The nineteenth-century Royal Navy has been portrayed as either an enthusiastic sponsor of scientific and technological endeavors or a reluctant patron that must be prodded into action and would then respond sluggishly-if at all-to innovation (Jane Camerini, "Remains of the Day" 1997; Glyn Williams, Naturalists at Sea, 2013; Randolph Cock, "Scientific Servicemen in the Royal Navy," 2005; Simon Naylor, "Log Books and the Law of Storms" 2015). In Discovery, Innovation, and the Victorian Admiralty, Erika Behrisch argues that both can be true: mid-nineteenth-century Admiralty administrators were interested in-even enthusiastic about-science and technology but also bound by a responsibility to protect the public purse and a cultural reluctance to communicate openly about their decision-making. While this argument may not be shocking, Behrisch's exploration of why the dichotomy existed is sympathetic, nuanced, and useful. The book is at the same time a paean to the technician and the bureaucrat-both those who collected data or developed technical improvements and those who processed results and responded to correspondence-and it provides a useful reminder to include them among the ranks of invisible technicians.
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