[Sci-tech-public] Crosbie Smith at the HPSWG/ITWG, Thursday, May 4, 4:00 pm

[Ben Hurlbut]

The History of the Physical Sciences Working Group, together with the  
Ivory Tower Working Group are pleased to bring you:

Professor Crosbie Smith
(University of Kent)

who will speak about:

"Dreadnought" Science:
the Cultural Construction of Efficiency and
Effectiveness


Thursday, May 4th, 4:00 pm, Science Center 469

please contact Ben with any questions: jhurlbut at fas.harvard.edu

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This paper looks at some of the cultural processes at work in shaping  
the
construction of the Dreadnought, launched in 1906--the most famous
battleship of the Edwardian age.  In particular, I focus on two of the
human agents central to the project: Charles Algernon Parsons and  
Admiral
Sir John ('Jacky') Fisher. Vastly different in temperament, both figures
nonetheless shared a deep respect for the scientific style sometimes
characterized by the term 'science of energy' and embodied in the  
work of
William Thomson (Baron Kelvin).  British thermodynamics was not an
abstract mathematical theory but a science for educated engineers and
scientists engaged in the business of designing and constructing the  
prime
movers to drive the ships, locomotives, mills and - from the 1880s - the
generators for the new electrical industry.   In the new science,
concentrations of available energy - the potential energy stored in
reservoirs of fuel such as water, coal or other material substances -  
had
to be made to deliver in the form of useful work.   Parsons, focusing
initially on steam turbine patents for electricity generation,  
eventually
won over substantial sections of the maritime world to his radical break
with conventional steam engines through claims about efficiency and  
waste.
Meanwhile, Fisher relentlessly exploited similar language, applied to  
the
management of man-power, in his celebrated campaign to reform the Royal
Navy.  Directing both 'machine power' and 'man-power' for maximum effect
was therefore all part of the same scientific and engineering culture.
The Dreadnought would become the very embodiment of this culture's  
ideals:
concentrated energy poised to deliver maximum effect both in terms of
speed and fire-power.

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