Richard Kirwan a [united] Irish man of science in Europe

R. Folk

doi:10.5488/cmp.27.33101

Authors

R. Folk Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4040 Linz, Austria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5958-4106

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5488/cmp.27.33101

Keywords:

history of science, history of physics, natural science

Abstract

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries have long been considered as a formative period for modern Irish political traditions such as nationalism, republicanism and unionism. For Europe it was the time of a turnover in science moving from observation to experiment and from speculation to fact. Richard Kirwan was a well known natural philosopher in Europe and a respected man of science in his time. Throughout all the wars, he was connected with his colleagues in a network reaching across Europe and even to America. Using a few examples, this article is intended to provide an insight how the network worked in a time that was marked by political conflicts and revolutionary events in both science and social life.

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