1910: Moisant and Mademoiselle Fifi

Another image of John B. Moisant and Mademoiselle Fifi, aviators, ca. 1910

Old English type body sizes

via typoretum
“Prior to 1737, little standardisation existed in the sizes of printing types and typefounders cast types to their own sizes and dimensions. In this year, the Parisian typefounder Pierre Simon Fournier introduced a new system that he derived from dividing two inches of the pre-metric French foot into one hundred and forty-four equal parts. Fournier gave the resulting unit a name – ‘points’ – and they measured 0.137 of the English inch, which is close to the present point system…”
Read the rest here. I love that the term Nonpareil is equivalent to 6 points.

Chop vs. Rubber Stamp

via printeresting
“Near the beautiful Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing, one might wander past this public sculpture resembling a enormous traditional Chinese chop. It looks as if a giant person just stamped her seal onto the sidewalk.

Not to be outdone by anyone, Cleveland, OH, is quick to point out that they own the largest rubber stamp. Although to my knowledge it has never used on a sidewalk or paper, this Claes Oldenburg sculpture does appear to be bigger…”
Original post here.
http://www.printeresting.org/2011/07/05/dispatches-from-china-really-big-chop

Linotype: The Film Interview Excerpts

via letterology
In honor of the 125th anniversary of the Linotype (July 3rd, 1886) the producers of Linotype: The Film have released a few teaser excerpts of interview footage.
Read the rest and watch a teaser here, and find more videos here.

Chili Peppers and Scoville Units

Trinidad Scorpion Butch T

via make
“…The Ghost pepper Bhut Jolokia (“bhut” means ghost in Hindi) has fallen from the top. Earlier this year, Australian pepper grower Marcel de Wit unveiled a super pepper, called the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, which tested hotter. Just two weeks ago came news reports that a Taiwanese farmer, Yeh Wu Shun, claimed his new cultivar is even hotter, scoring 1.5 million units on the Scoville scale of pepper hotness. (By comparison, a really hot jalapeno scores around 8,000 units.)”
Read the entire post here.