Bhalla-Ladd, India (2024) Typing Physics: The Essential Role of Typists in Intra-Scientific Communication. [Preprint]

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Abstract

I present a case-study of intra-scientific communication, focusing on the role of technical typists for the Physical Review (PR) c. 1957-1977. I argue PR became a trading zone amidst the page-charge crisis, and analyze the working networks of physicists, typists, and editors to resolve this threat to the equality of intellectual authority of qualified practitioners. Challenging the picture of typist as “automaton,” I identify the skills and technical knowledge necessary to perform manuscript translation, and offer an account of the material culture of intra-scientific communication to situate the typists’ epistemic role in the broader project of science. I claim this is a case of an epistemic contribution that has been instrumentalized, akin to human computers and human scanners. However, unlike these cases, the technical typists were not directly involved in the production or critique of scientific data. Rather their novel contributions occurred in the new field of mathematical typesetting that emerged from this trading zone. Thus I seek to differentiate the material culture of scientific experiments from the material culture of intra-scientific communication. I see this project as an extension of Galison’s trading zone framework for the material culture of experiment, recognizing that there are many more material objects besides those of the laboratory that are created in the scientific process.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Bhalla-Ladd, India ibhallal@uci.edu
Keywords:	typist, Physical Review, APS, AIP, Peter Galison, trading zone, material culture, human computers, material production, scientific knowledge, instrumentalized knowledge
Subjects:	General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Feminist Approaches General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Depositing User:	Ms. India Bhalla-Ladd
Date Deposited:	13 Nov 2024 13:31
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2024 13:31
Item ID:	24208
Subjects:	General Issues > Experimentation General Issues > Feminist Approaches General Issues > History of Philosophy of Science General Issues > History of Science Case Studies Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Science and Society General Issues > Social Epistemology of Science
Date:	12 November 2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24208

Available Versions of this Item

• Typing Physics: The Essential Role of Typists in Intra-Scientific Communication. (deposited 13 Nov 2024 13:31) [Currently Displayed]
  • Typing Physics: The Essential Role of Typists in Intra-Scientific Communication. (deposited 09 Apr 2026 12:24)

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