O trabalho dos laboratórios, a indústria do alcatrão mineral e a hodierna concepção de atividade científica

Abstract

The enduring link which exists between industry and science as we know it today only began to be established in the middle of the 19th century. In this article I argue that the estab lishment of this link occurred by means of a radical change in the very way of conceiving scientific activity. Thus, I show what was the new conception of scientific activity that appeared in the middle of the 19th century and ask how it came to be established. I suggest that the answer lies in the interweaving of two activities that did not exist until the 19th century: the systematic work of the laboratories, which only gained an institutional dimension in the 1830s, and the exploitation of coal tar for industrial goals, which only started in 1856.