[1] The journal was established after Brown visited Britain for a year and discussed where he could publish work on the history of science with Henry Robinson of the library of the Royal Society of London.

They decided that aside from the Belgian Isis, there were few outlets for such work, and so founded the Annals of Science with Douglas McKie (University College London), who was the main editor.

[2] The editors chose to have a bright orange cover to make it stand out against the usual blue or grey of periodicals at the time.

He had published a biographical article on Georg Cantor in the journal in 1971 and met the-then editor, Heathcote, during the process of publication.

That same afternoon Cheney rang Heathcote only to find that he was in the process of writing his resignation letter recommending Grattan-Guinness as his successor — the younger man was immediately offered the post of editor.