A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
History
A century of science in America : $b with special reference to the American Journal of Science, 1818-1918
American journal of science; Science -- United States -- History
As is distinctly intimated in the preceding paragraph the elder Silliman
was fortunate in obtaining the assistance in his editorial labors of
numerous gentlemen interested in the enterprise. Their cooperation
provided many of the scientific notices, book reviews and the like
contained in the Miscellany with which each number closed. It is
impossible, at this date, to render the credit due to Silliman’s helpers
or even to mention them by name. Very early Asa Gray was one of these as
occasional notes are signed by his initials. Dr. Levi Ives of New Haven
was another. Prof. J. Griscom of Paris also sent numerous contributions
even as early as 1825 (see =9=, 154, 1825; =22=, 192, 1832; =24=, 342,
1833, and others).
Some statements have already been quoted from the early volumes as to
the business part of Silliman’s enterprise. The subject is taken up more
fully in the preface to volume =50= (1847). No one can fail to marvel at
the energy and optimism required to push the Journal forward when
conditions must have been so difficult and encouragement so scanty. He
says (pp. iii, iv):
This Journal first appeared in July, 1818, and in June, 1819, the
first volume of four numbers and 448 pages was completed. This scale
of publication, originally deemed sufficient, was found inadequate to
receive all the communications, and as the receipts proved
insufficient to sustain the expenses, the work, having but three
hundred and fifty subscribers, was, at the end of the year, abandoned
by the publishers.
An unprofitable enterprise not being attractive to the trade, ten
months elapsed before another arrangement could be carried into
effect, and, therefore, No. 1 of vol. =2= was not published until
April, 1820. The new arrangement was one of mutual responsibility for
the expenses, but the Editor was constrained nevertheless to pledge
his own personal credit to obtain from a bank the funds necessary to
begin again, and from this responsibility he was, for a series of
years, seldom released. The single volume per annum being found
insufficient for the communications, two volumes a year were afterward
published, commencing with the second volume.
The publishers whose names appear on the title page of the four numbers
of the first volume are “J. Eastburn & Co., Literary Rooms, Broadway,
New York” and “Howe & Spalding, New Haven.” For the second volume and
those immediately following the corresponding statement “printed and
published by S. Converse [New Haven] for the Editor.”
Silliman adds (p. iv):
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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