The Royal Society has just made its entire archive digital, and it’s online, and free until December. You can read original proceedings as far back as 1665, containing reports of all sorts of stuff.

Check these out:

A report on Mozart, from when he was 8.

Crick’s original DNA paper

Franklin’s account of lying a kite in a lightning storm

Hook’s account (from 1667) of trying to keep a dog alive by inflating its lungs with a bellows

Cook’s account of his method of keeping his crew healthy during the voyage on which he discovered Australia

Basically, if you have any interest in science at all, you’ve 3 months to wade through and look at our acquisition of knowledge in progress before it becomes pay-per-view (at something like 5000 pounds sterling ;-)