Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experiment

If the twentieth century saw the rise of “Big Science,” then the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were surely an age of thrift. As Simon Werrett’s new history shows, frugal early modern experimenters transformed their homes into laboratories as they recycled, repurposed, repaired, and reused their material possessions to learn about the natural world.

Thrifty Science explores this distinctive culture of experiment and demonstrates how the values of the household helped to shape an array...