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

and its relationship with one of its most profitable authors.
Hanna Rose Shell, Harvard University (shell@fas.harvard.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom VII
Hide: Reframing Wartime Natural History and the AMNH Alaska Brown Bear Group 1937-1945
The Hall of North American Mammals is a popular, permanent exhibit of twenty-five wildlife dioramas at the American Museum of
Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. From this Hall’s ribbon-cutting in 1942, its patrons, designers and promoters hoped that
the exhibition might simultaneously preserve and distill the whole history of North America – insofar as American history is (and always
had been) implicated in its natural history. Nationalism would be immortalized in the windowless confines of an urban cosmopolitan
museum through the curatorial and taxidermic processes of museum natural history. My paper, “Hide,” addresses the complexity of
these processes, through a close focus on one diorama in particular — the Alaska Bear Group, created between 1937 and 1941. Framed
by an archway that recalls a stage proscenium, the Brown Bear Group presents a story of animals and environment inextricably bound
together through ecological processes. A hulking, upright, male bear confront an array of animal, vegetable and mineral cohabitants
as well as human observers, as the colorfully painted background merges with a three dimensional foreground; meanwhile the entire
diorama is encased behind a glass wall that simultaneously invites human viewers and excludes human participation. Drawing on the
AMNH’s textual, visual and exhibitionary archives, I examine the standing bear’s construction, display and reception over the past sixty
years. In the process. I read against the grain of this distilled – or perhaps better to say “stilled” – vision of nature. Finally, I argue that
the taxidermied form can be best understood as an amalgamation of animal’s skin, hunter’s ambition, taxidermist’s craft, and viewer’s
gaze.
Grace Yen Shen, Harvard University (gyshen@fas.harvard.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 3:30 - 5:30 PM - Hill Country A
Scientific Worldviews: Chinese Geology and International Science,1911-1949
The rise of Chinese geology in the Republican era was supported by the riches of China’s vast territory, an ambitious and talented group
of young researchers, and intense international interest. The relationship between these factors, however, remains obscured by the standard
mechanistic story of modernization and progress leading from the end of the imperial era to the Communist regime. This paper
traces the methods that Chinese geologists employed to disseminate news of their work abroad and keep abreast of the latest developments
in the geosciences. Analysis of meetings, publications, exchanges, and correspondence, highlight the ways that international scientific
and political economies shaped China’s research priorities. However, Chinese geologists also faced inward, addressing a domestic
audience of political, industrial, and social modernizers, as well as a growing corps of non-elite geological workers. By juxtaposing
international and domestic representations of geological activities in China, I hope to explore the more general question of how scientific
internationalism disciplined the development of new scientific communities into national bodies, especially in the field sciences.
William Shields, Virginia Tech (highc.king@verizon.net)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM - Texas Ballroom V
The Strange Tale of Centrifugal Force
Centrifugal force has been something of a thorn in the side of physics since the time of Christiaan Huygens. Physicists in training more
likely than not are informed that there is no such “force” or that it is “fictitious,” a mere artifact of the principle of inertia applied to
circular motion. But modern engineering textbooks not only refer to centrifugal force in a theoretical sense—they use it in calculations
for the design of pumps and other devices. Newton, in the context of gravitation and motion in a central field, explained that it is “centripetal
force” that opposes the tendency of a body to move in a straight line. And Newton’s theory on this matter became gospel. So
why is “centripetal” virtually absent from the English lexicon, whereas the person in the street has a fair idea of what centrifugal force
is? In this paper, I will report on research-in-progress to trace the history of centrifugal force from the 17th century (Huygens’s De
Vi Centrifuga) to the present to shed some light on this strange state of affairs.
Peter A. Shulman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (skip@mit.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Hill Country C
Why Let a Petroleum Geologist File Your Taxes?
During the 1920s, oil companies employed geologists to advise them on the complicated nuances of oil land tax laws. Many of these
geologists had been part of a staff of nearly one hundred scientists and engineers in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Oil and Gas
Division during World War I. From an office building in Washington, D.C., they analyzed production statistics to develop techniques
for estimating the quantity of oil in a given well. Both the Treasury and oil companies had a stake in these calculations: like the depreciation
allowances taken by industry to offset the decreasing value of capital investments, oil land owners were permitted a “depletion
allowance” to reflect the declining value of oil land under the pump. Yet the value of oil land (and hence its taxable worth) was direct-