1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910796823603321

Autore

Lynn Michael R

Titolo

Popular science and public opinion in eighteenth-century France / Michael R. Lynn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Manchester, England : , : Manchester University Press, , 2006

ISBN

1-5261-3045-9

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 177 pages)

Collana

Studies in early modern European history.

Classificazione

AK 16600

NN 7300

Disciplina

306.45094409033

Soggetti

Popularisierung

Naturwissenschaften

Science - Public opinion

Science and civilization

Science

Public opinion

History

Frankreich

France

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-175) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The practice of popularization -- The audience, economics, and geography of popular science -- Institutions of popular science -- Divining rods and public opinion -- Balloons and mass science.

Sommario/riassunto

In this book, Michael R. Lynn analyses the popularisation of science in Enlightenment France. He examines the content of popular science, the methods of dissemination, the status of the popularisers and the audience, and the settings for dissemination and appropriation. Lynn introduces individuals like Jean-Antoine Nollet, who made a career out of applying electric shocks to people, and Perrin, who used his talented dog to lure customers to his physics show. He also examines scientifically oriented clubs like Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier's Musée de Monsieur which provided locations for people interested in science. Phenomena such as divining rods, used to find water and ores as well



as to solve crimes; and balloons, the most spectacular of all types of popular science, demonstrate how people made use of their new knowledge.Lynn's study provides a clearer understanding of the role played by science in the Republic of Letters and the participation of the general population in the formation of public opinion on scientific matters.