Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:07:11.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Hotel that Became an Observatory: Mount Faulhorn as Singularity, Microcosm, and Macro-Tool

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

David Aubin
David Aubin*
Affiliation:
Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Paris 6, Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Argument

One of the first high-altitude observatories was a hotel. Established in 1823, the chalet on Mount Faulhorn became a highpoint of nineteenth-century science. In this paper, I take this mountain as my entry point into the examination of the special attraction that mountains exerted on scientists. I argue that Mount Faulhorn stood for three different conceptions of the usefulness of the mountain in science: (1) in observation networks, stations were usually chosen for pragmatic rather than scientific reasons, but mountains represented singular spots in such networks, which deserved special attention; (2) the mountain also was a microcosm where altitude differences were thought to capture essential features of latitude differences; (3) the mountain was sometimes no more than a macro-tool for the pursuit of science, just a middle ground between the heaven and the earth.

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 365 - 386
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Anonymous. 1841. “Analyse comparative de l'air à Paris, à Berne et sur le Faulhorn.” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences 13:634–637.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1843. “De la géographie botanique.” Magazin pittoresque 11:282–284.Google Scholar
Arago, François. 1854–1862. Œuvres complètes de François Arago, 13 vols., edited by Barral, J.-A.. Paris: Gide and Leipzig; T. O. Weigel.Google Scholar
Aubin, David, Bigg, Charlotte, and Sibum, H. Otto, eds. Forthcoming. The Heavens on Earth: Observatory Practices in the Nineteenth Century. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Aubin, David. 2002. “Orchestrating Observatory, Laboratory, and Field: Jules Janssen, the Spectroscope, and Travel.” Nuncius 17:143–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aubin, David. 2003. “The Fading Star of the Paris Observatory in the Nineteenth Century.” Osiris 18:79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aubin, David, ed. 2006. “L'événement astronomique du siècle? Une histoire sociale des passages de Vénus, 1874–1882.” Special Issue of the Cahiers François Viète no. 11–12.Google Scholar
Audin, Jean-Mari-Vincent, Richard, dit. 1843. Manuel du voyageur en Suisse, new edition. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Bache, Alexander Dallas. 1841. “Observations of the Magnetic Intensity at Twenty-One Stations in Europe.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 7:75–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, Martin. 1836. Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc in 1834. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons; London: T. Cadell.Google Scholar
Beaumont, Élie de. 1865. Éloge historique d'Auguste Bravais, lu à la séance publique annuelle du 6 février 1865. Paris: Firmin Didot.Google Scholar
Bergson, Henri. [1907] 1998. Creative Evolution. Mineola, NY: Dover.Google Scholar
Bigg, Charlotte. 2005. “Das Panorama, oder La Nature A Coup d'Oeil.” Nach Feierabend 1:15–33.Google Scholar
Bischoff, Gustav. 1841. Physical, Chemical, and Geological Researches on the Internal Heat of the Globe, 2 vols. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans.Google Scholar
Bogue, David. 1852. Bogue's Guides for Traveller, vol. 2: Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy. London: David Bogue.Google Scholar
Bonneuil, Christophe. 1991. Des savants pour l'Empire. La structuration des recherches scientifiques coloniales au temps de>la mise en valeur des colonies françaises<, 1917–1945. Bondy: Ed. de l'ORSTOM.la mise en valeur des colonies françaises<, 1917–1945' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Des+savants+pour+l'Empire.+La+structuration+des+recherches+scientifiques+coloniales+au+temps+de%3Ela+mise+en+valeur+des+colonies+fran%C3%A7aises%3C%2C+1917%E2%80%931945&author=Bonneuil+Christophe&publication+year=1991>Google Scholar
Bourjot, Auguste. 1838. “Un tour dans les Alpes.” Revue littéraire 7:60–98; 377–419.Google Scholar
Bravais, Auguste. 1844. “Observations crépusculaires faites en Suisse, à une élévation de 2680 mètres au-dessus de la mer.” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences 18:727–729.Google Scholar
Bravais, Auguste, and Martins, Charles. 1844. “Expériences relatives à la vitesse du son dans l'atmosphère.” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences 19:1164–1174.Google Scholar
Bravais, Auguste, and Martins, Charles. 1845. “De la vitesse du son entre deux stations également ou inégalement élevées au-dessus du niveau de la mer.” Annales de chimie et de physique 13:5–28.Google Scholar
Brunner, C. 1830. “Ueber die Bestimmung des Wassergehaltes der Atmosphäre.” Annalen der Physik 96:274–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canales, Jimena. 2006. “Movement before Cinematography: The High-Speed Qualities of Sentiment.” Journal of Visual Culture 5:275–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, Kenneth J., Harper, Alfred E., and Olson, Robert E.. 1997. “Experiments that changed nutritional thinking.” Journal of Nutrition 127:1017S–1053S.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaudoir, Maximilien de, with Lasserre, M.. 1837. “Description de quelques genres nouveaux et de quelques espèces nouvelles ou inédites de carabiques.” Bulletin de la société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou, no. 3:3–18.Google Scholar
Culotta, Charles A. 1972. “Respiration and Lavoisier Tradition: Theory and Modification, 1777–1850.” Transaction of the American Philosphical Society 62:3–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drayton, Richard H. 2000. Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the ‘Improvement’ of the World. New Haven; Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dumas, Alexandre. 1982. Impressions de voyage en Suisse, 2 vols. Paris: François Maspero.Google Scholar
Felsch, Philipp. 2008. “Nach oben. Zur Topologie von Arbeit und Ermüdung im 19. Jahrhundert.” In Zeichen der Kraft: Wissensformationen 1800–1900, edited by Brandstetter, Thomas and Windgätter, Christof, 141–69. Berlin: Kadmos.Google Scholar
Findlen, Paula. 1994. Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Findlen, Paula. 2005. “The Two Cultures of Scholarship?” Isis 96:230–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Forbes, James David. 1842. “Théorie des glaciers.” Annales de chimie et physique 6:220–301.Google Scholar
Gieryn, Thomas F. 2006. “City as Truth-Spot: Laboratories and Field-Sites in Urban Studies.” Social Studies of Science 35:5–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Peter H. 1995. “Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the Invention of Mountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain.” Journal of British Studies 34:300–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heathman, William Grendon. 1855. Switzerland in 1854–55: A Book of Travel, Men, & Things. London: Hope and Co.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1817. “Des lignes isothermes et de la distribution de la chaleur sur le globe.” Mémoires de physique et de chimie de la Société d'Arcueil 3:462–602.Google Scholar
Humboldt, Alexander von. 1849–1858. Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universes, 5 vols., translated by Otté, C.. New York: Harper and Brothers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, Henry. [1875] 1986. Roderick Hudson. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Janssen, Jules. 1865. “Mémoire sur les raies telluriques du spectre solaire.” Archives des sciences physiques et naturelles 22:69.Google Scholar
Janssen, Jules. 1929–30. Œuvres scientifiques, 2 vols. Paris: Société d'éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales.Google Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1833a. “Über die täglischen Barometer auf dem Rigi und dem Faulhorn.” Annalen der Physik 103:345–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1833b. “Ergebnisse einer Reihe hygrometrischer Beobachtungen auf dem Rigi und dem Faulhorn.” Annalen der Physik 106:43–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1833c. “Beschreibung eines auf dem Faulhorne beobachteten Gewitters.” Journal für Chemie und Physik 59:310–315.Google Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1833d. “Meteorological Observations Made on the Summit of the Faulhorn in Switzerland.” Edinburgh New Philosophical Review 27:335–338.Google Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1840. Vorlesungen über Meteorologie, 3 vols. Halle.Google Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1843. Cours complet de météorologie, translated by Martin, Charles, with appendix by Léon Lalanne. Paris: Paulin.Google Scholar
Kämtz, Ludwig Friedrich. 1845. A Complete Course of Meteorology, translated by Walker, C. V.. London: H. Baillière.Google Scholar
Kohler, Robert E. 2002. Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology. Chicago: Chicago University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Gars, Stéphane. 2006. “Image et mesure: deux cultures aux origines de l'astrophysique française.” Cahiers François Viète 11–12:41–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Locher, Fabien. 2007. “The observatory, the land-based ship and the crusades: Earth sciences in European context, 1830–1850.” British Journal for History of Science 40:491–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martins, Charles. 1842. “Note sur le groupe du Faulhorn dans le canton de Berne.” Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 13:372–374.Google Scholar
Martins, Charles. 1843. “Remarques et expériences sur les glaciers sans névé de la chaîne du Faulhorn.” Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 14:133–45.Google Scholar
Martins, Charles. 1866. Du Spitzberg au Sahara. Étapes d'un naturaliste au Spitzberg, en Laponie, en Écosse, en Suisse, en France, en Italie, en Orient, en Égypte et en Algérie. Paris: J.-B. Baillière et fils.Google Scholar
Mazzotti, Massimo. Forthcoming. “The Jesuit on the Roof: Observatory Sciences, Metaphysics, and Nation-Building.” In Aubin, Bigg, and Sibum, forthcoming.Google Scholar
O'Flanagan, James Roderick. 1837. Impressions at Home and Abroad; or, A Year of Real Life, 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder and Co.Google Scholar
Packe, Charles. 1857. The Spirit of Travel. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Peltier, Athanase, and Bravais, Auguste. 1844. “Observations faites dans les Alpes sur la température de l'eau.” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences 18:572–583.Google Scholar
Peltier, Athanase. 1845. “Recherches sur les causes des variations barométriques.” Mémoires couronnés et mémoires des savants étrangers, publiés par l'Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Bruxelles 18:1–175 (separate pagination).Google Scholar
Raulin, Victor. 1863. “Sur les observations pluviométriques faites dans l'Aquitaine (Sud-ouest de la France) de 1714 à 1860. Appendice alpin.” Actes de l'Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Bordeaux 25:621–636.Google Scholar
Reclus, Élisée. 1880. Histoire d'une montagne. Paris: J. Hetzel.Google Scholar
Reichler, Claude, and Ruffieux, Roland. 2002. Le Voyage en Suisse. Paris: Laffont.Google Scholar
Russel, Colin Archibald. 1996. Edward Franklin: Chemistry, Controversy and Conspiracy in Victorian England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shelley, Marjorie. 1993. “‘Splendid Mountain,’ a sketchbook by the young John Singer Sargent.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 28:185–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephen, Leslie. 1871. The Playground of Europe. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Steward, Jill. 2005. “‘How and Where To Go’: The Role of Travel Journalism in Britain and the Evolution of Foreign Tourism, 1840–1914.” In Walton 2005, 39–54.Google Scholar
Tyndall, John. 1861. “From Lauterbrunnen to the Æggish-horn by the Lauwinen-thor.” Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1860, edited by Galton, Francis, 305–317. Cambridge: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Tyndall, John. 1871. Hours of Exercise in the Alps. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Urry, John. 2002. The Tourist Gaze, 2nd ed. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Verconsin, Eugène. 1881. “Une nuit au Faulhorn: épisode de voyage en un acte.” In Saynètes et monologues 5:69–101.Google Scholar
Walton, John K., ed. 2005. Histories of Tourism: Representation, Identity, and Conflict. Clavedon: Channel View Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Werrett, Simon. Forthcoming. “The Astronomical Capital of the World: Pulkovo Observatory in the Russia of Tsar Nicholas I.” In Aubin, Bigg and Sibum, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Widmalm, Sven. Forthcoming. Astronomy as Military Science: The Case of Sweden, ca. 1800–1850.” In Aubin, Bigg and Sibum, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Wild, H. 1860. “Bericht über die Einrichtung meteorologischer Stationen in den Kantonen Bern und Solothurn.” Mitteilungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Bern, no. 468:225–232.Google Scholar
Janssen Papers. Jules Janssen's Papers, Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris, Ms. 4125 to 4137.Google Scholar
Grand Saint-Bernard Archives. Archives de l'hospice du Grand Saint-Bernard, Switzerland. AGSB 120 to 124 <http://www.aasm.ch/agsb/0114.html> and AGSB Météo 01 to 16 <http://www.aasm.ch/agsb/meteo.html>. and AGSB Météo 01 to 16 .' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Grand+Saint-Bernard+Archives.+Archives+de+l'hospice+du+Grand+Saint-Bernard,+Switzerland.+AGSB+120+to+124++and+AGSB+Météo+01+to+16+.>Google Scholar
Janssen Papers. Jules Janssen's Papers, Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris, Ms. 4125 to 4137.Google Scholar
Grand Saint-Bernard Archives. Archives de l'hospice du Grand Saint-Bernard, Switzerland. AGSB 120 to 124 <http://www.aasm.ch/agsb/0114.html> and AGSB Météo 01 to 16 <http://www.aasm.ch/agsb/meteo.html>. and AGSB Météo 01 to 16 .' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Grand+Saint-Bernard+Archives.+Archives+de+l'hospice+du+Grand+Saint-Bernard,+Switzerland.+AGSB+120+to+124++and+AGSB+Météo+01+to+16+.>Google Scholar