Mary Fairfax Somerville: 5 books

In the year 1813, Professor Morichini of Rome discovered that steel, exposed to the violet rays of the solar spectrum, becomes magnetic. His experiments were repeated by Professor Configliachi at Pavia, and also by Mons. Berard, at Montpellier, without success. I am not aware of any one having attempted...

The life of a woman entirely devoted to her family duties and to scientific pursuits affords little scope for a biography. There are in it neither stirring events nor brilliant deeds to record; and as my Mother was strongly averse to gossip, and to revelations of private life or of intimate correspondence,...

Science, regarded as the pursuit of truth, must ever afford occupation of consummate interest, and subject of elevated meditation. The contemplation of the works of creation elevates the mind to the admiration of whatever is great and noble; accomplishing the object of all study, which, in the eloquent...

In order to convey some idea of the object of this work, it may be useful to offer a few preliminary observations on the nature of the subject which it is intended to investigate, and of the means that have already been adopted with so much success to bring within the reach of our faculties, those truths...

The investigations which have revealed the most refined and wonderful relations between light, heat, electricity, and highly elastic media; the relation of these powers to the particles of solid and liquid matter, new methods of analysis, and the microscopic examination of that marvellous creation,...