History of Science

Contributors: Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Anders Lundgren, Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Roman Mierzecki,Lissa Roberts, David Knight, Arthur Donovan, John McEvoy, A.M.Amorim da Costa, Agustí Níeto-Galan, Patricia Aceves, Anne Claire Déré, Marco Beretta, Ferdinando Abbri, F.L. Holmes. Countries discussed include: Belgium, Poland, Holland, Sweden, England, Scotland, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, France, and Italy. Complete contents upon request.

Recipient of the Paul-Bunge-Prize for 2013

Contributors include: Tiziana Bascelli, Jean-François Battail, Marco Beretta, Janet Browne, Robert Darnton, Lorraine Daston, Paolo Galluzzi, Karl Grandin, John L. Heilbron, Daniel J. Kevles, Svante Lindqvist, Thorsten Nybom, Mary Jo Nye, Sheldon Rothblatt, Nicolaas A. Rupke, William R. Shea, H. Otto Sibum, and Sven Widmalm.

In December 1788, the painter Jacques Louis David completed his famous portrait of Lavoisier and his wife. While it has long been believed that this portrait is the only authentic image of Lavoisier, on the basis of some unpublished or little-known iconographic representations, this book questions the truth of this opinion and shows that Lavoisier [...]

Tells the quintessentially American story of Billings and his achievements in gripping fashion, with glimpses of his defects as well as his virtues.

Winner of the 2007 Ferguson Prize. All other volumes in the series are still available. Click here for contents, prices and description information. Additional information is available from The Joseph Henry Papers Project: http://www.siarchives.si.edu/history/jhp/jhenry.html

On 22 June 1675, Charles II, “by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland,” granted a King’s Warrant authorizing the building of the Royal Observatory of Greenwich, “in order to the finding out of the Longitude of places for perfecting Navigation and Astronomy.” John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, and his [...]

*Major portions of this book originally appeared in Cultures of Creativity: The Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize published in 2001 and copyright Science History Publications/USA & The Nobel Museum. The book was first published in Swedish, Människor, miljöer och kreativitet: Nobelpriset 100 dr, earlier the same year. A revised English edition appeared in 2002. The current edition [...]

The third supplement to the Isis Cumulative Bibliography, 1913-1965, edited by Magda Whitrow cumulates the annual bibliographies published in the History of Science Society’s journal Isis in the years 1986 through 1995. The increase in the literature during the last decade necessitates publication in four volumes: Volume One (496pp.), Persons : A–L; Volume Two (480pp.), [...]

Chymistry (that is, alchemy and early chemistry) is currently receiving an unprecedented amount of scholarly attention. Long-held misunderstandings are being replaced by a wealth of fresh perspectives and discoveries, as scholars progressively reveal alchemy’s crucial place in early modern culture and its contributions to early modern science. This volume brings together the most recent work [...]

Volume 2, The Princeton Years: November 1832-December 1835 (Washington, 1975: ISBN 0-87474-164-5) concerns Henry’s adjustment to a small college town and his attempts to develop a first-rate facility for teaching and research in the physical sciences. It details his excursions to New York City and Philadelphia in search of scientific apparatus and scientific fellowship, and reveals the [...]

Volume 4, The Princeton Years: January 1838-December 1840 (Washington, 1981: ISBN 0-87474-792-9) demonstrates Henry’s growing concern with the nation’s intellectual image abroad. After returning from Europe, he was increasingly sensitive to American shortcomings, particularly to the problem of scientific charlatanism. His opposition to the physician-inventor Henry Hall Sherwood, documented in the volume, epitomized this delicate issue. His [...]

In the second half of the twentieth century, chemistry underwent a profound transformation. Its object of examination, the chemical substance, was transmuted into abstract structure; its most important method, the chemical reaction, was supplemented by physical methods; and its practitioner, the chemist, was partially displaced by technical instruments. At the center of this transformation were [...]

Volume 6, The Princeton Years: January 1844-December 1846 (Washington, 1992: ISBN 1-56098-112-1) further develops the theme of Henry as a consultant on technological problems of his day. He provided expert advice on the acoustics of public buildings, the protection of buildings from lightning, the electromagnetic telegraph, and Colt’s submarine battery. He also chaired the Franklin Institute committee [...]

Volume 8, The Smithsonian Years: January 1850-December 1853 (Washington, 1998: ISBN 1-56098-891-6) reveals a difficult period in Henry’s life. During these years, he suffered constant personal and financial woes, clashed with subordinates, and faced significant public criticism of his leadership. When Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois attacked the Smithsonian for its preoccupation with research of “no [...]

The period covered by this volume included some of the darkest years Joseph Henry would ever face. The country was torn apart by a devastating civil war. Washington was threatened with invasion, placing the Smithsonian Institution in jeopardy. Henry’s only son, William, died in 1862 from a sudden illness. Henry’s mentor and confidant, Alexander Dallas [...]

Ideas migrate across time and space, sometimes in conjunction with the migration of people and sometimes independently of it. The migration of ideas from one context to another is a central aspect of communication among scholars and scientists. It is one of the most important features of cultural, intellectual and scientific history. It is also [...]

An instrument can change the world and compel us to rethink our place in the universe. The telescope did just this, but only when it was used by Galileo, whose eye was prepared to see new things and whose hand was able to depict what he saw. It was not only because Galileo was a [...]

Also in hardcover

Paperback. A hardcover edition is available. During his comparatively brief life (he died at thirty-nine, the age Mozart was to die) Blaise Pascal devoted his unusual talents to mathematics, physics and religion. His religious views are still widely discussed, and the general interest in this aspect of his life may be responsible for the fact [...]