Instrument Makers as Mediators between Science and Industry: The Case of Spectroscopy in the Early 20th Century

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Free and open to the public.

Bigg's talk will show how instrument makers, notably the British firm Adam Hilger, Ltd., played an essential role in the transformation of astrophysical spectroscopic and interferometric instruments and methods for chemical and industrial uses in the early twentieth century.

Charlotte Bigg is a historian of science at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Alexandre Koyré, in Paris. She is currently a CHF fellow (May–August 2010). After obtaining a Ph.D. in the history of science from the University of Cambridge, she worked for several years at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich. Charlotte works on the circulation of instruments, images, and people between disciplines (chemistry, physics, astrophysics), between science and industry, and between scientific and popular settings.