On the Outskirts of Physics: Eva von Bahr as an Outsider Within in Early 20th Century Swedish Experimental Physics

Abstract.   Eva von Bahr (1874–1962) got her doctorate in experimental physics at the Physics Institute at Uppsala University in 1908. Subsequently she became the first woman assistant professor in physics in Sweden. In the face of many obstacles, she worked as a physicist for six years in Uppsala and Berlin. In 1914 she took a position as a school teacher. This article explores von Bahr's trajectory through academic experimental physics. It is argued that network connections with male scientists enabled her work. Her associations were a mix between institutional relationships and informal connections, resulting in what is labeled a 'hybrid of connections'. Furthermore it is argued that von Bahr became an 'outsider within' in academic experimental physics. Her connections created openings, but these coexisted with hindrances. It is argued that von Bahr oscillated between being an insider and an outsider which created a fractured identity. Her position and identity was a mix between membership and non-membership. Through examining von Bahr's career this article aims to bring together historical research on women in science and theoretical work in science studies. Furthermore, the article argues the analytical value of feminist perspectives on scientific collaborations as a way to a deeper understanding of the network structures of science.     

Elevation and emotion: Sven Hedin's mountain expedition to Transhimalaya, 1906–1908

The role of verticality in 19th- and 20th-century fields of knowledge-making has received increased attention among historians of science. Correspondingly, cultural historians have explored the growing importance of a bird's eye view in popular culture throughout the 1800s. The elevated positions created in science and public discourse have both contributed to a modern ability to see the bigger picture. This article investigates how the Swedish geographer Sven Hedin produced an elevated view through his expedition to the Karakoram mountain range in Tibet between 1906 and 1908. Focusing on his travel narrative as a place where the elevated view was created and defined, I interpret Hedin's expedition as a part of initiatives in geography, at the turn of the 20th century, to find a vertical means of representing the world. In particular, this article demonstrates how the overview, both literally and metaphorically, became an ideal in Hedin's narrative. Moreover, I argue that Hedin's elevated view contributed to an emotional economy of elevation. The alleged rational gaze of the overview was combined with emotions and experiences of cold climate, thin mountain air, vertigo, and awe. This article indicates how affective states were included in the collection of data, even when they threatened to blur the sensorium of the observer. Third, through the analytical lens of an emotional economy of elevation, I argue that Hedin's elevated view mimicked the affective language of a Humboldtian tradition, while at the same time it contributed to the popular culture of the late 19th century with its fascination for ascents and bird's-eye views. As a European celebrity, Hedin reached massive crowds and contributed to the establishment of the outlook from above as a crucial technique for understanding nature.     

Artificial apertures: The archaeology of Ramazzini's De fontium in 17th-century Earth historiography

This is a study of Bernardino Ramazzini's De fontium mutinensium (1691) as an artefact that reveals how disparate historiographical approaches were shaped by the culture of the new science, when novel investigative practices and a new instrument-mediated vision transformed the historical imagination in a similar way, creating a common 17th-century experience of history. In England, De fontium was valued as a refutation of Thomas Burnet's popular Sacred Theory of the Earth, which Ramazzini dismissed as unoriginal poetic feigning rather than history. It was also vital to the development of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's unique ideas on Earth history in the Protogaea, and his historicist metaphysics, which would resonate through the 18th century. Yet both Burnet's poetic history, as well as the empirical approach showcased in De fontium, were equally useful tools in Leibniz's struggle to develop a science of history. Examining traces of De fontium predominantly from these three aspects underscores important changes in historical thinking and historiography that occurred in the late 17th century.     

Criminal Lines,Indian Colours,and the Creation of a Black Legend: The Photographs of ‘Los Bandidos de la Halancha’, Bolivia

The author’s discovery of a set of inscribed photographs of the ‘Bandits of La Jalancha’, made in La Paz, Bolivia in 1871 and now in the collections of Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, has made possible the identification of the photographed gang’s leader ‘Salvador Chico’ with the Afro-Aymara anti-hero known in contemporary folklore as El Zambo Salvito. On their photographic journeys out of Bolivia, Salvador and his men were transformed into anonymous ‘Indian bandits’ and became generic illustrations of ethnic Aymara types in the service of racialised evolutionary science. Back in La Paz, however, the photographs were forgotten but the legend of the infamous son of an African slave from Chicaloma, a coca-producing hacienda in the region of Yungas, grew in the public imagination. Whereas nineteenth-century racial discourse only recognised his indigeneity, twentieth- and twenty-first-century folklore and illustrations have instead emphasised his blackness. In tracing the split legacies of Salvador of Chicaloma, through exported photographs and the formation of local legends, this work reveals how identity was constructed, evacuated, and made anew. This fluidity of representation was made possible, in part, by the relative archival invisibility of afrodescendientes in Andean South America, whose lives and histories remain largely uninscribed.     

Bilder zwischen. Öffentlichkeit und wissenschaftlicher Praxis

The paper investigates how visual resources can be fruitfully used to study the history of science, medicine, and technology from a practical point of view. Two new international and interdisciplinary trends within recent historiography are reviewed: the history of visualisation and the history of popularisation. The results of both trends need to be combined in order to understand the ways in which images of science have been used to communicate science from its place of production within the laboratory to its users within the wider society. From the proposed perspective, visual representations of science (i.e. portraits, images of scientific instruments, measurement results and abstractions) are discussed as a distinct medium in which knowledge producers have transmitted and transformed their findings to the acquirers of knowledge. The paper introduces the wider historiographical framework for a discussion of the following four papers published in this issue of NTM.     

Turning tradition into an instrument of research: The editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815)

Mainly known for its links to the periodical market and radical politics, this article recontextualizes the editorship of William Nicholson (1753–1815) in terms of its roots in the metropolitan natural philosophical circles of the second half of the 18th century as well as its impact on experimenters and men of science after 1797. The article argues that Nicholson's editorship of the Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, and the Arts was a means to expand his philosophical significance among natural philosophers at home and abroad—and was, in fact, a form of epistemological subversion that challenged the “Banksian Learned Empire.”     

Quarantine,cholera, and international health spaces: Reflections on 19th-century European sanitary regulations in the time of SARS-CoV-2

The current SARS-CoV-2 crisis raises questions about the challenges faced by nation states and international organisations in offering a coordinated international response to the pandemic, and reveals the great vulnerability of European countries, which are implementing lockdown measures and imposing restrictions on international travel, for the most part on a unilateral basis. Such measures run counter to the prevailing approach of the previous two centuries that developed an international public health space. This article examines the measures adopted by European states in order to contain 19th-century cholera pandemics, which took shape through the development of an international maritime quarantine system, based primarily on the implementation of national regulations and local decision-making. This regime was quickly viewed as ineffective and out of step with liberal ideas that urged a “laissez-faire” approach to public health matters. In its stead, a long-term trend developed towards easing quarantine measures. Nation states supported the internationalisation of the fight against pandemics, which chiefly consisted of externalising quarantine measures to the East in order to eliminate them in Europe. This process was based on a subtle dialectical relationship between the construction of an international public health space and the affirmation of state sovereignty, and continued into the 20th century with the progressive creation of international institutions responsible for advancing global health.     

Itinerarium Wittichi ex Calendarium Sculteti: New biographical evidence on the Breslau mathematician Paul Wittich (ca. 1546–ca. 1587)

In the present paper, I present and discuss some new information about the life of Paul Wittich from Wrocław, Poland (formerly Breslau, Germany), an elusive mathematician and astronomer of the late 16th century. Wittich seems to have played a significant role in the emergence of two important, though short-lived, developments of late 16th-century science: the so-called prosthaphaeresis calculating method, and the geoheliocentric model of the universe usually attributed to Tycho Brahe. His role in both achievements, however, has not been sufficiently explained so far, and it is my belief that one of the main obstacles to that endeavor has been our scarce knowledge about the details of Wittich's life. Thus, I attempt to reconstruct his life with aim of being able to evaluate, eventually, his involvement in the development of mathematics and astronomy towards the end of the 16th century, primarily with the use of whatever scant sources can be found concerning Wittich. The source that I present here—a notebook of Bartholomäus Scultetus, an astronomer from Görlitz—is known and has already been used, but only to a limited extent by the community of historians of science, or by those of astronomy and mathematics. By presenting the information about Wittich from Scultetus's notebook, I aim to bring this source to the attention of those communities, clarify some hitherto unclear details from Wittich's life, and set out new paths for further investigation into his biography.     

National Styles? Jacques Loeb's Analysis of German and American Science Around 1900 in his Correspondence with Ernst Mach

Abstract.   In modern discourse about the history of science, it seems to be widely accepted that at the end of the nineteenth century, Germany was one of the leading countries in the production of science. In the past, historians of science tried to trace back a specific 'German style' of science that—in combination with other factors—determined this German dominance around 1900, especially in the life sciences. Considering the theoretical concept of 'national styles', it has to be kept in mind that around 1900, contemporaries already proclaimed 'national styles' of science as representations of national identity. Thus, the question arises as to how far existing historiographical conceptions of national styles may include earlier claims and prejudices. Careful reconstructions of contemporary discourses on national styles and inquiries into the 'stylisation' of a dominant, successful 'German style' are necessary. One of the contemporary critics of a 'German style' of science was the physiologist Jacques Loeb (1859–1924), who emigrated to the USA in 1891. Loeb corresponded regularly with the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838–1916). Ernst Mach can be considered Loeb's intellectual father with whom he corresponded about strategic, philosophical, and epistemological questions. Using the Loeb–Mach correspondence, the aim of the paper is to reconstruct Loeb's conception of a 'German style' of science and its differences to an 'American style'. Changes in his views are discussed as well as the roots of his views and some of their consequences. Finally, Loeb's ideas on national styles and his working profiles before and after his emigration are compared to historiographical analyses of 'American' or 'German' styles of science around 1900.     

Selling Greenland: The Big Picture Television Series and the Army's Bid for Relevance during the Early Cold War

With an increased emphasis on air defense and missile technology at the outset of the Cold War, the role of the US Army's conventional ground forces seemed in doubt. The US Air Force achieved a position of primacy among the armed forces as it expanded its reach into outer space with a new ballistic missile force, while the US Navy set about a project of seafaring exploration and militarization with the submerged trans‐polar crossings. To counter this perception, the US Army mounted a campaign to prove its relevance in matters of technology and national defense. The key technical vehicle in this endeavor would prove to be mass media, and the staging area for the effort would be Greenland. Greenland would be the venue for the Army's most audacious appeals to the American people and the Congress to recognize its relevance to Cold War science and technology. Greenland would be called a ‘forward defense system,’ and a ‘cordon against aggression,’ and while the Air Force's bombers would be stationed on the coast at Thule, the Greenland icecap would be the realm of the US Army alone.     

Directing Public Interest: Danish Newspaper Science 1900-1903

Abstract.   The growing historical literature on science in the written media between 1789 and 1914 has mainly focused on magazines, journals and periodicals. By comparison studies of science in daily newspapers of the nineteenth century have received much less attention. This disparity has also characterised the Danish context where science in nineteenth-century periodicals and popular science journals, unlike science in newspapers, has attracted the attention of historians. In this article we aim to do away with this imbalance by exploring science in three Danish newspapers in the period 1900-1903. The article suggests that newspapers served as key mediators between users and producers of science in Copenhagen at that time. We argue that the significance of newspapers owed less to the scattered articles they carried on scientific topics, and more to the newspapers' important function of directing public interest. By this we mean that newspapers were directing readers' attention to specific science events such as lectures, excursions and celebrations; to scientific literature through adverts and reviews; to new scientific electrical wonder cures of ailments ranging from baldness to arthritis; and to the latest news about communication technologies such as trams and telephones which increasingly became part of everyday life in Copenhagen.     

The Public Image(s) of Science and Technology in the Greek Daily Press, 1908-1910

Abstract.   This paper discusses the results of our analysis of over 2,500 articles related to science and technology found in the daily newspapers Embros and Skrip , between 1908 and 1910. In view of the importance of this historical period for Greece, we examine the public images(s) of science and technology and interpret the multifaceted discourse used by journalists when accounting for science and technology in their articles. From the wide range of articles studied, we have discerned four broad themes: the introduction and cultural appropriation of new technologies in Greek cities, the concern with public hygiene and general health issues, attempts to control Nature, and lastly the presentation of the scientific and technological advances taking place abroad. Our empirical study has shown that (1) all scientific and technical fields were covered in both newspapers, (2) science and technology were not only addressed in special columns dealing with science popularization, but permeated the entire newspaper, (3) the term 'science', with all its derivatives, was used for science proper, but also in expressions employed in order to write about the advanced technology of the period, (4) the concept of science was associated with the notion of modernity and that of progress.     

Field-induced strain of (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 epitaxial films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Two micrometers thick (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O₃ [PLZT] films with wide composition range were epitaxially grown on (1 0 0)SrRuO₃ bottom electrode layers epitaxially grown (1 0 0) SrTiO₃ substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Constituent phase of the films were found to be almost the same with the reported phase diagram for the sintered body except for the wider coexistence region of tetragonal and rhombohedral phases. The change of the measured field-induced strain with the electric field was almost respond to the square of the polarization of the films except the negative strain region, but the magnitude was different. This is due to the increase of the electrostatic coefficient of the film with increasing the La/(Pb + La) ratio. As a results, field induced strain of the PLZT film was found to be controlled by adjusting the composition of PLZT films.     

‘s Gravesande's Appropriation of Newton's Natural Philosophy,Part I: Epistemological and Theological Issues

In this essay I reassess Willem Jacob ‘s Gravesande's Newtonianism. I draw attention to ‘s Gravesande's a‐causal rendering of physics which went against Newton's causal understanding of natural philosophy and to his attempt to establish a solid foundation for the certainty of Newton's natural philosophy, which he considered as a powerful antidote against the theological aberrations of Descartes and especially Spinoza. I argue that, although ‘s Gravesande clearly took inspiration from Newton's natural philosophy, he was running his own scientific and intellectual agenda and that he was combining Newtonian and non‐Newtonian elements.     

The business of being an editor: Norman Lockyer,Macmillan and Company,and the editorship of Nature, 1869–1919

Broadly speaking, Victorian scientific periodicals fell into one of two categories: specialist periodicals aimed at publishing original research for an audience of scientific researchers, or popularizing periodicals meant to share news about science with a broader readership. When astronomer Norman Lockyer founded Nature in 1869, he envisioned his new weekly as a member of the latter group. That vision resulted partly from his own wish to raise science's profile in Great Britain and partly from the interests of his publisher Macmillan and Company, which bankrolled Nature with its eye on eventual profit. This paper shows that the pressure for Nature to be a financial success shaped Lockyer's approach to editing and thus shaped Nature's content, leading the magazine to occupy an unusual space in the landscape of Victorian science publishing and placing unique burdens on its editor. Nature quickly moved away from Lockyer's initial vision of a popularizing magazine and became known as a periodical by and for researchers. The magazine's popularity among scientific researchers set it apart from its closest inspiration, the commercial weekly Chemical News. But in contrast to contemporary editors at learned society journals, such as George Gabriel Stokes at the Philosophical Transactions, Lockyer did not linger over the scientific details of Nature's papers. Instead, articles for Nature were usually either accepted or rejected immediately, with little editorial involvement shaping their scientific content. The difference between editing Nature and editing other research periodicals is clearly visible in the selection of Richard Gregory as Lockyer's successor in 1919. Most research periodicals selected eminent men of science as their editors-in-chief. Gregory, a science writer and long-time subeditor at Nature, did not lend scientific prestige to the masthead, but was eminently qualified to maintain Nature's distinctive content and its profitability for Macmillan and Company.     

“U. S. Science in international perspective”

This is an investigation of the relationship between the institutional structure of American science and its position in world science, as shown byScience Indicators — 1976. It concludes that, compared to other countries, the distinct characteristics of American institutions are consistent with, and may actually explain, the leading American position according to the indicators. However recent changes in those institutions may have weakened American science in ways not reflected by the present indicators.     

Information science as "Little Science":The implications of a bibliometric analysis of theJournal of the American Society for Information Science

This paper considers the status of information science as science through an exploration ofone of the leading journals in the field – the Journal of the American Society for InformationScience (JASIS) from its initial publication as American Documentation (AD) in 1950 through theclosing issue of its Silver Anniversary year in December 1999. It is a bibliometric examination ofAD/JASIS articles. Based on our analysis of articles published in AD and JASIS from 1950 to1999, we find that there has been a slow but perhaps inevitable shift based first on the single nonfundedresearcher and author to a much wider research and publishing participation amongauthors, regions, corporate authors, and countries. This suggests not only cross-fertilization ofideas, but also more complex research questions. A small trend toward greater external fundingfurther reinforces this hypothesis. Information may no longer be "little" science, but it is also not"big" science.     

Enhanced tensile properties of a reversion annealed 6.5Mn-TRIP alloy via tailoring initial microstructure and cold rolling reduction

The feasibility of improving the overall performance of medium Mn steels was demonstrated via tailoring the initial microstructure and cold rolling reduction.The combined effects of cooling patterns after hot rolling(HR) and cold rolling(CR) reductions show:(1) as the cooling pattern varied from furnace cooling(FC) to oil quenching(OQ),the intercritically annealed microstructure was dramatically refined and the fraction of recrystallized ferrite dropped,regardless of CR reductions.This resulted in both high yield/ultimate tensile strengths(YS/UTS) but low total elongation to fracture(El);(2) as the CR reduction increased from 50% to 75%,the OQ-samples after annealing exhibited a more refined microstructure with relatively higher fractions of retained austenite and sub-structure,leading to higher YS and UTS but lower El; whereas the FC samples appeared to exhibit little difference in overall tensile properties in both cases.The differences in microstructural evolution with cooling patterns and CR reductions were explained by the calculated accumulated effective strain(εAES),which was considered to be related to degrees of recovery and recrystallization of the deformed martensite(α').The optimal tensile properties of ~1 GPa YS and ~40 GPa·% UTS×El were achieved in the OQ-50%CR annealed samples at 650?C for 1 h.This was quite beneficial to large-scale production of ultra-high strength steels,owing to its serious springback during heavy cold working.     

‘s Gravesande's Appropriation of Newton's Natural Philosophy,Part II: Methodological Issues

It has been suggested in the literature that, although Willem Jacob ‘s Gravesande occasionally treated Newton's doctrines in a selective manner, he was nevertheless an unremitting follower of Newton's methodology. As part of a reassessment of ‘s Gravesande's Newtonianism, I argue that, although ‘s Gravesande took over key terms of Newton's methodological canon, his methodological ideas are upon close scrutiny quite different from and occasionally even incongruent with Newton's views on the matter.     

Jesuit Science After Galileo: The Cosmology of Gabriele Beati

Abstract.   Gabriele Beati (1607–1673) taught mathematics at the Collegio Romano when in 1662 he published an introduction to astronomy, the Sphaera triplex . This little work contains an interesting cosmic section which is analyzed here as representing a fusion of Jesuit traditions in cosmology achieved by Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671). The cosmic section enumerates three heavens, depicts fluid planetary heavens, and expresses hexameral biblical idiom. Woodcut and engraved variants of the cosmic section offer a glimpse of Jesuit freedom to experiment with various cosmological systems (Capellan, Tychonic and semi-Tychonic). Analysis of this cosmic section suggests several conclusions for the interpretation of visual representations, science and biblical interpretation, the Scientific Revolution and Jesuit science after Galileo.