Book review: Kew Observatory and the Evolution of Victorian Science 1840&amp;#8211;1910

Karen L Aplin

doi:10.5194/hgss-10-1-2019

Abstract

The International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS) became the eighth and most recent association of IUGG at the general assembly in Perugia, Italy, in July 2007. IACS was launched in recognition of the importance of the cryosphere within the Earth system, particularly at a time of significant global change. It was the first new association of the union to be formed in over 80 years and IACS celebrated its 10th anniversary only a year before the IUGG centennial. The forbearers of IACS, however, stretch back even further than IUGG, starting with the formation of the Commission Internationale des Glaciers (CIG) by the International Geological Congress in 1894. Here we record the history of the transition from CIG to IACS, the scientific objectives that drove activities and changes, and some of the key events and individuals involved.

Highlights

Kew was a major player in the Victorian science world, with the other national science facilities such as Greenwich Observatory and, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
The principal rivalry portrayed, and dominant in the first half of the time period covered by the book, was that between Edward Sabine, the former army officer who had gained scientific experience on magnetic surveying voyages, and who led the “Magnetic Crusade” of which re-inventing Kew as a geomagnetic observatory formed a small part (Cawood, 1979), and George Biddell Airy
Macdonald argues that Kew acted as an exemplar in late nineteenth-century arguments for what a modern national laboratory should be, so much so that when the NPL was established in 1900, Kew was already doing much of its work, and was essentially renamed to become the NPL, with no initial change in site or staff

Summary

Introduction

Kew was a major player in the Victorian science world, with the other national science facilities such as Greenwich Observatory and, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The principal rivalry portrayed, and dominant in the first half of the time period covered by the book, was that between Edward Sabine, the former army officer who had gained scientific experience on magnetic surveying voyages, and who led the “Magnetic Crusade” of which re-inventing Kew as a geomagnetic observatory formed a small part (Cawood, 1979), and George Biddell Airy.

Results

Conclusion