The Transit of Venus Enterprise in Victorian Britain

Download or read book The Transit of Venus Enterprise in Victorian Britain written by Jessica Ratcliff and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the nineteenth century, the British Government spent money measuring the distance between the earth and the sun using observations of the transit of Venus. This book presents a narrative of the two Victorian transit programmes. It draws out their cultural significance and explores the nature of "big science" in late-Victorian Britain.