The Whipple Museum of the History of Science: Objects and Investigations, to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of R. S. Whipple's Gift to the University

ISBN-13: 9781108498272 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 352 str.

Joshua Nall; Liba Chaia Taub; Frances Willmoth

Opis

A window into cultures of scientific practice drawing on the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Recenzje

'The volume exemplifies the best of science writing. Many helpful illustrations and an appendix of student research conducted at the library accompany the text.' N. Sadanand, Choice

Spis treści

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.