Inleiding: laboratoria als werkplaatsen van wetenschap en techniek

Introduction: laboratories as technological and scientific workshops This collection of articles on Dutch laboratories during the period 1860-1940 aims to describe the growing number and diversity of laboratories, as well as the changing character of the work done there. It covers a wide range of laboratories, with emphasis on those in industry and at universities. Disciplines represented include chemistry, medicine, biology and physics. In the introduction an outline is given of the concept of laboratory since Francis Bacon, and, from this perspective, the articles in the volume are reviewed