Recreating Herschel's actinometry: An essay in the historiography of experimental practice

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 337-355

  Voskuhl, Adelheid ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0345909463     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0007087497003129     Document Type: Review

References (39)

1. D. Gooding, 'History in the laboratory: can we really tell what went on?', in The Development of the Laboratory (ed. F. James), London, 1989, 63-89; and H. O. Sibum, 'Reworking the mechanical equivalent of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1994), 26, 73-106. Further case studies and historiographical analyses include L. Belloni, 'The repetition of experiments and observations: its value in studying the history of medicine (and science)', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1970), 25, 158-67; H. Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge, 1987, ch. 5; T. Settle, 'Galileo and early experimentation', in Springs of Scientific Creativity (ed. R. Aris, H. Davis and R. Stuewer), Minneapolis, 1983, 3-20.
2. D. Gooding, 'History in the laboratory: can we really tell what went on?', in The Development of the Laboratory (ed. F. James), London, 1989, 63-89; and H. O. Sibum, 'Reworking the mechanical equivalent of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1994), 26, 73-106. Further case studies and historiographical analyses include L. Belloni, 'The repetition of experiments and observations: its value in studying the history of medicine (and science)', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1970), 25, 158-67; H. Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge, 1987, ch. 5; T. Settle, 'Galileo and early experimentation', in Springs of Scientific Creativity (ed. R. Aris, H. Davis and R. Stuewer), Minneapolis, 1983, 3-20.
3. D. Gooding, 'History in the laboratory: can we really tell what went on?', in The Development of the Laboratory (ed. F. James), London, 1989, 63-89; and H. O. Sibum, 'Reworking the mechanical equivalent of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1994), 26, 73-106. Further case studies and historiographical analyses include L. Belloni, 'The repetition of experiments and observations: its value in studying the history of medicine (and science)', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1970), 25, 158-67; H. Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge, 1987, ch. 5; T. Settle, 'Galileo and early experimentation', in Springs of Scientific Creativity (ed. R. Aris, H. Davis and R. Stuewer), Minneapolis, 1983, 3-20.
4. D. Gooding, 'History in the laboratory: can we really tell what went on?', in The Development of the Laboratory (ed. F. James), London, 1989, 63-89; and H. O. Sibum, 'Reworking the mechanical equivalent of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1994), 26, 73-106. Further case studies and historiographical analyses include L. Belloni, 'The repetition of experiments and observations: its value in studying the history of medicine (and science)', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1970), 25, 158-67; H. Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge, 1987, ch. 5; T. Settle, 'Galileo and early experimentation', in Springs of Scientific Creativity (ed. R. Aris, H. Davis and R. Stuewer), Minneapolis, 1983, 3-20.
5. D. Gooding, 'History in the laboratory: can we really tell what went on?', in The Development of the Laboratory (ed. F. James), London, 1989, 63-89; and H. O. Sibum, 'Reworking the mechanical equivalent of heat: instruments of precision and gestures of accuracy in early Victorian England', Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science (1994), 26, 73-106. Further case studies and historiographical analyses include L. Belloni, 'The repetition of experiments and observations: its value in studying the history of medicine (and science)', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (1970), 25, 158-67; H. Kragh, An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, Cambridge, 1987, ch. 5; T. Settle, 'Galileo and early experimentation', in Springs of Scientific Creativity (ed. R. Aris, H. Davis and R. Stuewer), Minneapolis, 1983, 3-20.
6. A comprehensive introduction into the 'pictography' of Gooding's experimental maps, together with useful examples of its application is to be found in D. Gooding, 'Putting agency back into experiment', in Science as Practice and Culture (ed. A. Pickering), Chicago, 1992, 65-112.
7. From 1992 to 1994, Sibum, assisted by Peter Heering, worked with a replica of Joule's paddle-wheel set-up to measure the mechanical equivalent of heat.
8. Sibum, op. cit. (1), 76.
9. A. Wilson, 'Towards an integrated historiography', in Rethinking Social History (ed. A. Wilson), Manchester, 1993, 293-335.
10. J. Herschel, 'Instructions for making meteorological observations', in Report of the Committee of Physics and Meteorology of the Royal Society, London, 1840, 59.
11. J. Herschel, 'Explanation of the principle and construction of the actinometer', Report of the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, London, 1834, 379.
12. According to the instructions, there must not be any air bubbles left in the cylinder. The air is supposed to be removed with the help of the routine described. Instructions for the actinometer's use are to be found in L. F. Kämtz, Lehrbuch der Meteorologie, 3 vols., Halle, 1836, iii, 15-20, J. Herschel, op. cit (6), 58-66, and A Manual of Scientific Inquiry; Prepared for the Use of Officers in Her Majesty's Navy; and Travellers in General, 2nd edn, London, 1851, 299-309.
13. According to the instructions, there must not be any air bubbles left in the cylinder. The air is supposed to be removed with the help of the routine described. Instructions for the actinometer's use are to be found in L. F. Kämtz, Lehrbuch der Meteorologie, 3 vols., Halle, 1836, iii, 15-20, J. Herschel, op. cit (6), 58-66, and A Manual of Scientific Inquiry; Prepared for the Use of Officers in Her Majesty's Navy; and Travellers in General, 2nd edn, London, 1851, 299-309.
14. By 'sense' I mean a quality of a practical process of mastering, similar to the ones Bourdieu describes. He considers the transition of practical mastery in practice to be a process that contains further components to trial and error, even if they are not passed on through discourse or consciousness. See P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge, 1977, 87-8. The non-verbal and even unconscious elements of my mastery are by no means subordinated to those that seem more 'conscious' and cognitive.
15. H. Collins, Changing Order. Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice, London, 1985, ch. 2.
16. The instructions I rely on are Kämtz, op. cit. (8), 15; Herschel, op. cit. (6), 59 and op. cit. (8), 301, and parts from the collection of Herschel's papers in the Harry Ransom Research Institute, University of Texas at Austin (hereafter Herschel Collection), nos. W 0078 and W 0079.
17. This causality is the basis of what Collins, op. cit. (10), terms the 'experimenter's regress'. His analysis of experimental activity in scientific laboratories reveals that the quality of an experiment and its correct conduct is circularly defined through the correct outcome.
18. Wilson, op. cit. (5), 304.
19. Harry Collins similarly shifts the explanatory burden for ordered experimentation away from the regularity of the world towards the regularity of our institutionalized beliefs. See Collins, op. cit. (10), 147-8. For an elaboration of the term 'human agency' as an explanatory item of scientific change, see D. Gooding, Experiment and the Making of Meaning: Human Agency in Scientific Observation and Experiment, Boston, MA, 1990.
20. The Royal Society's Report and the Manual of Scientific Inquiry are referred to above in Herschel, op. cit. (6) and (8), respectively. The actinometer notebooks are part of the Herschel Collection, nos. W 0064-W 0068.
21. M. Rudwick, 'Charles Darwin in London: the integration of private and public science', Isis (1982) 73, 186-206, on 198.
22. To calibrate the actinometer's indication, Herschel compared actinometer readings to changes in the temperature of water, when both were alternately exposed to the sun and shaded. Furthermore, he defined a unit for the measure of solar radiation, the 'actine', as 'the intensity of solar radiation which would melt a layer of ice 0.0000001 of a meter thick every minute'. For a comprehensive account of Herschel's efforts to determine the solar constant, see P. A. Kidwell, 'Prelude to solar energy: Pouillet, Herschel, Forbes and the solar constant', Annals of Science (1981), 38, 457-76. Herschel's records of the calibration are to be found in his 'Actinometer Notebook no. 3', Herschel Collection, no. W 0066.
23. Herschel mentions this omission somewhat laconically in the appendix of J. Herschel, Results of Astronomical Observations Made During the Years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope, London, 1847.
24. The look of this part of the measurement record, in fact, resembles the look of Herschel's travel journals. The function of Herschel's travel journals is, in contrast to many of his scientific notes or records of data, very close to what could be called 'real-time records' of experience or inquiry. The travel journals are part of the Herschel Collection, nos. W 0055-W 0063.
25. Bruno Latour develops the term 'inscription', in connection with 'mobility' and 'immutability', to account for the relevance of recording and registering in scientific practice, and to describe the role of mobile, stable representations on paper. See B. Latour, 'Visualization and cognition. Thinking with hands and eyes', Knowledge and Society (1986), 6, 1-40.
26. D. Gooding argues that all accounts of experimentation entail reconstruction and ordering, and that it is this reconstructive nature of thought and action that makes the 'actual' scientific practice inaccessible for historians. See Gooding, op. cit. (2), 76 and op. cit. (1), 71.
27. For the parallel paradox of invisible work and invisible equipment, see D. Gooding et al. (eds.), The Uses of Experiment, Cambridge, 1989, ch. 1.
28. The way in which Herschel himself tried to deal with the elusiveness of normality is beautifully illustrated in the introduction to the chapter on meteorology in the Manual of Scientific Inquiry, op. cit. (8). Here, he suggests how to set up favourable conditions for measurement and gives detailed instructions of how to accomplish regular registration of meteorological data on a sea voyage.
29. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
30. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
31. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
32. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
33. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
34. Detailed analyses of the features of nineteenth-century scientific culture include S. Brush, The Temperature of History, New York, 1978, 45-60; D. Miller, 'The revival of the physical sciences, 1815-1840', Osiris (1986), 2, 107-34; P. Lawrence, 'Heaven and earth - the relation of the nebular hypothesis to geology', in Cosmology, History, and Theology (ed. W. Yourgrau and A. Breck), New York, 1977; J. Cawood, 'The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain', Isis (1979), 70, 493-518. Studies on what could be termed the 'travelling sciences' are to be found in S. Cannon: Science in Culture. The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978, ch. 3. There Cannon introduces the term 'Humboldtian science'. As to the connection between Humboldt and nineteenth-century scientific culture, see M. Dettelbach, 'Humboldtian science', in Cultures of Natural History (ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary), Cambridge, 1995.
35. Latour, op. cit. (20), 6.
36. J. H. Lambert, Pyrometrie, Berlin, 1776, quoted in D. S. L. Cardwell, From Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, Ithaca and London, 1971, 90.
37. J. H. Lambert, Pyrometrie, Berlin, 1776, quoted in D. S. L. Cardwell, From Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, Ithaca and London, 1971, 90.
38. One further example of success in linking together different settings of heat phenomena with the means of mathematical abstraction is Fourier's Analytical Theory of Heat, which was first published in 1822. Karin Knorr coins the terms 'reconfiguration', 'enhancement of nature' and 'enhancement of human agents' to describe how transformations of natural phenomena account for success in science. See K. Knorr Cetina, 'The couch, the cathedral and the laboratory: on the relationship between experiment and laboratory in science', in Pickering, op. cit. (2), 113-38.
39. Taking his efforts in organizing international astronomical observatories as a model, Herschel indeed aimed at setting up a world-wide network of meteorological measurement. See S. Schaffer, 'Astronomers mark time', Science in Context (1988), 2, 115-45; Herschel, op. cit. (8); and his co-operation with James Forbes, Forbes Correspondence, University of St Andrews, nos. 1836/60, 1840/34, 1840/38.