A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks: Sciences, Society and Technology Studies (History of Mechanism and Machine Science Book 27)

This book analyzes scientific problems within the history of physics, engineering, chemistry, astronomy and medicine, correlated with technological applications in the social context. When and how is tension between disciplines explicitly practised? What is the conceptual bridge between science researches and the organization of technological researches in the development of industrial applications? The authors explain various ways in which the sciences allowed advanced modelling on the one hand, and the development of new technological ideas on the other hand. An emphasis on the role played by mechanisms, production methods and instruments bestows a benefit on historical and scientific discourse: theories, institutions, universities, schools for engineers, social implications as well. Scholars from different traditions discuss the emergency style of thinking in methodology and, in theoretical perspective, aim to gather and re-evaluate the current thinking on this subject. It brings together contributions from leading experts in the field, and gives much-needed insight into the subject from a historical point of view. The volume composition makes for absorbing reading for historians, philosophers and scientists. Front Matter....Pages i-lvii Electronics and Information Engineering: A New Approach to Modelling 1880–1950....Pages 1-14 Science-Technology Cross-Hybridization and its Role in the Crisis of the Scientific Method: An Historical Perspective....Pages 15-32 How the Movie Camera Failed to Become Part of the Standard Astronomical Observational Toolkit (1895–1914)....Pages 33-51 Heart Matters. The Collaboration Between Surgeons and Engineers in the Rise of Cardiac Surgery....Pages 53-68 Discovery of Electromagnetic Waves and Their Impact on Our Life-Style....Pages 69-84 Interactions of Science, Technology and Medicine: Electromagnetic Radiation During the Twentieth Century....Pages 85-111 On the History and Technology of the Atomic Bomb. The Commitment of the Scientists....Pages 113-133 Tribology: A Historical Overview of the Relation Between Theory and Application....Pages 135-154 From Paper to Erected Walls: The Astronomical Observatory of Coimbra: 1772–1799....Pages 155-178 Jean Hellot and 18th Century Chemistry at the Service of the State....Pages 179-193 Engineering Creativity: An Essay on Epistemological Analysis....Pages 195-205 Galileo’s “Technoscience”....Pages 207-227 Mathematical Language as a Bridge Between Conceptualization of Motion and Experimental Practice....Pages 229-248 ‘The Renaissance of Physics’: Karl K. Darrow (1891–1982) and the Dissemination of Quantum Theory at the Bell Telephone Laboratories....Pages 249-273 The Historical Development of X-ray Absorption Fine Spectroscopy and of Its Applications to Materials Science....Pages 275-301 Mathematics and Technology at the University of Tartu....Pages 303-319 Lazare Carnot and the Birth of Machines Science....Pages 321-343 The Emergencies of Mechanics and Thermodynamics in the Western Technoscience-Society during Eighteenth–Nineteenth Century....Pages 345-366 A Critical Approach to Open Access Sources with a Focus on the History of Technology....Pages 367-383 “Method and Much Scientific Probity”: Hugo de Lacerda (1860–1944) and the Chair of Hydrography of the Lisbon Naval School (1897–1907)....Pages 385-397 Combinatorial Games and Machines....Pages 399-436 Development of New Steamships and History of the Shipping Industry in the Kingdom of the two Sicilies (1816–1861)....Pages 437-452 Unrealized Models of Tesla’s Table Fountains From 1917....Pages 453-474 The Design of Timber Trusses in Italy: From Empiricism to Structural Analysis....Pages 475-494 A Point of View: Sciences, Societies, Cultures and Their Evolutions....Pages 495-511 Back Matter....Pages 513-536 ....Pages 537-557 This book analyzes scientific problems within the history of physics, engineering, chemistry, astronomy and medicine, correlated with technological applications in the social context. When and how is tension between disciplines explicitly practised? What is the conceptual bridge between science researches and the organization of technological researches in the development of industrial applications? The authors explain various ways in which the sciences allowed advanced modelling on the one hand, and the development of new technological ideas on the other hand. An emphasis on the role played by mechanisms, production methods and instruments bestows a benefit on historical and scientific discourse: theories, institutions, universities, schools for engineers, social implications as well. Scholars from different traditions discuss the emerging style of thinking in methodology and, in theoretical perspective, aim to gather and re-evaluate the current thinking on this subject. It brings together contributions from leading experts in the field, and gives much-needed insight into the subject from a historical point of view. The volume composition makes for absorbing reading for historians, philosophers and scientists