Klappentext

This book explores a little-studied arena that exists between science and technology, an arena in which a singular and important variety of open-ended, multi-purpose instrumentation is developed by practitioners (neither scientist nor engineer, call them research-technologists) for use in academia, industry, state metrology and technical services, and considerably beyond. The generic instrumentation designed in this almost subterraneously institutionalized/professionalized, interstitial arena fuels both science and engineering work. This involves intermittent crossings of the boundaries that demarcate and protect the conventional cognitive and artefact cultures familiar to many historians and sociologists. Research-technologists thereby comprise a distinctive (but never distinct) transverse science and technology culture that generates a species of pragmatic universality, which in turn provides multiple and diversified audiences with a common repertory of vocabularies, notational systems, images, and perhaps even paradigms. Research-technology practitioners deliver a lingua franca that contributes to cognitive, material, and social cohesion. Research-technology is about the complementarity between boundary-crossing and the stability/maintenance of boundaries.

Zusammenfassung
Exploring an area in which a singular and variety of open-ended, multi-purpose instrumentation is developed by practitioners for use in academia, industry, state metrology and technical services, and beyond, this book discusses the generic instrumentation that fuels both science and engineering work.

Inhalt

1. A Fresh Look at Instrumentation: An Introduction; B. Joerges, T. Shinn. Part I: Origins of the Research-Technology Community. 2. From Theodolite to Spectral Apparatus: Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Invention of a German Optical Research-Technology; M.W. Jackson. 3. The Research-Technology Matrix: German Origins, 1860-1900; T. Shinn. Part II: Interstitial Worlds. 4. Displacing Radioactivity; X. Roqué. 5. Strange Cooperations: the U.S. Research-Technology Perspective, 1900-1955; T. Shinn. 6. Mediating Between Plant Science and Plant Breeding: The Role of Research-Technology; P. Nevers, et al. Part III: Purviews of Generic Instruments. 7. In Search of Space: Fourier Spectroscopy, 1950-1970; S.F. Johnston. 8. Putting Isotopes to Work: Liquid Scintillation Counters, 1950-1970; H.-J. Rheinberger. 9. Making Mice and Other Devices: The Dynamics of Instrumentation in American Biomedical Research (1930-1960); J.-P. Gaudillière. Part IV: Standardized Languages. 10. From Dynamometers to Simulations: Transforming Brake Testing Technology into Antilock Braking Systems; A. Johnson. 11. From the Laboratory to the Market: The Metrological Arenas of Research-Technology; A. Mallard. In Conclusion. 12. Research-Technology in Historical Perspective: An Attempt at Reconstruction; B. Joerges, T. Shinn. Bibliography of Selected References. List of Contributors. Bibliographical Notes on Contributors. Author Index.