|
Take one large class of chemistry students; stir in a rare, 17th-century science book; add enthusiasm from a chemistry professor. Results: the Thomas Cooper Library acquires one of its oldest volumes on scientific discovery.
Scott Goode, a veteran chemistry professor, was preparing notes for a classroom lecture when he stumbled across an Internet listing by a rare books dealer selling a book published in 1682 and written by the famous English scientist Robert Boyle. The next day, Goode suggested half in jest that if each student in the class of 190 kicked in a few dollars, they could purchase the book for the library.
More than a few of the students were interested, and Goode chipped in $500 toward the $1,900 purchase price. When their combined gifts didn't quite reach the goal, Goode contacted the library, which graciously provided the remaining funds needed.
"This is now one of our earliest books on modern science," said Patrick Scott, director of Rare Books and Special Collections. "This volume explains Boyle's Law of Gases, which everyone has to learn in high school. It joins a copy of Robert Hooke's volume on micrographia about the use of the microscope."
The title of the Boyle book is long and complicated, but the concept of what it covers is simple, Goode said.
"At some time, you've probably put a drinking straw in a glass of water, put your fingertip over the top of the straw, and lifted up a column of water in the straw. In the process, you felt a slight tug on your fingertip covering the straw," he said. "Boyle wrote this book to show that his ideas about pressure of gas and volume were the reason for this. By extension, he also debunked an ancient theory that an invisible string somehow attached itself from the water surface to your fingertip."
The 325-year-old book still has two engraved plates that illustrate the apparatus Boyle built to conduct his experiment. The book is on display in the rare books area at the library.
7/07
|
Chemistry professor Scott Goode, holding the rare book, and his students
