The Dingle Prize

The Dingle Prize was established in 1997 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Society, and is named after the mathematician, astronomer and philosopher of science Herbert Dingle, a founder member.  Its value is £300. 

In keeping with the Society's concern to communicate history of science to broad audiences, the 2007 Dingle Prize will be offered for the best book in the history of science, technology and medicine, published in English between January 2003 and December 2006, which is accessible to a wide audience of non-specialists.  The winning book should present some aspect of the field in an engaging and comprehensible manner which also shows proper regard to historical method: it might re-examine a well-known historical incident or achievement, or bring new perspective to previously neglected figures or fields in the past.

The Outreach and Education Committee is delighted to announce that the winner of the 2007 Dingle Prize is Philip Ball Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005). The prize will be presented at a public lecture at the Royal Institution on 10 July at 7.30 pm. [For more information and to book tickets]

	Stephen Pumfrey (left), BSHS President Peter Bowler and the winning volume

Stephen Pumfrey’s Latitude and the Magnetic Earth: the True Story of Queen Elizabeth’s Most Distinguished Man of Science (Icon Books, 2003) has been chosen by the judges as the winner of the 2005 Dingle Prize. Focusing on the little-known figure of William Gilbert, this book describes early modern research into the nature of magnetism and the acceptance of the earth as a magnetic body. Gilbert’s challenge to Aristotelian philosophy and use of both experiment and the practical knowledge of marine navigators are well described, but Pumfrey steers the reader away from any easy whiggery, by following Gilbert’s exploration of his notion of the earth’s ‘magnetic soul’.

The judges were impressed that this engaging read demonstrated great depth of research and succeeded in revealing the richness of this story. It was, in particular, felt that Pumfrey effectively communicated the complexity of scientific advance. The significance of Gilbert and his magnetic philosophy are presented in their full context, allowing an alternative view to narratives of heroic discoverers and straightforward progress. Natural philosophy is shown to be a collaborative enterprise involving a variety of interests, religious beliefs and personal and national rivalries. With clear and attractive prose, it was felt that this book was both accessible to a wide range of readers and an excellent introduction to current views in the history of science.

The books shortlisted for the 2005 Dingle Prize represent the wide range of popular writing in the history of science, technology and medicine. While Patricia Fara’s An Entertainment for Angels and Jenny Uglow’s Lunar Men eloquently treat the excitement and camaraderie of Enlightenment discovery and invention, Jon Agar’s Constant Touch and Abigail Woods’ A Manufactured Plague treat topics of topical interest in the form of histories of the mobile phone in a global context and Foot and Mouth Disease in Britain. Taking a longer view, Thomas P Hughes’ Human-Built World is a thought-provoking and compelling presentation of ideas about our relationship to technology. Richard Corfield’s The Silent Landscape follows the journey of the HMS Challenger in the 1870s, the first devoted oceanographic voyage, drawing on journal accounts by members of the crew.

Perhaps significantly, none of the short-listed works are straightforwardly biographical in nature, with only Uglow choosing, and very successfully utilising, collective biography. In addition, the works of Fara, Hughes and Agar are more thematic than chronological in structure, allowing for some illuminating insights. It was felt that all of these works had the potential to reach general readers with an interest in the field, being well and engagingly written. In general they presented a view of science and its history that would be endorsed by professional historians of science.

• 2003: Ken Alder for The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World. London: Little, Brown, 2002
• 2001: Deborah Cadbury for The Dinosaur Hunters. London: Fourth Estate, 2000
• 1999: Steven Shapin for The Scientific Revolution. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996
• 1997: Adrian Desmond and James Moore for Darwin. London: Penguin, 1992