Instruments, travel and science : itineraries of precision from the seventeenth to the twentieth century
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Bibliographic Information
Instruments, travel and science : itineraries of precision from the seventeenth to the twentieth century
（Studies in the history of science, technology and medicine / edited by John Krige, v. 16）
Routledge, 2002
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
We are now accustomed to conceive of science as an instrumental activity, producing numbers, measurements and graphs by means of sophisticated devices. This book investigates the historical process that gave rise to this instrumental culture. The contributors trace the displacement of instruments across the globe, the spread of practices or precision and the circulation and appropriation of skills and knowledge.
Through comparative and contextual approaches, the volume confronts the tension between the local and the global, examining the process of the universalization of science. Bringing together case studies ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, contributors discuss French, German and British initiatives, as well as the knowledge and techniques of travellers in countries such as India, Africa, South East Asia and the Americas.
Students and researchers interested in the history of science in both Western and non-Western cultures will find this book a valuable and thought-provoking read.
Table of Contents
Marie-Noelle Bourguet, Christian Licoppe and H. Otto Sibum Introduction 1. Simon Schaffer Golden Means: Assay Instruments and the Geography of Precision in the Guinea Trade 2. Christian Licoppe The Project for a Map of Languedoc in Eighteenth-Century France at the Contested Intersection between Astronomy and Geography. The Problem of Co-ordination between Philosophers, Instruments and Observations as a Keystone of Modernity 3. Jim Bennett The Travels and Trials of Mr. Harrison's Timekeeper 4. Marie-Noelle Bourguet Landscape With Numbers: Natural History, Travel and Instruments (Mid-18th to Early 19th Century) 5. Giuliano Pancaldi Approaching Invention: the Reception of the Voltaic Battery in Europe 6. Kapil Raj When Human Travellers Become Instruments: The Indo-British Exploration of Central Asia in the 19th Century 7. Christophe Bonneuil The Manufacture of Species: Kew Gardens, the Empire, and the Standardization of Taxonomic Practises in Late 19th-Century Botany 8. H. Otto Sibum Exploring the Margins of Precision 9. Richard Staley Travelling Light 10. David Turnball Travelling Knowledge: Narratives, Assemblage and Encounters
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