Nineteenth-century England was home to a great deal of scientific progress; particularly in the latter half of the 19th century, England underwent enormous technological and industrial changes and advances. In addition, during this period, the number of popular science periodicals doubled from the 1850s to the 1860s. According to the editors of these journals, the publications were designed to serve as “organs of science,” in essence, a means of connecting the public to the scientific world
One such journal was entitled Recreative Science: A Record and Remembrancer of Intellectual Observation, which, created in 1859, began as a natural history magazine and progressed to expand its contents over the course of its existence to include more physical observational science and technical subjects and less natural history. This broadening of content could be detected in the journal’s name changes from its original title to Intellectual Observer: A Review of Natural History, Microscopic Research, and Recreative Science and then later to the Student and Intellectual Observer of Science, Literature, and Art. Recreative Science attempted, as mentioned, to include more physical sciences such as astronomy and archaeology, while Intellectual Observer broadened itself further to include literature and art along with the science of the era.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ragesoss/Nature_%28journal%29
