Ancient Web: William Beaty's Homepage Was a Science Fair and a Scrapbook

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

William J. Beaty's homepage does not choose between being an electronic-science resource and a rambling personal scrapbook. It does both, often within the space of one screen.

Visit William J. Beaty's personal homepage.

Beaty describes himself as a University of Washington research engineer, exhibit designer, and consultant. His larger Science Hobbyist site collects electrical explanations and experimental demonstrations. The Eskimo.com page is more personal: it links his biography, unusual science interests, favorite music, jokes, and a bewildering range of bookmarks.

A homepage with no marketing department

The page advertises links to a questions-and-answers section, explanations of common misconceptions, science-fair material, a resume, and essays about why he explores fringe topics. Those discussions are presented as the author's arguments, not evidence that every unconventional claim is scientifically established.

The site's layout is an artifact. A photograph of someone demonstrating static electricity sits beside old-style graphics. There is a frequently-asked-questions list including questions about frames, the site's 1994-looking appearance, and its unusual popularity. An entire sidebar of historical links points to Netscape HTML extensions, Webmonkey, and Yahoo's web-authoring guidance. Several of those destinations have vanished.

Other sections list Seattle science activities, local bookstores, electronic-surplus sellers, film interests, old toys, and search pages for auction categories. The author also links newsgroups and a meetup-like science salon. Rather than dividing personal, professional, local, and hobby activities into separate branded profiles, the page leaves them in a single sprawling directory.

Its self-description is lively but also sometimes deliberately provocative. Those jokes belong to the author and his era; they are not endorsements by the collection. That distinction helps when reading the old personal web, where individual voice and editorial restraint varied enormously.

Beaty's larger site has distinct technical articles, some already historically covered elsewhere. This page is worth keeping as another subject: the visible connections between a maker's day job, intellectual obsessions, social circle, and homemade link infrastructure.

The old internet is often remembered as a place of endless directories. This one is a directory with a very recognizable human at the center.

Explore the original personal homepage and its science links.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.