Science as a national pursuit
A manual of scientific enquiry.Officers in Her Majesty’s Navy and other loyal servants of the Crown are encouraged in this work to contribute not only to Britain’s dominance of the high seas but also to the advancement of science.
The memorandum at the start of the work instructs officers that they can play a role at sea to ‘the honour and advantage of the Navy, and conduce to the general interests of science,’ and that by following the guidelines laid down here, they can also influence the national good in the pursuit of scientific attainment.
Officers are instructed that they need little specialist equipment to undertake their tasks and observations and are instructed on aspects of astronomy, magnetism, hydrography and atmospheric waves.
Fold-out maps of the oceans’ currents and drifts are included to assist their work, as are instructions on how to use a hand-held barometer. Chapters concerning medicine and ethnology are also included, demonstrating the amalgamated and broad nature of scientific enquiry at this time.
In this exhibition
- Early telegraphy
- Submarine telegraphy
- Railways and the Victorian age
- Maritime innovation and control of the seas
- The pre-history of the Channel Tunnel
- Imperial designs of architecture
- A 'national disgrace': sanitation, sewage and agriculture
- Scientific and technological enquiry
- Geological and philosophical discoveries
- Science as a national pursuit
- Astronomical observations
- Photography: a science and a leisure pursuit
- Colour processes
- Select bibliography