Postby Technomancer » Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:03 am
Cool. My parents have a chest just like that, which is probably of a similar vintage. All we really know about it is that it came off of a rum runner and was a present from a crewman to my great aunt.
OP's right though, you really should consult a professional, a chest like that is almost irreplaceable and would be worth quite a lot of money, never mind its value to your family.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov