Genius of Britain: The Scientists Who Changed the World TV - Stephen Hawking - Every Breath We Take TV - Michael Mosley TV - Martin Amis - William Shakespeare - Christopher Marlowe - William Wordsworth - James Burke TV - John Milton - Poor Cow 1967 -
He [Boyle] wanted to find out what air actually was. Genius of Britain: The Scientists Who Changed the World, James Dyson, Channel 4 2012
Boyle’s air pump was a huge turning point: it demonstrated that there was an invisible world all around us whose laws we could understand through experiment and reason. ibid. Stephen Hawking
The air around us contains the raw materials from which life is made. Every Breath We Take, BBC 2014
The fashionable theory of the day – phlogiston. This mysterious element was believed to be released during combustion or respiration. ibid.
Air had long been considered a single indivisible substance. A basic building block of the world. But as Europe industrialised it became increasingly obvious that this was far from the truth. People realised from personal experience that there were lots of different airs with very different properties. Michael Mosley, The Story of Science: Proof & Passion, BBC 2010
Priestley set out to study airs by heating different substances. ibid.
The air itself was ebony, like the denial, the refutation, of the idea of light. Martin Amis, House of Meetings
It is a nipping and an eager air. William Shakespeare, Hamlet I iv 2
But, soft! methinks I scent the morning air. ibid. I v 58
Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air. William Shakespeare, Macbeth I I 12-13
The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. William Shakespeare, The Tempest II i 49, Adrian
O, thou art fairer than the evening air
Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars. Christopher Marlowe, Faustus
And ’t is my faith, that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes. William Wordsworth, Lines written in Early Spring
Hales reckons the source of all disease is foul or putrid air found mostly in closed spaces. James Burke, Connections s3e7: A Special Place, BBC 1997
The parching air
Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. John Milton, Paradise Lost 2:594
I don’t like fresh air. It’s not good for the skin. Poor Cow 1967 starring Carol White & Terence Stamp & John Bindon & Queenie Watts & Kate Williams & Laurie Asprey & James Beckett & Ray Barron & Hilda Barry & Kenneth Campbell & Ron Clarke et al, director Ken Loach