Duncan F. Gregory and Robert Leslie Ellis: second-generation reformers of British mathematics

The paper discusses some of the contributions of Duncan Farquharson Gregory and Robert Leslie Ellis to symbolical algebra and their views on the philosophy of mathematics with the aim of revisiting the accepted characterisation of the second generation of reformers of British mathematics found in Crosbie Smith and Norton Wise’s seminal Energy and Empire. It is argued that at least some of the features brought to the fore in their treatment of the work of Gregory and Ellis – namely “geometrical methods” in mathematics and “anti-metaphysical”, “non-hypothetical” and “practical” knowledge – cannot be straightforwardly upheld. On the one hand, Gregory’s generalisation of George Peacock’s symbolical algebra was connected to several natural philosophical considerations underlying the Scottish Newtonians’ “abstractionism” and “geometrical fluxional analysis”. On the other hand, Ellis’s idealist philosophy of mathematics and science insisted that the a priori necessary truths of mathematics could inform the “hypothetical part of scientific induction”. A more nuanced understanding of the place of the second generation of reformers within the analytical revolution in Victorian Britain should thus take into account the eclectic foundational position that arises from the work of Gregory and Ellis.     

“I do not know if Mum knew what was going on”: Social reproduction in boarding schools in Soviet Lapland

ABSTRACT

This inquiry into the history of boarding schools for indigenous and quasi-indigenous, tundra-connected children in the Soviet part of Lapland tries to answer why children were sent to a boarding school despite their parents living in the same village, and also why an additional school for mentally disabled children, a school half as big as the boarding school for “regular” children, was opened. Data from oral history interviews among former pupils and teachers, both indigenous and incomers, are combined with archival materials. Using the concepts of cynical knowledge as well as the Bourdieuan notions of social exclusion and reproduction, concealed functions of the boarding school system are identified, among which are the attenuation of housing shortage and the operation of the school out of economic interests, alongside with ethnocentric and paternalist patterns. The stigmatization of mostly Sámi children from relocated families as mentally disabled is set in a frame of individualization of the negative, which sought to present failures of the state’s social engineering as personal fallibility.     

792 or 793? Charlemagne’s canal project: craft,nature and memory

In autumn 793, Charlemagne visited the fossatum magnum (the ‘big ditch’ or canal) between the Rhine and Danube. Excavations, dendrochronology and a re‐reading of Carolingian Annals shed new light on the chronology and setting of this canal, which was planned in 792, initiated in 793, and abandoned later that year. The abandonment is attested by both written and archaeological evidence. The different versions of the annals offer a unique opportunity for comparison with the archaeological record. Evidence that works of Vitruvius circulated in the Carolingian court suggests that Charlemagne’s advisers were drawing on classical tradition when they pitched the idea of digging the canal.     

Natron as a flux in the early vitreous materials industry: sources,beginnings and reasons for decline

Natron deposits, the best known of which being those at Wadi Natrun in Egypt, have been used as the flux in the production of vitreous materials from the early 4th millennium BC onwards. In the present paper, the history of the use of natron as a flux is traced from its beginnings in the glaze of Badarian steatite beads, through its use in glass production starting in the 1st millennium BC, until its apparent shortage during the 7th to 9th centuries AD, and its subsequent replacement by plant ash during the 9th century AD. Documentary evidence for possible natron sources in Egypt, including the Wadi Natrun, and around the eastern Mediterranean is summarised, and the results of recent fieldwork at the Wadi Natrun and at al-Barnuj in the Western Nile Delta are presented. The possible reasons for the apparent shortage of natron from 7th to 9th centuries AD and its subsequent replacement by plant ash as the flux used in glass production during the 9th century AD are then considered. These include the possibility that, because of the massive scale of glass production, the demand for natron exceeded its supply; the possible effect of climatic changes; and the potentially disruptive role of political events in the Wadi Natrun–Delta region.     

A Ground Motion Record Selection Approach Based on Multiobjective Optimization

The evaluation of the seismic safety and reliability of buildings and building contents within a probabilistic framework often requires response history analyses using site-specific ground motion records. The ground motion selection method proposed in this paper addresses this issue by a stochastic search procedure in which record sets are selected such that first- and second-order statistics (median and dispersion) satisfy predefined ground motion spectrum targets over a wide period range. Once a ground motion record set is selected, it can be used for seismic assessment of a broad class of buildings within the target period range at the given location.     

Towards a Living Archive: Making Multi Layered Research Data and Knowledge Generation Transparent

ABSTRACT

Çatalhöyük was first discovered as one of the earliest urban settlements in the late 1950s and excavated by James Mellaart between 1961 and 1965. The 9000-year-old town in central Turkey rapidly became famous internationally due to the large size and dense occupation of the settlement, as well as the spectacular wall paintings and other art that were uncovered inside the houses. Since 1993, under the direction of Ian Hodder, research at Çatalhöyük has pioneered a reflexive approach to archaeological practice, in which information is permanently open to reinterpretation by both scholars and the public. This approach acknowledges the mutual dependence of knowledge and the underlying research, to which end the Çatalhöyük Project decided to make its records available via the Web and to invite public comment since its onset. After 25 years of excavation, the project’s digital assets now amount to close to 5TB, including formal textual and numeric records, freetext documents, audiovisual materials, and a comprehensive collection of spatial data. The reflexive method, or ‘documentation of the documentation process,’ adds a separate layer of information that specifies how data have been gathered, and facilitates critique, understanding, and the evolution of knowledge.

In this paper we lay out our vision of an interactive archive that provides access to the multi layered information contained in this massive amount of data and how web technological advances have been incorporated into the digital data management at Çatalhöyük. Ultimately, the goal is to support an interdisciplinary process of assembling data into arguments on the basis of multiple lines of evidence. The ‘Living Archive’ will enable intuitive engagement across the entire variety of research, making use of the rich reflexive information stored with the data. The results of new analyses can in turn be reintegrated with the already existing data. The application will use open standards so that the knowledge gathered at Çatalhöyük can be linked with other projects that follow similar publication procedures based on the semantic web approach.     

Transforming the Classic Political Forest: Contentious Territories in Java

Java’s extensive political forests and their contentious social relations have been profoundly transformed since the turn of the 21^st century. This paper analyses new forms of forest land use, control, and revenue distribution, shaping and shaped by political-economic changes and neoliberal-era reforms. Villagers’ expanded uses, access to, and control of the forest understory under the violently thinned out canopies of the main tree species has generated newly spatialised forest politics, with new institutions and forest labour practices. The changes in land, species, and labour controls, and in villagers’ access to forest products and revenues define this historical transformation in the constitution of Java’s classic political forest. Contentious co-production has resulted in fragmented territories and a momentary (at least) weakening of state controls within the old imperial political forest.     

Circulation as a Visual Practice**

This special issue looks at some of the ways that images are adopted, co-opted, and adapted in the life sciences and beyond. It brings together papers that investigate the role of visualization in scientific knowledge-production with contributions that focus on the distribution and dissemination of knowledge to a broader audience. A commentary provides a critical perspective. In this editorial we introduce circulation as a practice to better understand scientific images. Along two themes, we highlight connections across the papers. First, the social life of scientific representation follows the contexts, settings, and spaces through which images circulate. Second, authorship, expertise, and trust inform the capacity and the failure of images to circulate. Altogether, this volume raises a set of new questions about circulation as practice in the historiography of images in the life sciences.