PhilSci Archive

Calibrating Chromatography: How Tswett Broke the Experimenters' Regress

Livengood, Jonathan and Edwards, Adam (2019) Calibrating Chromatography: How Tswett Broke the Experimenters' Regress. [Preprint]

[img]
Preview
Text
Livengood and Edwards 2019 Calibrating Chromatography__ARCHIVE.pdf

Download (599kB) | Preview

Abstract

We propose a new account of calibration according to which calibrating a technique shows that the technique does what it is supposed to do. To motivate our account, we examine an early 20th century debate about chlorophyll chemistry and Mikhail Tswett’s use of chromatographic adsorption analysis to study it. We argue that Tswett’s experiments established that his technique was reliable in the special case of chlorophyll without relying on either a theory or a standard calibration experiment. We suggest that Tswett broke the Experimenters’ Regress by appealing to material facts in the common ground for chemists at the time.


Export/Citation: EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL
Social Networking:
Share |

Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Livengood, Jonathanjonathan.livengood@gmail.com0000-0002-1561-9784
Edwards, Adamadamedw01@gmail.com
Keywords: Tswett, Experimenters’ Regress, calibration, material theory
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Depositing User: Dr. Jonathan Livengood
Date Deposited: 13 Jul 2019 03:42
Last Modified: 13 Jul 2019 03:42
Item ID: 16209
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Biology
Specific Sciences > Chemistry
General Issues > Experimentation
General Issues > History of Science Case Studies
Date: 11 July 2019
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16209

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item