Imperial Science: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in the Victorian British Empire

by Bruce J. Hunt

Overview

In the second half of the nineteenth century, British firms and engineers built, laid, and ran a vast global network of submarine telegraph cables. For the first time, cities around the world were put into almost instantaneous contact, with profound effects on commerce, international affairs, and the dissemination of news. Science, too, was strongly affected, as cable telegraphy exposed electrical researchers to important new phenomena while also providing a new and vastly larger market for their expertise. By examining the deep ties that linked the cable industry to work in electrical physics in the nineteenth century - culminating in James Clerk Maxwell's formulation of his theory of the electromagnetic field - Bruce J. Hunt sheds new light both on the history of the Victorian British Empire and on the relationship between science and technology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108830669
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/07/2021
Series:	Science in History
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 6.30(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Bruce J. Hunt is Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

Table of Contents

Prologue. 'An imperial science'; 1. 'An ill-understood effect of induction': telegraphy and field theory in Victorian Britain; 2. Wildman Whitehouse, William Thomson, and the first Atlantic cable; 3. Redeeming failure: the joint committee investigation; 4. Units and standards: the ohm is where the art is; 5. The ohm, the speed of light, and Maxwell's theory of the electromagnetic field; 6. To rule the waves: Britain's cable empire and the making of 'Maxwell's equations'; Epilogue. Full circle.

Editorial Reviews

'Lucid, brilliantly well-informed and replete with fresh insights, Imperial Science is destined to be an indispensable classic. Bruce J. Hunt gives us a rich account of how radical developments in cable telegraphy and the theory of electromagnetism were intertwined, with profound consequences for the everyday lives of millions of people all over the world.' Graham Farmelo, Churchill College, University of Cambridge

'Well before the internet, information flowed through British submarine cable telegraphy. Bruce J. Hunt’s fascinating study explores how physicists and telegraph engineers managed competing methods and demands to create this first global communications system. These nerves of empire transformed international affairs, accelerated commerce, provided rapid access to news, and revolutionized physics.' Kathryn Olesko, Georgetown University

'With impressive skill, Bruce J. Hunt brings together the commercial and engineering practices of Victorian telegraphy with the construction of the new physics of electromagnetic field theory. In so doing, he powerfully reinvigorates the history of nineteenth-century physics as a major academic arena grounded upon, but not determined by, imperial engineering and technology.' Crosbie Smith, University of Kent

‘Illustrated with period images and impeccably referenced, Hunt's remarkable, scholarly text will encourage nonspecialist readers to engage … Highly recommended.’ E. J. Delaney, Choice Connect

'In this important book our foremost historian of British telegraphy and Maxwellian electromagnetic field theory gives a compelling account of the intimate relation of telegraph engineering and mathematical physics over some forty years.’ M. Norton Wise, Metascience

From the Publisher