Scope and Contents

These documents relate to a series of experiments conducted at the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment, Fort Halstead, Kent, to allow Joseph Needham to observe the ignition of gunpowder compostions, with varying amounts of nitrate. These compositions were based on different gunpowder recipes found in Chinese texts.

Scope and Contents Following Jäger's death, Joseph Needham was able to view his papers with WF [Prof. Wolfgang Franke of Hamburg, Germany] and WH [?]. He was able to take some of the files for use in his work on 'Science and Civilisation in China'. SCC2/162/1 is a list of 10 of Jäger's files, including a 'Biography of Wang Chêng'; 'Papers on 中 Maths, Pi etc.'; Material on printing'; 'Material on Gunpowder'. Next to some of the items Needham has written 'borrowed by JN.' This file appears to correspond to...

Scope and Contents

See SCC2/162/1 for a list of material left by Jäger, relating to Chinese history of science.

Scope and Contents

On the outside of the file Joseph Needham notes that the 'New Effort' was begun by WL [Wang Ling]/HPY [Ho Peng-Yoke]. However, it is clear that Wang Ling had less of an input into the volume during this time. Much of the correspondence is with Ho Peng-Yoke, who was responsible for completing a complete draft of the gunpowder volume in the late 1978.

Scope and Contents

Joseph Needham's University of London, Creighton Lecture was entitled 'The Guns of Kaifêng-Fu: China's Development of Man's First Chemical Explosive'. It was given by Needham on 26 November 1979 at the University of London. It was then published in the 'Times Literary Supplement', 11 January 1980.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents

The East Asian History of Science Foundation was set up to provide support towards Joseph Needham's aim of building a permanent research centre in Cambridge. The first lecture was entitled 'Gunpowder as the Fourth Power, East and West'. It was published by Hong Kong University Press as a monograph in 1985.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents

Many of the illustrations are from the Chinese texts, 'Wu Pei Chih' [武備志 / Wu Bei Zhi], (1628), 'Ping Lu [兵錄 / Bing Lu]', (1606) and 'Huo Lung Ching' [火龍經 / Huo Long Jing].

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents

Joseph Needham gave theThe Royal Society of Chemistry, Priestley Lecture at the '3rd BOC Priestly Conference' on 13 September 1983. The title was 'The World's First Chemical Explosive in China and the West'.

Scope and Contents

The file contains an alphabetised list of subjects to be covered relating to incediaries in 'Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part 7' (See SCC2/141/1/1). The subfiles and documents within them are often marked with letters corresponding to that list.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

This series contains files on each topic set out in Joseph Needham's grand plan for 'Science and Civilisation in China'.