Werrett, Simon (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 304 pp.
Language: English
If the twentieth century saw the rise of “Big Science,” then the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were surely an age of thrift. As Simon Werrett’s new history shows, frugal early modern experimenters transformed their homes into laboratories as they recycled, repurposed, repaired, and reused their material possessions to learn about the natural world. Thrifty Science explores this distinctive culture of experiment and demonstrates how the values of the household helped to shape an array of experimental inquiries, ranging from esoteric investigations of glowworms and sour beer to famous experiments such as Benjamin Franklin’s use of a kite to show lightning was electrical and Isaac Newton’s investigations of color using prisms. Tracing the diverse ways that men and women put their material possessions into the service of experiment, Werrett offers a history of practices of recycling and repurposing that are often assumed to be more recent in origin. This thriving domestic culture of inquiry was eclipsed by new forms of experimental culture in the nineteenth century, however, culminating in the resource-hungry science of the twentieth. Could thrifty science be making a comeback today, as scientists grapple with the need to make their research more environmentally sustainable?
...MoreReview Anna Marie Roos (2020) Review of "Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment". American Historical Review (pp. 991-992).
Review Marieke Hendriksen (2020) Review of "Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 668-669).
Review Lauren Kassell (2019) Review of "Working with Paper: Gendered Practices in the History of Knowledge". Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (p. 100691).
Review Alexi Baker (2020) Review of "Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment". Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 392-394).
Review Mat Paskins (2020) Review of "Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment". Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 203-205).
Review Jane Insley (2019) Review of "The Life and Legend of James Watt: Collaboration, Natural Philosophy, and the Improvement of the Steam Engine". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 716-717).
Review Fleetwood, Lachlan (October 2019) Review of "Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment". Technology and Culture (pp. 1102-1103).
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