Author : Sean F. Johnston
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 17,92 MB
Release : 2015-05-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 1420034774
2003 Paul Bunge Prize of the Hans R. Jenemann Foundation for the History of Scientific Instruments Judging the brightness and color of light has long been contentious. Alternately described as impossible and routine, it was beset by problems both technical and social. How trustworthy could such measurements be? Was the best standard of inten
Author : Chris Otter
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 393 pages
File Size : 28,47 MB
Release : 2008-11-15
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0226640787
During the nineteenth century, Britain became the first gaslit society, with electric lighting arriving in 1878. At the same time, the British government significantly expanded its power to observe and monitor its subjects. How did such enormous changes in the way people saw and were seen affect Victorian culture? To answer that question, Chris Otter mounts an ambitious history of illumination and vision in Britain, drawing on extensive research into everything from the science of perception and lighting technologies to urban design and government administration. He explores how light facilitated such practices as safe transportation and private reading, as well as institutional efforts to collect knowledge. And he contends that, contrary to presumptions that illumination helped create a society controlled by intrusive surveillance, the new radiance often led to greater personal freedom and was integral to the development of modern liberal society. The Victorian Eye’s innovative interdisciplinary approach—and generous illustrations—will captivate a range of readers interested in the history of modern Britain, visual culture, technology, and urbanization.
Author : Stephen R. Wilk
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 17,7 MB
Release : 2021-02-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 0197518605
Why are candle flames yellow? Why does ultraviolet light supposedly kill vampires? What about the monocle? Why was the monocle--a corrective lens that only corrects vision in a single eye--so popular among businessmen and politicians for so many years? Stephen R. Wilk answers all this and so much more in Sandbows and Black Lights. This book is a collection of original essays on weird and unusual topics surrounding optics. Wilk uses the BBC's formula of "Education by Stealth" to explain unusual facets of science and technology through the matrix of interesting and cultural paths, all the while weaving in math equations in an accessible way. The first part of the book focuses on the history, the second moves to odd scientific approaches to visual phenomena, and the third part explains the unique use of optics in fiction, movies, and comic books over time. Chapters cover everything from endless corridors to the beam of light over treasure chests in movies. Whether he is explaining a rare discovery or answering a seemingly unapproachable question, Wilk is able to lure readers in on every page. He has a unique ability to turn complex science into an engaging story, and this book is full of narratives on esoteric topics anyone will find intriguing. Sandbows and Black Lights provides an enticing and entertaining look at physical illusions in a whole new way.
Author : Roy Osborne
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 41,50 MB
Release : 2015
Category : History
ISBN : 1326459716
Updated to 2020, BOOKS ON COLOUR 1495-2015 offers quick and easy reference to 2,500 authors and editors and over 3,000 titles published by them. Following a concise historical survey of colour literature, authors are listed in an A-Z directory, together with titles, dates and places of publication, and translations for non-English titles. Biographical references are included where known. Chronological indexes of authors precede the bibliographical listing and alphabetical indexes of authors follow it. Publications are categorised under 27 general headings: Architecture, Chemistry, Classification, Colorants, Computing & Television, Decoration, Design, Dress & Cosmetics, Dyeing, Flora & Fauna, Food, Glass, History, Lighting, Metrology, Music, Optics, Painting, Perception, Philosophy, Photography & Cinema, Printing, Psychology, Symbolism, Terminology, Therapy, and Vision.
Author : Olivier Darrigol
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 45,62 MB
Release : 2012-01-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 0191627453
This book is a long-term history of optics, from early Greek theories of vision to the nineteenth-century victory of the wave theory of light. It shows how light gradually became the central entity of a domain of physics that no longer referred to the functioning of the eye; it retraces the subsequent competition between medium-based and corpuscular concepts of light; and it details the nineteenth-century flourishing of mechanical ether theories. The author critically exploits and sometimes completes the more specialized histories that have flourished in the past few years. The resulting synthesis brings out the actors' long-term memory, their dependence on broad cultural shifts, and the evolution of disciplinary divisions and connections. Conceptual precision, textual concision, and abundant illustration make the book accessible to a broad variety of readers interested in the origins of modern optics.
Author : Anders Steinvall
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 38,56 MB
Release : 2022-08-31
Category : Design
ISBN : 1350193607
A Cultural History of Color in the Modern Age covers the period 1920 to the present, a time of extraordinary developments in colour science, philosophy, art, design and technologies. The expansion of products produced with synthetic dyes was accelerated by mass consumerism as artists, designers, architects, writers, theater and filmmakers made us a 'color conscious' society. This influenced what we wore, how we chose to furnish and decorate our homes, and how we responded to the vibrancy and chromatic eclecticism of contemporary visual cultures.The volume brings together research on how philosophers, scientists, linguists and artists debated color's polyvalence, its meaning to different cultures, and how it could be measured, manufactured, manipulated and enjoyed. Color shapes an individual's experience of the world and also how society gives particular spaces, objects, and moments meaning. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Color examines how color has been created, traded, used, and interpreted over the last 5000 years. The themes covered in each volume are color philosophy and science; color technology and trade; power and identity; religion and ritual; body and clothing; language and psychology; literature and the performing arts; art; architecture and interiors; and artefacts. Anders Steinvall is Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics at Umeå University, Sweden. Sarah Street is Professor of Film at the University of Bristol, UK. Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Color set. General Editors: Carole P. Biggam and Kirsten Wolf
Author : Jan W. Gooch
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 1048 pages
File Size : 28,18 MB
Release : 2010-11-08
Category : Science
ISBN : 1441962468
This reference, in its second edition, contains more than 7,500 polymeric material terms, including the names of chemicals, processes, formulae, and analytical methods that are used frequently in the polymer and engineering fields. In view of the evolving partnership between physical and life sciences, this title includes an appendix of biochemical and microbiological terms (thus offering previously unpublished material, distinct from all competitors.) Each succinct entry offers a broadly accessible definition as well as cross-references to related terms. Where appropriate to enhance clarity further, the volume's definitions may also offer equations, chemical structures, and other figures. The new interactive software facilitates easy access to a large database of chemical structures (2D/3D-view), audio files for pronunciation, polymer science equations and many more.
Author : Ian Inkster
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 27,38 MB
Release : 2009-05-31
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 082643875X
Technical standards have received increasing attention in recent years from historians of science and technology, management theorists and economists. Often, inquiry focuses on the emergence of stability, technical closure and culturally uniform modernity. Yet current literature also emphasizes the durability of localism, heterogeneity and user choice. This collection investigates the apparent tension between these trends using case studies from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The History of Technology addresses tensions between material standards and process standards, explores the distinction between specifying standards and achieving convergence towards them, and examines some of the discontents generated by the reach of standards into ‘everyday life'. Includes the Special Issue "By whose standards? Standardization, stability and uniformity in the history of information and electrical technologies"
Author : Michael Rossi
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 25,53 MB
Release : 2019-08-30
Category : History
ISBN : 022665186X
The Republic of Color delves deep into the history of color science in the United States to unearth its origins and examine the scope of its influence on the industrial transformation of turn-of-the-century America. For a nation in the grip of profound economic, cultural, and demographic crises, the standardization of color became a means of social reform—a way of sculpting the American population into one more amenable to the needs of the emerging industrial order. Delineating color was also a way to characterize the vagaries of human nature, and to create ideal structures through which those humans would act in a newly modern American republic. Michael Rossi’s compelling history goes far beyond the culture of the visual to show readers how the control and regulation of color shaped the social contours of modern America—and redefined the way we see the world.
Author :
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 723 pages
File Size : 28,47 MB
Release : 2014-11-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 0124169945
This book presents the state-of-the-art of optical remote sensing applied for the generation of marine climate-quality data products, with contributions by international experts in the field. The chapters are logically grouped into six thematic parts, each introduced by a brief overview. The different parts include: i. requirements for the generation of climate data records from satellite ocean measurements and additionally basic radiometry principles addressing terminology, standards, measurement equation and uncertainties; ii. satellite visible and thermal infrared radiometry embracing instrument design, characterization and, pre- and post-launch calibration; iii. in situ visible and thermal infrared radiometry including overviews on basic principles, technology and measurements methods required to support satellite missions devoted to climate change investigations; iv. simulations as fundamental tools to support interpretation and analysis of both in situ and satellite radiometric measurements; v. strategies for in situ radiometry to satisfy mission requirements for the generation of climate data records; and finally, vi. methods for the assessment of satellite data products. Fundamentals of measurement theory are taken through to implementation of practical ground based radiometers and their application to validate satellite data used to generate climate data records. This book presents practical solutions for those involved or contemplating the validation of optical climate measurements from satellite instruments. - Exhaustive coverage of important topics - Fundamental and advanced discussions of many types of instruments - Emphasis on calibration and uncertainty analysis of results
