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10306 results in History of science: general interest

Page 187 of 516

Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth
  • John Playfair
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1802
  • John Playfair (1748–1819) was a Scottish mathematician and geologist best known for his defence of James Hutton's geological theories. He attended the University of St Andrews, completing his theological studies in 1770. In 1785 he was appointed joint Professor of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, and in 1805 he was elected Professor of Natural Philosophy. This highly influential book, first published in 1802, contains Playfair's clarification and summary of Hutton's geological concepts. Playfair concisely explains Hutton's theories on erosion and geothermal heat in rock formation and the concept of uniformitarianism in geology, illustrating these theories with his own precise observations on different types of rock strata. The clarity of Playfair's explanations was instrumental in popularising Hutton's geological theories, many of which are now recognised as key principles of modern geology. Playfair's strident defence of Hutton's ideas formed part of a controversial debate between Hutton's supporters and his detractors.

Earthquakes and Other Earth Movements
  • John Milne
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    09 June 2011
    First published in:
    1886
  • John Milne (1850–1913) was a professor of mining and geology at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo. While living in Japan, Milne became very interested in seismology, prompted by a strong seismic shock he experienced in Tokyo in 1880. Sixteen years later Milne and two colleagues completed work on the first seismograph capable of recording major earthquakes. This book, originally published in London in 1886, explains why earthquakes happen and what effects they have on land and in the oceans. As Milne points out, Japan provided him with 'the opportunity of recording an earthquake every week'. Starting with an introduction examining the relationship of seismology to the arts and sciences, the book includes chapters on seismometry, earthquake motion, the causes of earthquakes, and their relation to volcanic activity, providing a thorough account of the state of knowledge about these phenomena towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The Life of Sir Humphry Davy
  • Volume 1
  • John Ayrton Paris
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1831
  • Sir Humphry Davy (1778–1829) was a hugely influential chemist, inventor, and public lecturer who is recognised as one of the first professional scientists. He was apprenticed to an apothecary in 1795, which formed his introduction to chemical experiments. A chance meeting with Davis Giddy in 1798 introduced Davy into the wider scientific community, and in 1800 he was invited to a post at the Royal Institution, where he lectured to great acclaim. These volumes, first published in 1831, contain Davy's official biography. Researched and written by John Ayrton Paris, the work describes in detail Davy's life and his scientific studies. Organised chronologically with excerpts from his private correspondence, Davy's early life and his experiments and lectures at the Royal Institution and his Presidency of the Royal Society between 1820 and 1827 are explored in vivid detail. Volume 1 describes his life and work until 1812.

The Night Side of Nature
  • Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers
  • Volume 1
  • Catherine Crowe
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1848
  • The novelist and children's author Catherine Crowe (c.1800–1876) published The Night Side of Nature in two volumes in 1848. This lively collection of ghostly sketches and anecdotes was a Victorian best-seller and Crowe's most popular work. Sixteen editions appeared in six years, and it was translated into several European languages. The stories are intertwined with Crowe's own interpretations and commentaries which attack the scepticism of enlightenment thought and orthodox religion. Crowe seeks instead to encourage and re-invigorate a sense of wonder and mystery in life by emphasising the supernatural. The stories in Volume 1 centre on dreams, psychic presentiments, traces, wraiths, doppelgängers, apparitions, and imaginings of the after-life. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture.

The Night Side of Nature
  • Or, Ghosts and Ghost Seers
  • Volume 2
  • Catherine Crowe
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1848
  • The novelist and children's author Catherine Crowe (c.1800–1876) published The Night Side of Nature in two volumes in 1848. This lively collection of ghostly sketches and anecdotes was a Victorian best-seller and Crowe's most popular work. Sixteen editions appeared in six years, and it was translated into several European languages. The stories are intertwined with Crowe's own interpretations and commentaries which attack the scepticism of enlightenment thought and orthodox religion. Crowe seeks instead to encourage and re-invigorate a sense of wonder and mystery in life by emphasising the supernatural. Volume 2 probes the mysterious phenomena of troubled spirits, haunted houses, spectral lights, apparitions and poltergeists. Crowe's vivid tales, written with great energy and imagination, are classic examples of nineteenth-century spiritualist writing and strongly influenced other authors, including Charles Baudelaire, as well as providing inspiration for later adherents of ghost-seeing and psychic culture.

Sketches of the Royal Society and Royal Society Club
  • John Barrow
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1849
  • Sir John Barrow (1764–1848) was a distinguished British government diplomat whose career took him to China and Africa, and who in forty years as Secretary to the Admiralty was responsible for promoting Arctic and Antarctic exploration. A close friend of Sir Joseph Banks, he served on the Council of the Royal Society and as President of the Royal Geographical Society. Sketches of the Royal Society and Royal Society Club was published posthumously in 1849, as a supplement to Barrow's autobiography (also published in this series). It consists of a brief history of the societies, followed by a series of memoirs of presidents of the Royal Society of Barrow's time, and of other leading members of the Society and the Royal Society Club, the elite dining club associated with it. The biographies provide abundant evidence of the central importance of the Royal Society to scientific life in nineteenth-century Britain.

Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent
  • During the Years 1799–1804
  • Volume 2
  • Alexander von Humboldt, Aimé Bonpland
  • Translated by Helen Maria Williams
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1814
  • The Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most famous explorers of his generation. Charles Darwin called him 'the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived'. In 1799, Humboldt and the botanist Aimé Bonpland secured permission from the Spanish crown for a voyage to South America. They left from Madrid and spent five years exploring the continent. Humboldt reported his findings in a total of thirty volumes, published in French over a period of more than twenty years beginning in 1805. This English translation by Helen Maria Williams of one important component of Humboldt's account, the Relation historique du voyage (1814–1825), consists of seven volumes and was published in London between 1814 and 1829. Volume 2 (1814) contains extensive physical observations of latitude, longitude, weather conditions and ocean temperature recorded during the voyage, and describes the expedition's arrival in Venezuela.

  • BJH volume 44 issue 3 Cover and Back matter

  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 44 / Issue 3 / September 2011
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    08 September 2011, pp. b1-b7
    Print publication:
    September 2011
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Page 187 of 516