[WikiEN-l] Descriptive/proscriptive

Sat May 15 12:38:30 UTC 2004

>
> I don't even see why this is an argument---it's so completely 
> ridiculous
> to have recipes in an encyclopedia, barring some famous ones, that I'm
> baffled people are actually seriously defending the idea.
>
> -Mark

The problem I have is that some people are enunciating as a general 
principle that encyclopedias should be "descriptive, not proscriptive."

I don't understand that and I believe it runs contrary to the 
historical concept of an encyclopedia.

It's a question of degree. You, for example, acknowledge the legitimacy 
of including "some famous ones." I'd be interested in knowing which 
ones you feel qualify.

Personally, I'd certainly expect "Oysters Rockefeller" to be in an 
encyclopedia and to include some discussion of whether it does or does 
not contain spinach, and give at least one representative recipe. Quite 
possibly one from the "spinach" camp and one from the "no spinach" 
camp.

In the case of food dishes that are of obvious cultural importance, 
representative recipes are relevant. Again, as the level of depth of an 
article increases, we would begin with general principles (hollandaise 
sauce is made from butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice or vinegar) but 
obviously an article that gave the ingredients without explaining how 
you turn them into hollandaise sauce is not covering the topic very 
fully.

We don't need the recipe for Aunt Nettie's famous Marshmallow-Anchovy 
Surprise Omelette that she always used to bring to the church potluck, 
but it should be OK to say more about meatloaf than that it "is made 
with seasoned ground meat (usually ground beef or a combination of 
ground beef and other ground meats), which is formed into loaf shape 
and baked."

Consider the passage from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition 
which I will present later below. The whole article about the telegraph 
is full of detailed circuit diagrams and mechanical diagrams at a level 
which goes _far_ beyond the schematic illustration of basic principles. 
Much of the Britannica 11th is at what might be called the 
engineering-handbook level of depth and detail. From the information 
given in "Telegraph" article, you could almost build a "Varley's Double 
Cup insulator," or wire up a sounder for duplex working by either the 
differential method or the bridge method.

In recent decades, encyclopedias in the United States have been 
marketed to parents as a means of giving their high-school students an 
"edge" in school, and the level of detail and maturity of discourse has 
accordingly been dumbed down. The 11th edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica was clearly written by highly educated adults for highly 
educated adults. The World Book seems to be written a high-school 
textbook level; the current Britannica at, at best, a college level. 
There is little of the "engineering-handbook-level" detail in it.

Like the Britannica 11th, Wikipedia is written (mostly) for adults by 
adults. And, since Wikipedia is not paper, There should be no 
artificial restrictions on the level of detail and depth in an article. 
In many topics, once we get beyond an introduction with schematic 
diagrams and general principles, we will naturally get into specifics 
of actual practices.

My copy of the "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" has recipes in it:

     REMOVING CARBON DEPOSITS FROM FLASKS

     First rinse flask with acetone or carbon disulfide to remove traces
     or tar. Add a few grams of magnesium nitrate. Heat gradually over
     a free Bunsen flame until water is all expelled and magnesium
     nitrate melts. Rotate the flask to distribute the melt
     and continue the heating till the brown fumes of nitric oxide
     cease to evolve. Finally cool and dissolve the residual
     magnesium oxide in dilute acid by boiling.

That's from an extensive section entitled "Laboratory Arts and 
Recipes." If that's not a "how-to," I don't know what it is.

Now, here's a tiny part of what the Britannica 11th has to say about 
telegraph operation. Descriptive or proscriptive?

     In order to maintain a system of telegraph lines in good working
     condition, daily tests are essential. In the British Postal
     Telegraph Department all the most important wires are tested every
     morning between 7:30 and 7:45 A.M. in sections of about 200 miles.
     The method adopted consists in looping the wires in pairs between
     two testing offices, A and B (fig. 4); a current is sent from a
     battery, E, through one oil of a galvanometer, g, through a high
     resistance, r, through one of the wires, I, and thence back from
     office B (at which the wires are looped), through wire 2, through
     another high resistance, r, through a second coil on the
     galvanometer, g, and thence to earth. If the looped lines are both
     in good condition and free from leakage, the current sent out on
     line I will be exactly equal to the current received back on line 2;
     and as these currefits will have equal but opposite effects on, the
     galvanometer needle, no deflection of the latter will be produced.
     If, however, there is leakage, the current received on the
     galvanometer will be less than the current sent out, and the result
     will be a deflection of the needle proportional to the amount of
     leakage.

     The galvanometer being so adjusted that a current of definite
     strength through one of the coils gives a definite deflection of the
     needle, the amount of leakage expressed in terms of the insulation
     resistance of the wires is given by the formula

     Total insulation resistance of looped lines = 3/4R(D/d 3/4);

     in which R is the total resistance of the looped wires, including
     the resistance of the two coils of the galvanometer, of the battery,
     and of the two resistance coils r and r (inserted for the purpose of
     causing the leakage on the lines to have a maximum effect on the
     galvanometer deflections). In practice the resistances r, r are of
     Io,000 ohms each. The deflection observed on the galvanorneter when
     the lines are leaky is d, while D is the deflection obtained through
     one coil of the galvanometer with all the other resistances in
     circuit; anu assuming that no leakage exists on the lines, this
     deflection is calculated from the constant of the instrument, i.e.,
     from the known deflection obtained with a definite current. For the
     purpose of avoiding calculation, tables are provided showing the
     values of the total insulation according to the formula,
     corresponding to various values of d. If the insulation per mile,
     i.e.; the total insulation multiplied by the mileage of the wire
     loop, is found to be less than 200,000 ohms, the wire is considered
     to be faulty. The climatic conditions in the British Islands are
     such that it is not possible to maintain, in unfavourable weather, a
     higher standard than that named, which is the insulation obtained
     when all the insulators are in perfect condition and only the normal
     leakage, dtie to moisture, is present.

     There are three kinds of primary batteries in general use in the
     British Postal Telegraph Department, viz., the Daniell, the
     bichromate, and the Leclanch. The Daniell Batteries, type consists
     of a teak trough divided into five cells by slate partitions coated
     with marine glue. Each cell contains a zinc plate, immersed in a
     solution of zinc sulphate, and also a porous chamber containing
     crystals of copper sulphate and a copper plate. The electromotive
     force of each cell is 1.7 volts and the resistance 3 ohms. The
     Fuller bichromate battery... (etc. etc.)

--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net alternate: 
dpbsmith at alum.mit.edu
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/