Preface 



The desirability of introducing the young scientist to the 

 personaHty of his predecessors has long been recognized by 

 those interested in education. "The student will find that the 

 best way into any science is through the history of the dis- 

 coveries that have made it a science. By following the foot- 

 steps of those who have found their way to the truth, we pursue 

 natural, if seemingly vagrant, paths. The difficulties of dis- 

 covery that the pioneers of the science met are the difficulties 

 that the student encounters. Moreover, there is a human in- 

 terest about the struggles of a man with the problems of the 

 world that adds much to the hard facts of a science, and gives 

 one of the needed graces to the stern features of any physical 

 inquiry." (Shaler and Davis, Illustrations of the Earth's Sur- 

 face.) 



Although the material relating to the lives of scientists 

 and engineers is considerable in quantity, it is widely scattered 

 and difficult of access. This condition was recognized many 

 years ago by the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 

 Education, which appointed a committee of investigation, but as 

 yet no feasible plan for a uniform editing of the material has 

 been found. In the mean time, this Library has compiled a 

 card index to the biographies in its own collection, and this 

 bibliography is now printed in the hope that it may prove useful 

 to others, even though it is confined to the resources of one 

 library. 



The list is, in general, limited to men whose work is con- 

 cerned with the subjects represented in the classes Science and 

 Useful Arts, of the Decimal Classification. On this basis some 

 men prominent in business, engineering and invention are in- 

 cluded whose rank as scientific workers may be questioned. 

 The limitation to one collection, and that not one attempting 

 completeness, will account for the absence of certain names 



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