ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

James Dinwiddie’s experimental empire’

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

English Abstract

The extension of the British Empire through science involved many individuals now little known. One such was the Dumfries-born Scottish mathematics teacher, James Dinwiddie, who was an itinerant lecturer throughout Britain before appearing at the Royal court at Richmond after 1790. Audiences high and low followed his displays of instruments. Dinwiddie was recruited by Henry Dundas at the Board of Trade, and by Joseph Banks in the Royal Society, for the Macartney Embassy to China in 1792. Instrument makers proved crucial there to ventures in experimental demonstration. From Canton, Dinwiddie moved to Calcutta where he lived for twelve years. The paper explores Dinwiddie’s associations with local makers and with those involved in the long-distance trade between Calcutta and London assisted by merchants and potentates in the East India Company. By examining his scientific lectures, we reveal his reliance on little recognized local makers, as well as upon the well-known William Jones and George Adams who promoted their goods across the empire. London to Calcutta was a well-worn route in the instrument

Author

• Larry Stewart, University of Saskatchewan