Making instruments talk: Telescopes, Astronomers, and Changing Research Practices 1753-2

The project’s purpose is to develop and employ a method that allows us to trace chang­ing research agendas and observational practices at a scientific institution by means of its instrument park. Our case will be the Astronomical Observatory run by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1753 until 2001.

To approach the instruments, we will use the well-tried method of object biography.

However, by compiling a number of carefully selected and chronologically overlapping instrument biographies, we will go beyond the traditional use of the method, and create a collective biography of scientific instruments that will tell the story of scientific research.

On a theoretical level the prosopography will be held together by the concepts of path dependency and organisational isomorphism, taken from new institutionalism.Our starting point is a statement by historians of science Albert van Helden and Thomas Hankins which claims that “[b]ecause instruments determine what can be done, they also determine to some extent what can be thought”.

A new instrument can immediately open up new vistas for research but, because they also tend to be highly specialised, they can guide scientists to a certain kind of research. Later on, the same instrument can become a burden and obstacle.

Representing a major investment, a main instrument tends to outlast several generations of researchers, carrying with it the design and values of yesteryear’s scientific ideas.