Treccani History of Science
The age of Enlightenment
G2 – Physics, chemistry and earth sciences
Part B - The beginnings of the natural sciences 1770-1830
Edited by John L. Heilbron
Exact chemistry and physics
• 1. Instruments and pre-modern measurements
• 2. The advent of precision measurement –
• 3. Precision measurement in natural philosophy
• 4. The discovery of oxygen
• 5. The new chemical nomenclature
Mathematical physics
• 1. Definitions and limitations
• 2. Roots and rhetoric
• 3. Instrumentalism and imponderables
• 4. physica generalis
• 5. physica particularis –
Earth sciences
• 1. The Wernerian tradition
• 2. The study of fossils and the geological maps
• 3. Structural geology
• 4. Uniformitarianism
• 5. Geology and religion
• 6. Terrestrial magnetism
• 7. Meteorology
The qualitative rear guard
• 1. New phenomena: especially the battery
• 2. Naturphilosophie
• 3. Chemistry
The retiring vanguard
• 1. The old guard and the stability of the solar system
• 2. A new solar system
• 3. Debate over meteors
• 4. The motion of the Sun
• 5. The new physical astronomy
• 6. The light of the Sun
• 7. New institutions
• 8. Vaporous amusements
• 9. Imponderable amusements
• 10. Automatic amusements.
Forestry and agriculture
• 1. Forestry
• 2. Agriculture
The lightning rods
The prime movers
• 1. Water-powered prime movers.
• 2. Steam engines.
Chemistry and manufacturing
• 1. Salts
• 2. Dyeing
• 3. Gases
• 4. Gunpowder
Military technology
• 1. The late Enlightenment.
• 2. The American system of manufacture.
• 3. The early Nineteenth century.