Science Writing in the Romantic Era 1770-1837

Volume III: Forces
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-35099-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 732 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Nineteenth-Century Science, Technology and Medicine: Sources and Documents

These areas of enquiry were related in the period: the chemical changes produced by heat were the subject of intense investigation in an effort to provide a comprehensive account of why and how substances combined. Priestley’s isolation of gases was made under the aegis of a phlogiston theory; this was superseded by Lavoisier’s caloric theory, which was in turn undermined by Davy’s discovery of chlorine’s role in reactions. New gases were discovered – oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide; photosynthesis was postulated; infrared and ultraviolet rays were detected. The Voltaic pile was a spectacular instrument for harnessing electricity – Davy used it to decompose substances, reveal unknown elements, and show that substances were bonded by electrochemical forces. Dalton codified the operation of these forces – and the structure of matter – in his atomic theory. Meanwhile Herschel, when not detecting infra red, was observing previously invisible points of light in the heavens with improved telescopes, while Young was proposing a wave theory of light. Towards the end of the period, Oersted and then Faraday began the pioneering work on electromagnetism that changed understanding of the interaction of forces and enabled the construction of the electric motor.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fulford, Tim

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Volume III. Forces

General Introduction

Volume 3 Introduction

Part 1. Chemistry

1. Joseph Priestley, from Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air, vol II (London: J. Johnson, 1775), pp. 29-61; 101-102.

2. Jan Ingenhousz, from Experiments upon Vegetables (London: P. Elmsly and H. Payne, 1779), pp. xxxiii-xxxviii, xlii-xlv; Section IX, pp. 219-22

3. Henry Cavendish, ‘Experiments on Air’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 74 (1784), pp. 119-53.

4. Antoine Lavoisier, Elements of Chemistry in a New Systematic Order, tr. Robert Kerr, 2 vols (Edinburgh: W. Creech, 1802), pp. 37-117.

5. Thomas Beddoes, Notice of Some Observations Made at the Medical Pneumatic Institution (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799), pp. 6-16.

6. Humphry Davy, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical; Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide (London: J. Johnson, 1800), pp. 456-96; 548-59.

7. William Henry, Experiments on the Quality of Gases Absorbed by Water at Diffenrent Pressures', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 93 (1803), pp. 29-42.

8. John Dalton, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, Part I (Manchester: for R. Bickerstaff, London, 1808), pp. 141-50; Part II (1810), pp. 546-48, 560.

9. Humphry Davy, ‘On the Fire-Damp of Coal Mines, and on Methods of Lighting the Mines so as to Prevent Iis Explosion’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 106 (1816), pp. 1-22.

Part 2. Heat and Light

10. John Herapath, ‘A Mathematical Enquiry into the Causes, Laws and Principal Phenomena of Heat, Gases, Gravitation’, Annals of Philosophy, NS 1 (1821), pp. 273-93.

11. Joseph Black, from Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry (Edinburgh: W. Creech and London: Longman and Rees, 1803), pp. 147-67.

12. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, from ‘An Experimental Inquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat Which is Excited by Friction’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 88 (1798), pp. 80-102.

13. William Herschel, ‘Investigation of the Powers of the Prismatic Colours to Heat and Illuminate Objects’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 90 (1800), pp. 255-83.

14. Thomas Young, ‘On the Theory of Light and Colours’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 92 (1802), pp. 12-48.

15. Thomas Wedgwood and Humphry Davy, ‘An Account of the Method of Copying Painting upon Glass and of Making Profiles by the Agency of Light upon the Nitrate of Silver. Invented by Thomas Wedgwood, Esq., with observations by H. Davy’, Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 1 (1802), pp. 170-74.

16. David Brewster, ‘On the Laws Which Regulate the Polarisation of Light by Reflexion from Transparent Bodies’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 105 (1815), pp. 125-59.

Part 3. Electricity/Electro-chemistry

17. Anthony Carlisle and William Nicholson, ‘Account of the New Electrical or Galvanic Apparatus’, Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts, 4 (1801), pp. 179-87.

18. Adam Walker, from A System of Familiar Philosophy, 2 vols (London: for the author, 1802), vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 51-74.

19. Humphry Davy, ‘On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 98 (1808), pp. 1-44.

20. Humphry Davy, ‘On Some of the Combinations of Oxymuriatic Gas and Oxygene, and on the Chemical Relations of These Principles, to Inflammable Bodies’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 101 (1811), pp. 1-35.

21. Andrew Ure, from ‘An Account of Some Experiments Made on the Body of a Criminal Immediately after Execution, with Physiological and Practical Observations’, Quarterly Journal of Science, 6 (1819), pp. 283-94.

22. J. C. Oersted, ‘Experiments on the Effect of a Current of Electricity on the Magnetic Needle’, Annals of Philosophy, 16 (1820), pp. 273-77.

23. Michael Faraday, ‘Experimental Researches into Electricity’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 122 (1832), pp. 125-62.

Part 4. Astronomy

24. ‘A letter from William Herschel, Esq. F.R.S. to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P.R.S. and ‘On the Diameter and Magnitude of the Georgium Sidus’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 73 (1783), pp. 1-3 and 4-14.

25. John Michell, ‘On the Means of Discovering the Distance, Magnitude, &c. of the Fixed Stars, in Consequence of the Diminution of the Velocity of Their Light, in Case Such a Diminution Should Be Found to Take Place in Any of Them, and Such Other Data Should Be Procured from Observations, as Would be Farther Necessary for That Purpose’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 74 (1784), pp. 35-57.

26. William Herschel, from ‘On the Construction of the Heavens’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 75 (1785), pp. 213-66.

27. Mary Somerville, ‘Preliminary Dissertation’, Mechanism of the Heavens (London: J. Murray, 1831), pp. v-lxx.

28. John Pringle Nichol, Views of the Architecture of the Heavens (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1837), pp. 193-207.

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Tim Fulford is Professor of English at de Montfort University. His publications include Experimentalism in Wordsworth's later Poetry: Dialogues with the Dead (2023) Robert Southey, Lives of Labouring-class Poets, ed. Tim Fulford (2023) and Robert Southey, The Life of Wesley and Rise and Progress of Methodism (2022).