Chapter 38. Popular Science: Astronomy for Everyone
- popular science
- greatest works of science might be understood by every body
- ideal of self-made scientist
- physical sciences
- developed from technical foundation of professional learning of the past
- American ideals led them to exaggeration and confusions
- John Winthrop III (1714-1779)
- accomplished astronomer
- work not strikingly original
- brilliant teacher but added little of his own
- organized expedition to Newfoundland in 1761 for observation of the transit of Mars
- first American astronomy expedition
- first scientific expedition sponsored by college (Harvard)
- David Rittenhouse (1732-1796)
- seemed the American ideal of the undifferentiated man
- with Franklin, offered by follow colonists as a champion against the greats of Europe
- his career emphasized the narrowness of American science
- leading surveyor of his day
- led to justification of calling him Great American Astronomer
- drew boundaries of more than half the 13 colonies
- 1769 transit of Venus provided opportunity to establish respect for American science
- passed out from exhaustion at zero hour
- lucky guess produced from final figure close to actual distance from earth to sun
- Orrery
- working model of the solar system
- principal claim to fame of Rittenhouse
- welcomed as evidence that New World could compete with progress of Old
Chapter 39. Naive Insights and Ingenious Devices: Electricity
- Great genius was needed to exploit naivete in a subject as cumulative as physics
- Ben Franklin
- meager knowledge in physical sciences
- triumph of naivete over learning
- not at home in Newton's mathematical world
- amateur and non-academic frame of mind to his advantage
- Electricity
- where Franklin made his only physical discovery of lasting importance
- had least history of all sciences in 17th and 18th centuries
- Franklin's epochal assumption that all electricity was a single fluid.
- kite experiment was not a basic theoretical discovery
- clever practical expression of a single fluid theory
- Lightning rod
- description in Poor Richard's Almanac in 1713
- quickly took hold in America
- delays
- religious prejudice
- scientific conservatism
Chapter 40. Backwoods Farming
- English agricultural revolution
- enclosure
- fencing in of old common lands and pastures
- encouraged more capitalistic and efficient methods
- Jethro Tull
- invented drill for plantings seeds in a row
- Horse-Hoeing Husbandry (1733)
- peasants and small farmers slow to change
- had well taken hold by American
- revolution
- Agriculture in colonial America
- age of stagnation
- few improvements
- axe
- rifle
- farmers generally followed a rule of backwoods conservatism
- wanted "labor-saving" devices
- wasteful use of land
- widespread carelessness
- European travelers unanimous on American backwardness
- abundance of fish and game
- improved American diet
- no incentive to better husbandry
- many middle- and lower-class settlers unskilled hunters
- arriving colonists used any methods that would produce quick results
- Indian's primitive planting methods passed on
- corn exhausted the soil
- recurring colonial wars
- made planning difficult
- increased scarcity of manpower
- kept American farmer conservative
- range of farming problems
- heavy winters of northern colonies
- heat of Carolinas
- far wider divergence than found in England
- as many different kinds of bad husbandry as there were bad soils, crops, and climates
- each region had to learn its own lessons
- concerted effort to improve agriculture was lacking
- novelty of condition made English texts useless
- Progress came after Revolutionary War
Related posts:
The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel Boorstin, Book 1. The Vision and the Reality Part 1. A City Upon a Hill: The Puritans of Massachusetts. (12/8/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 2. The Inward Plantation: The Quakers of Pennsylvania. (12/10/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Part 3. Victims of Philanthropy: The Settlers of Georgia. (12/13/2014)
The Americans; The Colonial Experience, Part 4. Transplanters: The Virginians. (12/14/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 5: An American Frame of Mind. (12/17/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 6: Educating the Community
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 7: The Learned Lose Their Monopolies. (12/24/2014)
The Americans: The Colonial Experience. Book 2. Viewpoints and Institutions. Part 8: New World Medicine. (12/31/2014)
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