Materialities of the scientific process. What can be learnt from the history of electricity in an old university town (original) (raw)
2016, Jahrbuch für Europäische Wissenschaftskultur ___ Yearbook for European Culture of Science 8 (2013-2015
The paper will compare and reflect on three different plots, all having to do with the history of electricity in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first plot is a classical history of science plot. It is the story of the world-wide-known discoveries concerning electricity that took place in Bologna from the times of Luigi Galvani (`animal electricity', 1791) to those of Guglielmo Marconi (`wireless telegraphy', 1895). This plot is an example of how the history of science could be bent to satisfy the needs of the professors and the public of an ancient university town like Bologna. The second plot is a history of technology plot, and also an economic his-tory and social history plot. It is the story of the slow take-off of electricity as an industry, paralleling the rise of the middle and working classes in a medium size, provincial town like Bologna. The third plot is the story of the collections of instruments illustrating the history of electricity that were assembled, dispersed, and reassembled in town to celebrate science and technology in the public sphere. Systematic comparisons among these three plots will be used to reflect on the different materialities in which science is involved, and on the pleasures and dangers of what has been called the `museification' of science.
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This article aims to analyze the reports written by Italian workers during their visits to the World Expositions of the Nineteenth century. The stories of the workers express at the same time the astonishment and the enthusiasm face to face with the latest "wonders" of progress. The relationship with technology and with the machines is one of the most recurrent topics in the accounts of workers. The new machines and new technologies are described with metaphors that range from the mysterious to the fantastic, as “fairies” or as “monstrous devices”. On the one hand, technology has a spectacular value in itself and it summarises the essential values - of the idea of progress. It is the pivotal subject of the message conveyed by the exhibitions, and the workers are very interested to this subject. In their writings, they express, in an naive and innocent way, their amazement at the phantasmagoric demiurgic strength of technology, especially when it appears as a direct expression of science. Electrical energy may be considered as an emblematic case in this regard, as it only becomes visible through technological applications. Through the spectacular play of lights arranged for the Exhibition, electricity comes to represent the triumph of science and takes on a metaphorical value. Indeed, it personifiees the deepest values and the most typical ideas of progress itself. On the other hand, the Exhibition is the place where workers’ professional profile is greatly undermined. The reactions, as we have seen, are numerous and varied, but rarely take the form of an uncritical acceptance or a radical opposition. By far the most common reaction is a cautious and critical approval, accepting the dominant message of positivity and strength of the technology and the inevitability of scientific and technical progress, but at the same time strongly suggesting the theme of the preservation and protection of workers’ prerogatives.
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Makers of scientific instruments in a little Italian town
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