JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
These wonderful images of the aurora borealis occurs as plate 4 and a text illustration on page 113 in Amedee Guillemin (1826-1893) and edited by Silvanus P. Thompson (1851-1916), the lovely Electricity and Magnetism, published in London, 1891. The aurora is about the most impressive displays in the Earth’s atmosphere, and little understood, really, until the 20th century–and it wasn’t until the 19th century that it was shown that there was a relationship between the Earth’s magnetic field and the aurora. And remember, it wasn’t until the early 19th c that even the clouds were given scientific designations (by Luke Howard)–the aurora borealis was a more difficult matter.
[Sources for the images as well as the full text of the book: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha001481470]
