-
145Timothy Lenoir, Instituting Science: The Cultural Production of Scientific Disciplines (review)Science and Public Policy 25. 1998.
-
180J. Hurley, Organisation and Scientific Discovery (review)Science and Public Policy 25 66-67. 1998.
-
157Klaus Hentschel, Physics and National Socialism (review)Science and Public Policy 24 63-64. 1997.
-
50John Gillott and Manjit Kumar, Science and the Retreat from Reason (review)Public Understanding of Science 5 179-181. 1996.
-
777A Notion or a Measure: The Quantification of Light to 1939Dissertation, University of Leeds. 1994.This study, presenting a history of the measurement of light intensity from its first hesitant emergence to its gradual definition as a scientific subject, explores two major themes. The first concerns the adoption by the evolving physics and engineering communities of quantitative measures of light intensity around the turn of the twentieth century. The mathematisation of light measurement was a contentious process that hinged on finding an acceptable relationship between the mutable response o…Read more
-
162Thomas P. Hughes, Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture (review)British Journal for the History of Science 39 (3): 441-442. 2006.
-
170Below the Belt: The Founding of a Higher Education Institution (edited book)University of Glasgow Crichton Publications. 2005.On the formation of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Glasgow. When the University of Glasgow’s new 'Crichton College' opened its doors in September 1999, its small staff had that rare opportunity in an academic’s career to launch a new curriculum based on clearly enunciated ideals. In the following six years under the direction of Professor Rex C. Taylor, those ideals remained firm even as numbers grew and external circumstances mutated. The theme of this book concern…Read more
-
30The Construction of Colorimetry by CommitteeScience in Context 9 (4): 387-420. 1996.The ArgumentThis paper explores the confrontation of physical and contextual factors involved in the emergence of the subject of color measurement, which stabilized in essentially its present form during the interwar period. The contentions surrounding the specialty had both a national and a disciplinary dimension. German dominance was curtailed by American and British contributions after World War I. Particularly in America, communities of physicists and psychologists had different commitments …Read more
-
330Scaling Up: the evolution of intellectual apparatus associated with the manufacture of heavy chemicals in Britain, 1900-1939In A. S. Travis, H. G. Schroter & Ernst Homburg (eds.), Determinants in the Evolution of the European Chemical Industry, 1900-1939: New Technologies, Political Frameworks, Markets and Companies. pp. 199-214. 1998.On intellectual foundations that distinguished chemical engineering from other disciplines.
-
214Identity through alliances: the British chemical engineerIn I. Hellberg, M. Saks & C. Benoit (eds.), Professional Identities in Transition: Cross-Cultural Dimensions, Almqvist & Wiksell International. pp. 391-408. 1999.The development of a professional identity is particularly interesting for those occupations that have a troubled emergence. The hinterland between science and technology accommodates many such ‘in-between’ subjects, which appear to have distinct attributes. Some of these specialisms disappear in the face of culturally stronger occupations. Others endure, their technical expertise becoming appropriated or mutated to serve the needs of different professional groups. This chapter is concerned with…Read more
-
180Science Studies in a Liberal Arts curriculumIn Carol Hill & Sean F. Johnston (eds.), _Below the Belt: The Founding of a Higher Education Institution_, University of Glasgow Crichton Publications. pp. 73-86. 2005.On the differing practices and assumptions in the academic specialisms of environmental studies and STS.
-
267A historian's view of holographyIn H. J. Caulfield & L. Vikram (eds.), New Directions in Holography and Speckle, . pp. 3-15. 2008.On problems and assumptions in the historiography of holography for distinctive social groups engaged in the practice.
-
1000Why display? Representing holograms in museum collectionsIn Peter Morris & Klaus Staubermann (eds.), Illuminating Instruments, . pp. 97-116. 2009.The actual and potential uses of holograms in museum displays, and the philosophy of knowledge and progress that they represent. Magazine journalists, museum curators, and historians sometimes face similar challenges in making topics or technologies relevant to wider audiences. To varying degrees, they must justify the significance of their subjects of study by identifying a newsworthy slant, a pedagogical role, or an analytical purpose. This chasse au trésor may skew historical story telling it…Read more
-
124The telephone in ScotlandIn K. Veitch (ed.), Scottish Life and Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, Vol 8: Transport and Communications, Birlinn Limited. pp. 716-727. 2009.On technical and social origins of telephone usage in Scotland.
-
367Creating a Canadian profession: the nuclear engineer, c. 1940-1968Canadian Journal of History 44 (3): 435-466. 2009.Canada, as one of the three Allied nations collaborating on atomic energy development during the Second World War, had an early start in applying its new knowledge and defining a new profession. Owing to postwar secrecy and distinct national aims for the field, nuclear engineering was shaped uniquely by the Canadian context. Alone among the postwar powers, Canadian exploration of atomic energy eschewed military applications; the occupation emerged within a governmental monopoly; the intellectual…Read more
-
A cultural history of the hologramLeonardo 41 (3): 223-229. 2008.The hologram, the novel imaging medium conceived in 1947, underwent a series of technical mutations over the following 50 years. Those successive adaptations altered the form of the medium, broadened its imaging capabilities and promoted wider perceptions of its functions and possibilities. Appropriated by disparate technical communities and presented to varied audiences, the hologram and its cultural meanings evolved dramatically. This paper relates the fluidity of the form, function and meanin…Read more
-
223The physical tourist: A Glasgow heritage tourPhysics in Perspective 8 451-465. 2006.History of physics via Glasgow sites.
-
416The cultural landscape of three-dimensional imagingIn Martin Richardson (ed.), Techniques and Principles in Three-Dimensional Imaging: An Introductory Approach, . pp. 212-232. 2013.This article explores the cultural contexts in which three-dimensional imaging has been developed, disseminated and used. It surveys the diverse technologies and intellectual domains that have contributed to spatial imaging, and argues that it is an important example of an interdisciplinary subject. Over the past century-and-a-half, specialists from distinct fields have devised explanations and systems for the experience of 3-D imagery. Successive audiences have found these visual experiences co…Read more
-
583An unconvincing transformation? Michelson's interferential spectroscopyNuncius 18 ( 2): 803-823. 2003.Albert Abraham Michelson (1852-1931), the American optical physicist best known for his precise determination of the velocity of light and for his experiments concerning aether drift, is less often acknowledged as the creator of new spectroscopic instrumentation and new spectroscopies. He devised a new method of light analysis relying upon his favourite instrument – a particular configuration of optical interferometer – and published investigations of spectral line separation, Doppler-broadening…Read more
-
604The parallax view: the military origins of holographyIn Stefan Rieger & Jens Schroter (eds.), Das Holografische Wissen, Diaphane. pp. 33-57. 2009.The title of this piece is meant to evoke at least three sources. The first – and perhaps the only obvious one – concerns the ability of holograms to display parallax, a shifting of visual viewpoint that allows a three-dimensional image to reveal background objects behind those in the foreground. This parallax view is a unique feature of holograms as visual media. A second allusion is to the American film The Parallax View (1974, director A. J. Pakula), a rather paranoid thriller focusing on con…Read more
-
177From eye to machine: Shifting authority in color measurementIn B. Saunders & J. Van Brakel (eds.), Theories, Technologies, Instrumentalities of Color: Anthropological and Historiographic Perspectives, University Press of America. pp. 289-306. 2002.Given a subject so imbued with contention and conflicting theoretical stances, it is remarkable that automated instruments ever came to replace the human eye as sensitive arbiters of color specification. Yet, dramatic shifts in assumptions and practice did occur in the first half of the twentieth century. How and why was confidence transferred from careful observers to mechanized devices when the property being measured – color – had become so closely identified with human physiology and psychol…Read more
-
444Absorbing new subjects: holography as an analog of photographyPhysics in Perspective 8 164-188. 2006.I discuss the early history of holography and explore how perceptions, applications, and forecasts of the subject were shaped by prior experience. I focus on the work of Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) in England,Yury N. Denisyuk (1927-2005) in the Soviet Union, and Emmett N. Leith (1927–2005) and Juris Upatnieks (b. 1936) in the United States. I show that the evolution of holography was simultaneously promoted and constrained by its identification as an analog of photography, an association that influ…Read more
-
471Security and the shaping of identity for nuclear specialistsHistory and Technology 27 (2): 123-153. 2011.Atomic energy developed from 1940 as a subject shrouded in secrecy. Identified successively as a crucial element in military strategy, national status and export aspirations, the research and development of atomic piles (nuclear chain-reactors) were nurtured at isolated installations. Like monastic orders, new national laboratories managed their specialist workers in occupational environments that were simultaneously cosseted and constrained, defining regional variants of a new state-managed dis…Read more
-
329Professional identity and organisation in a technical occupation: The emergence of chemical engineering in Britain, c . 1915–30Contemporary British History 13 56-81. 1999.The emergence in Britain of chemical engineering, by mid‐century the fourth largest engineering specialism, was a hesitant and drawn out process. This article analyses the organisational politics behind the recognition of the technical occupation and profession from the First World War through to the end of the 1920s. The collective sense of professional identity among nascent ‘chemical engineers’ developed rapidly during this time owing to associations which promoted their cause among potential…Read more
-
372Professional identity and organisation in a technical occupation: The emergence of chemical engineering in Britain, c . 1915–30Contemporary British History 13 56-81. 1999.On the origins of British chemical engineering,
-
338Telling tales: George Stroke and the historiography of holographyHistory and Technology 20 29-51. 2004.The history of holography, the technology of three-dimensional imaging that grew rapidly during the 1960s, has been written primarily by its historical actors and, like many new inventions, its concepts and activities became surrounded by myths and myth-making. The first historical account was disseminated by the central character of this paper, George W. Stroke, while a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. His claims embroiled several workers active in the field of…Read more
-
356Shifting perspectives: holography and the emergence of technical communitiesTechnology and Culture 46 (1): 77-103. 2005.Holography, the technology of three-dimensional imaging, has repeatedly been reconceptualised by new communities. Conceived in 1947 as a means of improving electron microscopy, holography was revitalized in the early 1960s by engineer-scientists at classified laboratories. The invention promoted the transformation of a would-be discipline (optical engineering) and spawned limited artist-scientist collaborations. However, a separate artisanal community promoted a distinct countercultural form of …Read more
-
358Making the invisible engineer visible: DuPont and the recognition of nuclear expertiseTechnology and Culture 52 (3): 548-573. 2011.Between 1942 and the late 1950s, atomic piles (nuclear chain-reactors) were industrialized, initially to generate plutonium for the first atomic weapons and later to serve as copious sources of neutrons, radioisotopes and electrical power. These facilities entrained a new breed of engineering specialist adept at designing, operating and maintaining them. From the beginning, large companies supplied the engineering labor for this new technology, and played an important role in defining the nature…Read more
-
186John Cantrell and Gillian Cookson , Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age. Stroud and Charleston: Tempus, 2002. Pp. 192. Isbn 0-7524-2766-0. £16.99, $26.99 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 38 (4): 483-484. 2005.
-
141Geoffrey C. Bunn, The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. Pp. ix+246. ISBN 978-1-4214-0530-8. £18.00 (review)British Journal for the History of Science 46 (3): 540-541. 2013.
Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland