A large amount of apparently unproductive work

I saw this quote, as a photograph of it jotted down on a whiteboard, and it made me smile.

I looked up the source. It’s freely available online. It’s an 1893 book on microscopy. It’s a pleasure to browse through. The fundamentals remain completely valid, of course, and the contents are free from the burden of topics like nonlinear excitation and superresolution. The tone is refreshingly practical, true to the title. Also, it is chock full of beautiful illustrations.