Instrumentation Between Science, State and Industry

271 Pages·2001·24.438 MB·English

by  Bernward Joerges, Terry Shinn (auth.), Bernward Joerges, Terry Shinn (eds.)

INSTRUMENTATION
BETWEEN SCIENCE, STATE AND INDUSTRY
Sociology of the Sciences
VOLUME XXII
Managing Editor:
Peter Weingart, Universitiit Bielefeld, Germany
Editorial Board:
Yaron Ezrahi, The Israel Democracy institute, Jerusalem, Israel
Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Bemward Joerges, WissenschaJtszentrum Berlin, Germany
Everett Mendelsohn, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Yoichiro P. Murakami, University of Tokyo, Japan
Helga Nowotny, STWETH-Zentrum, Zurich, Switzerland
Hans-Joerg Rheinberger, Max-Planck Institut fur Wissenschaftsgeschichte,
Berlin, Germany
Terry Shinn, GEMAS Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, France
Richard D. Whitley, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester,
United Kingdom
Bjoem Wittrock, SCASSS, Uppsaia, Sweden
The titles published in this series are listed at the end oft his volume.
INSTRUMENTATION
BETWEEN SCIENCE,
STATE AND INDUSTRY
Edited by
BERNWARD JOERGES
Wissenschajtszentrum Berlin fUr SoziaLJor.schung, (WZB) and
Technische Universitiit Berlin, Germany
and
TERRY SHINN
Sociology and History ofS cience,
CNRSIGEMAS, Paris, France
~.
"
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
DORDRECHT/BOSTON/LONDON
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-13 :978-1-4020-0242-7 e-ISBN-13:978-94-01 0-9032-2
001: 10.1007/978-94-010-9032-2
Transferred to Digital Print 200 I
Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A.
In all other countries, sold and distributed
by Kluwer Academic Publishers,
P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Printed on acid-free paper
All Rights Reserved
© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1 A FRESH LOOK AT INSTRUMENTATION:
AN INTRODUCTION
Bernward Joerges and Terry Shinn
Research-Technology 2
Science and Society 4
Science and Engineering 5
Theory and Experiment 6
A Specific Kind of Instrumentation 7
Interstitial Communities 7
Generic Devices 9
Metrology 9
Dis-Embedding, Re-Embedding 10
The Book 11
PART I ORIGINS OF THE RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY
COMMUNITY
Chapter 2 FROM THEODOLITE TO SPECTRAL APPARATUS:
JOSEPH VON FRAUNHOFER AND THE INVENTION OF A
GERMAN OPTICAL RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY 17
Myles W. Jac/own
Fraunhofer's Metrology of Optical Glass Manufacturing 18
The Practice of Secrecy: Public and Private Knowledge at
Cloister Benediktbeuem 20
The Invention of a Research-Technological Tradition 22
Conclusion 26
Chapter 3 THE RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY MATRIX:
GERMAN ORIGINS, 1860--1900 29
Terry Shinn
The Backdrop 31
The Deutsche Gesellschaft filr Mechanik und Optik 33
v
vi TABLE of CONTENTS
Prosopography 36
Staatliche Forschung 37
Academia 39
Industry 40
Artisans and Consultancy 41
Engineering 42
Instrument Politics 43
Conclusions: Trajectory and Structure 45
PART II INTERSTITIAL WORLDS
Chapter 4 DISPLACING RADIOACTIVITY 51
Xavier Roque
The Uses of Accumulation 52
The Curie Laboratories and the Radium Industry 55
The Metrology of Radioactivity 58
The Institut du Radium as a "Generic Institution" 60
Conclusion 63
Chapter 5 STRANGE COOPERATIONS: THE U.S. RESEARCH-
TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE, 1900-1955 69
Terry Shinn
Success and Paradox, 1900-1930 71
A Narrow-Niche Ground-Swell 72
ANew Focus 74
The Review of Scientific Instruments 75
Instrument Citation 77
Research-Technology versus Narrow-Niche Instruments 79
Narrow-Niche Initiatives 79
The Instrument Publishing Company 80
The Instrument Society of America 82
Strange Cooperations 84
Crossing Boundaries 86
Men out of Academia 87
Men out ofIndustry 91
Exit 93
TABLE of CONTENTS vii
Chapter 6 MEDIATING BETWEEN PLANT SCIENCE AND PLANT
BREEDING: THE ROLE OF RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY 97
Patricia Nevers, Raimund Hasse, Rainer Hohlfeld,
and Walther Zimmerli
The Emergence of Research-Technology in Plant Genetics and
Plant Breeding in Germany (1900-1990): A Case Study 98
Plant Genetics and Plant Breeding in the 1990s 100
Three Types of Research 101
Research-Technology in the Form of Plant- Gene Technology and
Plant-Cell Biology 103
Organizational Structures and Processes - Managing
Heterogeneous Networks 103
Research Practice - Developing Generic Devices 105
Interpretational Framework - Competing Repertoires 109
Between Theory-Oriented and Product-Oriented Plant Biology 111
Theory-Oriented Research 111
Product-Oriented Research 112
The Role of Research-Technology in Biology and Its Future 115
PART ill PURVIEWS OF GENERIC INSTRUMENTS
Chapter 7 IN SEARCH OF SPACE: FOURIER SPECTROSCOPY,
1950-1970 121
Sean F. Johnston
The Technology and Its Proponents 122
Finding a Common Line: The 1957 Bellevue Conference 127
New Communities and Their Patrons 128
Provoking Opposition 129
Tactics of the Fourier Community 130
Fate of the Community 138
Conclusion 139
ChapterS PUTTING ISOTOPES TO WORK: LIQUID SCINTILLATION
,
COUNTERS, 1950-1970 143
Hans-Jorg Rheinberger
Radiolabels in Biological and Medical Research 145
Early Steps in Radiation Measurement 147
Liquid Scintillation Counting 149
Vlll TABLE of CONTENTS
Testing a Commercial Prototype 152
Automation: Making the Instrument Work for "Inexperienced
Personnel" 158
Between Industry and Customers 164
An ,Interdisciplinary and International Network 166
Instead of a Conclusion 170
Chapter 9 MAKING MICE AND OTHER DEVICES: THE DYNAMICS
OF INSTRUMENTATION IN AMERICAN BIOMEDICAL
RESEARCH (1930-1960) 175
Jean-Paul Gaudilliere
Patronage and Instruments in the 1930s: The Rockefeller
Foundation, Ultracentrifuges and Mice 176
Making Ultracentrifuges 177
The Jackson Laboratory and the Origins oflnbred Mice 178
Scientific Mobilization During the War: Electron Microscopy and
Big Biomedicine 180
Postwar Research-Technology: Mass Production, Instrument-
Centered Research and Flexible Uses of Mice 183
Screening Drugs and Producing Mice 184
From Quantity to Quality: Making Mouse Mutants at the
Jackson Laboratory 186
Research-Technology, Standard Mice and Flexible Uses 189
Conclusion 192
PART IV STANDARDIZED LANGUAGES
Chapter 10 FROM DYNAMOMETERS TO SIMULATIONS:
TRANSFORMING BRAKE TESTING TECHNOLOGY INTO
ANTILOCK BRAKING SYSTEMS 199
Ann Johnson
False Hopes: The Inertia Dynamometer 200
Skidding and the Research PrograQls of the Road Research
Laboratory 202
Enter Dunlop Rubber Company 205
Formation of a Research-Technology Community 208
Constraints and Problems in Brake Testing 212
Bridging the Gap from Research-Technology to Antilock Braking
Systems 213
TABLE of CONTENTS ix
Chapter 11 FROM THE LABORATORY TO THE MARKET: THE
METROLOGICAL ARENAS OF RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY 219
Alexandre Mallard
From Atmospheric Chemistry to Urban Pollution Monitoring 221
DOAS as a Research-Technology 223
The Calibration of DO AS Instruments: A Metrological Puzzle 225
Experimental Metrology in Action 227
Official Metrology and the Practices of Precision 230
A Market for DOAS Instruments 233
Research-Technology and the Diversity of Metrological Arenas 236
IN CONCLUSION
Chapter 12 RESEARCH-TECHNOLOGY IN mSTORICAL PERSPECTNE:
AN ATTEMPT AT RECONSTRUCTION 241
Bernward Joerges and Terry Shinn
The Place of Research-Technology in Social Studies of Science
and Technology 241
Discipline-Related Science and Technology Studies .242
Transitory Science and Technology Studies 243
Transverse Science and Technology Studies 244
Generic Instrumentation, Divisions of Labor and Differentiation 245
Generic Instrumentation, Re-Embedding and Cohesion 246
Bibliography of Selected References 249
List of Contributors 259
Bibliographical Notes on Contributors 261
Author Index 265
CHAPTER 1
BERNWARD JOERGESa AND TERRY SHINNb
A FRESH LOOK AT INSTRUMENTATION
AN INTRODUCTION
In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, the American Jesse Beams (1898-1977) developed the
modem ultra-centrifuge (Elzen 1986; Gordy 1983). The device and the man do not fit
neatly into any standard institutional, professional, or intellectual mold. Long-time
chairman of the University of Virginia physics department, Beams also sponsored
two firms, acted as a key consultant to four additional companies, participated in the
Manhattan Project, worked for the military during the 1940s and 50s, and contributed
to numerous NSF science programs. Beams was not the classical academic, engjneer,
entrepreneur, nor technical consultant. Although often located at or near the Univer
sity of Virginia, his principal connection to that academic institution was the huge and
well-equipped workshops that he developed there during decades of arduous en
deavor (Brown 1967).
Beams' ultra-centrifuge had a parallel life. The ultra-centrifuge was a by-product
of his 1924 doctoral dissertation which focused on rapidly rotating mechanical sys
tems. Assigned by his thesis director to investigate the time interval of quantum ab
sorption events, Beams developed a high-speed rotating technique for the accurate
measurement of very short intervals of time. This device, and not the study of physi
cal phenomena, was the centerpiece of his successful dissertation. An interest in mul
tipurpose, multi-audience technical apparatus rather than a focus on the stuff of the
physical world emerged as Beams' guiding logic. Yet this focus did not make Beams
an engineer or technologist in the usual sense of the term.
His initial devices employed air-driven turbines. However, their performance was
limited by mechanical factors as well as by air friction. He first augmented speed by
introducing a flexible drive-shaft which allowed for adjustments in the center of grav
ity, thereby mUltiplying rotating capacity. He next placed the rotating vessel inside a
vacuum, thereby eliminating air friction. But nonetheless shaft mechanics continued
to restrict performance. To solve this, Beams employed magnets to spin his vessel.
The vessel was suspended inside a vacuum, thanks to a magnet-based servomecha
nism. This constituted his consummate ultra-centrifuge which rotated at previously
unheard-of rates.
B. Joerges and T. Shinn (eds.), Instrumentation: Between Science, State and Industry, 1-13.
@ 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.