Scholars versus Practitioners?: Anchor Proof Testing and the Birth of a Mixed Culture in Eighteenth-Century France

Abstract

In line with studies that question the conventional dichotomies between "head" and "hand," this article analyzes the emergence of a mixed naval culture, between science and technology, during the French Enlightenment. The case at issue is that of the circuitous development of an anchor proof testing protocol, an important method in the competition for maritime supremacy used at least until the first third of the nineteenth century. The story begins in the dockyard of Brest with a humble boatswain, and continues with the dissemination of his experiments thanks to prominent figures of the Naval Academy of Brest and of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris. The article suggests that if the findings of the latter were rather inconclusive, nevertheless, over time, a collaboration between practitioners and scientists did eventually generate a regular protocol for testing anchors.