Book Cover
E-book
Author Jacob, Margaret C., 1943-

Title Practical matter : Newton's science in the service of industry and empire, 1687-1851 / Margaret C. Jacob and Larry Stewart
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2004

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Description 1 online resource (201 pages) : illustrations
Series New histories of science, technology, and medicine
New histories of science, technology, and medicine.
Contents The Newtonian revolution -- The western paradigm decisively shifts -- Popular audiences and public experiments -- Practicality and the radicalism of experiment -- Putting science to work: European strategies
Summary Margaret Jacob and Larry Stewart examine the profound transformation that began in 1687. From the year when Newton published his Principia to the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, science gradually became central to Western thought and economic development. The book aims at a general audience and examines how, despite powerful opposition on the Continent, a Newtonian understanding gained acceptance and practical application. By the mid-eighteenth century the new science had achieved ascendancy, and the race was on to apply Newtonian mechanics to industry and manufacturing. They end the story with the temple to scientific and technological progress that was the Crystal Palace exhibition. Choosing their examples carefully, Jacob and Stewart show that there was nothing preordained or inevitable about the centrality awarded to science. "It is easy to forget that science might have been stillborn, or remained the esoteric knowledge of court elites. Instead, for better and for worse, science became a centerpiece of Western culture."
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727.
SUBJECT Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727 fast
Subject Science -- Philosophy -- History -- 17th century
Science -- Philosophy -- History -- 18th century
Science -- Philosophy -- History -- 19th century
Science -- History -- 17th century
Science -- History -- 18th century
Science -- History -- 19th century
SCIENCE -- Philosophy & Social Aspects.
SCIENCE -- History.
Science
Science -- Philosophy
Wetenschapsdynamica.
Filosofische aspecten.
Acceptatie.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
Author Stewart, Larry, 1946-
ISBN 9780674039032
0674039033
0674022424
9780674022423
9780674014978
0674014979