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Dr Ben Marsden

Senior Lecturer in History of Science and Technology

Personal Details

Telephone: +44 (0)1224 272637
E-mail: b.marsden@abdn.ac.uk
Address: School of Divinity, History and Philosophy,
Crombie Annexe,
Meston Walk,
King's College,
University of Aberdeen,
Old Aberdeen,
AB24 3FX
Room: Crombie Annexe 204

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Biography

BA (MA) Hons in Mathematics, University of Cambridge (1987); Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics (Mathematical Tripos Part III), University of Cambridge (1988); PhD in History, Philosophy and Social Relations of Science, University of Kent at Canterbury (1992); British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Leeds (1993-1995); Royal Society - British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History of Science, University of Kent at Canterbury (1995-1999) and University of Aberdeen (1999-2000); Lecturer in Cultural History, University of Aberdeen (2000-2009); Senior Fellow, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT/Harvard (2005-2006); Senior Lecturer in History of Science and Technology (2009-present); Deputy Head of School of Divinity, History and Philosophy (2009-2011); Director, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (2009-2010); Director, Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine (2010-2011, 2012-present).

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Research Interests

Science and technology in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century culture, especially the cultural history of engineering and technology in Britain; the humanitarian movement and veterinary professionalization; the historical relationship between science and music; engineers as authors and readers. Selected publications have addressed: the history of engineering education (esp. of W. J. Macquorn Rankine), in the British Journal for the History of Science (1992) and in Crosbie Smith and Jon Agar (eds.), Making space for science (Macmillan, 1998); technological success and failure in History of Science (1998); the history of energy and the relationship between science and music in Hessenbruch (ed.), Readers' guide to the history of science (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000); and the reading practices of I. K. Brunel in Marsden, O'Connor and Hutchison (eds.), Uncommon contexts (Pickering & Chatto, forthcoming 2013). His account of James Watt and the separate condenser appeared as Watt's perfect engine: steam and the age of invention (Icon, 2002; Columbia, 2004). He has also contributed extensively to the new Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004). With Crosbie Smith he has written Engineering empires: a cultural history of technology in nineteenth-century Britain (Macmillan, 2005 (hbk), 2006 (pbk)). The first part of an interdisciplinary study of the relationship between the mechanical analysis, architectural history and comparative anatomy of Cambridge professor Robert Willis was published in the British Journal for the History of Science (2004). He revisited the history of heat engines, especially those using air as a working substance, in Transactions of the Newcomen Society (2006). He contributed a new entry on meteorologist John Aitken to the new edition of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2007); and his study of attitudes towards the engineering science of naval architecture at the British Association for the Advancement of Science appeared in a thematic volume of the Journal for European Administrative History (2008). A further paper on John Aitken's 'outdoor physics' has appeared in a Norwegian journal of cultural history (2009); and a study of perceptions of French technological culture amongst British artisans in the early ninteenth century has appeared in a volume edited by Liliane Hilaire-Perez (2010). He is currently completing the first major biography of Macquorn Rankine for Ashgate (projected 2013/14) and a preliminary study, 'Ranking Rankine', should appear in History of Science (2013/14). With Peter McCaffery he is editing the Routledge Reader in Cultural History (Routledge, forthcoming 2013/14).

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Current Research

He is currently: completing the first book-length study of W. J. M. Rankine and the origins of academic engineering science in nineteenth-century Britain (for Ashgate); preparing an extended study of the Falkirk meteorologist John Aitken; and re-visiting I. K. Brunel's interactions with cultures of reading and writing for Marsden, O'Connor and Hutchison (eds.), Uncommon contexts (Pickering & Chatto, forthcoming 2013), a volume on literature and science.

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Collaborations

He has worked closely with Crosbie Smith on the AHRC-funded project on the cultural history of the ocean-going steamer in nineteenth-century Britain; he maintains close links with staff at the National Museum of Scotland (Science and Technology Division), including Klaus Staubermann; is workshop on literary engineering was co-organised with staff at the University of Aarhus (Denmark), notably Casper Andersen.

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Research Grants

He received a major grant from the Dibner Institute of the History of Science and Technology, MIT/Harvard (2005-2006) as Senior Fellow there.

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Teaching Responsibilities

Contributions to various Sixth Century Courses, including 'Fearsome Engines' and 'Science and the Media'

HI1022: Europe in the 20th Century (contribution)

HS2003: History and Philosophy of Science I

HS2503: History and Philosophy of Science II

CU3012/CU3512: Science & Religion

HI2012: Birth of Modernity (contributor)

CU4026: Cultures of Victorian Science and Technology

EL40BR: Literature and Science: From Frankenstein to Einstein

MLitt in Visual Culture (contributor)

MLitt in History and Philosophy of Science (co-ordinator)

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External Responsibilities

Include, or have included: Council, British Society for the History of Science (2000-2003); Book Reviews Editor and Editorial Board Member, British Journal for the History of Science (2000-2005); Advisory Editor, Isis (2009-2011)

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Media Work

Contributor to: 'Engineering an Empire: Britain' (History Channel, 2006); 'James Watt' (Arte, c. 2008); 'The Genius of Invention: Power' (BBC 2, January 2013)

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Publications

  • Marsden, B. Introduction, Chapter, 2013, Uncommon Contexts
  • Marsden, B., Hutchison, H. & O'Connor, RJ. Uncommon Contexts, Book, 2013
  • Marsden, B. W.J.M. Rankine (1820-72) and the Making of Engineering Science in Victorian Britain, Book, 2013
  • Marsden, B. Anti-metrication in metre, Article, 2013, Viewpoint: Magazine of the British Socierty for the History of Science, 100, pp8 - 9, ISSN/ISBN: 1751-8261
  • Marsden, B. David Philip Miller, James Watt, Chemist: Understanding the Origins of the Steam Age (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2009), Book/Film/Article review, 2012, British Journal for the History of Science, 45, 2, pp298 - 300, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Carriages, coffee-cups and dynamometers, Chapter, 2010, Les techniques et la technologie entre la France et la Grande-Bretagne, XVIIe-XIXe sicles, 19, pp243 - 254
  • Marsden, B. Counting dust and domesticating clouds, Article, 2010, Tidskrift for Kulturforskning, 9, 1, pp45 - 56, ISSN/ISBN: 1502-7473
  • Marsden, B. Robert Fox and Graeme Gooday (eds.), Physics in Oxford 1839-1939. Laboratories, Learning, and College Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), Book/Film/Article review, 2009, Ambix, 56, 2, pp194 - 195
  • Marsden, B. Daniel Cohen, Globalization and Its Enemies (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), Book/Film/Article review, 2009, The European Legacy: Towards New Paradigms, 14, 6, pp748 - 749
  • Marsden, B. The administration of the "engineering science" of naval architecture at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831-1872, Article, 2008, Jahrbuch fr Europische Verwaltungsgeschichte, 20, pp67 - 94, ISSN/ISBN: 0937-7107
  • Marsden, B. Geoffrey Cantor, Quakers, Jews and Science. Religious Responses to Modernity and the Sciences in Britain (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), Book/Film/Article review, 2007, History, 92, pp122 - 124
  • Marsden, B. John Aitken, Chapter, 2007, New Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  • Marsden, B. Michael A. Taylor, Hugh Miller. Stonemason, Geologist, Writer (Edinburgh: NMS Enterprises Limited Publishing, National Museums Scotland, 2007), Book/Film/Article review, 2007, Northern Scotland, 27, pp218 - 220, ISSN/ISBN: 0306-5278
  • Marsden, B. Deconstructing discovery, Book/Film/Article review, 2006, Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, 60, 1, pp105 - 106, ISSN/ISBN: 0035-9149
  • Marsden, B. Harro Maas, William Stanley Jevons and the Making of Modern Economics. Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Book/Film/Article review, 2006, Isis, 97, pp770 - 772, ISSN/ISBN: 0021-1753
  • Marsden, B. Hasok Chang, Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress. Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), Book/Film/Article review, 2006, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 37, 1, pp177 - 178
  • Marsden, B. Superseding Steam: the Napier and Rankine Hot-air Engine, Article, 2006, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 76, 1, pp1 - 22, ISSN/ISBN: 0372-0187
  • Marsden, B. & Smith, C. Engineering Empires, Book, 2005
  • Marsden, B. Bernard P. Cronin, Technology, Industrial Conflict and the Development of Technical Education in 19th-Century England (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001), Book/Film/Article review, 2005, Isis, 96, 2, pp288 - 289, ISSN/ISBN: 0021-1753
  • Marsden, B. Donald Cardwell, the development of science and technology in nineteenth-century Britain: the importance of Manchester, Book/Film/Article review, 2004, Notes & Records of the Royal Society of London, 58, 3, pp318 - 320, ISSN/ISBN: 0035-9149
  • Marsden, B. Gompertz, Lewis (1784?-1861), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. Gordon, Lewis Dunbar Brodie (1815-1876), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. Gregory, Olinthus Gilbert (1774-1841), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. Hann, James (1799-1856), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. R. Angus Buchanan, The life and times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel (London and New York: Hambledon and London, 2002), Book/Film/Article review, 2004, Journal of Transport History, 25, pp112 - 114
  • Marsden, B. Rankine, William John Macquorn (1820-1872), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. Robison, Sir John (1778-1843), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. Stirling, Robert (1790-1878), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. W. J. M. Rankine, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists
  • Marsden, B. William Youatt, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists
  • Marsden, B. Willis, Robert (1800-1875), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2004, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
  • Marsden, B. 'The progeny of these two "Fellows''': Robert Willis, William Whewell and the sciences of mechanism, mechanics and machinery in early Victorian Britain, Article, 2004, British Journal for the History of Science, 37, 4, pp401 - 434, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Engineering science, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2003, Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, pp258 - 261
  • Marsden, B. Engineer, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2003, Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, pp257 - 258
  • Marsden, B. John Cantrell and Gillian Cookson (eds.), Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age (Stroud: Tempus, 2002), Book/Film/Article review, 2003, Economic History Review, 56, 3, pp570 - 571, ISSN/ISBN: 0013-0117
  • Marsden, B. Gillian Cookson and Colin A. Hempstead, A Victorian Scientist and Engineer: Fleeming Jenkin and the Birth of Electrical Engineering (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), Book/Film/Article review, 2002, Ambix, 49
  • Marsden, B. Watt's Perfect Engine, Book, 2002
  • Marsden, B. Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem at Large: What You Should Know about Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), Book/Film/Article review, 2001, Annals of Science, 58, pp440 - 441
  • Marsden, B. Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859), Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2001, A Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences, pp59 - 61
  • Marsden, B. Energy, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2000, Reader's Guide to the History of Science, pp210 - 214
  • Marsden, B. Music and science: antiquity to 1700, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2000, Reader's Guide to the History of Science, pp491 - 494
  • Marsden, B. Music and science: since 1700, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 2000, Reader's Guide to the History of Science, pp494 - 97
  • Marsden, B. Dale H. Porter, The Life and Times of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, Gentleman Scientist and Inventor 1793-1875 (Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press, 1998), Book/Film/Article review, 2000, Ambix, 47, pp65 - 66
  • Marsden, B. F. A. J. L. James (ed.), Semaphore to Short Waves (London: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, 1998), Book/Film/Article review, 1999, Endeavour, 23, pp41 - 42, ISSN/ISBN: 0160-9327
  • Marsden, B. 'A most important trespass', Chapter, 1998, Making Space for Science, pp87 - 117
  • Marsden, B. Blowing hot and cold, Article, 1998, History of Science, 36, pp373 - 420, ISSN/ISBN: 0073-2753
  • Marsden, B. Robert A. Rosenberg, Paul B. Israel, Keith A. Nier, and Martha J. King (eds.), The Papers of Thomas A. Edison. Volume 3: Menlo Park: The Early Years, April 1876-December 1877 (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), Book/Film/Article review, 1996, British Journal for the History of Science, 29, pp247 - 249, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Robert Fox and Anna Guagnini (eds.), Education, Technology and Industrial Performance in Europe, 1850-1939 (Cambridge: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de lHomme and Cambridge University Press, 1993), Book/Film/Article review, 1996, British Journal for the History of Science, 29, pp110 - 112, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. F. A. J. L. James (ed.), The Correspondence of Michael Faraday: Volume 2, 1832-1840 (London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1993), Book/Film/Article review, 1995, Annals of Science, 52, pp619 - 621
  • Marsden, B. Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What Everyone Should Know About Science (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), Book/Film/Article review, 1995, Isis, 86, pp357 - 358, ISSN/ISBN: 0021-1753
  • Marsden, B. Mikael Hrd, Machines are Frozen Spirit. The Scientification of Refrigeration and Brewing in the 19th Century - A Weberian Interpretation (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag and Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994), Book/Film/Article review, 1995, Science and Public Policy, 22, pp67 - 69
  • Marsden, B. Forty-five biographical entries covering heat, thermodynamics, gases and acoustics, Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary, 1994, Larousse Dictionary of Scientists
  • Marsden, B. Lillian Hoddeson, Ernest Braun, Jrgen Teichmann, and Spencer Weart (eds.), Out of the Crystal Maze: Chapters from the History of Solid-State Physics (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), Book/Film/Article review, 1994, Times Higher Education Supplement - 26
  • Marsden, B. A.N. Kolmogorov and A. P. Yushkevich (eds.), Mathematics of the 19th Century: Mathematical Logic, Algebra, Number Theory, Probability Theory (Basel, Boston and Berlin: Birkhauser, 1992), Book/Film/Article review, 1994, British Journal for the History of Science, 27, pp236 - 237, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. B. C. Blake-Coleman, Copper Wire and Electrical Conductors: The Shaping of a Technology (Chur, Reading, Paris, Philadelphia, Tokyo and Melbourne: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1992), Book/Film/Article review, 1994, Science and Public Policy, 21, pp198 - 200
  • Marsden, B. Paul Tunbridge, Lord Kelvin: His Influence on Electrical Measurements and Units (London: Peter Peregrinus Ltd. for Institution of Electrical Engineers, 1992), Book/Film/Article review, 1993, British Journal for the History of Science, 26, pp371 - 372, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Robert A. Rosenberg, Paul B. Israel, Keith A. Nier, and Melodie Andrews (eds.), The Papers of Thomas A. Edison. Volume 2: From Workshop to Laboratory, June 1873-March 1876 (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), Book/Film/Article review, 1993, British Journal for the History of Science, 26, pp118 - 119, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Daniel M. Siegel, Innovation in Maxwells Electromagnetic Theory: Molecular Vortices, Displacement Current, and Light (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), Book/Film/Article review, 1993, British Journal for the History of Science, pp116 - 117, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Engineering science in Glasgow, Article, 1992, British Journal for the History of Science, 25, pp319 - 46, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874
  • Marsden, B. Graham Hollister-Short and Frank A.J.L. James (eds.), History of Technology, Thirteenth Annual Volume (London and New York: Mansell, 1991), Book/Film/Article review, 1992, British Journal for the History of Science, 25, pp475 - 476, ISSN/ISBN: 0007-0874

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