When Information Came of Age: Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution 1700-1850

257 Pages·2000·5.26 MB·English

by  Daniel R. Headrick

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when information came of age
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when information
came of age
J
x
Technologies of Knowledge
in the Age of Reason and Revolution,
1700—1850
x daniel r. headrick
1
x
2000
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3
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta
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Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 2000by Daniel R. Headrick
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Headrick, Daniel R.
When information came of age : technologies of knowledge in the age of reason and
revolution, 1700–1850/Daniel R. Headrick.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-513597-0
1. Europe—Intellectual life—18th century. 2. Europe—Intellectual life—
19th century. 3. Learning and scholarship—Europe—History—18th century.
4. Learning and scholarship—Europe—History—19th century. 5. Information
resources—Europe—History—18th century. 6. Information resources—
Europe—History—19th century. 7. Enlightenment. I. Title.
CB203.H391999
306.492—dc21 99-050103
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
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preface
This book is an essay on the development of eYcient information systems
before the great push to mechanize information in the nineteenth century.
Some of the systems discussed here—maps, dictionaries, botanical no-
menclatures—had their origin in the distant past but were rationalized
and improved in the period studied here. Others, such as statistics, graphs,
and the telegraph, were truly new.
The chapters are arranged according to the purposes that systems
serve: organizing, transforming, displaying, storing, and communicating
information. Each chapter presents a few case studies to illustrate that par-
ticular function. This does not mean that there is a one-to-one correspon-
dence between function and system. On the contrary, every system per-
forms several functions; thus, cartography involves gathering information,
naming and organizing that information in words and numbers, and trans-
forming words or numbers into a graphical representation, the map, which
then serves to store that information and communicate it to others. A
book like this is not a replica of the real world; like a map, a graph, or a sta-
tistic, it is a lens through which to see the world.
Chapter 1sets out the two goals of this book. One is to deWne the idea
of information and to show that the “information revolution” is not a re-
cent phenomenon (as some would have it) but has deep historical roots.
The other is to trace the origin of some important information systems,
and the Xowering of others, to the eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-
turies, the Age of Reason and Revolution.
Chapter 2deals with systems for organizing and classifying information,using
as its case study the language of science. The major contributions of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to science revolved less around
conceptual breakthroughs (Newton came before our period, and Darwin
after) than in producing a Xood of new observations and developing
systems for handling them. Large quantities of information could be pro-
cessed and understood only if there were means of classifying and organiz-
ing them. Hence, the important advances in science in this period were
accompanied by new vocabularies that allowed an eYcient classiWcation of
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vi preface
scientiWc Wndings and clariWed the relationship between observed phe-
nomena. In the life sciences, this was a product of Linnaeus’s taxonomy; in
chemistry, it was the work of Lavoisier’s nomenclature of elements and
compounds; and in all the sciences that involved measurement, it was the
result of the metric system.
Chapter 3deals with statistics as means of transforming information.Turn-
ing an accumulation of facts or anecdotes into numbers not only com-
presses them but also allows patterns to emerge that would remain hidden
in narratives; thus, to the early practitioners of “political arithmetick,”
mortality tables (the numbers of deaths by parish every week) revealed the
incidence of various diseases. From this small beginning arose the idea of
demographic surveys, of censuses, and of sociological inquiries. The mania
for counting and quantifying and for analyzing the resulting numbers, so
characteristic of our own times, dates back to the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries.
Chapter 4also deals with systems used to transform and display infor-
mation, namely, maps and graphs, but with the emphasis on their display
function.While the information contained in maps and graphs diVers, as sys-
tems they have much in common, for they translate narrative descriptions
or tables of numbers (e.g., the depth of the sea, imports and exports) into
a graphical form that can be grasped more quickly, and sometimes more
accurately, than with lists of words or verbal descriptions.
Maps are an ancient form of expression, and historians of cartography
have properly focused their attention on the dramatic increase in geo-
graphic knowledge represented in the cartography of the Wfteenth
through seventeenth centuries. By the eighteenth century, there were still
blank spots to Wll on the map of the world, but fewer than before.
Consequently, the focus shifted from discovery and description to accu-
racy and precision. In a word, cartography became scientiWc.
ScientiWc cartography stimulated a growing interest in depicting other
phenomena graphically. In particular, the compilation of statistics led to
attempts to make such information more accessible to the public. Whereas
statistics represented a means of processing information, graphs were a
means of displaying and communicating it. Meanwhile, new information
about the earth—geological formations, the altitude of mountains, the
distribution of population or economic activities—posed similar chal-
lenges to cartographers. In their attempts to make such information visi-
ble, they developed various hybrids between graphs and traditional maps.
Chapter 5looks at two familiar information storage and retrievalsystems: dic-
tionaries and encyclopedias. Although each has a long history, the eigh-
teenth century saw a sharp increase in the number of new works, editions,
and copies sold, reXecting the growing demand for general knowledge
among the educated public. In addition to an increase in the amount of in-
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preface vii
formation compiled and disseminated in dictionaries and encyclopedias,
there were also signiWcant changes in how their information was pre-
sented—in particular the vernacular languages and the alphabetical or-
der—aimed at making them easier and more practical to use.
Chapter 6 deals with two systems of communicating information. One of
them—the postal service—underwent dramatic changes that trans-
formed it from the slow, costly, and unreliable service of the seventeenth
century into a fast, inexpensive, and reliable service open to the general
public. The other was radically new: the creation of the semaphore tele-
graph and naval Xag-signaling system, ways to send messages faster than
any person or object could travel. Both responded to the growing needs of
business, government, and the military for information about distant
events, a need that was greatly accelerated by the revolutions and wars of
the turn of the century.
The information systems discussed in this book, though numerous,
constitute a small sampling, not a comprehensive list. Readers familiar
with the period will immediately spot glaring omissions. The chapter on
nomenclatures discusses biology, chemistry, and metrology but not
physics or geology; also missing are the innovations in mathematical and
musical notation systems. The chapter on quantiWcation fails to discuss the
evolution of accounting and bookkeeping systems, both of enormous im-
portance to commerce and government. Graphical representation in-
cludes not only the maps and graphs represented in chapter 4but also land
registers and cadastral surveys, technical and scientiWc illustrations, pat-
tern books, and engineering drawings. The chapter on compendia of in-
formation deals with dictionaries and encyclopedias because they were
popular and useful to a broad spectrum of the population. But there were
dozens of other compendia: law codes, calendars, almanacs, stagecoach
schedules, lists of the peerage and nobility, astronomical ephemerides,
cookbooks, and technical manuals of all sorts. Organizations such as mu-
seums, libraries, herbaria, and botanical gardens were also compendia of in-
formation, albeit not in print. Governments and businesses developed var-
ious Wling methods to keep track of their information. Finally, under
communications, the press disseminated not only political news and gos-
sip but also information on Wnancial matters (stock, bond, and commod-
ity price quotations) and ships’ arrivals and departures.
Clearly, this book only dips its toe into a very large sea. My purpose in
writing it was not to oVer an encyclopedia of information systems in the
Age of Reason and Revolution but to introduce the concept of information
systems as a tool of historical analysis and to demonstrate, through a few
examples, that the culture of information systems—knowledge presented
eYciently—existed long before the computer, even before the electric
telegraph.
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viii preface
It is my hope that other historians will Wnd the concept of information
systems useful and will be tempted to extend the analysis and Wll in the
gaps. There is still so much to do.
Many people generously gave of their time to help me in organizing my
thoughts, Wnding information, and writing this book. For over twenty
years, William H. McNeill has been a friend, a mentor, and a role model.
Joel Mokyr has long been an enthusiastic supporter and perceptive critic.
Richard R. John helped me reWne my thinking and avoid glaring errors. I
would also like to thank GeoVrey Bowker and several anonymous readers
for their valuable comments. Thomas LeBien and Susan Ferber of Oxford
University Press have followed this project this project over a period of
many years. Will Moore and Susan Ecklund did a superb job of copyedit-
ing and producing this book. David Robyak wrote a fine index. All of these
individuals have oVered me good advice that I sometimes took to heart, but
too often ignored.
A book like this one could not have come of age without the encour-
agement and generous support of several institutions. A fellowship from
the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation allowed me to spend the 1994–
1995academic year reading and broadening my understanding of informa-
tion systems. I am deeply indebted to the foundation for its generosity. I am
also indebted to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and its program oYcer,
Jesse Ausubel, for a fellowship in 1998that enabled me to begin writing this
book. I am most grateful to Roosevelt University for awarding me a faculty
research leave in 1993and permitting me to absent myself on several other
occasions. I also wish to thank the Regenstein and John Crerar Libraries of
the University of Chicago, the Newberry Library, the Murray Green
Library of Roosevelt University, and the New York Public Library for al-
lowing me to use their collections, and their patient and skillful staVs for
helping locate the material I needed.
I dedicate this book to my wife, Kate, and to my grandsons Zel and
Avram, who make me happy when skies are gray.
Chicago, Illinois D. R. H.
Spring 2000
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contents
1. Information and Its History 3
2. Organizing Information
The Language of Science 15
3. Transforming Information
The Origin of Statistics 59
4. Displaying Information
Maps and Graphs 96
5. Storing Information
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias 142
6. Communicating Information
Postal and Telegraphic Systems 181
7. Information Ages
Past and Present 217
Selected Bibliography 221
Credits 223
Index 225