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12661 results in History of science

Page 85 of 634

A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy
  • From the Earliest Dawn of that Science in India to the Present Time
  • John Bentley
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1825
  • Shrouded in poetry, the earliest accounts of Hindu astronomy can strike modern readers as obscure. They involve the marriage of the moon to twenty-seven princesses, a war between gods and giants, and shadows that give birth to planets. In this fascinating study, first published in Calcutta in 1823 and reissued here in the 1825 edition, John Bentley (c.1750–1824) strives to strip back the mythical aspects of the stories to reveal their foundations. He points out that early Hindu astronomers divided the night sky into twenty-seven sections; that a solar eclipse could have been described as an epic war between light and dark; and that Saturn is often observed in the Earth's shadow. Using data from modern astronomical tables, he dates events, texts and people, whether mythical or factual, as well as charting the history of Indian astronomy from its earliest records to its modern developments.

A Voyage to China and the East Indies
  • Together with a Voyage to Suratte, and an Account of the Chinese Husbandry, to Which Are Added, a Faunula and Flora Sinensis
  • Volume 2
  • Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén, Carl Gustaf Ekeberg
  • Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
    First published in:
    1771
  • A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750–2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Torén (1718–53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716–84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 2 contains the conclusion of Osbeck's account, the pieces by Torén and Ekeberg, and a catalogue of animals and plants native to China.

A Popular Guide to the Heavens
  • Robert Stawell Ball
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    19 September 2013
  • A talented mathematician trained at Trinity College, Dublin, Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1840–1913) was best known in the early twentieth century for his immensely popular books on astronomy. He also gave the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures on five occasions. First published in 1905, this concise guide to the basics of astronomy assumes almost no prior knowledge of the subject. Beginning with simple phenomena such as the seasons and the effects of atmospheric refraction, Ball expands quickly into month-by-month indexes of the night sky, star charts, and explanations of some of the lesser-known stellar and solar features, from the paths of sunspots to details of the major nebulae. Including over eighty pages of meticulous charts and illustrations, his book remains an excellent resource for students in the history of science, and interested laypeople. Also reissued in this series are The Story of the Heavens (1885) and Star-Land (1889), alongside Ball's more technical Treatise on Spherical Astronomy (1908).

A Treatise on Navigation by Steam
  • Comprising a History of the Steam Engine
  • John Ross
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    13 June 2013
    First published in:
    1828
  • Following distinguished service during the Napoleonic Wars, the Scottish naval officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Ross (1777–1856) embarked on an abortive expedition to discover the North-West Passage. The existence of the Croker mountains, which he claimed had blocked his path, was afterwards disputed and his reputation suffered. His 1819 account of that voyage has been reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Prior to setting out in a steam vessel on a second expedition, for which he would be knighted, Ross published the present work in 1828. Seeking to establish himself as an authority on steam power when the technology was still in its infancy, Ross explores the development of the steam engine, the commercial and military potential of steam navigation, and how this called for a radical change in naval tactics. Illustrated throughout, this is the work of a practical maritime mind, combining both historical and technical detail.

Life of Thomas Young M.D., F.R.S., etc.
  • And One of the Eight Foreign Associates of the National Institute of France
  • George Peacock
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    21 February 2013
    First published in:
    1855
  • Admired long after his death by the likes of Lord Rayleigh and Einstein, Thomas Young (1773–1829) was the definition of a polymath. By the age of fourteen he was proficient in thirteen languages, including Greek, Hebrew and Persian. After studies in Edinburgh, London, Göttingen and Cambridge he established himself as a physician in London, and over the course of his life made contributions to science, linguistics and music. He was the first to prove that light is a wave rather than molecular, his three-colour theory of vision was confirmed in the twentieth century, and his work in deciphering the Rosetta Stone laid the foundations for its eventual translation. Published in 1855, this engaging biography drew on letters, journals and private papers, taking the mathematician George Peacock (1791–1858) twenty years to complete. It stands as a valuable and affectionate portrait of 'the last man who knew everything'.

A Voyage to China and the East Indies
  • Together with a Voyage to Suratte, and an Account of the Chinese Husbandry, to Which Are Added, a Faunula and Flora Sinensis
  • Volume 1
  • Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén, Carl Gustaf Ekeberg
  • Translated by Johann Reinhold Forster
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    29 August 2013
    First published in:
    1771
  • A student of Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805) was a Swedish explorer, naturalist and chaplain. He travelled to Asia in 1750–2 and brought back some six hundred specimens that were included in Linnaeus' Species Plantarum (1753). His account of his voyage was published in Swedish in 1757, in German in 1765, and here in English in 1771, edited and translated by Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–98). This two-volume work also includes letters to Linnaeus by another pupil, Olof Torén (1718–53), who also travelled to the East in the early 1750s, as well as a paper on Chinese husbandry by Carl Gustaf Ekeberg (1716–84). Ekeberg made ten trips to China and India between 1742 and 1778, becoming a captain in the Swedish East India Company. He too brought back numerous specimens for Linnaeus. Volume 1, however, is given over entirely to Osbeck's narrative.

Page 85 of 634