Microforms for Historians

Microforms for Historians PDF Author: Donald James Munro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Historiography
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Microforms for Historians

Microforms for Historians PDF Author: Donald James Munro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Historiography
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Histories of Scientific Observation

Histories of Scientific Observation PDF Author: Lorraine Daston
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226136795
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
Observation is the most pervasive and fundamental practice of all the modern sciences, both natural and human. Its instruments include not only the naked senses but also tools such as the telescope and microscope, the questionnaire, the photographic plate, the notebook, the glassed-in beehive, and myriad other ingenious inventions designed to make the invisible visible, the evanescent permanent, the abstract concrete. Yet observation has almost never been considered as an object of historical inquiry in itself. This wide-ranging collection offers the first examination of the history of scientific observation in its own right, as both epistemic category and scientific practice. Histories of Scientific Observation features engaging episodes drawn from across the spectrum of the natural and human sciences, ranging from meteorology, medicine, and natural history to economics, astronomy, and psychology. The contributions spotlight how observers have scrutinized everything—from seaweed to X-ray radiation, household budgets to the emotions—with ingenuity, curiosity, and perseverance verging on obsession. This book makes a compelling case for the significance of the long, surprising, and epistemologically significant history of scientific observation, a history full of innovations that have enlarged the possibilities of perception, judgment, and reason.

Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley

Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley PDF Author: Edmond Halley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Guide to Microforms in Print 1977

Guide to Microforms in Print 1977 PDF Author: Albert James Diaz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Lenses and Waves

Lenses and Waves PDF Author: Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402026986
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
In 1690, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) published Traité de la Lumière, containing his renowned wave theory of light. It is considered a landmark in seventeenth-century science, for the way Huygens mathematized the corpuscular nature of light and his probabilistic conception of natural knowledge. This book discusses the development of Huygens' wave theory, reconstructing the winding road that eventually led to Traité de la Lumière. For the first time, the full range of manuscript sources is taken into account. In addition, the development of Huygens' thinking on the nature of light is put in the context of his optics as a whole, which was dominated by his lifelong pursuit of theoretical and practical dioptrics. In so doing, this book offers the first account of the development of Huygens' mathematical analysis of lenses and telescopes and its significance for the origin of the wave theory of light. As Huygens applied his mathematical proficiency to practical issues pertaining to telescopes – including trying to design a perfect telescope by means of mathematical theory – his dioptrics is significant for our understanding of seventeenth-century relations between theory and practice. With this full account of Huygens' optics, this book sheds new light on the history of seventeenth-century optics and the rise of the new mathematical sciences, as well as Huygens' oeuvre as a whole. Students of the history of optics, of early mathematical physics, and the Scientific Revolution, will find this book enlightening.

The Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography PDF Author: Leslie Stephen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 1362

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When Computers Were Human

When Computers Were Human PDF Author: David Alan Grier
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400849365
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.

Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1911-1971

Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries of the New York Public Library, 1911-1971 PDF Author: New York Public Library. Research Libraries
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Library catalogs
Languages : en
Pages : 592

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The History of the Telescope

The History of the Telescope PDF Author: Henry C. King
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486432656
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
This remarkable history encompasses not only the achievements of the early inventors and astronomers but also the less frequently recounted stories of the instrument makers and of the actual instruments. A model of unsurpassed, comprehensive scholarship, this volume covers many fields, including professional and amateur astronomy. 196 black-and-white illustrations.

A Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy: The sun, planets, and comets

A Handbook of Descriptive and Practical Astronomy: The sun, planets, and comets PDF Author: George Frederick Chambers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Astronomical instruments
Languages : en
Pages : 734

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