Imperial Science - Cable Telegraphy Electrical Physics in Victorian British Empire

A vast network of telegraph cables spread around the globe in the second half of the nineteenth century. By showing how deeply this network shaped work in electrical physics, Bruce J. Hunt sheds new light on both the history of the Victorian British Empire and the relationship between science and technology.

List 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.

About the author

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

Summary

A vast network of telegraph cables spread around the globe in the second half of the nineteenth century. By showing how deeply this network shaped work in electrical physics, Bruce J. Hunt sheds new light on both the history of the Victorian British Empire and the relationship between science and technology.

Additional text

'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

Product details

• Authors: Bruce J Hunt, Bruce J. Hunt, Bruce J. (University of Texas Hunt, Hunt Bruce J.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2020
• EAN: 9781108830669
• ISBN: 978-1-108-83066-9
• No. of pages: 320
• Series: Science in History
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); European History, SCIENCE / History, HISTORY / Europe / General, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Electronics / General, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Telecommunications, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / History, History of Science, History of engineering and technology, History of engineering & technology, Electronics engineering, Communications engineering / telecommunications