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A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period. Following the engineer's death in 1848, Smiles published his highly successful Life of George Stephenson in 1857 (also reissued in this series). His interest in engineering evolved and he began working on biographies of Britain's most notable engineers from the Roman to the Victorian era. Originally published in three volumes between 1861 and 1862, this work contains detailed and lively accounts of the educations, careers and pioneering work of seven of Britain's most accomplished engineers. These volumes stand as a remarkable undertaking, advancing not only the genre, but also the author's belief in what hard work could achieve. Volume 1 charts the engineering of early roads, embankments, bridges, harbours and ferries, as well as the lives of the engineers Sir Hugh Myddelton (c.1560–1631) and James Brindley (1716–72).
A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period. Following the engineer's death in 1848, Smiles published his highly successful Life of George Stephenson in 1857 (also reissued in this series). His interest in engineering evolved and he began working on biographies of Britain's most notable engineers from the Roman to the Victorian era. Originally published in three volumes between 1861 and 1862, this work contains detailed and lively accounts of the educations, careers and pioneering work of seven of Britain's most accomplished engineers. These volumes stand as a remarkable undertaking, advancing not only the genre, but also the author's belief in what hard work could achieve. Volume 3 includes a revised version of Smiles's biography of George Stephenson (1781–1848), as well as a biography of his equally famous son, Robert (1803–59).
A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period. Following the engineer's death in 1848, Smiles published his highly successful Life of George Stephenson in 1857 (also reissued in this series). His interest in engineering evolved and he began working on biographies of Britain's most notable engineers from the Roman to the Victorian era. Originally published in three volumes between 1861 and 1862, this work contains detailed and lively accounts of the educations, careers and pioneering work of seven of Britain's most accomplished engineers. These volumes stand as a remarkable undertaking, advancing not only the genre, but also the author's belief in what hard work could achieve. Volume 2 includes accounts of the lives of three important engineers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: John Smeaton (1724–92), John Rennie (1761–1821) and Thomas Telford (1757–1834).
A political and social reformer, Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) was also a noted biographer in the Victorian period, paying particular attention to engineers. His first biography was of George Stephenson (1781–1848), whom he met at the opening of the North Midland Railway in 1840. After Stephenson died, Smiles wrote a memoir of him for Eliza Cook's Journal. With the permission of Stephenson's son, Robert, this evolved into the first full biography of the great engineer, published in 1857 and reissued here in its revised third edition. This detailed and lively account of Stephenson's life, which proved very popular, charts his education and youth, his crucial contribution to the development of Britain's railways, and his relationships with many notables of the Victorian world. It remains of interest to the general reader as well as historians of engineering, transport and business.
The publication in 1890 of the two-volume Scientific Papers of James Clerk Maxwell, edited by W. D. Niven, was one of the two objects of a committee formed 'for the purpose of securing a fitting memorial of him' (the other object being the commissioning of a marble bust for the Cavendish Laboratory). Before his death in 1879 at the age of 48, Clerk Maxwell had made major contributions to many areas of theoretical physics and mathematics, not least his discoveries in the fields of electromagnetism and of the kinetic theory of gases, which have been regarded as laying the foundations of all modern physics. He is generally considered the third most important physicist of all time, after Newton and Einstein. These collected shorter works, beginning with a paper written at the age of 15, show the wide range of Clerk Maxwell's interests across mathematics, physics and chemistry.
In his study of optics, Newton postulated that light, like sound, must be carried through a medium, and that this medium must exist even in a vacuum. By the late nineteenth century, this theoretical substance was known as the luminiferous ether. But the ether theory faced several problems. If the earth moved through ether, there would be ether wind, and light travelling against the flow would move more slowly than light travelling with it. That was soon disproven. Nor could the ether be stationary: by 1905, Einstein's work on relativity had disproven absolute motion. In this fascinating advocacy of ether, first published in 1933, Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) fiercely defends ether against the new physics, arguing for solid models over mathematical abstractions, and urging new ether experiments. With in-depth references to Einstein, Jeans and Eddington, this book is still relevant to students in the history of science.
Published between 1839 and 1852, this two-volume work records the contribution of William Scoresby (1789–1857) to magnetic science, a field he considered one of 'grandeur'. The result of laborious investigations into magnetism and (with James Prescott Joule) electromagnetism, Scoresby's work was particularly concerned with improving the accuracy of ships' compasses. A whaler, scientist and clergyman, he epitomised the contribution which could be made to exploration and science by provincial merchant mariners - men often less celebrated than their counterparts in the Royal Navy or in metropolitan learned societies. In addition to his pioneering work on magnetic science, Scoresby furthered knowledge of Arctic meteorology, oceanography and geography. Volume 1 considers the magnetism of steel and suggests ways to determine its quality and hardness.
A measurement result is incomplete without a statement of its 'uncertainty' or 'margin of error'. But what does this statement actually tell us? By examining the practical meaning of probability, this book discusses what is meant by a '95 percent interval of measurement uncertainty', and how such an interval can be calculated. The book argues that the concept of an unknown 'target value' is essential if probability is to be used as a tool for evaluating measurement uncertainty. It uses statistical concepts, such as a conditional confidence interval, to present 'extended' classical methods for evaluating measurement uncertainty. The use of the Monte Carlo principle for the simulation of experiments is described. Useful for researchers and graduate students, the book also discusses other philosophies relating to the evaluation of measurement uncertainty. It employs clear notation and language to avoid the confusion that exists in this controversial field of science.