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The observatory, the land-based ship and the crusades: earth sciences in European context, 1830–50

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2007

FABIEN LOCHER
FABIEN LOCHER
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherches Historiques (EHESS-CNRS), 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The 1830s and 1840s witnessed a European movement to accumulate data about the terrestrial environment, enterprises including the German and British geomagnetic crusades. This movement was not limited to geomagnetic studies but notably included an important meteorological component. By focusing on observation practices in sedentary and expeditionary contexts, this paper shows how the developing fields of geomagnetism and meteorology were then intimately interlinked. It analyses the circulation and cross-connections of the practices and discourses shared by these two research fields. Departing from a Humboldtian historiography, the paper especially stresses the role of Adolphe Quetelet, director of the Brussels Observatory, whose importance in the development of the earth sciences has until now been largely neglected. It reassesses the involvement of the French scientific community in the British and German geomagnetic crusades, moving beyond the well-known account of Arago's opposition to these undertakings. It is hoped thereby to contribute to a better historical understanding of the renewal of the earth sciences in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 491 - 504
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2007

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References

1  See S. F. Cannon, Science in Culture: The Early Victorian Period, New York, 1978; Cawood, J., ‘Terrestrial magnetism and the development of international collaboration in the early nineteenth century’, Annals of science (1977), 34, 551–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘The magnetic crusade: science and politics in early Victorian Britain’, Isis (1979), 70, 493–518; and M. Dörries, ‘La Standardisation de la balance de torsion dans les projets européens sur le magnétisme terrestre’, in Restaging Coulomb: Usages, controverses et réplications autour de la balance de torsion (ed. C. Blondel and M. Dörries), Florence, 1994, 121–50.

2  Herschel lived at the Cape from January 1834 to May 1838. See D. S. Evans et al., Herschel at the Cape: Diaries and Correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838, Austin and London, 1969.

3  See ‘Second report of the Meteorological Committee of the South African Literary and Scientific Institution’, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (1836), 21, 239–46.

4  See Cawood, ‘The magnetic crusade’, op. cit. (1), 507.

5  See H. Elkhadem, ‘La Correspondance d'Adolphe Quetelet avec sir John Herschel: un exemple de la richesse du fond Quetelet’, in Adolphe Quetelet (Académie Royale de Belgique), Bruxelles, 1975, 46–58. Quetelet knew personally the main members of the BAAS. He was present at the second annual meeting of the association, at Oxford in 1832, and was correspondent of the BAAS from 1834. See J. Morell and A. Thackray, Gentlemen of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Oxford, 1981, 291–6, 372–86.

6  On Quetelet see M. Lebrun, Adolphe Quetelet, l'oeuvre sociologique et démographique, Bruxelles, 1974; H. Hankins, Adolphe Quetelet as Statistician, New York, 1908; the papers in Adolphe Quetelet, op. cit. (5); and in Académie Royale de Belgique, Actualité et universalité de la pensée scientifique d'Adolphe Quetelet, Bruxelles, 1997.

7  Belgium definitively became independent in 1830.

8  These fifty-seven texts dealt with shooting stars (twelve), terrestrial temperature (eight), ‘periodic observations’ (meteorology and geomagnetism) (six), meteorology (six), geomagnetism (six), astronomy (five), geodesy (four), necrologies (four), social statistics (three), plants and animals (two) and tides (one).

9  Herschel to Quetelet, 8 June 1836. See Correspondance mathématique et physique (1838), 3rd series, 10, 1, 183 (translation by Quetelet).

10  See A. Quetelet, ‘Sur l'Etat du magnétisme terrestre’, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Bruxelles (1842), 1–40 (and particularly 5). On the connections between Quetelet and Gauss see D. Aubin, ‘Astronomical precision in the laboratory: the role of observatory techniques in the history of the physical sciences’, in Grundzüge über die Anlage neuer Sternwarten unter Beziehung auf die Sternwarte der Universität Göttingen (ed. Georg Heinrich Borheck), Göttingen, 2005, 31–5.

11  It seems that he was in difficulty at the Brussels academy, where the costs of publication were disputed.

12  Quoted in Cawood, ‘The magnetic crusade’, op. cit. (1), 512.

13  His job was to describe the Scandinavian countries: ways of life, customs, arts and literature, and to write an account of the expedition.

14  For biographical information see individual files ‘Bravais (Auguste)’, Historical Service of the French Navy, Paris, and Archives nationales, Paris, Légion d'Honneur 35415; L. Elie de Beaumont, Eloge historique d'Auguste Bravais, Paris, 1865. See also M. H. Reynaud, Auguste Bravais: De la Laponie au Mont-Blanc, Annonay, 1991.

15  In the 1830s Poisson was concerned with thermal diffusion. The formal elegance of Fourier's works is often opposed to the laborious developments of Poisson. See R. Fox, The Culture of Science in France 1700–1900, Aldershot, 1992, 121–2.

16  See MSs 166, 238, 247 and 3303, manuscript department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

17  J. M. Drouin has studied Charles Martins as a popularizer of botanical geography; see J. M. Drouin, ‘Comprendre et dominer le monde végétal. La Vulgarisation de la géographie botanique au XIXème siècle’, in La Maîtrise du milieu (ed. P. Acot), Paris, 1994, 40–57. For biographical information about Charles Martins see individual file ‘Martins (Charles)’, Archives nationales, Paris, Légion d'Honneur 176997, and the manuscript entitled ‘Rapport sur les travaux scientifiques de Charles Martins’, Decaisne Papers, Institut de France, Paris, MS 2452.

18  Martins, C., ‘Essai sur la topographie botanique du Mont Ventoux en Provence’, Annales des sciences naturelles botanique (1838), 10, 129–58Google Scholar, 228–77.

19  The proposal was not unusual. Hélène Blais notes the same call for cooperation between naturalists and ‘geometrician–physicists’ in other French scientific expeditions of the first half of the century. See H. Blais, ‘Les Voyages français dans le Pacifique. Pratique de l'espace, savoirs géographiques et expansion coloniale (1815–1845)’, Ph.D. dissertation No. 2000EHES0049, EHESS, Paris, 2000, 366.

20  On the expedition of La Recherche, see Voyages de la commission scientifique du Nord, en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg et aux Feroë pendant les années 1838, 1839, et 1840 sur la corvette la Recherche, commandée par M. Fabvre …, 17 vols., Paris, 1843–55; A. Fabvre, Retour en France sur la corvette la Recherche, commandée par M. Fabvre … rapport de cet officier sur cette seconde campagne dans les mers du nord et au Spitzberg, Paris, 1839; P. Gaimard, Du Spitzberg, souvenirs de voyage à Bell Sound et à Magdalena Bay, Paris, 1839; see also the logbook of La Recherche (1838–9), Archives nationales, Paris, 4JJ 148.2.

21  Herschel, J., ‘Instructions for making and registering observations in southern Africa, and other countries in the south seas, and also at sea’, Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (1836), 21, 135–49Google Scholar.

22  Delcros to Quetelet, 25 September 1840. Archives of the Royal Academy of Brussels, Brussels, MS 804.

23  L. Elie de Beaumont, ‘Eloge historique d'Auguste Bravais’, Mémoires de l'Académie des sciences de l'Institut de France (1866), 43.

24  It included barometric, thermometric and hygrometric observations (with a Fortin barometer and a Saussure hygrometer). A barometer-attached thermometer was also observed.

25  L. F. Ramond, Mémoires sur la formule barométrique de la Mécanique céleste, et les dispositions de l'atmosphère qui en modifient les propriétés, Clermont-Ferrand, 1811, 163–262.

26  F. Arago, Oeuvres complètes, 12 vols., Paris, 1858, viii, 185.

27  See Archives of the Paris Observatory, Paris, F1/9 to 21 (1785–1823), and F2/1 to 26 (1823–71).

28  See F. Locher, ‘Le Nombre et le temps. La Météorologie en France (1830–1880)’, Ph.D. dissertation, EHESS, Paris, 2004, 52–8, and Sheynin, O. B., ‘On the history of the statistical method in meteorology’, Archive for History of Exact Science (1984), 31, 53–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29  See P. S. Laplace, Mécanique céleste, 4 vols., Paris, 1805, iv, 310–14; Laplace, P. S., ‘De l'Action de la Lune sur l'atmosphère’, Annales de chimie et de physique (1823), 24, 280–94.Google Scholar

30  There was a ‘meteorological watch’ organized on board during the expedition of L'Uranie in 1817–20 (observations every two hours), onboard La Coquille in 1822–5 (observations every three hours, 3 a.m. excepted, during two and a half years), and aboard La Vénus in 1836–9 (observations every hour, during two and a half years).

31  Gambey's compasses were carried from France and the magnetometers from Stockholm Observatory. At Bossekop the Scandinavians taught Lottin and Bravais to use them (they were the main observers in magnetometry, but everybody except Bevalet took part in the observations). So observational expertise in magnetometry was transmitted during the over-wintering from Scandinavian to French scientists.

32  Martins to Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 25 November 1839. Archives of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, Bertrand archival fund.

33  A. Bravais and C. Martins, ‘Comparaisons barométriques faites à Bruxelles et dans le nord de l'Europe’, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Bruxelles (1841), 31–78.

34  Bravais and Martins, op. cit. (33), 71.

35  At Bossekop Bravais wrote to Martins that he felt confident about the system of the ‘meteorological watch’ because it produced mean values which were exempt from this kind of error. Bravais to Martins, 31 December 1838. Manuscript department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, MS 3303.

36  Bravais and Martins, op. cit. (33), 36.

37  Before reading the height of the mercury column in the tube of a Fortin barometer, it is necessary to adjust the mercury level in the cistern so that it coincides with the tip of an ivory reference screw.

38  Bravais and Martins, op. cit. (33), 52.

39  He was then lecturer in applied mathematics in the Faculty of Science of Lyon.

40  Delcros to Quetelet, February 1841 (received), and 24 March 1841. Archives of the Royal Academy of Brussels, Brussels, MS 804.

41  See I. Hacking, The Taming of Chance, Cambridge, 1990, and particularly the chapter entitled ‘Bureaux’, 27–35.

42  Bravais to Gaimard, undated. Manuscript department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, MS 330. Lottin to Gaimard, 8 October 1838. Manuscript department of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS 3303.

43  See, for example, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale de Bruxelles (1842) (graphic plates at the end of the volume).

44  Bravais and Martins, op. cit. (33), 52.

45  Jankovic, V., ‘Ideological crests versus empirical troughs: John Herschel's and William Radcliffe Birt's research on atmospheric waves, 1843–50’, BJHS (1998), 31, 21–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46  See A. Quetelet, Sur le Climat de la Belgique, Bruxelles, 1851, Section 4.2: ‘des ondes atmosphériques’.

47  Jankovic, op. cit. (45).

48  See Bulletin de l'Académie Royale des Sciences de Bruxelles, 4 April 1840.

49  See Locher, op. cit. (28), Chapter 5.