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To meet William Morgan is to encounter the eighteenth-century world of finance, science and politics. Born in Bridgend in 1750, his heritage was Welsh but his influence extended far beyond national borders, and the legacy of his work continues to shape life in the twenty-first century. Aged only twenty-five and with no formal training, Morgan became actuary at the Equitable, which was then a fledgling life assurance company. Known today as ‘the father of the actuarial profession’, his pioneering work earned him the Copley Medal, the Royal Society’s most prestigious award. His interests covered a wider scientific field, and his papers on electrical experiments show that he unwittingly c...
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During the long twentieth century, explorers went in unprecedented numbers to the hottest, coldest, and highest points on the globe. Taking us from the Himalaya to Antarctica and beyond, Higher and Colder presents the first history of extreme physiology, the study of the human body at its physical limits. Each chapter explores a seminal question in the history of science, while also showing how the apparently exotic locations and experiments contributed to broader political and social shifts in twentieth-century scientific thinking. Unlike most books on modern biomedicine, Higher and Colder focuses on fieldwork, expeditions, and exploration, and in doing so provides a welcome alternative to ...
These essays address the epistemological, aesthetic and political implications of scale in both scholarly and artistic work. From the mass image in vernacular culture to transformations of photography in contexts of big data and artificial intelligence, they explore the massification of photography.
This book discusses the significance of Lhwyd’s discoveries in the fields of botany, palaeontology, epigraphy, antiquarian studies and linguistics. The book places Lhwyd’s contribution in the context of recent work in these fields. This book provides links to websites for readers to follow up for further study.
This is an English language adaptation of a book which was published in Welsh by the same author by UWP, Evan James Williams: Ffisegydd yr Atom. The book discusses his career – what he achieved along those he worked with and the places he worked, most importantly the Physics Department at Aberystwyth University – and outlines his scientific service during the war. It also looks at the man himself – his upbringing in a Welsh speaking home and community in Ceredigion - through the accounts given by those who knew him.
William Robert Grove is one of the forgotten giants of nineteenth-century science. The improvements in battery technology developed by him helped power the Victorian telegraph; his essay On The Correlation of Physical Forces was widely recognised as a major contribution to natural philosophy; and he was the driving force behind the mid-century reform of the Royal Society. This book follows his scientific career and the culture of Victorian science within which he worked, to explore the ways in which he contributed to forging a distinct Welsh scientific identity in the nineteenth century.
Three Stripes South travel narrative - The story of Bex Band's 1,000km trek along the Israel National Trail that inspired the Love Her Wild Women's Adventure Movement; an inspirational and transformative adventure memoir.
The Life and Legend of James Wattoffers a deeper understanding of the work and character of the great eighteenth-century engineer. Stripping away layers of legend built over generations, David Philip Miller finds behind the heroic engineer a conflicted man often diffident about his achievements but also ruthless in protecting his inventions and ideas, and determined in pursuit of money and fame. A skilled and creative engineer, Watt was also a compulsive experimentalist drawn to natural philosophical inquiry, and a chemistry of heat underlay much of his work, including his steam engineering. But Watt pursued the business of natural philosophy in a way characteristic of his roots in the Scottish “improving” tradition that was in tension with Enlightenment sensibilities. As Miller demonstrates, Watt’s accomplishments relied heavily on collaborations, not always acknowledged, with business partners, employees, philosophical friends, and, not least, his wives, children, and wider family. The legend created in his later years and “afterlife” claimed too much of nineteenth-century technology for Watt, but that legend was, and remains, a powerful cultural force.
First full-length biography of Robert Recorde. This will benefit general readers wanting a chronological history of his life, or those interested in learning more about him in relation to other events in the Tudor period. Two chapters devoted to Recorde’s academic studies at Oxford and Cambridge. This will benefit readers interested in the life of scholars at university during the Tudor period. Describes the training and practice of a physician, of interest to readers pursuing the history of medicine in the Tudor period. Book contains numerous extracts from Recorde’s own writings transcribed into Modern English. Of benefit to readers wanting to read the original texts written in Early Modern English.