Volta
Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment
1st Edition
Published on 5. June 2018
400 pages
978-0-691-18861-4 (ISBN)
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05/2005
Princeton University Press
€45.90
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05/2003
Princeton University Press
€55.71
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Person
Giuliano Pancaldi is Professor of the History of Science at the University of Bologna. His books include Darwin in Italy: Science across Cultural Frontiers.
Content
- Cover
- TItle Page
- Copyright Page
- CONTENTS
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 THE MAKING OF A NATURAL PHILOSOPHER From Amateur, to Expert, to Public Servant
- The Town
- The Family
- Lifestyle
- Education
- "A More Enlightened Age"
- Literary Interests
- Views on Religion and Secularization
- From Amateur, to Expert, to Public Servant
- Emotional Life
- Investigative Style
- Conclusion
- Chapter 2 ENLIGHTENMENT SCIENCE SOUTH OF THE ALPS The Italian Scientific Community in the Age of Volta
- The Soil and the Institutions
- The Scholars: Provenance and Fields of Interest
- Prosopography
- The Circulation of Enlightenment Literature
- Views from the Outside
- Conclusion
- Chapter 3 THE ELECTROPHORUS Theory, Instrument Design, and the Social Uses of Scientific Apparatus
- Fire, Magnetism, Electricity
- "Vindicating Electricity"
- Attraction and the Atmospheres
- Disenchanted Theorist
- Scientific Instruments and Their Social Uses
- The Path to the Electrophorus
- Instrument Design
- Publicizing Discovery
- Conclusion
- Chapter 4 VOLTA'S SCIENCE OF ELECTRICITY Conception, Laboratory Work, and Public Recognition
- Reluctant Theorist
- Midrange Conceptualization and a New Machine: Capacity, Tension, "Actuation," and the Condensatore
- Natural Philosopher or Inventor of Amusements Électriques?
- Explanatory Models and Presentation Strategies: True Causes vs. Instrumentalism
- Volta's Laboratory: Measuring Electricity
- Volta on Coulomb
- Conclusion
- Chapter 5 THE COSMOPOLITAN NETWORK Volta and Communication among Experts in Late Enlightenment Europe
- Overcoming Isolation
- Exploring the Republic of Letters: The Neighborhoods
- Facing the Peers: Paris in 1782
- Anglophilia
- Continental Europe and the German-Speaking Countries
- After 1789
- Conclusion
- Chapter 6 THE BATTERY Invention, Instrumentalism, and Competitive Imitation
- Galvanism, Electrometer in Hand
- The Hunt for Weak Electricity
- The Electricity of Animals
- Nicholson's Contribution to Volta's Discovery
- Building the Battery
- Conclusion: Invention, Instrumentalism, and Competitive Imitation
- Chapter 7 APPROPRIATING INVENTION The Reception of the Voltaic Battery in Europe
- Spreading the News
- Replicating the Instrument
- Appropriating the Battery
- A Name for All Purposes
- From Philosophic Instrument to Patented Device
- Conclusion
- Chapter 8 THE SCIENTIST AS HERO Volta and the Uses of Past Science in the Industrial Era
- Admitted to "Galileo's Tribune"
- Secular Saint in the Positivist Calendar
- "The Triumph of Science"
- In the Nobel Laureates' Era
- Conclusion
- Chapter 9 CONCLUSION: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND CONTINGENCY Enlightenment Legacies
- Invention
- "Useful Knowledge" and Unintended Consequences
- "The Quantifying Spirit"
- Investment
- Value Assessments
- Contingency
- Enlightenment Legacies
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
