Spectrum of Belief: Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

Spectrum of Belief: Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology) by Jackson, Myles W.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780262100847.

In the nineteenth century, scientific practice underwent a dramatic transformationfrom personal endeavor to business enterprise. In Spectrum of Belief, Myles Jackson explores thistransformation through a sociocultural history of the rise of precision optics in Germany. He usesthe career of the optician Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787-1826) to probe the relationship betweenscience and society, and between artisans and experimental natural philosophers, during thisimportant transition.Fraunhofer came from a long line of glassmakers. Orphaned at age eleven, theyoung apprentice moved in with his master, the court decorative glass cutter. At age nineteen, boredwith his work and angered by his masters refusal to allow him to study optical theory, Fraunhofertook a position at the Optical Institute assisting in the manufacture of achromatic lenses. Withinten years he was producing the worlds finest achromatic lenses and prisms.Housed in an oldBenedictine monastery, Fraunhofers laboratory mirrored the labor of the monks. Because of hissecrecy (after his death, even those who had worked most closely with him could not achieve hissuccess), British experimental natural philosophers were unable to reproduce his work. This secrecy,while guaranteeing his institutes monopoly, thwarted Fraunhofers attempts to gain credibilitywithin the scientific community, which looked down on artisanal work and its clandestine practicesas an affront. The response to the ensuing rise of German optical technology sheds light on crucialsocial, economic, and political issues of the period, such as mechanization, patent law reform, therole of skills in both physics and society, the rise of Mechanics Institutes, and scientificpatronage. After his death, Fraunhofers example was used in the newly united Germany to argue forthe merging of scientific research and technological innovation with industrial and statesupport.