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by Peter J. Bowler. Chicago and London, University of Chicago Press, 2001. xiii, 479 pp. $40.00 U.S. (cloth). Bowler's book shows that interest in the relationship between science and religion [...]

Silvanus Phillips Thompson supported scientists who did science for their own personal edification, in their free time. He believed that such work was edifying, and valuable to society, which reflected his Quaker religious views. The scientific career is seen as not just a job, but a way of life.

Nineteenth-century science fraternities in England provided opportunities for scientists to expand their horizons while requiring scientists to conform to the organizations' established ideals of science, man, and nation. Younger scientists, upset with the exclusivity of the older organizations controlled by aristocrats, formed new exclusive social clubs. A man's promotion and reputation were often tied to the organizations to which he belonged.

In the early nineteenth century, scientific activity in London was located mainly in two areas, Westminster and the City of London. In Westminster, the Royal Society, a growing number of [...]

Chemistry and the Chemical Industry in the Nineteenth Century: The Henrys of Manchester and Other Studies, by Wilfred Farrar, edited by Richard L. Hills and W.H. Brock. Aldershot, Variorum, 1997. [...]

Herbert McLeod was appointed Professor of Experimental Science at the Royal Indian Engineering College (RIEC) in 1871. Some of his experience collected from his diary writings, with the scientific and social world during his fifteen years as a professor is outlined.

The need for a unified time system and for people to co-ordinate their activities in line with it, are discussed. The early evolution of electrical timekeeping in Britain is discussed, which ,over a period of time, made people understand that time could be distributed far and wide telegraphically, and could serve political and commercial interests.

In his 1983 book, The Eclipse of Darwin, Peter Bowler discussed the Lamarckian climate of much late nineteenth-century thinking on evolution. Departing from a whiggish historiography which portrayed (and by [...]

Letters left by the chemist Raphael Meldola show how Herbert Spencer's work was viewed by leading intellectuals in Britain just after his death in 1903. They show that the details of his work were largely forgotten and that there was division amongst Meldola's correspondents over the campaign, led by Meldola, to have a memorial tablet for Herbert Spence placed in Westminster Abbey.

Many people were involved in producing the seven volumes that make up the fourth series of the Royal Society catalogue of scientific papers. Included were about two hundred volunteers and about one hundred people working either on short-term contracts or carrying out piece work. At the Royal Society there was a small, largely female, secretariat working full-time. It included both clerical and bibliographic staff. Coordinating all the work was the chemist Herbert McLeod, appointed director of the catalogue in 1901. As is discussed, the position of director was created especially for him after his forced retirement from the Royal Indian Engineering College. The paper shows the complexity of the work involved in producing the catalogue, as well as something of the office culture at the Royal Society in the early twentieth century. The working conditions of the women employees, and prevailing attitudes toward the largely female clerical and bibliographic staff, are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is both (a) an exercise in historical recovery in that it details some of the events surrounding the founding of the City and Guilds of London Institute and describes the way in which the Institute set about the building and running of two of its colleges, the City and Guilds Technical College, Finsbury, and the Central Institution in South Kensington (new archival detail is added to what is already known of this history) and (b) an attempt to interpret the above material in terms of various forms of association within the City Corporation and the guilds. Collectively the City and the guilds made an effort to come to terms with a modernizing world through the means of providing scientific and technical education. The guilds wanted to remain important even though traditional apprenticeship was dying out. In joining in a new venture to provide technical education for young people it was necessary to maintain an order in which the City's presence was clear and apparent. This paper will show how such an order was achieved and, in so doing, it shows something more generally of the relationship of tradition and rhetoric to institution building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]