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Draper, John William

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
1811–82, American scientist, philosopher, and historian, b. near Liverpool, England, M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1836. In 1839 he became professor of chemistry at the Univ. of the City of New York. He helped organize the medical school of the university, became its professor of chemistry and physiology, and in 1850 succeeded as its president. Draper's chief contribution to abstract science was research in radiant energy. His work on the spectra of incandescent substances foreshadowed the development of spectrum analysis, in which his son Henry Draper became a pioneer. Draper's research in the effect of light upon chemicals led him to take up photography. He was said to be the first in New York to use Daguerre's process, announced in 1839, improving it so much that by December of that year he made his first satisfactory photographic portrait. A picture he took (1840) of his sister is the oldest surviving photographic portrait. Draper also made (1839–40) the first photographs of the…
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Full text Article A Series of Firsts, from Daguerreotypes to Dry Plates

From Breakthrough!: 100 Astronomical Images That Changed the World
Drapers original historic daguerreotype,...
Photography was born in 1826 when the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce used the camera obscura and an exposure of at least 8 hours to create his historic “View from the Window at Le Gras.” Niépce's associate Louis Daguerre later refined the photographic process and introduced the daguerreotype, a…
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Full text Article Quotations by Author

From Chambers Dictionary of Great Quotations
Abbott, Diane Julie 1953- Abelard, Peter 1079-1142 Abercrombie, Lascelles 1881-1938 Abrams, M(eyer) H(oward) 1912- Abse, Dannie 1923-2014 Abu’l-’Alá, Al-Ma’arri 973-1058 Abzug, Bella originally Bella Savitzky 1920-98…
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Full text Article Chronology of Writers

From Encyclopedia of African-American Writing
1700-1749 Hammon, Briton (1700s) Fortune, Amos (1710?-1801) Hammon, Jupiter (1711-c. 1806) Smith, Venture (c. 1729-1805) Terry, Lucy (c. 1730-1821) Banneker, Benjamin (1731-1806) George, David (1742-1810) Equiano, Olaudah (c. 1745-1797) 1750-1799 Hall, Prince (?-1807) Lyndon, Cesar (?-1794) Tanner, …
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Full text Article NATURE IS

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer Nature is indifferent to our love, but never unfaithful. A Voice Crying in the Wilderness: Notes from a Secret Journal Chapter 9 (p. 86 ) St. Martin's Press. New York New York USA . 1989. Nature, like Maimonides said, is mainly a good place to throw beer…
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Full text Article Virginia

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
State in eastern USA, bordered to the north by Maryland and the District of Columbia , to the west by Kentucky and West Virginia , to the south by North Carolina and Tennessee ; area 102,548 sq km/39,594 sq mi; population (2010) 8,001,024; capital Richmond . It was named after Queen Elizabeth I of…
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Schiaparelli's map of Mars produced...
The Industrial and Technological Revolutions of the nineteenth century had a profound effect on the development of astronomy, of which advances in the new fields of photography and spectroscopy were probably the most influential. In addition, the gradual increase in wealth of the industrial…
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Full text Article Science

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
This entry has five subentries: Overview ; Colonial Era ; Revolutionary War to World War I ; From 1914 to 1945 ; and Since 1945 . Before the early nineteenth century, “science” referred to organized knowledge generally. The few Americans who systematically studied nature spoke of doing “philosophy”; …
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Full text Article Machinery and Manufacturing

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
In one of the most fundamental feedbacks in the modern world, new technological knowledge had powerful economic outcomes that in turn fostered technological change. Whole economies changed in the process. Between 1790 and 1929, the largely agrarian economy of the United States evolved to become the…
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Full text Article SCIENCE, HISTORY OF

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English physicist …the history of science has proved that fundamental research is the lifeblood of individual progress and that the ideas which lead to spectacular advances spring from it. In Holmstrom, J. Edwin Records and Research in Engineering and Industrial Science Chapter One (p. 7 ) Chapman…
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Full text Article SCIENCE AND RELIGION

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English instrument maker The two kingdoms of nature and grace, as two parallel lines, correspond to each other, follow a like course, but can never be made to touch. An adequate understanding of this distinction in all its branches, would be the consummation of human knowledge. Lectures on Natural…
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