On The Media is produced by:
The titles of our most beloved books have stories of their own to tell. Bob talks with Gary Dexter, author of Why Not Catch 21?: The Stories Behind the Titles about the surprising origin stories behind classics like Catch-22, Fahrenheit 451, and Alice in Wonderland.
I have a suggestion for Ms. Gladstone's book title.
"The Influencing Machine" is hard to pronounce. We might wish to look to prosody for an explanation. Her title consists of an iamb followed by an amphibrach followed by a trochee. The combination sounds rhythmically disorganized. She could borrow from Anglo Saxon poetry, in which a stressed vowel alliterates with any other stressed vowel. Let me suggest: "The Influence Apparatus".
Best Wishes,
Matt Leo
"On the Origin of the 'Influencing Machine' in Schizophrenia" is the title of an influential article by the psychoanalyst, Viktor Tausk.
Thank you for clarifying the combustion point of paper! As someone who bakes with parchment at 500 degrees, I always watched nervously as the paper scorched, but wondered why it never exploded.
How dare Mr. Dexter question an iconic book title like Fahrenheit 451 without checking the facts! I don't know what's more appalling: his temerity, or his research skills.
Even a cursory Internet search (see IMDB.com) reveals that Ray Bradbury got the number 451 from a local fire chief, who told him that was the temperature -- in Fahrenheit -- at which book paper burns.
There is no evidence whatsoever that he consulted the handbook that Mr. Dexter cites.
Two of the cardinal rules of research are, consult a trustworthy source, and; always check it twice.
The handbook Mr. Dexter cites is not a trustworthy source because it doesn't define "paper."
And additional checks dispute the book's statement that the ignition temperature of paper is 450 degrees Centigrade.
(The book Hazardous Materials Chemistry for Emergency Responders, for example, states that the ignition temperature of paper is 446 Fahrenheit. )
What to do, then?
A responsible approach would be to consult an expert, like the National Fire Protection Association.
I called them. Here's their response:
"It’s taken a couple of days to find the answer to your question on the temperature at which paper burns. We contacted an expert in the field, Vytenis (Vyto) Babrauskas, Ph.D. who says “The average temperature needed to burn paper is 496°F, making 451°F a bit lower than a good quality experiment would likely show, but not hugely different.”
Thank you Dr. Babrauskas.
Now let's gather up all the copies of Mr. Dexter's book that we can get our hands on, and burn them.
-- Jack Begg
Supervisor, News Research
The New York Times
Please keep your comments relevant to this entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments on On the Media are moderated. On the Media reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the onthemedia.org Comment Guidelines before posting.
Back to Episode