The Whipple Museum of the History of Science
Objects and Investigations, to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of R. S. Whipple's Gift to the University of Cambridge

A window into cultures of scientific practice drawing on the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Joshua Nall (Edited by), Liba Taub (Edited by), Frances Willmoth (Edited by)

9781108498272, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 August 2019

352 pages, 61 b/w illus. 2 maps 4 tables
25.3 x 17.8 x 2 cm, 0.85 kg

'The volume exemplifies the best of science writing. Many helpful illustrations and an appendix of student research conducted at the library accompany the text.' N. Sadanand, Choice

In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science's internationally renowned collection are brought into sharp relief by a number of highly regarded historians of science in fourteen essays. Each chapter focuses on a specific instrument or group of objects, ranging from an English medieval astrolabe to a modern agricultural 'seed source indicator' to a curious collection of plaster chicken heads. The contributors employ a range of historiographical and methodological approaches to demonstrate the various ways in which the material culture of science can be researched and understood. The essays show how the study of scientific objects - including instruments and models - offers a window into cultures of scientific practice not afforded by textual sources alone. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction Liba Taub and Joshua Nall
1. Sacred astronomy? Beyond the stars on a Whipple astrolabe Seb Falk
2. What were portable astronomical instruments used for in late-medieval England, and how much were they actually carried around? Catherine Eagleton
3. 'Sundials and other cosmographical instruments': historical categories and historians' categories in the study of mathematical instruments and disciplines Adam Mosley
4. 'That incomparable instrument maker': the reputation of Henry Sutton Jim Bennett
5. Specimens of observation: Edward Hobson's Musci Britannici Anne Secord
6. Ideas embodied in metal: Babbage's engines dismembered and remembered Simon Schaffer
7. Galvanometers and the many lives of scientific instruments Charlotte Connelly and Hasok Chang
8. Buying antique scientific instruments at the turn of the twentieth century: a data-driven analysis of Lewis Evans' and Robert Stewart Whipple's collecting habits Tabitha Thomas
9. Like a Bos: the discovery of fake antique scientific instruments at the Whipple Museum Boris Jardine
10. Wanted weeds: environmental history in the Whipple Museum Helen Curry
11. What 'Consul, the Educated Monkey' can teach us about early twentieth-century mathematics, learning, and vaudeville Caitlin Wylie
12. Robin Hill's cloud camera: meteorological communication, cloud classification Henry Schmidt
13. Chicken heads and Punnett squares: Reginald Punnett and the role of visualizations in early genetics research at Cambridge, 1900–1930 Matthew Green
14. Stacks, 'pacs', and user hacks: a handheld history of personal computing Michael F. Mcgovern.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], History [HB], Exhibition catalogues & specific collections [AGC]