Osiris. Vol. 9, Instruments ed. by Albert van Helden, Thomas Hankins

Abstract

technology and culture Book Reviews 753 made in some recent studies and repeated as established fact byAfrocentrists . Many investigators now undertake reproduction experiments to learn about the requirements of executing metallurgical processes by carrying them out themselves or by hiring people to reenact the work ofothers. Some use equipment that models past processes, oth­ ers work with reproductions of the tools thought to have been used in the past, and some also attempt to recreate past physical and social environments. Craddock recounts the evidence from a number of these experiments. Since the experimenters can never exclude their knowledge of contemporary culture from the conduct of their ex­ periments, Craddock warns us that, helpful as they are, reproduc­ tions can never fully recapture the experiences of past peoples. Early Metal Mining and Production will stand for some time as the first book students should turn to for a worldwide overview of an­ cient and historical mining and metallurgy. Robert B. Gordon Dr. Gordon teaches archaeometallurgy at Yale University. His latest book is Ameri­ can Iron, 1607-1900 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). Osiris. Vol. 9, Instruments. Edited by Albert van Helden and Thomas Hankins. Chicago: University ofChicago Press, 1994. Pp. 250; illus­ trations, notes, bibliography. $39.00 (cloth), $25.00 (paper). The one-word title of this volume, used without any qualification or subtitle, indicates its wide scope. Indeed, the articles range not only in terms of the instruments they feature, from standard resis­ tances to a camera for the Hubble space telescope, but also in terms of the societies where these instruments were used, from Ming-Dynasty China to late-20th-century California. Despite this diversity, the essays (with one exception) deal with western science since 1600. For the editors, one purpose of this volume is to encourage histori­ ans of science to take up the study of instruments to augment long­ standing interests in experiment and theory. To this end, they pro­ vide a comprehensive bibliography. However, they do admit it is difficult to explain exactly when instruments are or are not to be considered “scientific.” In her essay, Deborah Warner explains the difficulty of defining the category of scientific instrument. For her the category has to be fluid because it is determined by social conventions that change over time. She illustrates her case by considering the instruments used around 1700 to measure magnetic dip. Exactly the same instruments were used for practical purposes (navigation) and for research into the Earth’s magnetic field. Whether they were being used as “scien­ tific instruments” depended on the status oftheir users: seamen and 754 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE mathematical instrument makers might well navigate with them, but only natural philosophers could employ them as scientific instru­ ments. Several of the essays describe how scientific instruments helped both to create and to sustain scientific activities. Albert van Helden describes the use of very early telescopes for astronomical observa­ tion as well as the interrelated roles of instrument maker and user. He considers how Galileo, among others, constructed his authority when, because a telescope could only be used by one individual at a time, it was impossible to replicate observations and very difficult for different observers to agree on what they had seen. However, once a community of practitioners exists, they create new instruments and techniques.Jan Golinski describes the role that new and expensive instruments played in underpinning Lavoisier’s chemistry. Golinski shows how his opponents had to be persuaded notjust to accept Lavoisier’s results but also to accept the superiority ofhis equipment. Golinski comments, “We learn both that science is embodied in firmly material things and that it is nonetheless socially negotiated and historically variable.” The complex process of social negotiation leading to material things is an important theme of two other papers. Robert Smith and Joseph Tatarewicz describe how the wide field/planetary camera used in the Hubble space telescope came into existence through negotiations involving hundreds of people, over tens of years, at a cost of $125 million. But even unbuilt machines can have material consequences. Bruce Hevly shows how plans for a supervoltage x-ray tube at Stanford in the 1930s, though unrealized at the...