In 1799, a French officer was clearing debris from a military installation when he discovered a stele bearing three scripts: ancient Greek, hieroglyphic, and a third that could not be definitively identified. This artifact, which came to be known as the Rosetta Stone, has traditionally played the starring role in the history of decipherment, which has until now been understood as an instance of code-breaking, a kind of Bletchley Park avant la ...
A major new history of the race between two geniuses to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, set against the backdrop of nineteenth century EuropeIn 1799, a French Army officer was rebuilding the defenses of a fort on the banks of the Nile when he discovered an ancient stele fragment bearing a decree inscribed in three different scripts. So b
Shedding new light on the intellectual context of Newton's scientific thought, this book explores the development of his mathematical philosophy, rational mechanics, and celestial dynamics. An appendix includes the last paper written by Newton biographer Richard S. Westfall.
The articles in this first volume of ARCHIMEDES explicitly and intentionally cross boundaries between science and technology, and they also illuminate one another. The first three contributions concern optics and industry in 19th century Germany, the fourth concerns electric standards in Germany during the same period, the last essay in the volume examines a curious development in the early history of wireless signalling that took place in Eng...
This 'Oxford Handbook' brings together contributions by leading authorities on key areas of the history of physics since the seventeenth century. In a single volume, it offers a comprehensive introduction to scholarly contributions that have tended to be dispersed in journals and books not easily accessible to the student or general reader.
This Oxford Handbook brings together contributions by leading authorities on key areas of the history of physics since the seventeenth century. In a single volume, it offers a comprehensive introduction to scholarly contributions that have tended to be dispersed in journals and books not easily accessible to the student or general reader.
List of FiguresAnalytical Contents1: IntroductionIan Hacking2: Context and ConstraintsPeter L. Galison3: Beyond Constraint: The Temporality of Practice and the Historicity of KnowledgeAndrew Pickering4: Experimenting in the Natural Sciences: A Philosophical ApproachHans Radder5: Scientific Practice: The View from the TabletopBrian S. Baigrie6: Following Scientists through Society? Yes, but at Arm's Length!Yves Gingras7: Why Hertz Was Right abo...
The rapidity with which knowledge changes makes much of past science obsolete, and often just wrong, from the present's point of view. We no longer think, for example, that heat is a material substance transferred from hot to cold bodies. But is wrong science always or even usually bad science? The essays in this volume argue by example that much of the past's rejected science, wrong in retrospect though it may be - and sometimes markedly so -...
New essays in science history ranging across the entire field and related in most instance to the works of Charles Gillispie, one of the field's founders.
Shedding new light on the intellectual context of Newton's scientific thought, this book explores the development of his mathematical philosophy, rational mechanics, and celestial dynamics. An appendix includes the last paper written by Newton biographer Richard S. Westfall.
New essays in science history ranging across the entire field and related in most instance to the works of Charles Gillispie, one of the field's founders.
No one interested in the history of optics, the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics, or the general phenomenon of theory change in science can afford to ignore Jed Buchwald's well-structured, highly detailed, and scrupulously researched book. . . . Buchwald's analysis will surely constitute the essential starting point for further work on this important and hitherto relatively neglected episode of theory change."--John Worral...
In this first detailed scientific biography of Heinrich Hertz, Jed Z. Buchwald examines Hertz's work on electromagnetic waves in the context of the social and intellectual world of nineteenth-century German physics. By situating Hertz's work within the larger scientific community of his day, Buchwald demonstrates how the shared, unwritten assumptions, values, and understandings of scientific practice can be recovered.
The articles in this first volume of ARCHIMEDES explicitly and intentionally cross boundaries between science and technology, and they also illuminate one another. The first three contributions concern optics and industry in 19th century Germany, the fourth concerns electric standards in Germany during the same period, the last essay in the volume examines a curious development in the early history of wireless signalling that took place in Eng...