[PDF/ePub] Pursuing Power And Light Technology And Physics From James Watt To Albert Einstein Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies In The History Of Science Download Book

Pursuing Power and Light

Posted on 2010-03-05 by Bruce J. Hunt

Technology and Physics from James Watt to Albert Einstein

Author: Bruce J. Hunt

Publisher: JHU Press

ISBN: 0801893585

Category: Science

Page: 182

In the nineteenth century, science and technology developed a close and continuing relationship. The important advancements in physics were deeply rooted in the new technologies of the steam engine, the telegraph, and electric power and light. The author explores how the leading technologies of the industrial age helped reshape modern physics.

Edison's Electric Light

Posted on 2010-10-01 by Robert Friedel,Paul B. Israel

The Art of Invention

Author: Robert Friedel,Paul B. Israel

Publisher: JHU Press

ISBN: 9780801899447

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 248

Revised and updated from the original 1986 edition, this definitive study of the most famous invention of America's most famous inventor is completely keyed to the printed and electronic versions of the Edison Papers, inviting the reader to explore further the remarkable original sources.

Physics in the Nineteenth Century

Posted on 1997 by Robert D. Purrington

Author: Robert D. Purrington

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

ISBN: 9780813524429

Category: Science

Page: 249

Places the work of Faraday, Kelvin, and other nineteenth-century physicists into historical context, and describes how discoveries in electromagnetism, thermodynamics, energy, atomic structure, the kinetic theory, and other topics relate to the Industrial Revolution and European nationalism

Competing with the Soviets

Posted on 2012-11-16 by Audra J. Wolfe

Science, Technology, and the State in Cold War America

Author: Audra J. Wolfe

Publisher: JHU Press

ISBN: 1421409011

Category: Science

Page: 176

For most of the second half of the twentieth century, the United States and its allies competed with a hostile Soviet Union in almost every way imaginable except open military engagement. The Cold War placed two opposite conceptions of the good society before the uncommitted world and history itself, and science figured prominently in the picture. Competing with the Soviets offers a short, accessible introduction to the special role that science and technology played in maintaining state power during the Cold War, from the atomic bomb to the Human Genome Project. The high-tech machinery of nuclear physics and the space race are at the center of this story, but Audra J. Wolfe also examines the surrogate battlefield of scientific achievement in such diverse fields as urban planning, biology, and economics; explains how defense-driven federal investments created vast laboratories and research programs; and shows how unfamiliar worries about national security and corrosive questions of loyalty crept into the supposedly objective scholarly enterprise. Based on the assumption that scientists are participants in the culture in which they live, Competing with the Soviets looks beyond the debate about whether military influence distorted science in the Cold War. Scientists’ choices and opportunities have always been shaped by the ideological assumptions, political mandates, and social mores of their times. The idea that American science ever operated in a free zone outside of politics is, Wolfe argues, itself a legacy of the ideological Cold War that held up American science, and scientists, as beacons of freedom in contrast to their peers in the Soviet Union. Arranged chronologically and thematically, the book highlights how ideas about the appropriate relationships among science, scientists, and the state changed over time. -- Michael D. Gordin, Princeton University

Science and the Enlightenment

Posted on 1985-04-26 by Thomas L. Hankins

Author: Thomas L. Hankins

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9780521286190

Category: Science

Page: 216

This book is a general history of eighteenth-century developments in physical and life sciences.

Algebraic Art

Posted on 2018-04-12 by Andrea K. Henderson

Mathematical Formalism and Victorian Culture

Author: Andrea K. Henderson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0198809980

Category: Art

Page: 240

Algebraic Art' explores the invention of a peculiarly Victorian account of the nature and value of aesthetic form, and it traces that account to a surprising source: mathematics. Drawing on literature, art, and photography, it explores how the Victorian mathematical conception of form still resonates today.

ThermoPoetics

Posted on 2012-02-10 by Barri J. Gold

Energy in Victorian Literature and Science

Author: Barri J. Gold

Publisher: MIT Press

ISBN: 0262288273

Category: History

Page: 360

In ThermoPoetics, Barri Gold sets out to show us how analogous, intertwined, and mutually productive poetry and physics may be. Charting the simultaneous emergence of the laws of thermodynamics in literature and in physics that began in the 1830s, Gold finds that not only can science influence literature, but literature can influence science, especially in the early stages of intellectual development. Nineteenth-century physics was often conducted in words. And, Gold claims, a poet could be a genius in thermodynamics and a novelist could be a damn good engineer. Gold's lively readings of works by Alfred Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Herbert Spencer, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and others offer a decidedly literary introduction to such elements of thermodynamic thought as conservation and dissipation, the linguistic tension between force and energy, the quest for a grand unified theory, strategies for coping within an inexorably entropic universe, and the demonic potential of the thermodynamically savvy individual. Gold shows us that in A Tale of Two Cities, for example, Dickens produces order in spite of the universal drive to entropy; Wilde's Dorian Gray and Stoker's Dracula, on the other hand, reveal the creative potential of chaos.Victorian literature embraced the language and ideas of energy physics to address the era's concerns about religion, evolution, race, class, empire, gender, and sexuality. Gold argues that these concerns, in turn, shaped the hopes and fears expressed about the new physics.

The Maxwellians

Posted on 2005 by Bruce J. Hunt

Author: Bruce J. Hunt

Publisher: Cornell University Press

ISBN: 9780801482342

Category: Science

Page: 266

James Clerk Maxwell published the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873. At his death, six years later, his theory of the electromagnetic field was neither well understood nor widely accepted. By the mid-1890s, however, it was regarded as one of the most fundamental and fruitful of all physical theories. Bruce J. Hunt examines the joint work of a group of young British physicists—G. F. FitzGerald, Oliver Heaviside, and Oliver Lodge—along with a key German contributor, Heinrich Hertz. It was these "Maxwellians" who transformed the fertile but half-finished ideas presented in the Treatise into the concise and powerful system now known as "Maxwell's theory."

Evolutionary Writings

Posted on 2008-11-13 by Charles Darwin,James A. Secord

Including the Autobiographies

Author: Charles Darwin,James A. Secord

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0199208638

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 485

Excerpts from some of the naturalist's most revolutionary works, including Origin of Species and Descent of Man, are compiled in this autobiographical account of the ideas and thoughts that shaped his thinking, scientific studies, and writings.

Imprint of the Raj

Posted on 2004 by Chandak Sengoopta

How Fingerprinting was Born in Colonial India

Author: Chandak Sengoopta

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 9780330491402

Category: Criminology

Page: 234

A fascinating account of the invention of fingerprinting in colonial India and the story of how the technique was exported back to Victorian England. Opening with the first case in a British criminal court to use the radical new technique of fingerprinting to identify the perpetrators of crime in 1902 this riveting book takes us back to the origins of fingerprinting in India. Despite many books on the subject of fingerprints in general, none have looked closely at the fact that this standard tool of forensic science was born in India during the Raj. As the author points out, with the exception of curry there is not one other instance of something so fundamental to British life being imported fully-formed from the Empire and then being tailored to fit conditions at home. Based on original and hitherto unpublished research imprint of the Raj gives a unique insight into our colonial past and offers a vivid account of this extraordinary and largely ignored story.

An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology

Posted on 2002-06-01 by Ian McNeil

Author: Ian McNeil

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1134981643

Category: Reference

Page: 1088

* 22 sections cover the entire field of the history of technology and each section summarises the development of its subject from the earliest times to the present day * Written without unnecessary jargon * 2 extensive indexes of Names and Topics * Usefully illustrated with 150 black & white photographs and line drawings to explain key advances `Contain[s] a vast amount of reliable information over a very wide field. It is certainly a work of which I shall myself make frequent use ... it deserves to find a place ... in every reference library.' - Times Higher Education Supplement `The coverage is excellent ... a most valuable single-volume source which for its comprehensiveness and ease of reference will earn its place in both specialist and general reference collections.' - Reference Reviews `Informative and comprehensive, remarkable in its coverage ... covers every aspect of technology from the Stone Age to the Space Age ... will undoubtedly help readers to get a grip on and feel of an enormous range of subjects ... An invaluable and practical addition to most office bookshelves or libraries.' - New Civil Engineer `The authors represented in this book are to be congratulated for their readable and reliable surveys of the past and present status of the major areas where mankind has harnessed science for the production of useful products and processes.' - Choice

Shaping Written Knowledge

Posted on 1988 by Charles Bazerman

The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science

Author: Charles Bazerman

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 9780299116941

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 356

The forms taken by scientific writing help to determine the very nature of science itself. In this closely reasoned study, Charles Bazerman views the changing forms of scientific writing as solutions to rhetorical problems faced by scientists arguing for their findings. Examining such works as the early Philosophical Transactions and Newton's optical writings as well as Physical Review, Bazerman views the changing forms of scientific writing as solutions to rhetorical problems faced by scientists. The rhetoric of science is, Bazerman demonstrates, an embedded part of scientific activity that interacts with other parts of scientific activity, including social structure and empirical experience. This book presents a comprehensive historical account of the rise and development of the genre, and views these forms in relation to empirical experience.

Media and the American Mind

Posted on 2010-02-03 by Daniel J. Czitrom

From Morse to McLuhan

Author: Daniel J. Czitrom

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

ISBN: 0807899208

Category: Social Science

Page: 268

In a fascinating and comprehensive intellectual history of modern communication in America, Daniel Czitrom examines the continuing contradictions between the progressive possibilities that new communications technologies offer and their use as instruments of domination and exploitation.

Athena Unbound

Posted on 2000-10-19 by Henry Etzkowitz,Carol Kemelgor,Brian Uzzi

The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology

Author: Henry Etzkowitz,Carol Kemelgor,Brian Uzzi

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

ISBN: 9780521787383

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 282

An inquiry into why there are so few women scientists discusses the subtle factors that contribute to the marginalization of women scientists and compares the status of women scientists in different countries.

In Solidarity

Posted on 2014-12-05 by Lisa Tillmann

Friendship, Family, and Activism Beyond Gay and Straight

Author: Lisa Tillmann

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1317678079

Category: Social Science

Page: 240

In Solidarity: Friendship, Family, and Activism Beyond Gay and Straight shows what being an ally (in this case to LGBTQ+ persons and communities) requires, means, and does. Through prose, poetry, performance text, and film, the work takes readers inside relationships across sexual orientation and serves as an exemplar of activist scholarship. In Solidarity makes a unique and compelling contribution to courses on LGBTQ+ studies, sexualities, gender, identity, relationships, or the family.

The Physicist and the Philosopher

Posted on 2015-06-09 by Jimena Canales

Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That Changed Our Understanding of Time

Author: Jimena Canales

Publisher: Princeton University Press

ISBN: 1400865778

Category: Science

Page: 488

On April 6, 1922, in Paris, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time. Einstein considered Bergson's theory of time to be a soft, psychological notion, irreconcilable with the quantitative realities of physics. Bergson, who gained fame as a philosopher by arguing that time should not be understood exclusively through the lens of science, criticized Einstein's theory of time for being a metaphysics grafted on to science, one that ignored the intuitive aspects of time. The Physicist and the Philosopher tells the remarkable story of how this explosive debate transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between science and the humanities that persists today. Jimena Canales introduces readers to the revolutionary ideas of Einstein and Bergson, describes how they dramatically collided in Paris, and traces how this clash of worldviews reverberated across the twentieth century. She shows how it provoked responses from figures such as Bertrand Russell and Martin Heidegger, and carried repercussions for American pragmatism, logical positivism, phenomenology, and quantum mechanics. Canales explains how the new technologies of the period—such as wristwatches, radio, and film—helped to shape people’s conceptions of time and further polarized the public debate. She also discusses how Bergson and Einstein, toward the end of their lives, each reflected on his rival’s legacy—Bergson during the Nazi occupation of Paris and Einstein in the context of the first hydrogen bomb explosion. The Physicist and the Philosopher is a magisterial and revealing account that shows how scientific truth was placed on trial in a divided century marked by a new sense of time.

The Interpretation of Cultures

Posted on 2017-08-15 by Clifford Geertz

Author: Clifford Geertz

Publisher: Basic Books

ISBN: 0465093566

Category: Social Science

Page: 576

In The Interpretation of Cultures, the most original anthropologist of his generation moved far beyond the traditional confines of his discipline to develop an important new concept of culture. This groundbreaking book, winner of the 1974 Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association, helped define for an entire generation of anthropologists what their field is ultimately about.

Human Accomplishment

Posted on 2009-10-13 by Charles Murray

The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950

Author: Charles Murray

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 0061745677

Category: History

Page: 688

A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence. "At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in the domains known as the arts and sciences, and the people who did them.' So begins Charles Murray's unique account of human excellence, from the age of Homer to our own time. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the last century but that have rarely been applied to books written for the general public, Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women from around the world, ranked according to their eminence. The heart of Human Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great; on the differences between great achievement in the arts and in the sciences; on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in human capacity to create great art and science; and on the patterns and trajectories of accomplishment across time and geography. Straightforwardly and undogmatically, Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions. Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously. Eye-opening and humbling, Human Accomplishment is a fascinating work that describes what humans at their best can achieve, provides tools for exploring its wellsprings, and celebrates the continuing common quest of humans everywhere to discover truths, create beauty, and apprehend the good.

The Engines of Our Ingenuity

Posted on 2003-04-10 by John H. Lienhard

An Engineer Looks at Technology and Culture

Author: John H. Lienhard

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 9780195167313

Category: History

Page: 272

This book explores the nature of creativity in engineering and technology, and how it relates to creativity in art or science. Lienhard has for ten years done a twice-weekly radio show, carried on about 35 NPR stations, consisting of 3-minute essays on technology. He uses the substance of selected segments of his radio program to create a continuous narrative presenting his insights on technological creativity. This book has the same title as his radio program, to further draw the attention of his one million listeners.

How We Got Here

Posted on 2009-03-17 by Andy Kessler

A History of Technology and Markets

Author: Andy Kessler

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 0061745812

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 272

Best-selling author Andy Kessler ties up the loose ends from his provocative book, Running Money, with this history of breakthrough technology and the markets that funded them. Expanding on themes first raised in his tour de force, Running Money, Andy Kessler unpacks the entire history of Silicon Valley and Wall Street, from the Industrial Revolution to computers, communications, money, gold and stock markets. These stories cut (by an unscrupulous editor) from the original manuscript were intended as a primer on the ways in which new technologies develop from unprofitable curiosities to essential investments. Indeed, How We Got Here is the book Kessler wishes someone had handed him on his first day as a freshman engineering student at Cornell or on the day he started on Wall Street. This book connects the dots through history to how we got to where we are today.