Manuscript Laboratory Notebook of Brilliant American Physicist and Mathematician Robert Simpson Woodward of Columbia University, Carnegie Institute and More

On offer is an undated work notebook used by a brilliant American physicist and mathematician who was once the head of a preeminent research science institute in the United States and indeed world-wide.

The notebook cover has the printed title “Physical Laboratory”. The notebook contains the signature “R.S Woodward” and our research has confirmed that this is the signature of one of America’s foremost physics and mathematics scientists in the Early 20th century, Robert Simpson Woodward (1849-1924). 

He graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering and became Assistant Engineer to the United States Lake Survey. He moved to several other positions, becoming Assistant to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, the first scientific agency of the U.S. Government. It was responsible for the charting of the entire coast of the United States as well as mapping the interior. Leaving government service, Woodward went to Columbia University where he was first a professor and then Dean of the Faculty of Pure Science for ten years.

Leaving Columbia, in 1904, he became President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. - a position he would hold for the next 16 years. The Institute, now known as Carnegie Institution for Science, was founded in 1902 with a very large grant from Andrew Carnegie, a hugely successful American businessman and later philanthropist. The Institution is an internationally recognized scientific research institution and one of the foremost scientific centers in the United States.

He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Mathematical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Philosophical Society. During WWI, he was appointed to the Naval Consulting Board.

The notebook contains pages of handwritten mathematical and physics calculations, formulae and notes with explanations of the work. Headings of the various sections Woodward wrote include: Mechanics, Kinetics, Dynamics, Linear Acceleration, Recitation motion referral to two axes…., Copland motion translation and rotation, Simultaneous motion of rotation about two axes in the same plane, and much more. 

For a mathematician or scientist engaged in research or teaching, this notebook is an outstanding direct link to one of America’s great scientific minds whose work and published research continues to have an impact to this day.

This notebook measures 8.0 inches by 4.75 inches and contains 84 pages, of which 28 are filled with Woodward’s notes. It has a hard pressed paper cover that is in very good condition. The spine is taped and the pages sewn and both are in good condition as are all of the pages.  The pages are lightly lined with a faint blue grip pattern. The handwriting is legible. Overall VG.