The Whipple Museum of the History of Science

Objects and Investigations, to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of R. S. Whipple's Gift to the University of Cambridge

Joshua Nall, Liba Taub, Frances Willmoth

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781108498272
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108636759
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Technology & Engineering Research & Skills
• Index: Technology & Engineering

In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science's internationally renowned collection are brought into sharp relief by a number of highly regarded historians of science in fourteen essays. Each chapter focuses on a specific instrument or group of objects, ranging from an English medieval astrolabe to a modern agricultural 'seed source indicator' to a curious collection of plaster chicken heads. The contributors employ a range of historiographical and methodological approaches to demonstrate the various ways in which the material culture of science can be researched and understood. The essays show how the study of scientific objects - including instruments and models - offers a window into cultures of scientific practice not afforded by textual sources alone. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title Page
• Copyright Information
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Sacred Astronomy? Beyond The Stars On A Whipple Astrolabe
• 2 What Were Portable Astronomical Instruments Used For In Late-medieval England, And How Much Were They Actually Carried Around?
• 3 'sundials And Other Cosmographical Instruments': Historical Categories And Historians' Categories In The Study Of Mathematical Instruments And Disciplines
• 4 'that Incomparable Instrument Maker': The Reputation Of Henry Sutton
• 5 Specimens Of Observation: Edward Hobson's Musci Britannici
• 6 Ideas Embodied In Metal: Babbage's Engines Dismembered And Remembered
• 7 Galvanometers And The Many Lives Of Scientific Instruments
• 8 Buying Antique Scientific Instruments At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century: A Data-driven Analysis Of Lewis Evans's And Robert Stewart Whipple's Collecting Habits
• 9 Like A Bos: The Discovery Of Fake Antique Scientific Instruments At The Whipple Museum
• 10 Wanted Weeds: Environmental History In The Whipple Museum
• 11 What 'consul, The Educated Monkey' Can Teach Us About Early-twentieth-century Mathematics, Learning, And Vaudeville
• 12 Robin Hill's Cloud Camera: Meteorological Communication, Cloud Classification
• 13 Chicken Heads And Punnett Squares: Reginald Punnett And The Role Of Visualisations In Early Genetics Research At Cambridge, 1900–1930
• 14 Stacks, 'pacs', And User Hacks: A Handheld History Of Personal Computing
• Appendix: Student Research Conducted On The Whipple Museum's Collections Since 1995
• Index