The Victorian Palace of Science: Scientific Knowledge and the Building of the Houses of Parliament (Science in History) - Softcover

Gillin, Edward J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108411614 ISBN 13: 9781108411615

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2019

Synopsis

The Palace of Westminster, home to Britain's Houses of Parliament, is one of the most studied buildings in the world. What is less well known is that while Parliament was primarily a political building, when built between 1834 and 1860, it was also a place of scientific activity. The construction of Britain's legislature presents an extraordinary story in which politicians and officials laboured to make their new Parliament the most radical, modern building of its time by using the very latest scientific knowledge. Experimentalists employed the House of Commons as a chemistry laboratory, geologists argued over the Palace's stone, natural philosophers hung meat around the building to measure air purity, and mathematicians schemed to make Parliament the first public space where every room would have electrically-controlled time. Through such dramatic projects, Edward J. Gillin redefines our understanding of the Palace of Westminster and explores the politically troublesome character of Victorian science.

About this title

Book Description

Edward J. Gillin provides a dramatic account of how the building of the Houses of Parliament involved the use of radically new science and how, while under construction, Parliament became a laboratory and place of scientific experiment. This book will be of value to readers interested in Victorian science, architecture, and politics.

About the Author

Edward J. Gillin completed a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in 2015 and is now a Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He specialises in British science, technology, architecture, and politics in the nineteenth century, with his current work focusing on the role of sound in the production of Victorian scientific knowledge. Previous works cover topics such as the Cunard Steamship Company, early-twentieth-century political protest, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Eastern steamship. He received the 2015 Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Hawksmoor Medal, and in 2016 was awarded the Usher Prize from the Society for the History of Technology.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1108411614
• ISBN 13: 9781108411615
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 341