Paul Lucier

Research

Paul Lucier is currently engaged in three research projects.

Exploration and Industry: The Scientist and the Survey in the Mining of the American West, 1849-1914

This is a major study of western hard rock mining - gold, silver, and copper - and the role that science played in the discovery and development of these mineral resources. It explores the connections between scientific theories about the genesis and deposition of metals and the expansion of western mining enterprises. It shows how Americans became leaders in the new and innovative scientific fields of economic geology, geophysics, and geochemistry by their active involvement in mining. It draws particular attention to the United States Geological Survey (est. 1879) and its activities in promoting mining and, at the same time, providing the institutional basis for the rise to prominence of these scientific fields. This study also explores the inter-connections between the earth sciences and the rise of the professional mining engineer and the development of such key technologies as underground mapping. Finally, this study surveys the industrial landscape of western mining - as science and engineering became integral parts of the industry, the mines grew larger and deeper, the companies grew bigger (more miners, machinery, and investors), and the degradation of the environment became ever more dramatic. By the turn of the 20th century, western mining had become a science-based industry (as much as the more familiar electrical and chemical industries), and its prominence in the American West was as imposing as its place in American capitalism.

Several scholarly papers have been presented on various aspects of this project at meetings of the History of Science Society, the Society for the History of Technology, and the American Society of Environmental History. The research has also appeared in a recent article:

"Geological Industries," in The Cambridge History of Science, Vol. 6: Life and Earth Sciences since 1800, Peter J. Bowler and John V. Pickstone, editors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 108-125.

Initial research for this project received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2006-2008.

"Mining Science: The Development of American Economic Geology, 1860-1920" SES 0523024.

The Commercialization of Science and the Origins of Applied Science

Is applied science the same as commercial science? What are the meanings of these terms? Applied science has a peculiar history, and, like all origin myths, the term itself helped to construct the identities of particular individuals and groups. This research project focuses on the emergence and increasing popularity (among men of science and other cultural elites) of the term applied science in late nineteenth-century America. It is an exploration of the social origin and location of applied science (who used the term? and why?) as much as it is an investigation into epistemology. One key objective of the research is to distinguish and/or dis-associate applied science from pure science. Too often applied and pure are contrasted as polar opposites. This research shows that the emergence of pure and applied science were equal parts of a broader culture of reform following upon the corruption and "corruption issue" of Reconstruction. Pure and applied science were proposed correctives to the excesses of Gilded Age industrial capitalism.

This research has appeared in a recent article:

"The Professional and the Scientist in Nineteenth-Century America," Isis: An International Review Devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences (2009) 100:699-732.

And in a forthcoming article:

"The American Origins of Pure and Applied Science," Isis: An International Review Devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences (forthcoming 2012).

Science in the Reconstruction of the South

Did science have a role in reconstructing the South after the Civil War? It is not a question often asked today, but it was one that nineteenth-century Northerners and Southerners alike answered in the affirmative. This research highlights the busy activities of consulting geologists and chemists in the decades following Appomattox. It addresses the successes and failures of scientists who tried to aid in the development of new enterprises - coal mines, chemical manufactures, railroads, and steel and iron works - in the former Confederate states. Building a new South on the basis of science proved a challenge amid the web of corruption that entangled Reconstruction politics.

This research will appear in a forthcoming article:

"A Southern Engagement: Coal, Iron, and Geology in Georgia during Reconstruction" (Submitted)



Select Publications

Co-Authored Books:

'Take time by the forelock': The Letters of Anthony Fothergill to James Woodforde, 1789-1813 (Medical History, Supplement No. 17; London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1997) with Christopher Lawrence and Christopher C. Booth.

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

"Object Lessons," Social Studies of Science (2001) 31:444-446.

"Science, Technology, and the Industrial Revolution," in The Industrial Revolution in Comparative Perspective, Christine Rider and Míchéal Thompson, editors (Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2000), pp. 89-108.

"A Plea for Applied Geology," History of Science (1999) xxxvii:283-318.

"Court and Controversy: Patenting Science in the Nineteenth Century," British Journal for the History of Science (1996) 29:139-154. Winner: Singer Prize from the British Society for the History of Science

"Commercial Interests and Scientific Disinterestedness: Consulting Geologists in Antebellum America," Isis: An International Review Devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences (1995) 86:245-267. Winner: Henry and Ida Schuman Prize from the History of Science Society

"Petroleum: What Is It Good For?" American Heritage of Invention and Technology (1991) 7:56-63.

Book Chapters & Encyclopedia Articles:

"Geology," and "James Dwight Dana," in The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Scientific, Medical, and Technological History, Hugh Slotten, editor (forthcoming).

"WHOI History, 1959-1979: Taking Off," in Down to the Sea for Science: 75 Years of Ocean Research, Education, and Exploration at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Vicky Cullen, editor (Woods Hole, MA: WHOI, 2005)

"Ecology and Environment," and "Earth Sciences," in The Hutchinson Chronology of Science, Lisa Rosner, editor (Oxford: Helicon, 2001)

"J. Peter Lesley" and "Benjamin Silliman, Jr.," in The History of Science in the United States: An Encyclopedia, Marc Rothenberg, editor (New York: Garland, 2001)

Essay Reviews:

"Bedrock of Geology," Nature (15 July 1999) 400:230-231.

"Steel Industries Compared," History of Science (1995) xxxiii:116-118.

Book Reviews:

Timothy J. LeCain, Mass Destruction: The Men and Giant Mines that Wired America and Scarred the Planet in Isis (in press 2011).

A.J. Angulo, William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT in Journal of Southern History (2011) 77:162-163.

Benjamin R. Cohen, Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil & Society in the American Countryside in Isis (2010) 101:892-893.

Joshua Blu Buhs, The Life and Times of Bigfoot in Isis (2010) 101:250-251.

Sandra Herbert, Charles Darwin, Geologist in American Scientist (2006) 94:73-74.

George E. Webb, Science in the American Southwest: A Topical History in Isis (2005) 95:482.

Brian Black, Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom in Isis (2002) 93:151-152.

Michele L. Aldrich, New York Natural History Survey (1836-1842): A Chapter in the History of American Science in Isis (2001) 92:796-798.

Mary Hill, Gold: The California Story in Isis (2001) 92:766-767.

David Stiller, Wounding the West: Montana, Mining, and the Environment in Earth Sciences History (2000) 19:230-231.

Martin R. Ansell, Oil Baron of the Southwest: Edward L. Doheny and the Development of the Petroleum Industry in California and Mexico in Isis (1999) 90:637-638.

David Oldroyd, Thinking about the Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology in Journal of Historical Geography (1999) 25:134-136.

Clark A. Elliott, History of Science in the United States: A Chronology and Research Guide in Isis (1996) 87:769-770.

Patsy Gerstner, Henry Darwin Rogers, 1808-1866: American Geologist in Isis (1995) 86:663-664.