Research Catalog

Title

The Victorian palace of science : scientific knowledge and the building of the Houses of Parliament / Edward J. Gillin.

Author

Gillin, Edward John, 1990-

Publication

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 325 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The Palace of Westminster, home to Britain's Houses of Parliament, is one of the most studied buildings in the world. What is less well known is that while Parliament was primarily a political building, when built between 1834 and 1860, it was also a place of scientific activity. The construction of Britain's legislature presents an extraordinary story in which politicians and officials laboured to make their new Parliament the most radical, modern building of its time by using the very latest scientific knowledge. Experimentalists employed the House of Commons as a chemistry laboratory, geologists argued over the Palace's stone, natural philosophers hung meat around the building to measure air purity, and mathematicians schemed to make Parliament the first public space where every room would have electrically-controlled time. Through such dramatic projects, Edward J. Gillin redefines our understanding of the Palace of Westminster and explores the politically troublesome character of Victorian science"--

Series Statement

Science in history

Uniform Title

Science in history (Cambridge University Press)

Subject

• Barry, Charles, 1795-1860
• Westminster Palace (London, England)
• 1800-1899
• Architecture and science > England > London
• Science > Great Britain > History > 19th century
• Architecture and science
• Buildings
• Science
• Westminster (London, England) > Buildings, structures, etc
• London (England) > Buildings, structures, etc
• England > London
• England > London > Westminster
• Great Britain

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

A radical building: the science of politics and the new Palace of Westminster -- Architecture and knowledge: Charles Barry and the world of mid-nineteenth-century science -- 'The Science of Architecture': making geological knowledge for the Houses of Parliament -- Chemistry in the Commons: Edinburgh science and David Boswell Reid's ventilating of Parliament, 1834-1854 -- Enlightening Parliament: the Bude Light in the House of Commons and the illumination of politics -- Order in Parliament: George Biddell Airy and the construction of time at Westminster.

Call Number

JFE 18-820

ISBN

• 9781108419666
• 1108419666

LCCN

2017040737

OCLC

991105039

Author

Gillin, Edward John, 1990- author.

Title

The Victorian palace of science : scientific knowledge and the building of the Houses of Parliament / Edward J. Gillin.

Publisher

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Science in history

Science in history (Cambridge University Press)

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Research Call Number

JFE 18-820