Thomas Young (scientist): Respect

“[T]he lectures… may be expected to remain tolerably commensurate to the state of the sciences for a much longer period; since, in investigations so intimately connected with mathematical principles, the essential improvements will always bear a very small proportion to the number of innovations. …the references, which it contains, are… sufficient to lead those, who may consult the passages quoted, to the works of every author of eminence that has treated of the respective subjects.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Quotes , Mathematics , Science

“I have… begun to collect materials for a work… relating to every department of medical knowledge: …it will be comparatively more concise than these lectures, in proportion to what has been said and written respecting physic, but, I hope, much more complete, with regard to all that is known with certainty, and can be applied with utility.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface (March 30, 1807)
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Hope , Knowledge

“This statement appears to us to be conclusive with respect to the insufficiency of the undulatory theory, in its present state, for explaining all the phenomena of light. But we are not therefore by any means persuaded of the perfect sufficiency of the projectile system: and all the satisfaction that we have derived from an attentive consideration of the accumulated evidence, which has been brought forward, within the last ten years, on both sides of the question, is that of being convinced that much more evidence is still wanting before it can be positively decided. In the progress of scientific investigation, we must frequently travel by rugged paths, and through valleys as well as over mountains. Doubt must necessarily succeed often to apparent certainty, and must again give place to a certainty of a higher order; such is the imperfection of our faculties, that the descent from conviction to hesitation is not uncommonly as salutary, as the more agreeable elevation from uncertainty to demonstration. An example of such alternations may easily be adduced from the history of chemistry. How universally had phlogiston once expelled the aërial acid of Hooke and Mayow. How much more completely had phlogiston given way to oxygen! And how much have some of our best chemists been lately inclined to restore the same phlogiston to its lost honours! although now again they are beginning to apprehend that they have already done too much in its favour. In the mean time, the true science of chemistry, as the most positive dogmatist will not hesitate to allow, has been very rapidly advancing towards ultimate perfection.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Miscellaneous Works: Scientific Memoirs (1855) Vol. 1 https://books.google.com/books?id=-XAXAQAAMAAJ, ed. George Peacock & John Leitch, p. 249

Way , Travel , History , Mountain

“have enumerated, in a compendious and systematical form, the principal facts which have been discovered with respect to galvanic electricity; and I have fortunately been able to profit by Mr. Davy's most important experiments, which have lately been communicated to the Royal Society, and which have already given to this branch of science a much greater perfection, and a far greater extent, than it before possessed.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Communication , Science , Perfection

“The passive strength of materials of all kinds has been very fully investigated, and many new conclusions have been formed respecting it, which are of immediate importance to the architect and to the engineer, and which appear to contradict the results of some very elaborate calculations.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Appearance

“With respect to the mathematical part of optics, the curvature of the images, formed by lenses and mirrors, has been correctly investigated, and the inaccuracy of some former estimations has been demonstrated.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Mathematics , Parting

“With respect to the cohesion and capillary action of liquids, I have had the good fortune to anticipate Mr. Laplace in his late researches, and I have endeavoured to show, that my assumptions are more universally applicable to the facts, than those which that justly celebrated mathematician has employed.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Universe

“Besides these improvements,… there are others,… which may… be interesting to those… engaged in those departments… Among these may be ranked, in the division of mechanics, properly so called, a simple demonstration of the law of the force by which a body revolves in an ellipsis; another of the properties of cycloidal pendulums; an examination of the mechanism of animal motions; a comparison of the measures and weights of different countries; and a convenient estimate of the effect of human labour: with respect to architecture, a simple method of drawing the outline of a column: an investigation of the best forms for arches; a determination of the curve which affords the greatest space for turning; considerations on the structure of the joints employed in carpentry, and on the firmness of wedges; and an easy mode of forming a kirb roof: for the purposes of machinery of different kinds, an arrangement of bars for obtaining rectilinear motion; an inquiry into the most eligible proportions of wheels and pinions; remarks on the friction of wheel work, and of balances; a mode of finding the form of a tooth for impelling a pallet without friction; a chronometer for measuring minute portions of time; a clock escapement; a calculation of the effect of temperature on steel springs; an easy determination of the best line of draught for a carriage; an investigation of the resistance to be overcome by a wheel or roller; and an estimation of the ultimate pressure produced by a blow.”

Thomas Young (scientist)

Preface
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Drawing , Time , Law , Country