Science For All

The other day my parents went to a huge second-hand book sale fundraising event. They went early in the day so they had the best pickings, and amongst all the piles of books, they found this beauty. They instantly bought for only $2 AUD - much to the annoyance of the person who was following/watching my parents in the corner of his eye, hoping they put it down and decided not to buy it. There's no publishing dates inside the book, but a pencil-written note on the inside cover says it was given as a prize to J. Sanders of the Carlton Wesleyan Cricket Club for all-round play in 1880.


The book is filled with wonderful scientific facts and it's interesting to see what's correct & what's changed. The map of the world is similar to today's maps, but it's warped in some places. The telephone is no longer considered a 'new invention'. Neptune and Pluto have been discovered, as well as many other moons. Some planets that were thought to have existed have been disproved. But most surprising of all is the way it completely admits everything that hasn't been confirmed and the way it proposes both opinions on a topic. For instance, it states that there may be more planets in the Solar System past Uranus - in fact it says that there probably are more planets - but it admits that they don't have the optic equipment to find them. It states that they're still not sure if it's an asteroid belt or another planet between Mars and Jupiter, gives both arguments and concludes that the asteroid belt has more evidence but it's still uncertain. It says that there might be another planet closer to the sun than Mercury & because it's so close to the Sun it's never been detected before - either that or the mass of Venus is different to what it was thought to be, but either way they knew that something was pulling on Mercury's orbit that wasn't explained by the current models of understanding.


Hit the download link to download a lossless 24-bit PNG. I had trouble compressing the preview JPEG due to the texture of the book so the PNG is highly recommended if you're using it in other artwork. Or if you just want to view the lossless original.


Unless I specifically state otherwise in the deviation's comments, all of my works are copyrighted and aren't to be used. (Although, if you want to use one of my normal deviations, drop me a line! You can either send me a note or you can find all of my contact details at Realm of riumplus, my website) This deviation is one of the exceptions. Since this book's copyright has long-since expired (it probably belongs in a rare book collection), I'm releasing this cover scan free for all use. However, while not required, if you decide to use it I would appreciate it if you could do one of the following things:

1) If it's for non-commercial work, use it however you want, I don't mind at all and have no objections to whatever use you so desire! I'd like to be notified of what you create with it though. So once you're done, if you could link me the finished product, that would be grand. I find it interesting to see what people create with my resources.

2) If it's for commercial work, you can also use it however you want! But I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know that you're using it before the final product is published. Why? So that I can give you the much-higher-quality-and-larger originals! In fact, if you'd like the originals and you're doing non-commercial work, feel free to ask as well. But if it's commercial, you probably want them before you're done since you're selling something. Oh, and when it's done, link me the final product too