Instruments and the Imagination [Hardcover]

Thomas L. Hankins (Author), Robert J. Silverman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0691029970 | ISBN-13: 978-0691029979

In this book, the authors investigate an array of instruments from the 17th to the 19th century that seem at first to be marginal to science - magnetic clocks that were said to operate by the movements of sunflower seeds, ocular harpsichords (machines that played different coloured lights in harmonious mixtures), Aeolian harps (a form of wind chime), and other instruments of "natural magic" designed to produce wonderous effects. By looking at these, and the first recording instruments, the stereoscope and speaking machines, they show that "scientific instruments" first made their appearance as devices used to evoke wonder in the beholder, as in works of magic and the theatre. The authors also demonstrate that these instruments, even though they were often tricks, were seen by their inventors as more than trickery. In the view of Athanasius Kircher, for instance, the sunflower clock was not merely a hoax, but an effort to demonstrate, however fraudulently, his truly held belief that the ability of a flower to follow the sun was due to the same cosmic magnetic influence as that which moved the planets and caused the rotation of the earth. The mechanical marvels revealed in this work raise and answer questions about the connections between natural science and natural magic, the meaning of demonstration, the role of language and the senses in science, and the connections between art, music, literature and natural science.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the 16th century, European "natural philosophers" introduced a wide variety of scientific instruments, among them clocks, magnets, and compasses. Braving the risk of being accused of witchcraft, they helped change the face of science.

"Instruments have a life of their own," write historians of science Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman in this engaging study. "They do not merely follow theory; often they determine theory, because instruments determine what is possible, and what is possible determines to a large extent what can be thought." The "natural magic" of inventors such as Father Francis Linus and Athanasius Kircher introduced their contemporaries to the notion that with the proper tools nearly any advance in science was possible. And those who came after them made great advances indeed, from the 18th-century Aeolian harp, from which came the belief that light could be bent to produce sound, to automated weather stations, telestereoscopes, and early phonographs. Many of those inventions, Hankins and Silverman note, anticipated the technological advances that mark our own time, which seems itself to be full of natural magic. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

"Hankins and Silverman illuminate not only the tools of science, but the changing character of the enterprise itself." -- Stephen Johnston, New Scientist

"This imaginative and intellectually stimulating book reminds us that artifacts have an intellectual context, as well as a social one, and that a thick vein of the irrational runs through all of technology." -- George Basalla, Technology and Culture

Thomas Hankins and Robert Silverman provide a welcome contribution.... Their avowed intention ... [is] to look at instruments on the margins ... to show the significance of such instruments to the history of science. By making instruments a starting point for historical inquiry, [they] illuminate not only the tools of science, but the changing character of the enterprise itself. -- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691029970
• ISBN-13: 978-0691029979
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,095,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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