Jane Wess

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Jane has recently submitted a PhD thesis on the role of instruments in exploration with Edinburgh University, based at the Royal Geographical Society. Previous to this she had a long career as senior curator of science at the Science Museum, London. Her research interests are wide but focus on the mathematisation of natural phenomena in the pursuit of useful knowledge during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Address: London

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University of Pennsylvania

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Pacifica Graduate Institute

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Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

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Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

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Papers by Jane Wess

Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746) and his contemporaries on wind and water: the local and the universal

British journal for the history of mathematics, Jan 2, 2020

This paper explores the issue of geographical and social place in the community of mathematicians... more This paper explores the issue of geographical and social place in the community of mathematicians in the generation following Isaac Newton (1642–1727). It is informed by the approach of historical geographers to work in the field, and those studying the communication of mathematics in a broad sense. It considers Colin Maclaurin's circumstances in what he regarded as a remote location, arguing that he was not disadvantaged with respect to other Newtonian mathematicians and the rational mechanics of the period. Like his contemporaries, he communicated throughout Europe by means of the republic of letters, and also like them he had access to a particular local environment. Using the subject of water and wind power, a number of questions are posed regarding the efficacy of fluxions, the relative attention given to experiment and mathematical deduction, and changes in these emphases over time and place. While definite answers require further work, it has been possible, using a brief comparison with a few contemporaries, to reach the conclusion that different localities and social situations provided different opportunities, but that those of Maclaurin in Scotland were not impediments to the development of his mathematics or its applications.

Navigation and Mathematics: A Match Made in the Heavens?

This chapter explores the extent to which elite astronomy and mathematics influenced the practice... more This chapter explores the extent to which elite astronomy and mathematics influenced the practice of navigation in Britain in the period some historians celebrate as the birth of scientific navigation.2 Although some writers, particularly those closest to the practice, consider navi-gation to be an art, most tell of the ‘science’ of navigation and most put the start of scientific navigation with the advent of the Nautical Almanac.3 Obviously these developments, from intuition to reliance on a mathematically based procedure, were not instantaneous or without problems.

Symbols and things: mathematics in the age of steam

British Journal for the History of Mathematics

New light on the role of instruments in exploration during the 1830s

Notes and Records, 2021

This paper sets out a new interpretation of the agency of scientific instruments in the field. It... more This paper sets out a new interpretation of the agency of scientific instruments in the field. It uses Actor Network Theory as a conceptual framework, which invokes the concept of non-human agency, meaning that scientific instruments can affect outcomes and processes. It argues that the instruments taken on expeditions by travellers on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) had agency in knowledge creation simply by being present. Having bequeathed the instruments, the RGS had sanctioned the expedition, and knowledge had to result regardless of whether the instruments had been utilized as intended. The paper builds on the work of historians on the morality of precision, but, by engaging in a detailed comparison of rhetoric and action in two case studies, it suggests a different approach. Observing the strategies of the RGS for knowledge creation in varying circumstances, it argues that the instruments had agency owing to their embedded resource rather than their tangible num...

ICHM Co-Sponsored Conference on

The speakers offered talks that very clearly focused on sixteenth and seventeenth century (broadl... more The speakers offered talks that very clearly focused on sixteenth and seventeenth century (broadly interpreted) history of European (broadly interpreted) contributions to or developments in algebra, analysis and geometry (all broadly interpreted). Four of the twelve talks were of general interest; eight reported on exciting new research. One of those, in fact, interpreted both ‘European’ and ‘sixteenth century’ just as broadly as we had hoped. It was an exceptionally exciting and well-received account by Professor Eleanor Robson of archaeological findings, and her readings of clay tablets from the sixteenth century BC, that were less than a month old but promise to revolutionise our knowledge of both literacy and numeracy in southern Iraq. Although 12 talks in two days might sound a daunting programme, it had been possible to build in a good amount of discussion time, and there was indeed, a great deal of discussion.

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The History of Mathematical Logic: in honour of Ivor Grattan–Guinness

BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, 2018

logic, and in particular to his method of using a board and counters to sort out logical syllogis... more logic, and in particular to his method of using a board and counters to sort out logical syllogisms, a method that he frequently taught to young children as a way of encouraging logical thinking. The next talk presented a selection of Dodgson’s mathematical problems and puzzles, given by Edward Wakeling, the editor of Lewis Carroll’s diaries in ten volumes. This was followed by Dodgson’s important work on voting, presented by Iain McLean (Oxford), in which Dodgson built on earlier work by Condorcet and Borda. A supporter of proportional representation, Dodgson used examples to show the deficiencies of various well-known methods of voting, such as first-past-the-post, and also discovered a fairer method of scheduling lawn tennis tournaments, prior to the introduction of seeding. To conclude the formal presentations, the Dodgson expert Francine Abeles (New York, USA) discussed Dodgson’s legacy by addressing the question of how good a mathematician he was, and Mark Richards (London) ou...

Mathematical knowledge in navigation; exploring the transfer of skills in the years up to the almanack

It is well-known that one of the major drivers for mathematics in the 18th century was the demand... more It is well-known that one of the major drivers for mathematics in the 18th century was the demand for improved navigation. While the history of the chronometer method has received the most attention, the astronomical methods have also been lucidly documented particularly by Derek Howse and Allan Chapman. Mary Croarken has provided a lively account of the compiling of the Nautical Almanack during the last third of the century. There have also been studies undertaken on mathematical education aimed at aspiring navigators, and contemporary texts are available. In addition to written material, 18th century navigational aids, including mathematical rules, abound in all major collections of scientific instruments. This paper aims to bring these components together to explore how the mathematical skils necessary for improved navigation were transferred and disseminated, taking as a starting point Samuel Newton’s An Idea of Geography and Navigation... of 1695, and an end point the stable ru...

Public & Private Science: The King George III Collection

Google Books Result The collection of scientific instruments accumulated by King George III and o... more

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Colin Maclaurin (1698–1746) and his contemporaries on wind and water: the local and the universal

British Journal for the History of Mathematics

John Wallis (1616–1703). Mathematics, Music Theory, and Cryptography in 17th Century Oxford Oxford University Mathematical Institute, 9 June 2016

BSHM Bulletin: Journal of the British Society for the History of Mathematics

The logic demonstrators of the 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753-1816)

Annals of Science, 1997

The Science Museum, London, recently acquired some circular logic demonstrators by Charles Mahon,... more The Science Museum, London, recently acquired some circular logic demonstrators by Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope. A study of what exists of Stanhope's unpublished book, notes and letters on the subject allows the development of his demonstrators to be traced. A consideration of Stanhope's characters and interests reveals an Enlightenment figure with aspirations consonant with that era, the logic demonstrators representing the material culmination of his ideals. Yet the demonstrators were not made public during his lifetime, and the final form was greeted with derision 60 years after his death.

Crookes's radiometers: a train of thought manifest

Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 2010

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Instrument provision and geographical science: the work of the Royal Geographical Society, 1830– ca 1930

Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science

This paper examines the Royal Geographical Society's provision and management of scientific i... more This paper examines the Royal Geographical Society's provision and management of scientific instruments to explorers and expeditions in the century following its foundation in 1830. Assessment of the Society's directives concerning appropriate scientific instruments for the conduct of geography reveals the emergence (slow and uneven) of policies concerning the assignment of instruments. From examination of Council minutes and related manuscript sources, the paper documents the numbers of instruments acquired by the Society, by whom used, for what scientific purpose and in which parts of the world. The paper examines the number and chronology of expeditions supported by the Society's instruments, examines the expenditure upon instruments’ repair, and discusses the publications that followed their use in exploration. Correspondence between instrument users and the Society reveals that, on occasion, the use of instruments was adventitious. While geographical knowledge depen...

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Lecture demonstrations and the real world: the case of cart-wheels

British Journal for The History of Science, 1995

... 47 Sharp, op. cit. (40). 48 Gentleman's Magazine (1773), 43, 558. 49 Jackman, op. cit. (... more

The logic demonstrators of the 3rd Earl Stanhope (1753–1816

Annals of Science, 1997

Avoiding arithmetic, or the material culture of not learning mathematics

Bshm Bulletin: Journal of The British Society for The History of Mathematics, 2012

This article describes items in the Science Museum, London, that have been invented for the purpo... more This article describes items in the Science Museum, London, that have been invented for the purpose of avoiding mental calculation. As far as possible they are assessed as to whether or not they could be regarded as successful. They are also discussed in the context of the perennial debate as to whether avoiding arithmetic is desirable or not. The article is based on a talk given to a BSHM meeting on the Mechanisation of Mathematics, held at Rewley House, Oxford, in 2008.

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