scholarly journals A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Mary Clerke
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals On the possible ellipticity of Saturn's ring

1924 ◽  
Vol 106 (739) ◽  
pp. 526-552 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gravitational Attraction ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
Small Oscillations ◽  
First Approximation ◽  
Elliptical Ring ◽  
Single Ring ◽  
History Of ◽  
Concentric Circles

Clerk Maxwell’s investigation into the constitution and stability of Saturn’s Ring was based upon the fundamental supposition that the rings were composed of particles arranged in concentric circles. Although the particles could perform small oscillations about their mean positions, it is evident that the outline of the ring would be to all appearances circular. A line in Clerke’s ‘Popular History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century’ (page 299) suggests that some observers have regarded the outline of the ring as elliptical. It is therefore of interest to enquire under what conditions an elliptical ring could exist. The ellipse is a more general form than a circle. If, therefore, it can be shown that an elliptic ring is possible, any explanation of the origin of the rings must take account of this fact. In this paper a single ring of particles is examined. The actual Ring of Saturn probably consists of numerous rings, one within the other. By their gravitational attraction, each will affect the motions of the others. As a first approximation, however, it is sufficient to consider the case of a single ring.

scholarly journals Exit the frog, enter the human: physiology and experimental psychology in nineteenth-century astronomy

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
JIMENA CANALES
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Physiology ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
Sensory Transmission ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intense Debate

This paper deals with one of the first attempts to measure simple reactions in humans. The Swiss astronomer Adolph Hirsch investigated personal differences in the speed of sensory transmission in order to achieve accuracy in astronomy. His controversial results, however, started an intense debate among both physiologists and astronomers who disagreed on the nature of these differences. Were they due to different eyes or brains, or to differences in skill and education? Furthermore, they debated how to eliminate them. Some, for example, wanted to eliminate the observer, and prescribed the use of new technologies like the electro-chronograph or photography, while others believed in discipline and education. By debating the nature of these differences, astronomers and physiologists sketched both different conceptions of ‘man’ and different paths to objectivity. These diverse conceptions, moreover, were tied to current nineteenth-century debates, such as the benefits or disadvantages of railroads, telegraphy and the standardization of time and longitudes. By focusing on the debates surrounding the speed of sensory transmission, this paper reevaluates the history of astronomy, physiology and experimental psychology. Furthermore, in investigating astronomy's relation to the human sciences, it uncovers profound connections in the traditionally separate histories of objectivity and the body.L'heure sera distribuée dans les maisons,comme l'eau ou le gaz.Adolph Hirsch

Beyond the planets: early nineteenth-century studies of double stars

1984 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Williams
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Solar System ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Double Stars ◽  
Stellar Astronomy ◽  
John Herschel ◽  
Major Break ◽  
History Of ◽  
Positional Astronomy

In 1837 the German-born astronomer F. G. W. Struve published his famous catalogue of double stars. For Struve this was the culmination of 12 years' detailed observation of a class of celestial objects lying exclusively beyond the solar system; for historians of astronomy it poses the problem of explaining why the study of double stars became a significant part of astronomical endeavour, as it did, during the 1820s and 1830s. For, although Struve's interest was extreme, it was shared to a lesser extent by several eminent contemporaries, including John Herschel, Friedrich Bessel, Johann Encke, James South and Félix Savary. Their combined efforts represented an important transition in astronomy: for the first time one of the emphases of the subject moved beyond the solar system to the so-called fixed stars. The question of the emergence of interest in double stars is of historical significance, therefore, as it is related to the problem of the origins of ‘stellar astronomy’. This essay is thus intended to offer an explanation of astronomers' interest in double stars, and to tackle the related question of whether this transition constituted a major break in the history of astronomy. Furthermore it is proposed that answers to these problems may be found by considering the practice of astronomy dominant during the first half of the nineteenth century. Astronomers in this period were overwhelmingly concerned with a refined form of positional astronomy. The problems they chose to solve were by and large related to the difficulties of the accurate reduction of observational data, and the compilation of reliable tables and star charts, which were then used as a background against which the motions of solar system objects were plotted. By assessing individuals' studies of double stars within this context it can be seen firstly that such studies were no more or less than specific examples of a general case, and secondly that the stars themselves were not usually of intrinsic interest. In general it was the positions of the stars on the

scholarly journals John and Edward Troughton, mathematical instrument makers

1973 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-249 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
History Of Astronomy ◽  
Instrument Maker ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Time ◽  
Geodetic Surveying

During the first quarter of the nineteenth century Edward Troughton (c. 1753-1835, F.R.S. 1810) was the foremost mathematical instrument maker in England, and in the last ten or fifteen years of the eighteenth century he and his older brother John Troughton (c. 1739-1807), then in partnership, ranked second only to the celebrated Jesse Ramsden (c. 1735-1800, F.R.S. 1786). Many examples of their work exist in the collections at Greenwich, South Kensington, Cambridge and Oxford. Edward’s method of ‘original division’, or scale graduation, was a most important contribution, for which he received the Copley Medal, and his major instruments hold an honoured place in the history of astronomy, geodetic surveying and metrology. The modern literature incorporates what seems to have become a traditional version of the Troughton story (Note A), but this is inaccurate in some respects and misleading in others. A more reliable account is therefore desirable and we present here, for the first time, biographical memoirs of John and Edward Troughton based on primary sources and contemporary published information. A brief account of their uncle, John Troughton senior, is also included. Some notes on the dating of Troughton instruments are given in an Appendix.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

Adam Zalužanský’s “De sexu plantarum” (1592): an early pioneering chapter on plant sexuality

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Funk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
History Of Botany ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Botanical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

In the history of botany, Adam Zalužanský (d. 1613), a Bohemian physician, apothecary, botanist and professor at the University of Prague, is a little-known personality. Linnaeus's first biographers, for example, only knew Zalužanský from hearsay and suspected he was a native of Poland. This ignorance still pervades botanical history. Zalužanský is mentioned only peripherally or not at all. As late as the nineteenth century, a researcher would be unaware that Zalužanský’s main work Methodi herbariae libri tres actually existed in two editions from two different publishers (1592, Prague; 1604, Frankfurt). This paper introduces the life and work of Zalužanský. Special attention is paid to the chapter “De sexu plantarum” of Zalužanský’s Methodus, in which, more than one hundred years before the well-known De sexu plantarum epistola of R. J. Camerarius, the sexuality of plants is suggested. Additionally, for the first time, an English translation of Zalužanský’s chapter on plant sexuality is provided.

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