ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Instruments and Imperialism: Markets, Networks, and Patronage in the World of James Dinwiddie (1746-1815)

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

The Scottish astronomer and experimentalist James Dinwiddie (1746-1815) made his career as a teacher and lecturer-demonstrator in the British Isles and Empire, spending time in China and India as well as Scotland, Ireland and England. His papers, including notebooks, journals, lectures and correspondence provide exceptional insight into the world of public natural and experimental philosophy, trading and imperial interests and networks of knowledge and skill in the 1770s to the 1810s (see Lightman, McOuat and Stewart, 2013).

The panel will illuminate the nature and significance of these networks and skills and the circulation of instruments, from Dinwiddie’s encounters with makers and agents, in London, Dublin, Canton and Calcutta, to the overseas markets and clientele of the London instrument makers W & S Jones (1791-1859), and the commercial opportunities created for practical mathematicians, such as the Scottish astronomer Andrew Mackay (1760-1809), and by overseas trading companies in London. The papers and commentary will explore the networks of mutual interest that were created by instruments and their use – uniting makers, vendors, teachers, demonstrators, buyers, users and repairers – and what the lives of men like Dinwiddie, Mackay and William and Samuel Jones tell us about the opportunities provided by overseas trading companies and the networks of commerce and patronage that transferred instruments and knowledge about them in urban, national and imperial contexts.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Charlie W.J. Withers, University of Edinburgh

Commentator

• Charlie W.J. Withers, University of Edinburgh

Individual Presentations

• James Dinwiddie’s experimental empire’ - Larry Stewart, University of Saskatchewan

• Andrew Mackay, the East India Company and teaching navigation in London c. 1800 - Rebekah Higgitt, National Museums Scotland

• Overseas markets of W. & S. Jones, mathematical, optical and philosophical instrument makers, London - Alison D. Morrison-Low, National Museums Scotland

Session Organizers

• Rebekah Higgitt, National Museums Scotland

• Larry Stewart, University of Saskatchewan