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The Hotel that Became an Observatory: Mount Faulhorn as Singularity, Microcosm, and Macro-Tool

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

David Aubin
David Aubin*
Affiliation:
Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris 6, Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu
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Argument

One of the first high-altitude observatories was a hotel. Established in 1823, the chalet on Mount Faulhorn became a highpoint of nineteenth-century science. In this paper, I take this mountain as my entry point into the examination of the special attraction that mountains exerted on scientists. I argue that Mount Faulhorn stood for three different conceptions of the usefulness of the mountain in science: (1) in observation networks, stations were usually chosen for pragmatic rather than scientific reasons, but mountains represented singular spots in such networks, which deserved special attention; (2) the mountain also was a microcosm where altitude differences were thought to capture essential features of latitude differences; (3) the mountain was sometimes no more than a macro-tool for the pursuit of science, just a middle ground between the heaven and the earth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 365 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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