Familiar Science in Nineteenth-Century Britain

[Anon.], “Punch's information for the people. — No. 1”, Punch, 7 August 1841, 41.

“The age of intellect”, George Cruikshank, Scraps and sketches (London, 1828–34), page dated 20 May 1828.

See Cooter Roger Pumfrey Stephen , “Separate spheres and public places: Reflections on the history of science popularization and science in popular culture”, History of science , xxxii (1994), 237–67 for the classic introduction to these issues. Notable subsequent analyses include: Ruth Barton, “Just before Nature: The purposes of popularization in some English popular science journals of the 1860s”, Annals of science, lv (1998), 1–33; Cantor G. N. (eds.), Science in the nineteenth-century periodical: Reading the magazine of nature (Cambridge, 2004); Cantor Shuttleworth Sally (eds), Science serialized: Representations of the sciences in nineteenth-century periodicals (Cambridge, MA, 2004); Aileen Fyfe, Science and salvation: Evangelical popular science publishing in Victorian Britain (Chicago, 2004); Fyfe and Bernard Lightman (eds), Science in the marketplace: Nineteenth-century sites and experiences (Chicago, 2007); Louise Henson Culture and science in the nineteenth-century media (Aldershot, 2004); Lightman (ed.), Victorian science in context (Chicago, 1997); Lightman, Victorian popularizers of science: Designing nature for new audiences (Chicago, 2007); David Livingston and Charles J. Withers (eds), Geographies of nineteenth-century science (Chicago, 2011); James A. Secord, Victorian sensation: The extraordinary publication, reception, and secret authorship of Vestiges of the natural history of creation (Chicago, 2000); Jonathan R. Topham, “Beyond the ‘common context’: The production and reading of the Bridgewater Treatises”, Isis, lxxxix, 233–62, Topham, “Scientific publishing and the readership for science in early Victorian Britain”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, xxxi (2000), 559–612.

See Secord James A. , “Knowledge in transit”, Isis , cxv (2004), 654–72, especially pp. 670–1; the special section on “Focus: Historicising popular science”, Isis, c (2009), 310–68; Topham, “Publishing ‘popular science’ in early nineteenth-century Britain”, in Fyfe and Lightman, Science in the marketplace (ref. 3), 135–68.

For instance, the edited collections Fyfe and Lightman, Science in the marketplace (ref. 3); Livingston and Withers, Geographies of nineteenth-century science (ref. 3). Also see Buckland Adelene , Novel science: Fiction and the invention of nineteenth-century geology (Chicago, 2013); Daston Lorraine (ed.), Things that talk: Object lessons from art and science (Brooklyn, 2004); Ralph O'Connor, The earth on show: Fossils and the poetics of popular science, 1802–1856 (Chicago, 2007); Sadiah Qureshi, Peoples on parade: Exhibitions, empire, and anthropology in nineteenth-century Britain (Chicago, 2011).

Cohen Michele , “‘Familiar conversation’: The role of the ‘familiar format’ in education in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century England”, in Hilton Mary Shefrin Jill (eds); Educating the child in Enlightenment Britain: Beliefs, cultures, practices (Ashgate, 2009), 99–116.

See, for instance, de Chadarevian Soraya , “Laboratory science versus country house experiments: The controversy between Julius Sachs and Charles Darwin”, British journal for the history of science , xxix, 17–41; Melanie Keene, “From candles to cabinets: ‘Familiar chemistry’ in early Victorian Britain”, Ambix, lx (2013), 54–77; Donald L. Opitz, ‘“Behind folding shutters at Whittinghame House’: Alice Blanche Balfour (1850–1936), and amateur natural history”, Archives of natural history, xxxi (2004), 330–48; Simon Schaffer, “Physics laboratories and the Victorian country house”, in Smith Crosbie Jon Agar (eds), Making space for science: Territorial themes in the shaping of knowledge (Basingstoke, 1998); Ann B. Shteir, “Botany in the breakfast room: Women and early nineteenth-century British plant study”, in Abir-Am Pnina Dorinda Outram (eds), Uneasy careers and intimate lives: Women in science, 1789–1979 (New Brunswick, 1987).

[ Chambers Robert ], Vestiges of the natural history of creation (New York, 1860 edn), 5. See Secord, Victorian sensation (ref. 3), 98–100 for discussion of this opening paragraph.

[ Chambers ], Vestiges , 17. Secord argues that “the emphasis on ‘familiar knowledge’ continues through the first third of Vestiges”; and that “familiar images of birth, childhood, the family, and the home … are embedded throughout” (Secord, Victorian sensation (ref. 3), 100–1).

Darwin Charles , On the origin of species by means of natural selection (London, 1968 Burrow J.W. ed), see 81–89 for pigeons, and 459 for the entangled bank. Also see Gillian Beer, Darwin's plots: Evolutionary narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and nineteenth-century fiction (Cambridge, 2000 edn), chapter three on “Analogy, metaphor and narrative in The original, 73–96.

Topham Compare , “Publishing ‘popular science’” (ref. 4), 136.

Brewer Cobham Ebenezer , A guide to the scientific knowledge of things familiar (New York, 1865 edn). See Lightman, Victorian popularizers (ref. 3), 66, for more on the publishing history of Brewer's book.

Brewer , Things familiar (ref. 12), v.

Brewer , Things familiar (ref. 12), v; Lightman, Victorian popularizers (ref. 3), 66.

[SDUK], Exercises for the improvement of the senses (London, 1835), xiv.

Keene , “Object lessons: Sensory science education, 1830–1870”, unpublished PhD thesis (University of Cambridge, 2008).

Carter Anne Sarah , “On an object lesson, or don't eat the evidence”, Journal of the history of childhood and youth, iii (2010), 7–12.

Abbot Jacob , The little philosopher: For schools and families (Boston, 1833), 7. Emphasis original.

Carey Annie , Threads of knowledge, drawn from a cambric handkerchief; a Brussels carpet; a print dress; a kid glove; a sheet of paper (London, 1872), 74.

Quoted in Stone Harry , Dickens and the invisible world: Fairy tales, fantasy, and novel-making (London, 1980), 19.

For more on conversational works, see Amies Marion , “Amusing and instructive conversations: The literary genre and its relevance to home education”, History of education, xiv (1985), 87–99; Greg Myers, “Science for women and children: The dialogue of popular science in the nineteenth century”, in Nature transfigured: Science and literature, 1700–1900, ed. by Christie John Shuttleworth Sally (Manchester, 1989), 171–200.

Budgen L. M. , Episodes of insect life, i (London, 1849), 6.

Halsted Caroline A. , The little botanist: Or, Steps to the attainment of botanical knowledge (London, 1835), vii.

Edgeworth Maria Edgeworth Lovell Richard , Practical education (New York, 1835 edn), 536.

Edgeworth Edgeworth , Practical education (ref. 19), 525.

For more on (adult) scientific conversations and how they changed over the course of the nineteenth century, see Secord James A. , “How scientific conversation became shop talk”, in Fyfe Lightman , Science in the marketplace (ref. 4), 23–59.

Winterburn Emily , “The Herschels: A scientific family in training”, unpublished PhD thesis (Imperial College London, 2011).

Winterburn , “The Herschels” (ref. 27), 191.

Winterburn , “The Herschels” (ref. 27), 184. See Iwan Rhys Morus, “‘More the aspect of magic than anything natural’: The philosophy of demonstration”, in Fyfe and Lightman, Science in the marketplace (ref. 3).

Winterburn , “The Herschels” (ref. 27), 184.

[ Leigh Percival ], “The chemistry of a candle”, Household words , i (1850), 439–44; [Percival Leigh], “The laboratory in the chest”, Household words, i (1850), 565–9; [Percival Leigh], “The mysteries of a tea-kettle”, Household words, ii (1850), 176–81.

[ Dickens Charles ], “A preliminary word”, Household words, i (1850), 1.

[ Morley Henry ], “Our phantom ship on an antediluvian cruise”, Household words , iii (1851), 492–6; [ Morley Henry ], “The water-drops: A fairy-tale”, Household words, i (1850), 482–9.

Bernays Albert J. , Household chemistry (London, 1853), vii. See Keene, “From candles to cabinets” (ref. 7) for more on the successive editions of Bernays' book.

Faraday Michael , The chemical history of a candle (Oxford, 2011 Frank James edn).

[ Leigh Percival ], “The chemistry of a candle” (ref. 31), 439.

[ Leigh Percival ], “The chemistry of a candle” (ref. 31), 441.

[ Leigh Percival ], “The chemistry of a candle” (ref. 31), 440.

[ Leigh Percival ], “The chemistry of a candle” (ref. 31), 444.

See Keene , “Playing among the stars: Science in sport, or the pleasures of astronomy (1804)”, History of education, xl (2011), 521–42.

See Secord , “Shop talk” (ref. 21).

For instance, Halsted Caroline A. , Investigation; or, travels in the boudoir (London, 1837); Mary and Elizabeth Kirby, Aunt Martha's corner cupboard (London, 1875).

Freedgood Elaine , The ideas in things: Fugitive meaning in the Victorian novel (Chicago, 2006). Also see Bill Brown, A sense of things: The object matter of American literature (Chicago, 2003).

Griffiths Thomas , The writing-desk, and its contents (London, 1844).

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), v.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), v–vi.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 1–2.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 3.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 3.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 3.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 3.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 4.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 4.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 5.

Griffiths , Writing-desk (ref. 44), 5.

Smith Thomas , “A compendious system of astronomy”, in Smith , Scientific library (London, 1806), 24.

Flint Kate , The Victorians and the visual imagination (Cambridge, 2000), 63.

Huxley Henry Thomas , “On a piece of chalk”, in Barr Alan P. , The major prose of Thomas Henry Huxley (Athens, 1997), 154–73.

Layton David Prophet Bob Hodson Derek , “The science of common things: A case study in social control”, History of education, xvii (1988), 131–47.

Hunt Robert , “On familiar methods of instruction in science”, in [Anon.], Lectures in connection with the educational exhibition (London, 1854), 175–80, 178.

Huxley , “Chalk” (ref. 58), 154–73.

Huxley , “Chalk” (ref. 58), 154.

Huxley , “Chalk” (ref. 58), 154.

Knight David , “Getting science across”, British journal for the history of science, xxix (1996), 129–38, 136.

Bodmer George R. , “The technical illustration of Thomas Henry Huxley”, in Barr Alan P. , Thomas Henry Huxley's place in science and letters: Centenary essays (Athens, 1997), 277–95, 277.

Huxley , “Chalk” (ref. 58), 172.

Faraday , Candle (ref. 35), 1–2.

Babbage Charles , Passages from the life of a philosopher (London, 1864), 406–17.

O'Connor , Earth on show (ref. 5), 265. The classic account of these urban spectacles is Richard D. Altick, The shows of London (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, 1978). Victoria Carroll, “The natural history of visiting: Responses to Charles Waterton and Walton Hall”, Studies in history and philosophy of science Part C, xxxv (2004), 31–64, Sophie Forgan, “The architecture of display: Carla Nappi, Nature's museums: Victorian science and the architecture of display (Athlone, 1999).

Secord Anne , “Science in the pub: Artisan botanists in early nineteenth-century Lancashire”, History of science , xxxii (1994), 269–315, William J. Ashworth, “The calculating eye: Baily, Herschel, Babbage and the business of astronomy”, British journal for the history of science, xxvii (1994), 409–41.

“Report of Education Department, 1877–1878, 438–9”, quoted in Smith Frank , A history of English elementary education, 1760–1902 (London, 1931).

[Anon.], “Punch's information” (ref. 1).