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10306 results in History of science: general interest

Page 406 of 516

  • Sir John Herschel and the Development of Spectroscopy in Britain

  • M. A. Sutton
  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 7 / Issue 1 / March 1974
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    05 January 2009, pp. 42-60
    Print publication:
    March 1974

  • One of the most dramatic advances in the physical sciences during the nineteenth century was the emergence of spectroscopy. It rapidly became an invaluable experimental technique for chemists and astronomers, while for physicists it opened a window upon the world of sub-atomic phenomena. Sir John Herschel played an important part, the value of which has sometimes been underestimated, in the early development of spectroscopy. This paper examines his contribution to the subject during the period 1819–61 in the light of his publications and of certain manuscript material preserved in the Royal Society's Library. Herschel corresponded with most of the scientists who did important work in spectroscopy during his lifetime, and he expressed definite opinions on most of the practical and theoretical problems that arose in it; however, the present study cannot pretend to offer a complete discussion of all aspects of the early history of spectroscopy.

  • Property, Patronage, and the Politics of Science: The Founding of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

  • Steven Shapin
  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 7 / Issue 1 / March 1974
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    05 January 2009, pp. 1-41
    Print publication:
    March 1974
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  • The institutionalization of natural knowledge in the form of a scientific society may be interpreted in several ways. If we wish to view science as something apart, unchanging in its intellectual nature, we may regard the scientific enterprise as presenting to the sustaining social system a number of absolute and necessary organizational demands: for example, scientific activity requires acceptance as an important social activity valued for its own sake, that is, it requires autonomy; it is separate from other forms of enquiry and requires distinct institutional modes; it is public knowledge and requires a public, universalistic forum; it is productive of constant change and requires of the sustaining social system a flexibility in adapting to change. Support for such an interpretation may be found in the rise of modern science in seventeenth-century England, France, and Italy and in the accompanying rise of specifically scientific societies. Thus, the founding of the Royal Society of London may be interpreted as the organizational embodiment of immanent demands arising from scientific activity—the cashing of a blank cheque payable to science written on society's current account.

  • BJH volume 7 issue 1 Cover and Front matter

  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 7 / Issue 1 / March 1974
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    05 January 2009, pp. f1-f4
    Print publication:
    March 1974
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Page 406 of 516