Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-18DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2304715
John A. Schuster
{"title":"Heroic resuscitation? An attempt to revive Descartes’ method","authors":"John A. Schuster","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2304715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2304715","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Annals of Science (Ahead of Print, 2024)","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139552937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-15DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2024.2304718
Cristiano Zanetti
{"title":"Lynceorum historia: le ‘schede lincee’ di Martin Fogel","authors":"Cristiano Zanetti","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2024.2304718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2024.2304718","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Annals of Science (Ahead of Print, 2024)","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139500216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282777
Sibylle Gluch
{"title":"Promises of precision: questioning precision in 'precision' instruments.","authors":"Sibylle Gluch","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282777","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282777","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":"81 1-2","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139674028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282782
Luís Tirapicos
{"title":"Directions of precision: George Graham's instructions for his pendulum astronomical clocks.","authors":"Luís Tirapicos","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282782","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282782","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the 1720s two Jesuit astronomers working at the court of King João V of Portugal, in Lisbon, received several instruments produced by the best makers in London, Paris and Rome. With the crucial help of the Portuguese diplomatic network contacts with academies, savants and instrument makers were established, seeking technical advice and the best astronomical instruments available at the time. It was in this context that in April 1726 a set of Latin instructions accompanying pendulum clocks made by George Graham were dispatched from London to Lisbon. These unpublished instructions are now preserved in the papers of Giovanni Battista Carbone, one of these Jesuit astronomers, offering a significant window into the procedures and technical details involved in the setting, operation and transport of Graham's astronomical clocks. In this paper, I will not only discuss this important document in the framework of Graham's contributions to astronomy and horology, but also in the perspective of the search for accuracy.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"124-138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138046021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2284335
Miguel Ohnesorge
{"title":"The promises and pitfalls of precision: random and systematic error in physical geodesy, c. 1800-1910.","authors":"Miguel Ohnesorge","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2284335","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2284335","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article discusses the ways in which nineteenth-century geodesists reflected on precision as an epistemic virtue in their measurement practice. Physical geodesy is often understood as a quintessential nineteenth-century precision science, stimulating advances in instrument making and statistics, and generating incredible quantities of data. Throughout most of the nineteenth century, geodesists indeed pursued their most prestigious research problem - the exact determination of the earth's polar flattening - along those lines. Treating measurement errors as random, they assumed that remaining discordances could be overcome by manufacturing better instruments and extending statistical analysis to a larger amount of data. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, several German geodesists developed sophisticated methodological critiques of their discipline, in which they diagnosed a too-narrow focus on precision among their peers. On their account, geodesists urgently needed to identify and anticipate the causes of the remaining measurement errors that arose from the earth's little understood interior constitution. While mostly overlooked in the literature, these critiques paved the way for many empirical successes in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century geodesy, including the first convergent measurements of the earth's polar flattening.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"258-284"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138298217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282779
Richard Dunn
{"title":"On being sufficiently exact: assessing navigational instruments in the eighteenth century.","authors":"Richard Dunn","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282779","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282779","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper explores discussions centred on the activities of the British Board of Longitude to consider the ways in which some men of science, instrument makers and others thought about questions of precision and accuracy, both in principle and in terms of what was possible in practice when making observations at sea. It considers firstly the terminology used in some eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century texts, highlighting the concept of exactness, which was more commonly used to describe one of the desirable qualities of instruments and methods. It then looks at some of the discussions and debates in which the Board of Longitude was involved from the 1760s to think about different actors' expectations of what levels of exactness might be either desirable or possible for day-to-day navigation. The focus is on the ability to make accurate shipboard observations and on the question of what degree of exactness might have been accepted as good enough for routine navigational purposes when at sea.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"208-234"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136395954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282773
Sibylle Gluch
{"title":"Time troubles: clocks and practices of precision in early eighteenth-century observatories.","authors":"Sibylle Gluch","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282773","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282773","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 1736/37, Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and Jean Jacques Dortous de Mairan communicated about the clocks that would enable the astronomers of the Saint Petersburg observatory to make highly exact observations. Delisle, who was in charge of the Saint Petersburg observatory, demanded old-fashioned clocks in the manner of Huygens. Mairan, well-versed in astronomy himself, recommended equation clocks. The article uses these seemingly inappropriate preferences to discuss eighteenth-century notions of accuracy and precision in clocks. It analyses the multiple factors that influenced expectations regarding the performance of timekeeping instruments, and draws attention to handling and monitoring practices. The latter reflected the individual user's purposes and experience, but also affected the clocks' going. Furthermore, the article presents the result of a statistical analysis, which serves to evaluate the historical performance of the Saint Petersburg observatory clocks and provides a foil against which Delisle's judgement of them is examined.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"160-188"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139519576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2282778
Arthur Harris, Liba Taub
{"title":"Quantification and precision: a brief look at some ancient accounts.","authors":"Arthur Harris, Liba Taub","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282778","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2282778","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We explore the extent to which ancient Greek authors formulated concepts that approximate or encompass our modern notions of precision and accuracy. First, we focus on estimates and measurements of geographic features, astronomical times and positions, and weight. These raise further questions about whether the quantities reported were measured, estimated, or rounded. While ancient sources discuss the use of instruments, it is not always clear that the aim was to achieve what we would today regard as 'precision'. Next, we briefly consider round numbers, observing that they could carry symbolic meaning, while unrounded numbers could give an impression of hard-won achievement. Finally, we examine uses of the word <i>akribeia</i>. This is often translated as 'precision' or 'exactness', and Greek writers sometimes used <i>akribeia</i> to denote an ideal for their inquiries. A brief look at its uses by a number of Greek writers will on the one hand show the mismatch with our term 'precision', and on the other hand throw some light on the aims of Greek investigators.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"10-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139048223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2288142
Emily Akkermans
{"title":"Managing precision: how to use chronometers accurately at sea.","authors":"Emily Akkermans","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2288142","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2288142","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Marine chronometers, often considered precision instruments, proliferated in navigational practices during the nineteenth century. This paper examines their use in the hands of naval officers in the early-nineteenth century. It argues that both the instruments and their operators required careful management and regulation. In addition, officers learnt and adapted observatory practices relating to the process of data collection and management. Through these means, chronometric data was collected, organized, and reduced to negotiate accurate results.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"235-257"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138798649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Annals of SciencePub Date : 2024-01-01Epub Date: 2024-02-02DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2284340
Richard L Kremer
{"title":"Searching for precision: Lorenz Eichstadt's <i>Tabulae harmonicae coelestium motuum</i> (Stetin 1644) and astronomical prediction after Kepler.","authors":"Richard L Kremer","doi":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2284340","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00033790.2023.2284340","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the century between the creation of the first large, European astronomical observatory by Tycho Brahe in the 1580s and the national observatories of France and England in the 1660-1670s, astronomers constructed ever more sets of tables, derived from various geometrical and physical models, to compute planetary positions. But how were these tables to be evaluated? What level of precision or accuracy should be expected from mathematical astronomy? In 1644, the Stetin astronomer and calendar-maker Lorenz Eichstadt published a new set of tables, mostly cobbled together from earlier tables, which include a running commentary on how his tables might be expected to match 'observed' planetary positions. His earlier works also often display a rhetoric of 'exactitude' and 'error'. Eichstadt thus offers a case study of explicit discussions of 'precision' in mid-seventeenth astronomy. Although some tables could generate positions to arcseconds, Eichstadt argued that a regime of five arcminutes should be enough for most table users who were, presumably, computing horoscopes.</p>","PeriodicalId":8086,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Science","volume":" ","pages":"60-78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138298216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}