The Cavendish Family in Science

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2010

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

From the 1600s to the 1800s, scientific research in Britain was not yet a professional, publicly-funded career.So the wealth, status and freedom enjoyed by British aristocrats gave them the opportunity to play an important role in pushing science forwards - whether as patrons or practitioners.The Cavendish family produced a whole succession of such figures.In the 1600s, the mathematician Sir Charles Cavendish and his brother William collected telescopes and mathematical treatises, and promoted dialogue between British and Continental thinkers. They brought Margaret Cavendish, William's second wife, into their discussions and researches, and she went on to become a visionary, if eccentric, science writer, unafraid to take on towering figures of the day like Robert Hooke.In the 1700s, the brothers' cousin's great-grandson, Lord Charles Cavendish, emerged as a leading light of the Royal Society.Underpinned by his rich inheritance, Charles' son Henry became one of the great experimental scientists of the English Enlightenment.And in the 1800s, William Cavendish, Henry's cousin's grandson, personally funded the establishment of Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory. In subsequent decades, the Lab become the site of more great breakthroughs.With:Jim BennettDirector of the Museum of the History of Science at the University of OxfordPatricia FaraSenior Tutor of Clare College, University of CambridgeSimon SchafferProfessor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College, CambridgeProducer - Phil Tinline.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:10.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:12.0	Hello, in the centuries before scientific research was publicly funded, one of the best ways
0:16.4	to pursue a career in experimentation was to be lucky enough to be born rich or an aristocrat
0:21.5	or both. Across 300 years the Cavendish family provided a
0:25.2	succession of figures who, whether as patrons or practitioners, helped to push
0:29.2	British science forwards. In the 17th century the mathematician Sir Charles Cavendish and his brother
0:34.1	William promoted dialogue between natural philosophers at home and on the continent.
0:38.6	William's wife Margaret became a visionary, if eccentric, scientific thinker. In the 18th century Lord Charles Cavendish, a leading
0:45.0	light of the Royal Society, helped launch the career of his son Henry, perhaps the
0:48.9	greatest experimental scientist of the English Enlightenment. Under under their ducal title, Devonshire, they built
0:55.5	Chatsworth House, Barrowin Furness and Eastbourne. And in the 19th century another
0:59.9	William Cavendish personally bankrolled the establishment of Cambridge
1:02.8	Universal Laboratory which was to become the setting of some of the great
1:06.7	breakthroughs of the last hundred years. With me to discuss the role of the
1:10.0	aristocracy in British science and the role of the Scientific Cavendish's, I'm
1:13.6	joined by Jim Bennett, director of the Museum of the History of Science at the
1:17.0	University of Oxford, Patricia Farrow, Senior Tutor of Claire College University of
1:21.6	Cambridge, and Simon Schaffer, Professor of History
1:24.1	of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College.
1:27.6	Simon, Simon Schaffer, can you give us some overall view of the role aristocracy played in British science in the early centuries of the
1:36.3	modern scientific movement. Yes, English aristocrats have a splendid track record at breeding and killing, and those have always
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