ObscuripediaThe Free Obscure Encyclopedia
| Abbreviation | BSSRO (disputed; the Society preferred no abbreviation, as it "shortened the wrong end") |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1841 |
| Founder | Hieronymus Unlonn |
| Dissolved | 1847[1] |
| Type | Learned society |
| Purpose | The study of light that arrives where it pleases |
| Headquarters | A rented attic, Munich (current whereabouts uncertain) |
| Membership | 3 at peak (2 disputed)[2] |
| Official language | German, spoken slowly |
| Key person | Hieronymus Unlonn (President, Secretary, and Treasurer) |
| Publication | Proc. Bav. Soc. Reluctant Optics (vol. 1, and only) |
The Bavarian Society for the Study of Reluctant Optics (German: Bayerische Gesellschaft für widerwillige Optik) was a 19th-century learned society devoted to reluctant light—the doctrine that light does not travel passively to the observer but arrives where it pleases. It was founded in Munich in 1841 by the optician Hieronymus Unlonn and dissolved in 1847 upon his death, an event that reduced its membership below the threshold the Society's own charter required for the Society to exist.[1]
At its peak the Society counted three members, two of whom were Unlonn under different hats.[2] It is remembered today chiefly as the body before which the unlonnture index was first presented, and as the only organisation known to have adjourned a meeting on the grounds that the lectern had drifted toward the window.
The Society's membership rolls list three names. The first is Unlonn. The second is "H. Unlonn, corresponding member," with whom the founder maintained a vigorous correspondence conducted, on internal evidence, entirely with himself. The third, one Herr Brandt, attended a single meeting in 1843, was reimbursed for travel, and is not heard from again; some scholars regard Brandt as the Society's only independent member, and others regard him as a third hat.[2]
Meetings were held irregularly, in part because Unlonn insisted that the announced location of each be corrected for atmospheric displacement before publication. As a result, members routinely arrived at a damp field outside Munich and waited, as instructed, "for the hall to come round."[3] Surviving minutes—written in Unlonn's hand, and therefore the only minutes—record proceedings of unusual harmony, every motion having been "carried unanimously by those present, viz. the chair."
"The meeting was well attended and entirely of one mind."
— Minutes, 14 June 1844 (present: 1)[3]
It was at the meeting of 4 March 1842 that Unlonn first presented the unlonnture index. The minutes note that the lecture was "received with acclamation" and adjourned early, the lectern having acquired an unlonnture of 1.2 and begun to migrate.[3]
The Society issued a single volume of its Proceedings in 1846, containing four papers, all by Unlonn, including the foundational "Note on the Unlonnture of Domestic Objects." A second volume was announced but, in the Society's words, "has not yet arrived, though it was sent."[1]
The Society dissolved automatically in 1847 when Unlonn drowned in a fjord, bringing its verified membership to a figure its charter did not permit. No successor body was formed, though the Society's name is still invoked, without authority, by anyone who has lost something and wishes to sound rigorous about it.[2] Its petitions to have the unlonnture index entered in official record continue to be filed in its name and continue to be received "at a slightly different address than the one to which they were sent."