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Uma Breve Biografia De Stephen Gray (1666-1736)

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Uma Breve Biografia De Stephen Gray (1666-1736) Revista Brasileira de Ensino de F¶³sica, v. 32, n. 1, 1602 (2010) www.sb¯sica.org.br Uma breve biogra¯a de Stephen Gray (1666-1736) (A short biography of Stephen Gray (1666-1736)) Sergio Luiz Bragatto Boss1 e Jo~aoJos¶eCaluzi2 1Centro de Forma»c~aode Professores, Universidade Federal do Rec^oncavo da Bahia, Amargosa, BA, Brasil 2Departamento de F¶³sica, Programa de P¶os-Gradua»c~aoem Educa»c~aopara Ci^encia, \Universidade Estadual Paulista J¶uliode Mesquita Filho", Bauru, Brasil Recebido em 15/4/2009; Revisado em 10/8/2009; Aceito em 11/8/2009; Publicado em 26/3/2010 Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma breve biogra¯a de Stephen Gray, com dados sobre a vida pessoal, sobre os trabalhos e sobre o relacionamento deste pesquisador com a comunidade cient¶³¯ca da sua ¶epoca { in¶³ciodo s¶eculoXVIII. Ao mesmo tempo o trabalho apresenta algumas di¯culdades encontradas pelos pesquisadores para se elaborar uma biogra¯a deste intrigante personagem das pesquisas em eletrost¶atica,e apre- senta tamb¶eminforma»c~oesaos leitores sobre como localizar fontes de pesquisa em hist¶oriada ci^enciadispon¶³veis na internet. Palavras-chave: hist¶oriada f¶³sica,biogra¯a, Stephen Gray. The goal of this paper is to present a short biography of Stephen Gray, with information about his life, his papers and his relationship with the scienti¯c community of the beginning of the XVIIIth century. This work presents some di±culties encountered by those who are trying to elaborate a biography of this curious person related to researches in electrostatics. It also gives information on how to locate sources about history of science available over the internet. Keywords: history of physics, biography, Stephen Gray. 1. Introdu»c~ao \eletricista" do s¶eculoXVIII. Neste artigo apresentare- mos uma breve biogra¯a de Gray, bem como algu- Stephen Gray (1666-1736) foi um importante, por¶em mas di¯culdades enfrentadas pelos pesquisadores2 na pouco mencionado, pesquisador do in¶³cio do s¶eculo constru»c~aode uma biogra¯a deste \eletricista". Apre- XVIII. Ele deu importantes contribui»c~oes na ¶area sentaremos tamb¶emalgumas informa»c~oesaos leitores da astronomia e da eletricidade. Dentre seus feitos sobre como localizar fontes de pesquisa em hist¶oriada encontram-se observa»c~oesprecisas sobre manchas so- ci^enciadispon¶³veis na internet. Este ¶ultimoobjetivo lares, a veri¯ca»c~aoda transmiss~aoda eletricidade e da deve-se ao fato de os autores terem veri¯cado, ao longo eletriza»c~aopor indu»c~ao,bem como a proposi»c~aoda exis- dos anos, certa di¯culdade de alunos de gradua»c~aoe t^enciade materiais condutores e n~ao-condutoresde ele- de p¶os-gradua»c~aoem localizar fontes quando iniciam tricidade. pesquisas em hist¶oriada ci^encia. Chamou-nos aten»c~aoa pequena ou nenhuma rele- v^anciaque alguns textos d~aoa Stephen Gray e ao seu Um estudo mais detalhado sobre as publica»c~oesde trabalho. Assim, procuramos entender e divulgar um Stephen Gray mostra que os seus trabalhos podem ser pouco mais sobre a vida deste astr^onomoe importante divididos em tr^esper¶³odos: entre 1696 e 1706; de 1706 a 1E-mail: [email protected]. 2O termo \pesquisadores" remete aos autores nos quais nos fundamentamos para escrever este trabalho. 3Para pesquisar sobre trabalhos produzidos naquela ¶epoca ou mesmo antes, podemos utilizar as seguintes fontes: ²O cat¶alogoelaborado por Jeremias David Reuss (1750-1837), formalmente denominado Repertorium Commentationum a Societat- ibus Litterariis Editarum. A obra tem 16 volumes dispon¶³veis no endere»co http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/en/dms/colbrowse/ ?tx goobit3 search%5BDC%5D=wissenschaftsgeschichte&tx goobit3 search%5Blink%5D=0. ²Outro cat¶alogoque possui ¯nalidade semelhante ¶eo elaborado por Johann Christian Poggendor® (1796-1877), formalmente denom- inado Biographisch-Literarisches HandwÄorterbuchder exakten Naturwissenschaften. O primeiro e segundo volumes est~aodispon¶³veis para download gratuito no site http://www.archive.org. ²Outro cat¶alogoimportante ¶eo produzido pela Royal Society de Londres: Catalogue of Scienti¯c Papers em 19 volumes. Ele est¶a dispon¶³vel on-line no endere»co http://gallica.bnf.fr. Copyright by the Sociedade Brasileira de F¶³sica.Printed in Brazil. 1602-2 Boss e Caluzi 1731 e de 1731 at¶esua morte em 1736.3 As publica»c~oes percorrido existem v¶ariospontos de di¯culdade, que vai do primeiro per¶³odo abordam temas relacionados `aas- desde a constata»c~aoda exist^enciade um determinado tronomia, instrumenta»c~aocient¶³¯cae ¶optica,num total documento at¶ea sua obten»c~ao.A an¶alisede documen- de dez trabalhos. No segundo per¶³odo, encontram-se tos n~aorelacionados diretamente ao biografado tamb¶em apenas quatro trabalhos, sendo tr^essobre astronomia pode ser extremamente relevante, visto que pode auxi- e um sobre eletricidade.4 No ¶ultimoper¶³odo foram liar na delinea»c~aodos fatos e esclarecer pontos obscuros publicados oito trabalhos sobre eletricidade e um so- da pesquisa { como ¶eo caso dos arquivos dos Stukeley. bre astronomia, totalizando 9 trabalhos.5 Portanto, Tivemos acesso a duas listas cronol¶ogicasdas car- encontramos 23 artigos de Stephen Gray publicados no tas manuscritas de Gray [1, p. 430; 2, p. 352]. Para peri¶odico Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Soci- obten»c~aodos textos mencionados nas listas e que foram ety. Este levantamento apresentou uma caracter¶³stica publicados os pesquisadores recorreram ao peri¶odico intrigante, pois as publica»c~oesdos artigos se concen- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Para tram principalmente no primeiro e no ¶ultimoper¶³odo, conseguir as cartas manuscritas n~ao-publicadasrecor- ou seja, entre 1696 a 1706 e entre 1731 a 1736. Neste reram `ascole»c~oesda Sociedade Real (RS), do Museu trabalho discorremos sobre esses per¶³odos e seus cami- Brit^anico (BM) e do Observat¶orioReal de Greenwich nhos, bem como apresentamos ao ¯nal do artigo uma (RGO). Quase tudo o que ¶econhecido sobre Gray est¶a lista com as 23 publica»c~oesde Gray. compilado em 62 cartas. Destas, 25 est~aonos arquivos do RGO, 9 est~aona cole»c~aoSloane do BM, 22 est~ao 2. Algumas di¯culdades para elabora- aos cuidados da RS, e 6 outros manuscritos que n~aose »c~aode uma biogra¯a sabe o destino foram publicados na Philosophical Trans- actions [2, p. 351]. Al¶emdestas fontes, Bernard Co- Uma das di¯culdades encontradas pelos \bi¶ografos"de hen descobriu nas Mem¶orias da fam¶³liado reverendo e 6 Gray diz respeito ao acesso `asfontes prim¶ariasde seus m¶edicoWilliam Stukeley, publicada pela Surtees So- 7 trabalhos. A avalia»c~aodetalhada destes textos permite ciety, informa»c~oesque iluminaram pontos obscuros da ao pesquisador levantar fatos que, ao serem organi- vida de Gray [1, p. 414]. zados cronologicamente e analisados, fornecem alguns Para o estudo da vida de Gray tivemos acesso a par^ametrosda vida do biografado. Desta forma, ela- quatro artigos bastante relevantes [1-4]. Al¶emdestes borar uma biogra¯a exige que o pesquisador tenha em artigos, nosso trabalho de pesquisa fundamentou-se m~aosuma grande quantidade de material de pesquisa tamb¶emem uma an¶alisedetalhada dos nove artigos de fonte prim¶aria,pois o trabalho ser¶at~aocompleto publicados por Gray sobre eletricidade. E¶ importante quanto maior for a quantidade de material relevante ressaltar que este trabalho versa sobre a biogra¯a de dispon¶³vel. No caso de Gray, suas cartas manuscritas Gray, fugindo ao seu escopo qualquer discuss~aoa res- encontram-se aos cuidados de institui»c~oescomo o Ob- peito dos estudos ou dos artigos dele sobre eletricidade. servat¶orioReal de Greenwich, o Museu Brit^anico e a Os artigos de Chipman [1, 4], Clark e Murdin [2] Real Sociedade de Londres. Os pesquisadores tamb¶em e Cohen [3] foram fundamentados nos documentos en- encontraram informa»c~oesnos arquivos paroquiais de contrados nas institui»c~oescitadas anteriormente (RGO, igrejas e em arquivos pessoais, e:g:, na par¶oquiade Can- RS, BM). Apresentaremos a biogra¯a de forma concisa, terbury (prov¶avel cidade natal de Gray) e nos arquivos com o prop¶ositode fornecer ao leitor uma vis~aogeral familiares dos Stukeley (ver Nota 6 ). Neste caminho da vida de Gray. N~ao¶edif¶³cil nos depararmos com ²Outro endere»cobastante ¶util¶e: http://www.scholarly-societies.org. Neste site ¶eposs¶³vel obter informa»c~oessobre academias de ci^enciasem todo o mundo com links, abrevia»c~oesde t¶³tulosde jornais e revistas antigas presentes nos cat¶alogoscitados acima. ²Para procurar por informa»c~oessobre a produ»c~aocient¶³¯carecente ¶eposs¶³vel utilizar as bases de indexa»c~aode informa»c~ao, e:g:, Web of Science, disponibilizada pela Coordena»c~aode Aperfei»coamento de Pessoal de N¶³vel Superior (CAPES). Infelizmente, nem todas as bases est~ao disponibilizadas para o acesso p¶ublico. Algumas s~aode acesso restrito a algumas universidades p¶ublicase particulares. Outras bases s~aode acesso gratuito ao p¶ublicoem geral, e:g:, www.dominiopublico.gov.br e www.scielo.br. ²Tivemos acesso aos artigos publicados por Gray no site da Biblioteca Nacional da Fran»ca (http://gallica.bnf.fr), que ¶ede acesso livre. Al¶emda revista Philosophical Transactions, est¶adispon¶³vel um grande n¶umerode peri¶odicosnas mais variadas ¶areas.Os artigos de Stephen Gray tamb¶empodem ser obtidos no banco de dados JSTOR (www.jstor.org), que ¶ede acesso restrito a assinantes. ²Para levantamento de literatura secund¶ariauma fonte interessante ¶eo Current Bibliography, publicado anualmente, desde 1913, pela revista Isis. Para mais informa»c~oesacessar o site http://www.ou.edu/cas/hsci/isis/website/index.html. Outra refer^enciainteressante ¶eo Cat¶alogo da Comunidade Cient¶³¯ca dos s¶eculosXVI e XVII.
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