Kew Observatory influenced and was influenced by many of the larger developments in the physical sciences during the second half of the nineteenth century, while many of the major figures involved were in some way affiliated with Kew. Lee T. Macdonald explores the extraordinary story of this important scientific institution as it rose to prominence during the Victorian era. His book offers fresh new insights into key historical issues in nineteenth-century science: the patronage of science; relations between science and government; the evolution of the observatory sciences; and the origins and early years of the National Physical Laboratory, once an extension of Kew and now the largest applied physics organization in the United Kingdom.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-304) and index.
Contents
Introduction: Kew Observatory, Victorian Science, and the ""Observatory Sciences; 1. A ""Physical Observatory"" Kew, the Royal Society, and the British Association, 1840-1845; 2. Survival and Expansion: Kew Observatory, the Government Grant, and Standardization, 1845-1859; 3. ""Solar Spot Mania,"" ""Cosmical Physics,"" and Meteorology, 1852-1870; 4. Kew Observatory and the Royal Society, 1869-1885; 5. Kew Observatory and the Origins of the National Physical Laboratory, 1885-1900
6. ""An Epoch in the History of Kew"" The End of the Victorian Kew Observatory, 1900-1910Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
Other title(s)
Kew Observatory and the evolution of Victorian science, 1840-1910
ISBN
9780822945260
0822945266
LCCN
2018289207
OCLC
1016010507
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