FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   >>  
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Natural Philosophy of William Gilbert and His Predecessors, by W. James King This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Natural Philosophy of William Gilbert and His Predecessors Author: W. James King Release Date: April 15, 2010 [EBook #31999] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NATURAL PHILOSOPHY--WILLIAM GILBERT *** Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: PAPER 8 THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM GILBERT AND HIS PREDECESSORS _W. James King_ By W. James King THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM GILBERT AND HIS PREDECESSORS Until several decades ago, the physical sciences were considered to have had their origins in the 17th century--mechanics beginning with men like Galileo Galilei and magnetism with men like the Elizabethan physician and scientist William Gilbert. Historians of science, however, have traced many of the 17th century's concepts of mechanics back into the Middle Ages. Here, Gilbert's explanation of the loadstone and its powers is compared with explanations to be found in the Middle Ages and earlier. From this comparison it appears that Gilbert can best be understood by considering him not so much a herald of the new science as a modifier of the old. THE AUTHOR: W. James King is curator of electricity, Museum of History and Technology, in the Smithsonian Institution's United States National Museum. The year 1600 saw the publication by an English physician, William Gilbert, of a book on the loadstone. Entitled _De magnete_,[1] it has tradition
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25  
26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   >>  



Top keywords:

Gilbert

 

William

 

NATURAL

 

GILBERT

 

PHILOSOPHY

 

WILLIAM

 

science

 

Middle

 
PREDECESSORS
 
Museum

English

 
Predecessors
 

Philosophy

 

Natural

 

Project

 
Gutenberg
 

loadstone

 
mechanics
 

century

 

physician


explanation

 
earlier
 

explanations

 
compared
 

powers

 

scientist

 
Elizabethan
 

magnetism

 

Galilei

 

Galileo


Historians
 

concepts

 
traced
 

National

 

States

 

Smithsonian

 

Institution

 

United

 

publication

 

tradition


magnete

 

Entitled

 
Technology
 
History
 

understood

 

appears

 

AUTHOR

 

curator

 

electricity

 

modifier