I covered Robert Browning Sosman, a physical chemist who died in 1967, for the June/July issue of Saveur. After receiving one of the first three doctoral degrees awarded by M.I.T. in 1907, R.B. Sosman wrote the definitive book on the phases of silica, which was crucial to the development of modern steel industry operations. He championed solar energy and was the seventh person to hike the entire Appalachian Trail.
He loved maps and in 1954, the Westfield Reader reported that his 3,500 piece collection at home contained specimens depicting the fictional Poictesme of James Branch Cabell and Al Capp's Lower Slobbovia. Sosman also owned a rare, museum-worthy West Indies chart by Arrowsmith. The Gustavademecum for the Island of Manhattan A Check-List of the Best-Recommended of Most Interesting Eating-Places, Arranged in Approximate Order of Increasing Latitude and Longitude was the product of Sosman's exhaustive observational experience dining in New York restaurants. (He also designed and published a guide to Chicago's restaurants.) Its sixteen saddle-stitched pages contained a smartphone’s share of data points. For each of the guide’s fifteen editions, Sosman considered some 900 restaurants, both high- and low-brow, worthy of inclusion. In the end, 300 are plotted next to facts like cuisine type, portion size, and cost, but also more esoteric observations like tableside lighting (in lumens) and the waiter’s estimated IQ. Each line of the guide is written in a hybrid of engineering and astrological symbols (♈ = mutton). Meanwhile σ, or sigma, means samba, while τ is for tango. There were, apparently, twenty kinds of restaurant customers, noted with single, lowercase letters. A restaurant’s memorabilia was noted according to the color schematic devised by the ornithologist Robert Ridgway. Fantastically, the “Memorabile” category points out so many details otherwise lost to time: The Hampshire House had a grove of grapefruit tree lamps, “mega-orchids” could be found at the Copacabana, Chateau Richelieu on East 52nd featured a large sugar statue of Bartholdi, while the mechanical smörgåsbord at Three Crowns Restaurant rotated at v = 0.2 r.p.m. Above is the key; here are two pages from the guide.
3 Comments
Steve Sosman
3/6/2013 12:18:34 pm
Thank you, Hugh. Lovely piece. I think you should write a biography of Dr. Sosman.
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Steve Henkel
6/29/2013 01:59:01 am
I have a copy of your grandfather's Gustavademecum, eleventh Edition, St. Theodotus Day (2 March) 1954. There doesn't seem to be a full copy (16 pages) on the internet, possibly because of the copyright (1946) which may or may not have expired by now. If you would like to see the full book on the net, and can provide the proper permissions from the current copyright owner (if any), perhaps I can help.
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Steve Sosman
7/15/2013 01:57:30 am
For Steve Henkel -- I don't know much about copyright law, but even assuming that Gustavademecum is not yet in the public domain, it should be available on the Internet, especially for all the NYC restaurant historians. I have a number of issues from various years, but never have known what to do with them, so if you want to post yours, please go ahead. But I would like to retain the movie rights. :-)
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