Geography and “thing knowledge”: Instrument epistemology, failure, and narratives of 19th‐century exploration

Abstract

The paper examines the relationships between instrument epistemology, failure, and textual authority with reference to the place of scientific instruments in published narratives of 19th-century exploration. The paper draws on Baird's work on instrument epistemology and "semantic ascent" and Gooday's work on failure and on the morality of measurement. Its empirical focus comes from examination of RGS manuscript AP 52, a list of instruments provided by the RGS for 31 explorers in the period c.1877 to c.1883. Instruments are shown to (do) work in the field, even as explorers admitted to failure, in the devices and in themselves. Narrative accounts, often compiled elsewhere, obscure the contingent nature of instruments' use. The findings have implications for assessing the agency of instruments in exploration, instrument epistemology, and narrative inscription, and for understanding failure in geographical work. K E Y W O R D S exploration, failure, instrument epistemology, instruments, publication, thing knowledge | INTRODUCTIONThat the history of science and increasingly the history of modern culture is indeed a history of instruments and their intelligentand sometimes not so intelligentuse should be well known. We need to take notice. (Baird, 2004, p. xv) This paper examines the place of scientific instruments in published narratives of 19th-century exploration and the relationships between instrument epistemology, failure, and textual authority. Studies of the relationship between exploration and authorship identify several stages between the act of exploration and the production of printed narratives about it. These involved in-the-field note taking and in-situ alteration; later redaction elsewhere; post-exploration appeals to memory when in-situ writing proved inadequate; and the role of editors and publishers in revising the content, even the chronology of exploration, to suit perceived audience demand (Bouguet et al.

History and philosophy of geography I: Decolonising the discipline, diversifying archives and historicising radicalism

“…Following the example of eminent travellers such as Humboldt (Naylor and Schaffer, 2019), respectability came from legitimated fieldwork practices and matters of performance and skilfulness, including the use of instruments. Significantly, this research is often based on the archives of the Royal Geographical Society (Wess and Withers, 2019; Withers, 2019b).…”

Off the beaten track? Critical approaches to exploration studies

“…Another material approach to exploration has seen scholars focus their attention on scientific instruments and their use in the scientific fieldwork undertaken by explorers (Noëlle, Licoppe, & Sibum, 2002;Bourget, Licoppe, & Sibum, 2002;Macdonald & Withers, 2015;Withers, 2019). The nineteenth century saw significant changes in the expectations that were placed upon explorers and resulted in the increased provision of scientific equipment to explorers in the field.…”