Science and Technology in the 18th Century

I examined how the Enlightenment ideas influenced on science and technology, how scientific societies and Encyclopedias contributed to popularization of science in public, the philosophical machine of the Enlightenment Age, occurence of classification in science and mostly great developments in mathematical area by mentioning some of the most significant names in the eighteenth century here.

Overview

17th century is known with Scientific Revolutions, 19th century is known with Industrial Revolution and 18th century is known as transitional period between 17th century and 19th century. The eighteenth century is also known as Age of Reason, Age of Enlightenment, Age of Inquiry in philosophical area.

Scientific developments in 18th century were neglected and less popular in spite of their importance. Actually, in the first half of the eighteenth century, scientific developments decelerated. The possible cause of this deceleration was that scientists were under the influence of Newton’s great and futuristic works. Scientists strove with generally the main unsolved problems which were remained from seventeenth century such as drainage problem in mining, the problem of longititude. The solutions of these problems led to some great inventions.

The activator of Industrial Revolution in 19th century was the invention of steam engine which is known as philosophical machine of the Enlightenment. In this century, scientific works became widespread in public. As science became popular among all social classes, the number of scientific societies and periodicals increased. Under the influence of Enlightenment ideas, a team of French scholars in the 18th century attended to bring all existing knowledge together into as alphabetically arranged and cross-referenced in the Encyclopedias. The eighteenth century is known also as Age of Classification. Classification of knowledge, classification of living creatures were leading to classification of scientific areas gradually.

In mathematics, mathematicians handled with analysis,mechanics and geometry. They tried to explain the motions of planets and the structure of the solar system. (Hill, 2006)

The Philosophical Machine of The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment ideas rendered people who were questioning critically existing institutions such as the church. Philosophers of the Enlightenment Age considers that a free mind without any external impact could be able to cause great progressions in science, culture and technology. Immanuel Kant who is one of the most effective German philosophers of the eighteenth century determines the main philosophical idea of enlightenment with his famous quotation “Sapere Aude!”, “Have courage to use your own reason!”. The Enlightenment in Germany occurred in the light of Kant’s thoughts. (Kant, 1784)

According to the philosophers of enlightenment, knowledge arising from experiment, observation and reason is the real power. Rationalism originated from experiment and observation is the only way through the happiness of both individual and humanity. According to them, people must have the characteristics of external and optimistic to have self-respect and respect to other people and other livings. Science and nature are so significant with respect to the idea of the Enlightenment because they lead from rationalism. (Bilim, 1999)

In addition to these, the ideas of philosophers on education, psychology and biology which plays a major role in the construction of thoughts about equality, human rights and freedom are the bases of later revolutionary movements. Another significant philosopher is John Locke who laid the foundations of the Enlightenment ideas in England. His thoughts include freedom of thought and adjustments of human behavior with respect to reason. Locke states that human mind doesn’t have innate ideas and knowledge in contrast with Descartes’ ideainnatae by using the term for human mind Tabula Rasa. Locke supports that ideas, reason, knowledge and behaviors of human are acquired by experiences in his empiricism. His ideas impacts the awareness of people about the inequality of social classes.

The Rise of Encyclopedia

In France in the Enlightenment Age, Encyclopedists were performing studies to popularise the logic of the Enlightenment in a vast majority of public under the leadership of Denis Diderot and d’Alembert in between 1751–1772. The Encyclopedia ou Dictionnarirre Raissonne des Sciences des Arts et des Metier included several writings and researches on trade, machinery, mining, ship construction, science and many other scientific and technological areas. The Encyclopėdie is a fundamental resource to gather easily scientific and technological improvements and information in 18th century because of both its property of broad in scope and systematic presentation of knowledge in all fields under the categories of religion, law, chemistry, literature, mathematics, philosophy, chemistry, military science and agriculture. The fundamental aim of the Encyclopaedists is to destroy Religion and to fill its place with reason. Professionals and best authors were writing on their areas of specialization. Therefore, The Encyclopėdie which contains a vast amount of accurate information became a reliable source of information in the Enlightenment Age. (Hankins, 1985)

Science Becoming Public

Scientific societies in the eighteenth century play significant roles in popularising science in public. In the 17th century, people who were dealing with science called as “natural philosophers”. Before 19th century, spending time on thinking about scientific issues was a luxury and the term “scientist” didn’t exist before 19th century. Scientists in the 17th century had a need for communication in science. Thus, scientific academies and societies were extremely significant to build an atmosphere to share knowledge, to teach science and to do scientific research.

The oldest scientific community is the Royal Society in London in the aim of improvement of natural knowledge. Isaac Newton was in charge from 1703 until his death in 1727. Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution in one of the meetings of the Royal Society. It played a significant role to make these scientists popular. (Trefil, 2012) The Royal Society has the support of both scientists, engineers, businessmen and the government also. Although its main aim is to popularize science in public, the Royal Society couldn’t succeed it, they just promote scientific researchers from the upper class.

In reaction to the Royal Society, Nonconformists build their educational institutions because they didn’t have the right to study in universities. Nonconformist Academy became very popular in a very short time because of its powerful and effective education in the area of science. (Mason, 2001)The graduates of Nonconformist Academy constituted Arts and Sciences Societies. One and the most important of them was Birmingham Lunar Society which has some popular scientists such as Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley, James Watt and Matthew Boulton. The concourse of science and manufacturing in scientific societies proves that industry developed on the basis of scientific developments. (Bernal, 2008)

The Rise of Steam Power

The eighteenth century scientists dealt with some problems remaining from the 17th century. The problem of drainage in mining is one of the main problems in 18th century. In older times, horsepower was been using to drain water from the mines. There were times that more than 500 horses were necessary for this mission. In order to handle this problem, engineers and scientists worked to find more practical and economic ways and technologies. They found that it is possible to gather required power to drain water from mines by using steam power instead of horsepower. (Mason, 2001)Steam engine gave them needed result because of its mechanism working with one or more pistons.

In the development process of steam engine, there are three significant names: Thomas Newcomen, James Watt and Richard Trevithick. In 1712 Newcomen invented atmospheric steam engine which was working with atmospheric pressure not by steam. Although Newcomen’s machine was too large, slow and incompetent, it was very powerful and practical for Newcomen’s time.

Within four years, it spread to other eight European countries. James Watt had the chance to investigate Newcomen’s machine while he was an instrument maker at Glasgow University. In order to increase the rendement of Newcomen’s machine, Watt made some experiments corresponding with steam, structure of the machine, the relationship between steam and the liquid water. He determined the source of efficacy in this machine in the way that cooling and reheating processes lead to large amount of consumption of steam. Then, Watt added a separate cold condenser to the machine while the cylinder was always warm. He did his steam engine in 1765 and patented in 1769. In 1785, the firm Boulton and Watt made a profit from the machine by producing 496 machines. Watt’s rotary engine was used also in corn mills and in textile industry that is the most fundamental elements to cause Industrial Revolution. (Lovland, 2007)

In 1796, Richard Trevithick invented the locomotive by improving Watt’s machines to a moving form. In 1804, with the first real locomotive on the rail, Trevithick succeedded in carrying 70 passengers and 10 tons of mine. This was the starting point for infrastructure of railways. (Topdemir, 2013)By adapting of steam engines from minings to textile industry, steam engine became the most significant activator of Industrial Revolution.

Need For Classification

Under favor of Encyclopedias, there was an extensive accumulation of knowledge in the eighteenth century. This accumulation of knowledge required to arrange in the aim of easy accessibility to information.

18th century is the age of travellers and collectors also. The idea of classification emerged from the requirement of arranging collections in a system and preparing a catalog for livings in botanical gardens. The most popular name of this age in classification was Carl Linnaeus who had a great wish to classify living things in his botanical garden. (Bernal, 2008)

Besides these, throughout the history, classifying all living things in the Earth was one of the major aims of scientists. Since there were thousands of different species of plants and animals, it was too difficult to find properties of living things and to build a common science language in this complexity. The founder of the modern classification system in biology is Carl Linnaeus. Binomial classification is one part of his classification system and it has still been used in modern taxonomy with regard to similarities and dissimilarities of plants and animals. He examined living things under the classes of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. (Trefil, 2012) By adapting Linnaeus classification system on livings to society, the logic of classification provides people an awareness about reorganization of social classes.

Mathematics, Mechanics and Analysis

In the eighteenth century, mathematics focused on the analysis and mechanics. In the French Encyclopedia, D’Alembert made a broad classification of mathematics as ‘science of nature’ by extracting it from logic, a ‘science of man’.

In this century, mathematical methods spreaded in practical subjects being navigated by experimental physics, engineering and government. (Fraser, 2008) Calculus had been built to handle with the problem of motion and novelty in mathematical techniques in the eighteenth century were responses to the problems of mechanics.

The most significant and popular analytical mathematicians of the 18th century were Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736–1813). In their time, analysis was completely separated from geometry. Euler provided independence of analytical calculus from geometry and built it as an independent field of science. Lagrange advanced infinitesimal calculus and worked on analytical mechanics in the form of present day. The implication of calculus and mechanics to the universal gravitation theory and extending analytically discussions of the solar system were made real by Laplace.

Euler constructed his mathematical theories to estimate the bending of columns and beams, to describe the motions of vibrating strings, optimal designs for ships’ hulls, sails and anchors and for water-wheels and turbines and many other applications. In astronomy, immediate practical results were obtained on the shape and motions of the earth. (Hankins T. , 1985) In 1748, Euler published his book, Introductio in Analysin Infinitorum which includes Euler’s constant, terms in modern trigonometric functions such as sinus and cosine. He used trigonometry as a branch of analysis and specified the angles of a triangle by A, B, C and the opposite sides by a, b, c subsequently to make easier the notation of terms and concepts. He mentioned also a connection between exponential and trigonometric functions. Institutiones calculi differentialis(1755), and Institutiones calculi integralis,(1768–1770) were most exhaustive works on calculus of his time. Euler established some regulations to convert co-ordinates in space. He became the first who discussed the second-order equations in three variables and rearranged surfaces with respect to this. Euler dealt with the theory of rotation of a body around a fixed point and set out general equations for the motions of a body. His success on the theory of motions of the moon by trying to solve “problem of three bodies” were just a part of his contributions to astronomy. He studied on differential equations, integral calculations, applications of Taylor’s theorem, Number Theory and a host of theory in mechanics, astronomy, physics.

Lagrange was one of the greatest mathematicians of his time. When he was nineteen, he contacted with Euler about a new solving method for “isoperimetrical problems” which is known today as the Calculus of Variations. Lagrange’s name is known today under the favour of his works on group theory. In Lagrange’s Analytical mechanics, he analyzed rational mechanics in a very general and abstract way by leaving Newton’s geometrical method. Therefore, Lagrange is generally seen as the first real analyst. Lagrange received some awards with the solution offer for the problem why the same face of the moon is seen from the Earth and with the works correlated with motions of the Moon, comets and the Jupiter. He worked on the Three Solids problem and used differential equations to explain the motions of planets. (Tekeli, ve diğerleri, 2010)

During 18th century, Bernoulli family made great contributions on mathematics. James Bernoulli(1654–1705) is well-known with his work Art of Conjecturing. In this book, he used a mathematical induction method to prove the binomial theorem for positive integral powers. It includes also some games of chance in the theory of probability. Most importantly, after he connected philosophical problems with probability theory, he introduced famous Bernoulli’s theorem in this book. John Bernoulli(1667–1748) came with the idea being that some whole area was obtained by the summation of its parts and put the name of calculus integralis. (Hill, 2006)

Pierre Simon Laplace(1749–1827) was one of the greatest mathematicians in eighteenth century. The theory of probability wouldn’t have been in its present place without Laplace’s work. Laplace’s works include generally applications of higher mathematical analysis. One of the most significant study of Laplace was the conditions for the equilibrium of a rotating fluid mass which is considered in connection with the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system. The hypothesis was presented in the Exposition du syste`me du monde book in 1796. According to the hypothesis, an incandescent gas rotated in an axis and so the solar system had came into existence. Laplace equation and Laplacian of a function has a great importance in astronomy and mathematical physics. He worked on Newton’s Principia and completed the gravitational part of it. There was a noticeable difference on Laplace’s mathematics and Lagrange’s mathematics. According to Laplace, mathematics was only a tool to demonstrate the essence of nature while Lagrange’s mathematics was so theoretical and developed as an art form. (Merzbach & Boyer)

Why Are They Important and All Connected?

In the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment ideas led to the developments in science and technology. Reason, logic and progression influenced questioning natural phenomena and their causes and not espousing them as given by God. People searched the answers of their questions and found them via scientific methods.

By virtue of scientific societies and Encyclopedias, science became popular not only in upper class but also in public. Thus, science became a daily activity in public. People were trying to find solutions of their problems in science. One of the most significant solutions of them is the invention of steam engine. It was adapted to textile industry and Industrial Revolution had occurred. The logic of classification was so significant because of its application on society and science. By virtue of classification, science which was separated to different areas and this led to spacialization in particular fields.

In the eighteenth century mathematicians focused on analysis, calculus and mechanics. Their works were based their curiosity about the real-life problems in engineering, astronomy, and physics. The characteristic of mathematics in the eighteenth century was theoretically advanced as well as its practicality in the real life problems. Today’s mathematics in universities was rooted in the eighteenth century mathematics.

Enlightenment age was a milestone in the history of science and technology by virtue of its philosophers, the popularity of science in public, and questioning nature and law via scientific methods.

Bibliography

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