Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815–1840
Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815–1840

Author: E.C. Patterson

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 9400968396

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Among the myriad of changes that took place in Great Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century, many of particular significance to the historian of science and to the social historian are discernible in that small segment of British society drawn together by a shared interest in natural phenomena and with sufficient leisure or opportunity to investigate and ponder them. This group, which never numbered more than a mere handful in comparison to the whole population, may rightly be characterized as 'scientific'. They and their successors came to occupy an increasingly important place in the intellectual, educational, and developing economic life of the nation. Well before the arrival of mid-century, natural philosophers and inventors were generally hailed as a source of national pride and of national prestige. Scientific society is a feature of nineteenth-century British life, the best being found in London, in the universities, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in a few scattered provincial centres.

Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville

Author: Kathryn A. Neeley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2001-10-22

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780521626729

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A biography of the leading woman of science in Great Britain during the nineteenth century.

Mary Somerville and the World of Science
Mary Somerville and the World of Science

Author: Allan Chapman

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-08-26

Total Pages: 101

ISBN-13: 3319093991

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Mary Somerville (1780-1872), after whom Somerville College Oxford was named, was the first woman scientist to win an international reputation entirely in her own right, rather than through association with a scientific brother or father. She was active in astronomy, one of the most demanding areas of science of the day, and flourished in the unique British tradition of Grand Amateurs, who paid their own way and were not affiliated with any academic institution. Mary Somerville was to science what Jane Austen was to literature and Frances Trollope to travel writing. Allan Chapman’s vivid account brings to light the story of an exceptional woman, whose achievements in a field dominated by men deserve to be very widely known.

The Ascent of Mary Somerville in 19th Century Society
The Ascent of Mary Somerville in 19th Century Society

Author: Elisabetta Strickland

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-11-24

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 3319491938

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This biography traces the life and work of Mary Fairfax Somerville, whose extraordinary mathematical talent only came to light through fortuitous circumstances. Barely taught to read and write as a child, all the science she learned and mastered was self taught. In this delightful narrative the author takes up the challenge of discovering how Somerville came to be one of the most outstanding British women scientists and, furthermore, a popular writer. Particular attention is paid to the gender aspects of Somerville's success in what was, to put it mildly, a predominantly male domain.

Visions of Science
Visions of Science

Author: James A. Secord

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-04-03

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 022620331X

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The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary transformation in British political, literary, and intellectual life. There was widespread social unrest, and debates raged regarding education, the lives of the working class, and the new industrial, machine-governed world. At the same time, modern science emerged in Europe in more or less its current form, as new disciplines and revolutionary concepts, including evolution and the vastness of geologic time, began to take shape. In Visions of Science, James A. Secord offers a new way to capture this unique moment of change. He explores seven key books—among them Charles Babbage’s Reflections on the Decline of Science, Charles Lyell’s Principles ofGeology, Mary Somerville’s Connexion of the Physical Sciences, and Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus—and shows how literature that reflects on the wider meaning of science can be revelatory when granted the kind of close reading usually reserved for fiction and poetry. These books considered the meanings of science and its place in modern life, looking to the future, coordinating and connecting the sciences, and forging knowledge that would be appropriate for the new age. Their aim was often philosophical, but Secord shows it was just as often imaginative, projective, and practical: to suggest not only how to think about the natural world but also to indicate modes of action and potential consequences in an era of unparalleled change. Visions of Science opens our eyes to how genteel ladies, working men, and the literary elite responded to these remarkable works. It reveals the importance of understanding the physical qualities of books and the key role of printers and publishers, from factories pouring out cheap compendia to fashionable publishing houses in London’s West End. Secord’s vivid account takes us to the heart of an information revolution that was to have profound consequences for the making of the modern world.

Nineteenth-Century Science
Nineteenth-Century Science

Author: A.S. Weber

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 2000-03-10

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9781551111650

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Nineteenth-Century Science is a science anthology which provides over 30 selections from original 19th-century scientific monographs, textbooks and articles written by such authors as Charles Darwin, Mary Somerville, J.W. Goethe, John Dalton, Charles Lyell and Hermann von Helmholtz. The volume surveys scientific discovery and thought from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s theory of evolution of 1809 to the isolation of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. Each selection opens with a biographical introduction, situating each scientist and discovery within the context of history and culture of the period. Each entry is also followed by a list of further suggested reading on the topic. A broad range of technical and popular material has been included, from Mendeleev’s detailed description of the periodic table to Faraday’s highly accessible lecture for young people on the chemistry of a burning candle. The anthology will be of interest to the general reader who would like to explore in detail the scientific, cultural, and intellectual development of the nineteenth-century, as well as to students and teachers who specialize in the science, literature, history, or sociology of the period. The book provides examples from all the disciplines of western science-chemistry, physics, medicine, astronomy, biology, evolutionary theory, etc. The majority of the entries consist of complete, unabridged journal articles or book chapters from original 19th-century scientific texts.