In this Book
- Scientists and Swindlers: Consulting on Coal and Oil in America, 1820–1890
- Book
- 2008
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Series: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology
summary
In this impressively researched and highly original work, Paul Lucier explains how science became an integral part of American technology and industry in the nineteenth century. Scientists and Swindlers introduces us to a new service of professionals: the consulting scientists. Lucier follows these entrepreneurial men of science on their wide-ranging commercial engagements from the shores of Nova Scotia to the coast of California and shows how their innovative work fueled the rapid growth of the American coal and oil industries and the rise of American geology and chemistry. Along the way, he explores the decisive battles over expertise and authority, the high-stakes court cases over patenting research, the intriguing and often humorous exploits of swindlers, and the profound ethical challenges of doing science for money.Starting with the small surveying businesses of the 1830s and reaching to the origins of applied science in the 1880s, Lucier recounts the complex and curious relations that evolved as geologists, chemists, capitalists, and politicians worked to establish scientific research as a legitimate, regularly compensated, and respected enterprise. This sweeping narrative enriches our understanding of how the rocks beneath our feet became invaluable resources for science, technology, and industry.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- List of Illustrations
- pp. ix-x
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xiii
- PART 1. COAL
- Chapter 1. Geological Enterprise
- pp. 11-40
- Chapter 3. The American Sciences of Coal
- pp. 69-107
- Chapter 4. Mining Science
- pp. 108-140
- PART 2. KEROSENE
- Chapter 6. The Kerosene Cases
- pp. 162-185
- PART 3. PETROLEUM
- Chapter 7. The Rock Oil Report
- pp. 189-207
- Chapter 10. California Crude
- pp. 273-312
- Epilogue: Americanization of Science
- pp. 313-323
- Essay on Sources
- pp. 397-409
Additional Information
ISBN
9781421402857
Related ISBN(s)
9780801890031
MARC Record
OCLC
612809998
Pages
448
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No