The interrelationship between science and technology is one of great importance for the development of science and technology policy. Historical studies of their interactions are among the best ways to determine the many fruitful kinds of interactions which may occur, both of science influencing the development of technology and of technology influencing the development of science. Dr. Hunt is investigating an example of the latter interaction, indeed, an example of technology influencing one of the most important developments in modern science--the development of Maxwell's theory of electricity. The formulation of Maxwell's theory of the electromagnetic filed was one of the great intellectual achievements of the 19th century. Why did it emerge in the 1850's and 1860's, and why in Britain? Dr. Hunt argues that the answer to these questions lies in another great achievement of mid-Victorian Britain, the construction of a global network of submarine telegraph cables. The operation of these cables exposed British engineers and scientists to propagation phenomena and field effects that their Continental counterparts rarely encountered. Field theory, he argues, had important roots in these distinctively British technological concerns. Dr. Hunt has previously studied the role telegraphy played in the reformulation of Maxwellian theory in the 1880's. He now is examining earlier developments, particularly the discovery of "retardation" on cables in the early 1850's and the subsequent revival of interest in Faraday's field ideas, and the work of the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards in the 1860's. He has found rich archival sources in Britain which he will use in developing this argument. Clearly, this research will add significantly to our understanding of the reciprocal relationship between technology and science.
