Back to . . . Archimedes Home Page

This section . . . Books in Print Books on the Internet Articles by D. L. Simms

1. “The Legend of Archimedes and the Burning Mirrors of Syracuse”
   Fire Research Note 576/1965, Fire Research Organisation, Borehamwood, UK (1965).

2. “Archimedes and Burning Mirrors”
   Physcis Education, Volume 10 (November 1975), pages 517-521.

3. “Archimedes and the Burning Mirrors at Syracuse”
   Technology and Culture, Volume 16 (January 1977), pages 1-18.

4. “Archimedes and the Invention of Artillery and Gunpowder”
   Technology and Culture, Volume 28 (January 1987), pages 67-79.

5. “Archimedes’ Weapons of War and Leonardo”
   The British Journal for the History of Science, Volume 21 (1988), pages195-210.

6. “Problema Archimedea”
   Technology and Culture, Volume 30 (January 1989), pages177-78.

7. “The Trail for Archimedes’s Tomb”
   Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Volume 53 (1990), pages 281-286.

8. “Galen on Archimedes: Burning Mirrors or Burning Pitch?”
   Technology and Culture, Volume 32 (January 1991), pages 91-96.
   (Complete version published in 2006).

9. “Archimedes and the Opticians of London” with D. J. Bryden
   Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 35 (1992), pages 11-14.

10. “Archimedes as an Advertising Symbol” with D. J. Bryden
    Technology and Culture,Volume 34 (April 1993), pages 387-392.

11. “Archimedes in Egypt. A comment on Bernal”
    Isis, (October 1993).

12. “Santa Lucia and Archimedes”
    CA News: The Classical Association, No. 13 (December 1995), pages 9-10.

13. “Archimedes the Engineer”
    History of Technology: Volume 17
    Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
    London, UK (1995), pages 45-111.
    ISBN: 0-720-12284-8
    

14. “Archimedes in Literature”
    BSHM Newsletter, Volume 34 (Summer 1997), pages 36-37.
    (Newsletter of the British Society for the History of Mathematics)

15. “Buffon’s Burning Mirrors”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LIX, No. 5, (settembre-ottobre 2004), pages 711-742.
    

16. “Diocles on Burning Mirrors: The First Experimental Verification of a Theoretical Prediction?”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LX, No. 3, (2005), pages 497-... .
    

17. “Archimedes the Mêchanikos”
    Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften 3: Physik/Mechanik
    Edited by Astrid Schürmann
    Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany (2005), pages 164-183.
    ISBN: 3-515-08742-7

18. “Galen on Archimedes: Burning Pitch or Burning Mirrors”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXI, No. 1, (gennaio-febbraio 2006), pages 115-139.
    

19. “The Legend of Archimedes and his Bath”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXII, No.4, (luglio-agosto 2007), pages 557-573.
    

20. “Trade Ephemera, Archimedes and the Opticians of London”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXII, No.6, (novembre-dicembre 2007), pages 797- .
    

21. “Coins of Archimedes?”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXIII, No.4, (luglio-agosto 2008), pages 527-542.
    

22. “Adventures of an Innovation Over Two Millennia: The Water-Screw and its Variants; Part I: Origins and Design”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXV, No.2, (marzo-aprile 2010), pages 195-215.
    

23. “Adventures of an Invention Through Two Millennia: The Water-Screw and its Variants; Part II: In and Out of Use”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXV, No.4, (luglio-agosto 2010), pages 487-502.
    

24. “Adventures of an Invention Through Two Millennia: The Water-Screw and its Variants; Part III: Back in Use”
    Atti della Fondazione Giorgio Ronchi, Anno LXV, No.5, (settembre-ottobre 2010), pages 643-678.
    

---

Biographical information: D .L. Simms was born on 3 September 1926 in London, England. He had degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the University of London.

His career in The British Scientific Civil Service fell into three quite distinct parts. He spent 15 years carrying out research into the ignition and spread of fires, obtaining a Ph.D. for his work on the ignition of materials by radiation in 1963. He had a two-year break at the Office of the Minister for Science where he edited a report on Irrigation in Great Britain.

He then spent a decade investigating management problems in Government Departments, with a year out as the Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford, contemplating the results.

From 1972 he took part in a number of international and national attempts to control pollution. He was Secretary-General of the London Dumping Conference 1972; led the UK Delegation on Marine Pollution at the U.N. 3rd Law of the Sea Conference and was Secretary to the Interim Paris Commission (Land Pollution of the Sea). At home, he was responsible for developing, and publishing papers on, the Scientific Bases for Environmental Regulations (risk analysis, effects of toxic metals, contaminated land). He chaired the European Community’s Co-ordinating and Management Committee for Environment Protection, Climatology and Technological Hazards before in retirement getting down to serious research in the history of science and technology.

Dr. Simms died on 14 November 2010 in his home in London at age 84.