Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...

Itinerants and Institutions: Popularizing Science in 19th-century Provincial Ireland
In the early to mid-19th century, Ireland was an overwhelmingly rural country with few centers of industrial activity, poorly developed
infrastructures and a population with only little access to education. Interest in science was, nonetheless, widespread, and most provincial
centers supported Mechanics’ Institutes and various types of scientific societies. Local financial and intellectual resources were, however,
rarely sufficient to sustain these initiatives. Formal and informal networks of itinerant lecturers, demonstrators and instrument
makers, including the government-sponsored Provincial Lecturers’ Scheme supplemented, stimulated and even enabled participation in
science at the local level. Studying the interaction between local initiatives and government-sponsored and directed schemes for science
education, this paper investigates access to science and the dissemination of scientific knowledge in provincial Ireland and contradicts
the widespread assumption in Irish historiography that science was rejected as being an external, Protestant imposition and thus inherently
un-Irish.
Peter Neushul, University of California, Santa Barbara (pneushul@cox.net)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Texas Ballroom II
World War II War Production at Caltech: The Rocket Program
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Arsenal of Democracy” marshaled the talents of American scientists in both industry and academe.
Wartime research yielded revolutionary new technologies that changed the course of World War II. Universities made a substantial
contribution, building new laboratories with funds from the U.S. government. Traditionally academic scientists focused on basic and
applied scientific problems with occasional interest in technology. During WW II this dynamic changed significantly as University
researchers performed basic research, developed technologies and even fostered their mass production. This “scaling up process,” often
associated with industry, was particularly effective at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where an elite team of researchers
designed, tested, and produced rockets for the U.S. Navy beginning in 1940. In less than five years, Caltech’s High Velocity Air Rocket
and Tiny Tim went from conceptual design to testing and mass production. Immediately following World War II these technologies led
to the WAC Corporal program that put the first rocket beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and fostered new aerospace industries in
Southern California. Caltech’s wartime success also produced a long term relationship between the University, government, and industry
that characterized post-war U.S. science and technology policy.
Keith A. Nier, Independent Scholar/ Chemical Heritage Foundation (nierfam@verizon.net)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Texas Ballroom II
Development of Mass Spectrometry: Weighing Ions and the Nature of Science
The creation, successful growth, and extreme diversification of mass spectrometry has been a major feature of a multitude of scientific
and technological fields over the past hundred years. Nevertheless, this kind of work usually has been barely mentioned in history of
science and given even less attention by those proffering accounts of science in general. General understanding of the development of
modern science has been seriously skewed by this oversight. A brief survey of the continuously multi-national and multi-disciplinary
development of mass spectrometry will indicate the importance of this range of scientific and technological work. Almost the whole
of recent science is tied into the overall story, along with much industrial and governmental history, with interesting implications of
many sorts. In the history of mass spectrometry one can see sophisticated specialization produce unity of science and social construction
lead to objectivity and commensurability. This overview will illustrate how differently, even old fashioned, science can appear when
one takes seriously scientific work that is characterized primarily by measurement, not just experiment, by determinations of fact rather
than just tests of explanations, and by technical capabilities as much (or more) as by theoretical perspectives.
Catherine Nisbett, Princeton University (cnisbett@princeton.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom V
Marriage and Widowhood in Amateur Astronomy
When Anna Palmer married Henry Draper in 1867, she married into an astronomical family. Both Henry and his father John had earned
reputations for themselves in the American scientific community. Anna and Henry’s first days together were spent shopping for the
glass that Henry would grind into a 24-inch lens, and they went on to spend every clear night together at their observatory in Hastingson-Hudson.
Henry died suddenly in 1882, and for a time Anna tried to continue his work herself before being forced to relinquish her
dream and several thousand dollars to the Henry Draper Memorial at Harvard College Observatory. This paper will explore how Henry
and Anna worked together and what they produced at their observatory, what it meant for them that he was an important amateur, and
what place she carved out for herself after his death. Their story will contribute to one already begus with Helena Pycior’s edited volume
Creative Couples in the Sciences, and will extend the story of the Draper’s partnership into Anna’s widowhood.
Joe November, Princeton University (november@princeton.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Hill Country C
DENDRAL: Automating Hypothesis Formation