Digital libraries: Works of the Royal Society online

The Royal Society (The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge), one of the world’s oldest scientific institutions is commemorating its 350th year anniversary by putting 60 of its most memorable research papers online. The unique historical manuscripts are available on trailblazing.royalsociety.org website.

Represented works cover different disciplines. But its core is dedicated to physics. For instance among the papers is a 1672 work by Isaac Newton detailing his discovery that white light is made of many colours.

A paper by Benjamin Franklin describes his experiment to fly his kite in a storm to prove that lightning is electricity rather than a supernatural force. The users will be able to familiarize themselves with the “Dynamic theory of the electromagnetic field” by James Clerk Maxwell and also the famous paper co-written by Professor Stephen Hawking dedicated to the phenomenon of black holes.

Among the woks on biology and medicine is the rarest work dating back to 1666 dedicated to the blood transfusion for dogs. Moreover the collection contains the original work of James Cook which describes the ways to prevent scurvy by eating pickled cucumbers and lemons. Also included is the work of two co-discoverers of the structure of DNA James D. Watson with Francis Crick, and the article dedicated to the discovery of penicillin.

There is also an entertaining paper about a study of the nine-year-old Mozart in London in 1770 to determine whether he really was a child prodigy. Suggestions he was in fact a midget adult were dismissed by writer Daines Barrington on the grounds that young Wolfgang was more enthusiastic about playing with his cat than practising his harpsichord.

The Royal Society is holding a series of events during its 350th year to mark the anniversary. They include science and arts festival next summer and a series of public lectures and debates at its London headquarters.