Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

In Foreign Lands: The Migration of Scientists for Political or Economic ReasonsAn Enlightened Expert on the Movement and Globalization of Civil Engineering: Augustin Betancourt (1756–1824)

In Foreign Lands: The Migration of Scientists for Political or Economic Reasons: An Enlightened... [In this chapter, we shall examine the transnational path undertaken by the Spanish engineer Augustin Betancourt, an emblematic figure of the European Enlightenment. Mobility, expertise and network are the three keywords, which sum up his great activity, which started in the Canary Isles and took him on an educational path through Europe terminating in an eminent career in the service of both the Spanish and Russian crowns, earning him the stature of a versatile expert of international renown. He played a crucial role in the construction of a new identity for the engineer based on a series of specific skills provided within a highly institutionalised framework and put at the service of public interest: he managed groups of experts, founded schools for engineers and technical corps, organised and piloted teaching and research works in various fields of engineering, initiated theoretical studies of technical phenomena (steam engines, systems of small navigation), new disciplines (foundations of thermodynamics, science on machines) and scientific schools (applied mechanics). His mobility, fruit of political conjunctures and personal circumstances which, in the last part of his life turned into exile, developed, stimulated and inspired his many interests; he spent two thirds of his life travelling. Four major capitals welcomed him at different periods of his life: Madrid, Paris, London and Saint-Petersburg. Each in its own way, gradually formed and refined his professionalism, and we will provide a detailed account of the specific impact he had on the technical culture of the engineer. Through examination of his travels, from formation to action we shall describe his wide network of multinational relationships which testify to an extensive range of different figures: engineers and inventors, mechanics and entrepreneurs, scholars and artists, diplomats and dignitaries, including ministers, heads of government and sovereigns, as we navigate with him through the different worlds he brought together… Moreover, his complicated relations with powerful figures allow us to measure the limitations to competency which power, politics, intrigue and expatriation were able to exertGouzévitch (Guzevich, Guzevič), Irina.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

In Foreign Lands: The Migration of Scientists for Political or Economic ReasonsAn Enlightened Expert on the Movement and Globalization of Civil Engineering: Augustin Betancourt (1756–1824)

Part of the Trends in the History of Science Book Series
Editors: Borgato, Maria Teresa; Phili, Christine
Gouzevitch, Irina
In Foreign Lands: The Migration of Scientists for Political or Economic Reasons — Apr 14, 2022
Download PDF
33 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/in-foreign-lands-the-migration-of-scientists-for-political-or-economic-azrNxrKuBL

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
ISBN
978-3-030-80248-6
Pages
127 –160
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-80249-3_6
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[In this chapter, we shall examine the transnational path undertaken by the Spanish engineer Augustin Betancourt, an emblematic figure of the European Enlightenment. Mobility, expertise and network are the three keywords, which sum up his great activity, which started in the Canary Isles and took him on an educational path through Europe terminating in an eminent career in the service of both the Spanish and Russian crowns, earning him the stature of a versatile expert of international renown. He played a crucial role in the construction of a new identity for the engineer based on a series of specific skills provided within a highly institutionalised framework and put at the service of public interest: he managed groups of experts, founded schools for engineers and technical corps, organised and piloted teaching and research works in various fields of engineering, initiated theoretical studies of technical phenomena (steam engines, systems of small navigation), new disciplines (foundations of thermodynamics, science on machines) and scientific schools (applied mechanics). His mobility, fruit of political conjunctures and personal circumstances which, in the last part of his life turned into exile, developed, stimulated and inspired his many interests; he spent two thirds of his life travelling. Four major capitals welcomed him at different periods of his life: Madrid, Paris, London and Saint-Petersburg. Each in its own way, gradually formed and refined his professionalism, and we will provide a detailed account of the specific impact he had on the technical culture of the engineer. Through examination of his travels, from formation to action we shall describe his wide network of multinational relationships which testify to an extensive range of different figures: engineers and inventors, mechanics and entrepreneurs, scholars and artists, diplomats and dignitaries, including ministers, heads of government and sovereigns, as we navigate with him through the different worlds he brought together… Moreover, his complicated relations with powerful figures allow us to measure the limitations to competency which power, politics, intrigue and expatriation were able to exertGouzévitch (Guzevich, Guzevič), Irina.]

Published: Apr 14, 2022

Keywords: Augustin Betancourt; Spain; Russia; Technological transfert; Public works; Steam engine; Circulation of knowledge; Industrial espionage; 18th and 19th centuries

There are no references for this article.