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10305 results in History of science: general interest

Page 86 of 516

The Lighthouse and the Observatory
  • Islam, Science, and Empire in Late Ottoman Egypt
  • Daniel A. Stolz
  • Published online:
    21 December 2017
    Print publication:
    11 January 2018
  • An observatory and a lighthouse form the nexus of this major new investigation of science, religion, and the state in late Ottoman Egypt. Astronomy, imperial bureaucrats, traditionally educated Muslim scholars, and reformist Islamic publications, such as The Lighthouse, are linked to examine the making of knowledge, the performance of piety, and the operation of political power through scientific practice. Contrary to ideas of Islamic scientific decline, Muslim scholars in the nineteenth century used a dynamic tradition of knowledge to measure time, compute calendars, and predict planetary positions. The rise of a 'new astronomy' is revealed to owe much to projects of political and religious reform: from the strengthening of the multiple empires that exercised power over the Nile Valley; to the 'modernization' of Islamic centers of learning; to the dream of a global Islamic community that would rely on scientific institutions to coordinate the timing of major religious duties.

  • The past as a work in progress

  • PATRICIA FARA
  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 51 / Issue 1 / March 2018
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    20 December 2017, pp. 1-15
    Print publication:
    March 2018
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  • Originating as a presidential address during the seventieth birthday celebrations of the British Society for the History of Science, this essay reiterates the society's long-standing commitment to academic autonomy and international cooperation. Drawing examples from my own research into female scientists and doctors during the First World War, I explore how narratives written by historians are related to their own lives, both past and present. In particular, I consider the influences on me of my childhood reading, my experiences as a physics graduate who deliberately left the world of science, and my involvement in programmes to improve the position of women in science. In my opinion, being a historian implies being socially engaged: the BSHS and its members have a responsibility towards the future as well as the past.

    Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

    Søren Kierkegaard, Journals and Papers, 1843

  • Phyllis M. Tookey Kerridge and the science of audiometric standardization in Britain

  • JAIPREET VIRDI, COREEN MCGUIRE
  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 51 / Issue 1 / March 2018
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    13 December 2017, pp. 123-146
    Print publication:
    March 2018

  • The provision of standardized hearing aids is now considered to be a crucial part of the UK National Health Service. Yet this is only explicable through reference to the career of a woman who has, until now, been entirely forgotten. Dr Phyllis Margaret Tookey Kerridge (1901–1940) was an authoritative figure in a variety of fields: medicine, physiology, otology and the construction of scientific apparatus. The astounding breadth of her professional qualifications allowed her to combine features of these fields and, later in her career, to position herself as a specialist to shape the discipline of audiometry. Rather than framing Kerridge in the classic ‘heroic-woman’ narrative, in this article we draw out the complexities of her career by focusing on her pursuit of standardization of hearing tests. Collaboration afforded her the necessary networks to explore the intricacies of accuracy in the measurement of hearing acuity, but her influence was enhanced by her ownership of Britain's first Western Electric (pure-tone) audiometer, which she placed in a specially designed and unique ‘silence room’. The room became the centre of Kerridge's hearing aid clinic that, for the first time, allowed people to access free and impartial advice on hearing aid prescription. In becoming the guardian expert and advocate of the audiometer, Kerridge achieved an objectively quantified approach to hearing loss that eventually made the latter an object of technocratic intervention.

Cultivating Commerce
  • Cultures of Botany in Britain and France, 1760–1815
  • Sarah Easterby-Smith
  • Published online:
    27 November 2017
    Print publication:
    09 November 2017
  • Sarah Easterby-Smith rewrites the histories of botany and horticulture from the perspectives of plant merchants who sold botanical specimens in the decades around 1800. These merchants were not professional botanists, nor were they the social equals of refined amateurs of botany. Nevertheless, they participated in Enlightenment scholarly networks, acting as intermediaries who communicated information and specimens. Thanks to their practical expertise, they also became sources of new knowledge in their own right. Cultivating Commerce argues that these merchants made essential contributions to botanical history, although their relatively humble status means that their contributions have received little sustained attention to date. Exploring how the expert nurseryman emerged as a new social figure in Britain and France, and examining what happened to the elitist, masculine culture of amateur botany when confronted by expanding public participation, Easterby-Smith sheds fresh light on the evolution of transnational Enlightenment networks during the Age of Revolutions.

  • BJH volume 50 issue 4 Cover and Front matter

  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 50 / Issue 4 / December 2017
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    17 November 2017, pp. f1-f2
    Print publication:
    December 2017
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  • BJH volume 50 issue 4 Cover and Back matter

  • Journal:
    The British Journal for the History of Science / Volume 50 / Issue 4 / December 2017
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    17 November 2017, pp. b1-b3
    Print publication:
    December 2017
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Page 86 of 516