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Full description for Ure's Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines

  • Andrew Ure (1778-1857), Scottish chemist, scientific writer and professor at the University of Glasgow, was an enthusiast of the new manufacturing systems that were emerging in the nineteenth century. He took a great interest in the application of science to the arts and industry and in making science accessible to the lay person, being the first to establish a course of popular scientific lectures for working men. His Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines is a well-known and much-used book, which went to several editions. This, the 6th edition published in 1867, appeared after the 1851 Great Exhibition and, crucially, incorporates a great deal of new information that resulted. Chiefly rewritten and generally enlarged, it was edited by Robert Hunter after Ure's death, assisted by some fifty contributors. The volumes are alphabetically arranged and well-illustrated with nearly 2000 wood engravings, plus numerous tables. Packed with thousands of useful technical and statistical information on material, chemical and machine processes and industries, it covers an exceptional range of topics from manufacture and export figures of biscuits, cotton, steel, and sugar, to descriptions of minerals, tools, machinery, elements and organic chemistry. Ure's Dictionary is a standard work in nineteenth-century history and remains invaluable as a record of this extraordinary period of industrial development. A monumental scholarly achievement, it will be valuable to anyone studying nineteenth-century commercial history, economics, Victorian studies, and the history of science and technology.