Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1997. / Vita. Abstract. "September 3, 1997." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 401-411). Also available via the Internet.

The purpose of the present dissertation is to study the relationship between travel as a form of knowledge and the natural history pursued at the Royal Academy of Science during the period 1790-1840. Primarily, this dissertation deals with the perception of travel as a form of knowledge which existed at the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, though a number of selected journeys are used to illustrate the era's shifting perceptions on travel. Chapter One compares two variants of scientific travel, Linnean and Humboldtian. While the Linnean saw single objects, the Humboldtian saw "the whole" in the form of places. Places became the new study objects and the conditions reigning there were assumed to explain the special characteristics of the objects. This is what is implied by the "place's glance". Chapter Two provides an historical background to the subsequent debate about the theory and practice of scientific travel by scrutinizing works from the apodemic handbook genre. The purpose of apodemics was to make travel a method for the disciplined, systematic gathering of knowledge, which was achieved by organizing all aspects into categories.. In Chapter Three, the natural history of the day is understood as a multiplicity of research traditions with a common object of study - the specimens found in the three kingdoms of nature. A number of models of scientific collection which were applied by the Academy around 1800 are analyzed. The correspondent model using local amateur collectors is contrasted with the model of the travelling professional scientist. The greatest problem of the travel model was the "route problematic", engendering a haphazardness in the collection of facts and specimens. In Chapter Four, the relationship between travel and the theories of natural history of the age is investigated through a case study of Göran Wahlenberg's travels in 1800-1810. As a result of the insights Wahlenberg achieved during his travels in the mountain regions of the land, the new botanical sub- discipline of plant geography was established. This demanded travel, since it was based on observations of the plants' spatial relationships to one another and measurements of other specific spatial phenomena, such as climate. Wahlenberg saw complex, multifacetted aggregates of plants and vegetation, where the Linnean only discerned separate species. Herein lies the meaning of the "place's glance". Chapter Five analyzes the botanical journeys undertaken by the Academy between 1820 (when a travel grant was instituted) and 1840. Patriotic and utilitarian arguments for domestic travel combined with their results lent scientific travel a new status at the Academy. Chapter Six deals with zoological travel during the same period. The main figures are the curators of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, J. W. Dalman and B. F. Fries, who formulated the zoological travel policy of the Academy. The needs of the museum dictated that the travellers focus on Sweden and Scandinavia, primarily the "Western seaboard", which included Bohuslän and the Norwegian Atlantic coast, and Norrland. The specific needs of marine biology forced Fries to develop new travel practices. Fries' establishment of a provisional research station for year-round zoological research was an important historical breakthrough. His idea of outfitting sea-going vessels as mobile research stations also prefigures the future development of polar travel later in the century. / digitalisering@umu

This is a dissertation about the Halle method, or the visual pedagogies of the Pietist Orphanage as they were developed in the German university town of Halle from 1695 until 1730. A “Pietist” was someone who was affiliated with an evangelical reform movement first initiated by Philipp Jakob Spener in the 1670s. A long and deeply entrenched historiographical tradition has portrayed the Halle proponents of this movement—especially their leader August Hermann Francke—as zealous, yet practical, Lutheran reformers who were forced to directly confront the ideals of early Enlightenment in conjunction with the state-building mandate of Brandenburg-Prussia. This has led to a persistent tendency to see Halle Pietists as “others” who cultivated their collective identity in opposition to so-called Enlightenment intellectuals, like Christian Wolff, at the same time as they exerted a marked influence on these same persons. As a result of this dichotomous portrayal over the years, the impact of the Halle method on educational reform, and on the meanings eighteenth-century Europeans attached to philanthropy more generally, has been misunderstood. I argue that the Pietist Orphanage holds the key to remedying several problems that have impeded our ability to understand the significance of Pietist pedagogy and philanthropy. This was a site specifically designed to introduce children to the conciliatory knowledge-making strategies of the first Berlin Academy of Science members and their associates. These strategies championed the status of the heart as an assimilatory juncture point and were refined in the schools of the Pietist Orphanage, which itself functioned as a visual showplace that viewers could observe in order to edify and improve themselves. It was the material expression of Halle Pietists’ commitment to a “third way” and marked their attempt to assimilate experience and cognition, theology and philosophy, absolutism and voluntarism. The dissertation examines several personalities who had a direct bearing on this conciliatory project: namely E. W. von Tschirnhaus, Johann Christoph Sturm, Leonhard Christoph Sturm, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. It also examines how the method was applied in the Halle Orphanage schools and extended elsewhere.

This is a dissertation about the Halle method, or the visual pedagogies of the Pietist Orphanage as they were developed in the German university town of Halle from 1695 until 1730. A “Pietist” was someone who was affiliated with an evangelical reform movement first initiated by Philipp Jakob Spener in the 1670s. A long and deeply entrenched historiographical tradition has portrayed the Halle proponents of this movement—especially their leader August Hermann Francke—as zealous, yet practical, Lutheran reformers who were forced to directly confront the ideals of early Enlightenment in conjunction with the state-building mandate of Brandenburg-Prussia. This has led to a persistent tendency to see Halle Pietists as “others” who cultivated their collective identity in opposition to so-called Enlightenment intellectuals, like Christian Wolff, at the same time as they exerted a marked influence on these same persons. As a result of this dichotomous portrayal over the years, the impact of the Halle method on educational reform, and on the meanings eighteenth-century Europeans attached to philanthropy more generally, has been misunderstood. I argue that the Pietist Orphanage holds the key to remedying several problems that have impeded our ability to understand the significance of Pietist pedagogy and philanthropy. This was a site specifically designed to introduce children to the conciliatory knowledge-making strategies of the first Berlin Academy of Science members and their associates. These strategies championed the status of the heart as an assimilatory juncture point and were refined in the schools of the Pietist Orphanage, which itself functioned as a visual showplace that viewers could observe in order to edify and improve themselves. It was the material expression of Halle Pietists’ commitment to a “third way” and marked their attempt to assimilate experience and cognition, theology and philosophy, absolutism and voluntarism. The dissertation examines several personalities who had a direct bearing on this conciliatory project: namely E. W. von Tschirnhaus, Johann Christoph Sturm, Leonhard Christoph Sturm, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. It also examines how the method was applied in the Halle Orphanage schools and extended elsewhere.

This is a dissertation about the Halle method, or the visual pedagogies of the Pietist Orphanage as they were developed in the German university town of Halle from 1695 until 1730. A “Pietist” was someone who was affiliated with an evangelical reform movement first initiated by Philipp Jakob Spener in the 1670s. A long and deeply entrenched historiographical tradition has portrayed the Halle proponents of this movement—especially their leader August Hermann Francke—as zealous, yet practical, Lutheran reformers who were forced to directly confront the ideals of early Enlightenment in conjunction with the state-building mandate of Brandenburg-Prussia. This has led to a persistent tendency to see Halle Pietists as “others” who cultivated their collective identity in opposition to so-called Enlightenment intellectuals, like Christian Wolff, at the same time as they exerted a marked influence on these same persons. As a result of this dichotomous portrayal over the years, the impact of the Halle method on educational reform, and on the meanings eighteenth-century Europeans attached to philanthropy more generally, has been misunderstood. I argue that the Pietist Orphanage holds the key to remedying several problems that have impeded our ability to understand the significance of Pietist pedagogy and philanthropy. This was a site specifically designed to introduce children to the conciliatory knowledge-making strategies of the first Berlin Academy of Science members and their associates. These strategies championed the status of the heart as an assimilatory juncture point and were refined in the schools of the Pietist Orphanage, which itself functioned as a visual showplace that viewers could observe in order to edify and improve themselves. It was the material expression of Halle Pietists’ commitment to a “third way” and marked their attempt to assimilate experience and cognition, theology and philosophy, absolutism and voluntarism. The dissertation examines several personalities who had a direct bearing on this conciliatory project: namely E. W. von Tschirnhaus, Johann Christoph Sturm, Leonhard Christoph Sturm, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. It also examines how the method was applied in the Halle Orphanage schools and extended elsewhere. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This degree work sets itself the objective to extend well-known information about the Institute of Contemporary History, bringing precise description of the first ten years of its existence. The main purpose of this work is to elaborate further on the Institute's activities from the perspective of the so-called non-scholarly component of its staff. In the first theoretical part of this work, the theme of the structure and activities of the Institute is put into the context of time, with special attention to previous perspectives and problems of historiography as a scientific discipline; in this scope a general description of historiography as such is examined. Subsequent chapters characterize the methods of examination in the field of contemporary History in the U.S.A, France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain and Poland. It also gives a rough outline of changes in topical and geographical analysis as manifested in the attempt of specialisation in the above mentioned countries. In regards to the management of the Institute, the next chapter deals with the institutional structure of The Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. The methodological part of this work is focused on the clasification of the concept of a reaserch project including relevant expectations and objectives; it describes...

The thesis analyzes the thinking, legacy and the second life of the work of a prominent mathematician, cosmologist and the Catholic priest Georges Lemaître. The patterns of his thinking (expecting the intelligibility of the cosmos, assuming the hidden nature of God for research of natural science, seeing indeterminism in the evolution of the cosmos and separating the scientific and religious approach to reality) are presented on the basis of sources and literature based on Lemaître's texts and texts of scholars who dealt with his life and work. Everything is further complemented by the opinions of authors writing about the broader contexts of the history of cosmology and its interferencee with religion. Those long-term tendencies are drawn in more detail and further connected and compared with more general European ideas (the book of nature, the question of human free will, light as a backdrop of creation, appreciating the simplicity of hypotheses). Special emphasis is placed on the religious connotations of Lemaître's thinking - these are also presented with regard to the development of time, to which insights are further applied using modern models of the relationship between science and religion. It is the temporal transformation of that relationship within Lemaître's life path and the resulting...

A dissertação busca demonstrar como o final do século XVIII português foi marcado por tentativas de estabelecimento de programas de reformas pautadas em estratégias reformistas, no sentido de salvar Portugal da difícil situação social, política econômica em que o mesmo se encontrava. Nesse sentido, destaca a administração de D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, ministro da marinha e do ultramar e teórico da Ilustração luso-brasileira, que teve como proposta manter e explorar a América portuguesa, baseado no mercantilismo ilustrado. A dissertação destaca, ainda, o papel da Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa, reduto da intelectualidade luso-brasileira, cujo auxílio permitiu que fosse colocada em prática uma exploração renovada e útil das riquezas do Brasil, calcada no ideal de reforma das Luzes. / The temporal marks of this dissertation concern the last decades of the eighteenth century in Portugal. Its object is to give evidence of the attempts for establishing reform programs based on reforming strategies, in order to free Portugal from some social, political and economical difficulties. This, the dissertation focuses on Dom Rodrigo de Souza Coutinhos administration as a navy and overseas minister, and also a member of Portuguese-Brazilian Illustration, Which intended to keep and explore Portuguese America in accordance with illustrated mercantilism. Besides, the dissertation points out the function of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, the house of Lusitanian and Brazilian intellectuality, which helped to put in practice a kind of renewed and profitable exploration of Brazilian natural sources, based on Illustration reform principles.

A dissertação busca demonstrar como o final do século XVIII português foi marcado por tentativas de estabelecimento de programas de reformas pautadas em estratégias reformistas, no sentido de salvar Portugal da difícil situação social, política econômica em que o mesmo se encontrava. Nesse sentido, destaca a administração de D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, ministro da marinha e do ultramar e teórico da Ilustração luso-brasileira, que teve como proposta manter e explorar a América portuguesa, baseado no mercantilismo ilustrado. A dissertação destaca, ainda, o papel da Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa, reduto da intelectualidade luso-brasileira, cujo auxílio permitiu que fosse colocada em prática uma exploração renovada e útil das riquezas do Brasil, calcada no ideal de reforma das Luzes. / The temporal marks of this dissertation concern the last decades of the eighteenth century in Portugal. Its object is to give evidence of the attempts for establishing reform programs based on reforming strategies, in order to free Portugal from some social, political and economical difficulties. This, the dissertation focuses on Dom Rodrigo de Souza Coutinhos administration as a navy and overseas minister, and also a member of Portuguese-Brazilian Illustration, Which intended to keep and explore Portuguese America in accordance with illustrated mercantilism. Besides, the dissertation points out the function of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, the house of Lusitanian and Brazilian intellectuality, which helped to put in practice a kind of renewed and profitable exploration of Brazilian natural sources, based on Illustration reform principles.

One of the possible ways, how to ensure the necessary electric energy to the future is by the thermonuclear synthesis. Systems that deal with this problem are called stellarator or tokamak. In my work I describe the working principle of the tokamak and its possible future evolution. More precisely I deal with particular tokamak that was brought from Culham to the Prague and its power supply, which became a problem. It is tokamak model COMPASS D. My work consists in power supplying of tokamak reels and power elements in its supply way. However it is just a test gear, which has a long way to the successful end, wich is power supplying instead of power burning. It is just a test gear on which are various tests and analyses carryed out nowadays. Results of these tests will be used for another research and to improve the results of this or other facilities.