Mary Somerville's Pen

Mary Somerville holds probably a propelling pencil
like the ones made by Samson Mordan.

In a letter of July 12, 1849, thanking Somerville for a copy of Physical Geography, Humboldt praised Somerville's superior combination of precision, lucidity, and taste; her high attainments in mathematical analysis; and the comprehensiveness of her knowledge. ...
"You alone could provide your literature with an original cosmological work, a work written with the lucidity and taste that distinguish everything that comes from your pen," he told her.

Kathlyn Neeley, Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination and the Female Mind, 2001.

Google celebrates Scottish scientist Somerville with a Doodle to mark the day she published in the world's oldest science publication, Philosophical Transactions. She was the first woman to do so.