Description: Harry Woolf THE TRANSITS OF VENUS: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Science New York: Arno Press, 1981, 6.5 x 9.5 in., 258 pp. . 15 plates and a few in-text diagrams.
Condition: Hardbound in tan cloth with title on spine and cover. Minor soiling of cover (see photos) and slight shelfwear. Former owner's name and dedication on flyleaf. Otherwise clean, tightly bound, and unmarked inside and out. Overall VG+ condition.
Information: A highly readable and informative book about the expeditions by major countries during the 18th century to observer the transit of Venus across the face of the sun in 1761 and 1769, in order to measure the distance from the earth to the sun. Among them, of course, was Captain Cook's famous trip to the Pacific, and the less-well known adventures of France's Chappe D'Auteroche.
Chapter titles include: Preface; The Astronomical Unit and the Transits of Venus; French Preparations for the Transit of 1761; British Preparations in 1761; The Expeditions and their results; The Transit of 1769 and Final Conclusions; Appendices; Bibliography; Table of Observations 1761; Table of Observations, 1769; Index.
Biographical Note: Harry Woolf (1923 – 2003) was an American educator and historian of science who served as provost of The Johns Hopkins University and was later the fifth Director of the Institute for Advanced Study.Between 1953 and 1961, Woolf was a faculty member at Boston University, Brandeis University, and the University of Washington. In 1961 he moved to The Johns Hopkins University, where he was the Willis K. Shepard professor of the history of science, department chairman from 1961 to 1972, and finally provost (1972–1976). Woolf was the author of The Transits of Venus: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Science (1959), and the editor of several journals and multiple monographs, including the sixteen-volume Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1964–1980). His awards and honors include the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Medal in 1990, and fellowship in the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.