An Institute for an Empire: The Psysikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, 1871-1918

by David Cahan

Overview

An Institute for an Empire is the first scholarly study of one of the world's foremost scientific institutions, the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt (PTR) in Imperial Germany. The Reichsanstalt stood at the forefront of institutional innovation in science and technology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, uniting diverse practitioners and representatives of physics, technology, industry, and the state. It demonstrated how physics and industrial technology could help build a modem society and a modem nation-state. Moreover, it encouraged and helped inaugurate the era of Big Science. Professor Cahan also discusses the Reichsanstalt's leaders and scientists, including Wemer von Siemens and Hermann von Helmholtz, as well as its scientific and technological work. Among the Reichsanstalt's many accomplishments were contributions to the new quantum physics, development of physical standards and measuring instruments for science, industry, and the state, and testing work for a variety of German industries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521525190
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/23/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of tables; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; German institutions, organizations, and agencies; Introduction; 1. Physics and empire; 2. Rift in the foundations; 3. Between charisma and bureaucracy; 4. Masters of measurement; 5. The search for reform; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

The Imperial Institute of Physics & Technology (Berlin) was about a generation pre-eminent in the world of institutionalized pure and applied physics. It gave us quantum mechanics. And it set the pattern upon which many other now-famous institutions were based. Drawing for the first time upon a rich store of archival materials, the author provides an absorbing account of the strong personalities and circumstances which shaped the emergence and eventual decline of an institution which was in some ways a victim of its own success. Many figures, 47 pages of notes, and a bibliography which runs to 27 pages. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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