Experiment kits and instruction manuals around 1900 - continued...

These home experiment kits brought magnetism, static electricity or mechanics to children and teenagers in manageable forms of chemical, physics and particularly electrical experiment sets with precisely calibrated parts and tested experiments. While previous knowledge was required to successfully complete the exercises using the larger collections designed for instruction in class, the experiment kits for use at home were designed to be "as simple as possible" in order to preclude detours, false conclusions and failures (Meiser & Mertig, 1895). The young experimenter did not need to consult a textbook; he or she was given the explanation for the phenomenon after each experiment.

But even when the devices in the kit were correctly constructed – "if a test does not succeed immediately, the cause must lie in the student himself and not in the devices [...]" (Meiser & Mertig 1897a, 9) – it was the difficulties that arose from using the kit, the imponderability and intricacy of the devices and materials that actually provided the knowledge gained from experimentation. The manual for a rather curious object, an x-ray experiment kit produced by the Leipziger Lehrmittel-Anstalt, states: "Now we move on to photographing using x-rays. Very simple! Fig. 69 shows the experimental setup, which is clear without further explanation." However, as the following text admits, nothing is clear "without further explanation": for example, the proper exposure time cannot be determined without taking a number of conditions into account, such as the quality of the pipes or the size of the machine; these things can only be determined by trial and error (Schulze 1913, 44).

Fig. 5.: Illustrations taken from the manual for the x-ray experiment kit produced by the Leipziger Lehrmittel-Anstalt. Schulze, Richard. 1913 [1909]. Elektron. 104 Schülerexperimente aus dem Gebiete der Elektrizität, 4th ed. Werdau: Julius Booch: 44-45.

In this sense, manuals were not merely a written exposition of the knowledge gained by experimentation, but rather do-it-yourself instructions. The practical experimentation, instrument setup and handling as well as the handling and use of the ingredients and materials used were seen as tasks that had to be practiced and tested independently of the text and pictures in the instructions. It was in the act of the experiment, the finely attuned coordination between the experimenter and his setup rather than in the phenomena itself that the experimenter found the key to understanding the knowledge gained by experimentation.