Showing papers in "Annals of Science in 2005"
TL;DR: The detailed descriptions published by Liebig in 1837 are used to reconstruct his apparatus and methods for hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen analysis and suggest that the great shift in science from gentlemanly avocation to professional vocation was tightly linked to laboratory practice, and not just to social networks and context.
Abstract: In a publication of 1831 later seen as a milestone in the development of chemistry, Justus Liebig announced a new apparatus for the analysis of organic compounds and provided analytical results for fifteen substances. In this paper we used the detailed descriptions published by Liebig in 1837 to reconstruct his apparatus and methods for hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen analysis. Our replications of his analyses of racemic acid, cinchonine, narcotine, and urea reveal that his two pieces of apparatus give excellent results for carbon and hydrogen content, but erratic results for nitrogen. The results corroborate the assessments of Liebig and his contemporaries, and show that the analytical method for carbon and hydrogen analysis was remarkably accurate. We offer this case, with its convincing replicability, not only to clarify the nature of Liebig's innovations, but also as a new model for understanding broader contested issues in the philosophy and sociology of science. Our analysis suggests that the great sh...
53 citations
TL;DR: The role played by the Geological Survey of Portugal in the emergence and consolidation of geology as a government science in the nineteenth century, within a general policy of control over territory, is discussed in this article.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the role played by the Geological Survey of Portugal in the emergence and consolidation of geology as a government science in the nineteenth century, within a general policy of control over territory. The period under consideration covers the directorates of its first leaders, Pereira da Costa (1809–1888) and the military engineers Carlos Ribeiro (1813–1882), and Nery Delgado (1835–1908). When the Geological Survey was created in 1857 as part of the Directorate of Geodesic, Chorographic, Hydrographical Works of the Kingdom (Direccao Geral dos Trabalhos Geodesicos, Chorographicos, Hydrographicos do Reino) established at the Ministry of Public Works, Trade and Industry (Ministerio das Obras Publicas, Comercio e Industria), Portugal lacked a geological culture and a tradition in geological research. The Portuguese Geological Survey was to be marked by the idiosyncrasies of the local culture and of the organization of the State. In this paper, the emergence of geology as a government sci...
19 citations
TL;DR: The definition of the laboratory is examined to show how a space has to be specially adapted to deserve the title of laboratory and how the two leading experimental sciences have historically depended on access to a laboratory.
Abstract: Surprisingly little attention has been given hitherto to the definition of the laboratory. A space has to be specially adapted to deserve that title. It would be easy to assume that the two leading experimental sciences, physics and chemistry, have historically depended in a similar way on access to a laboratory. But while chemistry, through its alchemical ancestry with batteries of stills, had many fully fledged laboratories by the seventeenth century, physics was discovering the value of mathematics. Even experimental physics was content to make use of almost any indoor space, if not outdoors, ignoring the possible value of a laboratory. The development of the physics laboratory had to wait until the nineteenth century.
17 citations
14 citations
TL;DR: A reconstruction of the stream of researches related to mesotron decay, and examines how these researches shaped some of the basic concepts and practices of the emerging field of particle physics can be found in this article.
Abstract: Summary The mesotrons, or mesons, were the first elementary particles observed to be inherently unstable. This essay offers a reconstruction of the stream of researches related to mesotron decay, and examines how these researches shaped some of the basic concepts and practices of the emerging field of particle physics. Mass measurements could not settle the question of whether the mesons were a homogeneous kind of particles or an assortment of particles with different masses. The assumption of a single mass prevailed not on experimental grounds but because the mesons were identified tentatively with the carriers of the nuclear force according to a theory formulated by Hideki Yukawa. The identification gained currency because it entailed the prediction of meson decay, and thereby upheld the promise of a unified explanation of nuclear and cosmic-ray phenomena. In turn, the observation of decay and the measurement of the mean lifetime created the conditions for investigating the nuclear interactions of meson...
12 citations
TL;DR: Nairne and Blunt as mentioned in this paper developed a constricted-tube barometer for Captain Cook's second voyage of 1772-75 and used it on other British exploring voyages, but French ships were slow to follow the pattern.
Abstract: In 1668 Robert Hooke recognised the utility of a barometer which could foretell storms at sea, but neither he nor his contemporaries in Britain or elsewhere in Europe succeeded in constructing such an instrument which would work reliably on a moving ship. Theorists and instrument makers, including Hooke, Amontons, De Luc, Passement, Magellan and Blondeau proposed novel forms of tube, but at the time it was not possible to work glass to the suggested shape. The competition between France and England was won by Edward Nairne, who devised the constricted-tube barometer for Captain Cook's second voyage of 1772-75. Nairne barometers were soon taken on other British exploring voyages, but French ships were slow to follow the pattern, possibly in consequence of naval disruption following the Revolution. The earliest Nairne examples were adapted from the domestic barometer, with the tube mounted on a flat back, but within the lifetime of Nairne & Blunt marine barometers adopted the form common for most of the nin...
10 citations
TL;DR: A case study of the unfolding of research under a new paradigm, but it considers also contemporary criticism and scepticism.
Abstract: While historians have dealt with the origins of the concept of drug receptors in the work of Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) and John N. Langley (1852-1925) as well as with some of its applications in modern pharmaceutical research, the history of the receptor theory as such has been neglected. Discussing major developments and conceptual changes in receptor theory between about 1910 and 1960 (including relevant contributions by A. V. Hill, A. J. Clark, J. H. Gaddum, E. J. Ariens and others), this paper attempts to fill this gap in historiography. It provides a case study of the unfolding of research under a new paradigm, but it considers also contemporary criticism and scepticism. By the early 1960s, quantitative investigations of drug action and interpretations of the experimental findings in terms of the receptor concept had become constitutive of the emerging field of 'molecular pharmacology'. Even then, however, receptors were still hypothetical entities.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors give a full account of the work of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) on absolute temperature, which to this day provides the theoretical underpinnings for the most rigorous measurements of temperature.
Abstract: In this paper we give a full account of the work of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) on absolute temperature, which to this day provides the theoretical underpinnings for the most rigorous measurements of temperature. When Thomson fashioned his concepts of 'absolute' temperature, his main concern was to make the definition of temperature independent of the properties of particular thermometric substances (rather than to count temperature from an absolute zero). He tried out a succession of definitions based on the thermodynamics of ideal heat engines; most notably, in 1854 he gave the ratio of two temperatures as the ratio of quantities of heat taken in and given out at those temperatures in a Carnot cycle. But there were difficulties with using such definitions for experimental work, since it was not possible even to approximate an ideal Carnot engine in reality. More generally, it is not trivial to connect an abstract concept with concrete operations in order to make physical measurements possible. In the end, Thomson argued that an ideal gas thermometer would indicate his absolute temperature, and that the deviation of actual gas thermometers from the ideal could be estimated by means of the Joule-Thomson effect. However, the measurement of the Joule-Thomson effect itself required measurements of temperature, so there was a problem of circularity.
7 citations
Journal Article•
6 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at the activities of Koenig's workshop and how it contributed to the protracted disputes over an elusive acoustical phenomenon called the combination tone, which is the most common sound phenomenon in music.
Abstract: Rudolph Koenig's workshop was a busy meeting place for instruments, ideas, experiments, demonstrations, craft traditions, and business. Starting around 1860, it was also the place in Paris where people discovered the new science of sound emerging from the studies of Hermann von Helmholtz in Germany. Koenig built Helmholtz's ideas into apparatus, created new instruments, and spread them throughout the scientific and musical world. Through his own research, he also became Helmholtz's strongest critic. This paper looks at the activities of this unique space and, in particular, how it contributed to the protracted disputes over an elusive acoustical phenomenon called the combination tone.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors of Le Darwinisme au point de vue de l'Orthodoxie catholique (translated as Darwinism and Catholic Thought) defend a reconciliation between evolutionary theory and Catholicism with his own particular kind of theistic evolutionism.
Abstract: Summary In 1918, Henry de Dorlodot—priest, theologian, and professor of geology at the University of Louvain (Belgium)—published Le Darwinisme au point de vue de l'Orthodoxie Catholique (translated as Darwinism and Catholic Thought) in which he defended a reconciliation between evolutionary theory and Catholicism with his own particular kind of theistic evolutionism. He subsequently announced a second volume in which he would extend his conclusions to the origin of Man. Traditionalist circles in Rome reacted vehemently. Operating through the Pontifical Biblical Commission, they tried to force Dorlodot to withdraw his book and to publicly disown his ideas by threatening him with an official condemnation, a strategy that had been used against Catholic evolutionists since the late nineteenth century. The archival material on the ‘Dorlodot affair’ shows how this policy ‘worked’ in the early stages of the twentieth century but also how it would eventually reach the end of its logic. The growing popularity of t...
TL;DR: It is argued that Yamanouchi's ‘softer’ (or less biologically deterministic) perspective may have reflected the Japanese desire to catch up with the dominant ‘race’ by using eugenics without accepting permanent inferior status.
Abstract: This paper explores the eugenic thought of Yamanouchi Shigeo (1876–1973), who was trained in plant cytology under the tutelage of botanist and eugenicist John Coulter (1851–1928) in the USA, and later became one of the early and important popularizers of eugenic ideas in Japan. His career demonstrates a direct link between Japanese and US eugenics. Despite his academic training and research at various internationally renowned institutions, numerous publications, and longevity, his life has received little scholarly attention. By the early twentieth century, most biologists in Japan, as in the USA, began accepting Mendelian evolutionary theory and rejecting the Lamarckian notion of inheritance of acquired characteristics. However, Yamanouchi Shigeo's eugenic view represents a paradox: he was a Mendelian cytologist sympathetic to Lamarckism. Was his ‘nurture’‐oriented eugenic view unscientific? Is that why he was largely ignored in the history of botany in Japan? This study attempts to answer these question...
TL;DR: The analemmatic sundial was briefly presented for the first time in 1640 by the French mathematician Vaule et al. as mentioned in this paper in a petit fascicule publie.
Abstract: Resume Le cadran solaire analemmatique est presente pour la premiere fois par un mathematicien francais, appele Vaulezard, dans un petit fascicule publie en 1640. Suit un deuxieme ouvrage, plus complet, en 1644. Dernier venu, ce cadran attire l'attention d'importants savants tels que Foster et Lalande. Parfait des le depart, il a neanmoins la singuliere particularite d'inspirer diverses tentatives d'amelioration, plutot infructueuses, et d'etre a l'origine de quelques varietes de cadrans analemmatiques qui, elles, connaissent un franc succes. Nous apportons la preuve trigonometrique et, pour la premiere fois semble‐t‐il, la preuve geometrique de sa validite astronomique en suivant fidelement la methode de construction indiquee par Vaulezard. Nous effectuons, en outre, un survol aussi exhaustif que possible des differents modeles derives de ce cadran ainsi que de la litterature les concernant. Summary The analemmatic sundial was briefly presented for the first time in 1640 by the French mathematician Vaule...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a systematic treatment of the Newtonian kinematics of light, taking into account in the absolute space of Newton the motion of the light source, that of the observer, and the velocity of the corpuscles of light.
Abstract: In 1786, Robert Blair, an unknown astronomer from Edinburgh, wrote a paper that would remain unpublished. In his manuscript, Blair gives a systematic treatment of the Newtonian kinematics of light, taking into account in the absolute space of Newton the motion of the light source, that of the observer, and the velocity of the corpuscles of light. Two years before, in the context of Newton's corpuscular theory of light, John Michell had pointed out that the velocity of light could be measured with the help of refraction experiments. Blair went a step further and inferred the existence of what we now call the Doppler effect: a variation of refraction due to a relative motion of the source and the observer. Blair's proposal is at the roots of Arago's well‐known 1806–10 experiments on the velocity of light. In the context of the undulatory theory of light, Blair proposed an experiment to determine the absolute motion of the Earth, laying the bases for the famous experiment performed by Albert Michelson 100 ye...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on correspondence that Fremy and Wurtz exchanged with Duruy and senior officials in the Ministry between 1863 and 1869 to bring out the significance of the correspondence.
Abstract: Summary As soon as he was appointed Minister of Public Instruction in 1863, Victor Duruy embarked on a major reform of French education. One of his most important initiatives was the creation of a new secondary curriculum (l'enseignement special) designed to prepare for careers in industry, trade, and agriculture. Edme Fremy, professor at the Museum d'histoire naturelle, took the opportunity of proposing a course of instruction in practical chemistry that would be offered at the Museum for young men intending to work in industry. Duruy approved the proposal, and funds were immediately made available. In contrast, Charles-Adolphe Wurtz, who led an internationally recognized research laboratory in organic chemistry in the Paris Faculty of Medicine, had difficulty in securing either administrative recognition or financial support. This article draws on the correspondence that Fremy and Wurtz exchanged with Duruy and senior officials in the Ministry between 1863 and 1869 to bring out the significance of the d...