In 1830 Charles Babbage — already at war with his calculating engine’s funders — turned his fire on the scientific establishment itself. Reflections on the Decline of Science in England charges the Royal Society with cronyism and complacency, compares England unflatteringly with the Continent, and even taxonomises the frauds of science: hoaxing, forging, trimming and cooking.
The scandal it caused helped birth the British Association and eventual reform. Download the free EPUB for the most entertaining institutional demolition in the history of science.