The Joule-Brontë-Chopin Effect

Today, October 29, a very curious and fascinating event will take place in Manchester. One of those few chances that link together two of the passions of this half of BrontëBlog: the Brontës and physics (and excuses for the personal note):

Wednesday 29th October at 6.30pm

The Joule-Brontë-Chopin Effect: a study in connections

A talk by Dr Grenville Jones, Physics Dept. Salford University

Organised through Manchester Science Festival in conjunction with the Institute of Physics, The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury Laboratory.
The Joule-Kelvin effect is a well-known physical phenomenon that depends upon direct interaction between particles. The Joule-Bronte-Chopin effect is a social phenomenon in which the 'particles' are people and the interaction is mediated via third parties. The condition necessary to observe the effect is a critical mass: large enough to sustain a distribution of gifted individuals but not so large as to preclude mutual familiarity. Such a milieu existed in 19th century Manchester. In this talk we discover what brought two Bronte sisters and Frederic Chopin to the city in the 1840s (Joule was a resident) and the connections between.

Since the days of Herbert Dingle, who wrote a biography of Emily Brontë in 1974 entitled The Mind of Emily Brontë, we have not seen many physics-Brontë connections.

On the other hand, a more standard alert can be found at the Bethel, CT:

Wednesday October 29, 2008
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Morning Book Discussion at Express Yourself Craft Store, 36 Grassy Plain St., Bethel Tell a Friend
Contact: Adult Services Desk 203-794-8756 ext. 4
Today's selection is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

In early nineteenth-century England, an orphaned young woman accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysteriously remote Mr. Rochester. This classic Gothic novel has it all--a huge English house with inaccessible rooms, danger, madness, unfair limits to achievement, especially for women, based on social class, and dark secrets.

Copies of books are available at the Circulation Desk approximately one month before the meeting. Express Yourself Scrapbook and Craft Store is located at 36 Grassy Plain Street. Park around back or in front. No registration required

EDIT:
Another alert for today from Innsbruck, Austria:

Austro-Bristish Society Tyrol
Wednesday 29 October
Talk: The Genius of Charlotte Bronte
by Sandra Milne-Skinner
preceded by sale of English books
Venue: University Hörsaal 1(Josef-Moeller-Haus)
Time:18:30 (Book Sale), 19:00 (Talk)
While keeping her father company after a cataract operation in Manchester, Charlotte Bronte started writing Jane Eyre, one of the most famous and enduring novels in the English language. This talk explores the influences on her genius, her extraordinary family, her life and her work – a fascinating insight into a writer who strove, above all, to live as an individual in a world where women were defined not as themselves, but by the men who ruled their lives.

Categories: Alert, Jane Eyre, Scholar, Talks