The Origins of Pure and Applied Science in Gilded Age America

Paul Lucier

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History of Science and Medicine History of Science and Natural History Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

Abstract

"Pure science" and "applied science" have peculiar histories in the United States. Both terms were in use in the early part of the nineteenth century, but it was only in the last decades that they took on new meanings and became commonplace in the discourse of American scientists. The rise in their currency reflected an acute concern about the corruption of character and the real possibilities of commercializing scientific knowledge. "Pure" was the preference of scientists who wanted to emphasize their nonpecuniary motives and their distance from the marketplace. "Applied" was the choice of scientists who accepted patents and profits as other possible returns on their research. In general, the frequent conjoining of "pure" and "applied" bespoke the inseparable relations of science and capitalism in the Gilded Age.

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1948Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 1990Energy and empire: a biographical study of Lord Kelvin 2007The Primacy of Science in Modernity, of Technology in Postmodernity, and of Ideology in the History of Technology 1995Construing "Technology" as "Applied Science": Public Rhetoric of Scientists and Engineers in the United States, 1880-1945 2008Ten Problems in History and Philosophy of Science

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