Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 May 19

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May 19

Fahrenheit's cause of death

Is there a source for Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit's cause of death at age 50? Google suggests mercury poisoning, but nothing better than that. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 15:25, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Nearly every source I can see merely says he died. except his entry in Deutsche Biographie, which says "Als F. 1736 in Den Haag weilte, um ein Patent auf eine Wasserhebemaschine (eine Art Zentrifugalpumpe) anzumelden, erkrankte er und starb." (rough translation: While he was in the Hague in 1736 to apply for a patent on a hoist for water (a kind of centrifugal pump), he fell ill and died). So it was an illness, but which illness the source doesn't say. Hopefully someone else has better luck. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 03:52, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

"He died of a fever/and no one could save Herr/Fahrenheit was the end of ....."--Khajidha (talk) 22:04, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

Did he die suddenly, or by degrees? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:42, 22 May 2019 (UTC)

What cars have had more than a dozen generations?

All I've found are the Ford F pickups, are there more? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:30, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

The Ford Model A was produced for a total of seven years. How many generations does that count as? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:28, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

How many times did it get redesigned? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 23:44, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

How many times have the Ford F pickups been redesigned? And how do you define "redesigned"? Do they not make some changes every year? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:06, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

The generations listed in articles like the Ford F-series article. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:27, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

"The Toyota Corolla (E210) is the twelfth generation of the Corolla", Chrysler New Yorker#1994–1997 (14th generation), and Oldsmobile 98#Twelfth_generation (1991–1996) show up with a quick search. There might be others. Honda Civic 11th generation is expected in a year or two. I guess of those, only the New Yorker is more than a dozen. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 00:55, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

Mercedes E-Class and S-Class go back more than ten generations each, although they weren't officially called that way until the 90s (before that it was just "E" or "S" in the model number). 93.136.31.35 (talk) 05:15, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

Good point, I couldn't begin to count how many Porsche 911's there were. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 21:58, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

Are these "generation" tags assigned by the manufacturer or by outsiders ("fans", if you will)? Is a "generation" in a Ford model line actually comparable to a "generation" in a Chevrolet model line? Not to mention "generations" in vehicles from manufacturers in other countries. What makes for a distinction between 2 "generations"? Even in the same model line. --Khajidha (talk) 03:14, 23 May 2019 (UTC)

What of the Volkswagen Beetle? Did it even have generations? Or were the subtle changes each year enough to constitute generations? With over 60 years of production, surely it must count somehow?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 23:46, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

Chief Judge of NY party affiliations

There were twenty Chief Judges of New York between 1870 and 1974, during which period the position was elected. Twelve of these twenty men were both Democratic and Republican, and two of the other eight were Republican and something else. I can understand one or two switching parties while in office, but not twelve; what does this indicate? Nyttend (talk) 22:24, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

You may have to look at the individuals. For example, Benjamin N. Cardozo was listed on both party's tickets in the same year, at least once. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:36, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Bugs is correct...It isn’t a case of the politician “switching” parties, but rather that they were endorsed by both major parties (effectively running unopposed). This is actually quite common in New York politics. Blueboar (talk) 23:52, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Drifting off topic, this is an interesting example of the major differences between US and UK political culture which are sometimes overlooked. In the UK it would be considered outrageously inappropriate, if not corrupt, for a judge to be publically endorsed by any political party, and for that judge to express a political leaning in any way linked to his/her judgeship. Of course, in the UK judges (I link the article re England and Wales to avoid complications) are not elected, but appointed via a presumptively non-political process (which no Wikipedia article I've been able to find describes), very different to the US system. (To be clear, I'm not saying that the US system is wrong.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.2.132 (talk) 21:11, 20 May 2019 (UTC)

There isn't a "US system"; there are 50 state systems, and many of those have changed over the years. Some are partisan, some aren't; some are elected, some are appointed, some are appointed and then subject to retention elections (California does that, for example.) --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 14:52, 21 May 2019 (UTC)