The Life of Sir William Crookes, O.M., F.R.S.

This 1923 biography of Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) explores his wide-ranging scientific career through diary extracts and letters.

Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe (Author), Oliver Lodge (Foreword by)

9781108061599, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 June 2013

444 pages, 5 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.5 cm, 0.56 kg

In 1870, Sir William Crookes (1832–1919) travelled to Gibraltar to observe the solar eclipse. He kept a diary and produced beautiful accounts of the expedition - alongside altogether more specific observations, including the 656 steps down a local cliff face, and every item in his luggage. It is with the same meticulous approach and cheerful prose that he records, in letters, journal articles and reports, the successes and failures of the vast range of projects in which he was involved. Although initially trained as a chemist, Crookes worked across the spectrum of the sciences, from consulting on preventative measures against cattle plague through to investigating spiritualism. Opening with a foreword by the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, this biography by Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe (1868–1933), first published in 1923, explores a remarkable life of enquiry through a host of first-hand sources.

Foreword
Preface
1. Introductory
2. Early days
3. The Royal College of Chemistry, 1848–54
4. Peregrinations, 1854–6
5. The business of life, 1856–8
6. The Chemical News, 1858–60
7. The green line, 1860–2
8. Slings and arrows, 1862–5
9. The cattle plague, 1865–7
10. Gold amalgamation, 1865–7
11. The eclipse expedition, 1870
12. Mysterious forces and apparitions, 1871–4
13. The radiometer, 1874–7
14. The fourth state of matter, 1877–9
15. Electric lighting, 1878–89
16. The origin of the elements, 1890
17. The end of the century, 1892–9
18. Diamonds, 1897–1903
19. Radium and its rays, 1903–12
20. The last stage, 1913–19
Index.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]