Organization of Science for War

Abstract

In 1805 while Wellington’s army was fighting the French in Spain, the Emperor Napoleon presented an award to the great English chemist, Humphry Davy, who travelled to Paris to receive it. No one thought it odd that a civilian from one belligerent nation should be entertained in the capital of the other. Science was an international activity; men of science studied at foreign universities and later exchanged ideas with foreign colleagues. Science, with the exception of ballistics and explosives, was not associated with the technique of warfare. But as the nineteenth century advanced warfare was transformed at an increasing rate by new technological developments. The most important were the introduction of high explosive for artillery, rapid-firing machine guns, torpedoes and mines. With the dawn of the new century came even more significant inventions such as wireless telegraphy, submarines and the aeroplane.