tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8929346053949579231.post8315466629218364553..comments2024-03-23T00:59:24.057-04:00Comments on Sapping Attention: Practices, the periphery, and Pittsburg(h)Benhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856020368342677253noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8929346053949579231.post-37824787318959357942012-01-09T14:08:34.451-05:002012-01-09T14:08:34.451-05:00Point taken about writers, and I agree that books ...Point taken about writers, and I agree that books are perhaps not the best place to look (they'd be a lagging indicator, right? Takes a long time to write one).<br /><br />So I did some very, <i>very</i> quick looking through newspaper databases to see what happened. This is about five minutes of work and very crude.<br /><br />I looked in two newspaper databases: America's Historical Newspapers and Chronicling America (through the Library of Congress). Each has selection biases, but I said it was crude, right?<br /><br />Here's what it showed:<br /><br />"Pittsburg"<br />Chronicling America:<br />1908-1911: 56,544 hits<br />1912-1915: 22,513<br />1916-1919: 8,921<br /><br />AHN:<br />1908-1911: 70,132 hits<br />1912-1915: 37,597<br />1916-1919: 28,240<br /><br /><br />"Pittsburgh"<br />Chronicling America:<br />1908-1911: 7,168 hits<br />1912-1915: 25,312<br />1916-1919: 20,398<br /><br />AHN:<br />1908-1911: 12,994 hits<br />1912-1915: 58,437<br />1916-1919: 57,124<br /><br />So the same change happens (which is reassuring in its own way). I didn't run specifics on a state-by-state level, of course, and for the moment these are just crude keywords searches with date ranges. But it's a start.<br /><br />As for the weighting problem, I agree that it's different for writers/editors (i.e., the production side) than for readers, but I still wonder about the effect of the mass of print that comes from just a few geographic locations. It is, as a disclaimer, a question that I have to deal with myself, and an even more pressing one -- 75% of print in the 1760s came from Boston, New York, or Philadelphia!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8929346053949579231.post-21438363887138461052012-01-09T13:38:33.540-05:002012-01-09T13:38:33.540-05:00Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) pointed out on Twitte...Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) pointed out on Twitter the interfering effect of "Pittsburg Landing," the location of (and alternate name for) the battle of Shiloh. It definitely does play some role in spikes in the 1860s in the h-less spelling, moving it about 25% higher than it would have been.<br /><br />One great effect of having my research database online, at Bookworm, is that anyone can tweak the terms to test some questions like these: for example, <a href="http://bookworm.culturomics.org/?%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22index%22%3A0%2C%22time_measure%22%3A%22year%22%2C%22time_limits%22%3A%5B1815%2C1922%5D%2C%22counttype%22%3A%22Occurrences_per_Million_Words%22%2C%22words_collation%22%3A%22Case_Sensitive%22%2C%22smoothingSpan%22%3A%225%22%2C%22search_limits%22%3A%5B%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg+Landing%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburgh%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%2C%22Pittsburgh%22%5D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22terms%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%2C%22Pittsburg+Landing%22%2C%22Pittsburgh%22%2C%22Pittsburg%2CPittsburgh%22%5D%2C%22category_data%22%3A%5B%5B%5B%22country%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22state%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22lc0%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22lc1%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22LCSH%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22aLanguage%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%5D%5D%2C%22comparison%22%3A%22word%22%7D" rel="nofollow">the relative size of Pittsburg Landing</a> or <a href="http://bookworm.culturomics.org/?%7B%22query%22%3A%7B%22index%22%3A0%2C%22time_measure%22%3A%22year%22%2C%22time_limits%22%3A%5B1815%2C1922%5D%2C%22counttype%22%3A%22Percentage_of_Books%22%2C%22words_collation%22%3A%22Case_Sensitive%22%2C%22smoothingSpan%22%3A%220%22%2C%22search_limits%22%3A%5B%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%5D%2C%22state%22%3A%5B%22DC%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg+Landing%22%5D%2C%22state%22%3A%5B%22DC%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburgh%22%5D%2C%22state%22%3A%5B%22DC%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburgh+Landing%22%5D%2C%22state%22%3A%5B%22DC%22%5D%7D%2C%7B%22word%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%2C%22Pittsburgh%22%5D%2C%22state%22%3A%5B%22DC%22%5D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22terms%22%3A%5B%22Pittsburg%22%2C%22Pittsburg+Landing%22%2C%22Pittsburgh%22%2C%22Pittsburgh+Landing%22%2C%22Pittsburg%2CPittsburgh%22%5D%2C%22category_data%22%3A%5B%5B%5B%22country%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22state%22%2C%5B%22DC%22%5D%5D%2C%5B%22lc0%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22lc1%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22LCSH%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%2C%5B%22aLanguage%22%2C%5B%5D%5D%5D%5D%2C%22comparison%22%3A%22word%22%7D" rel="nofollow">the unsmoothed numbers for Washington DC</a>.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04856020368342677253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8929346053949579231.post-82401262637937776242012-01-09T13:29:35.741-05:002012-01-09T13:29:35.741-05:00Joe,
As you say, it's a maddening question. I...Joe,<br /><br />As you say, it's a maddening question. I can't think of a rational weigh to weight those two maps against each other. Anyway, I think I'd argue that I'm interested here in <b>writers</b>, not readers. (And possibly editors; publishing location doesn't say as much as I'd like about author location, after all). Even if most readers in the West would be more likely to encounter 'gh' in the teens, writers and editors there weren't necessarily aping the latest fashion out of Washington. It's not just a transmission of information problem, it's a transmission of practice one.<br /><br />Another catch: how much reading happens in books, anyway? A better way to do this would certainly be newspapers or letters.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04856020368342677253noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8929346053949579231.post-29932013484395334592012-01-09T13:07:40.555-05:002012-01-09T13:07:40.555-05:00Thanks for this post. These data are indeed both i...Thanks for this post. These data are indeed both intriguingly suggestive and yet maddeningly inconclusive. Such is life.<br /><br />Because I'm interested in circulation, my question is about how much it matters that it takes until 1923 (or later) for Utah, Oklahoma, Oregon, even California to make the switch. I guess I'm asking how the data would look overlaid/weighted by the map in the post you link, where you note that the vast majority of publishing is coming from the Northeast.<br /><br />In other words, even if it took publishing outfits in the West a long time to make the switch, isn't it likely that the average reader -- even in the West -- would have been more likely to encounter "Pittsburgh" than "Pittsburg" because New York, Massachusetts (Boston), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), and Illinois (Chicago) had all made the switch by 1914?<br /><br />Food for thought, another blog post, and perhaps major distractions. But greatly enjoyed these first thoughts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com