nose.
- I have been wrangling cattle since before you were old enough to tie your own shoes.
- Albert is angry with me so he probably won’t be willing to help me wash the dishes.
- First I washed the dishes and then I dried them.
- If the road wasn’t icy, the car wouldn’t have slid off the turn.
- Albert isn’t a fireman and he isn’t a fisherman either.
- Are you seeing that rhinoceros over there? It is huge!
- The fact that obesity has become a problem in the U.S. is shown by the fact that obesity rates have risen significantly over the past four decades.
- Bob showed me a graph with the rising obesity rates and I was very surprised to see how much they’ve risen.
- Albert isn’t a fireman because Albert is a Greyhound, which is a kind of dog, and dogs can’t be firemen.
- Charlie and Violet are dogs and since dogs don’t sweat, it is obvious that Charlie and Violet don’t sweat.
- The reason I forgot to lock the door is that I was distracted by the clown riding a unicycle down our street while singing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man.”
- What Bob told you is not the real reason that he missed his plane to Denver.

- No one who has ever gotten frostbite while climbing K2 has survived to tell about it, therefore no one ever will.


14.2: Administering Ear Medications
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Identify different forms of ear medications
- Recognize the purpose of performing ear irrigation
- Describe procedural steps for ear medication administration
Ear (i.e., otic , auricle ) medications are used for a variety of ear conditions (e.g., treating infections or inflammation, administering local anesthesia, softening cerumen (earwax) for removal, and facilitating removal of objects from the ear canal). The internal ear is sensitive to extreme temperatures; therefore, ear medications should always be administered at room temperature to reduce the risk of vertigo and cold sensitivity in the ear. The nurse must demonstrate competence in administering ear medications to ensure safe patient care.
Forms of Ear Instillations
Sterile technique should always be used for instilling medications in the ear. Sterile technique reduces the risk of infection if the eardrum is ruptured. In cases where a surgical opening was placed into the tympanic membrane , instillations may be used; however, caution must be taken to prevent debris from being introduced into the middle or inner ear. Medications administered via the ear come prepared as drops or medicated wicks.
Ear Drops
Liquid solutions that are injected into the ear canal are known as ear drops (Figure 14.8). Some ear drops are available over the counter, whereas others require a prescription. Ear drops are used to treat ear infections, ear pain, swimmer’s ear, and excessive earwax. Examples of ear drops include ciprofloxacin otic solution (Cetraxal) and ofloxacin otic solution (Floxin Otic). Ear drops should be administered at room temperature. Drops that are too warm or too cool may cause the patient discomfort, dizziness, vertigo, or nausea. Contraindications for ear drops include a ruptured eardrum, unless otherwise noted by the provider, because the opening in the eardrum may allow medication to pass into the middle ear.
Medicated Ear Wicks
Small cellulose wicks (Otowick) used when the ear is severely swollen or infected are known as medicated ear wicks (Figure 14.9). The wick is placed in the ear canal, with the outer portion of the wick visible at the entrance of the ear canal. The medication is then applied to the end of the wick. When moistened, the wick expands to the size of the ear canal, dispersing the medication throughout the ear. Ear wicks may typically be removed within a few days, after the ear swelling has subsided.
Purpose of Performing Ear Irrigation
Washing out the ear with a continuous flow of liquid or medication, ear irrigation , may be warranted to remove foreign objects or wax buildup from the ear canal. Removing these unwanted substances helps minimize the risk of damage to the ear and hearing loss. Side effects of ear irrigations include dizziness, pain, nausea, and ringing in the ears. Ear irrigations should not be performed on patients with damaged eardrums, tubes in their ears, or an active infection in their ear canal. Risks of ear irrigation include ear infections, perforated eardrum , vertigo , and hearing loss.
Nurse:
Eliza
Clinical setting:
Outpatient family medical practice
Years in practice:
13
Facility location:
Portland, Oregon
I had been working as an RN in a busy primary care clinic for several years, and ear irrigation was a common procedure that I frequently performed. One particular day, I had a patient who came in complaining of severe ear discomfort and hearing loss in the right ear. She mentioned she had tried over-the-counter earwax removal drops, but they didn’t seem to help. I gathered the necessary equipment, including an otoscope to examine the ear and warm water for the irrigation. I carefully examined her ear using the otoscope and confirmed the presence of a significant earwax blockage. As I began the irrigation, I positioned a kidney basin under the patient’s ear to catch the water and dislodged earwax, and then I used a bulb syringe to introduce the warm water gently into the ear canal, being cautious not to insert it too deeply. She described the sensation as a “strange” but not uncomfortable feeling as the warm water flowed into her ear.
Slowly but surely, small pieces of earwax started to emerge from the ear canal. After about five to ten minutes of irrigation, the patient starting to complain of being dizzy and lightheaded. I stopped the irrigation and assisted the patient in lying back on the exam table. While the patient was lying down, I looked in the ear canal to see if the eardrum had ruptured. Thankfully, it had not. After about five to ten minutes, I assisted the patient to a sitting position; however, the patient complained of continued dizziness. We were unable to continue the ear irrigation that day and a family member was called to drive the patient home. She came back a few weeks later to continue the procedure and we were able to successfully remove the rest of the wax then.
Ear Irrigation Solutions and Procedure
Before performing ear irrigation , the provider should assess the ear using an otoscope (Figure 14.10), a tool that shines light into the ear and helps to visualize objects or quantify the amount of wax in the ear. Typically, normal saline is used; although, a mixture of saline and hydrogen peroxide also may be used. A 60 mL needleless syringe typically is used to squirt the solution into the ear. A spray bottle with a soft angiocatheter also may be used. The solution should be at room temperature to reduce vertigo , dizziness, and discomfort for the patient.
Instruct the patient to sit upright and place a towel over their shoulder on the affected side. Draw up the irrigant in the syringe. Hold the irrigation basin next to the ear to collect the irrigant as it runs out of the ear. Gently pull the ear upward and back to allow the irrigant to enter the ear more easily. If irrigating the ear of a pediatric patient, gently pull the ear downward and back. Place the syringe or catheter into the ear, pointing away from the tympanic membrane . Directing the irrigant toward the tympanic membrane may cause perforation . Slowly and gently instill the irrigant (Figure 14.11). Injecting the irrigant too rapidly increases the risk of trauma, bleeding, and pain. After the irrigation is complete, the provider may use a cerumen scoop to remove any remaining wax or particles left in the ear. Place a cotton ball loosely in the ear to absorb any excess irrigant and instruct the patient to lie on their side toward the affected ear to allow the irrigant to completely drain from the ear.
See the competency checklist for Irrigating a Patient’s Ear. You can find the checklists on the Student resources tab of your book page on openstax.org.
Irrigation of the ear has the potential to cause several complications (e.g., otitis externa , vertigo, perforation of the tympanic membrane, middle ear damage). Signs of complications include sudden pain, ringing in the ears, hearing loss, nausea, and dizziness. If any of these symptoms present, stop the irrigation and examine the ear canal with an otoscope . Assess the ear canal for presence of a foreign body, edema , signs of infection, or injury (such as a ruptured eardrum ).
The nurse is performing an ear irrigation on a patient. While performing the irrigation, the patient begins to complain of ear pain and dizziness. After recognizing cues of potential complications (e.g., sudden pain, ringing in the ears, hearing loss, nausea, dizziness), the nurse analyzes cues and stops the irrigation until a hypothesis is formed. The nurse considers factors that may result in the identified cues and formulates a hypothesis regarding potential causes: perforation of the tympanic membrane, middle ear damage, the irrigant may be too hot or too cold, or the irrigant may have been instilled too rapidly. The nurse uses an otoscope to assess the ear canal to further refine and prioritize the hypothesis . The nurse generates solutions upon which to take action . For instance, if the eardrum appears ruptured, the nurse should contact the healthcare provider and document the patient’s response and the action taken. If the ear canal appears within normal limits, the patient may need to lie down for a few minutes until the symptom resolves before continuing with the irrigation. The nurse should also assess the temperature of the irrigation solution to ensure that it is neither too hot nor too cold.]
Procedural Steps for Ear Medication Administration
When administering ear medications, it is important to confirm the rights of medication administration, including the number of drops to be administered and the ear in which the drops should be placed. Abbreviations used for ear instillations include right ear (AD), left ear (AS), and both ears (AU). Ensure the medication is labeled for otic use and check the expiration date.
Before administering ear medications, wash your hands and don gloves to prevent contamination. Instruct the patient to lie on the side opposite the affected ear. Using a warm wet washcloth, clean the external ear of any debris. Ensure the medication is at room temperature. Remove the medication cap and place it on a clean surface to prevent contamination of the inside of the cap or the dropper tip. Straighten the patient’s ear canal to prepare the ear for instillation. For an adult, pull the auricle up and back. For a pediatric patient, pull the auricle down and back (Figure 14.12). The ears of pediatric patients are shorter and have a more horizontal angle; hence, they require you to pull the auricle at a different angle.
Aim the bottle toward the side of the auditory canal and gently squeeze the bottle, using caution not to squeeze the medication directly onto the tympanic membrane . Release the auricle and massage the tragus (the small piece of thick, skin-covered cartilage in front of the meatus of the external ear immediately in front of the ear canal) to help move the medication toward the tympanic membrane. Instruct the patient to continue lying on their side for five minutes to allow the medication to continue flowing toward the inner ear. After five minutes, the patient may turn to the other side and repeat the ear drops in the other ear, according to the provider’s orders. Remove gloves and perform hand hygiene after administering ear medications and assess for common side effects (e.g., dizziness, nausea). Document administration of the medication as well as the patient’s tolerance of the medication and procedure.
See the competency checklist for Instilling Eardrops. You can find the checklists on the Student resources tab of your book page on openstax.org.


4.9: Discrete Distribution (Lucky Dice Experiment)
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- Last updated
- Save as PDF
Name: ______________________________
Section: _____________________________
Student ID#:__________________________
Work in groups on these problems. You should try to answer the questions without referring to your textbook. If you get stuck, try asking another group for help.
Student Learning Outcomes
- The student will compare empirical data and a theoretical distribution to determine if a Tet gambling game fits a discrete distribution.
- The student will demonstrate an understanding of long-term probabilities.
Supplies
- one “Lucky Dice” game or three regular dice
Procedure
Round answers to relative frequency and probability problems to four decimal places.- The experimental procedure is to bet on one object. Then, roll three Lucky Dice and count the number of matches. The number of matches will decide your profit.
- What is the theoretical probability of one die matching the object?
 Roll the three Lucky Dice. Count the number of matches.
- Let \(X\) = number of matches. Theoretically, \(X\) ~ B (______,______)
- Let \(Y\) = profit per game.
Organize the Data
In Table , fill in the \(y\) value that corresponds to each x value. Next, record the number of matches picked for your class. Then, calculate the relative frequency.
-
Complete the table.
\(x\) \(y\) Frequency Relative Frequency 0 1 2 3 -
Calculate the following:
- \(\bar{x}\) = _______
- \(s_{x}\) = ________
- \(\bar{y}\) = _______
- \(s_{y}\) = _______
- Explain what \(\bar{x}\) represents.
- Explain what \(\bar{y}\) represents.
-
Based upon the experiment:
- What was the average profit per game?
- Did this represent an average win or loss per game?
- How do you know? Answer in complete sentences.
- Construct a histogram of the empirical data.
Theoretical Distribution
Build the theoretical PDF chart for x and y based on the distribution from the Procedure section.
-
\(x\) \(y\) P (\(x\)) = P (\(y\)) 0 1 2 3 -
Calculate the following:
- \(\mu_{x}\) = _______
- \(\sigma_{x}\) = _______
- \(\mu_{x}\) = _______
- Explain what μ x represents.
- Explain what μ y represents.
-
Based upon theory:
- What was the expected profit per game?
- Did the expected profit represent an average win or loss per game?
- How do you know? Answer in complete sentences.
- Construct a histogram of the theoretical distribution.
Use the Data
Note 4.9.1
RF = relative frequency
Use the data from the Theoretical Distribution section to calculate the following answers. Round your answers to four decimal places.
- P ( x = 3) = _________________
- P (0 < x < 3) = _________________
- P ( x ≥ 2) = _________________
Use the data from the Organize the Data section to calculate the following answers. Round your answers to four decimal places.
- RF (x = 3) = _________________
- RF (0 < x < 3) = _________________
- RF ( x ≥ 2) = _________________
Discussion Question
For questions 1 and 2, consider the graphs, the probabilities, the relative frequencies, the means, and the standard deviations.
- Knowing that data vary, describe three similarities between the graphs and distributions of the theoretical and empirical distributions. Use complete sentences.
- Describe the three most significant differences between the graphs or distributions of the theoretical and empirical distributions.
- Thinking about your answers to questions 1 and 2, does it appear that the data fit the theoretical distribution? In complete sentences, explain why or why not.
- Suppose that the experiment had been repeated 500 times. Would you expect Table or Table to change, and how would it change? Why? Why wouldn’t the other table change?


1.3: Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics – Examining the Interaction of Body and Drug
Overview
Pharmacokinetics is the term that describes the four stages of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs. Drugs are medications or other substances that have a physiological effect when introduced to the body. There are four basic stages for a medication to go through within the human body: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. This entire process is sometimes abbreviated ADME. Absorption occurs after medications enter the body and travel from the site of administration into the body’s circulation. Distribution is the process by which medication is distributed throughout the body. Metabolism is the breakdown of a drug molecule. Excretion is the process by which the body eliminates waste. Each of these stages is described separately later in this chapter.
Research scientists who specialize in pharmacokinetics must also pay attention to another dimension of drug action within the body: time. Unfortunately, scientists do not have the ability to actually see where a drug is going or how long it is active. To compensate, they use mathematical models and precise measurements of blood and urine to determine where a drug goes and how much of the drug (or breakdown product) remains after the body processes it. Other indicators, such as blood levels of liver enzymes, can help predict how much of a drug is going to be absorbed.
Principles of chemistry are also applied while studying pharmacokinetics because the interactions between drug and body molecules are really just a series of chemical reactions. Understanding the chemical encounters between drugs and biological environments, such as the bloodstream and the oily surfaces of cells, is necessary to predict how much of a drug will be metabolized by the body.
Pharmacodynamics refers to the effects of drugs in the body and the mechanism of their action. As a drug travels through the bloodstream, it will exhibit a unique affinity for the drug-receptor site, meaning how strongly it will bind to the site. Examination of how drugs and receptor sites create a lock and key system (see Figure 1.1 [1] ) is helpful to understand how drugs work and the amount of drug that may be left circulating within the bloodstream. This concept is broadly termed as drug bioavailability . The bioavailability of drugs is an important feature that chemists and pharmaceutical scientists keep in mind when designing and packaging medicines. Unfortunately, no matter how effectively a drug works in a laboratory simulation, the performance in the human body will not always produce the same results, and individualized responses to drugs have to be considered. Although many responses to medications may be anticipated, one’s unique genetic makeup may also have a significant impact on one’s response to a drug. Pharmacogenetics is defined as the study of how people’s genes affect their response to medicines. [2]
-
"
Drug and Receptor Binding
" by Dominic Slausen at
Chippewa Valley Technical College
is licensed under
CC BY 4.0
↵
-
This work is a derivative of
Medicines by Design
by US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences and is available in the public domain. ↵


5.3: Word Components Related to the Urinary System
This section will describe common word components related to the urinary system. These word components can be used to build definitions for many medical terms related to the urinary system. Other common prefixes are described in Chapter 1.3, and common suffixes are described in Chapter 1.5 .
Common Prefixes Related to the Urinary System
- a- : Absence of, without
- an- : Absence of, without
- dia- : Through, complete
- dys- : Painful, abnormal, difficult, labored
- poly- : Many, much
Common Word Roots With A Combing Vowel Related to the Urinary System
- albumin /o: Albumin
- azot /o: Urea, nitrogen
- blast /o: Developing cell, germ cell
- cyst /o: Bladder, sac
- glomerul /o: Glomerulus
- glyc /o: Sugar
- glycos /o: Sugar
- hydr /o: Water
- lith /o: Stone, calculus
- meat /o: Meatus
- nephr /o: Kidney
- noct /i: Night
- olig /o: Few, scanty
- py /o: Pus
- pyel /o: Renal pelvis
- ren /o: Kidney
- ur /o: Urine, urinary tract
- ureter /o: Ureter
- urethr /o: Urethra
- urin /o: Urine, urinary tract
- vesic /o: Bladder, sac
Common Suffixes Related to the Urinary System
- -al : Pertaining to
- -ary : Pertaining to
- -cele : Hernia, protrusion
- -emia : In the blood
- -esis : Condition
- -gram : The recorded radiographic image
- -graph : Instrument used to record
- -graphy : Process of recording, radiographic imaging
- -iasis : Condition
- -itis : Inflammation
- -lith : Stone
- -lysis : Loosening, dissolution, separating
- -megaly : Enlarged, enlargement
- -oma : Tumor, swelling
- -osis : Abnormal condition
- -pexy : Surgical fixation, suspension
- -ptosis : Drooping, sagging, prolapse
- -rrhaphy : Suturing, repairing
- -scope : Instrument used for visual examination
- -scopic : Pertaining to visual examination
- -scopy : Visual examination
- -stomy : Creation of an artificial opening
- -tomy : Cut into, incision
- -tripsy : Surgical crushing
- -uria : Urine, urination


3.4: Neoclassicism and Romanticism (1760-1860)
Introduction
Neoclassicism and Romanticism crossed the late 18 th and 19 th centuries, developing into opposing styles. Neoclassicism developed first after the excesses of the Rococo and Baroque periods, bringing a more classical restraint and resurgence of Greek influence. During this period, some classical Greek sites were under excavation, providing additional inspiration for classical images. Neoclassic artists used sharply defined lines and brushstrokes, creating smooth areas. Other artists wanted different expressions of emotion and defined Romanticism based on historical events and natural landscapes using visible brushstrokes, less restrained. The concept of a public museum was founded where paintings and sculptures were available for the general population to view. Napoleon established the Louvre in France as one of the first major public museums, incorporating a majority of the art from previous kings, hung in the old palace, and now a place of the people.
The process of painting was also revolutionized in this period. Making and storing paint was laborious; each color mixed by hand with the appropriate raw materials, a struggle to keep the mixed paints from drying before the artist could use them. The primary method of storing their mixed paint was in a pig's bladder. The artist stuck a pin in the bladder to squeeze out the paint; however, the hole was difficult to cover, and the bladder tended to break when moved. Artists drew sketches outdoors and returned to their studios to paint the actual image. John Rand, an American painter, experimented with forming tin into the shape of a tube and adding a screw cap. Now his paint could be stored and easily reused. Acceptance of the tube concept was slow until the Impressionist period, when the ability to purchase paint in tubes allowed artists to move outside and paint the world in place.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism paintings contained clean, well-defined lines of heroic figures, especially those of ancient classics. They believed classical Greek artwork displayed the proper techniques and followed the Greek standard for human proportions. The Neoclassicism artists were also enamored with the political philosophies from ancient cultures and used them as a guide. Artists used chiaroscuro techniques, contrasting light colors against dark tones to add drama, controlling the minimal amount of color. The paint was applied with a smooth surface, brushstrokes seldom seen, blended into the painting.
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was the champion of the Neoclassicism style, an influential painter who supported "…rigorous contours, sculpted forms, and polished surfaces…intended as moral exemplars." [1] He painted for royalty as well as revolutionaries and brought many well-known artists under his tutelage. His early paintings were historical, based on ancient civilizations, the style usually supported by the French Academy with an austerity not found in the Rococo style. After the revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, David became the primary painter for the emperor. David and his students painted the exploits of the emperor and his empire, the artwork full of textural elements of lace, fur, or satin; all painted without any visible brushstrokes, a smooth polished surface.
Napoleon Crossing the Alps (3.4.1) depicts an idealized version of the mighty Napoleon at Saint Bernard Pass in the Alps, leading the army through the rocky mountains. David painted five different paintings of the same scene with slight variations of color in the background, the horse or the rider. Napoleon appears to sit easily on the horse, rearing up on the small rocky ledge. The wind seems vigorous as the cape and the horse's mane are blowing in an unusual direction. The red cape centers the image and gives movement, pointing upward in concert with Napoleon's hand. The horse is posed in a classical style of ancient statues, helping to enhance Napoleon's power and strength. In reality, mules were used to cross the Alps, and Napoleon would have worn a heavy coat; any horses were led across the challenging rocky terrain, but David was not paid for reality.
Historians believe The Death of Marat (3.4.2) to be the finest work of David. Marat was a physician, a leader in the revolution, and a paper writer for the people who helped ferment the revolution. While Marat was in the bath, he was murdered by a woman who supported the aristocracy. The painting appears to happen minutes after the murder; Marat's head and arm have become lifeless as one hand still holds the paper he was writing. "Scholars have seen this vision as a revolutionary pietà because of the repose of the corpse, so different from that of a normal body in a stage of rigor mortis." [2] The arm also hangs down, very similar to Michelangelo's Pieta.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) was born in France, his father was an artist. Ingres first studied art in one of the academies before becoming an apprentice to David, the most famous artist in France at the time, learning classical literature, mythology, and archaic art. After two years, his talent for Ingres was acknowledged, and he went to the prestigious Ecole Des Beaux-Arts, becoming a portraitist and entering several paintings into the Salon. Ingres became known for the details and textures in his painting, eventually experimenting and moving from classical Greek subject matter to more contemporary themes. He still maintained his focus on the importance of the drawn line instead of the power of color.
Oedipus and the Sphinx (3.4.3) portrayed a story of Greek mythology when Oedipus was confronting the Sphinx, who is seen as a part woman and part lion with the wings of a bird. Oedipus answers the question the sphinx asked all travelers who want to pass through the land, the bones of unsuccessful travelers seen at the bottom. Near the entrance is another traveler who waits in fear, the city of Thebes dimly depicted. The background is dark with muted light on the central figures, composed in a classical Greek story. I
ngres used a live model who posed in the same posture as Hermes Fastening His Sandal (3.4.4). "It is a pose which accentuates the musculature of the model's body, making him appear strong and determined. His body, limbs, and the javelins that he is holding all form geometrically harmonious shapes." [3]
The Grand Odalisque (3.4.5) represents a change in the artwork of Ingres from Neoclassicism. However, the nude female figure is classic, especially those of Aphrodite, and he used a contemporary subject matter for his painting. The work is known for its unusual and unrealistic proportions. The odalisque (concubine) has a small head with overly elongated arms and legs, the body so distorted a figure would need extra vertebrae to achieve the pose. Although the figure is oddly elongated and twisted, it still appears sinuous yet slightly eerie. The detailed curtains, soft fabrics, jewels, turban, and hookah pipe all surround her, unusual accouterments adding to the exotic look of the painting.
Angelica Kauffmann
Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), daughter of a muralist, was a natural painter at an early age and traveled with her father to other countries as an assistant. She learned about the old master painters and met people of the new style under development – Neoclassicism. In Italy, Kauffmann started as a portraitist and returned to England with a solid reputation, quickly establishing a portfolio of patrons. Although twice married, she did not have children, focusing only on her career and building her reputation.
She helped found the Royal Academy of Arts in London, one of the two women accepted (Mary Moser, the other woman). They were both restricted from attending any meetings or celebrations. Females were not allowed to paint nudes, so Kauffmann could not participate in painting classes with nude models. After the death of the two women, no other female artists were members of the academy for 168 years until 1936, when Dame Laura Knight was elected to the academy. [4]
The Earl of Derby and his wife were wealthy and are seen with their first son, Edward Smith Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, with his First Wife, Elizabeth Hamilton, and Their Son (3.4.6) seated on a sofa for the family portrait. The couple was dressed in Van Dyck's style of clothing popular a hundred years earlier. The earl's red suit has slashes of blue inserts and a white-collar embellished with lace. The countess's upswept hair is adorned with feathers complementing the white bodice and sleeves, her blue gown trimmed in gold. In a family portrait, the participants are supposed to face each other and appear relaxed and engaged with each other. However, the countess seems remote, uninterested, perhaps a reflection of her unhappiness as after three children and four years of marriage, the countess left her husband for another man.
Marie-Denise Villers
The art societies in England and France were the predominant venues for artists to display their work, especially young artists cultivating patronage and advertising their work. The art salons held shows and the Salon show of 1801 in Paris is where Marie-Denise Villers (1774-1821) hung her work and created a mystery still hazy in today's world. Villers was a young painter who married an architecture student. Fortunately, he supported her career as an artist when many women were forced to stop after marriage. The first time she exhibited in the Salon was in 1799, followed by the painting in 1801, known as Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d'Ognes (3.4.7) or Young Woman Drawing .
At one point, the painting was attributed to Jacques Louis David; however, over time, researchers studied the provenance of the work and finally believed it was the work of Villers. A study of the entries in the Salon show of 1801 defined the work by Villers as " Etude d'une jeune femme assise sur une fenetre ," a show in which David did not have any entries, eliminating his attribution. Since 1955, the work has been credited to two other artists until 1996; with further study, the portrait is now believed to be Villers. The young woman in the portrait, clad in white, appears to be staring at the potential viewer. The painting is backlit, the light shining on her dress and hair, her face in the shadows, an unusual pose.
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova (1757-1822), born in Italy, was the son and grandson of stonecutters. Early in life, his talent was recognized, and he became an apprentice in the workshops of different sculptors, opening his first studio when he was eighteen, following classical style. Canova was hugely prolific and preternaturally proficient, the most celebrated sculptor and perhaps the most renowned artist of his time. [5] He produced hundreds of sculptures, frequently repeating a previous image, further improving the feeling of the sculpture. In his studio, Canova used assistants to carve the basic rough structure from the life-size plaster models, a departure from most sculptors' small-size models. He always finished the plaster model before moving to the marble. The classical artist perfecting his work, suggesting the purity of antique forms, combined with subtle, naturalistic qualities, demonstrated his technical virtuosity.
Cupid and Psyche (3.4.8) was a complicated sculpture with the wings of Cupid extending upward, his protracted legs, and the movement in the arms. Canova made two very similar statues, first creating the life-sized plaster sample then using metal pins inserted in the marble to define the pathway for carving. Canova was known for his large public monuments; however, this sculpture demonstrates his ability to create tender yet sensuous figures of Cupid awakening Psyche with his kiss.
Perseus with the Head of Medusa (3.4.9) is the second version of the same image; Canova refined this statue with additional details, streamlining the body shape, a more classical view. Perseus, the son of Zeus, stands holding the head he severed from the gorgon Medusa who turned people into stone if she looked at them. Perseus wore sandals from Mercury for speed, a winged cap from Hades to make him invisible, and the sword from Zeus helping him find and slay Medusa. Perseus is looking at the head; her power to turn a man into stone is eliminated.
Luis Egidio Melendez
Luis Egidio Melendez (1716-1780) is considered the supreme still life painter from Spain in the 18 th century. He started painting miniature portraits and changed to still life later in his career. He originated from a family of painters, his father, brother, and sisters; his father helped found the Royal Academy in Madrid. However, after the father disagreed with the academy, the family split, and Luis went to Italy. A successful income was difficult without royal patronage, and Melendez began to paint still life, work to be sold to the general public. He did receive a commission from a Spanish prince to paint every type of food produced in Spain.
Melendez focused on how light, texture, and color affected the combinations of fruits and vegetables and how different objects enhanced the look of a composition. Unlike earlier still life painters, he worked in close-up view allowing the lighting to bring out the color or form shadows. Still Life with Pumpkins (3.4.10) demonstrates Melendez's ability with lighting and texture. The light shines on the end of the pumpkin, revealing the intricate webbing, illuminates the towel and its texture, and reveals the color and flaws of the bowls.
Romanticism
Romanticism was a movement starting in France and England before moving to other countries. The uncontrolled and unpredictable side of nature and the human struggle in the elements were significant in Romanticism. The heroic man was no longer the center of the painting; the natural events dwarfed the man. People were portrayed in different states of behavior and sanity, no longer the perfect posed image. The movement artists painted in layers with heavy, thick brushstrokes to depict emotions and broad brushstrokes of backgrounds, skies, or landscapes, maintaining tight lines for humans in the foreground. Color was another critical element to help portray emotions. Colors were bold, backgrounds dark or shadowed, red common in clothing or sunsets.
Francisco Goya
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), considered the premiere Spanish artist of his time, started early painting lighthearted images ending with the unusual paintings of his later life. As a teenager, he was an apprentice to one of the Spanish masters before becoming a court painter, a position he held through multiple monarchies. He became deaf from a severe illness in mid-life, fueling his pessimism and bringing darkness to his paintings. Many believe Goya may have suffered from lead poisoning, causing his illness. During this period, artists made white paint with lead carbonate, a common cause of lead poisoning for artists.
In the late 1790s, the Catholic church and the Spanish monarchy suppressed and punished sexual themes, emboldening some artists, like Goya, to embrace the forbidden ideas. La Maja Desnuda (3.4.11) was "the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art without pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning." [6] The model for the painting is unknown, and the work was not publicly shown at the time. The nude woman is lying comfortably on a bed covered with pillows while looking suggestively at some unknown person.
La Maja Vestida (3.4.12) depicts the same person fully dressed; however, she fills more of the frame, making the nude painting appear almost timid. During the Spanish inquisition, the paintings were seized, and Goya was charged but not sentenced for moral depravity.
Goya maintained a country house called La Quinta del Sordo. Inside, he painted fourteen murals on the walls using dark pigments of blacks and browns, focused on human suffering, pain, and rituals, murals known as the black paintings. In 1873, a wealthy patron purchased the house and removed the murals by transferring them onto canvas. The process was poorly executed, and large amounts of the images crumbled, capturing only partial images of each original mural. The Witches Sabbath (3.4.13) depicts a large crowd of people, presumed to be witches or warlocks, gathered together for their rituals. The silhouetted dark goat, perhaps Satan, is standing on the right while the seated woman on the left seems to be waiting. Initially, the woman was in the center of the mural; however, the left side was lost when removed from the wall. Goya used thick brush strokes to apply the paint, building layers for depth and muted colors to portray the poorly lit space.
Eugene Delacroix
Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) became the leader of the Romanticism movement in France. Early in his life, he was recognized for his ability to draw and trained in the prevalent Neoclassicism style of David. His early paintings demonstrated he did not follow the Neoclassicism methods. His use of brushstrokes and unusual colors gave expressions and movement to his works, forming the basis for future trends, and he was considered one of the few remaining old master painters. He used color and the way light interacts with color to paint movement into his work. He liked drama and romance as subject matter instead of the classical Greek and Roman themes. Cezanne said of Delacroix, "Delacroix is Romanticism…he still has the most beautiful palette in France, and no one else in this country has managed the calm and the moving at the same time, the vibration of colour. We all paint in his shadow." [7]
Delacroix's most influential and famous painting is Liberty Leading the People (3.4.14), with Parisians fighting for liberty under their new red, white, and blue flag (liberty, equality, fraternity). Delacroix witnessed the Trois Glorieuses (three glorious days) as the uprising was known and instilled his emotions about the event into the painting, believing it was his patriotic duty. He made multiple sketches of different scenes, deciding to use the scene of the crowd pushing down the barricades to reach the enemy.
The female, dressed in ordinary clothes of the people from the street, centers the painting as she honorably stands and holds up the flag in triumph, fighters for liberty lying dead at her feet. Delacroix used tones of reds, blues, and greens highlighted by white to create drama in the painting. The glow of the setting sun and smoke from the cannons illuminate the panorama, providing the atmosphere of liberty. In a letter to his brother, Delacroix wrote, "I have undertaken a modern subject, a barricade, and although I may not have fought for my country, at least I shall have painted for her. It has restored my good spirits." [8]
Instead of traveling to Italy, the classic venue for artists to gain inspiration, Delcroix went to North Africa, where he believed he found enough material for generations of artists. In Algiers, he gained permission to visit a private harem, the space in a house where the women lived, off-limits to most people. There he made his sketches for the painting The Women of Algiers (3.4.15). Three women agreed to pose for him as they sat grouped on the floor with the brazier and hookah nearby. The woman who is standing was believed to be a servant. The women are dressed in traditional clothing made from rich fabrics and embellished with gold thread, beads, and braids, demonstrating their wealth. Delacroix used brushstrokes and color, dabbing the paint to produce the textual elements of the clothing. He used reflective light to create the rhythm in the painting.
Theodore Gericault
Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) was a French painter and a pioneer at the beginning of the Romanticism movement. Trained in art from an early age, he became a student at the Louvre, copying paintings of the masters and studying the configurations of horses in the nearby stables, which he used in multiple paintings. He did not follow the precise lines and smooth finish of Neoclassicism; instead used paint and a brush to develop texture and the details of the muted background.
In 1812, the Napoleonic wars were underway, and Gericault loved the military's impressive uniforms and powerful horses. One of his early paintings to enter the Salon was Charging Chasseur (3.4.16), portraying the chasseur with his sword ready, the powerful horse showing aggression, a horse prepared for war. This was the image of bravery, and the painting was well received in the Salon.
By 1814, the war was waning, and Napoleon was losing when Gericault painted Wounded Cuirassier (3.4.17). Most paintings covered an entire battle scene and the mastery of a leader or the exploits of a single horseman; however, this one focused on a single soldier and his injuries. The horse's power is visible by its stance, the body painted with obvious brushstrokes, not the smooth look of Neoclassicism. The rider seems unsure of what he should do next, limping on along the battlefield. This image was not well received in the salon.
Why was one image of the rider and horse accepted and the other one harshly criticized? One art historian stated:
…In 1812 success was still in the air, whilst in 1814 everyone knew they were facing defeat…….The echoes of the cries of distress from our suffering armies on the plains of Russia resounded through the lands. Hearts were full of fear and terror. It is this universal feeling which Géricault expressed in his painting and explored in the Wounded Cuirassier…..He painted two pictures, the first about glory and the other about faded glory… [9]
The Raft of Medusa (3.4.18), an exceptionally large painting (5 x 7 meters), depicted the survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Senegal. The ship, filled with soldiers, ran aground, and with few lifeboats, some of the men constructed a raft with room to hold only ten of the soldiers. The corner of the raft is located at the front of the painting, looking like the viewer could step into the painting and move upwards into the terror of the situation. Gericault brings the emotions of Romanticism with fluid brushstrokes giving diagonal movement. He made multiple sketches and wax figures, used live models, and studied cadavers to recreate the disastrous scene realistically. The painting received mixed reviews; some critics thought the pile of corpses was distasteful, and others liked the political theme.
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840), born in Germany, studied art as Romanticism was growing in Europe with less materialism, and a focus on spirituality. He became Germany's leading Romanticism painter, painting landscapes without biblical images, statuary, or artificial symbols. Instead, he tried to incorporate the natural world united with solitary figures, night skies, or the mystery of morning mists, bringing spiritual and emotional feelings.
The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (3.4.19) depicts a man standing on a rocky precipice looking over the landscape below him filled with fog, the mountains distant in the background. One historian described the painting as "suggesting at once mastery over a landscape and the insignificance of the individual within it. We see no face, so it's impossible to know whether the prospect facing the young man is exhilarating or terrifying or both." [10] The painting is vertical instead of the usual horizontal for landscapes. Friedrich uses the very dark color for the foreground and light colors with different sizes of brushstrokes to achieve the variety in other parts of the landscape
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), defined as J. M. W. Turner, was an English painter who used color to produce expression in his landscapes and marine paintings. Born in London, he was considered a child prodigy and even studied at the Royal Academy of Arts as a teenager. A private person, he remained unmarried although he had two children with his housekeeper. He was a prolific artist as a young man; however, he became depressed as he aged and died in squalor.
Turner frequently painted ships from many parts of Europe throughout his career; this painting was completed late in his life. The HMS Temeraire was a warship for the English navy and was known for bravery in the Battle of Trafalgar. However, the painting, The Fighting Temeraire (3.4.20), depicts the ship after its days of glory, a tugboat taking the old ship to be turned into scrap; sailing ships were no longer used as steam-powered crafts replaced them. Some historians believe Turner wanted to depict the sense of loss, the setting sun dominating the painting, perhaps the sunset image on the old-style boats. He used thick paint in yellows and reds to portray the sun's rays and the reflection in the water. Detailed components on the old ship, combined with visible brushstrokes, are painted in pale colors, looking ghostly.
John Constable
John Constable (1776-1837) was born and resided in the English countryside of Suffolk, a place he often sketched and painted in his studio. He learned most of his skills independently, only attending schools for short intervals, yet influenced by the Romanticism movement. Constable valued the area around Suffolk, and most of his landscape paintings were based on the local panoramas. He did not achieve much success in England; however, the French embraced his work.
The Hay Wain (3.4.21) is an image painted where Constable stayed as a child, and the district still endures, a place to visit, remaining in the past with the millpond, cottage, and trees. Constable's father owned the mill seen on the far-left side of the painting. Constable used coarse and clumpy brush marks representative of the Romanticism style. He studied the clouds, and instead of perfect billowing clouds, he painted them the way nature produced them, snowy through dark gray. Constable loaded a big brush with pigment for the leaves on the trees to create a natural look. He painted a bright green field, then used half-dried green and lumps of yellow on his brush over the underpainting. The standard method of depicting a garden included classical ruins with antique statuary strewn about the garden. The academy criticized the Constable for his lack of classical elements in the landscape.
Two artists dominated the art scene of competing movements, Ingres, the Neoclassicism, and Delacroix, the Romanticism. Artists painted in the style of calm, grandeur with carefully defined noble subjects as expressed by Ingres or the emotional, color-laden, and turbulent works constructed by Delacroix. The dispute between the two painters and their styles continued throughout the many schools, academies, and salons.
A critic in one of the salons wrote an article in L'Artiste in 1832 about the two men and thought their work should not be shown together because their different styles brought forth too many clashing views. He stated:
It's the battle between antique and modern genius. M. Ingres belongs in many respects to the heroic age of the Greeks; he is perhaps more of a sculptor than a painter; he occupies himself exclusively with line and form, purposefully neglecting animation and color […] M. Delacroix, in contrast, willfully sacrifices the rigours of drawing to the demands of the drama he depicts; his manner, less chaste and reserved, more ardent and animated, emphasizes the brilliance of colour over the purity of line. [11]
[1] Retrieved from https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/jldv/hd_jldv.htm
[2] Retrieved from http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/632
[3] Retrieved from https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-noti...-enigma-sphinx
[4] Retrieved from https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/arti...elica-kauffman
[5] National Gallery of Art. Retrieved from https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2052.html
[6] Licht, F. (1979). Goya: The Origins of the Modern Temper in Art . Universe Books. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya
[7] Neret, G. (2003). Delacroix , Taschen.
[8] Retrieved from https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-noti...leading-people
[9] Retrieved from https://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress....-by-gericault/
[10] Gaddis, J. (2002). The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, Oxford University Press.
[11] Shelton, A. C. (December 2000). Art History , Ingres versus Delacroix, 23/5, pp. 731-732. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/28541045/In...rsus_Delacroix


11.6: Assignment- Relevant Revenues and Costs
This assignment is available for download as a Word Document .
Read the following scenario and complete the questions and tasks below.
Brad Winston is the owner and operator of Fishing Unlimited, a charter fishing business operated out of Oregon Inlet, NC. Brad has been taking groups of guests offshore to fish for tuna and marlin for over 15 years. He purchased his current fishing boat when he started the business, but now believes that a larger and better outfitted vessel would allow him to increase the rate he charges per charter. Currently he can carry a maximum of 6 guests while the larger boat will carry up to 8. The larger boat would also require him to take 2 deck hands on each outing, providing better service to his customers. Cost data for Brad’s business is shown in the table below.
| Cost | Amount |
|---|---|
|
Annual straight-line depreciation on boat
($175,000 original cost – $90,000 estimated resale value/20 years) |
$ 8,300 |
| Fuel Cost (per hour) | $ 50 |
| Insurance Premium (annual) | $ 1,900 |
| Maintenance and Repairs (annual) | $ 3,500 |
| Fishing Tackle and Gear (original cost) | $ 7,000 |
| Tackle and Bait (per guest) | $ 20 |
| Deck Hand wages (per hour) | $ 20 |
| Dock Fees (annual) | $ 2,400 |
| Captain’s License (annual) | $ 200 |
| Food and Beverages (per guest) | $ 25 |
| Professional Fees (per year) | $ 750 |
| Dock Utilities (annual) | $ 1,200 |
Brad has someone interested in purchasing his existing boat for $80,000. He could use this cash as a deposit on the new boat which will cost him $225,000. His banker estimates the payments on the new boat will be about $1,500. The new boat is more fuel efficient and he believes he can cut his fuel costs by 10% but the more expensive boat will increase his insurance premium by 12%. He is also concerned that he will have to change to a larger boat slip which would increase his dock fees by 5%. The good thing about the new boat is that he should save on maintenance and repairs, at least for the first 3 years. The only other expense Brad would incur with the new boat is adding some additional fishing tackle and gear to accommodate larger parties that he estimates would cost him about $1,500.
His fees for both the old and the new boat are as follows:
| Old Boat | New Boat | |
|---|---|---|
| 4 hours | $ 550 | $ 600 |
| 6 hours | $ 650 | $ 700 |
| Full Day (9 hours) | $ 1,100 | $ 1,200 |
Questions:
- Which costs are relevant to Brad’s decision to purchase a new, larger boat?
- If Brad decides to purchase a larger boat, what costs will be affected by this decision? Will they increase or decrease?
- Identify any unavoidable costs associated with the operation of Fishing Unlimited.
- Calculate the revenue generated by a 6-hour trip with the old boat (6 guests) and the new boat (8 guests) and compare the two figures. Identify the costs that changed. What conclusion can you draw based on your analysis?