2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society

Jordan Kellman Louisiana State University
HSS Abstracts
Jean Mattieu de Chazelles and the Birth of Naval Science
in 17th-Century France
Jean Mattieu de Chazelles (1657-1710) created the first accurate planispheric
projection of the world, created the best maps of the Mediterranean coast of
France of the seventeenth century, and proposed the first scientific expedition
to find the fabled Southern Continent. Though little known in the history of
science or maritime history, Chazelles’ career as astronomer at the Paris
Observatory under J. D. Cassini (Cassini I) and as professor at the naval
academy of Marseilles shows the evolution of a new relationship between
science and seafaring, and between observational astronomy and the
improvement of the French navy, that was fundamental to the creation of
institutional science in early modern France. Using Chazelles’ log-books,
letters, maps and manuscript notebooks, this paper will trace his efforts to
take experience he gained and techniques he learned at the Paris observatory
and adapt them to the curriculum at the naval officer training program at the
port of Marseilles. Here Chazelles trained a generation of naval officers in the
techniques of scientific observation developed by Cassini, including the
determination of longitude by the method of Jupiter’s moons and the charting
of coastlines using a new method of systematic sounding and precise shipboard
surveying. Chazelles hoped to use these officers as traveling observers to
improve the coastal maps of France and the world, as well as to transform the
French navy into an efficient force buttressed by the new techniques of
observation. The success of Chazelles’ efforts put France at the forefront of
naval cartography, and in spite of France’s subsequent colonial and naval
misfortunes at the hands of the English, Chazelles’ work confirmed the idea
that scientific research would advance the interests of the French Crown and
established scientific training as an integral part of naval education.
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Dong-Won Kim KAIST
Why Physics?: The Conflicting Role and Image of Physics in South Korea
In South Korea, popular appreciation of physics’ practical role has not coincided
with the popular view of physicists as primarily theoreticians. Following the end
of the Korean War in 1953, successive South Korean governments paid special
attention to developing an atomic bomb. The major beneficiary of this obsession
for nuclear armament was the South Korean physics community. Despite South
Korea’s desire for atomic weaponry, South Koreans held experimental (or applied)
physics in much lower regard than theoretical physics. In many South Korean
universities, the proportion of theoretical physicists was, as still is true today,
excessively high. For example, at South Korea’s most prestigious institution of
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