- Email: [email protected]
Science, history and the vagrant iron arrow
Update
Endeavour
Vol.30 No.1 March 2006
3
Science, history and the vagrant iron arrow Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail by A.R.T. Jonkers. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. US$ 45.00 (352 pages, hardback) ISBN 0801871328
Friedrich Steinle Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte/Historisches Seminar, Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal, Gaussstrasse 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany
The magnetism of the Earth, one of the most unpredictable phenomena of our globe, has challenged both practitioners and philosophers since its discovery in Europe in the 13th century. It continues to do so today, despite having lost much of its practical importance with the advent of the gyrocompass and the global positioning system (GPS). However, geomagnetism has not received too much attention so far from historians of science. A.R.T. Jonkers’ recent study is apt to set a mark, both in science and in history. Fascinating and peculiar, Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail is both a historical and scientific study of geomagnetism, and neither of them at the same time. Jonkers has a tedious task: merging historical research and modern geomagnetic theory with benefit for both. He has uncovered several thousands of mariners’ logbooks from the 16th–19th centuries, concentrating on England, France, the Dutch Republic and Denmark. He compiled a database from the large amounts of data recorded in these sources, and processed it with sophisticated methods. The results are remarkable. The benefit for geomagnetic theory is clear. Jonkers was able to improve previous time-dependent geomagnetic models: not only extending them by a full century, but refining them substantially in periods already covered. He claims this is the first model that spans four centuries (1590–1990) and is firmly supported by empirical data. Cases such as this, where modern theory seriously gains from a thorough reconstruction and analysis of historical data, are rare, with astronomy being perhaps the most prominent other one. Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail holds manifold benefits for history too – although not necessarily where Jonkers suggests. He systematically compares historical data with the figures delivered by his geomagnetic model, classifying the results in categories of nation, period, route and type of maritime organization. Significant differences and patterns become visible – between the superb French Navy and less superb Danish whalers, for example. However, although these Corresponding author: Steinle, F. ([email protected]). Available online 15 December 2005 www.sciencedirect.com
results are significant and Jonkers’ explanation of them (by differing practices and social organizations) plausible, their background deserves more discussion. And one should not forget that the ‘reference system’ against which the historical records are evaluated is a model whose quality varies with geographical area and historical period. Jonkers’ insight into navigational practice, record keeping and the using of these records has even stronger merits for history. Practitioners were confronted with issues such as differing results in repeated observations and of observational error, long before they became a topic of academic research. We also learn about the practitioners’ (pragmatic) attitude towards historical myths about the magnet; their attempts to turn the disturbing phenomenon of magnetic variation into a virtue by displaying it in tables and eventually isogonic charts; and the fascinating ‘self-improving symbiosis’ of mariners and hydrographers. Issues like these are fascinating topics in studying the rise of empirical research, but none of them are really part of the main focus of Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail. Jonkers brilliantly shows, for example, that isogonic charts found no use on ships in the 18th century, but the question over what purpose they eventually might have served remains open. Jonkers has not only been digging out logbooks, but also a whole cosmos of geomagnetic hypotheses from 1508–1794 (many of which have never been mentioned in historical accounts before). In doing so he opens the vista to a hitherto underestimated field of ‘scientific’ activity. Still, we would like to learn in which context and with what aim did those philosophers develop their hypotheses, how exactly did they make use (or no use) of empirical data and how did they relate to mariners’ practice. Jonkers’ presentation both renders the historical challenge sharply visible and provides substantial material to treat it. Although Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail is based on diligent research of primary and secondary sources, its primary focus is not historical, and it is not intended to be. In presenting historical actors, Jonkers always uses modern notions such as ‘earth’s magnetic field’ – mariners and philosophers in the period in question would have had no understanding of this, and their tasks might appear differently if put within their conceptual framework. However, the merits of Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of
Update
4
Endeavour
Vol.30 No.1 March 2006
Sail by far overwhelm its shortcomings. For the history of geomagnetism, it will provide a milestone. Moreover, geomagnetism appears now as a scientific enterprise that, at some point in its development, came into contact with large amounts of empirical data collected by practitioners. It might thus provide a case study of exactly how practitioners’ data were obtained and turned into
general knowledge by systematizers. Jonkers has opened a treasure box that will keep us busy for a long time, and might significantly affect our understanding of the rise of modern science. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter Q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.09.003
A new analysis of physics in Oxford Physics in Oxford 1839–1939: Laboratories, Learning, and College Life edited by Robert Fox and Graeme Gooday. Oxford University Press, 2005. £60.00/US$134.50 (xxiiC363 pages, hardback) ISBN 0198567928
Roger H. Stuewer Program in History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
The century of physics covered in Physics in Oxford 1839–1939: Laboratories, Learning, and College Life begins when Robert Walker was appointed reader in experimental philosophy at the University of Oxford in 1839. Walker and others later promoted the construction of the University Museum, which opened in 1860, to house the science collections and apparatus of the university. He was succeeded as professor in 1866 by Robert Bellamy Clifton, who oversaw the construction of the Clarendon Laboratory, which opened in 1870, and retired after a half century of teaching in 1915. Then, after an interregnum of four years during which Robert Edward Baynes effectively filled the post, Frederick Alexander Lindemann took on the office in 1919, assuming responsibility for the Clarendon Laboratory and overseeing the completion of its second incarnation in 1939, thus concluding the period under consideration. A common view today is that although Walker laid a firm foundation for studying physics in Oxford, it became dormant under Clifton and was revived only under Lindemann. This view was advanced by Lindemann to serve his own purposes, and subsequently perpetuated by his biographer: the Earl of Birkenhead. Physics in Oxford 1839–1939 has taken over a decade to complete and is filled with a large cast of characters. It consists of nine interlinked chapters, provided by six authors, whose purpose is not to rehabilitate the status of physics in Oxford, but to treat the subject on its own terms; displaying the complexity of its development in the particular setting of an arts-based university that was molded institutionally over centuries. The book is an outstanding scholarly achievement. Corresponding author: Stuewer, R.H. ([email protected]). Available online 28 November 2005 www.sciencedirect.com
One of the central themes in Physics in Oxford 1839– 1939 is that during the Victorian period excellence in physics teaching was generally valued more highly than original research in British universities, and particularly in Oxford. Walker was an excellent teacher as was Clifton, who spent a huge number of hours each week preparing his lectures and supervising his students in their laboratory work. However, Walker carried out no notable research and Clifton lost his nerve to publish his following a vicious attack on his 1877 paper on voltaic action. This incident, nevertheless, did not leave Clifton hostile to research, as was indicated by his provision of space in the basement of the Clarendon Laboratory to the London physicist Charles Vernon Boys on weekends during 1890–1894 for his precise determination of the gravitational constant. Another significant feature of physics in Oxford was the decentralized nature of laboratory instruction. Following the creation of the Honour School of Natural Science in 1850 chemistry laboratories were established in three Oxford colleges, and were eventually followed by physics laboratories in three more in the 1880s. Since disciplinary boundaries were blurred in the 19th century, all of these college laboratories nurtured physicists alongside the Clarendon Laboratory until 1905, when new university regulations centralized the teaching of physics under John Sealy Edward Townsend. Townsend was appointed to the Wykeham chair of physics in 1900 and was immediately in conflict with Clifton, who refused to allocate him any space in the Clarendon Laboratory. That set in motion a train of events that culminated in the construction of a new Electrical Laboratory for Townsend, which opened in 1910 and also institutionalized the bitter and destructive competition between Townsend and Clifton for students and resources – a competition that Townsend transferred to Lindemann in 1919. It was finally
Endeavour
Vol.30 No.1 March 2006
3
Science, history and the vagrant iron arrow Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail by A.R.T. Jonkers. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. US$ 45.00 (352 pages, hardback) ISBN 0801871328
Friedrich Steinle Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte/Historisches Seminar, Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal, Gaussstrasse 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany
The magnetism of the Earth, one of the most unpredictable phenomena of our globe, has challenged both practitioners and philosophers since its discovery in Europe in the 13th century. It continues to do so today, despite having lost much of its practical importance with the advent of the gyrocompass and the global positioning system (GPS). However, geomagnetism has not received too much attention so far from historians of science. A.R.T. Jonkers’ recent study is apt to set a mark, both in science and in history. Fascinating and peculiar, Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail is both a historical and scientific study of geomagnetism, and neither of them at the same time. Jonkers has a tedious task: merging historical research and modern geomagnetic theory with benefit for both. He has uncovered several thousands of mariners’ logbooks from the 16th–19th centuries, concentrating on England, France, the Dutch Republic and Denmark. He compiled a database from the large amounts of data recorded in these sources, and processed it with sophisticated methods. The results are remarkable. The benefit for geomagnetic theory is clear. Jonkers was able to improve previous time-dependent geomagnetic models: not only extending them by a full century, but refining them substantially in periods already covered. He claims this is the first model that spans four centuries (1590–1990) and is firmly supported by empirical data. Cases such as this, where modern theory seriously gains from a thorough reconstruction and analysis of historical data, are rare, with astronomy being perhaps the most prominent other one. Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail holds manifold benefits for history too – although not necessarily where Jonkers suggests. He systematically compares historical data with the figures delivered by his geomagnetic model, classifying the results in categories of nation, period, route and type of maritime organization. Significant differences and patterns become visible – between the superb French Navy and less superb Danish whalers, for example. However, although these Corresponding author: Steinle, F. ([email protected]). Available online 15 December 2005 www.sciencedirect.com
results are significant and Jonkers’ explanation of them (by differing practices and social organizations) plausible, their background deserves more discussion. And one should not forget that the ‘reference system’ against which the historical records are evaluated is a model whose quality varies with geographical area and historical period. Jonkers’ insight into navigational practice, record keeping and the using of these records has even stronger merits for history. Practitioners were confronted with issues such as differing results in repeated observations and of observational error, long before they became a topic of academic research. We also learn about the practitioners’ (pragmatic) attitude towards historical myths about the magnet; their attempts to turn the disturbing phenomenon of magnetic variation into a virtue by displaying it in tables and eventually isogonic charts; and the fascinating ‘self-improving symbiosis’ of mariners and hydrographers. Issues like these are fascinating topics in studying the rise of empirical research, but none of them are really part of the main focus of Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail. Jonkers brilliantly shows, for example, that isogonic charts found no use on ships in the 18th century, but the question over what purpose they eventually might have served remains open. Jonkers has not only been digging out logbooks, but also a whole cosmos of geomagnetic hypotheses from 1508–1794 (many of which have never been mentioned in historical accounts before). In doing so he opens the vista to a hitherto underestimated field of ‘scientific’ activity. Still, we would like to learn in which context and with what aim did those philosophers develop their hypotheses, how exactly did they make use (or no use) of empirical data and how did they relate to mariners’ practice. Jonkers’ presentation both renders the historical challenge sharply visible and provides substantial material to treat it. Although Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of Sail is based on diligent research of primary and secondary sources, its primary focus is not historical, and it is not intended to be. In presenting historical actors, Jonkers always uses modern notions such as ‘earth’s magnetic field’ – mariners and philosophers in the period in question would have had no understanding of this, and their tasks might appear differently if put within their conceptual framework. However, the merits of Earth’s Magnetism in the Age of
Update
4
Endeavour
Vol.30 No.1 March 2006
Sail by far overwhelm its shortcomings. For the history of geomagnetism, it will provide a milestone. Moreover, geomagnetism appears now as a scientific enterprise that, at some point in its development, came into contact with large amounts of empirical data collected by practitioners. It might thus provide a case study of exactly how practitioners’ data were obtained and turned into
general knowledge by systematizers. Jonkers has opened a treasure box that will keep us busy for a long time, and might significantly affect our understanding of the rise of modern science. 0160-9327/$ - see front matter Q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.09.003
A new analysis of physics in Oxford Physics in Oxford 1839–1939: Laboratories, Learning, and College Life edited by Robert Fox and Graeme Gooday. Oxford University Press, 2005. £60.00/US$134.50 (xxiiC363 pages, hardback) ISBN 0198567928
Roger H. Stuewer Program in History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
The century of physics covered in Physics in Oxford 1839–1939: Laboratories, Learning, and College Life begins when Robert Walker was appointed reader in experimental philosophy at the University of Oxford in 1839. Walker and others later promoted the construction of the University Museum, which opened in 1860, to house the science collections and apparatus of the university. He was succeeded as professor in 1866 by Robert Bellamy Clifton, who oversaw the construction of the Clarendon Laboratory, which opened in 1870, and retired after a half century of teaching in 1915. Then, after an interregnum of four years during which Robert Edward Baynes effectively filled the post, Frederick Alexander Lindemann took on the office in 1919, assuming responsibility for the Clarendon Laboratory and overseeing the completion of its second incarnation in 1939, thus concluding the period under consideration. A common view today is that although Walker laid a firm foundation for studying physics in Oxford, it became dormant under Clifton and was revived only under Lindemann. This view was advanced by Lindemann to serve his own purposes, and subsequently perpetuated by his biographer: the Earl of Birkenhead. Physics in Oxford 1839–1939 has taken over a decade to complete and is filled with a large cast of characters. It consists of nine interlinked chapters, provided by six authors, whose purpose is not to rehabilitate the status of physics in Oxford, but to treat the subject on its own terms; displaying the complexity of its development in the particular setting of an arts-based university that was molded institutionally over centuries. The book is an outstanding scholarly achievement. Corresponding author: Stuewer, R.H. ([email protected]). Available online 28 November 2005 www.sciencedirect.com
One of the central themes in Physics in Oxford 1839– 1939 is that during the Victorian period excellence in physics teaching was generally valued more highly than original research in British universities, and particularly in Oxford. Walker was an excellent teacher as was Clifton, who spent a huge number of hours each week preparing his lectures and supervising his students in their laboratory work. However, Walker carried out no notable research and Clifton lost his nerve to publish his following a vicious attack on his 1877 paper on voltaic action. This incident, nevertheless, did not leave Clifton hostile to research, as was indicated by his provision of space in the basement of the Clarendon Laboratory to the London physicist Charles Vernon Boys on weekends during 1890–1894 for his precise determination of the gravitational constant. Another significant feature of physics in Oxford was the decentralized nature of laboratory instruction. Following the creation of the Honour School of Natural Science in 1850 chemistry laboratories were established in three Oxford colleges, and were eventually followed by physics laboratories in three more in the 1880s. Since disciplinary boundaries were blurred in the 19th century, all of these college laboratories nurtured physicists alongside the Clarendon Laboratory until 1905, when new university regulations centralized the teaching of physics under John Sealy Edward Townsend. Townsend was appointed to the Wykeham chair of physics in 1900 and was immediately in conflict with Clifton, who refused to allocate him any space in the Clarendon Laboratory. That set in motion a train of events that culminated in the construction of a new Electrical Laboratory for Townsend, which opened in 1910 and also institutionalized the bitter and destructive competition between Townsend and Clifton for students and resources – a competition that Townsend transferred to Lindemann in 1919. It was finally