Great Facts
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in nineteenth-century history of science and technology and engineering history
- Scholars studying modern science communication and popular technical writing
- Readers with English proficiency who enjoy original popular-science documents
- Upper-level students who need primary sources in the history of science and technology for coursework
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking contemporary technical knowledge or practical how-to guides
- Those who struggle with English and want only Chinese-language popular science
- Science and engineering beginners expecting systematic textbook explanations and exercises
Reading tips
- Begin by browsing the table of contents and select chapters on technical fields relevant to your research; there is no need to read from cover to cover.
- While reading, note technical terms and dates as they appear, then verify the background against works on the history of science and technology.
- Treat the book as a historical source, not a textbook, focusing on the author's mode of exposition and the public concerns of the time.
- The English has many long sentences; read section by section and write paragraph summaries to ease comprehension.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Does this book cover modern technology?
How difficult is the English, and what level of reader is it suitable for?
Can it be used as course material for the history of science and technology?
Comments
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About the author
Frederick C. Bakewell (1800–1) was a British popular science writer and inventor. Publicly available information on his life and education is limited, and what can be confirmed centres on two areas: writing for a general readership and technical experimentation. He is the author of Great Facts, a work that presents scientific knowledge and technological progress in an accessible manner for ordinary readers, placing it among nineteenth-century popular science writing. Beyond writing, Bakewell also experimented with an image facsimile device, showing an interest in the emerging electrical transmission technologies of his day. He thus combined the roles of writer and practical inventor, leaving traces in both the popularisation of science and early attempts at image transmission, though the surviving sources leave his specific contributions and influence open to further study.
