Article ID: CBB001220020

Easily Cracked: Scientific Instruments in States of Disrepair (2011)

unapi

Schaffer, Simon (Author)


Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 102
Pages: 706--717


Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Part of a special section: “The History of Scientific Instruments”
Language: English

There has been much scholarly attention to definitions of the term scientific instrument. Rather more mundane work by makers, curators, and users is devoted to instruments' maintenance and repair. A familiar argument holds that when a tool breaks, its character and recalcitrance become evident. Much can be gained from historical study of instruments' breakages, defects, and recuperation. Maintenance and repair technologies have been a vital aspect of relations between makers and other users. Their history illuminates systems of instruction, support, and abuse. These systems were, for example, evident in the development of astronomical instruments around 1800 within and beyond the European sphere. Episodes from that milieu are used to explore how instrument users sought autonomy, how instruments' mutable character was defined, and how judgments of instruments' failure or success were ever secured.

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Description Focuses on maintenance and repair of astronomical instruments around 1800.


Included in

Article Taub, Liba (2011) Introduction: Reengaging with Instruments. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (p. 689). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001220020/

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Authors & Contributors
Brenni, Paolo
Barbieri, Cesare
Bianchi, Simone
Bònoli, Fabrizio
Cameron, Gary Leonard
Dufner, Barbara
Journals
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
British Journal for the History of Science
History of Science
Museum History Journal
Rittenhouse: Journal of the American Scientific Instrument Enterprise
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Brill
Franz Steiner Verlag
Museum Boerhaave
Museum of Victoria
Iowa State University
Concepts
Astronomy
Telescopes
Scientific apparatus and instruments
Instruments, astronomical
Astronomical observatories
Amateurs
People
Bernhard Schmidt
Encke, Johann Franz
Galilei, Galileo
Herschel, Caroline
Herschel, William
Humboldt, Alexander von
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
17th century
16th century
20th century, early
Places
Germany
Great Britain
Berlin (Germany)
Iran
Australia
Europe
Institutions
Universität Bonn
Pulkovo Observatory
Royal Astronomical Society
Leiden Observatory
Osservatorio astronomico universitario di Bologna
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
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