Imperial Science

Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in the Victorian British Empire

Bruce J. Hunt

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108830669
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108906050
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: History

In the second half of the nineteenth century, British firms and engineers built, laid, and ran a vast global network of submarine telegraph cables. For the first time, cities around the world were put into almost instantaneous contact, with profound effects on commerce, international affairs, and the dissemination of news. Science, too, was strongly affected, as cable telegraphy exposed electrical researchers to important new phenomena while also providing a new and vastly larger market for their expertise. By examining the deep ties that linked the cable industry to work in electrical physics in the nineteenth century - culminating in James Clerk Maxwell's formulation of his theory of the electromagnetic field - Bruce J. Hunt sheds new light both on the history of the Victorian British Empire and on the relationship between science and technology.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Prologue: “An Imperial Science”
• 1 “An Ill-Understood Effect of Induction”: Telegraphy and Field Theory in Victorian Britain
• 2 Wildman Whitehouse, William Thomson, and the First Atlantic Cable
• 3 Redeeming Failure: The Joint Committee Investigation
• 4 Units and Standards: The Ohm Is Where the Art Is
• 5 The Ohm, the Speed of Light, and Maxwell’s Theory of the Electromagnetic Field
• 6 To Rule the Waves: Britain’s Cable Empire and the Making of “Maxwell’s Equations”
• Epilogue: Full Circle
• Bibliography
• Index