[7] February 20 - Between nations: Weights & measures, patents, and the International Association of Academies
Section outline
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"It is interesting that there is an effort among scientific experts to make a kind of really accomplished unity, which would however exclude politics," wrote Czech physicist Čeněk Strouhal about international weights, measures, and nomenclatures in 1909. "Here, unity is [ultimately] excluded, since it would mean the end of politics." We will explore how international scientific institutions could both exclude politics as well as reinforce national hierarchies in the sciences.
Assigned reading:
"Business meeting / Plan for the Foundation of an International Association of Learned Societies," Report of the National Academy of Sciences (1900): 13-18.
Peter Alter, “The Royal Society and the International Association of Academies 1897-1919,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 34, no. 2 (1980): 241–64.German option: Wilhelm von Hartel, “Die internationale Assoziation der Akademien,” Deutsche Revue 31, no. 3 (1906): 267–83.Hungarian option: Kemény Ferenc, “Világakadémia,” Athenaeum 10 (1901): 109–19, 273–88, 441–60, 565–86. (Parts 1 and 2 are enough for present purposes.)
Russian options: V. M. Bekhterev, "О сближении славянских народов на почве науки," Вестник Европы 44 (July 1909): 314-321. [begins with scan 320]
A. S. Famintsyn, "Первый съезд Международной ассоциации академий," Мир божий № 1 (1902): 158-172. [See alternate link]
Polish option: "W sprawie zjazdu lekarzy słowiańskich w Sofji," Kuryer Lwowski (7 July 1910): 10.
Czech options: Konst. Jiriček, "Z výletu do Paříže," Osvěta no. 7 (1901): 592-598.
"Sbratření velikých národů vědami," Naše doba 14 (1907): 605-607.
French option: Association internationale des Académies. Première assemblée générale tenue a Paris, du 16 au 20 Avril 1901 (1901).
Suggested reading:
Brigitte Schroeder-Gudehus, "International science from the Franco-Prussian War to World War Two: An era of organization," in Slotten, ed., The Cambridge History of Science vol. 8 (2020): 43-59.Michael Eckert, "Gelehrte Weltbürger: Der Mythos des wissenschaftlichen Internationalismus," Kultur & Technik no. 2 (1992): 26-34.Elisabeth Crawford, Crawford, T. Shinn, and Sverker Sörlin, Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice (1993).Martin Gierl, Geschichte und Organisation. Institutionalisierung als Kommunikationsprozess am Beispiel der Wissenschaftsakademien um 1900 (2004).Chris Manias, “The Race Prussienne Controversy: Scientific Internationalism and the Nation,” Isis 100 (2009): 733–57.Alfred Nordmann, “European Experiments,” Osiris 24 (2009): 278–302.George Sarton, “War and Civilization,” Isis 2 (1919): 315–21. -
