Weighing the World: The Reverend John Michell of ThornhillThe book about John Michell (1724-93) has two parts. The first and longest part is biographical, an account of Michell’s home setting (Nottinghamshire in England), the clerical world in which he grew up (Church of England), the university (Cambridge) where he studied and taught, and the scientific activities he made the center of his life. The second part is a complete edition of his known letters. Half of his letters have not been previously published; the other half are brought together in one place for the first time. The letters touch on all aspects of his career, and because they are in his words, they help bring the subject to life. His publications were not many, a slim book on magnets and magnetism, one paper on geology, two papers on astronomy, and a few brief papers on other topics, but they were enough to leave a mark on several sciences. He has been called a geologist, an astronomer, and a physicist, which he was, though we best remember him as a natural philosopher, as one who investigated physical nature broadly. His scientific contribution is not easy to summarize. Arguably he had the broadest competence of any British natural philosopher of the eighteenth century: equally skilled in experiment and observation, mathematical theory, and instruments, his field of inquiry was the universe. From the structure of the heavens through the structure of the Earth to the forces of the elementary particles of matter, he carried out original and far-reaching researches on the workings of nature. |
Other editions - View all
Weighing the World: The Reverend John Michell of Thornhill Russell McCormmach No preview available - 2013 |
Weighing the World: The Reverend John Michell of Thornhill Russell McCormmach No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
aperture artificial magnets bodies brightness Canton Cavendish Scientific Manuscripts chalk Charles Blagden Church coal College Copley Medal density Devonshire Collections diameter distance double stars Eakring earthquakes eighteenth century electricity England experiments fixed stars flints force friends Geikie geologists geology Gilbert Michell gravitation Henry Cavendish Herschel MSS History Ibid inches indistinct instruments iron John Michell John Smeaton John’s Joseph Priestley kind letter London Maskelyne mathematical matter McCormmach measure method Michell’s paper mirror motion Mulso natural philosophy Newton Newtonian observations Opticks optics original parallax parish pencils Priestley Priestley’s published quantity Queens rays reason reflecting telescope refraction rock Royal Astronomical Society Royal Society shale shells Sir George Savile Smeaton speculum stellar stone strata stratum Sun’s suppose telescope theory Thornhill thought toadstone velocity of light volcanoes weighing the world William Herschel wrote yellow limestone Yorkshire