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From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security: Etienne Lenoir and the Transformation of Precision Instrument-Making in France 1760–1830 by A. J. Turner, and: Le Citoyen Lenoir: Scientific Instrument Making in Revolutionary France by J. A. Bennett

1992; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1992.0161

1097-3729

Deborah Jean Warner,

History and Developments in Astronomy

158 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Those prefabs were part of a long development that goes back to the time of Elizabeth I and climaxes during the gold rushes to Australia and California. The use of terras (Rhenish trass) as an ingredient of concrete is barely mentioned, although it was the forerunner (with Italian pozzolana) of modern concrete. The author does mention a “tarras shed” at Chatham before 1688 and a specification of 1690 that the Plymouth drydock be built of “stones laid in terras.” Trass makes a hard concrete that will set under water and is now indispensable for waterfront construction worldwide. The great mole protecting the naval convoy station at Tangier (1669), a facility evaluated by some as the greatest civil engineering project ever undertaken by Englishmen until that time, is hardly mentioned. It was built of huge “chests” of concrete made from Bay of Naples pozzolana. The book is generously illustrated but the dim quality of many old drawings as reproduced is disappointing. However, this landmark study will inspire future scholars to round out a shelf of books. Coad has created a mountain of scholarship. Well over a thousand foot­ notes, mostly referring to manuscript sources, attest to its originality; it is no mere piling up of technical detail. The Royal Navy’s building programs are set against a continually changing background of war and peace on the seas. The structures that remain today are respectable architecturally though they may not rank as masterpieces. Yet the Royal William Victualling Yard, Stonehouse (Plymouth, completed 1834), and the flour mill and bakery at Malta (built 1841-45) would be notable in any accounting of the world’s industrial architecture. Charles E. Peterson Mr. Peterson, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and commander (CEC) USNR (ret.), is a registered architect in Philadelphia specializing in the restoration of early buildings. Beginning in 1930, he was in charge of large programs for the U.S. National Park Service ranging from Saint Louis to Boston and the Virgin Islands. In 1941-46 he served with the U.S. Navy in the Bureau of Yards and Docks and finally as Chief of Advance Base Engineering on the Nimitz staff. From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security: Etienne Lenoir and the Transformation of Precision Instrument-Making in France 1760—1830. By A. J. Turner. Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1989. Pp. 107; illustrations, notes, appendixes, bibliogra­ phy, index. £10.00 (paper). Le Citoyen Lenoir: Scientific Instrument Making in Revolutionary France (exhibit catalog). By J. A. Bennett. Cambridge: Whipple Museum of the History of Science, 1989. Pp. 35; illustrations. £5.00 (paper). These two highly intelligent publications stem from an exhibition organized by the Whipple Museum to mark the bicentennial of the TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 159 French Revolution. From Pleasure and Profit to Science and Security, the fullest study to date of any French instrument maker, is a biography of Etienne Lenoir, the first Frenchman to rival the best of the London makers. Although personal details are scanty, extensive research in several French archives has yielded a wealth of information that enables A. J. Turner to set Lenoir’s business in a social, political, and economic context. Before the Revolution French scientists could not rely on the French instrument enterprise. The English instrument makers who dominated the world market were probably not better craftsmen, but they profited from a better work environment. Guild membership offered benefits but few restrictions. English instrument makers may not have been the social equals of scientists, but they were sometimes able to work with scientists on a somewhat equal basis. As argued in Science and Profit in 18th-Century London, an earlier Whipple publication, the rising consumer demands of the English gentry and bourgeoisie led to a wide demand for all sorts of instruments. In this context the leading English makers earned enough money to be able to tackle technologically sophisticated jobs that brought more recog­ nition than cash. By contrast, French makers endured the rigid social order of the ancien régime. They were excluded from the Académie des Sciences and thus from fruitful contact with scientists. Heavily dependent on a...