An Institute for an Empire
The Psysikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, 1871–1918

The first scholarly study of Imperial Germany's leading scientific institution, the Reichsanstalt.

David Cahan (Author)

9780521525190, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 December 2004

336 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

An Institute for an Empire is the first scholarly study of one of the world's foremost scientific institutions, the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR) in Imperial Germany. The Reichsanstalt stood at the forefront of institutional innovation in science and technology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, uniting diverse practitioners and representatives of physics, technology, industry, and the state. It demonstrated how physics and industrial technology could help build a modem society and a modem nation-state. Moreover, it encouraged and helped inaugurate the era of Big Science. Professor Cahan also discusses the Reichsanstalt's leaders and scientists, including Wemer von Siemens and Hermann von Helmholtz, as well as its scientific and technological work. Among the Reichsanstalt's many accomplishments were contributions to the new quantum physics, development of physical standards and measuring instruments for science, industry, and the state, and testing work for a variety of German industries.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
German institutions, organizations, and agencies
Introduction
1. Physics and empire
2. Rift in the foundations
3. Between charisma and bureaucracy
4. Masters of measurement
5. The search for reform
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]