Welcome and About Me

 Welcome to the historical math and science blog! My name is Sam Gallagher, I'm a 24 year old electrical engineer from Pennsylvania with a particular interest in the history of math and science. This hobby of mine has taken me through many projects, and because much of the work I'm doing is unique, is hard to find elsewhere, or is simply interesting and fun, I decided it was time to make a website where people could share in the adventures. I'll also be managing resources for various topics of interest, especially when there is little information about a topic available from Googling or using Wikipedia. 

Some examples of projects, both from the past and looking into the future:

  • A recreation of Nobili's astatic galvanometer
    • This instrument was used by Faraday in making his electrical measurements, detecting currents into the microampere (uA) range. It allowed Faraday to discover electromagnetic induction. Named for Leopoldo Nobili, who corresponded with Faraday.
    • I have made two astatic galvanometers in slightly different styles; I will share details in a separate post. Historical fabrication and manufacturing are particularly interesting and difficult to research, and this provided a method of learning how scientific instruments could be manufactured.
  • Translation of Poisson's Mémoire sur la distribution de l'électricité à la surface des Corps conducteurs (read August 1812)
    • This work, which was very influential in the study of electricity, has not yet been translated from French. This is unfortunate, because it's referenced by e.g. Green (An essay on the application of mathematical analysis to the theories of electricity and magnetism, 1828) and other landmark papers in the history of electromagnetism
    • Translation is partially completed. I speak passable French, and my reading is fluent, so it's really a matter of how much time I'm willing to put into typing everything. A few hours a day and it would be done in a month or two, but that's quite a lot.
  • Translation of Euler's De Serie Lambertina [or Lambertine] (1773, Enestrom number E532) and excerpts from Lambert's Observationes Variae in Mathesin Puram (1758)
    • These papers provide a series solution to general polynomials (Lambert's paper) and in particular the general trinomial (Euler considers a symmetric trinomial). Euler's paper would introduce the special function, the Lambert W function. 
    • This is trouble, because two weeks ago I didn't speak a single word of Latin. As well, the notation is quite variable, as you would expect from something written so long ago. So I've taken it upon myself to learn Latin. Two weeks in, I've been devoting a good 2 hours a day, and I'm through Wheelock's chapter 5, and Familia Romana chapter 3. Going good so far, feeling confident in my 1st and 2nd declensions, 1st and 2nd conjugations, but will of course need a full understanding of grammar, especially subjunctive. Vocab also presents an issue.
  • Compilation of Neo Latin (aka New Latin) vocab terms used by 1700s mathematicians, along with cited examples
  • A guide to learning Latin with 1600-1700s math and science papers in mind (depending on how successful I am!)
So there you have it. Thanks for reading, and hang around for more.


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