This paper summarizes ideas about the nature of gases proposed during the period following the discovery of Boyle's law. Particular stress is laid on the hypotheses of the Bernoullis, and later, on the equally speculative work of Herapath. Reasons for the success of Herapath's theory, and the neglect of Daniel Bernoulli's are discussed, but it has not been thought necessary to take the story beyond the initial acceptance of Herapath's theory by J. P. Joule, because the paper is concerned only (...) with the antecedents of the modern kinetic theory. (shrink)

Joseph Dawson is known mainly as one of the founders of Low Moor Ironworks, near Bradford . But he also had wide interests in science. Local museum collections illustrate several aspects of his work in chemistry and mineralogy. His mineral collection is particularly important because it is accompanied by a rare early catalogue in Dawson's hand. This shows how he arranged his 2206 mineral specimens according to Thomas Thomson's essentially Wernerian classification. Dawson's comments about minerals as well as about iron (...) furnaces demonstrate a view of science in which chemistry was fundamental. Moreover, his contacts with other iron-masters and leading industrialists, as well as with mineralogists and Nonconformist ministers, show him active within several networks through which scientific ideas, attitudes and practices were disseminated. (shrink)