The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Engineering will feature a contribution from Wichita State University’s Professor Sterrett from the Department of Philosophy. Her chapter, "Scale Modeling" aims to provide an introduction to the foundations of the methodology and identify misconceptions that currently exist about it in philosophy of science.
Professor Sterrett has previously written articles about the significance of the methodology of experimental physical modeling to philosophy of science (“Physical Models and Fundamental Laws”, “Similarity and Dimensional Analysis”, “Physically Similar Systems: a history of the concept”, “Experimentation on Analogue Models”).
Dr. Sterrett has also pointed out the role of scale models in history of philosophy, especially in the early work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who said he had the idea for his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (a work that discusses logic, language and science) upon reading about the use of scale models in a courtroom in Paris. (“Physical pictures: Engineering models circa 1914 and in Wittgenstein's "Tractatus"“, Wittgenstein Flies A Kite: A Story of Models of Wings and Models of the World, “Pictures, Models and Measures”) But nobody had located the magazine article. Recently, after a decades-long search, Professor Sterrett found a copy of a news item from a magazine published in Paris in just the right time frame, with a sketch of the lawyer using a scale model in a courtroom. In 2018, the organizers of a special exhibition in Vienna heard about her find and contacted Professor Sterrett asking if they could feature it; many found it the most interesting part of the exhibition. It is currently featured on the organization’s website here.