1st Edition

Science in Victorian Manchester Enterprise and Expertise

Edited By Robert Kargon Copyright 2010
    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    304 Pages
    by Routledge

    The evolution of an urban scientific community under the pressures of conceptual and social change is the main focus of this book. Manchester was Victorian Britain's leading industrial city. In order to describe and analyze the transformation of science in the eighteenth century, Robert Kargon closely examines Manchester through successive stages. In so doing, he traces the evolution of science from an activity pursued by gentlemen-amateurs to a highly specialized profession.

    At the end of this process, the author shows, a major trans formation in our understanding of the nature of science can be discerned: scientific knowledge, it was realized, could be produced. Science was no longer regarded primarily as the di vine design rendered into laws of nature, but rather as a method, or instrument, to be applied to novel areas of human endeavor. Science had become on the one hand enterprise, and on the other expertise. In each chapter, Kargon relates the changing conception of science and its social role to the birth, growth, and character of the city's scientific institutions.

    The contours of the scientific community-its interests, concerns, and approaches to what it came to see as critical problem---were shaped by its civic environment. Its character, in turn, responded to the development of the disciplines represented within it. As the sciences increased in specialization and complexity during the course of the nineteenth century, they placed new stress upon the community, affecting the composition of its membership and the nature of its leading institutions. The scientific frontier reacted upon Manchester just as Manchester acted upon it. Now available in paperback, this classic work in history includes a new introduction by the author.

    Contents Introduction to the Transaction Edition Preface 1. The Structure of Science in Manchester in 1840 The Revolutionary City and the Scientific Community The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and the Manchester Scientific-Cultural Network The Manchester Natural History Society The Royal Manchester Institution: Niha1 Pulchrum Nisi Utile The Manchester Mechanics' Institution The Manchester Geological Society The Structure of Manchester Science in 1840 2. The Emergence of the Devotee: The Changing Face of Amateur Science Science as a Calling William Sturgeon and the Royal Victoria Gallery The Changing of the Guard: The Evolution of the Literary and Philosophical Society James Joule as Devotee Edward Binney: Career Profile John Leigh: The Surgeon as Devotee Joseph Baxendell, F.R.S. Devotee Science: A Social Analysis 3. The Coming of the Civic Scientists The New Professionals Liebig and the British Chemists Science and Public Health 4. The Science of Civic Virtue: Chemistry, Health, and Industry The Environmentalist Attack Sanitary Chemistry: Career Profile of Robert Angus Smith Chemistry and Industry Crace-Calvert and Industrial Chemistry The Impact of the Civic Scientists 5. Academic Science: Owens College Born and Reborn The Move for Higher Education in Manchester The Opening of the Owens College A Serious Decline A New Era Building a Chemical School Engineering and the Coming of Reynolds Owens College Extended Owens College, Industrial Chemistry, and the German Threat Manchester and the Scientific Industry Question 6. University Science: Arthur Schuster and the Organization of Physics in Manchester Building a Northern University The Articulation of Physics at the Victoria University Creating the New Physical Laboratory Preparation for the Future Notes Bibliographical Note Index

    Biography

    William T. Golden