Jessica Ratcliff
Biographic Data
| ID | 961836 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jessica Ratcliff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jessica |
| FAMILY NAME | Ratcliff |
| SIGNATURE | RATCLIFF J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0009-0008-5937-381X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Knowledge and Power in the Age of Conciliation: On Joshua Ehrlich’s The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge
Hand-in-hand with the survey: Surveying and the accumulation of knowledge capital at India House during the Napoleonic Wars
In the early nineteenth century, the material culture of British science was being transformed by an increasingly centralized colonial information order. Surveys conducted during and immediately after the Napoleonic Wars were particularly important to the growth of the East India Company's new collections in London. In the wake of territorial gains, surveyors and their staff bought, plundered, collected and otherwise acquired a wide range of mate…
Travancore's magnetic crusade: Geomagnetism and the geography of scientific production in a princely state
In 1840 the raja of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal, would offer his government's assistance to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and its plan for a global system of magnetic observations. Over the next thirty years, the two directors of this princely state's observatory, John Caldecott and John Allan Broun, would pursue fundamental terrestrial magnetic research. Their efforts would culminate in the Trivandrum [ Trevandrum ] Magn…
The East India Company, the Company's Museum, and the Political Economy of Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century
At the turn of the nineteenth century, at its headquarters in the City of London, the Honourable East India Company established a new museum and library. By midcentury this museum would contain one of Europe’s most extensive collections of the natural history, arts, and sciences of Asia. This essay uses the early history of the company’s museum, focusing in particular on its natural history collections, to explore the material relationship betwee…
The Transit of Venus Enterprise in Victorian Britain
Art to Cheat the Common-Weale: Inventors, Projectors, and Patentees in English Satire, ca.1630-70
This paper explores early modern ideas about invention and progress by examining the satirical projector character in English literature from the 1630s to the 1670s. It focuses on Simon Sturtevant's treatise on invention, Metallica (1612), and two satires based on it: Thomas Brugis's pamphlet Discovery of a Projector (1641), and John Wilson's stage comedy The Projectors (1665). These satires offered a common critique that was not based on, or eve…
Samuel Morland and his calculating machines c. 1666: The early career of a courtier–inventor in Restoration London
This paper presents the story of two calculating machines invented by Sir Samuel Morland (1625–95) in the 1660s. These instruments are the earliest known mechanical calculators made in England. Their designs are unusual and very much of their time. They appealed to some, especially at court, and were dismissed by others, such as Robert Hooke. The first part of the paper introduces Morland and the courtier–inventor's world, in which a reputation a…
The East India Company, the Company's Museum, and the Political Economy of Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century
At the turn of the nineteenth century, at its headquarters in the City of London, the Honourable East India Company established a new museum and library. By midcentury this museum would contain one of Europe’s most extensive collections of the natural history, arts, and sciences of Asia. This essay uses the early history of the company’s museum, focusing in particular on its natural history collections, to explore the material relationship betwee…
Samuel Morland and his calculating machines c. 1666: The early career of a courtier–inventor in Restoration London
This paper presents the story of two calculating machines invented by Sir Samuel Morland (1625–95) in the 1660s. These instruments are the earliest known mechanical calculators made in England. Their designs are unusual and very much of their time. They appealed to some, especially at court, and were dismissed by others, such as Robert Hooke. The first part of the paper introduces Morland and the courtier–inventor's world, in which a reputation a…
Travancore's magnetic crusade: Geomagnetism and the geography of scientific production in a princely state
In 1840 the raja of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal, would offer his government's assistance to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and its plan for a global system of magnetic observations. Over the next thirty years, the two directors of this princely state's observatory, John Caldecott and John Allan Broun, would pursue fundamental terrestrial magnetic research. Their efforts would culminate in the Trivandrum [ Trevandrum ] Magn…
Art to Cheat the Common-Weale: Inventors, Projectors, and Patentees in English Satire, ca.1630-70
This paper explores early modern ideas about invention and progress by examining the satirical projector character in English literature from the 1630s to the 1670s. It focuses on Simon Sturtevant's treatise on invention, Metallica (1612), and two satires based on it: Thomas Brugis's pamphlet Discovery of a Projector (1641), and John Wilson's stage comedy The Projectors (1665). These satires offered a common critique that was not based on, or eve…
Samuel Morland and his calculating machines c. 1666: The early career of a courtier–inventor in Restoration London
This paper presents the story of two calculating machines invented by Sir Samuel Morland (1625–95) in the 1660s. These instruments are the earliest known mechanical calculators made in England. Their designs are unusual and very much of their time. They appealed to some, especially at court, and were dismissed by others, such as Robert Hooke. The first part of the paper introduces Morland and the courtier–inventor's world, in which a reputation a…
Art to Cheat the Common-Weale: Inventors, Projectors, and Patentees in English Satire, ca.1630-70
This paper explores early modern ideas about invention and progress by examining the satirical projector character in English literature from the 1630s to the 1670s. It focuses on Simon Sturtevant's treatise on invention, Metallica (1612), and two satires based on it: Thomas Brugis's pamphlet Discovery of a Projector (1641), and John Wilson's stage comedy The Projectors (1665). These satires offered a common critique that was not based on, or eve…
The Transit of Venus Enterprise in Victorian Britain
Travancore's magnetic crusade: Geomagnetism and the geography of scientific production in a princely state
In 1840 the raja of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal, would offer his government's assistance to the British Association for the Advancement of Science and its plan for a global system of magnetic observations. Over the next thirty years, the two directors of this princely state's observatory, John Caldecott and John Allan Broun, would pursue fundamental terrestrial magnetic research. Their efforts would culminate in the Trivandrum [ Trevandrum ] Magn…
The East India Company, the Company's Museum, and the Political Economy of Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century
At the turn of the nineteenth century, at its headquarters in the City of London, the Honourable East India Company established a new museum and library. By midcentury this museum would contain one of Europe’s most extensive collections of the natural history, arts, and sciences of Asia. This essay uses the early history of the company’s museum, focusing in particular on its natural history collections, to explore the material relationship betwee…
Hand-in-hand with the survey: Surveying and the accumulation of knowledge capital at India House during the Napoleonic Wars
In the early nineteenth century, the material culture of British science was being transformed by an increasingly centralized colonial information order. Surveys conducted during and immediately after the Napoleonic Wars were particularly important to the growth of the East India Company's new collections in London. In the wake of territorial gains, surveyors and their staff bought, plundered, collected and otherwise acquired a wide range of mate…
Knowledge and Power in the Age of Conciliation: On Joshua Ehrlich’s The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge
History (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · History of Science and Medicine (4 works) · Economic history (3 works) · History (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Sociology (3 works)