The social life of precision instruments: artisans' trials in early-modern England, 1550-1700
The social life of precision instruments: artisans' trials in early-modern England, 1550-1700
复制标题
精密仪器的社会生活：近代早期英国工匠的试验，1550-1700 年
DOI：
10.1080/00033790.2023.2282784
复制
发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
0.3
通讯作者：
Jardine B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jardine B
本文考察了数学仪器制造商在近代早期英国建立精确测量的公共文化中的作用。我认为，这种文化是通过试验和示范推广的，在这种背景下，工匠占据着特权地位。这里所描述的试验包括土地测量、磁变化的测量和海关和消费税的测量标准。这些试验是精密仪器“文化传记”中的决定性时刻。我问仪器制造商是如何获得权威地位的，这对我们理解现代早期精确测量的社会物质系统，以及当代“实验”和“哲学”试验的兴起意味着什么。因为实用数学是一种自觉的经济活动——由贸易、商业、探险和殖民所驱动——与自然哲学的直接联系是重要的，这一点在我的结论中有所探讨。
This paper examines the role of mathematical instrument makers in establishing a public culture of precision measurement in early-modern England. I argue that this culture was promoted through trials and demonstrations, in the context of which artisans held a privileged position. The trials described here cover land surveying, the measurement of magnetic variation, and standards of measurement for customs and excise. These trials were decisive moments in the ‘cultural biographies’ of precision instruments. I ask how it was that instrument makers were able to assume positions of authority, and what this means for our understanding of the socio-material system of precision measurement in the early-modern period, and the contemporary rise of ‘experimental’ and ‘philosophical’ trials. Because practical mathematics was a self-consciously economic activity – motivated by trade, commerce, exploration and colonization – direct connections to natural philosophy are significant, a point explored in my conclusion.