A Geohistorical Study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: Mapping Scientific Practice Through Urban Networks, 1500–1900

Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.

Recent progress in the plastic methods of structural analysis

The techniques described in Part I of this paper for the calculation of plastic failure loads under proportional loading are further exemplified by indicating solutions for a rectangular building frame, a Vierendeel girder, and a shed-type portal frame. A method for estimating deflections of a frame just as the collapse load is attained is then described, with some indications as to its reliability. More general conditions of loading than proportional loading are next discussed, and generalized load and failure concepts are defined. The theorems and techniques for determining critical shakedown loads under variable, repeated loading are then described and illustrated. The relation of the elastic-plastic shakedown analysis to the much simpler analysis for failure under single load applications is discussed.