1st Edition
Science and Spectacle in the European Enlightenment
176 Pages
by
Routledge
176 Pages
by
Routledge
176 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Air-pumps, electrical machines, colliding ivory balls, coloured sparks, mechanical planetariums, magic mirrors, hot-air balloons - these are just a sample of the devices displayed in public demonstrations of science in the eighteenth century. Public and private demonstrations of natural philosophy in Europe then differed vastly from today's unadorned and anonymous laboratory experiments. Science... Read more
Contents: Introduction: a science full of shocks, sparks and smells, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel; The laboratory, the workshop, and the theatre of experiment, Larry Stewart; Technology, curiosity and utility in France and England in the 18th century, Liliane Pérez; Amusing physics, Jessica Riskin; Experimental physics in Enlightenment Paris: the practice of popularization in urban culture, Michael R. Lynn; Domestic spectacles: electrical instruments between business and conversation, Paola Bertucci; The sale of shocks and sparks: itinerant electricians in German Enlightenment, Oliver Hochadel; Between commerce and philanthropy: chemistry courses in 18th-century Paris, Christine Lehman; Joseph Priestley and the chemical sublime in British public science, Jan Golinski; Chemistry on stage: G.F. Rouelle and the theatricality of 18th-century chemistry, Lissa Roberts; Honoré Fragonard, anatomical virtuoso, Jonathan Simon; Index.
Biography
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the Université Paris-X Nanterre, France. Christine Blondel is Researcher at CNRS, Paris, France
’A valuable addition to research libraries. Highly recommended.’ Choice ’This exceptionally coherent volume should appeal to historians of science and of enlightenment more broadly.’ English Historical Review ’We can be grateful to Ashgate for its steady production of volumes [...] in the history of eighteenth-century science, including this wide-ranging collection that illuminates a significant aspect of Enlightenment experimental science.’ New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century
