Walpole, Horace

I think it was worthwhile to take a specific case to show that conclusion. Its major purpose is to make Popperian logic and Kuhn s unpredictable circle of normal science, crisis, and revolution better known among chemists and to show how both theories - those of Popper and Kuhn - commingle in the development of scientific discoveries. A third phenomenon should also be mentioned, although it did not play a role in our specific case, namely serendipity, i. e., the gift of making valuable discoveries not sought for. The word serendipity was coined by the British writer Horace Walpole in a letter in 1754 based on the title of the Persian fairy-tale The... 

Horace Walpole in a letter to his friend Horace Mann, wrote on January 28,1754 ... 

The word serendipity was coined by Horace Walpole in a letter to Sir Horace Mann in 1754 and is based on the fairy tale about the adventures of The Three Princes of Seren-dip (or Serendib, an ancient name for Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka) R. M. Roberts, Serendipity - Accidental Discoveries in Science, John Wiley, New York, 1989. The term is now used for fortunate, totally unexpected discoveries - discoveries by accident and sagacity. 

The cases we have examined so far all demonstrate that an element of chance is sometimes involved in scientific discoveries. But is it really correct to call it serendipity The three princes of Serendip in Horace Walpole s play certainly made fortuitous discoveries, but more than that, they were in no way looking for what they eventually found. On the contrary, they were pursuing entirely different goals and their successes bear no relation to what they originally set out to do. The difference between the cases discussed above and the heroes of Walpole s play is obvious. Pare, Auenbrugger and Laennec were one way or another favored by chance, but on the other hand they were clearly engaged in activities that were directly related to their discoveries. Could one possibly think of another case, even more similar to the princes of Serendip ... 

One may perhaps wonder why serendipity should be considered under operation of carbon fiber plant but there is a good reason. The word serendipity was coined by Horace Walpole in 1754 and is defined in the dictionary as the faculty of discovering pleasing or valuable things by chance. However, Louis Pasteur said In the fields of observation, chance favours only the prepared mind, later to be paraphrased by an eminent American physicist, Joseph Henry, as The seeds of great discovery are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them [1]. 

Hales was a busy inventive man like Priestley, but was below Priestley in originality, and rather commonplace. He was an active parish priest but declined a canonry of Windsor in order to have time for his scientific researches. He was buried under the tower (now the porch) of Teddington Church. Horace Walpole calls him a poor, good, primitive creature Peter Collinson says Hales treated his enemies calmly, not from want of discern-... 

The Society for Philosophical Experiments and Conversations was established on the basis of proposals issued in November 1793, in the Greek Street Laboratory on 25 January 1794 with a subscription of five guineas. The Chairman was Field Marshal Conway, a friend of Horace Walpole, one of the... 

Serendipity defined by Horace Walpole as the knack of making happy discoveries by chance (or intuition ). 

Horace Walpole to the Countess of Upper Ossory, 16 August 1776 (Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd edition [London/New York/Toronto Oxford University Press, 1953], p. 558, item 27). 

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