This article examines the motives for human intervention into the submarine, using the seventeenth-century diving engine to consider the epistemic and economic incentives for venturing under water. It shows how diving engines and other underwater technologies were imbued with the associated promises of gaining new submarine knowledge as well as the quest for retrieving precious materials from the bottom of the sea. Setting diving engines against learned attitudes towards the submarine and the challenges of experience in knowledge-making, it moves to consider the external, commercial influences on the experimental philosopher and the consequences this has for notions of disinterestedness. It argues that diving engines should be understood within the pursuits of both knowledge and profit, for the submarine, like the subterranean, was an environment to be both studied and exploited.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Lino Camprubí;
Sam Robinson;
(2016)
A Gateway to Ocean Circulation: Surveillance and Sovereignty at Gibraltar
(/isis/citation/CBB939649998/)
Article
Turchetti, Simone;
(2012)
Sword, Shield and Buoys: A History of the NATO Sub-Committee on Oceanographic Research, 1959--1973
(/isis/citation/CBB001250988/)
Book
Althoff, William F.;
(2011)
Arctic Mission: 90 North by Airship and Submarine
(/isis/citation/CBB001450985/)
Book
Mort, Maggie;
(2002)
Building the Trident Network: A Study of the Enrollment of People, Knowledge, and Machines
(/isis/citation/CBB000201492/)
Book
Parrish, Thomas;
(2004)
The Submarine: A History
(/isis/citation/CBB000610403/)
Article
Welbourn, Donald B.;
Crichton, Tim;
(2008)
The Schnorchel: A Short-Lived Engineering Solution to Scientific Developments
(/isis/citation/CBB000954184/)
Book
Smithies, Michael;
(2000)
Siamese Embassy Lost in Africa 1686: The Odyssey of Ok-Kuhn Chamman
(/isis/citation/CBB000101886/)
Chapter
Scaife, W. Garrett;
(2004)
John Philip Holland: Father of the Modern Submarine
(/isis/citation/CBB000401122/)
Article
Delbourgo, James;
(2007)
Underwater-Works: Voyages and Visions of the Submarine
(/isis/citation/CBB000850050/)
Article
Marina Tolmacheva;
(2021)
Reflections on the Knowledge of Shallow Waters
(/isis/citation/CBB840328343/)
Book
Corfield, Richard;
(2003)
The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of the HMS Challenger
(/isis/citation/CBB000502603/)
Article
Jardim, Maria Estela;
Peres, Isabel Marília;
Barcia, Pedro;
Costa, Fernanda Madalena;
(2014)
Oceanography and King Dom Carlos I's Collection of Iconography
(/isis/citation/CBB001552692/)
Chapter
Serpoinau, G.;
Malciu, V.;
(2002)
The Pioneers of Oceanographic Research in Romania
(/isis/citation/CBB000202316/)
Article
Roberts, Peder;
(2013)
Intelligence and Internationalism: The Cold War Career of Anton Bruun
(/isis/citation/CBB001212892/)
Book
Mills, Eric. L.;
(2009)
The Fluid Envelope of Our Planet: How the Study of Ocean Currents Became a Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001030030/)
Book
Deacon, Margaret;
Rice, A. L.;
Summerhayes, Colin P.;
(2001)
Understanding the Oceans: A Century of Ocean Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB000302328/)
Article
Patrick Anthony;
(2020)
Mines, Mountains, and the Making of a Vertical Consciousness in Germany Ca. 1800
(/isis/citation/CBB896137027/)
Book
Kroll, Gary;
(2008)
America's Ocean Wilderness: A Cultural History of Twentieth-Century Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB000831086/)
Book
Ballard, Robert D.;
Hively, Will;
(2000)
The Eternal Darkness: A Personal History of Deep-Sea Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB000110985/)
Book
Brayton, Daniel;
(2012)
Shakespeare's Ocean: An Ecocritical Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB001201603/)
Transactions - Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Be the first to comment!