Stillman Drake
Stillman Drake (1910-1993) is best known for his work on Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). Drake published over 131 books, articles, and book chapters on Galileo [1] .
Possibly his most significant contribution to the history of science was his defense of Galileo's experiments as documented in Two New Sciences, in which he replicated the experimental precision of Galileo without recourse to results afforded by the 1638 mathematical law. Instead Drake showed that experimental measurements sufficed for Galileo to derive his law of falling bodies. This in answer to the philosophical charge of Alexandre Koyré, that the published precision of the experiment exceeded the limits of observation.
In 1988 he was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society.
Selected works by Stillman Drake
- Stillman Drake (1949) Book of Anglo-Saxon Verse.
- Stillman Drake (1953). Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Stillman Drake (1957). Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-09239-3
- Stillman Drake (1973). "Galileo's Discovery of the Law of Free Fall". Scientific American v. 228, #5, pp. 84-92.
- Stillman Drake (1974), translator of Galileo's Two New Sciences, University of Wisconsin Press, 1974. ISBN 0-299-06404-2. A new translation including sections on centers of gravity and the force of percussion.
- Stillman Drake (1978). Galileo At Work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-16226-5