Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 4: Physics and physical technology, Part 3: Civil engineering and nautics

Science and Civilisation in China #4.3

by Joseph Needham, Wang Ling, Lu Gwei-Djen

As Dr Needham's immense undertaking gathers momentum it has been found necessary to subdivide volumes into parts, each bound and published separately. The first two parts of Volume IV deal respectively with the physical sciences and with the diverse applications of physics in the many branches of mechanical engineering. The third deals with civil and hydraulic engineering and with nautical technology.

Genres: History, China

990 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 1971

About the author

Joseph Needham was a British biochemist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and a fellow of the British Academy in 1971. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Companionship of Honour, and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles.

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fascinating volume in this long series, covering civil engineering (dams, bridges, etc.) and nautical topics (all aspects of building and using ships...). As with all the others, I not only learned a ton about how these things developed in China, but how they developed in Europe as well. Of course I know next to nothing about any of these topics, so parts were hard to follow but I did garner a lot of general knowledge on these topics. Such a great series; looking forward to reading the next one!