Seventeenth Century Science

• slowdown in the development of science in England in the late 17^th century
• Bernal attributes this slowdown primarily to social and economic factors, namely a new class of merchants had arisen who were less enterprising and more interested in secure investments like land
• There are other explanations:
• Newton’s science was close to complete and authoritative, so there was little new work to do and many people spent their time working out his ideas
• The immediate benefits of science had been achieved in navigation, subsequent developments took longer
• The class of manufacturers were not knowledgeable about or interested in scientists like the gentlemen scholars of the early 17^th century
• Scientific societies did emerge in new places, like Sweden, Russia and Prussia

Scientific Developments in the 18^th Century

• Bernal argues that science increased in scope rather than depth in this period
• The study of electricity was increased, originally for tricks and public demonstrations, but later for practical uses
• Botany was also developed, moving away from its primary focus on medicinal uses
• 18^th century scientific work was concerned with working out an accepted worldview (Newton’s), rather than establishing it against existing views
• The primary contribution of scientists in the 17^th century had been to navigation, they added little to manufacturing or agriculture
• Political changes also led to changes in science, for example in France, the Revolution led to changes in weights and measures to introduce the metric system and educational reforms that included science

Science and the Nineteenth Century

• The discovery of aniline artificial dyes in the 19^th century led to an expansion of the textile industry, and the destruction of natural dye economies like India’s
• Improvements in chemistry also led to better fertilizers and the use of anesthetics in medicine
• The nineteenth century saw the rise of specialized scientific societies, disciplines and journals, as well as the embracing of science by the universities
• Science had been transferred from the province of the wealthy amateur to that of the middle class professional
• There were interesting interactions between science and industry in the nineteenth century, for example, thermodynamics expanded through the use of data from steam engine operation
• By the late 19^th century you begin to see many of the outlines of modern industry, the application of science to all areas of production, the appearance of larger firms and conglomerates, the application of science to war on a large scale, and the rise of the industrial research laboratory

Precursors to the Industrial Revolution

• At the beginning of the industrial revolution England had:
• Agricultural technologies that emerged from population and land deficit (plow, horse collar, field rotation, hydraulic engineering), increased surplus, freed up labor for manufacturing
• Started to use pit coal rather than charcoal, which allowed for the development of steam engines
• An intense handicraft industry with division of labour (this predated the use of machinery)
• Established universities, professional organizations, guilds
• Established (poor) road infrastructure (horses & carts) & waterways for transport of goods and people
• A resource base in distant colonies, and the ability to bring resources home (navigation, astronomy, telescopes, ships, nation states)
• Machines (mills, metallurgy, clocks, printing press), individuals skilled with them
• There has been disagreement about the timing, the scope and the magnitude of the industrial revolution, but most historians agree that profound changes occurred in the eighteenth century
• In terms of raw output of manufactured goods, there were huge jumps in the end of the eighteenth century
• The industrial revolution represented a culmination of a long process of growth, one fed by the development of international markets and colonial acquisition of resources.