Partners in Science

96 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE a semantic one: In what sense can “science,” as we know it todav, be said to have flourished in the 18th century? The scope of “natural phi­ losophy” was very comprehensive, embracing much of what we might regard as technology and the applied arts, and its practitioners were mostly gifted amateurs or businessmen with enquiring minds who were able to turn a good idea to profit. The idea of a sharp distinction be­ tween science and technology would have been alien to the thinking of the members of the Lunar Society. The empiricism of the leaders of the Industrial Revolution was profoundly scientific as well as techno­ logical, and the idea that they were “uneducated,” if it was ever part of the “traditional view,” is a misconception about the nature of education which has long been discredited. Can one say anything more about the intellectual environment of the British Industrial Revolution than that it was distinguished by a readi­ ness on the part of its leading figures to experiment in a way which had not been normal in industry before, and that they were encouraged to do so by their speculations on natural philosophy? The authors of this study imply that more can, in fact, be said, but it is far from clear precisely what they are prepared to say about it. The detailed studies in this collection do much to illuminate the process of innovation and industrial development in particular cases, but insofar as they throw any light on the relationship between science and technology it is only to suggest caution in the retrospective application of a distinction which did not become clearly drawn until the second half of the 19th century. In a sense, the authors are having a shy at nonexistent coconuts, be­ cause few modern historians would wish to quarrel with their general proposition. There is, indeed, an air of contentiousness about some of the work in this volume, as if the authors are anticipating a withering cross fire of criticism from their academic colleagues. Such a posture does not seem necessary, and it does not strengthen the case which they argue. Nonetheless, the evidence amassed by Musson and Robinson is impressive, and it will have to be taken seriously in all future studies of tl,ePeri“1' ' R. A. Buchanan* Partners in Science: Letters of fames Watt and Joseph Black. Edited with introduction and notes by Eric Robinson and Douglas McKie. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970. Pp. xvi+502; il­ lustrations, index. $ 12.50. The flowering of the Scottish universities in the 18th century earned them a reputation in the front rank of the world’s seats of learning. In consequence they drew students not only from England, but also from the Continent. One who contributed to this reputation was Joseph * Dr. Buchanan, senior lecturer in social history and director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Technology at Bath University, England, is the author of Technology and Social Progress. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 97 Black, a pupil of William Cullen who succeeded him as professor of anatomy and lecturer of chemistry at Glasgow in 1756. His discoveries soon afterward of specific and latent heat were of the first importance. Though he never published these discoveries, he taught them in his lectures. When James Watt set up as an instrument maker within the University precincts in 1757, he soon became acquainted with Black. A friendship was founded that continued until Black’s death in 1799. Black assisted Watt financially when, in 1765, Watt invented his great improvement in the steam engine, the separate condenser. In 1766 Black was appointed professor of medicine and chemistry at Edinburgh University and was succeeded at Glasgow by his former pupil, John Robison, who had also become an intimate of Watt. On his removal from Glasgow, Black began a lifelong correspondence with Watt. On Black’s death his executor returned many of Watt’s letters. They survive in the great collection of papers preserved by Watt’s descendants and, with Black’s letters to Watt, form the basis of the present volume. Its title is somewhat misleading, as in

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