Description
Explores how Britain's global cable network became both the 'nervous system' of its Empire and the key to electrical physics.
About the Author
Bruce J. Hunt is Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Austin.
Reviews
'Lucid, brilliantly well-informed and replete with fresh insights, Imperial Science is destined to be an indispensable classic. Bruce J. Hunt gives us a rich account of how radical developments in cable telegraphy and the theory of electromagnetism were intertwined, with profound consequences for the everyday lives of millions of people all over the world.' Graham Farmelo, Churchill College, University of Cambridge
'Well before the internet, information flowed through British submarine cable telegraphy. Bruce J. Hunt's fascinating study explores how physicists and telegraph engineers managed competing methods and demands to create this first global communications system. These nerves of empire transformed international affairs, accelerated commerce, provided rapid access to news, and revolutionized physics.' Kathryn Olesko, Georgetown University
'With impressive skill, Bruce J. Hunt brings together the commercial and engineering practices of Victorian telegraphy with the construction of the new physics of electromagnetic field theory. In so doing, he powerfully reinvigorates the history of nineteenth-century physics as a major academic arena grounded upon, but not determined by, imperial engineering and technology.' Crosbie Smith, University of Kent
'Illustrated with period images and impeccably referenced, Hunt's remarkable, scholarly text will encourage nonspecialist readers to engage ... Highly recommended.' E. J. Delaney, Choice Connect
Book Information
ISBN 9781108828543
Author Bruce J. Hunt
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 468g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 17mm