JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I found this delightful article while browsing volume 11 of Nature (1874)--J.D. Everett's On Mirage. It actually appears in parts over two issues (November 19 and 26) and I've got to admit that I was attracted to it from the illustrations--the wood engraving appearing in the concluding part having neo-proto-Absurdist qualities six decades before that would become recognized as an art form. I've included the image below from my copy as it is very sharp and crisp--I've also included links for the texts from the University of Wisconsin (though their scans of the images are not quite so fresh as the one below).
[Everett (1831-1904) was a distinguished physicist and is perhaps best remembered for his translation of a wonderful textbook by Augustin Privat-Deschanel, Elementary Treatise on Natural Philosophy: Physics (1882), a book I've found useful over time (along with Ganot's Physics) for identifying period scientific instruments as both books are absolutely filled with images.]
Text for Mirages I: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&entity=HistSciTech.Nature18741119.p0010&id=HistSciTech.Nature18741119&isize=M
Text for Mirages II: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=article&did=HistSciTech.Nature18741126.Evere01&id=HistSciTech.Nature18741126&isize=M
Comments