*************************************************************************** * * * ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER FOR THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY * * * * Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy * * in the Astronomische Gesellschaft * * * * Number 33, December 11, 1998 * * * * Edited by: Wolfgang R. Dick * * * *************************************************************************** Contents -------- 1. Peter D. Hingley: The Royal Astronomical Society's Library and Archives 2. Michael Oates: Uranographia Britannica 3. Julio Gonzalez Cabillon: HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list 4. Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of General Relativity 5. Conferences 1999-2001 Acknowledgements Imprint ........................................................................... Item 1 ENHA No. 33, December 11, 1998 ........................................................................... The Royal Astronomical Society's Library and Archives ----------------------------------------------------- By Peter D. Hingley, London (From: IAU Comm. 41 Newsletter, 1997-2000 Triennium, October 1998, Issue # 3. See http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/iaucomm41/news/c41_news_03.html . Slightly edited by the author for this reprint.) The Royal Astronomical Society has been accumulating books, manuscripts, pictures, instruments and miscellaneous relics since its foundation in 1820 February. Originally only a `box of books', the Library has grown to occupy quite a large proportion of the Society's premises in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, and has an open shelf stock of about 12,000 `modern' books (i.e. post 1850), about 4,000 books and pamphlets before 1850, and the remaining 16,000 volumes are bound periodicals, some of them of great age. The Library is primarily a research library dealing with modern astronomy and geophysics and seeks to maintain a balanced, if not fully comprehensive, stock of books in those subjects. The majority of serious journals in astronomy are held from volume 1. Many journals are held dealing with the more theoretical aspects of geophysics but the monographs stocks in this field are less complete. It also has extensive collections for the history of astronomy, and some on that of geophysics. The creme de la creme of the Rare Books is the collection bequeathed by the late Colonel E H Grove-Hills on his death in 1923. The Library has also subsumed the very interesting Library of the Spitalfields Mathematical Society (1717 - 1846) though alas quite a lot of their books were subsequently disposed of; we probably have about 800 left including journal volumes. The RAS Archives were catalogued by Dr J A Bennett whose catalogue was published as the last issue of the Society's Memoirs in 1978 (Volume 85). Printed copies of this are still available. They include both the administrative papers of the Society, and its correspondence with its members, from the first days of its existence onwards, (and although there are many famous names in those pages sadly this material can induce a certain ennui in the researcher as much of it is purely administrative). These are referred to as `RAS PAPERS' and `RAS LETTERS'. Much more varied and interesting are the `RAS MSS', which is a wide ranging collection of deposits of papers from individuals and a few observatories. They include material from such interesting people as Sir James South, Francis Baily, William Lassell, the complete run of Heinrich Schwabe's sunspot observing books from which he derived his original results about periodicity, Madras Observatory, and many more. Overwhelmingly the most important group of manuscript material owned by the RAS is its manuscripts of Sir William, Miss Caroline, and Sir John Herschel. A microfilm of this is available (24 reels !) but until very recently it has been stored in the archives strongroom of Churchill College, Cambridge; it has just been returned to Burlington House. The `ADD MSS' are an even more varied collection, including material in many formats and types. Due to constraints of time and finance Dr Bennett's catalogue was selective - generally the names listed of correspondents are only those important enough to be in `Poggendorff's Biographisch-Literarisches Handwoerterbuch...', and, alas, there is no subject index. The latter problem has been partly (and laboriously) addressed by having a scanned file made of the catalogue which has been proof-read by myself and the corrections inserted - though inevitably there are still some errors - so that simple searches can be done by names or subjects. As time has gone on more material has come to light, and a supplementary list is slowly being compiled, again in WORD so simple searches are possible, though alas due to time constraints progress has been painfully slow. Numerous small manuscript items were discovered by searching through the Library's `Tract' collection and things get found or are donated. Interesting deposits of material added since Dr Bennett's catalogue have included proof and MS versions of George Bishop's `Charts of the Ecliptic', additional papers of James Glaisher, and observing material of the Revd T E R Phillips, the Revd T W Webb, F J M Stratton, and A G Shrimpton. Some work has also been done on the RAS's photographic holdings; the collection is strong in portraits and photographs of telescopes and eclipse expeditions. The collection of astronomical photographs is only now being explored; there are varying numbers of prints by A A Common, Isaac Roberts, Max Wolff and Paul et Prosper Henry while there are several thousand glass plates in many varying formats some dating back to the 1860s. At long last conservation enclosures and space are available for the sorting out of these but again time is very limited. One of the most frequent types of enquiry is for bio-bibliography of former scientists and to assist with this type of enquiry a 9 page handout is available on request, `Biographical and Portrait Sources for Astronomers' (Bio-Paws for short !) which, although inevitably British orientated, lists quite a lot of the sources for such study as well as acting as a guide to RAS holdings. The Library is not actually a public one and is maintained for and financed by the Society. With a staff of only two it is difficult to deal with the many public enquiries from people wanting to name stars after their Granny (!) or see the next eclipse. We do however welcome many overseas researchers each year and as far as possible answer incoming research enquiries from non Fellows. It is really essential however that any non-members wishing to use the Library should make contact in advance by e-mail, telephone, or letter, especially if they wish to use special collections material. They should also be prepared to prove their identity with a University staff card or the like. RAS Library's Web page: http://www.ras.org.uk/ras/library/library.htm Author's address: Peter D. Hingley, Librarian Royal Astronomical Society Burlington House Piccadilly London W1V 0NL England Tel.: 0171 734 4582 / 3307 Fax: 0171 494 0166 e-mails: Librarian: pdh@ras.org.uk Assistant Librarian: mic@ras.org.uk General Enquiries: info@ras.org.uk ........................................................................... Item 2 ENHA No. 33, December 11, 1998 ........................................................................... Uranographia Britannica ----------------------- By Michael Oates, Manchester (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998, Item 4.) The Manchester Astronomical Society are proud to announce that a CD-ROM version of an extremely rare Star Atlas compiled by John Bevis, in the eighteenth century, can now be ordered online from http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm Or you can visit the Bevis Uranographia Britannica home page at http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/ An article on the Discovery of the Atlas appeared in Astronomy Now, June 98 edition. Plus a 4 page article on the November 98 issue of Sky & Telescope. The CD-ROM was also featured in the September 98 issue of Sky & Telescope. Brief Description of the Atlas This is an extremely rare atlas, and little known. The Manchester Astronomical Society discovered, nearly one year ago, that it was in possession of a very good copy, one of only 16 known to exist! It comprises of 51 Star charts covering the whole sky, a Cover page, Frontispiece and Index page. John Bevis, an eighteenth century physician - turned astronomer, whose other claim to fame is as the discoverer of the Crab Nebula compiled this atlas during the years 1745 - 1750. But the atlas was never published as the publisher was declared bankrupt in 1750. The quality of the engravings far surpass any other star atlas of the day, including those from Bayer, and Flamsteed. See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/press.htm for a Press release. Brief Description of the CD-ROM The whole atlas has been reproduced and put on to CD-ROM. Not only are all the charts and plates on the CD-ROM, but there is also a wealth of information about the atlas, John Bevis, how it was produced and why it was never published. The CD-ROM also includes an article about a pre-discovery observation of Uranus. A separate image directory has all the plates in .bmp format, and a selection of very high resolution images in .jpg format. The CD-ROM works with all versions of Windows from 3.1 upwards including Windows95/98 Windows NT3.5x - NT4 and the Macintosh. See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm for more information and online ordering by RegNet, or pay by cheque. Prices from GBP 12 plus postage. Author's address: Michael Oates, F.R.A.S. Manchester Astronomical Society http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/ Email: mike@ph.u-net.com ........................................................................... Item 3 ENHA No. 33, December 11, 1998 ........................................................................... HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list ---------------------------------------- By Julio Gonzalez Cabillon, Montevideo, Uruguay (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998, Item 5.) HISTORIA MATEMATICA [HM] is a new discussion list on the history of mathematics. 1. Description of HM 1.1 Purpose and standards The purpose of this list is to provide a virtual forum for scholarly discussion of the history of mathematics (in a broad sense), amongst professionals and non-professionals with an earnest interest in the field. Postings are to be highly relevant to the purpose of this list. All traditional and scholarly aspects of the history of mathematics are expected to be heavily discussed here. Additionally, - History of _history of mathematics_ - Current trends in the history of mathematics - History of _mathematics outside Europe_ - Ethnomathematics - Pedagogical issues - Origin of mathematical terms/symbols - Biographies and obituaries - Bibliographical references (databases) - Announcements and reviews of new books, articles, preprints, websites, ... - Advertisements of conferences, meetings, jobs, ... Contributors should strive to submit posts containing interesting, worthwhile or new information about substantive topics on the history of mathematics in a conscious effort to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible. Pertinent comments, queries, replies ... should be written with the same standards of thoughtfulness and care that apply to other scholarly activities; not necessarily at the level of writing a book or an article for a journal, but at least at the level of the informal printed material (e.g. photocopies) used at courses. 1.2 Languages ENGLISH, Portuguese and Spanish are the official languages of the list. Postings in other languages (e.g. French, German, Italian, ...) are also welcome. But, in this case, whenever a long posting is sent out, an abstract in English (say) would be highly appreciated. Although I do not think one should encourage too many languages on the forum (since many listmembers might just be monoglots), the list is to be *open* to those contributors who wish to communicate in their mother tongue, and do not feel confident enough in other languages. If you are *not* familiar with the language of a post, but you suspect that the topic discussed is, for instance, relevant to your own field of study (some key-words in the email may suggest that), a solution somehow will be found - at least, I hope so. If you are not sufficiently interested in that thread, you may simply hit the 'delete' key. This list is intended to provide a vehicle of communication for people of different nationalities, and it is unreasonable - in my opinion - to ask *everyone* to write in a specific language in order to communicate. 1.3 Configuration This is a CLOSED forum; that is to say, subscriptions MUST be approved by the list owner. Those who subscribe to HM are encouraged to identify themselves by name, profession, institutional affiliation, and research interest. 'Ego trips' will mean trips outside the list. Whereas freedom of speech is wonderful, and the discussion of controversial matters on the history of mathematics is to be expected (and welcome!), personal invective cannot take place on this forum. It must be said very emphatically: abuse or misuse of the list in one way or another will cause instant cancellation of the subscription by the list owner. 2. How to sign on You can join the HISTORIA MATEMATICA mailing list sending your subscription (which has to be APPROVED) to with the following command in the body of your message: subscribe historia-matematica [Please mind that there is no 'h' in 'matematica'] You can also request your subscription (for APPROVAL) to HM sending mail to with the following command in the body of your message: subscribe Author's address: Professor Julio Gonzalez Cabillon Emilio Frugoni 860 / apto 002 11200 Montevideo Uruguay Phones: +598 2 409 1977, +598 2 401 2951 Emails: owner-historia-matematica@chasque.apc.org, jgc@chasque.apc.org ........................................................................... Item 4 ENHA No. 33, December 11, 1998 ........................................................................... Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of ---------------------------------------------------------------- General Relativity ------------------ (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998, Item 6.) July 8-11, 1999 University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana Announcement and Call for Papers The organizers invite proposals for papers in all areas of the history and foundations of general relativity. Suitable topics include but are not limited to: * historical analysis of the origins of general relativity up to 1915, its precursors, competitors, and related developments in physics and mathematics; * historical analysis of the later development of the theory, including: relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, unified field theories, empirical tests, the equations of motion, energy conservation, gravitational collapse, gravitational waves, black holes, and singularity theorems, relativistic continuum mechanics, quantization of general relativity, alternative theories of gravitation; * critical analysis of foundational problems in general relativity, including: relationalism versus substantivalism, singularities, energy conservation, black hole information loss, quantum field theory in curved spacetime, quantum gravity, reduction of Newtonian gravitational theory and special relativity to general relativity, axiomatizations of general relativity, cosmology; * general relativity in context, including the scientific, institutional, philosophical, cultural and popular reception of the theory in diverse communities and countries, anti-relativity movements. Organizing Committee: Jean Eisenstaedt, CNRS Paris Hubert Goenner, Physics, University of Goettingen Don Howard, Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Michel Janssen, Philosophy, Boston University A.J. Kox, Physics, University of Amsterdam John Norton, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Juergen Renn, Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin Sahotra Sarkar, Philosophy, University of Texas=96Austin Tilman Sauer, History of Science, University of G=F6ttingen John Stachel, Physics, Boston University C.V. Vishveshwara, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Sponsoring organizations: Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, and the Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame Center for Einstein Studies, Boston University If your center would like to cosponsor this or future meetings, write for further information. If you are interested in attending, please return the form below for further mailings. If you would like to propose a paper, please return the form below with a title and abstract of the proposed paper as soon as possible, at the latest by January 30, 1999. Decisions of the organizing committee will be announced no later than March 15, 1999. You can mail the form to: Don Howard Program in History and Philosophy of Science 346 O'Shaughnessy University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 Or email the form to: Don.A.Howard.43@nd.edu For further information, write to either of the above addresses; you may also telephone at 219-631-7547 or fax at 219-631-3985. ------------------------------------------------------ Please send me further mailings on the Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of General Relativity. Title: Name: Institution: Address: Telephone: Fax: E-Mail: I do / do not wish to offer a paper. (If yes, please enclose title and abstract.) ........................................................................... Item 5 ENHA No. 33, December 11, 1998 ........................................................................... Conferences 1999-2001 --------------------- (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 36, 11. Dezember 1998, Items 3 [excerpt only] and 4. Partially translated by the editor.) Further conferences in the year 1999 were reported in previous issues of ENHA. For a complete list of all conferences announced see the following URL: http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/hist_astr/ha_meet.html February 27, 1999, Oakland, CA, USA 48th meeting of the Northern California Luncheon and Discussion Association (NCHALADA XLVIII) for historical astronomy discussions Place: Chabot Observatory, 4917 Mountain Blvd., Oakland, CA 94619. 9:30 AM: refreshments and greetings. 10 AM: "Climate Changes on Earth", chaired by Betty Neall, Eastbay Astronomical Society. 2:30 PM: "Asteroids", chaired by Bill Stepka, San Francisco Amateur Astronomers. Contact: Norman Sperling, Everything in the Universe, 185 John Street, Oakland, CA 94611. Phone & fax: +510-547-6523. e-mail: nsperling@california.com. March 20, 1999, Jena, Germany Colloquium on the occassion of the 300th birthday of Erhard Weigel. Information: Dr. Klaus-Dieter Herbst, Braendstroemstrasse 17, D-07749 Jena, Germany; or Dr. Reinhard E. Schielicke, e-mail: schie@astro.uni-jena.de URL: http://www.astro.uni-jena.de/Astron_Ges/weigel.html May 13-16, 1999, Ilmenau/Thuringia, Germany 28th Annual Meeting of the Arbeitskreis Sonnenuhren [Sundial Working Group] in the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Chronometrie [German Chronometric Society] On May 14 papers will be presented, on May 15 a one-day excursion will take place. Fee: Non-members DM 55.00 Deadline for registration: January 31, 1999 Information and registration: Arnold Zenkert, Seestr. 17, D-14467 Potsdam, Germany, Phone/Fax 0331-2700468 May 29-30, 1999, Munich, Germany Between Physics and Biology: Chemical Sciences in the Twentieth Century Joint Conference of the IUHPS/DHS Commissions on the History of Modern Chemistry / on the History of Modern Physics The programme includes: Session II. From Radiochemistry to Nuclear Chemistry and Cosmochemistry with a paper by Helge Kragh (Aarhus): Geo-, Astro- and Cosmochemistry: Chemical Approaches to the Study of the Heavens Registration deadline: 15 April 1999. Registration fee: DM 40 Inquiries and registration: Prof. Christoph Meinel, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, University of Regenburg, D-93040 Regensburg, Germany, e-mail: christoph.meinel@psk.uni-regenburg.de September 15-19, 1999, Lake Como and Pavia, Italy "Science as Culture": 5th International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Conference and 8th European Physical Society History and Physics Teaching Conference For details and paper submissions contact: Dr Enrico Antonio Giannetto, Dipartimento di Fisica 'A.Volta', Universita di Pavia, Via A. Bassi 6, 27100 Pavia, Italy, email: volta99@pv.infn.it URLs: http://www.cilea.it/volta99/ , http://opus.cilea.it/cgi-bin/fisicasite/webdriver?MIval=qp_paviam&pg=PV July 6-9, 2000, Vienna, Austria Third International History of Philosophy of Science Conference (HOPOS 2000) Submissions may be in English, German or French. Address inquiries to: Institute Vienna Circle, Museumstrasse 5/2/17, A-1070 Wien, Austria. Phone/Fax.: +431-526-1005. Email: i_v_c@ping.at (please refer to "HOPOS 2000" in the subject line) URL: http://hhobel.phl.univie.ac.at/wk/hop2000.html August 7-19, 2000, Manchester, UK XXIVth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union Comm. 41 "History of Astronomy" Business meeting Proposed Joint Discussion: "Applied Historical Astronomy" Proposed Invited Discourse: "The History of Astronomy in the 20th Century" Details will be announced later. Contacts: Dr Steven J. Dick, U.S. Naval Observatory, 3450 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20392-5420, USA, e-mail: dick@ariel.usno.navy.mil September 4-8, 2000, Oxford, UK XIX Scientific Instrument Symposium organised by the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science Contacts: Dr. James A. Bennett, Museum of the History of Science, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ, Great Britain, e-mail: jim.bennett@History-of-Science.oxford.ac.uk July 8-14, 2001, Mexico City, Mexico XXIst International Congress of History of Science Theme: Science and Cultural Diversity If you are interested in receiving the Call for Papers and other information on the congress, please contact: Prof. Juan Jose Saldana, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, of the XXIst ICHS, Apartado postal 21-873, 04000 Mexico D. F., Mexico, e-mail: xxiichs@servidor.unam.mx URL: http://www.cilea.it/history/DHS/mexico.htm ........................................................................... Acknowledgements ---------------- For information we thank all authors and in addition: Klaus-Dieter Herbst (Jena), Reinhard E. Schielicke (Jena), Norman Sperling (Oakland, CA), Arnold Zenkert (Potsdam). ........................................................................... Imprint ------- Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy (ENHA) Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy in the Astronomische Gesellschaft Editor: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick All items without an author's name are editorial contributions. Articles as well as information for the several sections are appreciated. Subscription for ENHA is free. Readers and subscribers are asked for occasional voluntary donations to the working group. Copyright Statement: The Electronic Newsletters for the History of Astronomy may be freely re-distributed in the case that no charge is imposed. Public offer in WWW servers, BBS etc. is allowed after the editor has been informed. Non-commercial reproduction of single items in electronic or printed media is possible only with the editor's permission. 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