Cultural History of Science

While in modern times excellence in science is often acknowledged with a prize medal, this was not the case in the Renaissance. Despite the fact that the Italian Renais- sance saw a remarkable revival of medal casting, there were no medals to be won in the Renaissance for originality and scientific priority. Rather, professional success was determined by the ability to win public disputations and debate contested topics. This article illustrates how this mode of knowledge production, which reached its peak in the second half of the sixteenth century, was deeply rooted in the culture of verbal and physical duelling that developed in Italy around that time. Transforming the cul- ture of academic disputation into one of public spectacle, the sixteenth century saw scientific practitioners make careers out of controversy and polemical exchange. From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, this model of knowledge production was slowly superseded by more moderate exchanges and collaborations.

The book explores the emergence and proliferation of the scientific myth of human mimicry in literature and the human sciences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The biological term mimicry originally describes the deceptive resemblance of an insect to another species or its environment. Around 1900 men of letters as well as biologists, physicians, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, and sociologists probed the question of human mimicry and its function for societal coexistence: human beings are attributed the biological ability of perfectly adapting to their social environment to the point that they are physically and psychologically indiscernible from their peers.

How are we to understand the attention that nineteenth-century medical sciences paid to Italian music, and to some of its emblematic figures? To what extent were such disciplines less interested in specific works than in the musical phenomenon itself, including its effects on the body and the imagination? How did Italian music feed into original medical approaches, or take hold of them? These are some of the questions which are raised in this issue, which thus embarks on a terrain little explored by both the history of medicine and the history of music, by way of three main sections. The first, entitled “Healing With Music”, examines the therapeutic experiments conducted in Aversa and Palermo in the first half of the nineteenth century. The second, “Anatomies of the Voice”, focuses on the singer’s body, poised between virtuosity and medical knowledge. Finally, the third section explores the question of musical genius as it comes to be medicalised in the eyes of phrenologists or of Cesare Lombroso.

This study investigates early employments of family trees in the modern sciences, in order to historicise their iconic status and now established uses, notably in evolutionary biology and linguistics. Moving beyond disciplinary accounts to consider the wider cultural background, it examines how early uses within the sciences transformed family trees as a format of visual representation, as well as the meanings invested in them.

Historical writing about trees in the modern sciences is heavily tilted towards evolutionary biology, especially the iconic diagrams associated with Darwinism. Trees of Knowledge shifts the focus to France in the wake of the Revolution, when family trees were first put to use in a number of disparate academic fields. Through three case studies drawn from across the disciplines, it investigates the simultaneous appearance of trees in natural history, language studies, and music theory. Augustin Augier’s tree of plant families, Félix Gallet’s family tree of dead and living languages, and Henri Montan Berton’s family tree of chords served diverse ends, yet all exploited the familiar shape of genealogy.

While outlining how genealogical trees once constituted a more general resource in scholarly knowledge production—employed primarily as pedagogical tools—this study argues that family trees entered the modern sciences independently of the evolutionary theories they were later made to illustrate. The trees from post-revolutionary France occasionally charted development over time, yet more often they served to visualise organic hierarchy and perfect order. In bringing this neglected history to light, Trees of Knowledge provides not only a rich account of the rise of tree thinking in the modern sciences, but also a pragmatic methodology for approaching the dynamic interplay of metaphor, visual representation, and knowledge production in the history of science.

""En una tierra donde los recursos hídricos siempre fueron escasos, ya fuera para utilizarlos como energía motriz o para su consumo agrícola o industrial, se hacía necesario encontrar otras fuentes de energía que nuestros inventores supieron explotar con la urgencia de la necesidad y el saber hacer de sus ensayos y experiencias.
El viento siempre fue una fuente de energía conocida y usada a través de los tiempos. Si analizamos las patentes existentes en la Región de Murcia durante el siglo XIX y principios del XX, que aprovechan el viento como fuerza motriz y su recepción en la prensa regional, quizá podamos entender cómo se encontraba el estado de la tecnología en aquellos momentos y cuáles eran los aires de modernización que soplaban en la España del cambio de siglo.
Las soluciones aportadas son, sobre todo, de eje vertical que aprovechan el viento que les llega en cualquier dirección. Siete motores de viento fueron patentados entre finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX en la Región de Murcia. El más antiguo de 1884 en Cartagena, otros tres en Yecla entre 1889 y 1898, uno en La Unión en 1909 y dos más en Cartagena en el año 1912.
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In a land where water resources were always scarce, either to use them as motive power or for agricultural or industrial use, it was necessary to find other energy sources which our inventors knew how to exploit in urgent need with the expertise of their trials and experiences.
Wind was known as power source and used throughout times. The analysis of the patents using wind as a driving force in the Region of Murcia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the study of their reception in the regional press sheds some light on the status of technology at that time and on the process of modernization.
Most patents are of vertical axis, which takes advantage of the wind that comes in any direction. Seven wind engines were patented during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the Region of Murcia, the oldest one in Cartagena in 1884, three in Yecla between 1889 and 1898, one in La Union in 1909, and two more in Cartagena in 1912.
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"Resumen: En 1539 Bartolomé de Zárate, regidor de México, embarcaba rumbo a Nueva España con un equipo completo de 37 técnicos y operarios especializados, necesarios para la mejora y puesta en marcha de las explotaciones y fábrica de alumbres de Metztitlán. El equipo había sido reclutado en los reinos peninsulares, salvo por la presencia de un flamenco y un genovés. Entre ellos, Pedro de Vezón, natural de Alumbres de Mazarrón, hijo de Bartolomé Vezón que había descubierto en 1537 unas alumbreras para el marqués de Villena.
En el Archivo de Simancas se conserva, del siglo XVI, una relación de los alumbres que se vendían en Flandes, Inglaterra y Alemania y si se preferían los de Mazarrón, Cartagena o Civita Veccia. Lo que nos demuestra la importante función informadora que ejercían los agentes de la Corona o los dueños de las explotaciones para conocer la demanda, la competencia, los costos, cuestiones fundamentales para la puesta en marcha y mejora de explotaciones y fábricas y que se incluye en la completa construcción social del sistema tecnológico que se estaba llevando a cabo en el Imperio español.
Toda acción de transferencia tecnológica exige una aculturación de la nueva tecnología y una adaptación a las condiciones locales donde va a ser implantada, teniendo en cuenta sus condiciones ambientales, sociales, culturales y políticas que si se realiza de manera exitosa, es decir, si los técnicos y artesanos locales han conseguido adaptar la nueva tecnología, la han hecho suya y la han mejorado podemos llamarla apropiación cultural de la tecnología. Esa apropiación va a influir en todo el conjunto de la sociedad, no sólo en los técnicos que la han desarrollado sino también en los operarios que trabajan con esos nuevos procedimientos, instrumentos o máquinas. Incluso en las personas que consumen esos nuevos productos, que utilizan esa nueva tecnología, que visten esas nuevas ropas, mejor realizadas y mejor tintadas. Esa nueva tecnología, los avances en el transporte, ese acceso a productos de un comercio global, les aportaría nuevas sensaciones, un nuevo pensamiento y en definitiva una nueva identidad forjada a la par del Imperio.
Dicha transferencia y apropiación de la tecnología queda demostrada en multitud de ejemplos de nuestra historia como la revolución que supuso la invención en 1553 del sevillano Bartolomé de Medina y su método, llamado de patio, de amalgamación en frío de los minerales de plata en las minas de Nueva España y que se implantó rápidamente por toda América, con las consiguientes adaptaciones locales. Una de las más significativas fue la introducción del mismo método de amalgamación en frío, hacia 1572, por Pedro Fernández de Velasco y su rápida adaptación a las duras condiciones ambientales del Perú transformándose en el método de amalgamación en caliente, llamado beneficio de buitrones, inspirado en el método de las estufas originario de México.
Durante los siglos XVI, XVII y XVIII se suceden multitud de solicitudes y concesiones de privilegios de invención que jalonan la historia conjunta del Imperio. Transferencias y apropiaciones de tecnología en uno y otro sentido, de la península a los reinos de Indias, a Flandes y viceversa, que se dan en la agricultura, en la hidráulica, en la minería, en las fábricas de alumbres, en el beneficio de los metales, en la obtención de tintes, de barrilla, de tabaco, en la industria suntuaria y en la acuñación de moneda. Todo ello demuestra el vasto sistema tecnológico construido gracias a las redes sociales existentes en el Imperio.
Uno de los más significativos casos de transferencia de tecnología a la inversa fue el del adelantado de México Juan de Oñate y Salazar (1552-1626), natural de Zacatecas, que fue nombrado inspector general de minería para toda España en 1624 y para ayudarse en el cargo hizo traer a 6 indios expertos fundidores y afinadores y a su sobrino Cristóbal de Zaldívar, empresario minero experto, dejando claro que en aquellos años la minería de México era superior a la de la Península. Gracias al trabajo de Oñate se redactaron las Nuevas leyes y ordenanzas... de Minas de estos reynos, y a expensa de Don Juan de Oñate…, Madrid, 1625.
Sorprende pensar que un Imperio tan extenso como el español se moviera de forma eficiente como una maquinaria bien engrasada si no fuera por la voluntad de acción de las personas que habitaban cada localidad dentro de las fronteras de la Monarquía, constituyendo una densa red de relaciones sociales e intereses. La tecnología no es sólo un conjunto de técnicas que solucionan cualquier necesidad planteada por la sociedad sino que es un sistema cultural completo imbricado de forma plena en la sociedad y su análisis nos permite conocer las necesidades, consecuciones y voluntad política de las clases dirigentes de esa sociedad. La tecnología es, por tanto, una construcción social y ayudó a potenciar la voluntad y el alcance de las personas que forjaron el Imperio.
Palabras clave: Transferencia tecnológica, Apropiación Cultural de la Tecnología, Alumbre, Beneficio de metales, Privilegios de invención, Redes sociales, Imperio, Siglos XVI-XVII."

The influence of religious beliefs to several leading mathematicians in early Soviet years, especially among members of the Moscow Mathematical Society, had drawn the attention of militant Soviet marxists, as well as Soviet authorities. The issue has also drawn significant attention from scholars in the post-Soviet period. According to the currently prevailing interpretation, reported purges against Moscow mathematicians due to their religious inclination are the focal point of the relevant history. However, I maintain that historical data arguably offer reasons to cast reasonable doubts on this interpretation. In this paper, by reviewing the relevant literature, I raise some methodological and philosophical concerns, in an attempt to contribute to a better understanding of the issue. I maintain that an efficient line of reasoning is to discuss issues in the context of their making, taking into consideration the specific features of each era’s culture. Thus, by focusing on P.A. Nekrasov’s case, I attempt to point to an alternative interpretation, in which the different treatment of religious inclined mathematicians by Soviet authorities is explained in the context of the ideological confrontation between two contrasting worldviews, as part of the ongoing class war in the several phases of Soviet history.

The European quest for the hard paste porcelain lasted until about 1710, when the first production unit was built at Meissen in Saxony. Although, it is generally believed that Bottger discovered the European porcelain technology, this work shows that the German porcelain quest was a State affair; a collective project directed by Tschirnhaus and supported by August the Strong. It also aims to shed light to the reasons that led to Tschirnhaus's relative oblivion. Considering three distinct temporal stages, we re-examine the roles of the main contributors to the porcelain project, referring to the role of the Mercantilism system and to the philosophical roots of Tschirnhaus's method.

L’astre lunaire, parce qu’il est le plus proche de la Terre figure une porte ouverte sur l’espace. Il mobilise au XIXe siècle de nombreux observateurs et devient à la Belle époque un objet de fascination dont témoignent la littérature, le cinéma mais aussi les activités scientifiques, qu’elles soient professionnelles ou amateurs. Cet article propose de se pencher sur le cas de Jules Deseilligny devenu, dans la seconde partie de sa vie (1896-1918), un sélénographe amateur de haut niveau, jusqu’à obtenir au XXe siècle l’attribution d’un cratère lunaire à son nom. L’analyse de ses activités et de ses productions scientifiques qui recouvrent un véritable programme de saisie des « variations lunaires », celle de son insertion dans les sociabilités savantes puisqu’il est membre des instances de la Société Astronomique de France, éclaire le rapport au ciel qui s’instaure à la Belle époque.

""An apparatus perfotransmisor Vázquez" the title the telegraph transmitting device that José Vázquez Miranda, head of the telegraph of Cieza invent in 1921.
A device, invented and developed in Cieza, which would improve the speed of telegraph transmission, saving the time required for its operation and making sure the transmission of written telegraphed. In addition, Vázquez Miranda with his invention introduce an innovation relating to quality control in telegraphic communications.
keywords
Patent, Telegraph, Broadcasting, Telecommunications History, Quality control."

Hole Rößler: Nach Klopf-Fechter Manier. Polemik als soziale Praxis in der frühneuzeitlichen Gelehrtenkultur, in: Kai Bremer, Carlos Spoerhase (Hrsg.): Gelehrte Polemik II (= Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, Bd. 9, H.1-4), Frankfurt a.M. 2016, S. 15-34.

"During the Eighteenth century, specially, in its second half, we found some cases of professionals and technician artisans as locksmiths, silversmiths, machinists and watchmakers, with formation or professional interest in the mechanics, in the experimental physics and in general, in science and technology.
Members of an emerging urban bourgeoisie, lots of them with open processes at the Inquisition by heretical propositions whose common denominator would be the independence of thought, the liberty of faith, the “dare to think” Kantian, and definitely, the possession of a modern thought covered in the reason that make them strong spirits according to the Enlightenment thought.
The utilization of scientific and technological procedures and the material advances transformed their way of thinking. It makes them more secure of themselves, more sceptical and bold, more freethinkers and more disposed to use the critical reason. In addition the mental tool that they utilized was based in the material progress and in the principle of the economy and utility. Ideas and values incorporated by the Enlightenment discourse that quite influenced in the modernization of thought and in the cultural appropriation of technology was carried out by those professionals."

Zoological gardens have played multiple roles in modern urban history, educating and entertaining their publics, and they have also been places for scienctific research into animal behavior. This chapter provides a brief historical overview of the history of zoos from the late eighteenth century to the present, emphasizing the ways in which science has taken place there. Examples range from the observations of Cuvier and Lamarck in Paris as well as studies of primate problem-solving by Darwin, Hobhouse and others in London, to the rise of ethology and zoo biology - the scientific study of animal behavior in zoos - and efforts by zoo managers to preserve biodiversity by conserving rare species.  Also considered is the revolution in animal display brought about by Carl Hegenbeck in the early twentieth century, and recent efforts to create "immersion" exhibits, or artificial "environments" to represent plant and animal ecology.

OBJECTIF Ce projet vise à l'écriture collective d'une histoire des amateurs en sciences en prise avec le présent, faisant écho aux questions qui ont émergé autour des sciences participatives ou citoyennes et des sciences à l'ère numérique. Cette histoire prendra acte des renouvellements apportés par les Science studies et par l'histoire sociale et culturelle des sciences. Ce projet repose sur deux hypothèses. 1°-Un regard historique sur l'amateurisme scientifique permet d'enrichir la réflexion sur le présent, en mettant en lumière des continuités autant que les ruptures sur lesquelles insistent les études centrées sur le XXe siècle et sur le présent. 2°-La question de l'amateurisme en science s'éclaire à être considérée dans un cadre transdisciplinaire. Ce projet associe ainsi des historiens de trois champs : deux sont classiques dans l'historiographie (astronomie, archéologie), l'un (sciences médicales) est plus inédit bien qu'il soit central dans les sciences participatives actuelles. AXES Axe 1-Figures de l'amateur. Le parti pris choisi dans l'axe 1 repose sur la réalisation d'une base de données recensant toutes les publications portant les mots clés amateur.s, amateurisme et amatrice.s dans leur titre en France sur la période considérée (1850-1950), à partir du catalogue de la BNF complété du Catalogue général de la librairie française. De cette base de données seront extraits deux corpus (un de textes, l'autre d'images). Base et corpus feront l'objet d'une exploitation collective par l'équipe et permettront d'isoler des caractérisations contemporaines de l'amateurisme plus subtiles et plus complexes que celles que révèlent les définitions des dictionnaires, d'évaluer la part des sciences dans les pratiques amateurs et les champs scientifiques les plus concernés. Base et corpus seront rendus accessibles en open access à l'issue du projet à partir d'une plateforme élaborée en cours de projet. Axe 2-Une histoire subjective des mondes des amateurs. L'axe 2 aborde la question des identités et des définitions dans une perspective par en bas qui permet d'affiner la typologie élaborée dans l'axe 1. Il s'agira de restituer le point de vue des amateurs sur la science qu'ils font, les mondes sociaux qu'ils habitent, leur identité de savants, leurs compétences, leurs rapports avec ceux qu'ils définissent comme des professionnels et avec ceux qu'ils considèrent comme n'étant pas des amateurs légitimes. Deux angles

This article explores the question: is The X-Files dangerous to Science Fiction (SF) and science? Certainly it is one of the most prominent series that, despite being frequently appended with the SF television label, seems to challenge and sometimes eschew basic conceptualisations of the genre. Furthermore, at the height of its success the series was criticised by scientists such as Richard Dawkins for disseminating and popularising anti-rational and potentially anti-scientific perspectives. On these grounds, the answer to our question appears to be yes. However, detailed analysis of the series reveals quite a different picture. Firstly, even attempts to distance the series from SF effectively encapsulate reasons for that very labelling. These specifically revolve around the use of the phrase ‘extreme possibilities’. Secondly, far from presenting a simplistic juxtaposition of belief and reason, the series instead involves a dialogic exchange that helps to articulate the role of scientific inquiry in approaching the unknown.

In the early twentieth century, sons often inherited their father’s scientific work. This article seeks to unearth how this repetition was achieved. The Swede Hans Pettersson (1888-1966) inherited oceanography from is father, Otto Pettersson (1848-1941). One of the latter’s major concerns was to find a successor from his own family. By exercising control over the early institutions of oceanography, he created an infrastructure where that goal was achieved. Nonetheless, the process of transferring knowledge was multifaceted and paradoxical. Resources were exchanged between father and son, but their relationship was marked by severe tensions. Above all, there was a tension in Hans Pettersson’s life between on the one hand repeating and overtaking his father’s knowledge and resources, and on the other hand produce independent research. Inheritance generated a conflict between repetition and originality. Hans did not repeat his father’s research interests, but he imitated his entrepreneurial style, above all in the ambition to create a research field and institutions of his own. In sum, this case displays the tensions of transfer of knowledge between generations. Scientific knowledge at the time was family based, built on imitative behavior yet with a strong wish to create new knowledge.