<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><I>The History of the Physical Sciences Working Group, together with the Ivory Tower Working Group are pleased to bring you:</I><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;font-size: 29px; "><B>Professor Crosbie Smith</B></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;font-size: 29px; "><B>(University of Kent)</B></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><I>who will speak about:</I></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 41px; "><B>"Dreadnought" Science: </B></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 41px; "><B>the Cultural Construction of Efficiency and</B></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 41px; "><B>Effectiveness</B></DIV><DIV style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 41px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><B>Thursday, May 4th, 4:00 pm, Science Center 469</B></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">please contact Ben with any questions: <A href="mailto:jhurlbut@fas.harvard.edu">jhurlbut@fas.harvard.edu</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">---------------------------------------------------------------------------------</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">This paper looks at some of the cultural processes at work in shaping the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">construction of the Dreadnought, launched in 1906--the most famous</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">battleship of the Edwardian age. In particular, I focus on two of the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">human agents central to the project: Charles Algernon Parsons and Admiral</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Sir John ('Jacky') Fisher. Vastly different in temperament, both figures</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">nonetheless shared a deep respect for the scientific style sometimes</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">characterized by the term 'science of energy' and embodied in the work of</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">William Thomson (Baron Kelvin). British thermodynamics was not an</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">abstract mathematical theory but a science for educated engineers and</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">scientists engaged in the business of designing and constructing the prime</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">movers to drive the ships, locomotives, mills and - from the 1880s - the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">generators for the new electrical industry. In the new science,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">concentrations of available energy - the potential energy stored in</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">reservoirs of fuel such as water, coal or other material substances - had</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">to be made to deliver in the form of useful work. Parsons, focusing</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">initially on steam turbine patents for electricity generation, eventually</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">won over substantial sections of the maritime world to his radical break</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">with conventional steam engines through claims about efficiency and waste.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Meanwhile, Fisher relentlessly exploited similar language, applied to the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">management of man-power, in his celebrated campaign to reform the Royal</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Navy. Directing both 'machine power' and 'man-power' for maximum effect</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">was therefore all part of the same scientific and engineering culture.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The Dreadnought would become the very embodiment of this culture's ideals:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">concentrated energy poised to deliver maximum effect both in terms of</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">speed and fire-power.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV></BODY></HTML>