Treccani History of Science
The age of Enlightenment
G1 – Physics, chemistry and earth sciences
Part A - The ends of natural knowledge 1700-1770
Edited by John L. Heilbron
The Enlightenment. Time, place and manner
• 1. Periodization
• 2. Institutional frameworks
• 3. Associated factors
General concepts of matter and motion
• 1. Space and time.
• 2. Matter itself.
• 3. The doctrine of hypotheses.
• 4. Motion and force.
• 5. Difficulties with force.
• 6. Mathematization and systemization.
• 7. The principle of least action: a Chapter from the ‘General history of irony’.
• 8. Physics and metaphysics.
Cosmology
• 1. Cartesian vortices versus Newtonian gravity.
• 2. Laplace’s cosmogony.
• 3. The order of the universe.
Experiments, instruments and places of work
• 1. Collections of instruments.
• 2. Instruments and the ‘Baconian sciences’.
• 3. From academies to the public sphere.
• 4. Experimenters and the world of commerce.
• 5. The proliferation of measurement
Geography and voyages of discovery
• 1. Exploration.
• 2. The Southern continent.
• 3. Scientific geography.
Light, heat, electricity and magnetism
• 1. Light.
• 2. Subtle fluids, heat and fire.
• 3. Electricity.
• 4. Magnetism.
• 5. Toward a quantified physics.
Macroscopic and microscopic chemistry
• 1. Phlogiston and metals
• 2. Salts and affinity
• 3. Chemical affinity and Newtonian attraction
• 4. Chemical mechanism
Pneumatics
• 1. The seventeenth century background.
• 2. Eighteenth century pneumatics.
• 3. British pneumatic chemistry.
• 4. Pneumatic applications.
• 5. Lavoisier and the French Stahlians.
Mathematica mixta
• 1. Astronomy
• 2. Geodesy: the length of a degree of meridian
• 3. Cartography
• 4. Mechanics of solid ad fluid bodies
• 5. Optics: the Newtonian heritage
• 6. The wave theory
• 7. The emission theory
Physique amusante
• 1. Demonstrations and entertainments
• 2. Conversations: the polite natural philosophy
Machines and hydraulics
• 1. Open channel and pipe hydraulics –
• 2. Water power.
• 3. Windmills.
• 4. Gears.
Metallurgy and exploration of mines
• 1. Knowledge and production.
• 2. Mineralogy and natural history.
• 3. Mineralogy and metallurgy.
• 4. Metallurgy and mineralogy in France.
• 5. The metallurgical and mining industry.