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1750–1900

Cast of scientist characters in order of (first) chapter appearance,
alphabetized by last name and linked to Wikipedia entries:

Air to Breathe — Benjamin Franklin / Luigi Galvani (and his wife) / Antoine Lavoisier (and his wife) / Gottfried Leibniz / Isaac Newton / Joseph Priestley // What the Battery Did for Rocks — Jacob Berzelius / Humphry Davy / Michael Faraday / Hans Christian Ørsted / Alessandro Volta // Rowan and the Poets — Carl Friedrich Gauss / William Rowan Hamilton // The Difference Family Makes — Charles Darwin / James Clerk Maxwell / Gregor Mendel / Louis Pasteur / P.G. Tait / William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) / Charles Wheatstone // Women of Stars and Higher Degrees — Maria Mitchell / Ellen Swallow (married name Richards, and her husband) / Mary Watson Whitney // Pride, Towering and Electric — using Sir William Thomson as its throughline (hat tip to his dad) / Thomas Edison / George FitzGerald / Joseph Fourier / Oliver Heaviside (and his brother Arthur) / Heinrich Hertz / Oliver Lodge / Albert Michelson / Edward Morley / Charles Steinmetz / Nikola Tesla // Finding Hidden Noble Neon — Emily Aston / Robert Bunsen / Gustav Kirchhoff / Norman Lockyer / Dimitri Mendeleev / William Ramsay / John Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) // Einstein Finds Light in Charge of Time — Albert Einstein / Hendrik Lorentz // A Social Scientist Shows People How to See People — W.E.B. Du Bois (for social science until 1910) / Thomas Hunt Morgan / Gustav von Schmoller (for social science) / special mention for social workers Jane Addams and Julia Lathrop of Hull House

List of birthdays:

January — Jan. 17 Benjamin Franklin / Jan. 29 Edward Morley // February — Feb. 6 Charles Wheatstone / Feb. 8 Dimitri Mendeleev / Feb. 11 Thomas Edison / Feb. 12 Charles Darwin / Feb. 18 Alessandro Volta / Feb. 22 Heinrich Hertz / Feb. 23 W.E.B. Du Bois // March — March 12 Gustav Kirchhoff / March 14 Albert Einstein / March 21 Joseph Fourier / March 24 Joseph Priestley / March 30 Robert Bunsen // April — April 9 Charles Steinmetz / April 28 P.G. Tait / April 30 Carl Friedrich Gauss // May — May 17 Norman Lockyer / May 18 Oliver Heaviside // June — June 12 Oliver Lodge / June 13 James Clerk Maxwell / June 26 William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) // July — July 1 Gottfried Leibniz / July 10 Nikola Tesla / July 18 Hendrik Lorentz / July 20 Gregor Mendel // August — Aug. 1 Maria Mitchell / Aug. 3 George FitzGerald / Aug. 4 William Rowan Hamilton / Aug. 14 Hans Christian Ørsted / Aug. 20 Jacob Berzelius / Aug. 26 Antoine Lavoisier // September — Sept. 9 Luigi Galvani / Sept. 11 Mary Watson Whitney / Sept. 22 Michael Faraday / Sept. 25 Thomas Hunt Morgan // October — Oct. 2 William Ramsay // November — Nov. 12 John Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) // December — Dec. 3 Ellen Swallow / Dec. 17 Humphry Davy / Dec. 19 Albert Michelson / Dec. 25 Isaac Newton / Dec. 27 Louis Pasteur // Emily Aston's day of birth requires further investigation

Alphabetical by last name, with biographical links for older researchers:

Jane Addams

Wikipedia / Jane Addams Hull-House Museum / waterbuggi doc on YouTube / Nobel Peace Prize / included for her Hull-House maps book and personal influence on Du Bois

Emily Aston

Wikipedia / her unique abilities as a collaborator deserve further research

Jacob Berzelius

Wikipedia / Karolinska Institutet and Periodic Videos docs on YouTube

Robert Bunsen

Wikipedia / Periodic Videos doc on YouTube / more at Kirchhoff below

Charles Darwin

Wikipedia / Nature bio / Smithsonian article / Darwin Online / BBC Earth doc on YouTube

Humphry Davy

Wikipedia / Royal Institution bio / Royal Society of Chemistry lecture on Davy's "work, life and legacy" / "The Mystery of Matter: Out of Thin Air" episode 1 provides a compelling introduction to Davy at timecode 31m:00s on YouTube

W.E.B. Du Bois

Wikipedia / Library of Congress site / National Historic Site in Great Barrington / Biography doc on YouTube as well as longer Dubois TheWardProject doc on groundbreaking Philadelphia study / his social-science period concluded in Atlanta 1910

Thomas Edison

Wikipedia / Library of Congress site / National Park Service bio / Biography doc and copy of 1922 GE silent film on YouTube

Albert Einstein

Wikipedia / Nobel bio / Princeton's Digital Einstein Papers / Library of Congress site for 1905 / Biography doc and PBS 100 years after 1915 on YouTube

Michael Faraday

Wikipedia / Royal Institution bio / paper on "electro-decomposition" thanks to Classic Papers site / treated briefly in IEEE Spectrum by Rautio / Science History Institute profile on YouTube is exceptional for Prof. Gary D. Patterson's readily observable sincerity — children notice when grown-ups feel like that about something!

George FitzGerald

Wikipedia / MacTutor History of Mathematics bio / Irish Times profile / 1901 Nature obit / treated briefly in IEEE Spectrum by Rautio

Joseph Fourier

Wikipedia / MacTutor and American Physical Society bios / he is included on the list of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower / his time in Egypt thanks to Napoleon is charmingly summarized at the Ecole Polytechnique animated bio and this Gresham College lecture is a deep dive, both on YouTube

Benjamin Franklin

Wikipedia / Franklin Institute FAQ / BF Historical Society bio, science category and kite experiment article / Library of Congress introduction, papers, In His Own Words exhibit and its Scientist and Inventor section / History Channel doc (IMDB credits) and biographer Walter Isaacson interviewed in 2003 by Charlie Rose, both on YouTube

Luigi Galvani

Wikipedia / short academic bio incorporates contemporary bio / 1997 and 1998 papers abstracted at the National Center for Biotechnology Information give a sense of ongoing historical research

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Wikipedia / MacTutor and Eric Weisstein bios / undergrad's effort from collaborative project / "In Our Time" podcast episode hosted by Melvyn Bragg for BBC Radio 4 / there is more to the story of how science tempted Gauss away from pure math and extended his influence in his time

William Rowan Hamilton

Wikipedia / bios by MacTutor, FSU academic team, Physics Today, and Physics World / Quanta article on imaginary numbers and quaternions / Ernest Beggs' tribute on YouTube showing the bridge where quaternions were discovered

Oliver Heaviside

Wikipedia / bios by MacTutor, American Physical Society and Physics Today / IEEE Spectrum article by James C. Rautio places Heaviside's vector calculus in context

Heinrich Hertz

Wikipedia / Magnet Academy (MagLab), FSU academic team and Physics Today bios / IEEE Spectrum by Rautio covers context of his work and has a great photo of Hertz's experiment / Arm sci. museum vid shows his apparatus on YouTube

Lord Kelvin (see Thomson)

Gustav Kirchhoff

Wikipedia / general bios by National Center for Atmospheric Research and MacTutor / SciHi blog surveys his work on circuits / classic paper with Bunsen on the spectroscope / the duo's creation of the spectroscope is nicely introduced in "Unruly Elements" (linked at Mendeleev) at timecode 2m:18s on YouTube

Julia Lathrop

Wikipedia / bios by VCU Libraries, Vassar and American Journal of Public Health / Library of Congress video lecture by Cecelia Tichi including Lathrop's later Children's Bureau work / included for her connection to Ellen Swallow

Antoine Lavoisier

Wikipedia / bios by ACS and ChemistryViews / Lavoisier joins Priestley in "Out of Thin Air" (linked at Davy) at timecode 8m:34s on YouTube

Gottfried Leibniz

Wikipedia / MacTutor bio / article in Independent

Norman Lockyer

Wikipedia / bios by Nature and Physics Today / charming summary at Open Door / NL Observatory in Devon, England / sci. museum vid of Lockyer's spectroscope on YouTube / Helium's star-based discovery described briefly by Jim Gates in "Unruly Elements" (linked at Mendeleev) at timecode 3m:40s on YouTube

Oliver Lodge

Wikipedia / E&T History Wiki bio / British Movietone interview on YouTube / treated briefly in IEEE Spectrum by Rautio

Hendrik Lorentz

Wikipedia / Nobel and MacTutor bios / played unique role from 1911 on as discussion partner and mentor for Einstein

James Clerk Maxwell

Wikipedia / bios by Magnet Academy (MagLab) and National Library of Scotland / BBC timeline / JCM Foundation / IEEE Spectrum article by James C. Rautio explains how Maxwell's thinking was advanced by the "Maxwellians" / YouTube has Gresham College lecture deep dive and Glasgow Science Center's upbeat animation "What's the go o' that?" a question which was frequently asked by Maxwell as a child

Gregor Mendel

Wikipedia / lovely short NIH intro / Nature Education bio / Understanding Evolution site / Khan Academy AP Bio text with illustrations / TED-Ed animation, Biography short and J. Lee Sedwick documentary on YouTube

Dimitri Mendeleev

Wikipedia / Royal Society of Chemistry bio / Khan Academy article / annotated early table / BBC doc shows the solitaire simplification, and "The Mystery of Matter: Unruly Elements" episode 2 provides a good introduction to his discovery at timecode 4m:37s, both on YouTube

Albert Michelson

Wikipedia / bios by AIP (scroll down for the 1887 paper), Nobel, and NAS has a short bio as well as extended memoir / contemporary profile on YouTube / more at Morley

Maria Mitchell

Wikipedia / bios by Vassar, Nature and MM Assoc. / Smithsonian's Vassar Telescope / NWHM bio and MM Assoc.'s "Myths and Truths"

Thomas Hunt Morgan

Wikipedia / bios by Cold Spring Harbor and Nature / Nobel article / NAS has short bio and extended memoir (PDF) / vids on YouTube include focus on his PNAS paper, genetics math at Khan Academy, and the incredibly serious PBS American Experience treatment of his transformation from someone who believed in the false Darwinism of "Eugenics" (not to be confused with Ellen Swallow's "Euthenics") but exploded the presumed basis for those false beliefs through his research

Edward Morley

Wikipedia / NAS extended memoir / APS on the Michelson-Morley experiment at Case Western Reserve Univ. in Cleveland, Ohio / Episode 41 of "The Mechanical Universe" on YouTube is dedicated to the M-M exp., from David Goodstein's 1980s series, all episodes available on YouTube

Isaac Newton

Wikipedia / MacTutor bio / Royal Society short bio and scanned documents / Cambridge Digital Library with documents and multi-university The Newton Project for all texts / YouTube has short Biography vid (with oversimplifications), Gresham College lecture for a deep dive, and The Newton Project has its own channel for example Gresham's Rebekah Higgit in 3 parts on Newton biographies (1 / 2 / 3)

Hans Christian Ørsted

Wikipedia / bios by American Physical Society and Magnet Academy (MagLab), which also has a charming 3D recreation on YouTube of Ørsted's unexpected compass-discovery

Louis Pasteur

Wikipedia / bios by MIT and sci. museum / BBC timeline / profile in Journal of Neurology / Pasteur Foundation / short Biography vid on YouTube

Joseph Priestley

Wikipedia / bios by ACS, Bath Royal Lit. and Sci. Inst. and Royal Society of Chemistry / Joseph Priestley House (Pa., U.S.) / tour of JP House and Chemical Heritage Foundation looks at his experimental equipment on YouTube, also see "Out of Thin Air" (linked at Davy) at timecode 4m:25s on YouTube including recreations of his experiments

William Ramsay

Wikipedia / bios by Google Doodle and Nobel [note cultural contrast] / CityLab article on the cultural history of neon signs / finding Argon with Strutt and what followed is covered briefly in "Unruly Elements" (linked at Mendeleev) at timecode 23m:00s on YouTube, which also hosts this University College London short proudly recounting his outstanding work there

Lord Rayleigh (see Strutt)

Ellen Swallow Richards (see Swallow)

Rowan (see Hamilton)

Gustav von Schmoller

Wikipedia / larger article about Prussian social theories and culture, from the free-market theory Mises Institute emphasizing Schmoller's default position that the government should cure social ills / as a top Du Bois teacher, Schmoller would have conveyed strict statistical methodologies, although the article argues Schmoller also reacted against tendencies to collect data for its own sake

Charles Steinmetz

Wikipedia / bios by Edison Tech Center where he worked, Smithsonian, and Union College where he taught / WMHT Divine Discontent doc website and promo trailer on YouTube, which also has an extended discussion with the filmmakers, whose funding came from IEEE / along with Oliver Heaviside, as well as Vladimir Karapetoff and Mihajlo Pupin, Steinmetz's math was identified with putting complex and imaginary numbers to good use (per Nahin 1988) / the impact of Steinmetz's work has also been identified with his study of hysteresis and eddy currents (per Sharlin 1963) / after 1893 the square root of minus one was used industrially for the description of the complete electromagnetic wave transmitted by alternating current, opening up innovation in household and personal electronics, and leading to modern computer chips

John Strutt (Lord Rayleigh)

Wikipedia / bios by FSU academic, MacTutor and Nobel / YouTube has a Cambridge talk about the Cavendish Lab, UK's National Physical Laboratory lecture for a deep dive, and this BYU experiment on the Rayleigh Criterion which is wonderful / more at Ramsay above

Ellen Swallow

Wikipedia / simple bios by ASCE and SHI / Vassar has this short bio and a 1923 extended memoir by Julia Lathrop / MIT News Office has these nice write-ups from 2011 and 2017 / MIT on YouTube has a "Storied Women" explainer and a compelling short on her drinkable water research

P.G. Tait

Wikipedia / bios by American Physical Society and MacTutor / letters to Lord Kelvin online at U of Glasgow / MacTutor has quotes on Tait and golf, and it's noteworthy that in his later home-base at Edinburgh, he golfed frequently with his son at St. Andrews, golf's birthplace, contemplating golf's math while he played / Gresham college lecture on YouTube focuses on Tait's math regarding knots

Nikola Tesla

Wikipedia / bios by Franklin Institute, Magnet Academy (MagLab) and Smithsonian / Dept. of Energy listicle / History short and entertaining Ted talk are on YouTube

William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)

Wikipedia / bios by MacTutor and Magnet Academy (MagLab) / U of Glasgow collections exhibit / International Electrotechnical Commission has a chronological breakdown written by Silvanus P. Thompson / YouTube has Gresham lecture, a 1946 biopic and a mirror galvanometer talk /

Alessandro Volta

Wikipedia / bios by American Physical Society, Magnet Academy (MagLab) and MIT / Volta is briefly in "Out of Thin Air" (linked at Davy) at timecode 39m:21s on YouTube, which also hosts a visit to the Volta Museum in Como, as well as a "Mechanical Universe" episode about his battery (more about the series at Morley)

Gustav von Schmoller (see Schmoller)

Charles Wheatstone

Wikipedia / bios by FSU academic and King's College London / Telegraph article / Australia's Museum Victoria has a bio and collection of instruments / YouTube has displays of his cryptograph and a reproduction of his 5-needle telegraph, as well as a charming MIT presentation on the Wheatstone bridge circuit

Mary Watson Whitney

Wikipedia / bios by KC's Linda Hall Library and Vassar