SCIENCE FOR ALL Science for All :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Popularization of Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain PETER J. BOWLER The University of Chicago Press : Chicago and London Peter J. Bowler is professor of history of science in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is the author of several books, including with the University of Chicago Press: Life’s Splendid Drama: Evolutionary Biology and the Reconstruction of Life’s Ancestry, 1860–1940 and Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain; and coauthor of Making Modern Science. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2009 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-06863-3 (cloth) isbn-10: 0-226-06863-3 (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowler, Peter J. Science for all: the popularization of science in early twentieth- century Britain / Peter J. Bowler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-06863-3 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-06863-3 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Science news— Great Britain—History—20th century. 2. Communication in science—Great Britain—History—20th century. I. Title. q225.2.g7b69 2009 509.41'0904—dc22 2008055466 a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re- quirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992. CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Preface ix A Note about Money xi 1 Introduction: Scientists, Experts, and the Public 1 Part I : Topics and Themes in Popular Science 2 Rival Ideologies of Science 17 3 The Big Picture 33 4 Practical Knowledge for All 53 Part II : Publishers and Their Publications 5 Creating an Audience 75 6 Bestsellers on Big Issues 96 7 Publishers’ Series 114 8 Encyclopedias and Serial Publications 143 9 Popular Science Magazines 161 10 Science for the General Public 185 Part III : The Authors 11 Big Names 217 12 Scientists and Other Experts 241 13 Epilogue: The 1950s and After 264 Appendix: Biographical Register 279 Bibliography 295 Index 327 I ll U strations 1. “Can Science Colonise the Tropics?” from Harmsworth Popular Science, 1911 27 2. Dust jacket from C. M. Beadnell, A Picture Book of Evolution, popular edition, 1934 47 3. Submarine, from front cover of Archibald Williams, The Wonders of Modern Invention, 1914 59 4. Advertisement announcing the launch of Hutchinson’s Splendour of the Heavens, 1923 65 5. Dust jacket of James Jeans, The Mysterious Universe, 1930 102 6. Cover of The Science of Life, no. 6, 1929 106 7. Stalactite cave, from front cover of James C. Philip, The Wonders of Modern Chemistry, 1913 124 8. Advertising flyer for the Home University Library, 1933 135 9. Front cover of Conquest, April 1923 170 10. Front cover of Armchair Science, April 1929 178 11. Cargo-carrying flying boat on front cover of Newnes’Practical Mechanics, September 1942 183 12. Announcement of the dropping of the atomic bomb, front page of News Chronicle, 7 August 1945 200 PREFACE As mentioned in the introductory chapter, the project that led to the writing of this book arose naturally out of an earlier study of science and religion in early twentieth-century Britain. My work is driven in part by a strong feeling that his- torians dealing with British science have become fascinated with the Victorian period to an extent that has led to a significant downplaying of emphasis on the continuing developments in the decades after 1900. In the case of popular sci- ence, the early twentieth century saw important changes both in British society and in the scientific community, changes that helped to shape the somewhat uncomfortable relationship between them that emerged later in the century and created the tensions we still live with today. If understanding how the first truly professionalized generation of scientists addressed the problem of communica- tion with the public can throw any light on later developments, this study will be of more than purely historical interest. Research for this project has led me in some unusual directions. Much of the literature studied is ephemeral and hence to be found only (if at all) in copyright libraries and the cheaper kinds of secondhand bookshops. Given that the material is not easily located by electronic searches (because the authors are obscure, the titles vague and overdramatized), much work depends on serendipity and advice from friends and colleagues. Many of the relevant publishers’ archives have not survived (several firms’ offices were destroyed in bombing raids on London in 1940). Information on matters such as print runs has to be inferred from even more ephemeral sources such as dust jackets (which most libraries do not keep) and advertisements, including the flyers sometimes issued with magazines— which Cambridge University Library, to its great credit, preserves. Even when the texts of the relevant books and articles are eventually digitalized, one wonders whether this sort of ephemera will be included. x : PREFACE I would like to record my thanks to the staff at Cambridge University Library, who have been of great assistance in dealing with my many, often apparently ec- centric, requests. I would also like to thank the staff at archives visited, especially those at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, who al- lowed me to use the papers of Julian Huxley’s literary agent, A. D. Peters, which had not yet been cataloged at the time of my visit. Other archives used include those at Rice University (Julian Huxley Papers), National Library of Scotland (J. B. S. Haldane Papers and Patrick Geddes Papers), Strathclyde University (Pat- rick Geddes Papers); Birmingham University (E. W. Barnes and Oliver Lodge Papers), University College, London (J. B. S. Haldane Papers), Edinburgh Univer- sity (Thomas Nelson Papers), Bristol University (Conwy Lloyd Morgan Papers), and University of Sussex Library (J. G. Crowther Papers). For advice and support, I would like to thank especially Peter Broks, Sophie Forgan, and Ralph Desmarais for allowing me access to unpublished work that is freely referred to and de- pended upon in what follows. For general discussions on popular science, I have also benefited from the advice of Aileen Fyfe, Jim Secord, Bernie Lightman, Mau- rice Crosland, and many others too numerous to record here. I hope they think the result is worthwhile. The manuscript of this book was completed while on sabbatical leave granted by Queen’s University, Belfast, supplemented by an additional semester’s leave funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. A synopsis of the research was given in my Presidential Address to the British Society for the History of Science in Leeds, 2005, published as “Experts and Publishers: Writing Popular Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain, Writing Popular History of Science Now,” British Journal for the History of Science 39 (2006): 159–87. Some of the material on J. Arthur Thomson appeared in my chapter “From Science to the Popularization of Science: The Career of J. Arthur Thomson,” in Science and Be- liefs: From Natural Theology to Natural Science, 1700–1900, ed. David M. Knight and Matthew D. Eddy (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 231–48. A N O T E A B O U T M O N E Y Several of the chapters in this study contain detailed information about prices, royalties, and so on, and these are expressed in the old monetary system used in Britain until decimalization in 1972. Up to that point, the pound sterling (des- ignated “£”—a stylized “L” from the French livre) was divided into twenty shil- lings, and each shilling into twelve pence. The sum of, for instance, three pounds, twelve shillings, and eight pence would be written thus: £3/12/8d. The symbol “d” was used for the old penny (we use “p” to denote new, decimalized pennies). One shilling was usually written as 1/-. The penny was subdivided into the halfpence and the farthing (quarter pence). Since sixpence is half a shilling, book prices were often given as, for instance, two shillings and sixpence (2/6d—there was a coin of this value, the half-crown, because it is one-eighth of a pound). Just to complicate matters, some prices and fees, especially for transactions used by the better-off, were given in guineas—one guinea is a pound and a shilling (£1/1/- or £1.05p in the modern system). Needless to say, accounting in this system was quite complicated (which is why the pound is now divided into a hundred pence). To add sums of money, you have to add up the pennies, divide by twelve to get the shillings to carry forward, add up the shillings, and divide by twenty to get the pounds to carry forward, and then add up the pounds. To make sure you have understood the system, try adding up £3/15/7d, £5/7/8d, and £4/2/9d—the answer is in the footnote.1 Information on the actual value of the pound sterling in the early twentieth century, as related to buying power and salaries, is given in chapter 12 below. 1. £13/6/-. If you want a real challenge, try percentages. ONE Introduction Scientists, Experts, and the Public Historians such as Bernard Lightman, James Secord, and Aileen Fyfe have shown us how the development of Victorian science was shaped by the interaction be- tween working scientists and the general public.1 Darwinians such as T.