>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
[ Silence ]
>> Hello. My name is Mary Lou Reker and on behalf of the Library
of Congress' Office of Scholarly programs
and the John W. Kluge Center, I want to welcome you to a lecture
by Dr. Josep Simon entitled Ganot:
King in the Republic of Physics Readers.
No cell phones, okay, all cell phones off
because we don't wanna catch the buzz and the ring on the recording.
Dr. Simon holds a PhD in the History of Science
from the University of Leeds in England.
He has a lecture in that field
at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
and in 2010 he was also a recipient of the Marc-Auguste Pictet Prize
of the Societe de Physique et Histoire Naturelle de Geneve.
Following his tenure as a John W. Kluge fellow, he will return
to the University of Paris West as principal investigator
within Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Program
that concerns textbook science.
He has held other fellowships through the American Institute
of Physics, the Smithsonian's Dibner Library
and the Spanish Ministry of Science.
He has written book chapters for a number of volumes published
by Spanish, French, and English language publishers
and his articles may be seen and refereed journals such as Science
and Education, Historia de la Educacion
and Cultura Escrita y Sociedad.
Here at the Kluge Center, Dr. Simon has worked on completing a book
that was published this month
by Pickering & Chatto Press entitled Communicating Physics.
It has a much longer title.
I won't read that all but Communicating Physics
and congratulation Dr. Simon.
Today, Josep will speak on Ganot's textbooks
and the international communication
of scientific information in the 19th century.
In reading a little section of the book,
I learned that Ganot's textbooks which we can all learn
from as writers were considered vital largely
because of their exceptional clarity, conciseness,
smooth narrative, powerful syntax and precise selection of facts.
So to learn more, please help me welcome Dr. Josep Simon.
[ Applause ]
>> And I hope you will tell us the long title.
>> Yeah.   [ Laughter ]

>> I'll leave that with you.   >> Okay. Thank you, Mary Lou.

I've been here for six months and I would like to thank all the workers
at the Library of Congress from the lower grades
in the professional language scale to the top management positions
and the Kluge Center for having me during these months,
its director Carolyn Brown and in particular Mary Lou Reker
for her attention and competence.
This talk is connected to two ongoing projects

in which I am focusing through several angles
and disciplinary approaches on the study of modern science education
in historical perspective.
The stay as a fellow at the Kluge Center has allowed me
to expand my experience in European comparative history starting
to level of expertise on another major case such as the American.
It also has held me to break fresh ground for my future research
through historiographical work and thinking.
In this paper, I am going to talk about three things, textbooks,
textbooks, and of course textbooks.
I will do first a brief incursion into the public discourse
of the foremost authority at the Library of Congress who happens
to be also the president of the United States of America.
Second, I will talk also briefly
about American textbook physics in the 1950s and 1960s.
Third, I will go back one century and I will provide a quick overview
of textbooks physics in the 19th century,
especially around the 1850s.
Fourth, I will introduce to you Adolphe Ganot, the man who features
in the title of this talk as perhaps the king
of physics in the three nations.
What I mean according to Alexis de Tocqueville,
France, Britain, and the US.
Finally, I will provide some examples on Ganot's readerships
in France, England, and the US and I will explain why it is important
to take readers into account.
The purpose of this talk is mainly historiographical.
My aim is to discuss why textbooks matter for history of science
or history of physics in particular.
Why physics textbook matter for the history
of education and the book history.
This doesn't seem to be clear enough in current scholarship.
The case of Ganot's textbooks which I have studied in a recent book
in comparative Franco-British perspective
as Mary Lou said is a notable one but in my opinion,
it's just the tip of the iceberg.
In an area of studies that of textbook science which doesn't exist
as a compound [phonetic] disciplinary field
but is instead spread across several academic disciplines
which rarely interact.   So let's start with my first point.

On January 25, 2011, Barack Obama delivered his address
on the state of the union.
Now, I have to be humble and cautious.
I'm convinced that I know little about American politics.
Probably, as little or perhaps as little about German
or Egyptian politics but as a citizen in France
and through several countries,
I thought Obama's was a courageous discourse for his defense
of public interest against private interest in a context which seem
at least hostile to this perspective.
As a historian of education, Obama's discourse also pleased me
because of his stress on the historical significance
of science education but I have several hats and as a historian
of science, I can also say that Obama's discourse was not original
since it followed already classical lines in political discourse.
In his address, Obama said, half a century ago when the Soviets beat us
in to space with a launch of a satellite called Sputnik,
we have no idea how we'd beat them to the moon.
After investing in better research and education,
we didn't just surpass the Soviets.
We unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries
and millions of new jobs and he emphasized,
this is our generation's Sputnik moments, a great headline
for newspapers in the following day.
Connecting education, science, technology
and international competition has been a constant feature
in political discourse since at least the 19th century
and in fact it is a contested issue that there is a direct
or inevitable connection between science education
and technological development.
Obama's reference to Sputnik is also interesting
because it takes us backwards to a very different moment
in American history, the 1950s, when in fact,
major educational reforms conducted especially
through new textbook projects took place with the aim
of promoting science education in high schools.
These reforms were also a way for American scientists,
in particular physicists, of keeping and expanding the large area
of influence in politics and society that they had gained thanks
to the collaboration in the World War II effort.
This phenomenon has been studied by John Rudolph
in his excellent Scientists in the Classroom:
The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education.
I will just mention here that in this period,
several major textbook physics enterprises were developed
with the aim of changing the high school curriculum in physics
and its pedagogical implementation and with a clear aim
of increasing enrollments, university enrollments in this field
by both attracting more students and tuning their school education


Two major examples of these are the textbooks produced
by the Physical Science Study Committee on your left
and the Harvard Project Physics.
These textbooks had an enormous success in the US
and abroad through translations.
They mark a period in which American physics became prominent worldwide.
This contrasts heavily with the state
of affairs in the 19th century.
>> The case of the US is particularly interesting
because of this transformation from being a peripheral national context
in relation to research and education in physics
to its subsequent international impact as a radiating center.
The history of physics in the US has hitherto barely covered the 19th
century period which shows perhaps still attendance in history
of science to focus especially on stellar moments
in scientific research but in my work,
I argue that a less elitist focus on science education helps us
to understand greatly the making of scientific disciplines.

Let's have a look now on how were things in the 19th century.
A review on physics textbooks published in 1851
by Joseph Lovering, the Harvard professor of mathematics
and natural philosophy, provides us with relevant factual evidence.
In this article, appearing in the North American Review,
Lovering provided a wide overview on the status of physics then
in America, the role of textbooks in this context
and the question of their availability.
There are many interesting things in Lovering's review.
The first is that he considers that textbooks are central
in the development of physics and its teaching.
However, he's not completely persuaded about the possibility
of textbooks taking over other means of communicating physics
such as lectures and lecture notes.
This is a typical attitude which we can also find, for instance,
in France between the late 18th century and early 19th century
and it is a mark showing that things were indeed changing
in the pedagogy of physics.
Lovering considered that textbooks had the power of fixing knowledge
but that they were not able to keep pace with the rapid developments
in science which could instead be expounded in lectures
as they were being presented in conferences and journal papers.
In post-revolutionary France,
another teacher Joseph Izan [phonetic] who was a teacher
of physics and chemistry considered that textbooks provided a means
of progressing for students and a resource for inexperienced teachers
but he questioned the idea of a standard book to be used
for all teachers for which teacher will have
like dictating the notebooks of someone else.
Neither Lovering nor Izan could fully see fully
that in fact physics textbooks will become dominant in the teaching
of physics, that thanks to new techniques in printing
and the book trade, they will be able to have large print runs
and numerous successive editions incorporating weekly scientific
and pedological developments
and that textbook physics will become a lucrative international
business for authors and book sellers.
In fact, the dominance of science textbooks has been often contested
and they have not always been central.
However, they are still with us and they have had a fundamental impact
for over two centuries already in the shaping of physics
as a discipline and in its teaching.
Going back to Lovering's review, it seems [inaudible] surprising
that he consider that neither in America nor
in Britain were there appropriate physics textbooks and that
for these reasons, physicists and physics teachers had to rely
on the French and German production in this field.
This will be especially surprising in the case of Britain
since the historiography of physics provides this national context
with a key role in the development of physics in the 19th century
but let's see how Lovering explained this state of affairs.
In fact, the lack of good physics textbooks written
in English was not due in Lovering's opinion to a lack of major research
but to the type of publications
through which British practitioners had communicated it.
The monographs and articles composing the series
of the Cabinet Encyclopedia, the Library of Useful Knowledge,
the Penny Magazine, and the Encyclopedia Metropolitana,
all major publication series of international renown in this period
and had many qualities but they didn't have those required
by a textbook.
They lack unity of thought, comprehensiveness,
and up-to-dateness and their subject arrangement, narrative,
rhetoric an expositive focus made them inadequate
to communicate efficiently physics
to students being often too academic or too popular.
There were a few physics textbooks published in English
but they were according to Lovering inadequate
as they were written mainly by medical practitioners
and addressed to medical students.
This was in contrast to the rich French
and German textbook physics tradition which according
to Lovering will count already with a large number of exemplary authors
such as the French Pouillet, Bacry, [inaudible], Becquerel, [inaudible],
Regnault and Lamy and the German Muller and Barschall.
As you see, it doesn't seem that it was so easy
to produce a good physics textbook.
Actually, this was closely connected to the development
of secondary education in national perspective in the 19th century.
Indeed in France and the German states, reforms leading
to the establishment or refashioning of structures of secondary
and higher education with a large national scope took place
in the early 19th century sooner than in other national context.
In the same period, the development of physics as a discipline was boost
by its inclusion in secondary education curricula.
These educational developments went hand in hand with the production
of textbooks which in many cased had a foundational role
and were powerful tools to establish,
shape and standardize pedagogy and physics.
A key textbook author in the French context is Adolphe Ganot,
a French private teacher, ally in to the French scientific elite
who published two physics textbooks
which became standard introductions to physics worldwide.
Ganot published his first textbook in 1851,
the same year as Lovering's alarmist review.
The success of the book made it have large print runs
and almost an edition per year or every two years.

Here you have the title page of the Traite
and you can see the huge number of editions that the Traite had.
The Traite was a book connected to Adolphe Ganot's teaching
in his school in Paris where he was mainly preparing students
for an examination which governed science and education in this period
which was the baccalaureat es sciences
and he published another book, the Cours de Physique,
targeting a more open market of general readers and popular science
but also, for instance, primary school teachers
which had also a great number of editions over a long period.
In 1880, the 18th edition of Ganot's Traite had a print run
of 20,000 copies.
By this year, Ganot had sold already more than 200,000 copies
of his Traite and more than 60,000 copies of his Cours.
Furthermore, both books were translated in to many languages.
You can see here the title page of the Cours de Physique
and you can see here, for instance, the English translation published
in London by a French publisher by Bailliere
and the translation published by Longmans in London,
Longmans which was in the 19th century the most important publisher
in every field in England.
You can see an American translation published by A.S. Barnes,
an educational publisher.
Only one year after the publication of the Cours in France, in Paris,
there was a translation for the American market.
You have seen how many copies and it is--
there is not a lot of work on print runs in the case
of science textbooks but the number of copies published by and sold
by Ganot is impressive and looking a bit at other type of books, it's--
there are few books which really surpass this type of print runs
and global number of copies.
For instance, we could find that classics
like La Fontaine's fables had more copies sold in the 19th century.
Of course, we can find also fiction like Jules Verne's novels,
very popular in the period, who had higher print runs
or extremely successful popular science book
like Camille Flammarion's popular astronomy who had an average number
of copies similar to Ganot's textbooks
so it is really impressive.
On the other hand, concerning print runs, the British
or English translations of Ganot's textbooks had a lower number
of editions and print runs than the French one.
>> But in any case, they sold much more copies than science classics
which have received far more attention
such as Robert Chambers' Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
or even Charles Darwin's Origins of Species just to give you a little
of a comparative view and you can see the impressive number
of translations.
It was usual for physics-- for French physics to be translated
in the 19th century but probably not to that extent.
We have 12 translations for the Traite and a lower number
but still a considerable one in--
for the case of the Cours and it is quite interesting the most important
translations in terms of editions and numbers where the translations
into Spanish and into English.
There were two translations into Spanish, one published in Madrid
by a French publisher established in Spain Bailly-Bailliere
from a famous publishing family and a translation published in Paris
by a French publisher [inaudible]
who was targeting especially the Latin-American market in a period
of independence of the Latin-American republics
and development of school systems, et cetera, and in the English--
in the case of English we have the editions published in London
which circulated also in America through agreements of Longmans
with publishers, scientific and medical publishers in New York
but we have also the American translation


So with these numbers we should think what is the status
of Ganot as an author.
This image synthesizes very well the question.
The tombstone of Adolphe Ganot
in the cemetery of [inaudible] in Paris.
You can see that the tombstone still fell down.
It happens at least ten years ago and the tombstone is abandoned.
This is a useful, a very useful visual metaphor
because although Ganot's textbooks are known by some historians
of physics, only a couple of scholars have published some papers
on his work and my recent monograph is the first work to deal in detail
with it and Ganot's textbook physics is still absent
in the standard historiography of physics.
The last synthesis on this topic,
the excellent When Physics Became King by Iwan Morus published
with the University of Chicago Press is not an exception
and also pays little attention to the role
of school science education.
This is where the key question lies, the role of science education
and how it is considered within history of science.
Ganot is a nobody among a large body of nobodies
who devoted their professional life to write science textbooks.
This is in contrast to the international success
and cross-cultural penetration
that Ganot's physics had in the 19th century.
See, for instance, an illustration of how Ganot's physics was received
in England and this is just an example among incredibly large
number of reviews.
As you can see, the publication of Ganot's textbook was connected
in fundamental ways to the development
of a scientific discipline such as physics which was expanding
in secondary education especially you have to think
that there were not even one PhD student in physics per year
in France or in England in this period.
I mean, the discipline was very small.
I mean, maybe didn't exist yet.
I mean, there were very few students in universities
that in physics spots the secondary education marker was something
different and physics had a place there and it was expanding
and its publics were expanding.
So as we can see for this, the case of England,
there was a demand created by the development of a new type
of educational framework in which France and Germany created earlier
than other countries and economy an educational economy and an economy
of the book trade linked to this educational economy.
But it is not completely true
that there were no physics textbooks in Britain and the US.
Just that on the one hand available textbooks were not adequate
for the new pedagogical framework as we have seen according to Lovering,
that British and American teachers did not often had the required
experience to prepare those type of textbooks and on the other
that they were not able to compete with French textbook products
which were sold and translated
in their countries and how did this happen?
The role of book sellers and publishers was fundamental
and you can see here the network,
the international network of the Baillieres.
The Baillieres opened their first shop in Paris.
They focused especially on medical publications and the starter
of the firm Jean Baptiste Bailliere is a well known publisher among
historians of medicine because he really govern the publication
of medicine which had an important center
in Paris for a very long time.
It is a period for the expansion of the book trade.
It is incredible how things changed compared to the 18th century
in terms, for instance, of speed in terms of transports.
How quick you can have a foreign book in your shop in London,
in New York or in Paris
and the French had a leadership in this field.
Because of cultural aspects, there are still importance of French
as a language, a language known by every bookseller in the world
but also for economical reasons as it happen usually
and it's even based on a classic 19th century economical theory even
if I'm not an expert.
French publishers went abroad because they fear bankruptcy caused
by overproduction and there were a few important crisis
in the first half of the 19th century where major publishers
in Paris or in London went bankrupt and a way of avoiding it was
to take the remainders out of the country and try
to sell them somewhere else but this evolved into other things
and the Baillieres is an important case.
Arguably, we can consider the Bailliere as the major scientific
and medical publishers in international perspective
in the 19th century and the Bailliere
as a family business expanded from their Paris base
to establish bookshops and publishing companies in London
by Hippolyte Bailliere, in New York by the sons of Hyppolyte Bailliere
who immigrated to America, in Melbourne or in Madrid.
The Baillieres had a major role in the introduction of Ganot's physics
in England and subsequently in America
and they published the translation, published in English in London
and they published household Spanish translation in Madrid.
On the other hand, as I have said, the English translation
of Ganot's textbooks was taken over by Longmans,
the major British publisher in this period
because of unforeseen circumstances Hippolyte Bailliere died young
and so the business was closed and the network was reduced a little bit
and Longmans had also important connections or started
to develop important connections, international connections
in this period so they sold a part of the print run of the Treaties
and the Natural Philosophy, the two translations of Ganot's textbooks
in English, in America through New York--
agreements with New York and also in India and I'm not going
to talk a lot really about this but we have to think also
about the developing book enterprise in America where we start
to see how publishers emerge with specializing
in the school textbook market.
As whole market which developed early because in contrast
to Britain, America,
the US developed network of schools quite early.
>> It is an early phenomenon in the US and we can see publishers
like Alfred Smith Barnes based in New York who, for instance,
around the 1840s starts a series called the national series
of standard school books in which the translation of Ganot's school
for the American market is published.

And here you can see a review of the American translation
of Ganot's book translated by William Guy Peck who was
at Columbia University but had previously been
at the West Point Military Academy and we can see why a textbook
like Ganot can be so successful.
The review starts, there is no lack of school books
on natural philosophy such as they are but very many
of them have sprung from the scissors of the book maker rather
than the pen or brain of the author and many such works, crude and full
of errors, hold their in place in schools and academies rather
through the tack and enterprise of publishers or the negligence
of school committees than from many intrinsic merits of their own.
So we can see there were a good number of physics textbooks
in the American market by American authors by the American publishers
but these textbooks they don't have the integrated experience
that French or German textbook school have at least in physics
because we have to think that in France, the textbook market
for secondary education had started to develop in the early 19th century
so by 1851, we had teachers who had been teaching
with a certain special type of focus for decades
and had been improving their pedagogical experience
and their experience as writers and I want you to focus
in another aspect which is basic, which is the illustrations.
The illustrations contained in Ganot's textbooks because Ganot
in collaboration with printers and draftsmen
and engravers was a pioneer in the introduction of a new type
of illustration, an illustration which use wood engraving and also
which integrated illustrations in the text of textbooks
and I will explain this further but we can see in this review
where it says, as an elementary work, it is concise in style
yet remarkably clear in definition and explanation,
logical in arrangement and beautifully illustrated
with numerous engravings which are facsimile copies
of those in the original work.
These engravings are so complete and accurate
that they are not only well calculated to convey to the mind
of the pupil a clear conception of the principles unfolded but exhibits
so fully the structure of apparatus and methods of experimenting
as to read the apparatus-- no, as to fully the structure-- no-- sorry.
As to render the apparatus itself in many case--
[ Inaudible Remarks ]   >> As to render.

>> Yeah, yeah.
Exactly! As to render the apparatus itself in many case unnecessary.
It is interesting because Ganot's Cours--
when Ganot published his second textbook, his intention was
to make physics available to students and teachers
who didn't have the possibility
of buying a scientific instrument collection.
The instrument was very important, physics was very focused
on the description and use in lecture demonstrations
of scientific instruments but there were many people
who they don't have access to these collection which were expensive.
And one of the aims of Ganot in making contracts with draftsmen
and printers was to make a collection accessible
through illustration.
And this happened and many people use the textbooks in this way.
And you can see here the typical way
of illustrating scientific instruments during the first half
of the 19th century.
Usually, the technique was engraving in copper plates.

And you could find this type of illustrations at the end
of the textbooks in folded leaves.
As you can see it's very schematic but this was the top class
of scientific instrument and illustration in this period.
And you can see here in comparison at the bottom two images
of Ganot's way of illustrating his textbooks.
On the left, the Traite, you can see an instrument using acoustics,
the bellows and with some flutes used by--
in acoustic research by people like Koenig.
And on the right an illustration
of the more popular introducing human figures to make--
integrate the reader in the action of experimenting with instruments


And on engraving, this is an electrostatic machine
in a classical mold designed by Jesse Ramsden.

And as I say this had a major impact, a major impact
in the success of the books but also
as we will see later this was not just for decorations
or to make attractive the books.
These engravings had important uses and there is a lot
of knowledge integrated in these illustrations.
The only thing is that we have a different visual culture now
and different types of expertise and it's not easy to read them.
But there were for instance draftsmen involved
in Ganot's textbook projects who had also secret, so to say commissions
by Parisian businessmen to do espionage in some
of the international exhibitions happening in Paris.
And I don't know if you know but in the first international exhibitions,
the Great Exhibition in London and subsequent exhibitions in Paris,
it was forbidden to draw in front of machines or instruments
because this could be a way to steal the design of this.
And many of the exhibitors had a lot of concerns about it.
And one of the Ganot's draftsmen had the mission of going
to international exhibition and draw some of the exhibits.
And how did he do?
He will do, see, memorize it and with the skill of someone
with expertise on [inaudible] machines
and on drawing them he will go back and draw them at home, you know.
So there is a lot of-- with these illustrations also possibilities
of do-- what is called today reverse engineering where people
with expertise can look at the illustration
and know even what might be inside to make an inch of the instrument.
Okay. So I'm going to talk now about the readers and you will see some
of these usages with illustration.
I mean the reading of the text and the images.
I'm just going to show some examples.
In my book there is a whole chapter on readers and I argue
that the picture of psychics as a discipline is incomplete.
We don't take into account readers too and how readers produce meaning
and we should take into account, you know,
how different people see different things in reading the same text.
And I have investigated reading--
readers and readings in different context, in the context
of formal education, of course, this was a basic context
where the reading of Ganot's textbook physics took place.
And it was a standard introductory work as I have said
in medical schools, secondary education, the first years
in college education, et cetera, et cetera.
In formal education, for instance, courses for artisans or workers,
general reading, literary journals, novels, et cetera,
but also as we see in research, a textbook produced
for secondary education or the interface
between secondary education and universities, this examination
that I mentioned but in France the baccalaureate but also in Britain
and in America through examinations which little
by little were becoming the way to access higher education
but at the same time they were certificates
when leaving secondary education.
So let's see an example for instance.
This is an examination in 1865 of a French student
who attended the examination of the baccalaureat es sciences
at the University of [inaudible] and he has not been very lucky
because this is not a very nice way to go into historical record
but he was surprised after examiners looked at his paper.
They considered that he had introduced a copy
of Ganot's textbook in the examination room.
>> They considered it was evident
and obviously he didn't pass the examination
and even there were disciplinary measures
and he couldn't attend the examination
for a certain amount of years.   And well, I mean, what--

this student was not cautious
because what lost him was the numerical table
that you can see at the bottom.
When the examiner had a look at the paper he says no way, I mean,
no one can-- not even a researcher can learn this table
of numerical values which were actually barometric corrections
by heart.   There's nothing wrong here.

So what's the first thing that the examiner did?
He say let's have a look at Ganot.
I mean it is the standard textbook and you can see
that the passages underlined, which is almost,
everything are the sentences copied literally off the book.
The examiner also says that even the figures are copied.
And it's interesting to look at this document
because we can see a replication of the textbook page layout
with an insertion of images together with text
and numerical tables, okay.
So this is a certain way of using Ganot's textbooks, okay.
Another example is this poem published by a student
in Harvard College where his-- it was in the other semi annuals.
My heart I carved for study's sake.
I left the wall behind and solemnly resolved
to take an everlasting grind.
My grade was filled with freshman call, my call was somewhat low.
When I began to spoke my oath and interview Ganot.
My love for physics had I fear be no [inaudible] before.
I count with all the year and illustrated bore
and when conditions night by night came in my dreams
to me I wish Ganot was out of sight and buried in the sea.
For physics I was all a man and is there one who thinks
that he could study with a band performing Captain Janks.
I shower my pending hopes of course, he will be the sooner seized
for says Ganot increase the force the time will then decrease.
And this alone I learned from all my weariness spent hours to with
that powers mechanical aren't like mental powers.
My mind I found with late remorse, the more and more I try,
gave constantly decreasing force, tangentially applied.
So we can see how Ganot's physics was ingrained in the culture
of formal education and among students.
This is just one case.   There were many others.

Even Ganot's textbook featuring in ceremonies would happen
in certain American colleges like for instance at the University
of Michigan where there was a ceremony at the end of the year
of the burning of the physics.
No, you can't think what happened, it's obvious.

As for general reading, there are several examples of the appearance
of references to Ganot in literature.
And for the instance, we can see in the work
of the Swedish playwright August Strindberg where he uses Ganot
as a way of describing the tensions between the two sexes.
As we can see, there is a kind of love and hate relation going
on with Ganot which means that his physics was loved
by many people, I guess.
And as I have said we can find a very different use
which probably isn't expected in relation to the type of ideas
that we have about textbooks and how they have been integrated
within narratives in history of science.
And this is an example by Professor William Thomson also known
as Lord Kelvin where he is writing
to a colleague Thomas Andrews a chemist in Belfast
and they are discussing information about apparatus for the use
of lighting in lighthouses in particular which was a topical field
of technological development in this period.
And William Thomson offers different pieces of information.
One of them are notes that he has taken while attending an
international exhibition and he saw a particular machine
and he took notes as an expert engineer
with a very detailed description as you can see of the number
of bobbins, their dimension, et cetera.
And another one is addressing his colleague
to an illustration in Ganot's physics.
Okay, so we can see the power of these illustrations for reference
on technological development in this period.
There are other examples like, for instance, the engine--
the British engineer Sebastian de Ferranti
who was a very successful businessman in the development
of electrical measure instruments.
He used some of the diagrams in Ganot as an inspiration
for the basic structure or mechanism
of his electrical measurement apparatus.
There is also the case in France of Zenobe Gramme which was Belgium
but immigrated to Paris to work and was almost illiterate.
He is known as one of the inventors of the dynamo or dynamo.
And apparently, even if it probably--
it's a bit exaggerated like in any inventor's biography but they say
that he only had two books, a French dictionary and Ganot's Traite.
Okay. We have also examples in the American case and for instance
in the notebooks of Thomas Edison we can find references to Ganot.
You can see here the machine in particular
which was an engraved tank taken in a war shop very soon
after this instrument was-- this apparatus was worked,
was invented and put into practice.
And as I was saying in the American case we have also the case
of William Graham Bell where he makes reference towards the bottom
of the page of Ganot's physics.
In relation to data you remember the table in the student examination.
In relation to data about the gravity of certain materials
where he's investigating flight technologies and he needs data
about the weights-- to calculate data about the weights
of different materials for his prototypes
which are basically different types of kites.

So we can see that this textbook was also used in research
and that textbooks can be used in research, you know,
which might be surprising.
And I am going to end my talk with the same quotation
which with I started it in silence.
There is in principle no direct connection between this quotation
from a novel by the Spanish writer Pio Baroja and Ganot's physics.
Pio Baroja was our Spanish writer of the 19th generation
and he reflects quite a lot in his novels about science.
Baroja even if there is not a direct connection,
Baroja was once a high school student like all of you
and he had good and bad memories
from his science education at school like you.
And it is very likely that he encountered Ganot's textbooks
in his school physic classics since it was
such a standard textbook in this time.
As the title of Iwan Morus's book "When Physics Became King,"
which I have mentioned indicates indeed
in the 19th century physics became king.
This was a key period for its establishment as a discipline.
And it made so and became very much the paradigm for science
in the 20th century based on scientific prestige
but also among other things, its technological
and notably its applications to war.
But I am not going to moralize here like Baroja does in his work.
However, as a historian it is worth to discuss
if physics really needs a king of physics.
Pierre-Simon Laplace, Lord Kelvin, James Clerk Maxwell,
Herman Helmholtz, Adolphe Ganot.
Political narratives have often a logic
which emphasizes heroes, inventors and origins.
Fair enough, if everyone is happy with this.
But the history of science and in particular the history
of physics can go much further as it has today the tools
of a sophisticated field of inquiry.
Perhaps it is more relevant to consider physics as a republic,
a republic of practitioners and authors among
which textbook authors were often mainly teachers, writers,
and readers and why not making another step forward
and consider physics as a republic of readers.
Readers who in general are nobodies and do not appear
in standard histories but who can tell us a lot about physics
as a discipline and about status in culture and society.
Thank you.   [ Applause ]

>> Thank you very much.   Now, questions.

>> First of all, I think it was a fabulous talk.
I've learned many things and also funny things.
First of all, it was the first time I heard
of book publishers going abroad because of the fear
of going bankrupt because this is not actually the logic
that imperialists use so this an example
of textbook imperialism [inaudible].   [ Laughter ]

>> Also, I know-I was greatly delighted to see
that you found the illustrations in the textbooks so important.
You called it reverse engineering, I call it 19th century version
of open access because that's of course
to show exactly what's going on.   Fantastic.

But there was one thing I wanted to ask you,
a little bit more boring question but still,
you spoke about textbooks, what is the role of--
it's funny because I have this idea in the differentiation
of let's say economics in my case or in your case scientific discipline.
You clearly see the role of observations
and not even specialist observations, textbooks.
But what is the role of journals, for instance?
Is that the role already important in the 19th century or?
>> Yeah, I mean journals are fundamental and there is work
which argues that journals have a fundamental role
in the professionalization of physics in particular.
And--
>> But I do not necessarily mean professional scientific journals
but I mean popular science.   >> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Yeah, yeah, I mean popular science was a great phenomenon
in the 19th century, especially, well,
it's also a phenomenon generating in 19th century fundamentally
and with great centers of development
in France and in Britain.
I mean these are the most well-known cases but it happens
in many other places of course.
And obviously, there is an interaction in the sense
that we have professional journals which also they--
very often they are leaned to professional societies
so they are very important in the development
of physics or science in general.
And we have popular science journals which popularized knowledge
and we have to think obviously in the perspective of the period
where entertainment is what in France is called the Jean-de-Monts,
you know, people who have time to-- exactly.
It's based on-- I mean people go to conferences, lectures,
demonstrations, buy instruments and--
instruments and apparatus and very often the boundaries are not clear,
you know, so for instance in Ganot's physics we can see Ganot.
I mean I have studied Ganot as a reader where one
of his major aims is to transform journal science
into textbook science and there are connections in the narratives
but there are differences you know, so.
[ Inaudible Remark ]   >> Thanks.

On the other hand, it is something--
the thing is that historians of science we tend to focus more
on higher education where research happens
but this is a contemporary view
because I mean secondary school teachers need to research
in this period and also as Katharine Olesco has shown very well the
people-- that the training
in universities was very heavily addressed
to training teachers for secondary education.
And very often the secondary education curriculum shaped the
university curriculum and not vice versa so you can see.
I don't know.
>> I'm struck by the number of editions in Italian and Spanish.
I was wondering if you could say not exactly places where you think
that I was stunned that there were something like 27 Italian editions
in this-- almost an edition every 3 years.
[ Inaudible Remark ]   >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

>> I'm curious about copyright law and if there is one.
In the same country as this is outside of my field
but having this notion of Mark Twain refusing
to do a [inaudible] copyright
and they have just publishing his material.
And it would seem that copyright law hadn't existed really [inaudible]
publication if possible and if--
>> So in the same period you have one edition
for example in Sweden, 27 in--
>> Yeah, I mean I don't know the Italian case but I think
that obviously the context in Italy, I mean, they were invaded
by Bonaparte, you know, and there was a heavy, a strong influence
from French culture and even I mean Ganot talks about research
by many Italian physicists like Carlo Matteucci
and who actually were traveling from Italy to Paris
and doing research in Paris, et cetera.
So I can imagine that the Italian context had a development
in secondary education which was connected with a French influence
and that they needed textbooks
and there was a fluid communication between them.
But you find many types of things, you know,
because I haven't mentioned
but textbook translations are very different to literary translations
because a teacher needs a text to teach his class
and usually there is an adaptation to the educational context and some
of these translations are very free, you know.
And even if they still have the name of the original author
and with the Spanish case there is obviously a French relation
that happened also through invasion but also
through the circulation of students.
>> But then we don't seem to see a Portuguese translation.
And that market in Brazil.   Portugal also had connection.

>> In Portugal, the French editions were used because I have not said it
but the French editions were used also in America,
I mean before there were translations.
Or even in parallel they were used
and I don't know why there was not a translation into Portuguese
but in the Spanish case, what happened as I showed you is
that there is quite early development of secondary education.
Not necessarily as Spain or Germany but probably similar to the case
of the US where the secondary education system
with a national scope is established in 1845 and with a strong connection
with France because, for instance, like the first collections book
for every schools and university in Spain in--
around the 1840s they are purchased in Paris where the ministry
of education or the secretary of education goes to Paris
and makes purchases to French instrument makers and obviously,
Ganot's textbooks and other French textbooks are agents of propaganda
for French instrument makers because they are--
they introduced drawings of real collections, you know,
and real collections of teachers like Ganot
who reproduced his own collection, the collection of his school
but also he goes to the war shop and you have to thinks it's Paris
but even it's a tiny space, the Latin quarter or neighborhood
in Paris where you have a dynamic system of publishers,
instrument makers, teachers, researchers,
and it's a very competitive world in just a few streets around,
especially the faculty of medicine and the poly technique school.
And concerning copyright, I have not investigated it in detail
but there is no international law of copyright.
>> There are certain agreements between different countries
and in general these agreements, for instance,
the agreement between Britain and France is that you need
to deposit a copy of your book in a national library whether the French
or the British and that this secures, even the author is obliged,
like I mean copyright agreements today.
But for instance, there are some reviewers for the American case
where they say that even foreign textbooks are promoted
in American more than usually expected because it's a way for--
of getting them for free for American publishers.
They just can't take them, you know and don't pay anything.
It does not happen with Ganot in the American case
because there are agreements with the editions published in London,
they are just sent to America and there are two publishers
who just changed the title page to have their name
but it's an agreement with the London publisher.
Another interesting thing to finish is
that the illustrations have also an entity or an identity
which is very strong and comparable to text
because there is a separate copyright of the illustrations
and of the text and Ganot sometimes sells his illustration
but not his text and there are authors who use illustrations
and they write a different book so this is very interesting.

>> So thank you for the really interesting talk.
So I'm really interested in the way that you talk about a sort
of republic over the years and Ganot is a potential king which I think
to be a way that you're addressing the issue of authority in pedagogy,
right, or in educational and intellectual enterprise.
And in particular it's that review from the New England or from 1860s
that I'm interested in where it says, the textbook is so good
that you won't even have to do the experiments yourself,
just look at the pictures, which I'm wondering how you hear that.
Is that a sign that there's a certain populism or democratization
of education going on here?
Or, I mean, doesn't it seem to be [inaudible] I suppose.
Or is it a sign that people are stopped in doing the experiments
on their own and they're now relying more heavily on the textbook to sort
of tell them what [inaudible].
>> Yeah, I mean the usual approach in history of science will be
to tell oh, this is just a sign of what we already knew, you know,
textbooks are dogmatic and creative
and bookish science is not really science.
And this might have happened as I say people who didn't have access
to these instruments, maybe they studied just with illustrations.
But [inaudible] this is interesting that I didn't mention
but it is also quite usual to find letters to the editor in journals
where teachers they write and they write to indicate
that there are certain mistakes or errors in Ganot's textbooks.
And very often this involves repeating the experiments.
They are not always rocket science experiments.
I mean, some of them are mainly demonstrative but there are others
which are historical experiments or experiments
which happened in the previous years.
But you can see how the teachers have performed the experiment
described with engravings and text.
They have realized that there was a problem and error
and they get back to-- so you can see
that the book also promotes these engagements with experiment.
I mean it's not just bookish.
And the interesting thing and I take in part my idea of this republic
from there is that even if they are indicating errors they don't
criticize Ganot's physics.
They say that Ganot's physics is a great book
and that they are just sending these letters in order
to improve it even more, which shows you
that Ganot's physics becomes a collective heritage, you know.
And every teacher and reader is proud of it and want to improve it,
you know and you have this collective of readers, teachers
and textbook authors who are students
who may be republic, you know.   There was-- there was.

Maybe--   [ Inaudible Remark ]

>> Last question.
Just I think part of the situation with textbooks and with reading
in schools is that there's a sort of enforced element
of reading things the right way or the prescribed way
and you gave an example of the student
who clearly read things the wrong way
and as result flunked their exam.
Are there ancillary materials that are talking about the way to teach
or suggesting guidelines or laboratory manuals
or other kinds of, you know, a teacher writing it
and saying here was my experience, here are some advice or any
of those things talking about prescribed and reading preferences.
>> Yeah. I have not found many direct sources
because Ganot is an unknown character
so I mean there are no books.   I mean the image of his tombstone

on his textbooks is the closest we can get to him and records
about maybe the premises that he had in Paris
so it's incredibly difficult and you probably know how difficult it is
to find these lecture notes or student notes, et cetera.
But when I found this examination it was like a miracle, you know,
to have been-- I mean and I was very happy because I say,
I had a hypothesis [inaudible] like history exists, you know,
as a discipline, you know.
But I have tried to cover this problem with--
by checking student guides and there is, I found for the French
and British case student guides which were addressed to the type
of students which will go to certain examinations and use Ganot
with all the evidence I could kind of close the question.
And they are giving very clear indications about how
to use textbooks to prepare for examinations
so there are indications about when to read them even
like saying don't read them in the evening.
Don't go to the library where they have journals
because these are distraction but also beside this kind
of funny aspects, more specific things about how
to proceed reading first the passage then trying
to repeat the experiments then you know, like going back home trying
to write about the topic and things like that so, thank you.
>> I think I'm gonna have to wrap it up now
since can I have the last word.
I have to tell you that when you did put up your first slide
with the two American physics books and the one with the bouncing ball
on the left, the last time I saw that book I left it
on the black slate physics classroom desk
in my high school physics class.   >> Really.

[ Laughter ]   [ Inaudible Remark ]

>> That's amazing.   >> So thank you.

>> Yeah, thanks, thanks.   [ Applause ]

>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.