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Full Description
In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science's internationally renowned collection are brought into sharp relief by a number of highly regarded historians of science in fourteen essays. Each chapter focuses on a specific instrument or group of objects, ranging from an English medieval astrolabe to a modern agricultural 'seed source indicator' to a curious collection of plaster chicken heads. The contributors employ a range of historiographical and methodological approaches to demonstrate the various ways in which the material culture of science can be researched and understood. The essays show how the study of scientific objects - including instruments and models - offers a window into cultures of scientific practice not afforded by textual sources alone. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Contents
Introduction Liba Taub and Joshua Nall; 1. Sacred astronomy? Beyond the stars on a Whipple astrolabe Seb Falk; 2. What were portable astronomical instruments used for in late-medieval England, and how much were they actually carried around? Catherine Eagleton; 3. 'Sundials and other cosmographical instruments': historical categories and historians' categories in the study of mathematical instruments and disciplines Adam Mosley; 4. 'That incomparable instrument maker': the reputation of Henry Sutton Jim Bennett; 5. Specimens of observation: Edward Hobson's Musci Britannici Anne Secord; 6. Ideas embodied in metal: Babbage's engines dismembered and remembered Simon Schaffer; 7. Galvanometers and the many lives of scientific instruments Charlotte Connelly and Hasok Chang; 8. Buying antique scientific instruments at the turn of the twentieth century: a data-driven analysis of Lewis Evans' and Robert Stewart Whipple's collecting habits Tabitha Thomas; 9. Like a Bos: the discovery of fake antique scientific instruments at the Whipple Museum Boris Jardine; 10. Wanted weeds: environmental history in the Whipple Museum Helen Curry; 11. What 'Consul, the Educated Monkey' can teach us about early twentieth-century mathematics, learning, and vaudeville Caitlin Wylie; 12. Robin Hill's cloud camera: meteorological communication, cloud classification Henry Schmidt; 13. Chicken heads and Punnett squares: Reginald Punnett and the role of visualizations in early genetics research at Cambridge, 1900-1930 Matthew Green; 14. Stacks, 'pacs', and user hacks: a handheld history of personal computing Michael F. Mcgovern.
