Graf Georg von Buquoy and the dynamics of systems with variabale masses. The journey of a Bohemian landed proprietor and natural scientist to Paris (1815) (Q2890548)

Until now, no detailed presentation of the life and work of Graf Georg von Buquoy (1781-1851) existed. This book under review fills this gap, it is a detailed and very thorough analysis of Buquoy's life and work. The presentation is based on manuscripts unknown until now. Buquoy was mainly a mathematician, but was also very interested in physics and in engineering sciences. He was in correspondence with Goethe and Gauß. Buquoy was a descendant of an outstanding Czech family, he was extremely rich and a landowner; the famous primary forest of Schwarzenberg belonged to his property. The first chapter is devoted to the very interesting life of Buquoy. A main source had been a typoscript of E. Hirsch ``Graf Buquoy: ein vergessener Goetheanist'' dating from 1975, which is located in the National library of Vienna. Buquoy published 157 scientific works (see chapter 2), his most important contribution to science was in the field of theoretical mechanics, that is ``the dynamic of systems with variable masses'' (see chapter 3). In the chapter 4 the authors present an edition of a travel diary written during a travel to Paris in 1815 (p.111-194), the original is located in an archive in Tŕebón. In Paris Buquoy had contacts to Alexander von Humboldt, Laplace, Poisson, Gay-Lussac, Hachette, Arago, Thenard, and so on. There follow 8 supplements, in the first there is presented a bibliography of Buquoy's works, the second are reminiscences of Georg Buquoy in Karel Sabina's ``Erinnerungen'', in the third there are published the documents when Buquoy became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1823, the number four presents an edition of the three letters exchanged between Buquoy and Gauß, the number five is a publication of a political pamphlet of Buquoy dating from March 20, 1848. It follows a bibliography, a name index and a list of the 20 illustrations accompanying the book. This book is a very interesting contribution to the history of science during the first half of the nineteenth century and a very important contribution to the history and the history of science in Czechoslovakia.