John Tyndall

Broschiertes Buch

The Glaciers of the Alps

Beschreibung

John Tyndall (1820-93) was an influential Irish geologist who became fascinated by mountaineering after a scientific expedition to Switzerland in 1856. He joined the Alpine Club in 1858 and achieved the summit of the Matterhorn in 1868 - a feat which led to a peak on the Italian side of the massif being named after him. He also climbed Mont Blanc three times. A writer of scientific texts who was widely praised for the quality of his prose, Tyndall made clear that in this work, published in 1860, he had 'not attempted to mix Narrative and Science'. He divides his account into two parts: his Alpine adventures and observations, and the scientific explanations about the origins and structural aspects of glaciers. Both sections include explanatory illustrations. This book, a classic text of Alpine exploration, offers a unique account of Tyndall's mountaineering expeditions and the science that inspired them.

Autor

John Tyndall FRS was an important 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific prominence developed in the 1850s as a result of his research into diamagnetism. Later, he produced discoveries in the fields of infrared radiation and air physical characteristics, establishing the link between atmospheric CO2 and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859. Tyndall also authored over a dozen science books that introduced a large number of people to cutting-edge 19th-century experimental physics. From 1853 to 1887, he taught physics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1868. Tyndall was born at Leighlinbridge, Co. Carlow, Ireland. His father was a local police constable, descended from Gloucestershire emigrants who arrived in southeast Ireland around 1670. Tyndall attended the local schools (Ballinabranna Primary School) in County Carlow until his late teens and was most likely an assistant teacher near the conclusion of his tenure there. Technical drawing and mathematics were particularly important subjects in school, with some applications to land surveying. In his late teens, he was engaged as a draftsman by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1839, and he later went to the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain in 1842.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 482
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. September 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 28mm
• Gewicht: 674g
• ISBN-13: 9781108037815
• ISBN-10: 110803781X
• Artikelnr.: 34163894