Welcome to the weblog of Net Advance Retro.
New essays will be added every Monday, circumstances permitting.
The subject matter of the weblog will be varied, but will include the
following topics:
- physical science and technology in the Long Nineteenth Century
- interaction of science and technology with art and literature in the 1800s
- "lost" science, that is, branches of science popular in the 1800s but
subsequently ignored (with good reason or otherwise)
- Victorian roots of contemporary thinking in physics
- contemporary movements (e.g. "steampunk") that seek to
revive selected aspects of Nineteenth Century technological culture
Bizarre opinions, factual errors, and mythologising tendencies found
in this weblog are attributable solely to the author (Norman Hugh Redington),
and should not be associated with the Net Advance of Physics
as a whole. Caveat lector.
Reverse-Chronological List of Weblog Entries: Note that entries
can also be found by subject on the main index to Net Advance Retro.
- 2013 May 20:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 7
- 2013 May 13:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 6
- 2013 May 06:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 5
- 2013 Apr. 29:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 4
- 2013 Apr. 22:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 3
- 2013 Apr. 15:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 2
- 2013 Apr. 08:
A New Approach to Experimental History of Science, Part 1:
Prelude in Prehistory
- 2013 Apr. 01:
News from the Centre of the Universe
- 2013 Mar. 11: Hermann Minkowski's Space
and Time: An Illustrated, Annotated Edition In twelve
parts.
- 2013 Mar. 04: Out of a Blizzard, "Dainty Hieroglyphics"
- 2013 Feb. 18: The Sky Falls on Benares
- 2013 Feb. 11: The 19th Century War between Physics and Biology, Part 4:
Poetics -- It is Reasonable -- Someone Speaks
- 2013 Feb. 04:
Scenes from the Life of Miss Sydney Margaret Hamilton
- 2013 Jan. 28: Dimitry Mendeléeff and the Elements Lighter Than Hydrogen
- 2013 Jan. 21: No Wonnumetonomy: The Struggles of
a Self-Made Scientist
- 2013 Jan. 14: The Rise and Fall of 19th Century Geometric Algebra, Part 1: Argand's Plane
- 2013 Jan. 07: A New Name for Pechblende
- 2012 Dec. 31:
Mr. Haskins of Buffalo Denies that there is an Æther
- 2012 Dec. 24: In Which Charles Babbage Says "Bah, Humbug."
- 2012 Dec. 17: Strange Doings in the Sky, 1864
- 2012 Dec. 10: In Which Wm. Wordsworth
Quarrels with His Airship
- 2012 Dec. 03: Greetings from 1827!
- 2012 Nov. 26: The 19th Century War between Physics and Biology, Part 3: Go It, Charlie!
- 2012 Nov. 19: Pritchett the Progressive
- 2012 Nov. 12: Fossils from Space!
- 2012 Nov. 05: Solar Energy: Plus ça change ...
- 2012 Oct. 29: The 19th Century War between Physics and Biology, Part 2: Cambridge as Jerusalem
- 2012 Oct. 22: The 19th Century War between Physics and Biology, Part 1: The Background
- 2012 Oct. 15: Introductory Message