Rare, scarce, interesting, and unusual books for sale, mostly in the history of physics, math, and technology. The bookstore site is part of a larger daily blog for the History of Holes, Dots, Lines, ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post The following images relating to chemistry were found in the illustration volumes of Abraham Rees' (1743-1825) great work, Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post While flipping through William Herschel's 1801 Philosophical Transaction s paper "Observations tending to investigate the Nature of the Sun in order to find the Cause ...

JF Ptak Science Books Post 2532 I was thinking about the opening line from Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, yesterday, one of the author's great books, and probably one of his greatest sentences, ...

Following up on yesterday's post on the Architecture of Insanity is this selection of postcards featuring insane asylums. They are all American, and all manufactured ca. 1900-1920, when the thirst for ...

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post This fantastic timeline of the U.S. Civil War (History of the Civil War in the United States, 1860-1865) was compiled by J. Kellick Bathurst, drawn by Edward Perrin, ...

JF Ptak Science Books Post 1676 ” [Smoking is] a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest ...

JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 1018 “It is probably not worth putting (all) railways under ground.” Ed Teller, 1947 [See also our 50+-part Atomic & Nuclear Bomb series here] There is a universe of ...

JF Ptak Science Books I think that it is difficult to overstate the importance and long-term significance of Dr. Seuss ' (Theodor Seuss Geisel, 1904-1991, son and grandson of brewmasters) contribution ...

A Daily History of Holes, Dots, Lines, Science, History, Math, Physics, Art, the Unintentional Absurd, Architecture, Maps, Data Visualization, Blank and Missing Things, and so on. |1.6 million words, ...

JF Ptak Science Books Post 1807 Part of the series The History of Blank, Empty and Missing Things Lewis Carroll created a lovely, simple cipher in the midst of his Alice and Snark and Logic a nd ...

A while ago I wrote a post on Herman Soergel's plan for extending the landmass of the countries around the Mediterranean Sea by damming the straits of Gibraltar, lowering the sea and irrigating the ...