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12661 results in History of science

Page 33 of 634

An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany
  • Or, a Systematic View of the Organisation, Natural Affinities, and Geographical Distribution, of the Whole Vegetable Kingdom
  • John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1830
  • Employed early in his career by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist John Lindley (1799–1865) is best known for his recommendation that Kew Gardens should become a national botanical institution, and for saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. As an author, he is best remembered for his works on taxonomy and classification. A partisan of the 'natural' system of Jussieu rather than the Linnaean, Lindley writes, in his preface to this 1830 work, that it was originally created for his own use, to avoid having recourse to 'rare, costly and expensive publications' available only in the libraries of the wealthy. His intention is to give a 'systematic view of the organisation, natural affinities, and geographical distribution of the whole vegetable kingdom', as well as of the uses of plants 'in medicine, the arts, and rural or domestic economy'. The work is important in the history of taxonomy.

A Naturalist's Calendar
  • With Observations in Various Branches of Natural History
  • Gilbert White
  • Edited by John Aikin
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
  • The naturalist Gilbert White (1720–93) was known for his meticulous observations of flora and fauna in their natural environment, primarily around his village of Selborne in Hampshire. This posthumous 1795 publication, edited by the physician and writer John Aikin (1747–1822), comprises a collection of extracts from White's previously unpublished papers from 1768 to his death. Presented here for 'lovers of natural knowledge' is a full year of White's observations. Following the month-by-month record of natural events, the book contains brief studies of birds, quadrupeds, insects, plants and the weather. A lifelong lover of the outdoors, White had kept a near daily record of his activities for more than forty years. Regarded as one of the fathers of ecology, inspiring others to appreciate the natural world, White is best known for The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

The Life and Letters of Gilbert White of Selborne
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Rashleigh Holt-White
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1901
  • Published in 1901, this illustrated two-volume biography of the renowned English naturalist Gilbert White (1720–93) presents a thorough account of his life and achievements. Prepared by White's great-great-nephew Rashleigh Holt-White (1826–1920), it incorporates a selection of White's correspondence with family and friends, providing valuable insights into his beliefs and character. Included are letters sent by White's lifelong friend John Mulso (1721–91), who praised the naturalist's work, predicting it would 'immortalise' White and his Hampshire village. Still considered a classic text, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), featuring White's careful observations of local flora and fauna, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. In the present work, Holt-White sought to correct the 'erroneous statements' that had previously been made about his relative. Volume 2 traces White's life from September 1776, considering the impact of the loss of family members, and his legacy after his death.

The Religious Philosopher
  • Or, The Right Use of Contemplating the Works of the Creator
  • Volume 1
  • Bernard Nieuwentyt
  • Translated by John Chamberlayne
  • Preface by J. T. Desaguliers
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    13 November 2014
    First published in:
    1718
  • Originally published in Dutch in 1715, this two-volume work by the philosopher and theologian Bernard Nieuwentyt (1654–1718) is reissued here in the 1724 third edition of the English translation by John Chamberlayne (1668/9–1723). The book seeks to persuade both Christians and atheists that scientific examination of the natural world is compatible with religious belief. According to Chamberlayne, Nieuwentyt published this illustrated work to 'magnify the Wisdom and Goodness of God' while challenging those who did not see proof of the divine in nature. The work is known to have influenced the natural theology of the English philosopher William Paley (1743–1805), whose famous analogy of the watchmaker is believed to have been taken directly from Nieuwentyt. Arguing against rationalist philosophers such as Spinoza, Volume 1 defends natural theology and presents a series of detailed 'contemplations' about the complexity of the human body.

Ladies' Botany
  • Or, a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Natural System of Botany
  • Volume 2
  • John Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1837
  • The horticulturalist John Lindley (1799–1865) worked for Sir Joseph Banks, and was later instrumental in saving the Royal Horticultural Society from financial disaster. He was a prolific author of works for gardening practitioners but also for a non-specialist readership, and many of his books have been reissued in this series. The first volume of this two-volume work was published in 1834, and the second in 1837. At a time when botany was regarded as the only science suitable for study by women and girls, Lindley felt that there was a lack of books for 'those who would become acquainted with Botany as an amusement and a relaxation', and attempted to meet this need. In the second volume of 'this little work', Lindley continues to introduce new 'tribes' of plants, including exotica such as mangoes and Venus fly traps, to his lady correspondent and her children.

Practical Tunnelling
  • The Setting Out of the Works, Shaft-Sinking and Heading-Driving, Ranging the Lines and Levelling under Ground, Sub-Excavating, Timbering, and the Construction of the Brickwork of Tunnels
  • Frederick Walter Simms
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    31 July 2014
    First published in:
    1844
  • The engineer and technical writer Frederick Walter Simms (1803–65) ranked as a leading authority on tunnel construction for railways. After working for a time at the Royal Observatory, Simms assisted Henry Robinson Palmer and later Sir William Cubitt on the South Eastern Railway. He was awarded the Telford medal by the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1842 for his articles on tunnelling, and further employment on railways in England and France was followed by engineering consultancies to the East India Company and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. He gained greatest recognition, however, as the author of authoritative engineering textbooks, notably this work, first published in 1844. Considered the standard textbook on the subject at the time, it sets out the approved practices of the day, using the Bletchingley and Saltwood tunnels, whose construction Simms supervised, as key examples. A number of technical illustrations accompany the text.

Motor Vehicles and Motors
  • Their Design, Construction and Working by Steam, Oil and Electricity
  • Volume 1
  • W. Worby Beaumont
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
    First published in:
    1900
  • 'Cheap or rapid or convenient road transport for man and goods is one of the most important of all contributions to national comfort and prosperity.' An early evangelist for the automobile, William Worby Beaumont (1848–1929) drew on his engineering background to produce the first volume of this work in 1900, when motor vehicles were still relatively new to British roads. Rapid developments in the automotive industry prompted the publication of a second volume in 1906. Replete with technical drawings and photographs, the work describes in great detail the design, construction and operation of the earliest motor vehicles, including those powered by steam, electricity and fuels derived from oil. Volume 1 traces the development of the automobile, from various attempts to produce steam vehicles light enough to run on roads through to the advances of Daimler and Benz. It also includes an overview of attempts to harness electrical power to propel road vehicles.

The Naturalist's and Traveller's Companion
  • John Coakley Lettsom
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1799
  • First published in 1772 and reissued here in its 1799 third edition, this work was intended to provide the traveller with advice on collecting and preserving scientific specimens, and on pursuing intellectual investigations. John Coakley Lettsom (1744–1815) was a physician and philanthropist, and on inheriting his family plantation in 1767, his first action was to free all its slaves. He practised medicine in the West Indies and in London, and wrote on topics which he felt would benefit society. This book is divided into two parts, the first describing methods of forming collections of insects, birds and animals, seeds and plants, and minerals. The second part suggests the sorts of questions and enquiries the traveller should ask about the writings, culture, religion, history and natural history of the lands he is visiting. This offers a fascinating insight into the approach and expectations of the educated traveller in the eighteenth century.

A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary
  • Containing an Explanation of the Terms, and an Account of the Several Subjects, Comprized under the Heads Mathematics, Astronomy, and Philosophy, Both Natural and Experimental
  • Volume 2
  • Charles Hutton
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    29 January 2015
    First published in:
    1795
  • Born into a Newcastle coal mining family, Charles Hutton (1737–1823) displayed mathematical ability from an early age. He rose to become professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy and foreign secretary of the Royal Society. First published in 1795–6, this two-volume illustrated encyclopaedia aimed to supplement the great generalist reference works of the Enlightenment by focusing on philosophical and mathematical subjects; the coverage ranges across mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy and engineering. Almost a century old, the last comparable reference work in English was John Harris' Lexicon Technicum. Hutton's work contains many historical and biographical entries, often with bibliographies, including many for continental analytical mathematicians who would have been relatively unfamiliar to British readers. These features make Hutton's Dictionary a particularly valuable record of eighteenth-century science and mathematics. Volume 2 ranges from kalendar to zone. Among the other topics covered are knots, Newton, magnets, and the Moon.

Polarisation of Light
  • William Spottiswoode
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1874
  • Before his untimely death from typhoid, William Spottiswoode (1825–83) had served as president of the London Mathematical Society, the British Association, and the Royal Society. In addition to publishing widely in mathematics and the experimental physical sciences, he restored the fortunes of his family printing firm, Eyre and Spottiswoode, the Queen's printers. An enthusiast for the popularisation of science, he lectured to large audiences at the Royal Institution, the South Kensington College of Science, and at British Association meetings. He also gave scientific talks at the school set up for the employees of his family firm. This illustrated 1874 work is based on these talks, and provides an introduction to 'this beautiful branch of optics'. Spottiswoode covers methods of polarisation, and the contemporary theory accounting for these effects. He describes various experiments, and explains how polarisation causes patterns and colours to appear in light.

The Arrangement of Atoms in Space
  • Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff
  • Edited and translated by Arnold Eiloart
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    11 December 2014
    First published in:
    1898
  • Awarded the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1901 for his work on chemical dynamics and on osmotic pressure in solutions, the Dutch scientist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1852–1911) was also a pioneer in the field of stereochemistry - the three-dimensional analysis of chemical structures. This 1898 publication is based on the revised and expanded German translation of his Dix années dans l'histoire d'une théorie (1887), itself an updated version of his major work La chimie dans l'espace (1875). Translated and edited by the English chemist Arnold Eiloart, it covers the stereochemistry of carbon and nitrogen compounds, and contains an appendix on inorganic compounds by the Swiss chemist Alfred Werner (another future recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry). Using experimental results, van 't Hoff shows how the varying spatial arrangement of similar compounds leads to differing chemical and optical behaviour.

The Religious Philosopher
  • Or, The Right Use of Contemplating the Works of the Creator
  • Volume 2
  • Bernard Nieuwentyt
  • Translated by John Chamberlayne
  • Preface by J. T. Desaguliers
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    13 November 2014
    First published in:
    1718
  • Originally published in Dutch in 1715, this two-volume work by the philosopher and theologian Bernard Nieuwentyt (1654–1718) is reissued here in the 1724 third edition of the English translation by John Chamberlayne (1668/9–1723). The book seeks to persuade both Christians and atheists that scientific examination of the natural world is compatible with religious belief. According to Chamberlayne, Nieuwentyt published this illustrated work to 'magnify the Wisdom and Goodness of God' while challenging those who did not see proof of the divine in nature. The work is known to have influenced the natural theology of the English philosopher William Paley (1743–1805), whose famous analogy of the watchmaker is believed to have been taken directly from Nieuwentyt. Arguing against rationalist philosophers such as Spinoza, Volume 2 continues Nieuwentyt's series of 'contemplations', focusing on details about the cosmos and the laws of nature.

An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth
  • And Terrestrial Bodyes, Especially Minerals
  • John Woodward
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    30 October 2014
  • For the physician and natural historian John Woodward (c.1655–1728), fossils were the key to unlocking the mystery of the Earth's past, which he attempted to do in this controversial work, first published in 1695 and here reissued in the 1723 third edition. Woodward argues that the 'whole Terrestrial Globe was taken all to Pieces, and dissolved at the Deluge', and that fossilised remains were proof of the flood as described in the Bible. In the first part of the work, Woodward examines other theories of the Earth's history before presenting evidence - much of it based on his own fossil collection - in support of his theory. The work immediately prompted heated debate among his scientific contemporaries. Despite the controversy, Woodward was acknowledged as an expert on fossil classification, cementing this reputation with his influential Fossils of All Kinds (1728), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

The Grammar of Science
  • Karl Pearson
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    18 December 2014
    First published in:
    1892
  • First published in 1892, this important work by the mathematician Karl Pearson (1857–1936) presents a thoroughly positivist account of the nature of science. Pearson claims that 'the scientific method is the sole gateway to the whole region of knowledge', rejecting additional fields of inquiry such as metaphysics. He also emphasises that science can, and should, describe only the 'how' of phenomena and never the 'why'. A scholar of King's College, Cambridge, and later a professor at King's College and University College London, Pearson made significant contributions to the philosophy of science. Including helpful chapter summaries, this book explores in detail a number of scientific concepts, such as matter, energy, space and time. The work influenced such thinkers as Albert Einstein, who considered it to be essential reading when he created his study group, the Olympia Academy, at the age of twenty-three.

Old Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth
  • A Book of the Sweet o' the Year
  • Alice Morse Earle
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    18 December 2014
    First published in:
    1902
  • The American social historian and antiquarian Alice Morse Earle (1851–1911) published this work in 1901. She was a prolific writer of books and pamphlets on pre-revolutionary New England, and her writings were very popular with readers who took great interest in the social history and material culture of their country. In this work, which contains more than 200 illustrations, Earle describes the historic and modern gardens of the north-eastern seaboard, the gardening activities - for pleasure as well as for food - of early settlers, and the progress of plant-hunters and nursery-men such as John Bartram in discovering and categorising new specimens, as well as the introduction into the United States of cottage garden favourites from Europe and exotica from the Far East. Earle's Sundials and Roses of Yesterday (1902) is also reissued in this series.

Elements of Geology
  • Charles Lyell
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • Between 1830 and 1833, Charles Lyell (1797–1875) published his three-volume Principles of Geology, which has also been reissued in this series. The work's renown stems partly from the fact that the young Charles Darwin, on his voyage around the world aboard the Beagle, became influenced by Lyell's ideas relating to gradual change across large spans of time. Shaping the development of scientific enquiry in Britain and beyond, Lyell was determined to disconnect geology from religion. He originally intended some of the present work, first published in 1838, to be a supplement to the Principles, but later expanded it to serve as a general introduction to geology. The topics covered include the formation of various rock types, matters of field geology, and how the presence of marine fossils above sea level could be explained by the land rising, rather than the sea retreating. Many salient points are illustrated with woodcuts.

Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles des quadrupèdes
  • Volume 4
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), one of the founding figures of vertebrate palaeontology, pursued a successful scientific career despite the political upheavals in France during his lifetime. In the 1790s, Cuvier's work on fossils of large mammals including mammoths enabled him to show that extinction was a scientific fact. In 1812 Cuvier published this four-volume illustrated collection of his papers on palaeontology, osteology (notably dentition) and stratigraphy. It was followed in 1817 by his famous Le règne animal, available in the Cambridge Library Collection both in French and in Edward Griffith's expanded English translation (1827–35). Volume 4 of Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles focuses first on ruminants, horses and pigs. Cuvier then discusses fossils of carnivores, including bears, hyenas and big cats. The book concludes by describing fossil sloths, and the oviparous reptiles found in older strata, such as crocodiles, turtles, and marine dinosaurs.

Motor Vehicles and Motors
  • Their Design, Construction and Working by Steam, Oil and Electricity
  • Volume 2
  • W. Worby Beaumont
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    21 August 2014
    First published in:
    1906
  • 'Cheap or rapid or convenient road transport for man and goods is one of the most important of all contributions to national comfort and prosperity.' An early evangelist for the automobile, William Worby Beaumont (1848–1929) drew on his engineering background to produce the first volume of this work in 1900, when motor vehicles were still relatively new to British roads. Rapid developments in the automotive industry prompted the publication of a second volume in 1906. Replete with technical drawings and photographs, the work describes in great detail the design, construction and operation of the earliest motor vehicles, including those powered by steam, electricity and fuels derived from oil. Volume 2 describes the advances made both in the technological development of automobiles and in the volume produced. Detailed descriptions and illustrations are provided for the leading examples of the time from manufacturers such as Renault, Cadillac, Daimler and Wolseley.

Conferences Held in Connection with the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, 1876
  • Chemistry, Biology, Physical Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, and Meteorology
  • Volume 2, Chemistry, Biology, Physical Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, and Meteorology
  • Various Authors
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    19 March 2015
    First published in:
    1876
  • In 1876 the South Kensington Museum held a major international exhibition of scientific instruments and equipment, both historical and contemporary. Many of the items eventually formed the basis of collections now held at London's Science Museum. In May 1876, organisers arranged a series of conferences at which leading British and European scientists explained and demonstrated some of the items on display. The purpose was to emphasise the exhibition's goal not merely to preserve archaic treasures (such as Galileo's telescopes or Janssen's microscope) but to juxtapose them with current technology and so inspire future scientific developments. Volume 2 of the proceedings covers chemistry, biology, and earth sciences including geology, mining, meteorology and hydrography. The contributors include Joseph Dalton Hooker, William Thiselton-Dyer, Andrew Crombie Ramsay and John Rae, all of whom have other works reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, which also includes the full catalogue of the exhibition itself.

Elements of Electricity and Electro-Chemistry
  • George John Singer
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    05 March 2015
    First published in:
    1814
  • The amateur scientist George John Singer (1786–1817) worked in the family business of artificial flower and feather making, but all his spare time was absorbed in the study of electricity and electromagnetism. He invented his own apparatus, including a gold-leaf electrometer, and built a laboratory-cum-lecture room at the back of his house: his public demonstrations were attended by Faraday and Francis Ronalds, and he was also a friend of the pioneering 'electrician' Andrew Crosse. This significant book, published in 1814, demonstrates the breadth of Singer's knowledge of his subject and of other contemporary work in the field. It describes in detail electric phenomena, in nature and in the laboratory, covering a wide range of experiments with and applications of electricity, and discussing the work of Franklin, Volta, Crosse and Dalton, among others. Sadly, Singer's promising scientific career was brought to an early end by tuberculosis: he died aged only thirty-one.

Page 33 of 634