A Search For Structure: Selected Essays On Science, Art, and History

Cambridge, MA & London: The MIT Press, 1982. © 1981 by Cyril Stanley Smith 2nd Printing: 1982 . Hardcover. Very Good/Poor. 8vo or 8° (Imperial Octavo): 8¼ x 11½" tall. 410 + x pp. A great, almost spotlessly clean copy! Solidly and tightly bound, essentially and nearly flawless copy with minimal internal and external wear and use. Copy with crisp pages, clean text, and light shelf wear. Smooth covers. Relevant newspaper or clippings placed by previous owner included. Dust jacket suffers many cuts and rips along the edges. Over-sized and/or over weight book; may require additional postage. Please note that large and/or heavy items may incur extra shipping charge for both domestic and/or international shipments. Synopsis: Anthology of 14 essays, addresses and lectures bridging and linking aesthetic curiosity and scientific and technological discover. Metallurgist Cyril Smith, renaissance mind in this our age of narrow specialization, skims through some 200 papers published since 1926. distilling what he perceives as: experiments in the development of a view point. The essays are: 1, Grain Shapes & Other Metallurgical Applications on Topology; 2, The Discovery of Carbon in Steel; 3, Structure, Substructure, & Superstructure; 4, The Interpretation of Microstructures of Metallic Artifacts; 5, Matter versus Materials: A Historical View; 6, The Early History of Casting, Molds, & the Science of Solidification; 7, Porcelain & Plutonism; 8, Art, Technology, & Science: Notes on Their Historical Interaction; 9, Metallurgical Footnotes to the History of Art; 10, Reflections on Technology & the Decorative Arts in the 19th Century; 11, On Art, Invention, & Technology; 12, Some Constructive Corrodings; 13. A Highly Personal View of Science & Its History; and, 14, Structural Hierarchy in Science, Art, & History. Fine copy. "These fourteen essays celebrate the necessary unity between aesthetic curiosity and scientific and technological discovery. Drawing on his own experience as a metallurgist and his wide-ranging studies of ancient and modern artifacts, Cyril Smith offers an intriguing and generously illustrated exploration of the relationship between material structure and our sense of beauty."