"Encouraging ... intelligent interest": William Henry Archer's 'Facts and Figures' as a popular science magazine

Abstract

The early history of popular science journalism in colonial Australia is a field wide open for investigation. The scientific content of some of the early colonial miscellanies has received some scholarly attention, but the genesis of specialist journals of popular science has yet to be explored. This paper examines 'Facts and Figures', a previously overlooked magazine of popular science published in Melbourne by William Henry Archer during 1857 and 1858. While aspects of this magazine were distinctively colonial, the content and readership of 'Facts and Figures' and its general approach to the discipline of science justify its identification as a periodical of popular science within the developing British genre. Close examination of this publication sheds light not only on the enthusiasms of its founder, but also on the cultural place of science in the new colonial nation of Victoria.