The Craftsman and the Good Engineer: Technical Practice and Theoretical Mechanics in J.T. Desaguliers

This essay considers the intrinsic ambiguity of the relationship between theory and practice when dealing with the organization of production processes. After discussing Galileo’s criticism of “artificers,” the paper considers the view of the 18th century English scientist J.T. Desaguliers, who was critical both of “mechanical undertakers” and of pure mathematicians unaware of the specific circumstances making mechanisms work or not work. In Desaguliers’s view, the good constructor of machines should combine knowledge of theoretical mechanics with understanding of the solidity and resistance of materials, and with the ability to assess a project before starting to work on it.