In mid-Victorian Britain, reconciling elite mathematical expertise with practical mechanical experience presented both engineering and social challenges. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the construction of the Westminster Clock at Britain’s Houses of Parliament. Realizing this scheme engendered the collaboration between Cambridge mathematicians George Biddell Airy and Edmund Beckett Denison, and the clockmaker Edward John Dent. Transforming theoretical mathematical drawings into physical apparatus challenged existing relations between conveyors of privileged scientific knowledge and those with practical experience of what was, and what was not, mechanically possible. My article demonstrates how, within this project, physical models and devices provided material solutions to ambiguities over authority and social disorder in Victorian Britain.

中文翻译：

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力学和数学家：乔治·比德尔·艾里 (George Biddell Airy) 和议会时间构建中的社会紧张局势，1845-1860 年

在维多利亚时代中期的英国，将精英数学专业知识与实际机械经验相结合，带来了工程和社会挑战。在英国议会大厦建造威斯敏斯特钟时，这一点最为明显。实现这一计划促成了剑桥数学家 George Biddell Airy 和 Edmund Beckett Denison 以及钟表匠 Edward John Dent 之间的合作。将理论数学图纸转化为物理设备，挑战了特权科学知识的传播者与具有机械可能和不可能的实践经验的人之间的现有关系。我的文章展示了在这个项目中，物理模型和设备如何为维多利亚时代英国的模糊权威和社会混乱提供物质解决方案。