A Telescopic Tale

NO. 88: FEBRUARY 2009

ISSN: 1751-8261

Contents Growing Pains: A Telescopic Tale Main Feature 1 Growing Pains: A Telescopic Tale Richard Dunn uses popular visual culture to describe the BSHS News 4 reception of the telescope Legacy Scheme Monographs Sale While 2009 has been designated International Year of Astronomy, last autumn also marked Committee Positions Available the 400th anniversary of the invention of its iconic tool, the telescope. That is, we know that Outreach and Education in September and October 1608 three different men arrived in The Hague asking for a pat- ent for a new optical device, the instrument that Galileo made famous a year and a half later BSHS Grant Reports 6 when he published a series of surprising astronomical discoveries. We don’t now question the Reports of Meetings 7 importance of this technological innovation, but it is not hard to find a time when people still Scientific Instruments Symposium questioned the benefit of telescopic instruments. History of Science Society This piece looks at the period from about 1730 to 1820, when the notion of science as a legit- Readers’ Views 9 imate discipline was still emerging, and looks at three representations of telescopes and their Response to ‘Science on Screen’ imagined users from popular visual culture. Even in this period, science and its tools had to be carefully represented as safe and legitimate by its advocates. For some, the key was to present Oudated Newtonian Adulation what Alice Walters has called a ‘polite science’. For others, however, science and its technologies Reviews 10 were subject to much more impolite depictions. These images show, therefore, that even after Anniversaries for 2010 12 200 years of practical use, the telescope had not outgrown the concerns of earlier years. The Questionnaire 14 News, Listings 15 BJHS, Viewpoint, BSHS info. 16

Editorial

Welcome to 2009, the year in which we celebrate both the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of the Species , and also the International Year of Astronomy. Richard Dunn introduces us to the latter theme with his feature article on the reception of the telescope. Anniversa- ries for 2010 are also included in this issue enabling preparation of more history of science events next year. This is my first issue as Editor, having assisted Rebekah Higgitt for the last two years. I cannot thank Rebekah enough for her mentorship throughout, and her support and advice in putting Viewpoint 88 together. She is the subject of this issue’s Fig. 1 ‘Questionnaire’. Frontispiece Also included are several news items and to Benjamin reports regarding BSHS activities, opportu- Martin’s The nities and grants awarded, reports of meet- Young Gentle- man and Lady’s ings and reviews, and the very welcome Philosophy views of our readers. Contributions to the (London, 1759) next issue should be sent to newsletter@ © National Mari- bshs.org.uk by 17 April 2009. time Museum, Greenwich, Rosemary Wall, Editor London. 2 Viewpoint No. 88

Oxford (1730) mock- Pearl, a Writing-desk, Book-case, and a dozen ingly advised that, of Chairs’. Other texts went further, encourag- ‘a woman makes as ing readers to purchase specific instruments, ridiculous a Figure, such as Charles Leadbetter’s A Compleat Sys- poring over Globes, or tem of Astronomy (1728), which recommends a thro’ a Telescope, as a Gregorian telescope eighteen inches long and Man would with a Pair three inches in diameter (Fig. 2) as essential of Preservers mend- for anyone wishing to become a ‘Compleat ing Lace.’ Astronomer’. Leadbetter also mentioned that What is also impor- such telescopes were available to the public tant in Martin’s work for six guineas. It was no coincidence that is that the image and many of the authors sold instruments. text emphasize the But while science’s apologists presented a specific deployment polite activity with fine accoutrements that of very real instru- were both tools of learning and physical emblems of material wealth and taste, those ments in the learn- who wished to oppose or simply make fun ing process. It is a of this modish learning had ample opportu- strategy that appears nity to deploy the same instruments in their in many other works own rhetoric. Nowhere was this clearer than of the period, each in the thriving satirical print tradition of the evoking seemingly Georgian era. Robert Sayer’s ‘Viewing the real instruments in Transit of Venus’ (1793; Fig. 3), produced some plausible settings. In time after the transits of 1761 and 1769, lays a Fig. 2 Gregorian reﬂecting telescope, by James Short, 1745, for example, the hint of sexual impropriety over the proceed- c.1752–6 (National Maritime Museum AST0942) © National titular heroine of Eliza ings, a rather degraded version of Martin’s Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Heywood’s Female frontispiece. Like Martin’s, the image appears Spectator visits the to show a conversation or dialogue between country house of their a gentleman and a gentlewoman, but we can For advocates of the new, specifically New- society’s president with her three assistants. no longer be sure that it is a morally safe form tonian, science of the eighteenth century, the There they observe the heavens through a of social intercourse between brother and frontispiece to Benjamin Martin’s Y oung Gen- 36-foot telescope on a ‘large Stand with all sister. The woman has become both active tleman and Lady’s Philosophy (1759) says it all its Screws, Pins, and Levers’. This is housed viewer and passively viewed, while the statue (Fig. 1). It appeared in one of many books that in a neighbouring gentleman’s ‘very spa- of the satyr underlines a more lustful reading sought to popularize science as something cious’ observatory, evocatively described as of the man’s intentions. One can imagine that that gentlemen and gentlewomen should containing ‘two Pair of very fine Globes, set as he gently fingers the telescope’s tube, with know about and could discuss in public – a on Pedestals of Ebony, inlaid with Mother of its obvious comparison to what was known worthy subject of polite conversation. Science, these books suggest, is a safe domestic activity that is as much about morals and manners as stars and space. In Martin’s frontispiece Cleonicus and his sister Euphrosyne, whose dialogue forms the book’s narrative, sit in a library or draw- ing room with a telescope and celestial globe prominently displayed between them. The message is clear. Fine instruments are the appropriate tools of a dignified form of learning entirely suited to this genteel class. It is a message that echoes throughout the text, which stresses that the knowledge such instruments reveal is useful and moral. By revealing the workings of God’s universe, it strengthens religious faith and enhances one’s social standing. So while Euphrosyne worries that it might seem ‘masculine for a Woman to talk of Philosophy in Company’, Cleonicus reassures her that such knowledge is a womanly accomplishment that may even improve her marriage prospects. The scien- tifically learned Euprepia, he points out, is now ‘admired, esteemed and beloved by all Gentlemen of Discernment’. One can hardly imagine a greater contrast to a generation earlier, when James Miller’s The Humours of Fig. 3 ‘Viewing the Transit of Venus’, by Robert Sayer, 1793. Viewpoint No. 88 3

Fig. 4 ‘The Astronomer’, from The English Dance of Death , by Thomas Rowlandson, 1815. as the ‘staff of life’, the man is anticipating a out anything of use, ’tis not our way’, so Senex “My fortune is for ever made.” more sexually thrilling transit, a transgression, ‘never for one moment thought / But of the “It is, indeed,” a voice replied; of his earthly Venus. The fact that the planet’s sciences he taught: / He never did the fancy The Old Man heard it – terrified; name recalls the goddess of love, beauty and seize / Of ploughing land, or planting trees’. And, as Fear threw him to the ground, fertility, whose amorous encounters filled the Senex’s rather inaccurately depicted Through the long tube Death gave the pages of classical mythology, only adds to the telescope is a prominent centrepiece of a wound. reading. What Sayer offers is most certainly an ramshackle collection of observing and other impolite science. instruments. It is also a perfect symbol of Despite the efforts of the apologists for sci- Another twenty years later, we can still find the astronomer’s detachment from reality, ence, the virtuoso and his instruments of dis- the telescope at the butt end of English satire, since one uses it to look away from Earth. traction still had currency in 1815. To Martin this time in a scene from Thomas Rowland- This was a point Jonathan Swift also made and others, the telescope was a valuable tool son’s The English Dance of Deat h (1815–16; nearly a century earlier in Gulliver’s Travels for a scientific learning that was domestically Fig. 4). The work appeared as two volumes (1726), with his Grand Academy in Laputa full safe and morally above reproach. In the hands of humorous scenes, each accompanied by a of absentminded philosophers. The powerful of the satirists, its use was morally suspect and verse narrative composed by William Combe. telescopes with which they spend ‘the great- of questionable social value. Ridicule was a fair While the scenes draw on a much older tradi- est Part of their Lives in observing the celestial response. tion showing a skeletal Death ‘conducting Bodies’ emphasize the Laputans’ disengage- persons of all Ranks, Conditions and Ages, to ment from the real world. Rowlandson’s Further reading: the Tomb’, Rowlandson has brought his up astronomer is similarly blind to more earthly Roslynn Haynes, From Faust to Strangelove. to date and anglicized them, with portray- domestic happenings in his own household, Representations of the Scientist in Western als such as ‘The Toastmaster’, ‘The Insurance having failed to notice the bare-breasted Literature (Baltimore & London, 1994); Office’ and ‘The Lottery Office’. Nonetheless, woman and her companion behind the cur- Marjorie Nicholson, Science and Imagination the humour remains antiquated, with ‘The tain (a hint of other things the old man may (New York, 1956); Astronomer’ relying on a view of science and be missing). Alice Walters, ‘Conversation Pieces: Science its practitioners from a century and a half Echoing one of the themes of The English and Politeness in Eighteenth-century England’, earlier. Master Senex, the astronomer of the Dance of Death , that you may just get what History of Science , 35 (1997), pp. 121–154. title, echoes the image of the dabbler in natu- you are foolish enough to wish for, the astron- ral philosophy lampooned in 17th-century omer finally gets his heart’s desire, to make a Richard Dunn, National Maritime Museum, satires like Thomas Shadwell’s The Virtuoso great discovery, although it is not one that will Greenwich, London (1676) and Aphra Behn’s The Emperor of the be of further use or bring him lasting fame: [email protected] Moon (1687). Like their targets, Senex is lost in his studies and only cares for knowledge “O this will be a precious boon! Richard Dunn’s book, The Telescope: A Short for its own sake: just as Shadwell’s Sir Nicholas Herschell’s Volcanos in the Moon, History , will be published in March by the Gimcrack admitted that, ‘virtuosos never find Are nought to this,” Old Senex said, National Maritime Museum. 4 Viewpoint No. 88 BSHS News Legacy Scheme Different Ways of leaving a gift to the Society The legacy scheme enables members to leave a gift to the Society in their will. There are different ways of leaving a gift, including — t "NPOFUBSZPSQFDVOJBSZCFRVFTUMFBWFT#4)4BTQFDJGJFETVNPGNPOFZ t "SFTJEVBSZCFRVFTUMFBWFT#4)4BQFSDFOUBHFPGUIFSFNBJOEFSPGZPVSFTUBUF BGUFSPUIFSMFHBDJFTBOEDIBSHFTIBWFCFFONFU t "TQFDJGJDPSOPNPOFUBSZCFRVFTUBMMPXTZPVUPMFBWFTIBSFTPSQSPQFSUZUPUIFCFOFGJUPGUIF4PDJFUZ

Steps in making a will Legacies are set out when making a will which will cost about £100. The following steps should be taken — t "QQPJOUBQSPGFTTJPOBMBEWJTPS TVDIBTBTPMJDJUPS t 8PSLPVUIPXNVDIZPVIBWFUPMFBWF JODMVEJOHUIFUPUBMTVNPGZPVSQSPQFSUZ NPOFZBOEQPTTFTTJPOT MFTTBOZPVUTUBOEJOHNPSU gages or loans; t %FDJEFXIPZPVXBOUUPCFOFGJUGSPNZPVSXJMM GBNJMZ GSJFOET DIBSJUJFTPSHPPEDBVTFT t $IPPTFFYFDVUPSTUPFOTVSFZPVSXJTIFTBSFDBSSJFEPVU5IFTFDBOCFQSPGFTTJPOBMBEWJTPST GSJFOETPSGBNJMZNFNCFST PSPOFPGFBDI t ,FFQZPVSXJMMTBGFBOENBLFTVSFZPVSFYFDVUPS T LOPXXIFSFUPGJOEJU(JWFBDPQZUPZPVSTPMJDJUPS

Changes to an existing will If you have an existing will you do not have to rewrite your will completely in order to add a gift to the Society. This can be achieved through adding a codicil to your existing will. A codicil is a supplement which changes or amends part of the will. If you wish to change your will sub- stantially, it is advisable that you contact your solicitor and have the will rewritten to include all your changes in a new document.

Further advice and information If you have any questions or require further advice please contact the Society’s Executive Secretary in the first instance. Lucy Tetlow, PO Box 3401, Norwich, NR7 7JF; [email protected]

Monographs Sale

BSHS is delighted to announce a sale of its monographs. From 15 October, prices are reduced. Save 50% on volumes 1-12. Our latest volume, Chang and Jackson’s (2007) An Element of Controversy , has been reduced in price from £22.00 to £15.00. Postal charges remain as usual. For full details, consult the BSHS Website or e-mail the Executive Secretary. Hurray! This is a limited time offer. Some monographs already are in short supply, Joe Cain, Monograph Series Editor. PS: Don’t forget your library — ask them to order copies of missing volumes. This will ensure their long-term availability.

Titles in the series 13 An Element of Controversy: The Life of Chlorine in Science, Medicine, Technology and War . Hasok Chang and Catherine Jackson, editors. 2007. 12 To See the Fellows Fight: Eye Witness Accounts of Meetings of the Geological Society of London and Its Club, 1822-1868. John C. Thackray, editor. 2003. 11 Science in Art: Works in the National Gallery that illustrate the History of Science and Technology . JV Field and Frank AJL James. 1997. 10 E. Ray Lankester and the Making of Modern British Biology . Joe Lester and Peter Bowler. 1995. 09 In the Shadow of Lavoisier: The ‘Annales de Chimie’ and the Establishment of a New Science. Maurice Crosland. 1994. 08 Science and Nature: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences . Michael Shortland, editor. 1993. 07 Index to the Scientific Correspondence of John William Dawson . Susan Sheets-Pyenson. 1992. 06 Archives of the British Chemical Industry, 1750-1914: A Handlist . Peter J. T. Morris and Colin A. Russell; John Graham Smith, editor. 1988. 05 Francis Bacon’s Natural Philosophy: A New Source. A Transcription of Manuscript Hardwick 72A with translation and commentary. Graham Rees, assisted by Christopher Upton. 1984. 04 The Royal Society and Its Fellows, 1660-1700: The Morphology of an Early Scientific Institution. Michael Hunter. 1982, reprinted 1985, second edition, 1994. 03 Rationality and Ritual: The Windscale Inquiry and Nuclear Decisions in Britain . Brian Wynne. 1982. 02 The Letters of Georges Cuvier: A Summary Calendar of the Manuscript and Printed Materials preserved in Europe, the United States of America, and Australasia. Dorinda Outram, editor. 1980. 01 Images of the Earth: Essays in the History of the Environmental Sciences . LJ Jordanova and Roy Porter, editors. 1979, reprinted 1981, 2nd revised and enlarged edition, 1997. Viewpoint No. 88 5

Can You Communicate HSTM? If So, Your Society Needs You! There are two exciting opportunities available on the Communications Co-ordination Committee

Editor of Viewpoint Communications Secretary

The BSHS is looking for a new editor for Viewpoint. Re-launched The BSHS is looking for a new Communications secretary to strength- in its new format in 2006, the newsletter has been highly suc- en its relationship with the media. cessful and is well-supported by the Society’s Council and members. The Communications Secretary is the Society's point of contact for The Editor is responsible for commissioning, co-ordinating the media, responsible for fielding general enquiries and for notifying and designing content for the three annual issues of Viewpoint. journalists through an online press service of forthcoming BSHS events, Applicants should therefore have good contacts within the BSHS books and research findings of the society's members. Ideally, appli- and the wider history of science community and be confident in cants should have good contacts within the BSHS, some knowledge of using or learning to use the computer design packages InDesign the media and an interest in communicating history of science to the and Adobe Photoshop. widest possible audience. The appointee will, in the first instance shadow the current The appointee will, in the first instance shadow the current Com- Editor and act as her assistant. Enquiries to the current and munications Secretary and act as his assistant. Enquiries to the current former editor are welcomed: please contact Communications Secretary are welcomed: please contact [email protected]. [email protected]. Both officers will be members of the BSHS Communication Co-ordination Committee which meets three times a year. The deadline for applications for both positions is 6 March 2009 1MFBTFDPOUBDU1FUFS$,KBFSHBBSEBUDDDDIBJS!CTITPSHVL Council hope to make appointments in the spring of 2009.

Outreach and Education Committee: ‘The Business of Bodies’ Sabine Clarke describes the latest activities of the BSHS Strolling Players The BSHS Strolling Players performed ‘The by a short film made by the Strolling Players young people during their deliberations as a Business of Bodies’ at the British Association which portrayed the events which had led to jury and in the final discussion demonstrated Festival of Science on the 9th and 10th Sep- the arrest of the accused man. a new understanding of the history of medical tember, in Liverpool. The event was developed The Strolling Players had a schedule of education, of the unexpected ways in which for the Young People’s programme and dealt six performances over two days. On four medicine has affected the lives of everyday with grave-robbing in the city during the occasions the jury found the accused man people and the difficult ethical issues that may 1820’s. As with other British cities, grave- innocent and on the two occasions that the be raised by medical science. robbing had become a particular problem grave robber was found guilty the audience The Strolling Players are keen to take this in Liverpool by this period as the demand requested that he be sentenced with some event to new audiences, both young and for cadavers for teaching anatomy to medi- leniency. Each event was preceded by a adults, and would be very pleased to hear cal students was high but the availability of short introduction and followed by a discus- from individuals or institutions interested in corpses through legal means was low. The sion with the audience. It was clear from the staging a performance of ‘The Business of aim of the event was to educate the young discussion that the audience believed that the Bodies’. The final cut of the film made for this audience about this episode in the history of accused man had been driven to his crime by event can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/ medicine and to allow them to consider the his difficulties in finding work and the need watch?v=dkI_n4hNJ6s . legal and ethical issues that were raised by the to feed his family, and felt he was not the real Sabine Clarke, University of Oxford emergence of a medical training based on the ringleader of the gang of body-snatchers. The [email protected] study of human anatomy in the late 18th and audience showed very little early 19th centuries. sympathy for the arguments The dramatisation developed by the Stroll- made by the doctor that his ing Players used the device of a courtroom involvement in the trade in and the Strolling Players took on the roles cadavers was an unfortunate of barristers, judge, and an arrested man. necessity as it was essential Four witnesses were called to testify: a night that students training to be watchman, employed to watch the graves of surgeons learnt anatomy the recently deceased; a strange woman who from a human corpse. The claimed her nocturnal wanderings in cemeter- young people were clear that ies were for the purposes of studying bats; had the doctor been on trial a doctor who was possibly involved in the they would have sent him illegal trade in bodies, and the doctor’s house- down. keeper. The young people acted as the jury in The quality of response the court case with responsibility for deciding from the audience and the LEUCHA VENEER the fate of the individual accused of grave feedback from adults in the robbing. In order to help make some difficult room showed the event to L-R, back row: James Sumner, Julia Hyland, Tom Lean, material more accessible to the audience of be extremely successful. Sabine Clarke. Front row: Mike Brown, Miguel Garcia- 11-14 year olds ,the court case was preceded The views expressed by the Sancho, Melanie Keene and Leucha Veneer. 6 Viewpoint No. 88

Grant Reports

The BSHS operates a variety of grant schemes — bursaries for Masters degrees, research and special project grants, Butler-Eyles grants for students’ travel to BSHS conferences, and care grants to enable parents to more easily attend BSHS conferences. See www.bshs.org.uk/bshs/grants for details.

Juliana Adelman , Ellen van Reuler and Emily Hankin report on how they have been assisted by the grant schemes.

Science and society in 19th copies of the other’s papers and encouraging worth mentioning. Firstly, both countries prompt retorts. Thanks to Jim Secord for alert- saw an evolution from advisory reports in century Ireland ing me to the records at the St. Bride Library. the 1980s to more comprehensive strategies In addition to discovering new material for cancer control since 2000. However, the Last fall I received a grant from the BSHS relating to Eozoon , I was able to research temporal paths of the development of these which helped me to research the final a new chapter for my monograph in the policies were different. Secondly, despite chapters of my first monograph and to delve National Library of Ireland on science and reli- increasing international influences, the further into a study of the Eozoon canadense gion in Irish periodicals. I also received copies content of the cancer policies in England and controversy. I would like to pay a special trib- of letters from the British Library which high- the Netherlands did not converge. Until about ute to the BSHS for contributing to my child- lighted aspects of the religious controversy 2000, the developments in both specialist can- care costs while I conducted the research. I surrounding the foundation of the secular and cer hospitals were mainly driven by general think this represents an enlightened approach scientific Queen’s Colleges. health care policy. Since then, cancer policies to funding and I hope it will be emulated have directly influenced Christie Hospital, elsewhere. Juliana Adelman while comparable influences of the Dutch As for the results of my study, I will just Trinity College Dublin policies were not found. Finally, the investiga- highlight some of the interesting material that [email protected] tion showed that history could be a useful tool I was able to obtain from the St Bride Library, for health policy makers, because historical London, on the Eozoon controversy. Eozoon narratives can show them, for example, how was discovered in the Laurentian limestone windows of opportunity might arise - on dif- formations during the Canadian geological History of Science, Technology ferent paths following various temporalities. survey in the early 1860s and in 1864 was Comparative history is certainly not easy, claimed by John William Dawson and William and Medicine as an aid for but I found it stimulating and intellectually Benjamin Carpenter to be the oldest known health policy? satisfying. Very recent history can also be forminifera fossil and possibly the oldest problematic, but again, the interactions with organism yet discovered. This announce- Having been awarded a BSHS MSc bursary in the ‘actors’ and the potential for utility made ment began a prolonged controversy in 2007, it is a pleasure for me to share some of the effort worthwhile. which the primary opponents to the organic my experiences during my Manchester MSc Currently, I am finishing an education origin of Eozoon were two professors in the in HSTM. programme which I had started before I 2VFFOT$PMMFHFJO(BMXBZ 8JMMJBN,JOHBOE During the MSc I gained a general introduc- enrolled for the MSc in HSTM. Though I have Thomas Rowney. Much of the controversy tion to HSTM, and specialised in the history of was conducted in the pages of the Annals and not yet decided on what type of job I want to Magazine of Natural History , the archives of medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries. For pursue in the future, I expect that sensitivity to which are in the St Bride Library. my dissertation, I tried to integrate my previ- historical backgrounds and temporal aspects The letters which I have examined from ously gained knowledge in the field of health of developments should do no harm. the library were written by both sides to the care organisation and my newly acquired editor of the journal, William Francis. They are historical knowledge. Ellen van Reuler quite revealing of the important role which Several months later I completed a thesis [email protected] Francis played in shaping the controversy by ‘On Specialist Cancer Hospitals, Cancer Policies what he chose to publish and in what manner. and Health Care Systems – A Comparative Drafts of replies which Francis wrote implor- History of the Developments in England and ing particular individuals to tone-down their the Netherlands in the Period 1980 – 2007’. Studying for an MSc at the language are surprising, given the amount of The Christie Hospital in Manchester and London Centre ‘intemperate’ language which he seemed to 5IF/FUIFSMBOET$BODFS*OTUJUVUF/,*"7- print without question. Francis was clearly in Amsterdam were the specialist cancer In 2007 I was awarded a BSHS bursary for on friendly terms with one anti- Eozoon ist, hospitals investigated. I tried to relate the a Masters with the London Centre. It was a Henry Carter, and appears to have given more national developments of cancer policy to the rewarding year, during which I developed my weight to this side of the story than other situations of the two specialist cancer hospi- understanding of both the historiography publications. The letters give further weight tals, and to show how the resulting historical and history of science, medicine and technol- to my suspicion that the Annals was not at all narratives could be of value to health care ogy significantly. I feel that I benefited greatly opposed to controversy and in fact seemed policy makers. from the wide range of resources, particularly to support it by sending each side advanced Some of the conclusions of my thesis are archival material, to be found in and around Viewpoint No. 88 7

Reports of Meetings London as well as the opportunity to work closely with different tutors from Imperial Scientific Instrument University of Cambridge). One session College, UCL and Wellcome, who specialised focused on astronomical observatories and in a wide variety of topics. In my second Commission Symposium we were also invited to take a closer look at term I chose to take modules on The Scien- the architecture of libraries and hidden instru- tific Revolution, 1450-1750, The Sciences in mental iconography (Stephen Johnston, Uni- the Age of Industry, 1750-1920, and Ideas ,BUJF5BZMPS reviews the 2008 versity of Oxford). Less conventional scientific of Health and Sickness. In each module we event in Lisbon, 16-21 September spaces were also considered – sugar factories profited from the discussions based format (David Singerman, Massachusetts Institute of each session. We were also given many What do artists, scientists and historians have of Technology), workshops and newspaper opportunities to engage in the intellectual in common? They were all represented at columns (Alexi Baker, University of Oxford) life at a variety of London based institutions the Scientific Instrument Commission (SIC) and the pages of World War II training manu- by attending lectures and seminars. Symposium 2008. This was my first SIC meet- als (Robert Hicks, Mütter Museum, College of In addition I had the opportunity to ing, and I was pleasantly surprised to find an Physicians of Philadelphia). attend the Three Societies Meeting in eclectic mix of people from diverse intellec- Education was addressed, both as a subject Oxford, which was highly informative and tual fields at the 150-strong meeting held at for historical study and as a current practice. presented a wide range of papers, many of the Museu de Ciência, University of Lisbon in One talk guided us through the history of a which proved to be particularly pertinent to September. late 19th-century physics teaching set (Steven my own research in preparation for writing Mário Soares, former President of Portu- D. Beare, independent researcher). Mod- my dissertation. It was also a good opportu- gal and former Vice-President of the Euro- ern education was treated in the contexts nity to meet academics and hear about their pean Parliament, opened the proceedings of museums (Catherine Cuenca and Daniel current research interests. before Ana Eiró, Director of the Museu de Thoulouze, Musée des arts et metiers, Paris; The subject of my dissertation was ‘John Ciência, welcomed us warmly to her institu- Flora Paparou, University of Athens, et al., Tyndall’s Lecture Courses at the Royal tion. Beyond the Museum we were genially among others) and classrooms – one speaker Institution and their Reception in Nine- received by managers of several collections reported on the reconstruction of the camera teenth Century Britain’. I concluded that across Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto, many of obscura effect for college students (Elizabeth Tyndall’s lecture courses were predomi- whom opened their stores especially for SIC Cavicchi, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nantly received favourably by the public. An members! nology). Delegates also learnt about using analysis of attendance figures show that he In between museum trips, parallel speaker instruments in a workshop on navigation on became increasingly popular as a lecturer sessions covered objects from across Europe, the Museum roof! but did not provide enough entertainment Asia and the Americas, with many regions The SIC’s leaders were active participants to retain audience numbers for the duration represented across an impressive time period. throughout. SIC Secretary, Sara Schechner, of his courses. The reception by scientific In the first session we learnt about the role gave a talk on the iconography of sundials practitioners was more variable. Tyndall of Jews as translators of scientific texts in that had to be seen to be believed, and Paolo encountered heavy criticisms in relation to 11th- and 12th-century Al-Andalus (Elisabeth Brenni, President of the Commission, dis- his popularizing activities, particularly with Gatti, British Museum), while on the last day cussed the emergence of industrial electrical regard to the perceived neglect of instruc- we heard a report on an archive just open- measurement instruments from a laboratory tion in favour of theatrical experimental ing on medical X-radiology in Franco’s Spain heritage, among other things. The President demonstrations. The lecture courses can also (Pedro Ruiz-Castell, Universitat Autònoma de also reflected on his experience of the SIC over be situated in a wider social setting through Barcelona). its 25-year history, highlighting the continuing their coverage in the periodical press. The Delegates discussed a range of instruments convergence of approaches used by curators decline in reports that occurred can be including Mars globes (Joshua Nall, University and historians of science. linked to institutional changes at the Royal of Cambridge), photographic lamps (Estela The President’s comments laid the founda- Institution, which had not only begun to Jardim, University of Lisbon), natural magnets tions for the closing plenary session, ‘Reverse publish its own proceedings, but which had (Alison Morrison-Lowe) and even buildings salients in the histories of science and technol- also changed its aims to place a renewed "MJTUBJS,XBO :BMF6OJWFSTJUZ#PSJT+BSEJOF ogy: A conversation between dinosaurs’. The emphasis on research activities. The move towards research was, most likely, a result of the need to compete with newly built sites for science education and research, and preserve the Royal Institution’s scientific reputation. Following completion of the MSc, I chose to further my studies in the History of Science and Technology, beginning a PhD at CHSTM in Manchester in September 2008. I am working on an ESRC-funded CASE project, with the Science Museum in London, entitled ‘Buying Modernity? The Consumer Experience of Domestic Electric- ity in the Era of the Grid’. Delegates at the Emily Hankin University of Lisbon University of Manchester (Courtesy of SIC [email protected] 2008 website). 8 Viewpoint No. 88

‘dinosaurs’ in question were Thomas P. Hughes advantages of using museum collections, such history of science emerged in 20th-century (University of Pennsylvania/Massachusetts as how the work of undergraduates can help Japan. Ito examined the history of science’s Institute of Technology) and John L. Heilbron museums curators to better understand their social connections with nationalism, science (University of California at Berkeley/Univer- expansive holdings. The first day concluded popularisers and the broader standing of sity of Oxford), with Jim Bennett (Museum of with a screening of ‘Secrecy’, a film by Peter liberal arts education. Abena Osseo-Asare the History of Science, University of Oxford) Galison (Harvard) and Robb Moss (Harvard). further developed the social uses of science chairing the discussion. Methodology and While not about science per se, this documen- with a discussion of how laboratories were the unification of the work of historians with tary’s exploration of how government secrecy introduced into science education in Ghana. that of instrument specialists were prominent, ‘corrupts’ and ‘saves’ provokes ideas concern- Yet nowhere was an awareness of the histori- in the addresses and in the ensuing open ing the value-frameworks underpinning why cal specificity of how society interacts with sci- discussion. people keep secrets. The filmmakers used ence more pronounced that in this year’s HSS This year’s SIC Symposium was literally a visual triggers, animation and music to mix Distinguished Lecture, presented by Steven huge success. The amount of material cov- personal and political narratives together in a Shapin (Harvard). ered in the week is hard to fathom, especially thematic and presented intriguing questions The subject for Shapin’s lecture, ‘lowering considering the logistics of accommodat- as to how authors can use different media to the tone’ in the history of science, was some- ing 150 participants. Many thanks go to the produce stories about ‘how things came to be’. thing which he himself has been accused of. speakers and collections managers who took The conference continued with the issue of While possibly meant as an insult, Shapin part in the Symposium, and moreover to the ‘how things came to be’ in scientific obser- associated great virtue with what he referred organising committee at the University of Lis- WBUJPO,BUIFSJOF1BSL )BSWBSE FYBNJOFE to as a ‘noble calling’, which he believes has bon, headed by Marta Lourenço. Never have the distinction between observation and been central to his and many others’ culturally so many people been brought into line so experience in medieval natural sciences, and socially constructed histories of science. quickly by so feeble a whistle as that wielded highlighting how observers focused localised Shapin’s largely reflective paper took stock by Marta! On behalf of all the delegates, I enterprises on monastic timekeeping and of how the research agenda for historians of wish to thank her wholeheartedly for such a the weather. Daniela Bleichmar (University of science has changed over the past thirty years rewarding week. The SIC Symposium 2009, to Southern California) followed with an exami- by incorporating issues of space, cultural cred- be held in Budapest, has a lot to live up to! nation of an 18th-century network of Spanish ibility, performance and hand/mind. Shapin naturalists whose pedagogical practices pro- argued that rather than being subversive, ,BUJF5BZMPS moted ‘before the fact’ standards concerning the ‘social history of science’ was a turn with University of Cambridge ‘what to look for’, ‘how to look’ and ‘how to col- historical specificity. Science was blended with [email protected] lect’. Lorraine Daston (Max Planck Institute for other social projects; its practitioners were the History of Science) explored early modern divesting themselves of moral authority and methods used to understand and co-ordinate questioning the hagiographical tradition by the contributions of observers over space and which they understood their influence and History of Science Society time. Daston opened case-studies concern- identity. If historians of science ‘lowered the and Philosophy of Science ing Edmond Halley’s map of observation and tone’, they were only following the lead of Denis Dodart’s ‘before the fact’ observation- modern scientists who were coming to grips Association Joint Conference training for botanists in order to interrogate with their new place in society, and, as Shapin the complications of collective observation. concluded, telling stories about human Don Leggett reports on the Issues concerning technology were in the endeavours has always been a virtuous and minority at Pittsburgh, but a collection of noble calling. conference in Pittsburgh, 6th- papers explored some key issues. Graeme 9th November Gooday (University of Leeds) examined the Don Leggett ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ science debates through 6OJWFSTJUZPG,FOU Two days after an historic election, over one- the context of patenting electricity. Gooday [email protected] thousand delegates came together in the cru- complicated notions of ‘purity’ by examining cial battle-state of Pennsylvania for the History how engineers and physicists used (and criti- of Science Society (HSS)/Philosophy of Science cized the use of) patents for invention, inde- Association joint meeting. The wonderful pendence from university bureaucracies and event arranged by the organising committee monetary necessities. Bruce Hevly (University is doubtless testimony to their having spent of Washington) revisited object history with as much time in the state over the last months a paper on the cultures of physical and moral as the Democratic and Republican campaigns. discipline embodied in the American rifle in But the presidency of the United States was 19th and early-20th-century marksmanship not the only thing to be awarded in the first and ballistics laboratories. week of November. The HSS recognised the The numerous papers which told stories work of a number of scholars, including Ron- about scientists were complimented by a fruit- ald Numbers (University of Wisconsin) for the ful discussion of the approach and contexts Sarton Medal. through which such stories were told. Mary Jo The conference began with HSS committee Nye (Oregon State University) examined the co-plenaries on education, job creation and methods used by Spencer Weart in Scientists DMJNBUFDIBOHF3JDIBSE,SFNFS %BSUNPVUI in Power to detail the institutional, social College) and David Pantalony (Canada Science and political dimensions of modern nuclear SAGE ROSS and Technology Museum) discussed their QIZTJDT,FOKJ*UP 4PLFOEBJ QSFTFOUFEB experiences teaching object-based history of contrasting perspective of how stories about Steven Shapin, presenter of the HSS science courses, pointing to the problems and scientists were told, and how the field of Distinguished Lecture. Viewpoint No. 88 9

Readers’ Views Copernicus did his work, and they could of technology, and this perhaps is the strength explore the still visible remains of the Tyneside of our kind of programme. As for the future, Colin A. Russell responds to Tim chemical industry. We were fortunate to be moving images will still be available as in DVD. Boon’s feature article on ‘Science filming at a time when many of the historic Even a few of the older film varieties in 8 and on Screen’ from Viewpoint 87 industrial processes were winding down, so 16 mm may have a role to play for generations our students could see the manufacture of of HPS students still to come. Let’s use all the wrought iron, steel, and other metals. We also resources available to teach a subject as rich I was much interested to read Tim Boon’s used archive film and models. Sometimes we and diverse as the history of science. article on ‘Science on screen and the history were unbelievably lucky, as when we made an of science’. Quite rightly he emphasised the extensive visit to the last lead chamber plant Colin A. Russell relatively unexplored sources for historians to make sulphuric acid, and discovered a few Open University and the of science lying in film and television. Having weeks later that even that had been con- University of Cambridge been a consultant for a number of films that demned. We could show hazardous experi- [email protected] were designed primarily for entertainment ments, as one at Ealing Film Studios, with fire rather than anything else, I recognise the haz- brigade officers watching intensely but just ards that beset actors and producers in their out of camera-shot. Fortunately they were ‘Outdated Newtonian Adula- efforts to ‘get it right’ wherever possible. Often never needed. they succeed incredibly well, but where mis- tion’: Max Wallis invites debate Another advantage of film was to enable takes have crept in their identification can be students to see and hear such well-known Despite his personality foibles and years lost a useful student exercise. These will usually be scholars as Martin Rudwick, Donald Cardwell, on studies of alchemy and religious texts, about straightforward matters of science (as Archie Clow, Alec Campbell, John Brooke, Bill Isaac Newton is still presented as ‘the greatest when I was fortunate to prevent just in time Brock and Michael Hoskin, to mention but a intellect the world has seen’. Rob Iliffe justifies an eminent actor from weighing a supposedly few. Plenty of anecdotal evidence shows that this view in his Newton. A very short introduc- reactive salt on an unprotected balance-pan, students will then go on and read their texts tion (Oxford University Press 2007) by saying instead of using a tared watch-glass!) with new interest. in terms of scientific accomplishments sur- Mistakes in historical interpretation aren’t These films were not all made for strict his- passing those of his contemporaries, Newton quite so easy to spot, and there is often room tory of science courses. Many were prepared ‘must be ranked above Darwin and Einstein’. for differences of opinion, but attempts to for the ‘host’ faculty (Arts). Others were pro- Melvyn Bragg took from Iliffe that ‘Newton do so are valuable historical training. I have duced for courses in the history of mathemat- has determined the way that science has to be been assured by at least one distinguished ics and the history of medicine, and for a final- done’ (Radio 4’s In Our Time 3 April 2008). This TV producer that certain myths about the year chemistry course. Clips from some were is the paradigm that Newton established the history of science are deliberately permitted, used on odd occasions, as when Tim Boon’s experimental method and associated induc- on the ground that they will engender greater institution (the Science Museum) played a tive process, whereby the ‘laws’ of Nature are audience appeal (and therefore ratings)! In continuous loop in one of its galleries. Much discovered. Yet, collective scientific endeav- the coming year exaggerated treatments of the broadcast material was available for use ours pre-Newton had already implemented of aspects of Charles Darwin’s life may be in departments of other universities. Francis Bacon’s prescription to drop precon- expected, and would provide invaluable These programmes were regularly transmit- ceptions and emphasise experimental science teaching material. ted, usually on BBC2, and for some years they and inductive reasoning. Newton’s haughty Various luminaries in the subject have from helped to improve the public image of the OU. isolation, his reluctance to interact and refusal time to time been commissioned to write They were watched by casual viewers in their to acknowledge others like Hooke and Huy- for – and perhaps appear in – programmes thousands (eavesdroppers we called them) gens were contrary to that healthy scientific for one of the mainstream TV channels. In and we still like to think they helped to culti- practice. His obscure formalised presentation this country the efforts of Simon Schaffer are vate a sympathy with our subject. The largest in Principia as well as his treating the Royal noteworthy, but one could certainly wish ‘official’ number of viewers to one transmis- Society as a personal enterprise with elitist if for more. Probably the most sustained and sion was about two million. ‘professional’ ethos contributed in large part protracted efforts in this direction were made Looking back over 30 years it is not hard to the collapse of English science in the 18th by the Open University in its early days. As I to spot many imperfections. The very first century. was largely involved in setting up this scheme programmes were poor, just in black and As a physicist, I see the way that Einstein’s perhaps I can be permitted to write a few white, and often ‘talking heads’ only. Later science developed in the first decades of last words on the subject. programmes in colour still used filming century, in interaction with contemporaries Setting aside the OU’s early conception techniques that infallibly date them. None of and pursuing self-consistent basic formula- as the University of the Air, it soon became the script writers or presenters had received tions, as the best operation of science. In obvious that distance-students would need special training in broadcasting and we learnt comparison, Newton set back science in the unusual treatment. Given the special relation- as we proceeded. A huge investment of time 17th century, in expounding ‘laws’ instead of ship between the University and the BBC and effort went into programme-making, principles. The ‘laws’ were just refined forms of it was clear that television could be a valu- but producing staff were incredibly helpful earlier principles from Descartes etc, but New- able supplement to printed texts, however and we had all the resources of the BBC if we ton’s axiomatic presentation (Euclid) diverged unconventional these might be. In the early needed them. from the real scientific process. Nowadays, days of the new History of Science Group Those days are now a long way off and Newton’s laws persist at the elementary level, (later Department), there seemed several TV has been overtaken by computer-based while physics pedagogy generally favours useful ways of utilising the medium. We could technologies. Much of the OU film output the Descartes-Huygens’ conserved quantities ‘take’ our students to places they would never is a source of embarrassment to presenters approach, which has carried through to 19th visit otherwise. They could follow Lyell in watching themselves 30 years later! Industrial Century science and Einstein’s relativity. his classic ascent of Mount Etna, they could archaeology was perhaps unduly prominent Newton like many contemporaries believed see the actual locations in Poland where at first, reflecting the emphasis on the history in the aether as the medium required to 10 Viewpoint No. 88

transmit attraction or repulsion between Reviews astronomical research but kept Belville on to separated celestial bodies. It was Robert oversee the chronometers. As Airy no longer Hooke who argued for the principle of univer- tolerated frequent visits from City clockmakers sal attraction, as early as 1666. Hooke’s two Books to check the time, the entrepreneurial Belville further principles were that all bodies move in purchased a 1794 John Arnold watch and took straight lines till deflected by some force and David Rooney, Ruth Belville: The the time directly out to them. Upon Belville’s that the attractive force is stronger for closer Greenwich Time Lady , National death, his third wife Maria carried on the work bodies. By 1679 when he wrote to Newton until 1892 when her daughter Ruth took up asking him if he could show the path would Maritime Museum, London the weekly duty of carrying ‘Arnold’ around be closed (in an ellipse) to explain the Earth’s 2008 ISBN, 978-0948065972 the City to dozens of loyal fee-paying clients. motion, Hooke disclosed he had the inverse By the time Ruth inherited this thriving square law in mind. Iliffe agrees the 1679-80 192 pages, £12.99. business, the rival ‘Standard Time Company’ exchanges show Hooke deserved far more had been communicating time telegraphically credit than Newton ‘granted him in forging the GSPN(SFFOXJDIBDSPTTUIF6,GPSBEFDBEF basic elements of orbital dynamics’. Why then did anyone still need Ruth’s serv- Thus Newton took ‘his’ three laws of dynam- ices? Somehow her business even survived ics and law of gravitation from others. He took the BBC wireless Greenwich time broadcasts light to be globules, on the analogy between that began in 1923 with the five second count light and particle dynamics, which held back down of a male announcer, supplemented in the development of the correct wave theory 1924 by the intoning of Big Ben and advent of of light that Huygens promoted. Overall, we the genderless ‘pips’. One key factor was that should judge that Hooke, Grimaldi and Huy- the telegraphic time distribution was rather gens respectively, had a better description of less reliable than historians have hitherto interference, diffraction and double refraction assumed; similar errors sometimes even than had Newton. afflicted the BBC wireless service. Implicit in Newton’s call to avoid hypotheses ( hypoth- Rooney’s account is that Ruth’s customers eses non fingo ) is sometimes hailed as a prin- trusted her as a time keeper rather more than ciple of science (at least in the Occam’s razor new technological systems bedevilled by a version). It was valid only as a call for experi- fallible complexity. Moreover, her diplomatic mentation; working assumptions and ‘models’ skills were also essential, especially when an are pretty well universal. Testing hypotheses unwelcome press exposé of her activities in is a specific part of scientific practice. While 1908 could have jeopardized the goodwill of Newton did go for minimising assumptions Why not have the time delivered to you in Astronomer Royal, William Christie and thus and minimal sets of laws, he was still quite free person? Ruth Belville (1854-1943) provided the Observatory’s co-operation in her work. with hypotheses, as in assuming light globules just that service for London’s clockmakers What spelled the demise of Ruth’s service, of specific colours with sides and magnetic every Monday, bringing round the family sil- suggests Rooney, was the arrival of the tel- properties. In the 1717 edition of Opticks , he ver pocket watch certified to give Greenwich ephonic speaking clock ‘T.I.M.’ in 1936, voiced returned to postulating an aether of repelling Observatory Time. In this well-researched little by glamorized telephone exchange operator, particles as the cause of gravity. book David Rooney explains not only why Ethel Cain. In the next twelve month 20 mil- Newton pioneered mathematical analysis a visit from this ‘Greenwich Time Lady’ was lion calls were made to hear her pre-recorded and applications as well as optical experi- preferred by some to the less personalized announcements – in contrast to the 2500 mentation. But Hooke was the more creative synchronization available via new telecom- personal calls made by Ruth Belville to her and wide-ranging experimenter, wrongly munications technology. He also tells the dwindling clientele. Finally, the plucky octo- denigrated by Newton’s friends. Newton’s Belville family story as part of the introduction genarian retired from the bomb-torn streets science explanations were faulty or adopted of standardized time to overcome problems of of London in 1940. She died alone three years from others. His general axiomatic formula- discrepant localized times e.g. that particularly later from carbon monoxide poisoning due to tion was inferior to one based on principles, beset railways from the 1840s. Rooney shows a gas lamp that had clogged on the low set- he failed to scrutinise his own hypotheses and us that this was achieved by more than just ting recommended for wartime economy. A discouraged others from seeking explana- the technocratic dissemination of time data press report titled ‘Human “T.I.M.” Found Dead’ tions. Massimo Mazzotti challenged New- from Greenwich: he also tells us the under- noted that an old silver pocket watch lay next ton’s ‘totemic image’ ( BJHS 40(1): 105–111, recorded role of women in time-keeping, to her body. March 2000) as stemming from his circle of from Maria Belville, her daughter Ruth, up to Although concluded in sadness, the story of friends and disciples who crafted the illusion the lady-voiced speaking clock that replaced the Greenwich Time Lady was neither wasted of a towering genius. Why does the myth of them. nor unimportant. Her life’s work should matter Newton as pre-eminent scientist prevail even The story begins in 1815 when Ruth’s father to us just as much as those of the once vital today, with leading biographers still unable John Belville (1795-1856) arrived at the Green- but now extinct roles of female telegraph to see the priority and sometimes superiority wich Observatory under the care of John clerks, computers and telephone switchboard of his contemporaries? Let’s look forward to Pond — his guardian, the newly appointed operators who set the standards of reliability reassessment based on the recently recovered Astronomer Royal. Pond arranged for the first that we have now come to expect of our eve- Royal Society Hooke papers. public Greenwich time signal in 1833, install- ryday technologies. ing a five foot ball on the Observatory roof Max Wallis that dropped daily at 1pm. Two years later, Graeme Gooday University of Cardiff his successor George Biddell Airy swept away University of Leeds [email protected] mundane time-keeping with a programme of [email protected] Viewpoint No. 88 11

Television ‘Einstein and Eddington’ (BBC2), Saturday 22 November 2008, 9:10pm.

Writer Peter Moffat and Director Philip Martin’s BBC/HBO dramatisation Einstein and Edding- ton elegantly brought Eddington’s champion- ing of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity to our television screens in November 2008. Although far from historically accurate, it nev- ertheless presented a thoroughly captivating and entertaining story, with science, war, love, triumph and tragedy skilfully interwoven into a satisfying 90 minute melange. The film covered the lives of English astronomer Arthur Eddington and the Swiss physicist Albert Einstein through two interwoven narratives, one focused on England (largely Cambridge) and the other on Zurich and then Berlin. It began in 1913/14 with the onset of the war and Einstein’s move from Zurich to Berlin, and ended with the protagonists meeting for the first time during Einstein’s visit to David Tennant as Arthur Eddington (Courtesy of Ian Johnson Publicity). England in 1921. Eddington was wonderfully played by David Tennant (of Dr. Who fame) as The production had, understandably, taken ity. The analysis of the results took days, not a reserved pacifist, though it was Andy Serkis many liberties with facts in order to present minutes, and was announced by Dyson, not (Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings a complex story in an engaging and compre- Eddington, to the Royal Society. The results trilogy) as a quirky playful Einstein who stole hensible manner. For example, in actuality: were also not as unambiguous as presented. the show. Einstein’s relationship to Elsa began before Perhaps of most concern, however, are two The central motif was the contrast between his move to Berlin; there is no evidence that impressions given by the film. Its portrayal Einstein and Eddington’s pacifism and belief in the inherent internationalism of science, Eddington was homosexual; and astronomer of the militarisation of German science may and the national rivalry between Germany Oliver Lodge was much less connected with leave viewers with the impression that Britain and Britain. This rivalry was brought out in Cambridge than portrayed in the film (and his pressed science and industry into its war effort various ways, but most prominently through son was killed by shrapnel not gas). Lodge’s to a significantly lesser degree than Germany, the nationalist attitudes of several scientists opposition to Eddington and hostility to Gen- or perhaps not at all. This, we know now, was — Max Planck, Fritz Haber, and Oliver Lodge. eral Relativity was overplayed, and De Witter’s not true – science and industry were equally Eddington’s story interspersed his champion- role in transmitting Einstein’s General Theory important to the British war effort. Secondly, ing of Einstein’s Relativity in England with the of Relativity to England was omitted. The most the film suggested that English protagonists clash between his Quakerism and the war liberties were taken with the circumstances viewed the overthrow of Newtonian mechan- atmosphere. The Einstein thread focused on surrounding the West African expedition and ics by General Relativity as part of a wider turn his struggle with the mathematics of General the announcement of its results. The notion from certainty to uncertainty in the modern Relativity, his personal relationships, and the that Einstein’s theory could be tested by the world. This was presented as one reason for co-option of German science into the German measurement of the bending of starlight the wavering of Eddington’s faith in God, war effort. This co-option was alluded to in during a solar eclipse had in fact been around and for Oliver Lodge’s opposition to General several ways: Max Planck’s enticement of for many years, and was not first suggested Relativity. Yet there is little historical evidence Einstein from Zurich to Berlin was portrayed by Eddington. A German expedition had to suggest that General Relativity was seen by as being part of a nationalistic impulse; the attempted, but failed, to make this very meas- British astronomers or physicists to be more University of Berlin, where Einstein was based urement in 1914. The British government (and uncertain and less deterministic than Newto- during the war, was portrayed as seeped not just astronomers, as depicted) funded nian mechanics, and as portending the dawn in militarism; Planck’s attempt to obtain two expeditions in 1919 - the one to Brazil of a more uncertain world. It seems to me that Einstein’s signature on the infamous October has been omitted from the film, though it too in this regard the writer has projected back to 1914 petition ‘Appeal to the Cultured World’ provided important results. Astronomer Frank this time later (1920s) concerns over a differ- was alluded to, as was Fritz Haber’s research Dyson is depicted as accompanying Edding- ent science – that of quantum mechanics, and into poisonous gas. The film culminated in ton to Africa, when in actuality he did not. The particularly the much-publicised debates over Eddington’s 1919 expedition to West Africa issue at stake was not whether or not the stars its ‘Copenhagen interpretation’. in order to photograph the stars around the would shift their positions around an eclipse sun during a complete solar eclipse and so (as depicted in the film), but by how much. Waqar Zaidi validate Einstein’s Relativistic predictions of Newtonian mechanics predicted an amount Imperial College London the bending of light around massive bodies. roughly half that of Einstein’s General Relativ- [email protected] 12 Viewpoint No. 88 Anniversaries for 2010

A fuller list of anniversaries will be available on our website at www.bshs.org.uk/bshs/ publications/newsletter . Biographies and 500 years data were compiled by Rebekah Higgitt , Rosemary Wall and Catharine Haines . Caius, John 1510-1573 Medicine Royal Society of London 400 years

The 350th anniversary of the official founding of the Royal Ceulen, Ludolph van 1540-1610 Mathematics Society will be celebrated on 28 November 2010. The Society’s Ricci, Matteo 1552-1610 Mathematics, astronomy formation arose from the existing ‘invisible college’ of natural Cunitz, Maria 1610-1664 Astronomy philosophers (including Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, John Wal- lis, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and William Petty) who met from the mid-1640s to discuss the ideas of Francis Bacon. In 1660, twelve of these men met at Gresham 350 years College after a lecture by Wren, the Gresham Professor of As- tronomy, and decided to found ‘a Colledge for the Promoting Royal Society of London 1660 of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning’. The Society founded met weekly to discuss ideas and witness experiments. It began Oughtred, William 1575-1660 Mathematics publishing its journal, Philosophical Transactions, in 1665, now Godfrey, Ambrose, the 1660-1741 Chemistry the longest-running scientific journal in existence. The Society elder is celebrating its 350th birthday with an ambitious campaign to strengthen future science. Further information: http://royalsociety.org 300 years

James Ferguson Davies, Robert 1658-1710 Naturalist and antiquary ,JSDI (PUUGSJFE 1639-1710 Astronomy Cramer, Johann Andreas 1710-1777 Metallurgist Cullen, William 1710-1790 Chemistry, medicine Ferguson, James 1710-1776 Astronomy 250 years

James Ferguson, Beddoes, Thomas 1760-1808 Chemistry, medicine PW3436, Harriman, John 1760-1831 Botany © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. 200 years 2010 sees the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish Bayly, William 1738-1810 Astronomy astronomer and instrument maker James Ferguson. Educated Cavendish, Henry 1731-1810 Natural philosopher BUIPNFBOEBUUIFHSBNNBSTDIPPMJO,FJUI IFTIPXFEBO early interest in mechanics. However, on moving to Edinburgh Gordon, Cuthbert 1730-1810 Industrial chemistry in 1734, he was initially a painter of portrait miniatures. Subse- Ritter, Johann Wilhelm 1776-1810 Electrochemistry quently, at Inverness, he invented a cardboard instrument for Gosse, Philip Henry 1810-1888 Zoology showing the motions and positions of the sun and moon, called Hastings, Barbara Rawdon 1810-1858 Geology , fossil collecting the Astronomical Rotula, which brought him to the attention of Colin Maclaurin. He moved to London in 1743, where he Hyrtl, Joseph 1810-1894 Anatomy continued to paint, devise instruments, publish papers and give Jones, Thomas Rymer 1810-1880 Physiology, morphology lectures. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1763 and Regnault, Henri Victor 1810-1878 Chemistry was one of the most successful popular lecturers and writers on scientific subjects. Further reading: J. R. Millburn, Wheelwright of the heavens: the life and work of James Ferguson (London, 1988). Viewpoint No. 88 13

Henry Cavendish The 200th anniversary of Cavendish’s death will be remem- 150 years bered in 2010. He was born in Nice, as the third son of William, second duke of Devonshire. The family later returned to Lon- Joseph Wilson Swan 1860 don, and Cavendish was educated by tutor, at Hackney Acad- makes incandescent lamp emy and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Of independent means, using a carbon filament Cavendish settled in London and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1760. His wide-ranging scientific work focused on Thomas Addison c.1793-1860 Medicine chemical analysis — especially the nature of ‘airs’, water and Powell, Baden 1796-1860 Mathematics heat — electrical phenomena, geodesy and astronomy. The famous Cavendish Experiment was devised in order to measure Spence, William 1782-1860 Entomology the density of the earth. He died at Clapham Common and left Bayliss, William Maddock 1860-1924 Physiology an estate of almost £1million. Further reading: C. Jungnickel and R. McCormmach, Cavendish Bloxham, William Pop- 1860-1913 Chemistry (Philadelphia, 1996). plewell $BUUFMM +BNFT.D,FFO 1860-1944 Psychology Einthoven, Willem 1860-1927 Physiology, medicine Florence Nightingale

Haffkine, Waldemar 1860-1930 Bacteriology, zoology The 100th centenary of Florence Nightingale’s death and the Haldane, John Scott 1860-1936 Physiology 150th anniversary of the Nightingale School of Nursing will Lemon, Margaretta 1860-1953 Ornithology both be commemorated in 2010. Nightingale is not only popularly known as the founder of modern nursing, but was Perkin, William Henry 1860-1929 Chemistry also a reformer of the health of the army, involved in hospital design, writing in journals such as The Builder , and was a pio- neer of making statistics accessible to a wider audience. She 100 years probably invented the pie-chart with her coxcomb diagrams of mortality in the Crimea. Thomas Hunt Morgan dis- 1910 Further reading: Mark Bostridge, Florence Nightingale: the covers the white-eye sex woman and her legend (London, 2008). linkage in Drosophila Blackwell, Elizabeth 1821-1910 Medicine Huggins, William 1824-1910 Astronomy Dorothy Hodgkin James, William 1842-1910 Psychology The chemist and crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin was ,PDI )FJOSJDI)FSNBOO 1843-1910 Bacteriology, medicine born nearly a century ago in Egypt, where she lived until the Robert outbreak of the First World War. She was educated in various schools and, briefly, by her mother, but set up her own Nightingale, Florence 1820-1910 Statistics, nursing chemistry laboratory at home before successfully fighting to Adamson, Joy 1910-1980 Conservation, botanical art continue chemistry at her mixed, state-run secondary school. Chandrasekhar, Subrah- 1910-1995 Mathematics, astrophysics She entered Somerville College, Oxford, in 1928 and after grad- manyan uation became a research student in Cambridge, specialising in x-ray crystallography. She returned to Oxford in 1934 and Conway, Verona 1910-1986 Botany gained funding to set up her own laboratory, where she and Donald, Ian 1910-1987 Obstetrics, ultrasound her research group analysed the structure of insulin, penicillin Hodgkin, Dorothy 1910-1994 Chemistry, crystallography and other biomolecules. Further reading: G. Ferry, Dorothy Hodgkin: a life (London, 1998). 50 years

Contraceptive pill launched 1960 Jones, Harold Spencer 1890-1960 Astronomy ,MFJO .FMBOJF 1882-1960 Psychology Ross, Frank Elmore 1874-1960 Astronomy Singer, Charles Joseph 1876-1960 History of medicine and Dorothy Hodgkin, science Courtesy of Pug - wash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. 14 Viewpoint No. 88

HPSTM People: The Questionnaire

Rebekah Higgitt was editor of Viewpoint from its launch in February 2006 until the end of 2008. She completed her PhD at Imperial College London in 2004 and, after a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, started as Curator of History of Science and Technology at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in May 2008. Since 2001 she has been successively BSHS Membership Secretary, Council Member and Newsletter Editor.

Who or what first turned you towards the everyone has a point when they question What are your favourite HSTM books? History of Science, Technology and Medi- the validity of their project and their ability Adrian Desmond’s biographies of Huxley cine (HSTM)? to see it through. kept me tied to HSTM in the years between Even by the time I had finished my BA in my Masters and the PhD and, like several of History at Durham and had developed an Which historical person would you most the subjects of Viewpoint’s Questionnaire, interest in the history of ideas, I didn’t know like to meet? I was much inspired by Jim Secord’s Victo- HSTM existed. Fortunately, though, a friend Augustus De Morgan was my great favour- rian Sensation . In a different context, I am told me how much she had enjoyed her ite during my PhD research. I would like to very fond of the Olby, Cantor, Christie and undergraduate lectures with one Professor join him and his wife Sophia on one of the Hodge Companion to the History of Science , ,OJHIUBOE XIFO*TUBSUFEBO."JOUI evenings that they visited the Airys and which has frequently come in handy. Century Studies, I asked him to supervise Sheepshankses. I could join Richarda Airy’s a term paper and then my dissertation. By singing, while Augustus accompanied us then – despite taking three years out of on the flute. Or we could try some table- What would you do to strengthen HSTM as academia – I was hooked and knew that I turning. De Morgan is often seen as a stuffy a discipline? would be back for more. and self-righteous Victorian, but I enjoyed As a historian by training, I would like to the wit of his letters and drawings and see more history of science within straight What’s your best dinner-table HSTM story? admired many of his principles. history degrees. I think both disciplines It depends on whose table, and what time would benefit enormously. As a newcomer of the evening. When you’re in the business What should every 16-year-old know about to the world of museums, I would like more of investigating myths and reputations it HSTM? sophisticated stories about past science to can be difficult to deliver anecdotes con- That it exists! Ideally, before they leave be presented to the public. I have discov- vincingly before a few glasses of wine... school, everyone should have had a chance ered how tempting it is to try to catch to understand that science has a history, people’s attention with simplified and What has been your best career moment? and that it was created and used by hu- mythologized accounts, but I think we can It’s still early days in my professional career, mans in particular contexts. do better than that. so I hope that there is more to come. How- ever, finishing the PhD, getting a job and If you did not work in HSTM, what other publishing a book were all major triumphs. career might you choose? How do you see the future shape of HSTM? It has also been wonderful to have been Before my PhD I worked in archives and I think that HSTM is in pretty good shape, invited to relaunch the BSHS newsletter as libraries and would have been happy if I had although the recent period of expansion Viewpoint . stayed, although I suspect that I would have and rising profile is perhaps slackening off. ended up doing historical research either However, I’m not sure that I have been in And worst? way. Of course there’s also my all-singing, the field long enough to make any sweep- I had a low period during the PhD – I think all-dancing, all-acting alternative life ... ing pronouncements! Viewpoint No. 88 15

News Listings paintings, wax models, X-rays and ultrasound scans from the fifteenth to the twenty-first Making Visible Embryos Online century. It displays the work of making visible Conferences Exhibition embryos. Contact: [email protected] British Society for the History of Science Making Visible Embryos http://www.hps.cam. Annual Conference, 2009 ac.uk/visibleembryos/ is an online 2-5 July 2009, University of Leicester exhibition by Tatjana Buklijas and Nick Hopwood, Journals looking for a good home The BSHS Annual Conference will take Department of History and Philosophy of Sci- place at Stamford Hall, University of ence, University of Cambridge, with support ‘I have long runs of the following titles avail- Leicester from 2-5 July 2009. from the Wellcome Trust. able FREE to any member who is able to The conference programme will include collect: Images of human embryos are everywhere parallel themed sessions, plenary lectures, today: in newspapers, clinics, classrooms, British Journal for the History of Science education and outreach activities, and a laboratories, baby albums and on the internet. Discovery dinner at the National Space Centre. Debates about abortion, evolution, assisted Endeavour Further details: http://www.bshs.org. conception and stem cells have made these ISIS uk/bshs/conferences/annual_confer- representations controversial, but they are Scientific American also routine. We tend to take them for granted. Notes and Records of the Royal Society ence/2009_leicester/index.html Yet 250 years ago human development was Though these are at no charge, a small The Long View: 400 Years of the Telescope nowhere to be seen. contribution to my favourite charity (Cancer 16-17 July 2009, National Maritime Museum, This online exhibition is about how embryo 3FTFBSDI6, XPVMECFBQQSFDJBUFEA Greenwich. images were produced and made to represent Stuart Baldwin, PhC., BSc (Open), FGS, FLS, FRI See http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/con- some of the most potent biomedical objects 18 School Road, Wickham Bishops, WITHAM, ferences-and-seminars/telescope-conference and subjects of our time. It contextualizes Essex, England, CM8 3NU for more information and for a preliminary list such icons as Ernst Haeckel’s allegedly forged Tel: 01621 891526 Fax: 01621 891522 of speakers. Darwinist grids and Lennart Nilsson’s ‘drama Directions to Stuart can be found on his web- of life before birth’ on a 1965 cover of Life site: www.secondhandsciencebooks.com magazine. It also interprets over 120 now Darwin 200 little-known drawings, engravings, woodcuts, See the following webpages for information New Year’s Honour regarding events celebrating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of Doron Swade has been awarded an MBE for the publication of The Origin of the Species : his contributions to the History of Comput- Darwin 200 ing. Whilst working as a Curator at the Science http://www.darwin200.org Museum, he built a replica of Babbage’s Differ- Darwin Now - British Council ence Engine for the Museum. http://www.britishcouncil.org/darwin- homepage.htm News from the National Cambridge Darwin Festival http://www.darwin2009.cam.ac.uk Cataloguing Unit for the Archives of Contemporary Scientists Field Meetings During 2008 many cataloguing projects were Re-treading Darwin’s geological fieldwork. completed and new ones begun, particu- Two related historical field meetings in June larly focusing on ecology, genetics, physics 2009 will mark the Darwin bicentenary by and physiology. Six archive collections were evaluating his most important post-Beagle completed — the papers of physicist Sir Wil- fieldwork projects on the ground, in the light liam Mitchell, geneticist Malcolm Ferguson- of other 19th-century research. (1) N. W. Smith, nature conservationist Sir Peter Scott Midlands and North Wales, 19-24 June, led (supplementary papers), ethologist Nikolaas by Peter Worsley (Reading). Shrewsbury and 5JOCFSHFO BOEQIZTJDJTUT/JDIPMBT,VSUJBOE Maer, for Darwin’s and his wife’s family homes; E. Raymond Andrew. Current activity includes Snowdonia, for his 1842 fieldwork, and cataloguing the papers of the physiologists evidence relevant to early glacial theories. For 4JS"OESFX)VYMFZBOE4JS#FSOBSE,BU[ UIF further information, email p.worsley@reading. botanist and ecologist Professor Arthur Willis, ac.uk. (2) Glen Roy, Scotland, 26-29 June, led The New York artist and visual art theorist and the physicists Sir Alan Cook, Lord Marshall by Martin Rudwick (Cambridge) and Adrian Suzanne Anker uses scientiﬁc concepts and Sir Joseph Rotblat. Palmer (Royal Holloway, London). Glen Roy and raw laboratory output to create pieces The NCUACS would like to thank funders and the surrounding area of the Highlands, for that comment on human embryological and including the Arts and Humanities Research Darwin’s 1838 fieldwork, and his interpreta- evolutionary origins, the language of Council, Pugwash organisations, the Wellcome tion of the famous “Parallel Roads” as marine the genetic code and ﬂuid corporeality Trust, the Foyle Foundation, the British Eco- beaches, in conflict with earlier lake-beach (see http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/visibleem - logical Society, Sheffield University Library, the and later glacial-lake interpretations. The bryos/s8_4.html ). This photograph shows Alexander Library, Department of Zoology, number of places for both meetings will be ‘Cubist baby’, a sculpture from her series Oxford University, the Biochemical Society strictly limited. For further information, email ‘Origins and futures’, size: 28’’x 39’’x 20’’. and the Institute of Physics. [email protected]. 16 Viewpoint No. 88

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