Instruments of Science
Instruments of Science

Author: Robert Bud

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 740

ISBN-13: 9780815315612

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With over 300 entries from the ancient abacus to X-ray diffraction, as represented by a ca. 1900 photo of an X- ray machine as well as the latest research into filmless x- ray systems, this tour of the history of scientific instruments in multiple disciplines provides context and a bibliography for each entry. Newer conceptions of "instrument" include organisms widely used in research: e.g. the mouse, drosophila, and E. coli. Bandw photographs and diagrams showcase more traditional instruments from The Science Museum, London, and the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Thing Knowledge
Thing Knowledge

Author: Davis Baird

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-02-10

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0520928202

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Western philosophers have traditionally concentrated on theory as the means for expressing knowledge about a variety of phenomena. This absorbing book challenges this fundamental notion by showing how objects themselves, specifically scientific instruments, can express knowledge. As he considers numerous intriguing examples, Davis Baird gives us the tools to "read" the material products of science and technology and to understand their place in culture. Making a provocative and original challenge to our conception of knowledge itself, Thing Knowledge demands that we take a new look at theories of science and technology, knowledge, progress, and change. Baird considers a wide range of instruments, including Faraday's first electric motor, eighteenth-century mechanical models of the solar system, the cyclotron, various instruments developed by analytical chemists between 1930 and 1960, spectrometers, and more.

Nineteenth-century Scientific Instruments
Nineteenth-century Scientific Instruments

Author: Gerard L'Estrange Turner

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1983-01-01

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9780520051607

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Examines the variety of instruments and equipment used in scientific research in fields such as chemistry, mechanics, meteorology, and electricity

Scientific Instruments on Display
Scientific Instruments on Display

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-08-14

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 900426440X

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During their active lives, scientific instruments generally inhabit the laboratory, observatory, classroom or the field. But instruments have also lived in a wider set of venues, as objects on display. As such, they acquire new levels of meaning; their cultural functions expand. This book offers selected studies of instruments on display in museums, national fairs, universal exhibitions, patent offices, book frontispieces, theatrical stages, movie sets, and on-line collections. The authors argue that these displays, as they have changed with time, reflect changing social attitudes towards the objects themselves and toward science and its heritage. By bringing display to the center of analysis, the collection offers a new and ambitious framework for the study of scientific instruments and the material culture of science. Contributors are: Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, Silke Ackermann, Marco Beretta, Laurence Bobis, Alison Boyle, Fausto Casi, Ileana Chinnici, Suzanne Débarbat, Richard Dunn, Inga Elmqvist-Söderlund, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, Peggy A. Kidwell, Richard Kremer, Mara Miniati, Richard A. Paselk, Donata Randazzo, Steven Turner.

Instruments, Travel and Science
Instruments, Travel and Science

Author: Marie Noëlle Bourguet

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-08-29

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1134482892

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We are now accustomed to conceive of science as an instrumental activity, producing numbers, measurements and graphs by means of sophisticated devices. This book investigates the historical process that gave rise to this instrumental culture. The contributors trace the displacement of instruments across the globe, the spread of practices or precision and the circulation and appropriation of skills and knowledge. Through comparative and contextual approaches, the volume confronts the tension between the local and the global, examining the process of the universalization of science. Bringing together case studies ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, contributors discuss French, German and British initiatives, as well as the knowledge and techniques of travellers in countries such as India, Africa, South East Asia and the Americas. Students and researchers interested in the history of science in both Western and non-Western cultures will find this book a valuable and thought-provoking read.

Scientific Instruments between East and West
Scientific Instruments between East and West

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-09-02

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 9004412840

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Scientific Instruments between East and West is a collection of essays on aspects of the transmission of knowledge about scientific instruments and the trade in such instruments between the Eastern and Western worlds, particularly from Europe to the Ottoman Empire. The contributors, from a variety of countries, draw on original Arabic and Ottoman Turkish manuscripts and other archival sources and publications dating from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries not previously studied for their relevance to the history of scientific instruments. This little-studied topic in the history of science was the subject of the 35th Scientific Instrument Symposium held in Istanbul in September 2016, where the original versions of these essays were delivered. Contributors are Mahdi Abdeljaouad, Pierre Ageron, Hamid Bohloul, Patrice Bret, Gaye Danışan, Feza Günergun, Meltem Kocaman, Richard L. Kremer, Janet Laidla, Panagiotis Lazos, David Pantalony, Atilla Polat, Bernd Scholze, Konstantinos Skordoulis, Seyyed Hadi Tabatabaei, Anthony Turner, Hasan Umut, and George Vlahakis. See inside the book here.

Historical Scientific Instruments in Contemporary Education
Historical Scientific Instruments in Contemporary Education

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-11-15

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9004499679

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When science’s “black boxes” are pried open, its workings become accessible. Like time-travellers into history but grounded in today’s cultures, learners interact directly with authentic instruments and replicas. Chapters describe educational experiences sparked through collaborations interrelating museum, school and university.

European Collections of Scientific Instruments, 1550-1750
European Collections of Scientific Instruments, 1550-1750

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009-02-28

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9047426177

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Collections of scientific instruments originated as part of Renaissance collections of 'naturalia' and 'artificialia'. Surveying and astronomical instruments were common in such collections, their role being to impress visitors by displaying the power that a ruler acquired through the control of nature. This book offers selected studies of notable European collections of scientific instruments from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. These studies also present the work of important instrument makers of the time, and their relations with patrons and rulers. A final section focuses on the role of modern museums and collectors in saving this scientific heritage from dispersal. The result is a contemporary perspective on the formation of the most important museums of the history of science. Contributors include: Paolo Brenni, Filippo Camerota, Gloria Clifton, Wolfram Dolz, Sven Dupré, Karsten Gaulke, Sven Hauschke, Michael Korey, Mara Miniati, Tatiana M. Moisseeva, Peter Plaßmeyer, Klaus Schillinger, Giorgio Strano, Koenraad Van Cleempoel, and Ewa Wyka. Scientific Instruments and Collections, 1

How Scientific Instruments Speak
How Scientific Instruments Speak

Author: Bas de Boer

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-01-14

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1793627851

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Science is highly dependent on technologies to observe scientific objects. For example, astronomers need telescopes to observe planetary movements, and cognitive neuroscience depends on brain imaging technologies to investigate human cognition. But how do such technologies shape scientific practice, and how do new scientific objects come into being when new technologies are used in science? In How Scientific Instruments Speak, Bas de Boer develops a philosophical account of how technologies shape the reality that scientists study, arguing that we should understand scientific instruments as mediating technologies. Rather than mute tools serving pre-existing human goals, scientific instruments play an active role in shaping scientific work. De Boer uses this account to discuss how brain imaging and stimulation technologies mediate the way in which cognitive neuroscientists investigate human cognitive functions. The development of cognitive neuroscience runs parallel with the development of advanced brain imaging technologies, drawing a lot of public attention—sometimes called “neurohype”—because of its alleged capacity to demystify the human mind. By analyzing how the objects that cognitive neuroscientists study are mediated by brain imaging technologies, de Boer explicates the processes by which human cognition is investigated.

The Science of String Instruments
The Science of String Instruments

Author: Thomas D. Rossing

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 1441971106

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Thomas D. Rossing String instruments are found in almost all musical cultures. Bowed string instruments form the backbone of symphony orchestras, and they are used widely as solo inst- ments and in chamber music as well. Guitars are used universally in pop music as well as in classical music. The piano is probably the most versatile of all musical inst- ments, used widely not only in ensemble with other musical instruments but also as a solo instrument and to accompany solo instruments and the human voice. In this book, various authors will discuss the science of plucked, bowed, and hammered string instruments as well as their electronic counterparts. We have tried to tell the fascinating story of scienti?c research with a minimum of mathematics to maximize the usefulness of the book to performers and instrument builders as well as to students and researchers in musical acoustics. Sometimes, however, it is dif?cult to “translate” ideas from the exact mathematical language of science into words alone, so we include some basic mathematical equations to express these ideas. It is impossible to discuss all families of string instruments. Some instruments have been researched much more than others. Hopefully, the discussions in this book will help to encourage further scienti?c research by both musicians and scientists alike. 1.1 A Brief History of the Science of String Instruments Quite a number of good histories of acoustics have been written (Lindsay 1966, 1973; Hunt 1992; Beyer 1999), and these histories include musical acoustics.