Product Description

William Gilbert (1544–1603) was royal physician to Queen Elizabeth I and the most distinguished man of science to emerge from her reign. He is the inventor of the term ‘electricity', the father of electrical studies, the creator of modern magnetic science and – most famously – the discoverer of the Earth's magnetic nature. Yet, incredibly, he is largely unknown.

Gilbert's close contact with the elite mariners of Elizabethan London enabled him to learn of the magnetic compass and of the strange behaviour of its magnetised needle – a phenomenon known as the magnetic ‘dip'. Using a pioneering experimental method, he came to realise that the Earth is a giant magnet; a great body imbued with a ‘magnetic soul' that drove it forward in its Copernican orbit. In this golden age of circumnavigations of the globe and of the founding of new colonies, he was the first to use magnetism to determine the latitude of a ship at sea. Alongside these discoveries, Gilbert's writings – some even proposing to solve the problem of longitude – challenged the scientific orthodoxy of his day, and boldly led the battle to establish our modern ideas of terrestrial magnetism.

Lively and accessible, Latitude & the Magnetic Earth – the first new exploration of Gilbert for forty years – brings the story up to date, leaving the reader with a vivid feel not only for the conflicts surrounding Gilbert's discoveries and his scientific legacy, but for the man himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1351452 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

New Scientist
"A chunky read with much more to it than at first meets the eye."

About the Author
Stephen Pumfrey teaches history at the University of Lancaster and lives in Manchester.

Customer Reviews

Science from the day of the lone genius.
This is the second book of this series that I have read (the first being John Henrys' "Knowledge is Power"), and I have to say that, whilst it is a very informative book about a lost scientific genius, it is weakened by a feeling of inpenetrable writing. Whilst I read Knowledge is Power in bursts - the better to assimilate all the new facts - I read this in bursts because after a while the prose becomes so dry that you have to put it down and go and do something else.
This is not to say it is a bad book, but more that the author lacks the knack of a natural raconteur that a successful pop-science writer needs to draw in a non-scientific audience like myself.
The framing story itself - that of Elizabethan Doctor William Gilberts forays into experimentation and magnetism, and his rejection of conventional natural philosophy and the Aristolelian view of the universe - is a great one, and worthy of reading, and it is interesting enough in itself to draw the attention. Howecver, I kept getting bogged down in the passages looking at the scientific basis of magnetism and the experimental methodology Gilbert used, and also the principles of navigation upon which he based his ideas. Gilbert was undoubtedly an obsessive genius in the mold of Newton, at a time when science could still be progressed by a lone figure with a point to prove. I'd be interested in knowing more about him, but I'd probably seek something a little easier on the brain than this.
As such, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book to a complete layman - a grounding in the science would make this book that much more rewarding, and would be a far more rewarding read once you've really got a feel for the basics of physics, which I sadly lack.

Reminder of a forgotten hero
I went to the school named after the hero of this book, William Gilbert. That was where I first heard of him and learnt a little of his studies into magnetism. A lot has changed in the intervening 28 years but this is the first full length book about Gilbert I have ever seen.

Luckily it is good. Importantly it opens up the man himself and his science. Gilbert virtually invented modern science - well, he did experiments where he could. He didn't rely on the Ancients like Aristotle (in fact he was rather rude about them), prefering to find out for himself. And Gilbert met a lot of sailors. It might not seem important now, but Gilbert was interested in the practical importance of magnets in compasses. Navigation in Tudor England was an intriguing art.

William Gilbert hasn't been forgotten as such, it's just that Galileo and Newton have overtaken him. Gilbert drew a map of the Moon, was an early advocate of the Sun centred universe and is the so called Father of Electricity, yet he hasn't got the notice in recent times. Strange.

Perhaps less strange when you read this very readable book. It examines Gilbert's sources, his life, his scientific philosophy and finds him on the cusp of modern science but not quite there. When he couldn't do the experiments he did rely on Ancient learning. Slightly two faced perhaps.

Sadly, there is not much known about Gilbert the man, compared with another courtier, John Dee, for instance. But as the bridge between medieval science and modern science, he is the conduit. It's about time Gilbert was reassessed and this is as good a book as any to do the job.

Limited assessment of an Elizabethan genius.
I came to this book on the recommendation of a local museum curator.As a doctor living and working in Colchester, Essex,the birthplace and sometime home of the subject of this book,William Gilberd,I was expecting to find perhaps some new facts about the life of William Gilberd as both hugely influential Renaissance scientist and Elizabethan physician.Alas I found little novel material here and disappointingly little new about Gilberd's role in Tudor medicine (he was President of The Royal College of Physicians and physician to Elizabeth 1st during her final days).Over the last few years there have been several monographs published in the medical literature on the life and work of Gilberd but I could find no reference to any of these in the bibliography (which in fairness, the author admits,is limited).Poor old Gilberd seems to have fallen between two disciplines.His massive influence on Renaissance science (Galileo was influenced by his work De Magnete on magnetism and lodestone) is I think better known to physical scientists than his medical reputation is to doctors.As the author of this book is a physicist it is perhaps not surprising that it is that element of Gilberd's work which is the main preoccupation.There are also in this book one or two sentences which are contentious to say the least,for example Dr.Pumfrey suggests that Colchester trades on the memory of William Gilberd.This is hardly the case -I have lived in Colchester for 15 years and had never heard of him until recently!
All in all I think this book will appeal to those who are primarily interested in the history of physics rather than medicine.No doubt the author is hoping that his book Latitude will eclipse the success of Longitude by Dava Sobel -somehow I do not think it will.I still await a more rounded appreciation of this Elizabethan genius and a more complete assessment and appraisal of his role in the history of English medicine.