Traditionally, historians have taken it for granted that Britain's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) was created as the result of demands from a "professional" body of university-based physicists for a state-funded scientific institution. Yet paying detailed attention to the history of the NPL's originating institution, Kew Observatory, shows that the story is not so clear-cut. Starting in the 1850s, Kew Observatory was partly a center for testing meteorological instruments and other scientific equipment in return for fees. Long after the 1850s, the observatory was run by self-funded devotees of science. Paid university physicists only assumed a dominant role on its governing committee in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, by which time instrument-testing was already the observatory's main role. This paper argues that the rise of the university physicists - together with the desire of some of these physicists for a national institution that tested electrical standards - can only partially explain the origins of the NPL, and that Kew was in some ways a national physical laboratory before there were many physics teaching posts in British universities. This paper is a case study that illustrates a need to reassess the importance of university physicists in shaping British science at the end of the nineteenth century.

中文翻译：

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大学物理学家和国家物理实验室的起源，1830-1900

传统上，历史学家认为英国国家物理实验室 (NPL) 的创建是由于大学物理学家的“专业”团体对国家资助的科学机构的需求而成立的。然而，仔细研究 NPL 的发起机构 Kew Observatory 的历史，就会发现故事并不是那么清晰。从 1850 年代开始，邱天文台在一定程度上是测试气象仪器和其他科学设备以换取费用的中心。1850 年代很久之后，天文台由自筹资金的科学爱好者经营。在 19 世纪的最后二十年，付费的大学物理学家才在其管理委员会中占据主导地位，那时仪器测试已经是天文台的主要角色。这篇论文认为，大学物理学家的崛起——以及其中一些物理学家希望建立一个测试电气标准的国家机构的愿望——只能部分解释 NPL 的起源，而 Kew 在某些方面是一个国家物理实验室之前英国大学有很多物理教职。本文是一个案例研究，说明需要重新评估大学物理学家在 19 世纪末塑造英国科学的重要性。在英国大学有许多物理教学职位之前，Kew 在某些方面是一个国家物理实验室。本文是一个案例研究，说明需要重新评估大学物理学家在 19 世纪末塑造英国科学的重要性。在英国大学有许多物理教学职位之前，Kew 在某些方面是一个国家物理实验室。本文是一个案例研究，说明需要重新评估大学物理学家在 19 世纪末塑造英国科学的重要性。