Print and Modern Science
Print and Modern Science |
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This book highlights the use of printing technology to collect scientific data. To record, compile, and then publish such complex data in 50 volumes reflects the sophistication, as well as the extreme limits of the book for use by scientists. Obviously, today the computer has supplanted the book as a storehouse of large collections of data.
Images: Title page from Challenger Report Images: Front cover of The Botanical Atlas Images: Title page of Hitchcock's Report Images: Title page from Audubon's Quadrupeds of North America
Images: Title page Images: Title page from Northrop's Marvels Images: Title page from Boyle's work Click on thumbnails for full-page images.
As might be expected, the influence of print on the development of modern science is almost incalculable. The greater availability of scientific texts brought about by the early printing presses obviously increased opportunities for scientists to consult and compare different texts. Merely by making more data available to the working scientist, printers fostered advances in research. Technical texts from different regions and historical periods were brought side by side in the libraries of scientists all over Europe. This allowed them to compare and contrast theories and to verify experimental results. For the first time, researchers were able to throughly test old theoretical principles and develop new ones. Included in the exhibit are some of the Library's examples of early scientific texts.
Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76 Published for her Majesty's Stationary Office 1885
In 1870, Wyville Thompson requested the loan of a ship for a prolonged voyage of exploration of the oceans of the world. On December 7, 1872, the expedition went to sea aboard the H.M.S. Challenger. Between her departure in 1872 and her return in 1876, the ship traveled almost 70,000 miles and collected scientific measurements in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Over the length of the trip, 362 samples were taken in order to measure the depth of the sea, the chemical composition of bottom water, and temperatures at the lower depths. There was also an effort to collect fauna from the lower regions of the ocean. After the Challenger returned in 1876, more than 100 scientists studied the samples taken and compiled their reports in a 50 volume book set. The first volume of that set is seen here. At the time, the findings of this voyage were seen as a major advance in the knowledge of the world's oceans.
Map of the South Sea Islands, now known as Hawaii
Illustration of deep sea deposits discovered and catalogued by the Challenger scientists
The Botanical Atlas: A Guide to the Practical Study of Plants by D. M'Alpine Published by the Century Company New York 1883
Increasingly, in the nineteenth century, it became possible to include, in books on various fields of science, detailed drawings and color reproductions, like those seen here, of the natural phenomena under study. This practice certainly furthered progress in scientific research.
Text describing the accompanying illustration. Note that the uses of penicillin as an antibiotic were as yet unknown.
Colored illustration of Peziza and Penicillium
Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts by Edward Hitchcock Published by the Press of J.S. and C. Adams Amherst, 1833
Edward Hitchcock was one of the leading scientists and educators of his day. When Hitchcock compiled this study for the State of Massachusetts, Amherst College had been in existence only 13 years. Later he was selected as the President of the College and in that role was instrumental in helping the college to grow into one of the most important colleges in the United States. He also played an important part in the founding of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which would later become the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
A catalogue of Mammalia, or mammals, found in Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. Such historical lists are important aids to ecologists and environmentalists.
Illustrations of different granite types found throughout the state with descriptive text.
The Quadrupeds of North America by John James Audubon and the Rev. John Bachman Published by V.G. Audubon New York 1854
John James Audubon is perhaps the most famous American ornithologist to have ever lived. His Birds of America was a great success and is now recognized as one of the most important books of the nineteenth century. The popularity of Birds of America inspired him to turn his attention to animals and produce a similar book. The book seen here is the product of that effort. It includes color illustrations of 150 species, all in the distinctive style and detail that Audubon was famous for.
Descriptive text accompanying illustration of the American wild cat
Illustration of the American wild cat
North American Herpetology; or, a Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States
By John Edwards Holbrook Published by J. Dobson Philadelphia 1842
John Edwards Holbrook, who lived from 1794 to 1871, was an American naturalist, physician, and professor of medicine. This book is considered his most important work, and a major contribution to the field of herpetology.
Illustration of Emys Rubriventris with accompanying description
Earth, Sea, and Sky, or Marvels of the Universe by Henry Davenport Northrop published by James Lewis Springfield, Massachusetts 1887
This book was a popular text of the day with a variety of stories about adventures, unusual physical features of the earth, characteristics of the oceans, and explanations of phenomena of the solar system. It includes more than 300 engravings. It was designed for home use and might have been of particular interest to children curious about science. Today, the market for books such as this one has been lost to cable television, with channels such as Discovery and programs such as Nova.
Text with accompanying illustration describing the "terrible monster" or megalosaurus. Note the early attempt to imaginatively recreate what a dinosaur might have looked like.
New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold By Robert Boyle Printed by Richard Davis Oxford 1683
Robert Boyle, who lived from 1627 to 1691, was one of the great scientists of the seventeenth century and is now generally regarded as the father of chemistry. He demonstrated that chemistry should be studied by the application of rigorous experimental and quantitative methods, and gave the first modern definition of a chemical element. Boyle also experimented with the process of chemical purification in order to obtain reproducible reactions. Boyle is an example of a scientist in the early print age whose work is inconceivable without books. At the age of 12, he was profoundly influenced by Galileo after he came across the Italian scientist's works while traveling through Europe. He was also influenced by the philosophy of Descartes, although he did not believe in the physical reality of atoms. He is probably most known today as the formulator of Boyle's Law, which states that pressure varies inversely as volume at constant temperature. The work shown here was completed in the last decade of his life.
First page of the table of contents
Illustration, with descriptive text, of the actual instruments used in Boyle's experiments.
