Re: Where is the original data?

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 19:05 5/6/99 -0400, you wrote:
> I thought it might be an interesting exercise for students to look at some
> original scientific data.  Does anyone know of sources for original physics
> data from experiments by Coulomb, Cavendish, etc.?  One exercise that is
> readily available is to look up the period and planet to sun distance and
> find the functional relationship.  Any other ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bob Carlson

Victorian benefactors saw the virtues of a free library system.
 And they provided one in every US town of more than a few
thousand souls.
  We might suppose that the library's dwindling hours of opening
are the harbingers of our changing taste - a taste that runs to
instant access via the Web.
   Still, while they survive, we have access to the principal works
of Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, Huygens, Lavoisier, Fourier,
Faraday, Gilbert, Galileo and Harvey.    There are many more
scientists represented in not all our towns, but those I mentioned are
found (in translation) in the reference section of your library, as a
uniform edition of "Great Books of the Western World" from Enc Brit.

 I can recommend them. And I think Carlson is onto something.
    We cannot all study with a Laureate, which seems to be a helpful
feature for people who in turn do great things. But we can all read
their original works.