Scientific Credibility and Technical Standards in 19th and early 20th century Germany and Britain

The articles in this first volume of "Archimedes" cross boundaries between science and technology, and they also illuminate one another. The first three contributions concern optics and industry in 19th-century Germany; the fourth concerns electric standards in Germany during the same period; the last essay in the volume examines a development in the early history of wireless signalling that took place in England, and that has much to say about the establishment and enforcement of standard methods in a rapidly-developing technology that emerged out of a scientific effect. The text argues that historical work in the latter part of the 20th century has shown that technology cannot be characterized simply, or even usually, as applied science. The beliefs, the devices, and the natural objects that are created or discovered by scientists, often play altogether minor roles in the construction of technologies.