The time period of 1860 to 1890 is generally known as the "golden age of graphs." This is so because in late nineteenth century, the use of graphs was extremely widespread in the scientific literature. Although there are numerous reasons for this "surge" in graphical methods, I am interested in identifying the major scientific men/women who used graphs not merely as a convenient way of displaying data, but as an *essential* way of displaying data. For instance, through visual inspection, Galton "saw" the concentric ellipses in his table of heights, and on this visual/graphical/geometric basis, proceeded to develop the idea of correlation and regression. Without noticing and drawing the ellipses, it is doubtful that Galton would have developed the statistical technique of correlation/regression. In short, one might say that Galton almost NEEDED a graphical way to represent his work. My question is: are there other notable men/women in science who, without graphs, could not have communicated their ideas? I think Fechner's ogive might be a pretty strong case of this as well. Any ideas?

-- Daniel J. Denis (dand@yorku.ca), July 25, 2002

Answers

How about Michael Faraday needing pictures to depict the lines of force arounda magnet because he didn't have the mathematical wherewithal to describe them formally? That had to wait, as I recall, for James Clerk Maxwell.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), July 25, 2002.

Hi Dan,

You might want to take a gander at Westfall's (1989) The construction of modern science: Mechanisms and mechanics. New York. Cambridge University Press. I'm sure you will find what you're looking for in this book. I have a copy if you want to borrow it. Let me know.

Best,

-- Pete Economou (peteecon@yorku.ca), July 26, 2002.