Article ID: CBB004881409

Tremoring Transits: Railways, the Royal Observatory and the Capitalist Challenge to Victorian Astronomical Science (2020)

unapi

Britain's nineteenth-century railway companies traditionally play a central role in histories of the spread of standard Greenwich time. This relationship at once seems to embody a productive relationship between science and capitalism, with regulated time essential to the formation of a disciplined industrial economy. In this narrative, it is not the state, but capitalistic private commerce which fashioned a national time system. However, as this article demonstrates, the collaboration between railway companies and the Royal Greenwich Observatory was far from harmonious. While railways did employ the accurate time the observatory provided, they were also more than happy to compromise the astronomical institution's ability to take the accurate celestial observations that such time depended on. Observing astronomical transits required the use of troughs of mercury to reflect images of stars, but the construction of a railway too near to the observatory threatened to cause vibrations which would make such readings impossible. Through debates over proposed railway lines near the observatory, it becomes clear how important government protection from private interests was to preserving astronomical standards. This article revises our understanding of the role of railway companies in the dissemination of standard time and argues that state intervention was essential to preserving Victorian British astronomical science.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB004881409/

Similar Citations

Article Kent, David; (2013)
Containing Disorder in the “Age of Equipoise”: Troops, Trains and the Telegraph (/isis/citation/CBB001201522/)

Article Rooney, David; Nye, James; (2009)
“Greenwich Observatory Time for the Public Benefit”: Standard Time and Victorian Networks of Regulation (/isis/citation/CBB000931906/)

Article Lee T. Macdonald; (2020)
Proposals to Move the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1836–1944 (/isis/citation/CBB105924215/)

Article Kane Mullen; (2020)
Temporary Measures: Women Computers at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1890–1895 (/isis/citation/CBB011712539/)

Article Kollerstrom, Nicholas; (2006)
An Hiatus in History: The British Claim for Neptune's Co-prediction, 1845--1846: Part I (/isis/citation/CBB000651738/)

Book Efram Sera-Shriar; (2018)
Historicizing Humans: Deep Time, Evolution, and Race in Nineteenth-Century British Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB596823564/)

Article Brück, M.T.; (1995)
Lady computers at Greenwich in the early 1890s (/isis/citation/CBB000068007/)

Book Lorenzo Fattori; (2021)
Motori e miti della modernità (/isis/citation/CBB643939656/)

Article Smith, Robert W.; (1991)
A national observatory transformed: Greenwich in the 19th century (/isis/citation/CBB000046218/)

Article Stephen Courtney; (2018)
The Historical Meridian: Antiquity and Scripture in the Public Work of George Biddell Airy (/isis/citation/CBB237401119/)

Book Russell, Colin Archibald; Hudson, John A.; (2012)
Early Railway Chemistry and Its Legacy (/isis/citation/CBB001251876/)

Article Ansari, S. M. Razaullah; (1977)
On the early development of western astronomy in India and the role of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (/isis/citation/CBB000019748/)

Authors & Contributors
Ishibashi, Yuto
Higgitt, Rebekah
Lorenzo Fattori
Mullen, Kane
Spiegel, Richard J.
Giuntini, Andrea
Concepts
Astronomy
Science and society
Railway industry
Land transportation
Scientific apparatus and instruments
Railroads
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
17th century
20th century
18th century
Places
Great Britain
British Isles
Greenwich (England)
London (England)
Italy
Tuscany (Italy)
Institutions
Royal Observatory Greenwich
Great Britain. Royal Navy
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment