Author: Roger Hutchins Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1351954520 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 654
Book Description
British University Observatories fills a gap in the historiography of British astronomy by offering the histories of observatories identified as a group by their shared characteristics. The first full histories of the Oxford and Cambridge observatories are here central to an explanatory history of each of the six that undertook research before World War II - Oxford, Dunsink, Cambridge, Durham, Glasgow and London. Each struggled to evolve in the middle ground between the royal observatories and those of the 'Grand Amateurs' in the nineteenth century. Fundamental issues are how and why astronomy came into the universities, how research was reconciled with teaching, lack of endowment, and response to the challenge of astrophysics. One organizing theme is the central importance of the individual professor-directors in determining the fortunes of these observatories, the community of assistants, and their role in institutional politics sometimes of the murkiest kind, patronage networks and discipline shaping coteries. The use of many primary sources illustrates personal motivations and experience. This book will intrigue anyone interested in the history of astronomy, of telescopes, of scientific institutions, and of the history of universities. The history of each individual observatory can easily be followed from foundation to 1939, or compared to experience elsewhere across the period. Astronomy is competitive and international, and the British experience is contextualised by comparison for the first time to those in Germany, France, Italy and the USA.
Author: Lee T. Macdonald Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press ISBN: 0822983494 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 302
Book Description
Kew Observatory was originally built in 1769 for King George III, a keen amateur astronomer, so that he could observe the transit of Venus. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was a world-leading center for four major sciences: geomagnetism, meteorology, solar physics, and standardization. Long before government cutbacks forced its closure in 1980, the observatory was run by both major bodies responsible for the management of science in Britain: first the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and then, from 1871, the Royal Society. Kew Observatory influenced and was influenced by many of the larger developments in the physical sciences during the second half of the nineteenth century, while many of the major figures involved were in some way affiliated with Kew. Lee T. Macdonald explores the extraordinary story of this important scientific institution as it rose to prominence during the Victorian era. His book offers fresh new insights into key historical issues in nineteenth-century science: the patronage of science; relations between science and government; the evolution of the observatory sciences; and the origins and early years of the National Physical Laboratory, once an extension of Kew and now the largest applied physics organization in the United Kingdom.
Author: David Clarke Publisher: Edinburgh University Press ISBN: 0748678913 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 336
Book Description
How Astronomy contributed to the educational enlightenment of Glasgow, to its society and to its commerce. The words 'Astronomy' and 'Glasgow' seem an incongruous juxtaposition, and yet the two are closely linked over 500 years of history. This is a tale of enlightenment and scientific progress at both institutional and public levels. Combined with the ambitions of civic commerce, it is a story populated with noteworthy personalities and intense rivalries.It is remarkable to realise that the first Astronomy teaching in the Glasgow 'Colledge' presented an Earth-centred Universe, prior to the Copernican revolution of the mid sixteenth Century. Glasgow was later known astronomically for the telescope observations of sunspots made by Wilson in the 1760s, but less well known are the ideas related to mono-chromaticity within light, to dew point and hoar frost, and Herschel's discovery of infra-red energy in solar radiation by application of Glasgow-made thermometers.This engrossing and entertaining scientific history includes the story of Glasgow's 'Big Bang' of 1863, the controversy over 'Astronomer Royal for Scotland' and a historical survey of the eight observatories that once populated Glasgow. David Clarke brings us a complex weave of science and accompanying social history in this unique and fascinating work.
Author: Raymond Flood Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199601399 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 477
Book Description
With a foreword by Adam Hart-Davis, this book constitutes perhaps the first general survey of the mathematics of the Victorian period. It charts the institutional development of mathematics as a profession, as well as exploring the numerous innovations made during this time, many of which are still familiar today.
Author: Thierry Montmerle Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 303098625X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 524
Book Description
This book illuminates a few highly significant events in history in which astronomers have helped keep contacts between astronomers of different states in moments of international political tensions or even crises. The chapters, written by 20 international authors, focus on four periods where astronomers were particularly active in international relations: 1. The WWI period, the epoch of the creation of the IAU, in the context of the simultaneous creation of other scientific unions. The book also singles out the important role of A.S. Eddington and his network “across forbidden borders”. 2. The Cold war period and its consequences, when several countries were divided between opposite blocs. “The China crisis” is told here from different viewpoints by Chinese astronomers, both from the mainland and from Taiwan, in parallel with the evolution of astronomy in South and North Korea. Germany’s twisted path in its membership of the IAU, from its admission in 1951 to its reunification in 1991 is shown as another example. 3. The book then highlights a third period, when radio astronomers, in particular, were very active in “building bridges” between East and West. It also tells the history of how the apparently innocuous issue of the “lunar nomenclature” became extremely sensitive. The part ends on two chapters on Russian robotic missions and lunar surface features as well on the Russian participation in the “International Virtual Observatory” project. 4. The fourth part reports for the first time on the “hidden story” of the relations between the IAU and the United Nations after the “Moon race” when the United Nations decided to challenge the IAU’s authority on “extraterrestrial names”. The final chapter reviews how twenty years later UNESCO and the IAU had become strong partners in the difficult, but highly successful organization of the International Year of Astronomy (2002-2009), and of the “Astronomy and World Heritage” intitiative (2008).
Author: Wolfgang Steinicke Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand ISBN: 3755734346 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 577
Book Description
The book describes the observational work of William and Caroline Herschel. It focuses on deep-sky objects, observed 1774-1817. Most were discovered by William in the monumental sweep campaign (1783-1802), assisted by his talented sister. 2500 objects were published in three catalogues. The study of the sky from southern England also concerned double stars and the Solar System, yielding the Uranus discovery in 1781. But William Herschel was much more than a mere observer. He built large reflectors, developed new methods and thought about the nature and evolution of cosmic objects and the structure of the Milky Way. He was an extremely influential astronomer and had a worthy successor, his son John.
Author: Wolfgang Steinicke Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand ISBN: 3754397370 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 578
Book Description
The book describes the observational work of William and Caroline Herschel. It focuses on deep-sky objects, observed 1774-1817. Most were discovered by William in the monumental sweep campaign (1783-1802), assisted by his talented sister. 2500 objects were published in three catalogues. The study of the sky from southern England also concerned double stars and the Solar System, yielding the Uranus discovery in 1781. But William Herschel was much more than a mere observer. He built large reflectors, developed new methods and thought about the nature and evolution of cosmic objects and the structure of the Milky Way. He was an extremely influential astronomer and had a worthy successor, his son John.
Author: Mordechai Feingold Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199694044 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 282
Book Description
This volume contains the customary mix of learned articles, book reviews, conference reports and bibliographical information, which makes this publication useful for the historian of higher education. Subjects covered in this volume include: The Viterban Stadium of the 16th century; Scholarly reputations and international prestige; and The Netherlands, William Carstares, and the reform of Edinburgh University, 1690-1715.
Author: William Sheehan Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030542181 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 403
Book Description
The 1846 discovery of Neptune is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of science and astronomy. John Couch Adams and U.J. Le Verrier both investigated anomalies in the motion of Uranus and independently predicted the existence and location of this new planet. However, interpretations of the events surrounding this discovery have long been mired in controversy. Who first predicted the new planet? Was the discovery just a lucky fluke? The ensuing storm engaged astronomers across Europe and the United States. Written by an international group of authors, this pathbreaking volume explores in unprecedented depth the contentious history of Neptune’s discovery, drawing on newly discovered documents and re-examining the historical record. In so doing, we gain new understanding of the actions of key individuals and sharper insights into the pressures acting on them. The discovery of Neptune was a captivating mathematical moment and was widely regarded at the time as the greatest triumph of Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. The book therefore begins with Newton’s development of his ideas of gravity. It examines too the mathematical calculations related to the discovery of Neptune, using new theories and tools provided by advances in celestial mechanics over the past twenty years. Through this process, the book analyzes why the mathematical approach that proved so potent in the discovery of Neptune, grand as it was, could not help produce similar discoveries despite several valiant attempts. In the final chapters, we see how the discovery of Neptune marked the end of one quest—to explain the wayward motions of Uranus—and the beginning of another quest to fill in the map and understand the nature of the outer Solar System, whose icy precincts Neptune, as the outermost of the giant planets, bounds.
Author: Roger Hutchins
Author: Roger Hutchins
Author: Lee T. Macdonald
Author: David Clarke
Author: Raymond Flood
Author: Thierry Montmerle
Author: Wolfgang Steinicke
Author: Wolfgang Steinicke
Author: Mordechai Feingold
Author: William Sheehan