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Derek J. de Solla Price (1922–1983)

1984; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 25; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1984.a890032

1097-3729

Silvio A. Bedini,

History of Science and Natural History

Memorial DEREK J. DE SOLLA PRICE (1922-1983) SILVIO A. BEDINI Derek John de Solla Price, Avalon Professor of the History of Sci­ ence at Yale University, died unexpectedly from a heart attack in London on September 3, 1983. An inveterate lecturer, Price traveled all over the world addressing scholarly and government bodies. He was extremely active in the Society for the History of Technology, as well as the History of Science Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Social Studies of Science, and numerous other councils and scholarly organizations. He participated in the international con­ gresses in the history of science for more than three decades. In 1976 he was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology, and shortly before his death he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences "for dis­ tinguished services to scientific research." Price was the author of six books and more than 300 articles and papers. The George B. Sarton Lecture that he delivered at the AAAS meeting in Detroit in spring 1983, titled "Of Sealing Wax and String," was published posthumously in the January 1984 issue of Natural History. Price's subject was those unsung geniuses "with brains in their fingertips" who often brought about major scientific breakthroughs. Derek Price was born on January 22, 1922, at Leyton, a London suburb, the son of Fanny de Solla and Philip Price. He was educated in local state schools, during which time he demonstrated an inclination toward mathematics and the sciences. In 1938 he was appointed phys­ ics laboratory assistant at the newly established South West Essex Technical College on a work-study program. In 1942 he received a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics and became assistant to Harry Lowery in wartime research in the experimental optics of hot and molten metals. At the same time he taught evening courses in adult education and armed forces training programs. Meanwhile he was Mr. Bedini is Keeper of the Rare Books at the Smithsonian Institution. Permission to reprint a memorial printed in this section may be obtained only from the author. 701 702 Silvio A. Bedini engaged in thesis research leading toward a London external Ph.D. in experimental physics, which he obtained in 1946. He published three papers in physics and one in mathematics during this period and was granted a patent for an emissive-correcting optical pyrometer. Win­ ning one of the first postwar Commonwealth Fund fellowships to the United States, he continued his studies in theoretical physics, first in Pittsburgh and then at Princeton University, and returned to England in 1947. In the same year Price married Ellen Hjorth in Copenhagen, and for the next three years he taught applied mathematics at Raffles College in Singapore (now the University of Singapore). In 1950 he presented Derek J. de Solla Price Derek J. de Solla Price (1922—1983) 703 a paper at the Sixth International Congress for the History of Science in Amsterdam on his recent studies on the exponential growth of scientific literature. Having determined to pursue the history ofscience as a career, Price was accepted as a graduate student at Cambridge University for a second doctorate. There he became associated with Sir Lawrence Bragg, who was familiar with Price's earlier work in physics. Under Bragg's supervision he organized the Archive and the Museum of the Cavendish Laboratory. Cambridge also provided Price with several unexpected opportuni­ ties to develop his earlier interests in historical scientific hardware and in oriental culture, subjects which had first interested him in Singa­ pore. For several years he served as honorary curator of the collection of scientific instruments in the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. While preparing a thesis on the history of scientific instru­ ments, he accidentally discovered in the Library of Peterhouse at Cambridge a 14th-century English manuscript which he was able to identify as a companion piece to Geoffrey Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe. It proved to be a draft in the author's hand and—when published as The Equatorie ofthePlanetis in 1955 by Price with others—it was widely...