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Article ID: CBB000932760

The Hotel That Became an Observatory: Mount Faulhorn as Singularity, Microcosm, and Macro-Tool (2009)

Science in Context
Volume: 22
Pages: 365--386

Publication Date: 2009
Edition Details: Part of Special Issue: The Laboratory of Nature---Science in the Mountains
Language: English

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Astronomical observatories Astronomy Research institutes; research stations Mountains Science and society 19th century Switzerland

One of the first high-altitude observatories was a hotel. Established in 1823, the chalet on Mount Faulhorn became a highpoint of nineteenth-century science. In this paper, I take this mountain as my entry point into the examination of the special attraction that mountains exerted on scientists. I argue that Mount Faulhorn stood for three different conceptions of the usefulness of the mountain in science: (1) in observation networks, stations were usually chosen for pragmatic rather than scientific reasons, but mountains represented singular spots in such networks, which deserved special attention; (2) the mountain also was a microcosm where altitude differences were thought to capture essential features of latitude differences; (3) the mountain was sometimes no more than a macro-tool for the pursuit of science, just a middle ground between the heaven and the earth.

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Article Bigg, Charlotte; Aubin, David; Felsch, Philipp (2009) Introduction: The Laboratory of Nature---Science in the Mountains. Science in Context (p. 311). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000932760/

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