A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, also known as The Guide to Science or Brewer's Guide to Science, is a book by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer presenting explanations for common phenomena. First published in the United Kingdom around 1840, the book was very popular with 47 editions being printed by 1905 in English alone, and this popularity enabled Brewer to gather material for his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable which remains a clas...
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A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar, also known as The Guide to Science or Brewer's Guide to Science, is a book by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer presenting explanations for common phenomena. First published in the United Kingdom around 1840, the book was very popular with 47 editions being printed by 1905 in English alone, and this popularity enabled Brewer to gather material for his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable which remains a classic reference work.
The object of The Guide to Science was to present answers to over 2000 questions about common phenomena. There are questions dealing with the man-made objects such as candles, stoves and chimneys as well as answers seeking to explain natural phenomena such as thunder and lightning (including a mention of ball lightning), clouds, dew and rainbows. Brewer intended that his book should be intelligible to a child, since children might often ask the questions he was seeking to answer, but without being so foolish as to offend...
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