Medicine, metals and empire

The survival of a chymical projector in early eighteenth-century London

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8395166
AutoresKoji Yamamoto (0000-0002-7375-6285, Bridge University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen48
Número4
Páginas607-637
Fecha de publicación2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe British Journal for the History of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0007-0874 • E-ISSN: 1474-001X
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000708741500059x
PMID26336059
OpenAlexW2255007439
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas19

It is well known that Newtonian philosophers such as Johan T. Desaguliers defined their authority in contradistinction to the ‘projector’, a promoter of allegedly impractical and fraudulent schemes. Partly due to the lack of evidence, however, we know relatively little about these eighteenth-century projectors, especially those operating outside learned networks without claims to gentility, disinterest or theoretical sophistication. This paper begins to remedy this lacuna through the case of a ‘chymical’ projector, Moses Stringer (fl. 1693–1714). Instead of aspiring to respectability, this London chymist survived by vigorously promoting new projects, thereby accelerating, rather than attenuating, the course of action that rendered him dubious in the first place. The article follows his (often abortive) exploitation of medicine, metals and empire, and thereby illuminates the shady end of the enlightened world of public science

Action (physics · Aesthetics · Empire · Physics · Political science · Projector · Sociology · Sophistication · Computer Science · Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Philosophy and Science · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Philosophy