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Bulletin March No. 68 2001 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society IssN 0956-8271
For Table of Contents, see back cover
President Gerard Turner
Vice-President Howard Dawes
Honorary Committee Stuart Talbot, Chairman Gloria Clifton, SecretaW John Didcock, Treasurer WiUem Hackmann, Editor Sunon Chetfetz Alexander Crum-Ewmg Peter de Clercq Tom l~mb Svh'ia Sunmra L~ba Taub
Membership and Administrative Matters The Executive Officer (Wg Cdr Geoffrey Bennett) 31 HJ~h Sweet Stanford m the Vale Farmgdon Tel: 01367 710223 Oxon SNr7 8LH Fax: 01367 718963 e-mail: [email protected] See outside back cover for infvrmation on membership
Editorial Matters Dr. Willem D. Hackmann Museum of the History of Science Old Ashmolean Building Tel: 01865 277282 (office) Broad Street Fax: 01865 277288 Oxford OXI 3AZ Tel: 01608 811110 (home) e-mail: willemhackmann@m~.ox,ac.uk "
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:~ The Scientific Instrument Society 2001
i; Editorial
Spring is in the Air - Somewhere maxnum opus on Elizabethan Lnstruments. Getting the March Bulletin ready always Object' brings with it a special excitement as it This issue's 'Mystery has elicited a coincides with nature awakening from its great deal of interest,and has been correctly winter slumber; there is a sense of renewal, identified as what the German's call a for measunng the of new plausibilities. What I am trying to Scheitelbrechuwrfmesser, power of spectacle lenses (in dioptries) describe is akin to what collectors feel when and astigmatism. The instrument was used they fi~t come across a new collection - by ophthalmologists and opticians to check seeing the future only minutes away; a what the patient was wearing as well as to future that might throw up a new device mark lenses before mounting into a frame. that changes their collection in an extra- A good source, pointed out by Marc-Andr~ ordinary way, or that gives a new insight. Perret of Antiquit~s Scienhfiques in Geneva, As Editor, L have a similar feeling with the is Thilo yon Hau~vitz's Opthalmoh~fisch- arrival of each new postbag - there might opti~he Untersuchungsgerate, vol. 85 in the he just that jewel that makes editing this series Bticherei des Auy,enarztes (see p. 80 for journal so worthwhile. a version made by C. Willers of Jena in This issue is rich in its diversity, thanks to 1927). Similar information was supplied by the efforts of the contributors. The main Peter Abrahams, whose electronic address event is the publication of the 8'h Annual is [email protected] and websi- invitation lecture, which was given by Dr te:http://www.europa.com / ~tel~ope/bi- A.D. Baynes-Cope (Fig. l). In a previous notele.htm. According to Jeff E. Ardourel existence when L was a student in archae- M.D. of Lakewo(~, Colorado in the USA, ological con~rvation at the Institute of the instrument was devL~,d by Troppmann Archaeology in London, Lwas taught about in 19L2, and was first manufactured by both the intricacies of globe and paper restora- the Zeiss and Bush Companies in about tion by Dr Baynes-Cope, which made me 1915. The example pictured as the 'Mystery decide that my indelicate hands were better Object' is from 1932 and identical to that suited to metal conservation, which L did Fig.1 Dr Baynes-Cope during his lecture at illustrated in the Histo~ of Optical Instru- for a number of years! There is no the room the Linnean Socie~ of London. ments for the Examination of the E.W by Thilo yon Haugwitz M.D., translated into EngLish to list the other contributions in this issue, in 1986 (so now you have the English but they are as erudite as they are vaned. Anderson, J. Bennett, M. Brunold, K. translation as well!). Robert de Pecker's ~)me ob~rvant readers will notice that Citroen, J. Deiman, O. Gingerich, P Halle- reply and illustration has been reproduced there is no 'Market PLace' in this Lssue. Any beek, W. Morzer Bruyns, A. Turner and G. in this issue. member that has something useful to Turner can now be purchased from the contribute on this topic is encouraged to Mu~um Boerhaave (fax: + 31 71 5120M4) CanceLLation of the Germany 2001 Visit get in touch with the Editor. Incidentally, for Dfl 75 (or euro 30,-); Paolo Brenni's David Bryden's di~overy of the Cromer catalogue of the remarkable collection of The Committee wishes to apologize to instrument maker Solomon Gills is an electrical instruments of the old lstituto members that due to unfl~reseen circum- obiect lesson to us all! Tecnico Toscano in Florence can he obtained stances the annual wsit has had to be through him or by writing direct to the Alas, space permits only one I~k Review cancelled. in this is issue, but there are others waiting Fondazione scienza e tecnica, Via Giusti 27, in the wing. Members attention should be 50100 Firenze (Italy). Lt is one of those Resignation of S. Ackermann drawn in particular to the fi~llowing works: strange Italian situations when no price for the slim and nicely illustrated volume by the catalogue has yet been set (if it ever will Silvio De Renzi, Instruments in Print: B~ks be) and it is being given away to really It is with regret that the Committee from the Whipph" Collecthm, obtainable fi~)m interested scholars. John R Millbum's Adams announces the resignation i~ Silke Ack- the Whipple Museum m Cambridge; the of Fh'et Street, Instrument Maker to Kin¢ ermann as the SocieO,"s Meetings .~reta~' proceedings of the Mensing symposium, Ga~r~e Ill (review in No. 65, pp. 33-34) has and also acknowledges her contnbuhons in Scienh~ic Instruments: Ora,cjnals and Imita- been selling very, well but copies are still this capacity. The Editor, on behalf of the tams: The Mensm~ Comlection, edited by available from the Society. A review should Committee, wishes her all the best for the Peter de Clercq, with contributions from R also appear .~on on Gerard Turner's latest future.
Cover Sto W The Tomb of Robert Smith at Waltham Abbey Mike Cowham constructed of black and white marble and Dunng a recent visit to Waltham Abbey in to a .service in March 1697. alabaster. L will list the mstrumen~ and Essex L came acnr~ a rather unusual tomb other items m order, working clockwl~ decorated with carvings of some interesting What impresses me in particular about his from the lower left-hand comer early instrument. tomb is the ma.~>n's attention to detail. The instruments that he has carved look almost The tomb is k~cated in the north aisle of the good enough to u~, and quite ck~,e to life The first dem LFig. I) is a soundm~ h.ad. Feeling underneath, it has the usual recess abbey, close to the altar rail.It is the tomb of size. Ri~:~/rt Smith, born in 1637, and formerly for holding the tallow that was u,,~s:lto plck up traces of material from the .sea fllxw. captain of a merchant ship. He retired to The photographs show the mnportant front Above this is a backstaff complete with its Lwe near to the church and died on his way panel of the tomb (Cover), which is
Bulletin of the Scientific[nstnMnent Society No. 68 (2(X)1) two vanes. ]'his is entwined with a pistol and a cutlass. On the top row is a wooden ,,~turnal, unfortunately with its arm now broken Behind this is a pair of dmuters, _,~me tuper and a qudl pen. To the right ~Cover) a crou,n compa~ is in front of a ~twakmg trumpet - an early form of rnega- ph~nm. At the right edge (Fig. 2) is a fine cross sta~with three tran.~)ms, it is laid over a cannon, with its cleanm¢ swab and a su~)rd. Beneath this are a sand flass and a marlin spike.
In the centre of the panel ts the sading ship, the "lndustria', endeavourmg to avoid the treacherous mcK~ nearby.
The tomb is tl~ught to be the work of the famous wood carver, Gnnhng Gibbons (1648-1721). Although he did not normally carve m stone, it is probable that he was mvoh'ed m ~structmg the ma.~n~.
Waltham Abbey is a beautiful Norman building, and well worth the short diver- sion from the M25 motorway which runs ckr,e by.
Author's address: PO. Box 970. Haslingfield Cambridge, CB3 7FL [email protected] Fig.l The instruments on the h~ side. Fig.2 The instruments on the right side.
Some English Military Instrument Makers of the Late 17 m Century John R. Millburn
All of the instrument makers who received Mary, and William ill, seems to have been orders for drawing, gunne~, and surveying the relatively unknown Joseph Hone. m~truments from the Board of Ordnance in Copies of at lea~ 15 bills submitted by the eighteenth century were men well him between 1685 and 1702 are entered in known also for their "pr(~lucts in other the Bill Books, and his name occurs in other tields: John Rowlev for the astronomical records such as the 'Entry Book of Bills", xnstruments m the "Orrerv Collection, Wil- which he personally signed in full, 'Joseph ham Deane for his mechanical universal Hone', on seven occasions. sundials, George Adams s4mior for the physical apparatus m the King George Ill Collo,'tlon, and ~ tin. The Ordnance files at Hone is listed in E.G.R.Taylor's Tudor & the Public Record Office contain numerous Stuart volume (1954) at no.348, fl.1670-1704, feb, fences to these men, including copies of primarily a maker of scales (rules, not at least 27 bill~ by Rowley I, 102 by Deane2, weighing devices), with an address on the and 146 bv George Adams senior The Tower Wharf, which he may have taken penod after 1772, has not been comprehen- over from Christopher and William Rower. ~z~dv searched, but there are indications Gloria Clifton's Directory of British Scienti~c that the number of instrument-makers' bills Instrument Makers 1550-I851 (1995) pushes the start of his activities back to 1063, on the .~ubmrted by Gt~wge Adams iunior, Dudley Fig.1 Gunner's callipers of the "English" Adams. and Jesse Ram:,~ten in the last evidence of an advertLsement in a book of fi~rm u~d by. the R(~al Artillery (and the quarter of the century runs into many that date~, and adds that he supplied hundreds, perhaps thou~nds' East India Company) throughout the smooth- instruments to Christ's Hospital school. bore era, as drawn by. Senex for Stone~ Treatise ... Mathematical instruments Going backwards m time, however, well- 0723). Whitehead's instrument dated 1691, Little else is known about him. He does not known names that Cme might expect to find thought to be the earliest of this fvrm, is appear to have written or published any- in the last decade of the seventeenth similar in concept (2flat brass plates piz~oted thing. No surviving signed examples of his centu~,, such as Culpeper, Hayes, Hen- at one end) but with narrou~r limbs. products have been reix~rted, so his abilities shaw, Morden, Seller, TuttelL Whitehead as an instrument maker - if indeed he was an actual maker - cannot be assessed. It is and Wvnne are absent from the Ordnance matical' instruments to the Govemment records The principal supplier (~ "mathe- not clear why the Board of Ordnance chose dunng the reigns of James il, William & him in preference to other better-known
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) bore era). Unlike the callipers commonly used on the continent, which have a compass joint connecting the two limbs', Whitehead's instrument consists of two fiat pieces of brass not in the same plane, pivoted near one end so that they can slide over each other. This form o[ construction enables the limbs to be crossed, so that the points at their extremities can be used to measure internal diameters as well as external diameters (with the limbs un- crossed). Moreover the fiat limbs are eminently suitable for engraving scales or tables of data useful in gunnery. Although the limbs of Whitehead's instrument are appreciably narrower than later examples, they are covered with engraved inscrip- tions. The face bearing his signature R.Whitehead fecit, for example, has pictonal representations of various formulae in solid geometry (as in Fig.l, lower sketch), as well as scales giving the dimensions of shot and Fig.2 Brass simple theodolite signed "RWhitehead re.', diameter 305ram. Whipple Museum, Cambridge, Inv.Wh:877. calibres of cannon. The other face has 'crossover' scales (as Fig.l, upper sketch) giving the sizes of cann(m corresponding to the distance between the points when the hmbs are crossed. Near the extremities of the limbs can the first face are tables giving the comparative weights of materials, . ":;:" . ' :..-. taking gold to be I0,000. .''... This instrument was first descnbecl and illustrated in an article in Archaeologia Aeliana in 1931, shortly after it had been presented to the Archaeoio~cal Society. of Newcastle upon Tyne."
The author was unable to identify the 'T.Grey', wh(~,e name is engraved on one limb (perhaps the owner or designer), nor is the significance of the preci~ date, 'Mar. 25 1691', engraved alongside his name known. , ,q No trace of a T.Grey has been found in the Ordnance records around this date.
In the grounds of a country hou~ near Pennth, Cumbna, which has [x~n occupied by the same family for over 300 years, is a Fig.3 Boxu~d and brass gunner's rule large horizontal sundial with an octagonal and callipers ~ John Seller~ form, ~aou,n dial plate-l-t4mm (17~ inches) wide, signed with the hinged brass tips open for taking 'Richard Whitehead Fecit / 1688'. The plate external diameters. For internal diameters has a 32-point compass n~se, and individual the brass-humd outer corners of the us~ten minutes are marked on the hours .~'ale, limbs are used. Tesseract, Hastings-on- while the gnomon lncorl~rates elahwate Hud~m, NY, Cat.48 (Spring, 1995), item scn~ilwork)" A silver pocket sundial of the 26. 'Butterfield' type by Richard Whitehead. Fig.4 The Seller-t.~e in- wdh latitude data ranging hx~m Candia strument (Fig.3) shown [Crete] .M".'~I'to York 54"'00' engraved on its with the brass tips foMed ba.,,eplate, IS illustrated m Bulh'tm ef the in for portability. Bnti.'~r Sundial Sot'ietv, No. 95.2 (June iq~5), practitioners in Lxmdon, especially Richard page 4. Whitehead, who certainly made gunnery instruments, or John Seller, who devLsed his Richard Whitehead The Whipple Museum, Cambndge, has a own form of gunner's rule. However, 'simple thec~loiite' (with plato, rather than 'J~v~,eph Hone' or'curs in the list of sixty Richard Whitehead of London (Taylor optical, sights) signed 'R.Whdehead re" 'Fee'd Gunners' (civilians retained part- #,'~]0), was apprenticed to Henry Wynne in (Fig.2). This ~e of surveying instrument time to fire cannon fi~r salutes etc.) on the 1663 and became free of the Clockmakers' remained current for well over a hundred Tower of [zmdon establishment in 1664 and Company in 1671. He was the maker of a *,'ears (it was still being listed bv W & S later7, so perhaps practical experience of unique pair of gunner's callipers dated i(mes in the early lq 'h century.), but as such artillery, coupled with a workshop con- 1691, which is now generally considered uxstruments are known to have been used veniently located in the environs of the to have been the prototype for the 'English by military surveyors at the chz~e of the Tower, gave him a significant advantage callipers' (Fig.l) u,,,ed by the Royal Artillery. seventeent'h century, and no other maker over other possible suppliers such as throughout the eighteenth century and the named R.Whitehead m recorded, this is Whitehead or Seller. first half of the nineteenth (i.e. the smooth- presumed to he one of Richard's products.
Bulletin of the ~ientilic Instrument St~ety No. 68 (2iX)l)
~A More specifically military is the entry A four-page catalogue at the end of The may have been akin to beam compasses 'quadrans pyn~technicus' (presumably a Gunner Lq concerned mainly with books in with sliding heads rather than pivoted gunner's quadrant) by Whitehead in Mu,~ folio, quarto, and octavo, together with instruments. One order in 1600 was for a Impenalis Petropohtani, the catalogue of maps and charts, but includes also a set of thirteen 'rammer heads of brass, for instruments that were in the St.Petershurg paragraph listing (unpriced) instruments exact proving the natures of guns at the Academy in the 1740s, but unfortunately for navigatitm, viz. proofs'. '~ As rammers for operational use that instrument has not survived. were normally made of wood and were Meridian Compa.~es, Azimuth and Ampli- supplied in quantity by tool merchants, the An unusual form of gunner's callipers with tude Compasses, Sea- quadrants, Cross- articles that Hone supplied were probably a Whitehead signature turned up in a staves, Noctumals, Gunter's Scales, Plain- precisely-dimensioned plug gauges for dealer's catalogue in 19q7 (Tes~ract, Cat.- Scales, Pocket-Compasaes, Brass-Compasses checking bore diameters. No.56, item 29). Though similar to standard of all .~n¢~, Sinical-quadrants, Sectors, Bra.,~- 'English' gunner's callipers of the eight- nng-dials, I.x~ad-stones, Hour-glasses, Incidentally, the large number of sizes cited and eenth century, in this instrument the steel H~,.rs, ½ Minute, Watch-gla.,~es, in this hill, from Demi-Cannon (with a bore tips by which measurements are taken are Watch-glasses, Black-lead Pencils, Slates and Slate-Pens, Telescopes, Perspective- of about 6½ inches) down to Falconer not integral with the limbs, but are attached gla,,~es,Pocket-Globes. (about 2 inches), often differing from the by a pin so that they can swivel. The next by only a fraction of an inch, illustrates mstrument is signed 'Cha: Whitehead'. The the logistical problems that the Office of aforementioned Directonl reveals that Ri- In the body of the text Seller indicated Ordnance had to contend with in keeping chard Whitehead hacl a son Charles, (p.163) that he sold all types of gunner's stores, including a 'Gunner's Scale and the Land Service Artillery and all the ships apprenticed to him in 1093, but as no Quadrant', as well as, of course, his own of the Royal Navy supplied with the freedom entry has been found for Charles appropriate ammunition. it is not known what happened to him. No form of 'sea-Gunner's Rule' or callipers, and 'Brass Heights for Shot'. The latter may other instruments bearing his name have so Though some drawings were certainly far been di~'overed. have been a ~rm of tangent sight. Whether he actually made any of these items, except produced both at the Tower and in the field his own form of gunner's callipers, is in the late seventeenth century, the 'Draw- John S~ller doubtful. Judging by his advertisements in ing Room', with a permanent staff of the la)Puton C,a~tte fnnn 1670 to the 169(k, it named Draughtsmen, for whose use draw- ]he Seller family flourished in the second was only atier his son John junior joined the ing instruments were frequently purchased half of the seventeenth century, with business (alxmt 1687) that metal instru- from mathematical instrument makers in premises at the Hermitage, Wapping, and ments, as distinct from paper pn~ucts, the eighteenth century, does not appear in el~where. David Brvden's article in the attained any unportance, so perhaps his the Ordnance records as a separately Bulh'tm on Jt~n Sellerfl, m his "Early Printed s~m was the 'instrument person' in the identifiable entity until early in George I's Ephemera' series, includes a transcnpt of an family '~ reign. All engineers, and probably senior undated broadside showing the wide range artillerymen, would have had heir own of g~s in which Seller dealt. Towards the Joseph Hone's Ordnance Bills pers(mal set of drawing instruments which end of his life, m 1691 he published The Sea were their own pnq~erty and would not be mentioned in the Board's financial recmds. Gunner, shewln~ the practica! i~irf ~ Gunnery, Through the Ordnance records we have a as It is used at ~a, which ordnance hlstoriarts For development of new equipment, and detailed picture of the types of instruments instructional purposes, the Ordnance al- regard as a somewhat outdated mish-mash that Joseph Hone certainly supplied, even of gunne~, mfi*rmatitm probably aimed at ways tended to rely heavily on 3-dimen- though no extant exampl~ signed by him sit,hal mt~eis rather than drawings. merchant u~rs rather than t]~e NavyY have yet been located. IMerchant ships were usually armed with an assortment of whatever weafx~ns hap. The number of full-time Engineers on the the pened to be available, often of types king The Table summarizes pnncipal types, permanent Ordnance establishment in the dr,,carded by the Royal Navy.} From the with the total quanhties mentioned in his late seventeenth century was quite small: instrument historian's point of view the bills and the prices normally charged. about half a dozen. Their tasks included importance of this work LS that it contains designing and supervising the erection of an Appendix describing in detail, with As might be expected, gunnery instruments fortifications and bridges, and surveying copper-plate engravings, a form of gunner's predominate, but Hone's bills also include newly acquired territories. In wartime more calhpers ~id to have been invented by the drawing instruments, surveying instru- 'assistant engineers' were recruited on a author In l~.~ an m.strument of wt~d and ments for use by military engineers, temporary basis from volunteers, such as brass matching his descnptitnl appeared in mi~ellaneous items such as hour-glasses, army officers having the appropriate ex- the market place (Figs.3 and 4). It is rules with ioints, and a few telescopes, pertise, or civilian surveyors, who would .~tamptxt ",THOMAS+ BR(X)KES+ 1695+' though it does not necessarily follow that probably have brought their own instru- probablv the name of the owner rather he actually made all - or any - of these ments with them; consequently relatively than the maker pn~ucts himself: he could have acted as a few orders for surveying instruments, in procurement agent for the Board, purchas- comparison with those for gunnery inatru- ing from fellow members of the trade those ments, were issued by the Board. ~qler's name has not been found in the instruments that were outside the scope of Ordnance Bill B~,~ks. However, some in- his particular expertise. Some of Hone's ~truments, especlalb," rules and compasses William lll'soperations in Ireland, however, bills mention what were evidently non- for drawing, occur fi'om time to time in the led to some orders for surveying instru- standard or experimental items, such as 'an lengthy bills submitted every quarter by the ments specifically for use in that country. In instrument of brass plac'd at rt.angles with btationer to the Ordnance, for specific users April 1689 the l~mrd ordered from Hone a screws and sliding pieces divided into m the Otfice The makers of these instru- set of surveying instruments 'for Mr.Jacob mches and parts with staff &c. being to ments are not named in the Stationer's bills. Richards their Ma's Engineer ordered to try the Ix~res of mortar pieces'", and 'a For example, tree such bill in 17{)4 included Ireland'?7 This comprised a 'brass theodo- quadrangle tampion for mortars 'I~.Many of a "Runner's rule in a fishskin case' at sixteen late with quadrant of altitude fixt with ball the experimental items were associated .,,hfllings, fitr the use of the Lt-General. The socket & staff' at £5, 50-ft chain of I00 links with mortars rather than cannon; a 'large price suggests a brass instrument rather at 8s., various drawing instruments, a quadrant of brass with sights &c' was than wt,~den rule, but it Ls imlx~ssible to miner's compass, a 'small sea pocket specifically stated to be "for the use of say whether it was of Seller's form or a fiat compass', I0 marking staves, and a 'large ruier with .scales. mortar-pieces'. A pair of callipers 'to take and best quadrant for mortars' at £2. The 4ft' and another 2ft occur in one bill;these total cost was £I! Is.6d.
Bulletin of the Sck~nh~ Instrument So~y No. 68 (2001) The quadrant for mortars was probably Acknowledsemen~ included in this order because one of an 10. As the gnomon has an mclinatkm (mea- Engineer's tasks was to supervise siege sured on a photograph) of about 54 degrees, it Extracts from Crown copyright Ordnance seems likely that the dial was specially made operations; quadrants specifically for set- permission of ting rrmrtars were always more expensive, records at Kew are quoted by for the north of England rather than Londtm. the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery and presumably more accurate, than stan- Office. 1 am grateful to Dr David Colleen dard quadrants for use with cann~m. Seven for providing me with photographs of the of the latter, costing £1 2s.6d each, were II. D.J. Bryden, "Early Printed Ephemera of Seller-type instrument shown in Figs.3 and London Instrument Makers: Trade Catak~gues. the use of ordered in August 1690 for 4; Dr Liba Taub for the photograph of Part 2: John Seller,1685/6', SIS Bulletin,No.65 George Browne ~, who later became Master Whitehead's surveying instrument in the 0une 2ooo), pp.4-6. Gunner of England. In a chim for expenses Whipple Museum (Fig.2); and Robert B in he called 'Engineer 1690 himself & Sylvester, of the British Sundial Society, for Firemaster on the late expedition against providing me with details of the Whitehead 12. John Seller's The Sea Gunner (London, Corke & Kinsaile in Ireland'. sundial in Cumbria. 1691) is now available in facsimile from Jean Boudriot Publicatitms, Rotherfield, East Sus- Before then, m January 1689/90 Hone sex, TN6 3QX (ISBN 0-948861-26-5), with a Notes and References fulfilled a large order for drawing and modem introduction and comments by the surveying instruments, worth a total of late Capt. A. B Caruana, Royal Artillery £67, which had been placed on 31 October I. Dated 1704-1723; for comments on his 1689 to meet 'the Duke of Schonborg's gunnery instruments (only) see SIS Bulletin, No. 32 (1992),pp.3-5. 13. For details of the Seller family, and demand for Ireland'.This order comprised transcripts of atxmt fifty of their advertL,ie- six sets of drawing instruments m cases, at 2. Dated 1723-1748; see SI5 Bulletin, No. 45 merits (mainly for maps and charts) in the 25s. each, and no fewer than twelve sets of (1995), pp.12-18. London C,a:ette, see: Sarah Tyacke, London Map- 'instruments for surveying and mensura- Sellers, 1660-1720 (Map Collector Publications, tion &c', at £4 7s. each. The lattersets each 3. Dated 1748-1772; see Annals of Scmu'e, 4S 1978). contained a plane table, brass ruler with (1988), pp.221-293. sights, compass, 3-1egged staff with ball & socket, @pole chain, and decimal scale?~ 4. For example, a page-by-page search 14. WO51/47, p.76 (20 May 1692); this The Duke of Schomberg (see DNB) was revealed that in the calendar year 1795 the instrument cost £3. William's Master-General of the Ordnance Adams firm (George junior until August, then and his Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; he Dudley,) submated 31 bills, worth a total of lost his lifeat the Battle of the Boyne. Apart £1,051. The Bill B~mks of this period (Class 15. WO51/38, p.81 (17 April 1689); this from Ireland, other destinations outside W052) are not indexed. device cost 12s.0d A 'tampion' was a bung England mentioned in Hone's bills include placed in the barrel of a cannon or mortar and the West Indies~', Scotland, Flanders, New- 5. WO49/222, dated 1696-1702. Some of the sealed to keep out moisture One would not foundland, and the Mediterranean, so the entries therein have not been traced in the expect such an item to have been supplied by a instruments that he supplied were spread corresponding Bill I~r4ts, possibly because the mathematical instrument maker; but the indexer of the relevant volumes missed them. qualification 'quadrangle', and a statement in around the world. It is surprising that none Hone's bill that it was for both 10-inch and ll- The total number of Hone's bills must there- bearing his name has yet been found. inch mortars, suggests that his "tampion' was a fore have been a httle greater than the figure ~ven. rather more complicated device incorporating Table some means of adiustment.
Principal types of instruments mentioned 6. D.J. Bryden, 'Evidence ~n Advertising in Joseph Hone's Ordnance Bills 1688- for Mathematical [rtstrumentMaking in Lon- 16. WO51/40, p.179 (27 May 1690)Thesetas 1702. don, 15.%-1714/ Annals of Science, 419 (1992), a whole cost £7: the thirteen items are not pp.301-336 (footnote 85, p.318). individually priced. This table does not include non-standard experimental items which only a 7. WO49/I12, listof Tower gunners 15 April or those of 1664; cited in H. C. Tomlinson, Guns and single specimen was supplied. 17. Wt")51/38, p.81 119 April 1689). The Cancrnna,nt: the Ordnance Office under the later warrant for this order was dated only two Stuarts (1979), p.49. Tomlinson gwes some days earlier,suggesting that Hone kept such Type I[~Ny Unit Price RanKe names and occupations of Fee'd Gunners in items in stock Jacob Richards was 'Third Gunnery. the late 17th century, to justify his assertion Engmeer' on the permanent establishment. that they were "men from the middling ranks Quadrants, brass 31 £I to £I 2s. 6(I of society'rather than lal~ta,trers. The examples Quadrants, wood 5 10s. to 12s. include Joseph Hone, mathematical mstru- 18. W051/42, p.2. Callipers,prs 23 6s. to 8s. 6d ment maker. He was still listed in 1692 Shot gauges, bras~ 26 Is. to 2s. (WO54/50). ditto (sets) 7 £I to £I 2s. 19. W051/40, p.14 This order also included Drmeing 8. Continental gunner's callipers were illu- 8 'perspective glasses or large telesct~es'at strated at O in Stone's Plate XV (17"23): see SIS 17s.6d each. Cases of insts 7 £I 5s. to £2 9s, Bulletin, No.32 (March 1992), p.6. A pair by Compasses, brass 8 2s. 6d to 6s Butterfield dated c.1700 is in the Whipple Museum, lnv.Wh:67. A similar pair by Bion is 20. WO51/42, p82 1169111. The m~truments Sun~. mg in the Museum o4 the History of Science, on this bill, including a the~ohte, were for the Oxhnd, Lewis Evans Collection. use of l(~an Gkwer, engineer m the Leeward Th~olites 3 £4 3s. to I/5 Islands. Glover was not on the permanent Plane Tables 13 £4 7s. to £5 establishment, but in 1688 he had been (inc. accessories) 9. E Brewis, 'A Gunner's Cmnpound Com- or empk~yed as an overseer during the ctax~truc- ix~le) pa~ English Callipers',Arcl~m~It~,ia Aeltana, Chains (4 2 10s. 4th series, $ (1931), pp.213-8. For the subse- tion of new h,rtificatams at Hull and Sheer- Mi~ellanmus quent devek~pment of gunner's callipers in I1K~S. England, see DS.Weaver, 'The English Gun- Joint Rules 8 8~. ner's Caliper,' Arms Collectm¢, 33, No.4 Telescopes g 17s. 6d (November 1995), pp.lll-125. Fig.4 in the Auth~"s address: Sandglasses 8 not priced latterreproduces a ph(~ograph of Whitehead's 40 Sttrlmg Azcnue Steering compasses 2 not priced instrument from the 1931 article. Aylesbu~. , Buck.~, HP20 IBE
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument S~,ty No. 68 (2001) i _.2 The Annual Invitation Lecture A Scientist and Instruments A.D. Baynes-Cope
lntmductim 'Ideal" gt~Hxy as contrasted with 'Physical' to be prosecuted on the result of a titration. geometry, that is, the concept of infinitely Nevertheless, the metric system has not been It is useful to begin a discourse with small l~ints and infinitelythin lines compared adopted universally or uniformly, it appears definitions. The O~.h, rd English D:ctu,nary with, in H~m's w(wd~: 'A physical science that Danish, Swedish and German carpenters under the heading of 'Instruments" has a concerned with the actual spatial relations of prefer to use what we call inches and feet with preliminary note: 'Pn~sion, apparatus, furni- the extended bod/es which we perceive in the the added complication that Danes and ture, an implement or t(~,l, a document'. It phymcal world'. Euclid (c. 33 B.C.), system- Swedes use the Danish Tomme of 1.029 then gives under heading I: 'That which afized Ideal geometry and he laid down a set Imperial inches, and carpenters' folding rules used by, an agent in or for the performance of of axk~ns, supposedly self-evident truths. ThLs calibrated in centimeters and Tommen are an action; a thing with or through which was one of the greatest intellectual achieve- readily available in good tool-shops in something IS dtwle or effected; anything which ments of mankind and it is in no sense Copenhagen. Still more unlikely was the serves to the accompli.,&~nent of a purp~w~e or behttling Euclid if it is portrayed m another purchase there some twenty years ago of a end; a means'. There can be few more way, as the greatest and most intellectually recently made ruler, the Pied Royale de Paris, comprehensive definitions. A scientist is demanding but satisfying game ever devised. of 32.5 cm length subdivided into twelve defined very simply: 'A man of sconce'. If the axioms are the description of the game, pouces each of twelve lignes. Printers use Though it is a description rather than a the apparatus is deceptively simple; a straight rulers graduated in points, one point being one detinlfitm, a Spy Cartt~m of J(~m T)~ndallbore edge and a Pair of dividers. seventy-secondth of an inch. the words 'The soenttfic use of the tmagma- hon'. The theme of this lecture will be found The very simplicity of these conditions Many problems that may come to the wandering within these limits. provokes questions: why did Euclid exclude practicing scientist,as investigator or adviser, the (calibrated) rules? What did he regard as can be resolved by linear measurement, either There is no clear die=drag lino discermble in dividers? A straight edge is not, per se, an directly with a ruler or by transferring the dlt~ona~, defimt~ms between instrument Instrument for translx~lng measurements. intervals or distance with hinged dividers. and apparatus and Idiom prevails for scie~ ]here seems to be some consenstts that a pair The 'Ruler' need not be a straight edge, but ~ts. The purpose t4 thLs lecture m to gwe an of Euclidean dwiders was not, as we think of can be a tape measure and here other account of how 'instruments' have been used and use them, a pair of legs pivt~ing about a complications arise; for mea~ts of the m solving problems. There will he some rivet; it has been suggested that they fell apart greatest accuracy with a steel tape it may need emphas~s tm rumple instruments though these if one leg was removed from the working to be used at a set temperature and ~msion. may present hidden complications and ttan~ surface. Many mathematicians have consid- The greatest single advance in the making of wdl be, as there must be, re(erence to more ered these m.struments; a thousand years after simple rulers has undoubtedly been the complex apparatus. Euclid, Ab0'l Wefil considered what condi- transparent plastic ruler in which the ~'adua- tions could apply for the use of either a tions are in dinect contact with the marks on A quotation may throw s~mm light on problem straight edge akme or dividers alone, pechaps the obiect and thene are no errors due to solving as dishnct from research. In 1916, with a fixed opening (the so-called 'Rusty parallax. Even so, measurement may do no Kitcbetwr z m a report to the War Cabinet said Compasses'), to be used, and a thousand years more than confirm, for legal purposes, the 'We had to make war as we must, not as we later still. Poncelet and Steiner investigated immediately obvious. A document concerned ~,uld hke to'. The problem c(nnes to the further. These matters are for theoreticians;the with financial matters under litigation was practical sclentLst for him to soh'e whereas the practical scmntist needs measunng instru- sent to Dr Julius Grant, the doyen of Briti~ research s~Kmt~st goes to a sub~ which may ments and dividers tw compasses that are document examiners, who saw at once that it interest him. hmged, and these two simple instruments, the was on A4 paper though dated many years ruler and the dividers, can yield very valuable before the introductitm of that size. Simple Measurements and Much More mformahon to the practical museum scientist who needs to solve problems as opposed to Maps, Globes and Paper Gon~ the theoretician. It will never be known who began the determinati(m 16 the fundamental property, The importance of measurement is emphasized length Some rela~mships, which may be The graduated straight edge depends on a in cases where paper can be affected by unmeasurably old, do md depend on external fundamental, accepted standard of length and moisture, for a wet paper sheet is at its dlmt~L.qons or apparatus and may still be used yet may present traps for the unwary. Maps of maximum size and on drying will shrink to tt~.ta,,' Once round the clenched tistgives the Europe earlier than the nineteenth century its minimum size. It is a fair assumption that a length of the t(~)t, still useful when buying display more than one scale of miles. The sheet of hand-made paper will stretch by some ~:k'~; the Inuit reck(m that thrt~e times round innumerable vanations in measurements in 2.2% on wetting; a machine-n~de paper will the head gives the height. France under the old Regime had long called stretch some 2.5% acr(~ the machine direction. for recfificah(m and the revolutionaries acted, ]']~" t,ngan.sof geometry are often said to lay in having available men with minds of out- Maps were printed from inked copper-plate the nt~t fl~r early agriculturists to detern~me standing ability on call. It was fortunate that engravmgs onto wet paper and the shrinkage where their land lay after the annual fl(,ds of Lagrange, one of the greatest eighteenth- that results caused great consternahon to the Nile and the Euphrates had subsided from century mathematicians, did not pursue his Lmdley and Crossley when they printed their them: idea of an undecimal system, using elevenths meticulously surveyed and prepared copper instead of tenths. It was less fortunate that plate of Sum]. The distortion they measured, there were errors m calculating the quarter- 1he fair assumptum may he made that they averaging a number of sheets and independent circumference of the gl(~e and dunng the of the thickne~-~ of the paper was 2.2%, just had ~,me agn~d system of units of length that creation of the system one standard of distance what can be predicted with hand-made paper. enabled them to k~ate one point by reference was defined teml~ranly as 'One metre plus to two more others eventually they or and that three I~)UC~ of Paris'. The errors in the scale of and short Them are consequences from these facts; if a developed rules of thumb cuts that length its with volume tacthtated their tasks. What seems to emerge is and correlahon that t~ sheet of paper is made wet it will stretch were not properly resolved for another one that these prott~'tvilizatams worked on an ad- appropriately but if it is then pasted down and hundred and fifty years when it was laid l~c ba~ts with relatively little attentum given allowed to dry on a solid surface, it will dry at down that chemists should measure volumes to developing pnneipk~. its maximum wet size. For this mason a clause in thousandths of a litre and not in cubic was written into British Standard 4971; The cent, meters. The differences might appear to Conservation Treatment of Documents regard- Thah.,s of Miletus (c. 640-~16 B.C.) is credited be small, even trivial, 0.5 ml in a litre, but are ing Maps and Tol~)graphical Drawings, with takmg the first recorded ste~ towards greater than the errors permitted in first claw requinng that both before and after any creating what E.W. Hobson dt.~icnhed as analytical work as, for example, when a man is conservation treatment all four sides and both
Bulletin of the ,Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) diagonals of the map should be meammd and each measumawnt recorded one below the characteristic of early paper, ten to the recorded, the measurement being kept with other. The Nordensk~a~id gort~' marks were centimeter, as against the much wider spacing, the map. virtually perfect vertical lines while the seven to the centimeter, of the facsimile and suqx, ct gores' marks made a very wiggly line mounted gores and these also lacked the fuzzy The effect of these dimemi(mal changes may indeed. build-up of fibre against the chain lines of be seen most strikingly with globes and they early paper. This exaremation is one of the interesting examples of the use of rulers The Amba~adm, s Globe most tedious that can be undertaken for few and dividers in their examination. A globe, be lines are perfectly continuous and none have it terrestrialor celestial,has the text applied to A more compn4wnaive and indeed complex exactly defined edges. Attempts to use the a sphere of predetermined size by pasting onto case arme when the British Museum Research instrument designed to measure the spacings it the willow-leaf shapes of the gores. (Only IJboratmy was asked to examine a terrestrial and intensity of lines on spectmphotographic the simplest case is described here.) The globe in the possession of the National plates failed but there is the hope that practice was to engrave the gores, of which Maritime Museum. The very heavily dark- computerized digital enhancement of the then, are normally twelve, on a copperplate, brown varnished globe was said to bear a definition may make this work easier in future. akmg a line which will provide the equator on considerable likeness to that in Holbein's the finished globes with the gores touching painting The Ambas:~.dors? Could it have been However, there remained the question of the and tangential to perpendiculars struck at the the model from which the picture was Helsinki ghdx,s. Using the same methods, the equator. The plate was, as is usual, printed on painted? The examination was of reterest in gores on tbese globes could be shown to be a paper which has been kept well damped for the general context of this paper as the derived from a paper different from that used an hour or more so that it is at its maximum instruments used covered the range h~re by R(~enthal's littagraphers; Rosenthal used wet size but it will shrink as it dries. This does old-fashioned dmnestic to very modern in- what appeared to be the Dutch Van Gelderen not matter, for the sphere will have been made deed. paper whereas the Finnish globes were on the with its circumference equal to the equator on paper used in Nordenskjibld's Atlas of the plate and when the gores are well wetted The first examination needed a Direct Vmion Historical Cartography, which was made by befo~ being pasted down, they will have Irdra-md Image Converter which confirmed the famous Lessebo Mill in Sweden. Nor- gained their size. maximum that then, was indeed pnnting on the paper. dena~tOid had, in fact, bought one of the Once the varnish had been mnmved with Rosenthal's reproductions to use in the Those who handle or examine old globes, organic solvents an anomaly was discovered; Facsimile Atlas. which may he over four hundred years old, the gores overlapped and two measurements soon realize that our forbears were masters O4 were needed. Rulers are rigid so a dressma- In short, aH the mounted Ambassadors globes practical geometry. Indeed, the labyrinth in ker's tape was used to determine the are modern replicas. One further possibility Crete on the Hertford Mappa Mundi o4 c. 1290 circureDrenc'e of the sphere while the amount emerged, the gores were a woodcut and these has twelve concentric circles within a diameter of overlap could be determined by pricking off are printed on dry paper and the equatorial of one and a half inches but how they marked the widths of the overlap with dividers, with length on the block will not be that O4 tbe globe out the outline of globe gores is uncertain. the tmportant discovery that the total width O4 so that making the gk~e to take the wet, the Sons was 2.2% greater than the equator expanded gores will not be as easy as with a Henncus Glareanus described a construction and this is of the order O4 the amount by which copperplate. Helen Wallis was O4 the opinion which tmplies that a graduated ruler was the paper will stretch when wet. This prompts that not all early gore plates were intended for needed to subdivide a line into thirty parts of the question: why was there is overlap? At this mounting and this was a distinct poerability which the central twelve sections would form stage it was possible to use X-Ray Diffraction with the Ambassador' gore plates, espectally as the Equator. From each end, with radius ten- Analysis to idenMy the small amount s of not all the go~s touched. It cannot have been twelfths of the equator, arcs are struck, pigment colounng in one or two places and beyond Holbein's skill to reconstruct, even if presumably with dividers, to give the outlines this gave clear results which we~ not usable in only mentally, a sphe~al globe flx~m flat of each gore but Glareanus seems not to have dating. paper. It was possible to take a sample of checked the geometry since by Pythagoras' wood of the ball of the Greenwich globe, and Theorem the gores so obtained will have a The next stage was to try to make a very elaborate instruments indeed gave a length which is 6.24 times the width, instead of comparison with all other known exemplars radk~rbon date suggesting that the tree from six tin'ms. Nordenskli61d had noted that the~ of the globe. There were three other mounted which it came was growing in the 1880s. Was an eflrof. globes, one in the Beinecke Rare Book Library in Yale University which Helen Wallis had The stmga lie m the tail, and th, ugh not The laying-down of the gores similarly reveals examined for cart~v,raphic venty many years exl:xw~ed by the use of instruments they are the quality of the early makers' craftsmanship, before, and two in the Nordenskjioid Samm- deserving of mention; Van Gelderen couicl not for lines of latitude meet perfectly at the edges lung in Helsingin Yliopiston Kit~asta. give an unequivocal identificationO4 the paper of adjacent gores and it must be remembered as being genuinely their own owing to the that this perfect continuity of line must There was a set of unmounted gores in the extensive fraudulent copying of their water- culminate with the leadreg edge of the last New York Public Library which could be reark and countermark, and the Piccard gore meeting exactly at all latitudes with the traced back to their discovery in the 1850s, Archly in Stuttgart dated the watermark on trailing edge of the first. Given that knowl- through Ludwig Rosenthal who had bought the New York gtwes at 1550-1556, on a paper edge, usually gained by experience, when them c. 1870 and who had photolithographic ~ml a null which I~gan production m 1540. globe gores are visibly of less quality and if reproductio~ made, one of which was in the eight years after Holbein pareted The Ambas.~- mounted lack the perfection of meeting British Library and another in Ostern,6chisches d~,s. latitudes an investigation is called for. National Bibliotek. Apparatus of amazreg comple~oty was used m A pair of gores, terrestrialand celestial,created The various owners helped by providing the investiga~m but the data essential for by a firm of little reputation, reputedly dating measurements and pictures and the British exl~mg the ara~lies and identifi'mg them from the beginning of the seventeenth century Library gores could be brought to the came from the use of a stmple tape measure anaxsed so much suspicion that then, was a Laboratory. From the knowledge of the size and divide~, if a moral has to be pointed, it is very comprehensive examination in the course of the pasted-down gores on the Greenwich that both the b~x~,seilers who handled the of which the widtkq of every set of globe gLwes globe it was posstble to calculate their original Beinecke globe and the Bemecke staff should given in Nordenskii61d's Facsimile Atlas wen' size, which matched very ck~qy that O4 the have been able to spot at once the wide measured as accurately as possible. The British and Austrian librark~' gores but both spacreg of the [aid hnes and confirm this by method was simple; the width of each gore of these we~ larger than the New York gores direct measurmnent to be a rm-~lem paper for in the set was pricked off with dividers and and could not have come from the same wood this was clearly visible on a photocopy of a tram[erred to graph paper, with one k~g of the blocks. Further, by counting the spacing of the black-and-white illustration in a ~,~k. dividers touching a straight edge clamped, as laid lines in the British library gores and it were, along a y-axis and the other leg was comparing them with those on the New York Overiappmg of gk~e gores may be due to the pricked into the paper along an x-axis, with gonm, the New York g~wes had the spacing ignorance o4 the maker as could be the ca.~
Bulletin of the Scientificinstrument Society No. 68 (2001) 7 with the two manu.,K'npt gk~Ps made by John showing in the far North-West an island namely m the determination of specific gravity lJ~washm. labeled Vinland, the first ever known mediae- m', as it is now called, relative density. Few val map so to do? hymen realize the range of tasks for which lhe plan ..drown by a map must always be true speofic gravity determinatit~ are used, or to scale but there are cases when measure- The 'Vinland Map' how important is the humble 'Specific Gravity n~ents ~d the .~ze of a block i~ text can provide th~ttle'. Fifty years ago, in the Department of imp~ant reformation. I'hot~opymg is com- Following a set td bizarre transactkms it was the Government Chemist nmst routine deter- m~mplace and m~ always autht~zed In one bought h~r the I~,lm,cke Library at Yale as minatiims of sugar solu~ms and alcohol were instance an organization realized that con- being an authentic 144~bish map strongly made by this means and this was highly ttdential d,ruments were being abstracted and c~wcted with the accompanying manuscript. skilled work. The breakage of a specific copwd by th,~e m'~ authorized to do either. A ma~,r b4,~k was published and it began a gravity had to be reported to the Deputy was al.,m a suspickm that re(we than ~e tnumphal tour of Eunve, including the British Government Chemist. The level of skill cople¢ was being u.'q"d and that ime td them Mu~um, and the Research Lahorahwy was d~,eh~d led to ~)mething that astonished l~,hmged to ar.~her organtzati~m. The mvt.'8- allowed to examine it. (kle day early in 1967, chemists tmtside the Department. it is usual ttgator was given a number of the dtx-una,nts the then Keeper and am~tht~ man, within the for analytical laboratories wherein highly ctmcerned and author3tV to use any machine. space of seven minutes, ix~th agreed that the accurate work had to be d¢me for there to be ]'he need to measure ail four stdt.'s and both mk was m,,t of the km+wn mediaeval types and a "Standard Substance' of the utnmst purity dlagtmals of a map before and after any there was a strong I~sibility, ck~e to a and capable of reactions which would relate to ctmservatt~m treatn~,nt an.~ Irom the prob- certainty, that the "Vinland Map', though not thiw~e used in other determinations. The able distort~m of the dlma,nsams ~d the image the accompanying manuscript, was spurious. Cawemment Laborak~y Standard was 'Nor- con.,~'qm,nt upon distortion of the paper They examined the map under ultra-violet mal', i.e., 4.9% sulphuric acid with its matnx and this led the mvt.,~tigator It+ examine lighi. cm1~entra~m determined by measunng its the pt~lbiliI3" td the dlmeflL.~lt~ts td the text- specific gravity, for this gave two more bh+k being distorted in the ctVy. Had the writing medium, which was of a decimal places than determination by titration weak yellowish-brown cotour, been the vir- or gravimetry wtmld do without the need for other reagents or operations. The techmque was simple; as large a :,dwet (~ tually universal into gallotannate ink it would graph-paper as would fit the platen of the have appeared inteR~ely black but if anything machine was pl~tt~.'opied to pnduce Copy it was k~q vL'qble. This prompts the tl~mght Galileo made use of the change of specific Ch~" Copy One was phott~t~'~iod to gwe Copy that examination of the mk by light ~ma a gravity with temperature in his thermometer fwo, and this m turn was w~,d to obtain CtVy nmm~chn~nator may have pn~duced evidence and these quite pretty instruments are still lhree Each image could be compared with its on the organic moiety quite ctmummly on sale. However, the most predece~.~w and especMIly with the original famous use of a [orensic specific gravity sheet which bore the true scale of size. A Eventually the authorities at Yale asked the determination is associated forever with general picture began to emerge; each type, m~ted and outstandingly expert McCrone Archimedes. make tw Mark of machtn~ made a charade¢- Research Institute in Chicago to examine the L~tl~ disttwtllw~ of the scale which could ix, plum Map. It was a daunting task, even for them, ]he most interesting aspect of the case is how or minus in length or breadth and was but m a course ot very elegant examination of little is known for certain; it is not known what ctm.,,tant A map undergoing consewati(m extwnw4y minute particles of the ink, the key experience Archimedes had in his the bath or treatment has the edges and corners of the evidence against the Map was obtained. what sort of bath it was, whether a bathtub or pawr measured but with a questteww Bulletin td the ~k'ntific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) are similar in saze, weight and composition to guide to the relative humidity. The readings really served only to monitor the air-handling the diadem. The diminu~n in weight on began in mid-September and nothing remark- equipment. immerskm is quite small; a pure gold torc able was observed until the central heating weighing i,000 gm in air would apparently was turned on and ~)me shrines began A mow unusual method of checking the k~e only about 50 gm when weighed in water, showing extraordinanly anomok~us behavk~ur and these figures are probably not far off those relative humidity inside a ck~ed case was in that the temperature at 8 am was over 75"!: used in the capsule containing the Hereford of the king's diadem. The cor(mahon crown, St dropping during the day. Edward's Crown, weighs some five Ixmnds. A Mappa Mundi. The map is on a single sheet of vellum measuring 54" x 64" and by placmg a large and quite stnmg balance with a long slip of graph paper behind the top and bottom beam would be needed to hold the diadem it was decided to examine the external climate edges of the map, its movement if any was because of its size and weight and this would and the London office of the Meteorological immediately detectable. This enabled the be a slow and relatively insensitive balance Office provided data, viz, the maximum day conservator to claim having the world's largest up~m which two consecutive exact weighings and minimum night temperature and the total humidity sens~w. Not very king aRer that must be made. hours of sunlight for each day. When this data was displayed (m one graph it was immedi- metht~ was devek~-d, nuxiem electronic ately obvious that the frowning overheating instruments were on the market and could If one clmclitilm is permitted, the forensic followed a bitterly cold night and it was found be installed almost invisibly within the capsule problem can be ~olved with tree counter- to result frmn the b~)k-shnnes being placx~ to record temperature and relative humidity at balancing only, which eliminates errors due (m the thin covers of heating ducts des|grwd to any desired interval of time over months. to inconsistency in the behaviour of the lead warm air ~im heating batt~ under the balance. The condition, which considering seats below the windows to keep them free The proksnged labours that solved the pro- the milieu in which the event occum~ is not from condensaikm. The main Uwrnu~tat was blems at St Clement Danes, had they tx'curred impwbable to meet, is that the diadem is moved and the beating battersespermanently counterbalanced against a mas~ of pure gold thirty five years later, would have been disconnected. This is a deceptively brief and cmnputerized and all the climatic and meteor- (or of gold alloyed to the permitted extent). simple account for in fact some thirty ulogical data would have been correlated and, Both sid,.,s-of the balance are then immersed thousand temperature readings were worked at the touch id buttons, displayed tm the and the 'pure' gold side must sink; if the up. The total cost of the equipment was scientist's desk. The real science for St Cknnent balance beam is king- or extended by light minute as the thern~nneters were ixwrowed Danes came in an armchair with a pad of ix)inters,the result is widely observable. from their normal purpose of determining the graph paper on a man's lap. temperatures of phott~raphic solutilms or As to what made Archimedes leap [rom his those having their specific gravity determined. in Ch~istry and Industry, no. 22, p. 728 of bath, it could well accord with common The only cash outlay was for graph paper, less November 2000, there is an article on newly experience that a mind tired by pondering a than £5. In short, the simplest possible invented extremely accurate optical clocks, mulfi-faceted problem can, once relaxed, have instruments were used. which work by synchronizing the electromag- the answer appear within as if by magic. Did netic osciila~ms of a laser with the internal Archimedes really need to notice anything The moisture in the atmosphere equilibrates res~mance of a positively charged Ytterbium new in the bath? with hydmphilic materials "such as books and ion. When the laser has oscillated 600 trillion if sufficientis present and other conditions are times, one second has pas~l. The Immediate The ~ of St Clement Dam satisfacttn'y for them micmlungi will grow on expected use would be the creation of a new the substrate, ff these condition~ prevail the generation of coupled radio telescopes, but The scientist who is ct~ctmaecl with the care of books must be dried. &a~ks that are over- there is a coda to the article: 'Their amazing library and archival material has to face warm will cool easily and quickly but damp accuracy could in time lead to the redefinition problems caused by moisture and warmth bl~,s will generally take weeks, if not montlxs of the second, the metre and even the and by the co-reaction of Ix~th. Heat alone to dry. If, however, they are dried Wo quickly kilogram'. This statement is the perfect ending dries the materials which can become over-stiff mechanical strain will develop in the binding to this discourse. and warped; rm~isture is essential fin" micro- structime and physical damage may t~'cur, if biok)gical growth and the ideal conditions for books have been kept in a ckr,ed store with a Notes and RefeeenceJ the temperature and relative humidity of the high humidity, they will take up the moisture; climate m which they are stored or displayed. a determimtitm of the relative humidity of the 1. The quotation by hnd Kitchener ks given The evaluatkm of these conditioret requires the air will be a guide to the existence of a problem in Trevor Royle, A Dictionary. of Mihtary use of instruments, all too often to discover but it cannot give direct information on the Qu~aata~ns (Routledge, 1990), as his 'Address what is wnmg. moisture contents at the centres of the bca~ksor to War Cabinet, 1916'. assess the risk of mould growth. If a The first case is one in which excessive dryness dehumidifier is installed, though the relative 2. Mathematical matters have been taken was bringing im~wtant I:moks to the brink of humidity of the air will siam decrease, the from Howard Eves, An intnductton to the harm. The Royal Air Force Church of St drymg of the books necessitates the physical History of Mathenumcs lNew York: Holt, Rine- Clement Danes holds the memorial volumes nmvement, the diffusion, of water through hart, Winshm, 1976, 4th ed.), and from E.R. which bear the names of all those who have them and the rate of this drying needs to be Hobs(m, Squanng the Circle (Chef,a, 1953) klst their lives while serving, bran the creation known. Fortunately the building trade is well 3. The work on The Ambassadors gk~,~e L~ of the Rival Flying Corps to the present day. aware of problems of this kind and surveyors given in fmago Mundi, 33 (1981), pp. 9-20. in 1963 it was re)ted that these b(x)ks were measure the electrical resistance of materials warping; the binder, Mr S.M. Cockerell was such as wta~d in order to assess the extent of 4. For the "Vmland Map' see the C~,rapha'al called in and extra assistance was obtained the trouble,Mt~'n electronics makes possible Journal, 1410-2 (1974), pp. 18,t-214. a infinitely more from the BntLsh Museum Research Labora- pocket-size resistance meter S. The work at St Clement Danes Church ctmvenient that a and it can be tory.5 The Immediate assumpti(m was that the Post Office Box was "described in the Pnweedmgs of the I.°,67 dryness was due to the central heating. Ideally calibrated directly in moisture content as C~m~,rence on "Museum Chr,tahJh~,y" of The a recording thermohygrograph would have %H,O, and with a clear scale indicating the lnternahlmal Institute for Conservation. been installed in each book shrine but this was level of risk. It proved to be invaluable in utterly Im|x)ssible,for they measure 7" x 7" x surveying Parish librariesin sm~. Acknowledge~ts 18". The temperatures in six of the shrines could be measured by placing a small short- A library which was clearly too humid was Thanks are due to ex-colleagues tnnn the scaled thermometer at the lower edge of the surveyed by the use of such a meter, Department of the G~wernment Chemist and b~a)ks and the Verger clmscientiously read fortunately revealing the lxa~,s to be just Research Laboratory of the Bnfish Museum for each of them four times a day. below the risk level, and once simple air dLscussions and ad~.'ice. handling equipment had been installed, the The aw~lition of the Ix~)ks, the warping of the slightly slow but steady and safe drying of the Auttaw's ~ldress : quarter-inch oak boards and the fanwise I~mks could be folkwved until it reached a Dawn Cottage. Duke Streef instead of fiat openings were an adequate proper level. A recording thema~hygrograph Bury St Edmunds IP31 2AA Bulletin ol: the Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) The Development of Lens Grinding and Polishing Techniques in the First Half of the 17 'h Century Roll Willach 1. The ien, M opec~ lens • drfi f r,n z,,. 71 iri, .iii, t~ltll (ltlt.i~', i~ lliiilil-,,1..) IN ret~l *l,I lees 2. The lenl Is ~ oliiecitve @ (Dc Fig.2 Spectacle maker's tool for cutting glass di~s. All defects blllidl tlte Illirturll 'li' I{l~tt tht inlliil lie ihl rdlmil lenses, if used as spectacles, will stillgive an acceptable image. The circumstances in the telescope are very different. Here the whole aperture is responsible for the Fig.l "Flu'd!~'rent at,ertun~ d a lens. image, and because the ocular lens magnifies the image, the object gla~ of a telescope must have an even higher .r,.'ef.,r~'Br,,s ; ,. 41 When in 1608 the first telescopes came accuracy across its entire aperture than is into the market in the Netherlands, the the case of a spectacle lens which requires inventkm spread rapidly all over Europe. an aperture of only 3 ram. -,. <, ) .~ <<; .: ,//-;-z"",9"': The optical basis of the instrument consisted of simple spectacle len.~zs, Let us now start having a look in a manufactured by using techniques spectacle maker's workshop of the early known for over three hundred years. . tll / 17'h century. The source material used Only high quality, spectacle lenses were was normal plate glass made for win- suitable for telescopes, and only the very dows. The spectacle maker cut this with a best of them allowed making telescopes diamond into many di~s, each of about 3 fi~r astronomical application. The pro- cm diameter. Such a di~ was now fixed blem is well known, in particular from with plaster onto a marble pistil and on the corresl~ndence of Galilei. this di~ he glued with beeswax a second di~ of the same diameter to increase its The rea,,~m why a spectacle lens, made strength (Fig. 3). The glass was now with the techniques of the 16'h century, ready for grinding. But before he started was normally unusable fiw telescopes is he had to choose the mould with the easy to explain (Fig. 1). The aperture of curvature he needed for the required the human eye in daylight is approxi- refracting power. mately 2 ram. Therefore, the eye looking straight through the spectacle lens, uses The mould was made by beating with the an aperture of not more than 3 ram. hammer a plate of copper or iron (Fig. 4), When the eye is turned into another until the stencil, which was cut and filed direction, it kxls through another 3 mm from a piece of metal, showed the part of the lens, and if this part of the lens required curvature. The mould was then as a con~quence of its asphericity has a fixed at the axis of the grinding machine. slightly different focal length, the human The following illustration (Fig. 5) from Fig.3 Marble pistil u,ith tu~ gMss discs eye corrects it by accomm(~|ation. This is the book on this subject by Manzini, is re,idlt ~,r grinding. al.~ the reason why strong aspheric dated 1660, so forty years later,but these I0 Bulletin of the ScientificInstrument S~iety No. 68 (2001) t copper plate on a wooden block Fig.5 Manzini's lens-grinding machine. Rough control o~" the spher;c;ty with a stencil ft 700ram f" 680 mm Fig.4 Making the grinding moulds by. hammering. 20th cen[ury earl), iTCh century Fig.7 Rondti-images of (a) a 2(P century, and (b) an early 17~ centu~ lens. We will next look at the optical properties /pstil of such a spectacle lens made according to this archaic technique. This examina- ~ tion was conducted with the so-called Ronchi-test. Fig. 7a is the Ronchi-image J ~ ,La.ii,.;.,,t.. of a modern lens with perfect spherical shape, while Fig. 7b is of a spectacle lens t..l~.,~ t__( ~,/ t,,. b. ~h,d of the early 17~ century. Both have a very similar diameter and focal length. If we now compare both lens,es, we see that the Ronchi-line of the m(~ern lens is neath' straight, but of the old lens it looks yen" distorted. The reason is the highly aspherical shape of its surfaces. In fact, that was the main problem which confronted the early telescope makers. Fig.6 Polishing the lens on a rotating, leather-coveredflat piece of Between 1610 and 1620 telescope makers u~)od. increasingly realized this problem and the invention of the telescope was an First the lens was ground to the correct enormous challenge for glass and spec- machines remained almost unchanged tacle makers. until the 19'h century. shape with the coarsest sand, and then it was finished with successively finer The normal grinding material was called grains. After the grinding process, the in 1618 the Milanese natural philo,~pher 'sand'. In most ca,les it was a mix of lens was [relished on a rotating plane of Hienmymus Sirturus published a b~k feldspar and quartz. The best, but fairly wood covered with a piece of felt or deer with the title ~'le.qopium (Fig. 8). in this expensive, grinding material was emery. leather (Fig. 6). The polishing material b~x~k Sirturus gave the first pro~,als of It was found in the Mediterranean region was tripolite or tin oxide. Tripolite how to overcome the ,,~,nous problem of on the isle of Naxos. It consists of a consists of the shells of diatoms and, the aspherical lens. In Venice, he visited mixture of corundum, a very hard therefore, it is nothing other than a very the spectacle and mirror makers' work- mineral, with magnetite and heamatite. fine quartz powder. shops, and learned a great deal from Bulletin of the Sc~mtifi¢ Instrument Society No. 08 (2001) 11 |{lll[OIIY]dl SlR'r¥&t MIDIOLAIIINIII TELESCO PIVM: wmle. b.w Sine ARS PE RFICIENDI NOVVM ILLVD GALIL.IEI VISORIVM IN- l~rumcntum ad Sydcra IN TRgg "PARTEgDIVI.¢A. ¢.nvex ~r.,, #.t. ~wwl, Tritfi,pii C,~lai,~)~l,~u, ,e.~rF,ai,sem, & w. ICm a~.rt¢ darer. ADSERENISSIMVM COSIMVM II. MAGNVM ETRVRI~E DVCEM. c.ncave ir.n #its Ir L A N C O F V R T I. Fig.9 Controlling the planici~ ~. the two iron plates with a fine silk Typis Pauli laeobi, Impearls Lucz lcanis. thread. As long as one of the tuv plates Io~L~ concat¢, both plates are IK. D C. XYlIL still not plane enough. Fig.8 Title page ~ Sirturus' Telescopium of 1618. them. He then combined their techniques the spectacle makers. While he was While greatly improving the grinding to produce a remarkably improved impressed by the high quality of the techniques, Sirturus only marginally metht~t of lens grinding. He learned mirror makers' work, he was very improved the primitive polishing techni- from the mirror makers how to make a disappointed by the rough methods que using the rotating leather or felt pad. fine plane surface. First of all they made employed by the spectacle makers. 'De Instead of polishing on a rotating plane, two big into plates by hammenng the hodierna huius artis corruptela' - 'About his polisher consisted of the rotating metal. Then they filed each as fine as the Decay of this Art Today' - is the title wo~en piece with a shallow hole with I~ssible to produce plane surfaces. When of chapter 3, by which he means the art of a slightly larger radius than that of the they believed that they could achieve no spectacle lens grinding. He complains curvature of the lens, covered with deer further accuracy through filing, they that they made the grinding moulds only leather. Thus, the unsuitability of using a ground both plane surfaces together with by tapping it with the hammer and soft leather surface remained. It de- wet eme~' paste. Because dunng this without recourse to any spherical control stroyed during the polishing process the process the upper plate becomes more by means of templates. Sirturus proposes exact spherical surface of the lens. and more concave and the bottom plate that the spherical moulds for lens correspondingly convex, both plates gnnding should be made in the same were changed over from time to time. We will next |t~k at the optical perfor- way as employed by the Venetian mirror mance of three telescopes from the first makers for their plane iron plates. Thus, half of the 17~ century. The first instru- In order to contnd the planicity of both after beating the copper into a rough ment (Fig. 11) is part of the collection of ,ton plates, they u~,d a very simple but curved shape, it must be filed with a file the British Mu~um. it is signed on the effective metbod - a bow with a fine silk of the exact curved shape (Fig. I0). When brass cover 'Henricus Stolle Uhrmacher thread ffig. 9). Sirturus explained the all traces of the hammer blows have been in Prag fecit.' Stolle died in 1626. The method in detail and remarked that it is filed away and the curvature corre- diameter of the objective is 12.3 ram, the dltficult to perceive a convex form of the sponds to that of the stencil, the mould aperture 9 mm, the focal length 169 mm plate, but easier to find the counterpart, must be filled with molten lead, and and the total length of the instrument if that is the concave plate. Thus, as long as finally the concave mould and the convex focused at infinity is 150 ram. one of the platt.,s lta~ks slightly concave, lead had to be ground together on a both plates were still not true planes. lathe. In this way, Surturus achieved a The second telescope (Fig. 12) is another I,~,'hen, at last, the result was perfect and perfect spherical shape to all his grinding neither iron plate showed any concavity, early one and has survived in its original moulds. This prt~al was an enormous complete condition. Stamped with the the mirror maker was ready io u~ these advance on the previous rough and plates to gnnd his mirror glass. initials 'PD' it was possibly made by the ready method, and opened the Possibility French instrument maker Pierre Dujar- to grind lenses from which the best could din, who worked from approximately Next Sirturus visited the worLshops of be selected for astronomical telescopes. 1610 to 1630. The diameter of the 12 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. &q (2001) g u ino, qualc vtuntur illi artil;. ces, atflgitur, ncc opus eR vtca- puhu tocam formam compl¢~a. tur, fufllc~t |ertiam nut quar. tam parzcm, qui ccnzrum clau- ditur, occupare vt manibus con- lhingi pollit, Diligcns optrarius poRrem6 adfide¢ fuffum deer Ihmquelinea~ec:ta f~nfim deuel- u©ns formam, atqucdum plum- bum raptim verfamr, tenuiltimo fmin guttatim cad~nze, pctlicit, Nulla alia faciliori nut terrier|via v~, tin. Ynquam perficias: Si plumbum C'~''*', abramacor,to,its rcp,~titu,opus~,,~,~: rcalp¢l]i, ouot;cs nccclrum trit, ,,,, f,,,,'r,. Fig.ll Teh~cope by. ttenricus Stolh'. Vbiabfolutu fueritopus, ¢xami-" "- " nabi$ form~ahera fagma ¢xplo. ~*=" rarfic¢ an red2¢ quadret, nam ila • ' high degree. 1~, maximum deviation i cohzreredcbctformz vtvidea. Ls in the range of one wavelength (589 fur pars lnde abfciff=. &" retina nm). rcmancbirt¢ffa, nicida, lcuigata inRari~cculi. 4. All plane surfaces show plenty of remaining gnndsng holes. The curved surfaces, on the contrary, show a remarkably better polish . The rims of the ien.,~s were cut with a pincer after the grinding and polish- lng processes were completed. The Ronchi-test of the ob~'t len~ Fig.10 Cun,ed fih" show that they all fulfilled the Rayleigh condition inside their small aperture: the Stolle tek~ope (Fig. 14), objective is 23 ram, the aperture 19 ram, the Dujardin telescope (Fig. 15) and the fia:al length 670 mm and the total the unsigned telt.~cope (Fig. IO). length of the instrument 6~) mm. The magnification Ls 14x. The third instrument (Fig. 13) is un- signed, but examination of the lenses dates it clearly to the first half of the 17"' census,, as well as the gold Starling, which a]~ indicak.'s that it is of Italian origin. The diameter of the objective is D 19 ram, the aperture 10 ram, the focal length 2~1 mm and the total length of the instrument 210 ram. Its magnification is Fig.12 Teh~cope sinned "PLY, thus wssibly by Pu'rre Dui,mtm. 4x. ]he.~' three telescopt.'s have important featurL's in common: All len.~..s have a remarkable colour tinge and are full of air bubbk.'s and other intnlsions. 2. With the exception of the object lens of the Duiardin instrument, all lenses are piano-convex or piano-concave. The interference k,~t in monochro- matic light of the plane surfaces shows a flatness of an astonishingly Fig.13 Uns~,n~f tel~c0W. Bulk,tin of the ~'ientifi£ Instrum,mt ~ciety No 08 (2001) 13 L 23ram I 12,3mm---- 1 '. 1 ? Fig. 15 Ronchi-mm¢e af the obB,ctim" af the Duiardm teh'.,~'ot~'. Fig. 14 ROtl,! ," ,-image ' of". t/u" obiectipe of the Fig.16 Rom'hi-ima,~e of the abjectwe ,~ the Stolh. teh~'o;~'. unsigned tel~cope. g t~|0 ~mm | /" • %lmm 1 : Re.'. ltell=0 a. gi=0 ~ie.M. ~tllO (bed centred) Figl7 For c,unl~;ri~m thc central Ronchi-mmc, e is t!f a con- tc.Ipor41r V s~dtfiich' [¢'Hs tthhtt' ~it'corditl,~. to the tlt~, inlproz~'d tcchnul;w. Next we will discuss the rL.'sults. First we Fig.18 The tu~ hrst trumpet teh'.~'opes ,~ the Dre~h'n Mathema- turn to points 3 and 4 above. How can tisch Physikalischer Sahm af 1613. we explain that the plane surfac¢~ of the lcn~,e,, ~how such a high quality of flatne,,s, but with many remaining grind- thewfore, clear that the tele~ope makers as th(~se fn)m normal bn)ken glass. If the m~ hole~,~ We remember that Sirturus u,,,ed for their ien~,~ pieccs of Venetian rims had been cut h~re polishing they h,arnefl from the Venetian mirror makers mirrors. The quali~' of the plane surface would, on the contrary, show a thin shiny how they made their high quality plane was fine enough for th¢,~e early lenses. line - but this is not the ca~. This is a ',urtace,,. V~'hen examining such an old This custom had mort~ver the advantage very iml'n~rtant fact and explains point 6 \bnetian mirror by means of the inter- that the opticians n¢x~ded to grind and why the Ronchi-tt,.st shows a fairly go(~ terence te-,ts, It .,,howed that the tlatnt.'ss I~dish only one side of a lens. qualittty spherical shape inside the small oxt,r its entire surface is fairly well aperture of these len,~e,s. Fig. 17 shows in achieved and acceptable for its u~, as a Next we go to point 5. Why can we the middle the Ronchi-test of a spectacle nurror But if we examine this Venetian conclude that the lenses were cut to the lens of the first half of the 17'h century, nurror plate with a micro~ope, we find required diameter after the polishing made by the new improved technique. in it_,, polished surface many holes process? Although the rim has I~,n We ~ that inside the aperture of 17 mm rt'mamm~ from the grinding proct.'ss. roughly ground on a plane plate, we its spherical shape has the quality We now find exacth" the .,,ame kind of can observe in all the~, len~ many requirecl of a tek.'scope objective, but the ~,urface on the flat side of the piano- .,,mall splintered spots. Further examina- outer part shows a remarkable distorti(m. convex and piano-concave len~.'s of the tion with a binocular micro~ope shows This fact was well known to the telescope tir,,t half of the 17'" century. It is, that the edgt,'s of tht,~se ,spots are as sharp makers. I~,cau~ of it they reduced by 14 Bulletin of the .~'ientifi¢ Instrur~,nt ~-iety No. f~ (2001) trial and error the aperture of the However, the main problem of that time time which did not require larger spectacle lenses by means of a paper remained to be the polishing method. apertures. For example, with the small diaphragm until they achieved the The deer leather or the felt was much too Du~ardin telescope di~ussed here with diameter that gave an optical clear soft to maintain an exact spherical sur- its aperture of 19 ram, we can observe all image. face. Hence, the fine spherical shape of the objects and phenomena in the sky the lens achieved after careful grinding discovered in the first half of the 17" The optician now had two different was systematically destroyed from the century. l~sibilities: edge towards the centre, getting worse the longer the polishing process contin- It was the invention of the Capucin monk ued. The contemporary optician had only Schyrl de Rheita towards 1645 which, 1. He could cut the lens by crumbling its one remedy against this - it was to circumference with pincers to the together with Johannes Wiesel from shorten the polishing time to the utmost Augsburg, made the long awaited break- required diameter, as we saw in our minimum• Thus, they ground the lens three examples above, or through with a new and highly improved surface as fine as possible until they polishing technique. But this invention, could read letters through it. which was further improved in the . He could retain the original diameter second half of the century by Giuseppe of the lens and give the main tube of We see that the grinding of lenses, Campani in Italy and John Marshall in the telescope a trumpet shape. The especially for astronomical telescopes, England, is a story which I would like to finest examples of this type are the was really an art. it seems from the tell you on another occasion. two trumpet telescopes of the 'Math- above that the maximum aperture which ematisch Physikalischer Salon' in fulfilled the Rayleigh condition which the Author's address: ~en (Fig. 18), which can be dated craftsman of those days could achieve Staudenhofstr. 10 to 1613, but which were unfortu- was less than 25 mm. This is confirmed CH-8274 Tdgeru,ill~n ha[ely lost in the Second World War. by the astronomical discoveries of that Switzerland Book Review Opinions expressed by reviewers are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or the Society. The Universe Unveiled: Instruments Sun-centred galaxy. The instruments stillexists. What we admire in museum and Images Through History featured are chosen from the Adler collections is often a highly biased Bruce Stephenson, Mart,in Bolt, Anna Collection and inevitably mostly astro- selection of rich men's artifacts, and Felicity Friedman nomical, but do extend to surveying and perhaps this should be more clearly Cambridge Uniz~rsity Press time measuring apparatus. The authors stated. Otherwise the 'average reader' at Cambridge 2000 group them under four headings: 'Dis- which this book is chimed to be aimed Pp. 152, beautifully illustrated covering Space', 'Discovering Time', may well get the impression that the ISBN 0 521 79143 X (hardback) 'Understanding the Earth' and 'Under- instruments are beyond him or her. £19.95 US$ 29.95 standing the Heavens'. But there is some Possession almost certainly is - but not overlap between the firstand last,but all an understanding of principle and func- The Adler Planetarium now adds 'Astro- sections are superbly illustrated with tion. ! can't help wishing that the Adler nomy Museum' to its formal title - as skilful colour photographs of the astro- and similar establishments exhibited a well it might, for a superb collection of lahes, sextants, compasses, telescopes, few plain spectacle-lensed telescopes and astronomical instruments is celebrated in celestial globes, sundials, etc., etc. that a battered celestial globe to show what this lavishly illustrated book. The authors will generally be familiar to members of real working astronomers had to use*. point out that pictures, diagrams and the SIS. So if you are seeking a definitive Students and young pts)ple might then images often help readers of all back- illustration of an exquisite instrument realize that it is perfectly feasible to grounds to appreciate the inspiring story ~om the period specified above, then themselves make simple working recon- of how mankind came to know so much k~ok no further. structions that they can actually use. This about our universe, so they focus on the will teach far more than looking at even the best illustrations. instruments rather than the theories that But this leads to a criticismcommon to all have disclosed this knowledge. Of books of this nature: the objects featured course, an important requirement is that in them reflected the prestige of their It is significant that the perk~ considered the images be carefully organized and erstwhile owners, so craftsmen gave ends around 1900. It shows an astronomy their significanceand function explained, them beauty and decoration over and that has gone forever. How would one and this has been sensitivelycarried out. above that required for function. This is, illustrate modem astnn~my? By won- of course, the major reason for their derful multi-spectral images of nebulae, The period featured is roughly from the preservation and collection. However, a galaxies, and planetary, surfaces certainly mid-1400s to the end of the 1800s, wooden diptych dial works as well as - but not of newer instruments that made focusing primarily on the Western world one carved in ivory,but of a multitude of them [~sible. What would anyone out- but also touching on Islamic and East the former only one is left in the world side a narrow specialist field make of a Asian contributions. These centuries today. A plain brass torquetum transfers spectropolarimeter - or even an X-ray witnessed great invention and change, between coordinate systems as a gilded telescope? including the seminal one of shifting piece presented to a re(march - but no from an Earth-centred universe to a example (to the best of my knowledge) A.A. Mills Bulletin of the Scientifk Instrument Sock.ty No. 68 {2001) 15 Analyzing Sound in the Nineteenth Century The Koenig Sound Analyzer David A. Pantalony American As,~ciation for the Advance- ment h~r Science in Buffalo in 1876 and led to the purcha~ in 1878 of a large number of Kl~,nig instruments for the new physical laboratory at Toronto. Many of the.'se instruments still survive in excellent condition, in addition to Toronto, the Smith.,~nian Institution in ,j ! t,. Washington D.C. has an equally large, diverse and well-preserved collection of K~s~,nig instruments. These complement those at Toronto, because, due to their origins (the)' both derive from the 1876 centennial exposition in Philadelphia), they include a valuable sample of I" Koenig's work in the 1870s, at the peak of his career. Koenig was born and educated at Koenig.,~erg in East Prussia where his Fig.1 K,~'m,~'s first ~,und anahl.~'r with Fig.2 (above) Manometric capsule, from father was a prok~.~r of physics and g,,~k~tt',! frame. Fn,m Kta,mN, 1186,5), p. 46. K~'ni,~, Annalen der Physik und Chemie, mathematics.: He moved at the age of nineteen to Paris to apprentice under the 122 {1864), pp. 242-245; ~belou,) flame patterns, Koeni~ (1882). Yhe acoustical instrument maker Rudolf celebrated violin maker, Jean Baptiste from K(~,nig (1832-1~H) was one of the more Vuillaume; and started his own business colourful figures" of nineteenth-century as an acoustical instrument maker in in Paris. The instruments document physics. An accomplished violinmaker, 18~. He made several innovations in significant aspects of Koenig's work that innovatwe scientific instrument maker, graphical and optical techniques between were not di~ussed in textual accounts: prohfic re~,archer and m~erately suc- 185~ and 1865 that cemented his reputa- the fine finish and craftsmanship of the cessful businessman, Koenig provided a tion and brought him into cheer involve- r~nator I~xes and sonometers reflect means for people around the world to ment with the Parisian scientific his training in Vuillaume's workshop; the studs" the .science of .~und by using his community. In particular, Koenig worked compact, refined, sturdy construction of instruments. One can argue that whereas with physiologists such as Claude Ber- the Lismjous apparatus reflect his careful Hermann w)n Helmholtz established the nard, and he performed a series of attention to the needs of precision; the theoretical framework to understand experiments on the velocity of sound many subtle, and undocumented .,~und through his groundbreaking work with the famed experimentalist, Victor changes of design in the tuning forks of 1863, The Sen~itions of Tone, Koenig Regnault. By 1870 Koenig had completed and sirens reflect his attention to control- made it possible to lest and demonstrate an exhaustive, yet lasting series of studies ling effects and reducing problematic these ideas in classn,)ms and labora- on the nature of vowel sounds. By the variables. torit.'s. Some of Koenig's better known end of his career, K(~nig was perhaps instruments include his resonators, best known for his precision tuning forks. sirens, tuning h~rks, manometric organ One of his more popular instruments, the He t(n~k this simple instrument that had sound analyzer, offers a window into pipes, graphical chronographs, sound been a mere (xtdity of musical orchestras synthesizers and interference apparatus/ Koenig's workshop and laboratory at the beginning of the century, and acoustics in its infancy. This instrument l~he .~und analyzer was certainly one of transformed it into a formidable instru- the more i~pular and common instru- first appeared in Kc~'nig's catalogue of ment of precision. Michel.~m used a 1865 (Fig. I). It dates from 1862 to 1865, ments made by Koenig. One finds this Koenig fork to calibrate the speed of his device in almost every major physical i:ollowing the invention of the mano- rotating mirror in his experiments to metric capsule. It had eight resonators _,,cience colk.ction. The aim of this paper determine the speed of light. The French is to dt.~cnbe the origins and workings of marked with the French notes and adopted one of K~,nig's forks as the starting with the fundamental tone, Ut2 the anah'zer in order to give a better French standard pitch in 1881. Koenig .,~,nse of'the ideas, intentions and prac- (256 vs, or C3, 128 Hz) followed by the was also a prolific researcher, and after seven upper partials of that note, Ut3 tical .~trugglt.'s embodied in this instru- 1876 two areas of his research directly ment. (512 vs or C4, 256 Hz) or approximately challenged his hero Helmholtz: the middle c on the piano, So13 (768 vs or G4, nature of combination tones, and the role 384 Hz), Ut4 (1024 vs or C5, 512 Hz), Mi4 ]he University of Toronto has one of the of phase in the quality of sound. Koenig (1280 vs or E5, 640 Hz), So14 (1536 vs or largt~.t untap~'d rt~)urces on Koenig. became so obsessed with the pha~ G5, 768 Hz), Si4 (1792 vs or B5, 896 Hz) The Physics Department at Toronto has dispute that he invented a whole family and Ut5 (2048 vs or C6, 1024 Hz)? one of "the larger collections of Koenig of instruments called wave sirens to test apparatus, and the university archives and demonstrate his ideas. The analyzer took musical sounds di- hou.',es a colltx'tionof over 250 pages of rectly from the air, bn~ke them down into corre.spondence between Koenig and The archival material, articles and textual their constituents and transformed these James I~udon (1841-1916), the physicist accounts of Koenig's instruments are simple vibrations into a flame signal. A at loronto who founded Canada's first numerous, but the instruments them- researcher sung or produced a musical teaching laboratory in 1878. Their rela- selves provide one of the best connec- note in front of the panel of resonators, tionship began at a meeting for the tions to Koenig's studio at Quai d'Anjou which picked up and reinforced specific 16 Bulletin of the Scientific IR~trument Society No. f~ (2001) a large number of persons at once to determine whether or not a given tone is reinforced by the resonatorY Koenig's invention transformed analysis from being a cumbersome, potentially subjec- tive experience to a demonstration shared by a number of witnesses. One could therefore 'see' and compare the number, kind and relativestrength of the harmonics during one act of observation, making the process more efficient and conducive to the increasingly social realm of research and teaching. The first model, pictured in the 1865 catalogue, does not appear to have survived in any collections of historic d instruments. Perhaps none or only a few were made. It had a wooden frame and, as we will see below, differed signifi- cantly from later models. A second Fig.3 Koenig sound analyzer with eight model, with a cast iron frame, distinct Fig.4 Koolig sound analyzer with fourteen resonators and cast iron frame. Cat. No. capsules and a reservoir for gas regula- resonators. Photo courtesy University of 314,583. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian tion appeared in several physical cabinets Toronto Museum of Scientific Instruments. Institution National Museum of American throughout Europe and North America Histo~. in the 1870s. It is not known exactly when Koenig started making this model. himself. By 1873 he had severely damaged his voice by performing too many vowel Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian, for tests. He therefore did not publish any frequencies within the complex notes, example, purchased his analyzer in the findings with his analyzer, nor, it appears, and the reinforced sound waves traveled early 1870s (Fig. 3). through the back of the resonator and did anyone else. In fact, in the late 1860s down the rubber tube into the mano- and early 1870s, K(~nig did his famous The early models had certain limitations. vowel researches with a single mano- metric capsule (Fig. 2). The membrane 'As this apparatus does not permit us to within the capsule vibrated in unison metric capsule, speaking funnel and choose the fundamental tone of the rotating mirror.' with the sound and communicated this vowel or any other sound which is to vibration to a stream of gas entering from be analvzed, it is adapted rather to a tiny input. "lhe gas would be lit at the demons~ation than to further investiga- Textual accounts seem to confirm that the end of this small jet tube and the tion,' Koenig wrote." A third model analyzer was regarded more as a resultant flame flickered undetectably to appeared in the catalogue of 1873 ~ demonstrahon device. D.C. Miller, for the naked eye. The reflection of the (Fig. 4) shortly after Koenig had returned example, used the universal analyzer in flickering flame would be spread out by from Germany where he had taken his laboratory course as a means for the rotating mirror in a kind of strobe refuge during the Franco-Prussian War demonstrating the analysis of sound. The effect into a saw-toothed band of flame of 1870. This model, almost double in analyzer, he wrote, worked to 'determine (Fig. 2). price, had fourteen resonators that could the number and relative intensities of the be adjusted to cover five octaves on the overtones present in the sound of an Koenig's invention derived from Helm- piano, with sixty-five notes marked, from open and closed organ pipe." Miller holtz's recent development of the theory approximately 40 Hz to 1300 Hz. In order asked the students to blow a pipe in of quality of tone, or the idea that to cover such a large range, Koenig front of the resonators and note that complex tones could be analyzed into a invented an adiustable resonator, the 'careful observation of the series of series of simple, elemental tones. In the 'universal resonator,' which he made flames will determine what partial tones late 1850s, Helmholtz had invented the from two brass cylinders that slid into are present and what are their relative resonators to analyze and dissect com- each other. These tubes could be tuned intensities.' Demonstrators at Toronto, plex sounds into simple tones. An and had two openings for insertion in the W.[. Loudon (nephew of James I.x)udon) observer would hold a resonator to his ear or to connect with the manometric and J.C. McLennan, described how the ear and confirm the presence of a certain flame. Markings on the cylinders showed harmonics of a pipe were calculated note in the surroundings. In the early the corresponding tone to be reinforced. beforehand, the resonators were adiusted 1860s Koenig greatly improved Helm- Koenig's next two catalogues included accordingly, and the observer then holtz's new invention and it quickly the universal analyzer as well as the kx)ked for the response of certain flames. became a permanent part of physical second model.: "The instrument furnishes a useful means and physiological laboratories. At Tor- of (~)servmg overtones from any source onto, for example, there were two Um of sound; but it must be adiusted with complete sets of resonators for the considerable care in order to perform its psychological and physical laboratories. As mentioned above, Koenig and his work with accuracy,' they wrote"' The clients used the second model for demon- American physicist, August Zahm, The analyser was a remarkable extension strations. Koenig intended the third claimed that the analyzer could be used of Helmholtz's inventions. Most impor- model, on the other hand, for research to demonstrate and investigate the 'nat- tantly, it made analysis visual, and into a whole range of sounds and their ure and composition of vowel-sounds.' allowed for the simultaneous display of elements, 'particularly,' he wrote, 'those of He provided a few examples, such as the the strongest partials.Helmholtz praLsed the human voice.' Unfortunately; Koenig 0 of 'no' sung before the resonators to it by saying it was now 'possibleto allow could not perform the~ experiments give Bulletin of the Sc~ntific Instrument S(~ety No. 68 (2001) 17 Fig.6 A.M. M,~. er's tuning fi,rk sound analyzer. Fn,m Mayer (18741, p. 272. tors?" Of the Koenig analyzer, Mayer stated, 'it is the least delicate and accurate of all the methods of sonorous analysis: but it has a value in giving an Fig.5 l'husns I,'ctur,' tlwatn', c. 191~ Mct;dl {Im;,ersity. Photo objective ocular illustration that is some- Ct,urh~y t¢ the Physws Department at M,'Gill Unizwrsity. times of u~..' He tested the resonators on their own, and then 'substituted for the ear the manometric flames of Konig' and strong third and fourth partials, while the analyzer," perhaps because the instru- octave LS weaker than in u - ... No more ment itself seemed to ser~'e as a source of came to the same conclusion: beautiful nor c~mvmcmg pnx~fs could be information on the working of sound desired than thine furnished by carefully The frame of the analyzer resembled These facts c,mceming the lack of sharpness tuna,d re.~mators and manometric flames. Helmholtz diagrams of the tapering in the detectmn of pitch by means of that the different vowels, hke all musical Basilar membrane, and the resonators r~nator~ are m)t in accordance with the .,~unds of d~tferent quai|~', are the result. revealed to all the mechanical workings statements made in recent popular works in1 t~t of an)' I~'culiar achon of the vocal cords. of .sound analysis (Fig. 5). sound, where the resonator Ls described as but depend .,~[elv on the vaoing admixture remaining dumb until the exact pitch to ot certain partials, of va~'tng intensities, which it is tuned is reached, when it with the fundamental)' Precision, Range and Flexibility responds to a suddenness which has been compared to an exph~si(m!~ There are no publications, however, Not eve~'one spoke glowingly of Koenig recording any specific research with the and his invention. In 1874 Alfred Mayer analyzer (1&'~-1897) of the Steven's Institute in Koenig does not mention the overlap of Hoboken, New Jersey, wrote an article notes to which the resonators respond. Above all, the analyzer served as an reviewing a handful of methods for The spherical resonators with their stamp effectwe and dramatic mtrt~duction to analyzing ~)und; ~* he described the use of a particular note, and the universal the theories of Helmholtz. Thomas Core, of Helmholtz resonators, Koenig's analy- resonators, with their exact marking in a popular ~ience lecturer in England, zer, and an ingenious contraption of brass for each note, appear to be constructed to perform with great preci- provided the cleart.'st example of this tuning forks with a ~)unding pipe (figure role for K¢~.nig's instrument. In the 6). The tuning fork method, Mayer's own sion, yet the resonators clearly respond to following quote from his public lecture inventum and preference, utilized a set of notes that are not specified by the of 1H77 we note him using the analyzer tuning fl~rks, each connected via a thread markings. This is astonishing considering before he even d¢.~cribecl the ideas of to a membrane of a sounding pipe. the amount of work that goes into Helmholtz Through the delicate phenomena of calculating the theoretical overtones, sympathetic vibration the appropriate and the image and expectations of precision that the instruments seem to But here Is a cunous I~,nt. I tind that when tuning forks sounded when set into a note ts emitted more than one resonator vibration by the membrane; in a sense, project. will re~pond - ~mletlme~, two, three or tour the)' selected and reinforced a specific No~ what d,~ this .,,how us? Since each upper partial .~und in the vibration of Helmholtz himself commented on this re~mator will only re~Dmd to a note of its the membrane. He emphasized that the issue revealing that the lack of precision precise pitch, hi,fiber more nor less - .~mce fl)rk 'selects from the composite vibratory of the resonators could have been a three or tour rt~nators re~l~,nd bimulta- motion which traverse the fibre only that neou~,Iv - it follows that the note emitted con~ious trade-off between certainty muq contain all those notes In other words, vibration which in unison (or only and practical concerns of the laboratory. the note that I fancied was a simple une ~lightly removed from unimn) with its in his appendix on the construction and turn.,, out to be a compound one, and this proper periodic motion.' Mayer's appa- theory of r~mators, Helmholtz stated m.,,trument has analvzed It into three of four ratus did not achieve wide-appeal (it is that narrowing the opening would ~om~,lte notre, 12 not mentioned in any texts or articles) provide greater power and precision. 'It perhaps due to the limited number of is just as in micr(~copes; the greater the lhe transparent nature of the instrument ~,und .,~urces to which it could be magnifying power, the smaller the field al.,,o .,~,rvo.t an important function in the applied. of viewY; Adiustment of this variable not cla.~,r¢~m and may explain some its only increased precision, but served as a wide-spread appeal. Even after the Mayer, an active researcher, emphasized mear~s for tuning the pitch. 'But for the intn~tuction at the turn of the century the need fl)r pr¢~sion in sound analysis, above reason [restricting the field of of more ,,~*phisticated techniques for and he was uncomfortable with the view], the opening must not be reduced analyzing ~und, people ,,,till u.,~e~l the 'want of precision' of Koenig's resona- too much.' I~ Bulletin of the Sc~ntihc Instrument ~iety No. 08 (200t) blems, but it was not mentioned in Kohl, for example, improved the gas writing until the end of the century." In regulation by moving the reservoir so the early days of experimenting, Koenig that it was adjacent to the capsules, and others most likely used coal gas, a thereby placing each capsule at equal mixture of hydn)gen and methane. ~' Near distances from gas input. This would the end of the century, new experimental have stabilized and equalized gas flow findings at Corne]l caused Koenig to considerably. suggest using a preferred form of gas. In unpublished documents located at the University of Toronto Archives, Koenig Kohl made other small, but significant stated that although the manometric changes that related to the steadiness of the flames. Our recreations done in 1999, method was 'extremely sensitive and capable of furnishing very accurate showed that factors, other than the results,'two problems had persisted: the internal vibrations of the capsule inter- need to record the image and the need to fered with the flame. For example, the smoke from a flame could interfere with have brighterflames. He sited the work of the flame directly above. Koenig partially E.L. Nichols and Ernest Merritt published in 1898 that solved both of these problems avoided this in both models by putting by using photography and acetylene for a the capsules on an angle, so that they were not directly on top of one another. brighter flame?' Such advancement re- presented the continued efforts of Koenig Kohl went further by adding a small 'U and others to make the instrument more shaped jet that was less prone to Fig.7 Photo courtesy of the Smith~nian suitable for research. The findings from interference. Kohl also used a clear screen instituta~ National Mu~um of American ('etsenglass') beside the jet flames, in- Hish,ry. Cornell dealt with the main weakness of the manometric technique - the ephem- stead of Koenig's black background. He eral nature of its images - thereby offering also put the screen between the jet and the mirror, instead of behind it, as Koenig Whereas, Mayer emphasized precision, the first effective way for researchers to had done. Possibly Kohl did this to Koenig clearly valued other aspects of the use the manometric instruments for prevent the draft from the rotating mirror instrument - the range of sound sources quantitative studies. from destabilizing the flame. Each of to which it could be applied, the these changes represents an attempt to restrictiveness or flexibility of its 'field of Gas regulation was clearly an important control factors that tend to destabilize the vision,' and the attractiveness and useful- factor and changes made to the analyzer expected phenomena. ness for demonstration. These concerns of reflect Koenig's efforts to tame this Koenig reflected his attempts to straddle problem. ~ As mentioned earlier, the both research and teaching demands. second model displayed some note- One crucial factor that was not empha- worthy differences to the catalogue sized from the surviving texts was the Other Struggles Embodied in the model of 1865 where the capsules importance of the membrane3~ Koenig Analyzer appeared to connect directly to the did not specify the kind of membrane. He resonator tubes and the gas input formed referred only to a 'thin membrane.' Present day demonstrations of Koenig's a single reservoir. In the improved cast Others refer to a variety, of materials, analyzer, even if not entirely successful, iron model, a separate reservoir directed such as: 'a very thin membrane of india provide a picture of the struggles embo- the gas through individual tubes into rubber'; 'gold-beater's skin or a thin died in the instrument and the consider- each separate capsule and there were sheet of caoutchouc'; 'a flexible mem- able amount of work that goes into individual input tubes for each capsule, brane of oiled silk or goidbeater's skin' or making it perform to expectations." We in order to provide a better regulated gas 'india rubber from a toy balloon'; 'a cannot recreate or test with certainty the flow. membrane of parchment or thin rubber phenomena as they were at the time gripped between two rings';'tissue paper mainly because we do not have the same Koenig clearlytried to solve this problem or thin rubber.'~ For some reason Joseph skills or knowledge of experimenters of in the latter two models. He used small Henry of the Smithsonian did not want 130 years ago. In addition, there is no stopcocks (on both models) at the gas- to make or improvise his own mem- guarantee that essential parts of the input reservoir to allow the user to branes for the analyzer. He wrote to instruments are the same. From recrea- regulate the input pressure as desired Koenig, stating bluntly: 'The membranes tions, however, we gain a much deeper thus providing one possible solution, attached to the apparatus for showing appreciation for the idiosyncrasies of the albeit a cumbersome one. However, each the vibrations of flames have become instrument that were not recorded in capsule still remained at unequal dis- broken, please send a supply.'"" texts, articles or manuals: the kind of gas tances from its source of gas, which is used, the pressure of gas used, the size of most likely the cause of variation in At Toronto, we found the tightness with the flame, the angle of the flame, the pressure, z~ which the membranes were spread nature of sound sources, the speed of aches the capsule to be equally impor- rotating mirror, the kind of membranes, The Max Kohl firm, who after K(~mig's tant. Ix~udon actually wrote to Koenig the tension of membranes, and, the death became the leading acoustical asking how to repiace broken mem- accuracy of the resonators. Each variable instrument maker in Europe, made some branes and Koenig resp(mded with a reminds the user of the technicalproblems noteworthy revisions to the design of detailed description of bow to make a faced by those who wanted to investigate Koenig's third model with fourteen uniform, tight membrane. He suggested or demonstrate Helmholtz's ideas. They resonators. One of these analyzers sur- placing a thin leaf of paper m a tight also make one aware of the tenuous vives from the Department of Physics at frame and applying glue (kind unspeci- nature of the expected phenomena. Rutgers Universit); and is pr~ently fied) to either side. He emphasized that housed at the Smithsonian (Fig. 7).:'The the end product must be quite tight and The kind of gas used was clearly an Kohl analyzer serves as a kind of without folds in order to ensure an ideal important factor and a source of pro- instrument review of Koenig's work. membrane, zs Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) 19 Small issues like these reveal the crucial was Helmholtz who stated m 1857 that (London & Manchester, 18773. p. 84. everyday workings of science at the music was the one art form that had 13. At Toronto, demonstrators used the ana- level of practice. In this case, a certain resisted scientific scrutiny. There was, lyzer up to the 1970s. phenomenon, the flame image, was according to him, no material by which highly dependent on the balance of a 14. Alfred Mayer, 'Researches in Acoust~: to study soundY With the sound Six Expemnental Methods of Sonorous Ana- number of variables. As V.J. Phillips has analyzer we have seen how Koenig lysis Described and Discussed', Philosophical shown in his history of early oscillo- helped bring the previously mysterious Ma~zine, 48 (1874), pp. 266-274, 371-385, 513- graph)', there was some debate about and immaterial realm of complex 525. what Koenig's flame signals actually sounds into the laboratory for all to 15. Indeed, inspection and testing of the represented long after he had diedY witness. Koemg resonators verifies Mayer's criticism. There were very few controversies, Tim range of responses is much larger than one however, at least in written accounts, No4es and References is lead to believe by the texts, especially the regarding the nature of the apparatus writings of Helmholtz. Tests conducted in the that produced these phenomena. This 1. To view the Toronto collection o4 K~mig sprung and summer of 1999 on the analyzers at kind of issue was surely important, yet instruments see www.chass.utoronto.ca/ the Smiths~mian Institution and Toronto con- taken for granted and lost in the routine u~usi finned that the resonators respond to a range of tinkermgs of the laboratory. Fortunately 2. For accounts of K~wnig's msmunents and frequencies, sometimes as large as half a musical note (or semi tone on the piano). For for Loudon and his head demonstrator, research see Paolo Brenni, 'The Triumph o4 example, a fork of 256 Hz, held before a J.C. McLennan, many issues like these Experimental Acoustics: Albert Marloye (1795- 1874) and Rudolf Ktwnig (1832-1901)', Bulletin resonator of 256 Hz, created a powerful were clarified by visits to Paris, and, in reinforcement of the tone. A range of forks up 1882, Koenig's visit to Toronto when he of the Scientific Instrument Social, No. 44 (1995). Th~muts B Greenslade, 'The Acoustical lnstru- to 288 Hz (or Re3, the next note) produced a gave a series of lecture/demonstrations although the mentatkm of Rudolf Kt~mig', Physics Teacher, m~ticeable resonance, intensity of with Loudon. 30 (1992), pp. 518-522. Thomas B Greenslade, resonance was half as strong with the fork of 'The Rotating Mirror', "/'he Ph~ics Teacher, 272 Hz, and less strong at 288 Hz. Loudon and McLennan had to tinker April (19~1), pp. 253-255. Thomas J. Hankins 16. Mayer, as note 14. and Robert J. Silverman, Instruments and the endlessly with gas, membranes and 17. Heimholtz, Sensatams, p. 374. restmators, among many other things, to Imay,inat~on (Pnnceton, N.J.: Princeton Univer- get a good effect, and, because items like sity Press, 1995). Robert J. Silverman, Ph.D. 18. Tests done with the analyzer that Koenig thesis, unpublL~,hed. Instrumentation, gepresen- membranes were studied as acoustical demomtrated at the Philadelphia Centennial tahon, and Perception in Modern Science: Imitat- Exposition in 1876, now at Toronto, uncov- problems in their own right, the instru- ing Function in the Nineteenth Century ered, to a limited degn~, the nature of this ment itself becomes a source of interest (University, of Washingt,m, 1992). S. Turner instrument. At Toronto we repeated Koenig's and questions. Such a condition, with 'Demonstrating Harmony: Some of the Many control trial with the 'Ut2' o~an pipe, where people like Loudon and McLennan, who Devices Used to Pn~uce LL~sapus Curves he had found that the first five capsules have an active knowledge of an instru- Before the Oscilloscope', Rittenshouse, 11 resp~wgled strongly, with the third vibrating ment, created a necessary, creative dy- (1996), pp. 3951. more strongly than the octave, in our trial, the namic between maker and user. This is 3. For pitch number Koenig used the French first five capsules resp~mded well, with the what is so intriguing about Loudon and system of v.s. (vibration simple) which trtave (the second) vibrating the strongest. McLennan's close relationship with Koe- counted half a vibrati~m, therefore double the After switching some of the rubber tubes, nig. pitch number, p.46. however, we discovered that the second capsule produced, on average better vibrations 4. Hermann Helmhoitz, On the Sensatkms of for any sound source. Even with the unequal The details of design and construction of 7bne as a Physiol,~gacal Basis for a Thetny. of responses of the various capsules (rm~st likely the analyzer also highlight the efforts that Music, trans. Alexander J. Eilis (New York: due to better fitting membranes) we verified were already deeply embedded within Dover Publications, Inc., 1885/1954). p. 374. the claims that one could detect varying Koenig's in,~trument. The slant of the 5. Rudolf gt~rug, 'On Manometr~ Flames', intensities of the partial tones; furthermore, capsules, the stopcocks for the gas, the Phih~phecal Ma,¢a'-me, 45 (1873a), pp. 1-18, control tests demonstrated that certain flame size of the ~t tubes, etc., inform us about 105-114. - p. 107; AL~ see Rudolf Koenig, signals appeared stronger or weaker with certain sound sources. Of course, as was the the process of innovation and the con- Quelques Expdrwnces d'Acoustique (Pans, 1882). pp. 42-83. case in Koenig's day, there was no way to stant struggle to create credible phenom- quantify such 'intensity' approximations. Sev- ena. In the present case, such changes 6. Rudolf Koenig, Catah~gue des Appareds eral capsules responded to strongly sung certainly made a better demonstration d'Acoushque (Pare, 1973), p.12. vowels, in other tests, a 'g' on the trumpet apparatus, but could not ultimately 7. Rudolf Kt~enig, Catah~gue des Appareils demonstrated one faint partial tone; the 'g' of produce a more reliable research appara- d'Acoustique (Pans, 1882), p. 29. Rudolf Koe- an organ pipe, however, far richer in harmo- tus. As one leams from the debates over rug, Catah~gue des Appareils d'Acoustique (Pans, nics, activated seven flames of varying inten- phase and combination tones in the latter 188% pp. 86-87. sity. The author owes special thanks to Rob part of the nineteenth century, this Smidmvkis of the U of T Physics Department 8. Rudolf Koenig, 'On Manometric Flames', for restoring the 1876 analyzer. approach of honing variables in the Phdos~phical Magazine, 45 (1873a), pp. 11-18. 19. For example, at Toronto we found that instrument, although shared by all in- 9. Dayton Clarence Miller, Laboratory. Phy- strument makers to a degree, became an propane prt~uced a weak, bluish flame; sics: A Studentb Manual for College and Scwntific propylene (with a double bond) was much ~ssion and strength of K(~nig, and his Scht~s ill,stun: Ginn & Company, 1903), ultimate weapon in his disputes with better, with a brighter flame and clearer p.152. indentations; MAP[', an acetylene derivative, Helmholtz. 10. W.J. Loudon and I.C. McLennan, A with a triple bond, produced the clearest, Laboratory Course in Experimental Acoustics brightest flame of all. This is why Koenig was so fascinating; (New York, London: MacMillam and Co., 1895}. p. 124. 20. Adolphe Ganot, Elementary Treatise in he was an instrument maker/researcher Physics, trans. E. Atkinstm (New York: William wbo solved problems through his in- 11. John Augustine Zahm, ~und and Music Wood and Co., 1869). p. 209. strumenLs, and made a large impact on (Chicago: AC. McCiurg & Co., 19(}0). pp. 356- his clients, especially the theoretician 357. 21. Rudolf K~nig, 'Queiques Notes', in the Loudon Papers, (1900), University of Toronto Helmhoitz. The historian of psychology, 12. Thomas H. Core, 'M~lem Discoveries in Archives. Ernest MerritL 'On a Method of E.G. Bonng stated that K0enig 'built Sound', in Sc~ce Lectures for the People, Science Photographing the Manometric Flame with Helmholtz's theories into apparatus. '~' it lectures Delta, red in Manchester, 1877-78-79 Applications to the Study of Vowel A', Physical 20 Bulletin of the ScientificInstnament Society No. 68 (2001) Revieu; 1 (1894), pp. 166-176. Edward L. Physics (Lond(m: MacMillan and Co., L,nited, 29. V.J. PhilLips, Wea~nns: A Hishwu af Early Nichols and Ernest Merntt, 'The Photography 1898). p. 186. A.E. Dolbear, The Art of Pro~ect- Oscdh~raphy (Bnstol: Adam Hilger, 1987). of Manometric Flames', Physzcal Review 7 ing, A Manual of Expertmentatum in Physws, (1898), pp. 93-101. Chemist~ and Natural Histo~ (Boston: Lee & 30. Edwin G. Bonng, Sen~tum and Perceptum 22. During tes~ at Toronto in 1999 we had to Shepard, 1877), p. 64. Helmholtz, Sensatums, p. m the Histo~ of Experimental Pswhokr,g~ (New make constant adjustments to keep the gas 374. E. G Richardson, Sound: A Physical Text- York, Lonon: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1942) flow constant or the flame size would change Book (New York: Longrnans, Green & Co., 1947), p. 185. Zahm, Sound and Music, p. 230. too drastically 31. Hermann Helmholtz, 'On the Psych)hgi- 27. Joseph Henry, 'Letter to Rudolf Koenig, 2.'4. At Toronto we found that each stop-c0ck cal Causes of Harm(my in Music. A Public August 4, 1875', Smith.~onian instltutum Ar- Lecture', in Scwnce and Culture: Papular and demanded peri(xiic attention as gas pressure chncs, Record Unit 33, Vol. 44, reel 69, (1875): fluctuated. Phih~phtcal Essay, ed. David Cahan (Chica- 416. go: University of Chicago Press, 1865/1995), 24. Max Kohl, Catah)gue of Physical Apparatus 28. Rudolf Koenig, 'Letter to lames Daudon, pp. 46-75 (Chemnitz, 1909). Max Kohl, Catalogue of July 25, 1879' in Loudon Papers, at the Phys#cal Apparatus (Chemnitz, 1928). University of Toronto Archives. Three of the Author ~ address: 25 in our tests at Toronto, for example, there capsules at the Smithsoman were examined Institute for the History, was a notable difference between thin plastic under the microscope and with ultraviolet light. One of Koenig's membranes appears to and Phih~phy of Science wrap and condoms. The condoms, being and Technology slightly more sensitive, provided sharper consist of a gelatin, hide or rabbit glue; the images. other being thin rubber. A membrane from the Victoria College Kohl Analyzer appeared to be hide or rabbit 91 Charles Street West 26. C.L. Barnes, Les~ns in Elementa~ Prachcal glue as well. Toronto, Ontario, M5S IK7, Canada An Unusual Bevel Robert De Pecker mmmmmmmmm~ I. Vl CLINOMW-TER WATER-LETEL il Fig.l The be~wl signed "CDR" with its ~arious suggested uses. The bevel in these photographs (Fig. 1) is on the ~mt face and cylindrical on the suspended line is ju:~t covering the notch a very simple old handmade object, back face. The inner leg has a semicir- The exact angle can be read-off by means probably from the 18e~ century. It has cular shot with rectangular ends that of a protractor. When opening the legs up the engraved characters 'CDR'. The permits the instrument from opening up to 90 ° by using the protractor, the material of the double outer leg is copper to 18(Y' when a bolt is placed in the hole. instrument can be used as a water-level. and of the inner leg, iron. The length of The original bolt, with normally a square The outer leg is exactly horizontal when the bevel is 150 ram, it is 23.5 mm wide part, is missing. the line covers the edge of the notch at and about 4 mm thick. The length when 'D'. Verticality can be controlled by opened to 180° is exactly 270.6 mm which After examining this rare instrument the completely ridding the legs together corresponds to 10 'Pouces de Paris'. The author is convinced that it is not only a be[YI but, used in combination with a extremities of the folding legs have a The author would appreciate any in- protractor, also a type of clinometer. special shape. The extremity of the outer formation on this instrument. leg has a notch at 'B' 0.7 mm out of the Further, it can be used as a u~ter-le~wl. centerline and has also a sharp angle at For these purposes the upper end of the "C' for a till now unknown purpose. The small missing bolt must have been a pin Author's address: inner leg also has a special shape at 'D'. for suspending a plumb-line. So the bevel Vrt~mstallestraat 53 Just beside the hinge is a hole, which is can be used as a clinometer when B9032 W, mdel~,em also 0.7 mm out of the centerline, square holding it in this way so that the Be/,~ium Bulletin of the Scientific Insta'ument Society No. 68 (2001) 21 Sealing Wax Science: The Herschels' Cabinet of Curiosities Emily Winterburn The Herschel Family This is the story of family life told through the artefacts leh behind. By examining the contents of these two cabinets belonging to John Herschel and his children we get a glimp~ of the day to day scientific actwitv of this famous fa'milv. John Hersci~el was the only .,~m of Wdliam Herschel, a Hanoverian musician who came to England in 1757, became a hou~hold name in 1781 when he dis- covered the planet Uranus. William's sister Caroline added to the fame of the family as the first women astronomer in England to receive financial recognition for her work. John mapped the ~,uthem sky from South Africa (to complement the w~rk done by his lather in mapping the Northern ~k}:). He is al.~ known for his Fig.1 pioneering work in earl}' photography. Herschel's cabinet as it u~s on disphry at the Royal Obsen,ato~ until I December Less well known are John's many chil- 2(X~). dren though as a magistrate in India William di.,~-overed the uniqueness of tingerprmts while his brother Alexander btewart made significant contnbutions to the development of meteor spectr~scopy The 'Cabinet of Curiosities' At the Roval Ob~,rvatorv there are two cabinets t~11 of material's, the 'ingredi- ents' u.,~'d in experiments, the chemicals, pieces of wire, and plates of glass (Figs 1 and 2). Many of the pieces are held together with sealing wax to construct exacth' the set up needed for a particular experiment. The advantage of k~king at the contents as a whole is that we get a glimpse ot the type,~ of materials these _~ienti~ts felt would be useful to have on hand and together There is a sen~ of the day-to-day scientific activity of the Her.,~'hel fiousehold as opl~,.,~-,cl to the Fig.2 MIs,,'lhmeous obiects fr,,m tt,'rschel's cabinet. finished product they might present in papers, or the ab.,,tract interpretation the}, might offer in correspondence. [he cabinets came into the p(x,.,~ssion of the National Maritime Mu.,,eum in 1971 after the demolition of Observatory ||ou~e in Slough, the hou.~, the Herschel family had ,nhabited on and off since 17Xh. l-he handwriting of the original labels and ~me of the contents suggests that the first of the~ originally belonged to John F.W. Herschel. Other obwcts in the drawers .,,uggt~t both cabinets were later used and adapted by John's three '~n~,, them.,~,lvt~ all keen amateur astron- omer,, John Shorland-Herschel (keeper of family archives) indicated that the contents mav have become a little confm, ed widen in 1971 his mother collected 'all ~rts of odd items' from around ()b~,rvatorv Hour, and added Fig.3 Tz,,enty-one pill boxes of z,ari,,us c~stals and ta,z,,ders front them to the cabinets before prt.'~,nting the cabinet. 22 Bulletin of the ."k'ientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2IX)l) 12. spone...gus she...a,~s 13. 14. To compare these labels with the con- tents, we find in cabinet 2: 1 - exposure meters, broken glass pipette, len,,~es, prisms 2 - emply 3 - glass & prisms 4 - crucible lids, gauge, mica 5 - empty 6 - threads & wire 7 - crystals & powders + micnvscope slides ...... ~r',iS~ 8 - foil,copper flame spills,crystals 9 - empty I0 - bottles of samples, crystals, mica, emulsion expt, geology samples, Fig.4 Geoh~ical ~mples from the cabinet, including possible meta, r spectroscope, test tube ,!f meteorite slides and dust ~,lcano p~n~vler, and micn~'ope slides of mete~r dust. II - glass, note from eclipse signed ASH 12 - glass, some emulsion expts, some wrapped, mainly wrapped in BJP them to the Royal Observatory, and Express of 1905, from a book or article indeed a few of the objects found in the entitled 'Memorials of the Jolly Dogs, 13 - thermometers, electric contacts, cabinets had been listed previously as Swiss Pea~nts at Home', and an exam- misc, meteonte spectroscope, kntses separate items.' marion paper for Smith's Prize of 1828 14 - glass To try to make some .sense out of the Cabinet 1 contains roughly: Does this arrangement tell us anything hundreds of separate objects these cabi- about the way in which this family of nets contain I have attempted to divide 1 - mineral, pincushion, .scissors scientists worked? It tells us that these them into groups. Some form groups of 2 - prism cabinets were intended as storage for same or similar types of object, there are 3 - Col Herschel's almanac & spirit material for scientific work and the 21 pill boxes full of crystals (Fig. 3), level (added later), box containing divisions tell us something of the types numerous wires and other fibres, lenses, prisms and coioured glass of scientific work they would routinely prisms, home-made prisms, coloured 4 - barometer, prism, ferule be revolved in. With so many labels glass and mica, home-made layered 5 - glass, lenses, vase picture missing no order is apparent, and it is glass, solder, metal sheets, pipettes, 6 - glass, brass frame holder difficult to extrapolate back to how it thermometers, various microscope slides 7 - prisms, coioured glass (labelled as might have been laid out originally. It has and also various parts of a microscope, or being for an eclipse) been suggested by Brian Gee2 that for a possibly telescope. 8 - specimens, microscope slides, time in the 19"' century, one of the more micrometer for microscope Fa~pular means of mtrtMucing children to Within these groups, some oblects are 9 - box of lenses, glass tube science was through amusement chests labelled as relating to specific events: 10 - metal & discs (glass) or portable laboratories. These i~rtable microscope slidt.'s containing dust from 11 - metals (ingots, foil, sheets) (possibly laboratories consisted of a cabinet filled the Middlesborough meteorite of 1881, belonging to William and Caroline?) with apparatus and another with chemi- box of coloured glass taken to Spain for a 12 - gauge, metal cals and other materials, and it is p~,,ible total eclipse, a piece of Roman Wall 13 - microscope attachments and that these amusement chests could have cement picked up in Chester in 1872, accessories influenced the way in which the Celestite from Cairo 1896, volcano l~W- 14 - uranium glass and ct~halt blue glass Herschel's cabinets were originally ar- der obtained from Barbados from 1902 15 - prisms, glass, plate from printing ranged, or indeed the Mea that they (Fig. 4). There are other objects that do frame sbould need a Cabinet at all. Without not fit readily into a particular category, more evidence as to the ongins of the The drawers of the second cabinet are but can nonetheless be grouped in terms Herschel cabinets, bow they came into labelled though many are missing, and of specific experiments or areas of the family's pos.,,ession,it is not possible some are only partially remaining. interest to which they relate. Finally there to say are a number of anomak,us t~,jects; some They read: John Frederick William (1792-1871) apparently domestic such as a pair of scissors and a pin cushion, or a small pill 1. thermometers John Frederick William 14erschel 0FWH) ~,x labelled 'The pills to be taken at 2. was born in Slough in 17'02. He graduated bedtime, Sir J. Herschel'. 3. as senior wrangler at St John's College 4. ey...... s [eyepieces?] Cambridge in 1813, and formed with his in addition to the objects themmlves, 5. friends, George Peac~ck and Charles many have been wrapped up in scraps of 6. fine wires & other fibres Babbage a mathematics club called the paper which provide clues about the 7. crystals for optical expenments 'Analytical Society of Cambridge'. On lives of this family of astronomers" a 8. Plat...ishes also...metals graduating JFWH toved briefly with map from South African vineyards, parts [platinum dishes also other metals?] going into law, but chose instead "to help of tickets/invitations, ~veral pages from 9. dark glasses, mirrors, prisms etc his father. John was already carrying out the Journal of Ph,,tograplly of 1863, The 10. Crystals his own studies m chemistn' by this time, Neu~'astle E~'mn¢ Chronich" of 1882, The 11. including work on hyposulphurous acid', Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) 23 sons, William James was born 1833. His early years were spent in South Africa and then England where he was edu- cated along with his brothers at Ciapham Grammar School. He went on to spend most of his life in India (along with relatives from his mother's side of the family, the Stewarts). In India he became a magistrate and was one of the first people not only to discover the unique- hess of fingerprintsa, but to realize they might have a practical application in law. In all William worked for the Indian Civil Service a total of 25 years, from 1853 to 1878. ° He took a keen interest in photography, more so than his brothers Fig.5 Metals from Her~'hel~ cabinet. and did a considerable amount of work on the development of colour photogra- which he would later apply to photo- The drawer labelled 'crystalsfor optical phy. This may explain some of the graph,,'. He also appears to have been experiments' contains a number of pill coloured gla~s. He married Emma Hard- working on polar]sat]on around this boxes full of different types of crystal. castle in 1864 and together they had four time? From 1821 to 1824 he toured The labels are likely to indicate what the children. William James died in 1917. Europe stopping off to meet mlportant drawers were originally intended for, scientists or cam" out experiments with and the crystals in the pill boxes are in Of the three brothers, William had the friends such as l~bbage. Having given up many cases the same as those used by least scientific profession, and yet letters law to help his father, the two of them set John for optical experiments as early as between the brothers indicate he had a al~ut carr~.'ing out a great review of 1822. broad, if not deep interest in science. For nebulae visible from the Northern hemi- this reason, the eclectic collection of sphere from Observatory House, using A piece of metal wrapped in paper with microscope slides of insects, the test tube the 20ft refractor they made together. [n 'Alloy of antimony tin ... (Babbage)' containing a fly skeleton, the microscope 18M John ~ out for South Africa with his written on one side and on the other side slide of pollen and the microscope slide wife and children to do the same for the 'Sir J. F. Herschel, Bart, Collingwo(~' of a crocodile tear may have belonged to Southern Hemisphere returning when it definitely relates to John. The only him. Similarly the uranium glass, a was completed in 1838 Once the results published work John and Babbage colla- popular 19~ century novelty, may have from the South Africa trip had been borated on relating to metals concerns M been his. published, John gave up observing and Argo's experiment on magnetism. That returned to his earlier studies in chem- paper does refer to antimony, tin and One piece from the cabinet relates istry and photography. Throughout his alloys so this could relate to research for incontrovertibly to William. Some thal- lifel John Herschel took an interest and that paper. Another piece from the lium wrapped in paper and addressed to was involved in a great number of cabinet, a set of two hand-drawn sketches William at Collingwood (the family scientific pr(~ects, including the organ]sa- of magnetic field lines by Faraday dated home when the family got too big for t]on of the Great Exhibition of 1851 and 1851, gives a more personal illustrationof Observatory, House) from Lowthian Bell the international proiect initiated by John's involvement in magnetism. suggests that on his return to England, Gauss to observe and monitor fluctua- William had some contact with the tions in the Earth's magnetic field. Late in One packet is labelled 'silknot twisted in scientificworld of his brothers. Lowthian lift' he t(n~k the post of Master of the Royal Baily's torsion experiment', and contains Bell was one of the powerful local Mint, which nearly lead to a nen'ous silk wrapped around an invitation ad- industrialist instrumental in the estab- breakdown. Towards the end of his life, dres.,~d to Baily, from the Royal Society lishment of the College of Physical he returned to astronomy and to the work from 1837. The other pill box labelled Science at Newcastle, the college at of his father, producing a catalogue of all 'silverwire, 0in.001 made by Cavendish which Alexander was Professor of Phy- the known star clusters and nebulae Given by him to Sir H. Davy x by Davy sics from its foundation in 1871 until (which compri.,,ed mainly of th(~e dis- to me'. though it is unclear who 'me' is, 1886. covered by either himself or his father) in Davy had been a correspondent of John 1~3.' John died in 1871 at his home in Herschel's, and died in 1829 before any Alexander Stewart Herschel Collingwo(v3 aged 79. of John's children were born. John's corresl~)ndence seems to indicate a long Alexander was the most prolific publish- running interest in these pendulum er of John's children, and the majority of There is no infi)rmation on exactly when experiments. In 1839 for example he objects within the cabinets seem to relate the Herschel family obtained this cabinet, corresponded with Baily on the subject to Alexander's interests and experiments. and ,,~ we can only assume by the of the Cavendish experiments, which Alexander was born on 5 'h February contents who might have u.,~ed it and were similar to the Baily torsion experi- 18,36, in South Africa during which time when There are enough objects in the ment, in that they both use a pendulum his father was cataloguing nebulae of the cabinet with some direct reference to (made up of a weight on a wire or thread) Southern hemisphere. On the family's John Her~hel .,,.nior, to suggest that he to determine the weight of the Earth." return to England, Alexander went to u~M the cabinet befiwe it was passed on Then, as late as 1857, he corresponded Clapham Grammar School and then to to his .,~)ns and it may go even further with his son, Col. John on the Cavendish Trinity College Cambridge where he back than that. It is possible that to have experiment.: worked under Maxwell graduating 20~ apparatus around, such as these cabinets wrangler, in 1861 he moved to Royal and their contents, while growing up and William James Herschel School of Mines, London and began acquiring them in later lift" may have work on mettn)rs. He moved to the shal~'d the ~-ientific work of his sons. The eldest of John EW. Herschel's three University of Glasgow in 1866 where he 24 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) lectured on Natural l'hik~phy, then in 1871 moved to Newcastle where he became I'rofes~+r of the newly estab- lished College of Physical Science (then attached to the University of Durham). Ihe College of Physical Science was set up to provide a u~,ful education flw engineers and mine~ emphwed or st'ek- ing employment in local industr3,. It was to provide 'that kind of educatil~n which everyone recognized the nocessity of, in order to fit for undertaking the respon- sible duties of managers of collieries, iron works, or chemical works.'"' Alongside Alexander who was employed to teach Physics, there was John Merivale fl~r Mining, Algernon Marreco flw Chemistry and David Page, flfllowed a few years later by (k, orge IJebour, fl~r Geology. '* Though technically different departments there seems to have bt~.n interest taken in Fig.6 B,~lo~,.,al ~amph'~ from the tal,+m't m,h.hn:s' a tlv ,lu'h't,,n m each others subiects , at least on Alex- test tube, and micr,~o,pe slides inch+dm~ slid,, of cr, x't~fih, tears ander's part, as can be seen in .~me of the obiects found in the cabinets, certain scope found in Millman's article on the ring to a 'Specimen of Val der Travers accompanying nott~, and in Alexander's Her~hel dynasty." correspondence. Alexander gave up his Native bituminous limestone... NB some Profes~wship in 1886 and on leaving it of the mineral is also mixt~l with pitch A number of the objects in the cabinets from the natural bitumentalke of lrini- was decided that the new laboratories seem to infer an interest in geology - a which he had been instrumental in dad...ASH' adding further evidence of I~flished mineral .sample, a tin containing his interest in geology. Whilst at New- t.'~tablishing should be named after him. according to the label '1 singlass-stone or castle, Alexander api~.ars to have devel- He moved back to the family home in celestite from talus on the path and oped an interest in the subtects taught by 1888 and in 19(15 travelled to Spain to terraces of Mokattam Hills, behind the his colleagues, so hw example he wrote to obst, rve a total eclip~,. Throughout his citadel, Cairo; Janua~,-February, 18%', a Walter Calverlev I-revelyan, cousin of caroer, Alexander pr(xtuctxl various an- piece of Roman cement labelled 'Piece of nual rel~)rts on meteors and meteoric Roman Wall-cement from the camp at Charles Edward Trevelvan, one time .~ience. He also made important ad- Chester, (Mr Clavton's Hou~ and Park) as,,,istant .secreta~" at the Treasury and vanct.'s in spoctrt~,copy and its applica- or 'Cilurnum', Hexham; on the old employer of Alexander's father at the lion to meteor observations. ~2 Newcastle and Carlisle Road, 25 or 30 Royal Mint", about experiments carried miles from Newcastle - (ASH, Mav 20th - out on the phosphorescent properties of A couple of micri~cope slides which are 72)'?' The labels indicate why these various geological specimens. '= ~me of labelled 'Middlesborough Meteor Dust' .samples might have been collected, and these were later written up with Lebour and 'Middleton Meteorite Dust, July 27, give us places with which to link in a series of rel~rts." Tht.,s~,experiments '81' can alm~rst certainly be attributed to Alexander, but the combination of these in phosphorescence may al.,~ explain a Alexander and backed up by his numer- obj~wts strongly indicates an interest in number of the chemical/crvstal .,~imples ous publications on meteors and meteor- geology and this is backed up with in the cabinet. Alexander makes a ites and his close proximity to related corresp(mdence. There is also a reference to st,k'nium in his corrt.'spon- Middlesborough at the time in question. sheet of hand-written instructions refer- dence with lrevelyan, 'in the ~me was' The first can be dated by a paper written by Alexander about the fall of a meteor on 14'" March 1881, which refers to 'An unusual natural phenomenon was ob- served near Middlesborough'. '' There is also a ,~t of microscope slides made by 'lames How & Co' with samples of various meteorites - one labelled 'Meteor- ire hitresi liberty; Iowa, USA', another labelled 'Meteorite Puetusk, Poland', another 'Meteorite Ensisheim, Nov 7', and with them another micn~cope slide in the same style labelled 'Granite, Jer~y', which presumably all ~qonged to Alexander. One of the more finished h~king objects fl)und in these cabinets, a sealed varn- ished wooden box, with four slide away doom revealing a prism in each comer, could be one of Alexander's meteor spectroscopes. Certainly it appears to match the description and diagram of Fig.7 ( )l,t,s ~mlph'~.trom the cat,met, m~ h,hn~ a Iqo, k ot ,r, mmm ,~'1,~.~,rod ,~ ho,l,' ma,/c the Herschel-Browning meteor spectro- "holhm, prism'. Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument SocWty No. 68 (2IX)t) 25 feasible .~'ienium is changed to the page of hand-written notes on an experi- spectroscopy like his brother Alexander, amorphous 'altered' state by the Sun's ment involving warm glycerine solution, and as an amateur, he observed the 186~ rays 'j" which may signal the beginnings 'NB a good way to smear paper with g]y solar eclipse with a spectrc~,~ope. He also of .,~m~, research in which the microscope chloride solution is to lay and spread a made observations of the variable star, slide labelled 'Selenium, Nov '90' was a littleon a glass plate,'.This paper is then Eta Carinae, and developed an automatic part. Another obg,,ct that relates to this wrapped in a second sheet which on one electrical device for taking star transits. same period consists o~ a purple ticket side is some kind of receipt from 'H. He was elected Fellow of the Royal with the word 'Wallington' on it sand- Halford, Stock and Share Bro...' to Col. J. Society in 1871 and Fellow of the Royal wiched between two pieces of glass. Herschel, and on the other is labelled Astronomical Society in 1872. He died, Wallington presumably refers to the 'Copper-flame spills ... (with notes) by aged 84 in 1921P home of Trevelyan and a place to which ASH, '85'. It is I~sible that the instrue- Alexander was often invited. ti,ms, if not the spills, relate to gla~ Of all the candidates, Col. John seems plates coated with a radial pattern of most likely to have made use of the A couple rrawe ObleCts from the cabinets some kind of emulsion described earlier threads and wires found in the cabinets. relating to geology seem to link Alex- in this paper (see JFWH). Not only did he carry out, corres[~md ander with Barbados, Perhaps to a visit with his father, and publish on a number he or an acquaintance may have made in A set of charcoal points wrapped up in a of experiments using pendulums to 1'~2. The ob~'ts are ore, corked and page from the Ne~'astle Ezvnin¢ Chronicle measure gravity and determine the sealed test-tube labelled "Volcanic Pow- from 1882 appear to have belonged to weight of the Earth '~, he also did some der ~m la Souffriere (Barbados) 1~12' Alexander if only because Alexander was investigatory work on the cross hairs in and a home-made microscope slide based in Newcastle at that time. They tel~opesY labelled '...dust, Barbados, May 7, 1902'. may have been used in his experiments Durbam University (of which Alexan- on cart~)n z', or they may have been used There is also evidence to suggest certain der's college was a part), did have links as electrodes, Experiments in electricity of the metals relate to work carried out with Corrington College in Barbados"~' became increasingly [~)pular in the 19'" by Col. John. The paper wrapping for though to what extent this lead to any century and during Alexander's time at two sets of alloys are addressed to Col. connections for Alexander is not clear. Newcastle magnetism and electricity John one of which appears to be from the became an important part of the sylla- National Antarctic Expedition, indicating Another department with which Alex- busP One of the objects from the cabinet Perhaps that he was doing some work for ander seems to have had some connec- comprises of a box fittedwith two piec~ them, or had friends involved in the tion with at Newcastle was the mining of metal each attached to wires. This is expedition with whom he corresponded department. In a letter to Trevelvan:' he almost certainly connected with electri- and shared experiments. Also addressed relates a visit to the Monkwearmouth city experiments. Similarly a number of to Col. John is an envelope from the RAS Colliery, though his interest in it seems the metallic objects found in the cabinets containing a very thin sheet of foil. mainly in the limestone brought to the may relate to this type of work. Besides The almanac and spirit level labelled as .,,urfac:e with which he could continue his teaching electricity,,Alexander published ph~,phort~'ence experiments. There are his presumably relate to his professional a number of papers on cells and electro- life. As an amateur scientist, Col. John a couple of wire gauges in the cabinet lysis', as well as encouraging and help- each with a note inside to say that they displayed a wide variety of interests, and ing colleagues with related researchY published papers on sub~'cts as diverse were for ASH, from Merivale, and dated Another way in which the metals might 1~ in both ca.,,es. have been used is in spectr~opyY as biology ~2, optics~ and spectroscopy." As to the rest of the objects, it is possible One of the more curious ob~.~cts h~und in Finally, there is a box of coloured glass the cabinets is a piece of grey metal with some may have belonged to John FW's labelled 'a box of coloured glasses taken father's generation. Many of the optics- regular lines of large holes in it. it is to Spain when Alick.....event there for the wrapl~,d in paper and labelled 'gun related objects, such as lenses, pieces of total eclipse in 1???- alas - it came onto coloured gla,~ and prisms, may have metal paper pulp strainer, con..ded by rain 1/4 of an hour before the eclipse water action, removing zinc, Mr...Wat- belonged originally to the older genera- began and such a number of telescopes finn. Some of the ingots of metal could ~n, 1872'. lhere were in total three Mr had been brought to catch the beads'. The also relate to this generation, and to ~,¥at~ns involved in the setting up and date is unreadable. It is not possible to be mirror making. There are many more the earls' days of running the College of sure if it refers to Alexander Stewart or objects within these two cabinets which PhvsicaJ ,Science at Newcastle, as repre- John F.W. Herschel's uncle Alexander. have yet to be related to a specificperson .,,entatives of the local Literary and However, it would seem likely that as or experiment. Some, such as the co- Phih~phical S~cie~', though the most the beads referred to are Baily's beads, Inured glass and the lenses, were prob- revolved was Robert Spence. Robert since these were not di~overed until ably standard equipment and used by Spence .~.t.ms the most likely .~urce for 1842'' - and John FW's uncle died in them all for various types of study. thi~ note as not only did he and 1821, it is very probably refers to Alexander sit together on the same Alexander Stewart. Others, such as the home-made prisms Managing Committee of the college, but (made from two plates of glass held as Dr [.e.,,lev Gordon:: has recently Col. John Herschel together with sealing wax so they touch discovered, he was al.,~ interested in at one end and are far apart at the other), ~a,nce and specifically the application John Herschel was born cm 29'h October were pr~umably made to study specific of ek'ctricitv to industrial puritan's. No 1837 in South Africa. The family returned phenomena as yet unidentified. doubt they and other members of the to England in 18.38 where he, like his Conclusions committee would di~uss experiments brothers, was educated at Clapham and swap ideas as well as apparatus Grammar Sch~d in London. He joined To conclude, the cabinets' contents illus- and materials between themselves and the Royal Engineers in 18% and went on trate the diversity of interestsexpressed with members of staff. to become Cohmel and then Lh,puty by the different members of this family. Superintendent of the Trigonometrical For John FW the cabinet contained lenses .'-~m~e twl,,ts of singed paper labelled Survey. He married Mary Cornwallis in left over from work he did with his "copper flame .,,pills' are wrapped in a 1867. His interests in ,science included lather. There are al.~ grains, crystalsand 2h Bulk,tin of the ~'ientific Instrument .~'iety No. (18 (2t}Ot) mica for polarisation experi- pieces of catalogue samples of every type. Cer- 17. Various letters from Alexander Herschel ments and photography. For John's eldest tainly we see the trend towards collecting to Trevelyan,University of Newcastle Library, son, William, the cabinets contain co- reflected in this sample of objects. The Special Collections. loured glass u,,~l m colour photography, experiments carried out with materials 18. Alexander Herschel and George A. L and a collection of biohgical specimens from these cabinets have more in Lebmir, 'Reports l-Vii] of a Committee tm put together through his interest in common with physics than astronomy, Experiments to Determine the Thermal Con- natural history. For Alexander, the cabi- but there again we see a reflection of ductivities of Certain Rcwks, Showing Espe- net contained a collection of meteor and trends at large, as astnnmmy in the 19~ cially the Geological Aspects of this meteorite samples reflecting his well century moved h'om celestial mechanics Investigation' with Lebour, Brit Ass. Rep. Years documented interestin meteors; and also to astrophysics. |874-1881. a collectionof geological samples he may 19. Letter fnnn Alexander Herschel to Trevel- Notes and References have collected simply as a record of yan, 1873, University of Newcastle Library, different types, or in some cases to test I. Herschel Collection, An im~'ntory of the Special Collections. The Robim, rm Library, for prq~erties such as phosphorescence. Navigation and Astnmoray Collections of the University of Newcastle. The charcoal points he ]eft in one of the National Maritime Mu~ura, (Greenwich, 1972). 20. Durham University Calendar, 1879, cabinets, along with other related ob~cts, Registrar's office, University of Newcastle. would have been used in experiments in 2. Bran Gee, 'Amusement Chests & Portable Laboratories: Practical Alternatives to the 21. Letter from Alexander Herschel to Trevel- electricity.For Col. J~m, the youngest of Regular Laboratory' in Frank AJ.L James, the brothers, the main objects of interest yan, 3'e Dec 1873, W.C. Trevelyan Papers, ed., The Industrial Civdt~tion (lama:Ion: Mac- Special Collections, The Robinson Library, within the cabinets would have been the millian, 1989), pp 37-59. University of Newcastle. various wires and threads and used in a 3. John Herschel, 'On the Hyposulphurous range of pendulum experiments for 22. Dr Lesley Gordon works in Special Acid and its Compounds', Edinb. Phil. laura., ] Collectit~s at the Robinson Library, University determining the gravitational force ex- (1819), pp 8-29. erted by the Earth and thus its mass, as of Newcastle. well as for crosshairs in telescopes and 4. J~m Herschel, 'On the Optical Phenom- 23. Alexander Herschel, 'Carbon & Carbon ena Exhibited by Mt~er t~ Pearl, Depending Compounds', Nature,22 (188~), p. 320. wires in galvanometers. tm Internal Structure', Edinb. PM. ]ourn., 2 (1820), pp. 114-121. 24. Durham University Calendar, 1874-1886, Though each appears to have his own held at University of Newcastle. di~rete area of study, the materials each 5. Gunther Buttmann, The Shadow of the uses, in particularthe coloured glass used Telesctrpe, p.185. 25. Catolo~ue of Sca,nt~c Papers (18~gJ-1863J, by William, the lemes by John FWand the compiled and published by the Royal S~'lety 6. Letter from Francis Baily to John Herschel, of London. wire by Col. J(~m were all standard in dated II Nov 1839, at Royal Society, RS: many 19 '~ century scientific experi- H~.163. 26. Letter fn,m Alexander l-l~he] to Prof Gladstone (written from Newcastle, Sept ments. ~ For this reason alone it would 7. Letterfrom JFW Herschel to Ct~. John make sen~ to keep them together in one Herschel, dated 18 Aug 1857, from Herschel 1876), 'Mr Dunn [lab assistantat Newcastle] has been rtveating his experiments on Ihe cabinet for all to share. Having a family archive, JHS 5.6. collection of such objects on hand would evolution of H(Y2 (?) By the galvaniccurrent; 8. William James Herschel, "William lames and against his ht~x's he finds his first results have been handy for trying out new 'Finger Prints' [1894], Nature, 51 (18~4-95), pp. rt~fied so obstinately that there must be I ideas. These are not the finished pnducts, 77-78; William James Herschel, 'Skin Fum~ws think some confusion somewherethat we have nor are these instruments in the sense that of the Hand' [18801, Nature 23 (1881), p. 76; not got the key of yet...'. John FW's father William would have also from various papers held by John 27. Alexander Herschel, 'Colours t~ Heated HerscheI-Shorland. understood the term, but they could Metals', Nature, 12 (1875), pp. 475-476. easily form the basis of numerous experi- 9. Howard C. Nightingale, 'Distinguished ments. Many such experiments led to Members of the Herschel Family', T;w Wdliam 28. J. P. McEvoy, E(hpse: The S('u~ce and academic papers and are thus documen- Her~hel SocW~ Bulletin, No 38, June 1992, p. 7. HIsttn'y. c~ Nature:~ Most Spectacular Phenomemm ted elsewhere, but others did not. The (Fourth E~tate, 1999), p. 153. 10. College of Physical Science minute b~w~k biological samples for example, the 1871 - 1886, Registrar'soffice, University,of 29. Patrick Mt•n'e, Alexand~ Her.~'hel, The microscope slides of insects, croctglile Newcastle Archwes. Meteor Man (The William Herschel Soc, 19~3), tears, and pollen, or the fly skeleton, and p. 15. it is these, which give us new insights into 11. E. M Bettens~m, The Um~-rs~ty of New- castle upon Tyne. a Historical Introduction, 1834- 30. CatalL~ue ~. Scu'nt!fic Papers (18~)-1803L the interests of this family of scientists, 1971 (University of Newcastle upon T.vne, compiled and published by the Royal fslcteO,, and how they pursued these interests. 1971). of hn~&m. 3l. Col. John Herschel, 'On the Fixing of Within the context of the Herschel family 12. PeterM. Millman, 'The Herschel Dynasty - part Ill: Alexander Stewart Herschel', 1. R~. Spider-lines in Collimators & Transit Tele- at large, there is a marked contrast scopes', Astmn. ~r. Moth Nor 34 (1~74l, pp between the instrument makers of the Astmn. E~r. Cam., 74, No. 5 (19~)). generation before, William, Caroline and 13. Alexander Herschel, 'Fall of a meteonte', their brother Alexander, who made big Letter to Editor in Daily ChnmMe, Newcastle 32. Col. John Herschel, 'Ammal Intelligence', Nature, 30 (18,~1), p. 125. and marketable telescopes, but were March 30~ 1881. essentially regarded as amateur astron- 14. PeterM. Millman, "]'he Herschel Dynasty 33. Col. John Herschel, 'A Singular (~,~tical omers, and the material left by John FW - part Ill: Alexander Stewart Herschel', l- R~w. PherKm~n~m', Scwnce, 3 (1884), p. 71}4 and particularly by his sons, William, Astmn. ~c. Cam., 74, No. 5 (1980), p. 281. ,34. Col. John Herschel, 'St~a Flames m Coal Alexander and John. To some extent this 15. Chest~ (or Cilumum) is a Roman fort on Fires" [IS821, Nature. 27 (18~13), p. 78 can be seen as a reflection of trends in Hadrian's wall near Newcastle and Hexham 35. E Atkinson, C,anof~ Elementa~ Treati~" on science more generally, where in the 19'h which now belon~ to English Heritage but Ph~#cs E.rpe,mental and Apphed (l.ondon, century the distinction between instru- was in the 19~ century the pn~rty of John lt~3). ment maker and scientist was greater Clayhm, a h~cal antiquarian with a particular than it had been in the lff" century. There interest in Roman antiquities. Author ~ address: was also a move towards 'Do-it-Yourself' 16. Gunther Buttmann, The Shading, of the Royal Obsen~ztorv science, such as the large-scale pro~ds in Telescope (Charles Scribner's S~ms, NY, 1970), Gr~'meich botany and geology to collect and p. 182. London SEIO 9NF Bulletin of the ,~--~ti~ instrun~nt ~k~ No. 68 (2(~)!) 27 Solomon Gills: Mysterious Instrument Maker of Cromer, or Southsea David Bryden h,lh' repalrt'~.| alter being chopped Iwarh,' in half by a deep .,~'a drilling rl B that had broken lree from Its winter lllt~rlngs in a storm l thought I knew (romer - so it was qtute a surprI~' ~,trolhng down Jetty Street to the cliff top. to ~'e a shop window with a h,w nat,tical u~..,truments in it At first [ thought it was a new antique ~,ht,p, ~ I sto~| bach to h~,k hwa ..hop name lhe painted header above the d~,r and bay window h~+ked rather faded but the slgn ,,vrfllng could be made out ~dhout are; dlttlcultv - indeed the whole header wa_,, remarhabb,' complete (Fi B. I) It announced that this was the e'~tabll~,hment of ~flomon (.;ills, nautical mstrumerlt maker, t.'stabhshed 17(kL deah,r in precision instru- ment,;, mlcr~,e, 2~ lh,lh,tm ol the ."w..nt,hc Instrument ~wietv No. N( (2IN)|) Visit to the Manor House Museum at Bury St Edmunds: 2Y d September 2000 A.D. Morrison-Low Those of us who made the journey to for it, but where today, with the nation- Observatory at Greenwich in 1675, and the delightful Suffolk market town of wide financial threat to local authority an influx of persecuted foreigners, Bury St Edmunds on 23 'd September museums, its long-term future looks among them the Huguenots. England, were rewarded with one of those uncertain. particularly London, for various good beautiful Indian summer days which economic reasons, became the new lengthen the English summer (some of The most recent catalogue of the collec- European centre for the production of us from Scotland, however, always tion is dated 1979', and relates to a time clocks and watches. There were a forget this, and arrive, perspiring, wear- when it was displayed in its former number of significant technology ing clothes for temperatures five degrees home; since 1952 it has attracted further changes: escapements, the design of the cooler). The Manor House Museum, additions by gift, purchase or bequest. wheel-cutting engine, and the in~uc- Honey Hill, contains an important Two items recently cons~ by Dan tion of the pendulum, minute and collection of time-keeping instruments, Unwin of Hitchin are working replicas second hands. The Museum has a as well as a collection of paintings and of early timekeeping: from Giovanni de' wonderful range of long-case and brack- costume. The collection which particu- Dondi's fourteenth-century manuscript et clocks by famous clockmakers from larly interested the SIS members was of his 'Astrarium', and Richard of this exciting period: Joseph Knibb, that of clocks, watches and related Wallingford's clock made for St Albans Daniel Quare, George Graham and scientific instruments, through which Abbey between 1327 and 1336. We were Thomas Tompion. There is also a we were given a most entertaining reminded that the water-driven clock at selection of high-quality watches, chron- guided tour by the curator, Viscount Bury St Edmunds had been so large, ometers and lantern clocks. The cura- Midleton. that when there was a great fire in 1198, tor's great joy - not, 1 am afraid, shared the monks had used its water to by this reviewer - is for a room full of The house set in the middle of ancient extinguish the blaze. American clocks. Bury St Edmtmds - the site dates from 633 when King Sigebert founded a A case is full of the extraordinary table religious community, but the Abbey's clocks made in Augsburg in the late What the SiS had come to see were the name derives from the martyrdom of sixteenth and early seventeenth centu- instruments, and there were a number of King Edmund, who was murdered by ries. Augsburg, Lord Midleton ex- these. The silver universal ring dial by the Danes, and whose subsequent en- plained, was the first European city Hilkaih Bedford was not unfortunately shrinement in 903 turned the Abbey into with the guilds, apprenticeship system, on display; but a selectica~ of wooden a place of holy pilgrimage - was built and tests for regulation, which was able nocturnals and four or five extremely by the Hervey family in the eighteenth to build up a specialist luxury trade in high-quality ivory diptych dials made century. The nearby family seat at supplying clockwork, all of which came my day. These last were by a selectionof lckworth is now run by the National to an end - partly because of the rigidity reputable Nuremberg makers: Melchior Trust, and we were told that Elizabeth, of the system - with the Thirty years' Kamer, Hans Trt~schel,Leonhard Miller, Countess of Bristol, exhausted after War, which began in 1618. The Holy Paulus Reinmann; the fifth by Charles bearing eighteen children, took a rest Roman Emperor Charles V had been Bloud of Dieppe. Some of us stayed on, from her husband and moved into this genuinely interested in such timepieces by kind invitation, to an extremely interesting survey of docks in the Royal delightful house built for ~ taking on - and although the examples we saw a couple of lovers, she died within a were redolent of Catholic imagery Coilecticm, which examined not just the couple of years, but the Herveys con- (remember we were a few hundred more obvious ones to be seen m the tinued to use this town house for yards away from a once-wealthy Abbey State Apartments, but al~* the tower various entertainments. Eventually it which was sold at its dissolution in 1539 clocks at St James's Palace (never a came into the hands of the local for a mere £413, and the building trouble-free mechanism from the day it authority, which currently use it as a allowed to become a quarry of local was installed) and at Osborne, on the museum. building materials), they were also Isle of Wight. Altogether a great dav amusing. The crucifix clock, dating from out, thanks to organizers within the SIS and to Lord Midleton. The collection has a rather different around 1600, indicates the hours on a history. Mainly put together by the revolving sphere surmounting the gilt musician Frederic Gershom Parkington crib,s, which has a skull and crt~nes Reference during the first years of the twentieth at the base; when the hour is struck, the century, in 1952 he presented it to his skull moves. A delightful gilt li(m sits on native town in memory of his son John, another example; its eyes move with the balance wheel and its mouth t~ to I. Richard Meynck, /he h~n Ger~Junn Par- who had been killed in action during the km~hm Me~,rtal C,,llect~m ,~ Time M~'a,urcment show its tongue on the hour. Second World War. Between 1952 and Instrument, 3rd ed. (Bury St Edmunds. 1979) 1993 this collectitm was housed in a Queen Anne house at the corner of At about the same time as the decline of Angel Hill, leased by the corporation Augsburg and persecution on the Con- Author's addrt~s: from the National Trust. However, in tinent, came the relative peace in National Mu~ums c~ Scotland 1993, the collection was moved into the England of the Restoration of Charles Cimmbrrs Str~, Manor House Museum, a fitting home [I in 1660, the founding of the Royal Edinburgh EH1 IIF Bulletin of the Scientific instrument Striety No. 68 (2001) 29 Visit to the Royal Astronomical Society: Saturday 20 'h January 2001 Simon Cheifetz Some twenty members of the Society for use by active observers. From 1890, had the privilege of entering the inner various key instruments were loaned to sanctum of the Royal Astronomical major mu~ums and in the early 1980s a Society on the morning of 20'h January malor rationalization of the collection for a visit hosted by its librarian, Peter finally took place. An article by the late Hingley. Cdr Derek Howse was given out to the group detailing the formerly extensive Our morning began with a fascinating collection and its subsequent disposition. talk by Peter entitled 'Astronomers and A few instruments were retained for Oddities', covering the history of the display at Burlington House, in particu- RAS and some of its more notable lar some which related to early Fellows, presidents. The RAS was founded in and others left on loan to various 1820 by a group of gentlemen including museums, including the Science, Na- the Rex'. William Pearson, Francis Baily, tional Maritime and Whipple Mu~ums and Sir John Herschel; after some and the Mu~um of the History of difficulties caused by Sir Jivseph Banks, Science in Oxford. Quite a number of John Herschel's father, the great Sir ! less significantitems were sold, while a William Herschel, became the first few telescopes and other items were left titular President and his famous 40-ft on loan to the University of Central telescope is still the emblem of the RAS. Lancashire and the Institute of Astron- It currently has a membership of some omy at Cambridge for active observa- ~100 professional and amateur astron- Fig.1 Sir h~m Her~hel in the early 1860s tional use. omers and prl~uces a range of period- ~u,wn hol,hn~ Britain's first decimal corn, the florin. Phato courtesy of the Royal icals and journals not only on Astwnt,mical S~'lety. Instruments on display at the RAS astronomy; but also on geophysics, a included a Dent's Dipleidoscope, a subject that has seen a large growth in Nocturnal for both Bears of the late interest in recent years. graphs of the local inhabitants could be shown. Peter believes that the RAS's 16"/early 17~h century, two Tulley tele- including one owned by Francis archive of photographs will provide a scopes Peter bt~an with an entertaining survey Baily, Rev. William Pearson's clock with rich source of material for future study, of past presidents of the RAS and its unique model of the Galilean satel- as will its large archive of correspon- showed us a wonderful earl.,,' photo- lites of Jupiter and two astronomical dence from leading astronomers dating graph of John Her.~hel s~rting a fine Regulator clocks by Drabble and Baker back to the earliest days of the society. pair of hounds-tooth check trousers and which are known as the 'Beaufoy' holding the first florin (Fig. 1). It seems clocks. Other items displayed were an that, as Master of the Royal Mint, Peter also described some of the many ivory Diptych dial by Troschel (II) of Her~hel was respor~sible for introdu- requests for information that come to Nuremberg and a silver one by the cing Britain's first British decimal coin in the RAS, which he as librarian has to English maker Butterfield in Paris, a the l~'~0s, the two-shilling piece, which deal with. The number of requests grew Cary celestial gk~e of 1816, a Moon was intended to prefigure complete significantly in 1999 due to interest in Globe and pastels of moon phases by decimalization. the total eclipse of the sun in that year. John Russell RA, and a small Ca~segrain Enquiries to do with astrology receive telescope by Watson. In his pre.,~.ntation Peter showed us short shrift being based on the mediae- many more fine early photographs. val superstition that the movements of heavenly b(~ies can have a direct effect Items intimately associated with the lhe.,~, are an unexpected iewe] of the RAS's history included its Charter, a RAS's collection and include, not only on human life. Peter described some other enquiries of an unlikely nature, Ballot l~x by which Fellows were once early imagt.,s of astronomical objects and elected (or otherwise), and the Society's phenomena dating from the 1860s such as that from a per.~m who 'would hke to understand more of what is bust of Francis Baily. The once intimate onwards, but photographs of many 19'" connection of beer and astronomical century telex,copes and observatories known about the unknown' or the lady who rang from a "IV station asking h~r history was exemplified by a bust of from the grand to the less grand (one George Bishop, a rich brewer who photograph of AA. Common's ob.serva- video hn~tage of the Big Bang taking place. financed a private observatory in Re- tory at Ealing showed a very large gent's Park, where profL,'ssional astron- telt-~cor~, poking through the rt,,f of a omers such as J.R Hind were employed, rather ~mall garden green house). Other We then broke for tea and coffee in the and where several comets and asteroids photos .~howed k~'al scenes taken dur- Fellows' Room, and were able to view were di~overed. We then started our ing expeditions to observe various some of the RAS's instrument collection, tour of the RAS building. The RAS ec]ip~.s and transits. Peter quoted a including a speculum mirror made by moved into its present premises in comment attributed to the great Sir Sir William Her~hel. Peter explained Burlington House in 1874, the building Arthur [-'ddin~ton, that RAS meetings that the RAS's remaining collection of includes the Fellows' Room (a lounge aHer eclipse expeditions tended to .scientific instruments, which started in area which is part of what was once the r(~,mble th(~" of Missionary ~cieties, 1827, had gone through various reorga- lecture room of the Society) and the in that even if the eclipse photographs nizations. In the RAS's early days, the Council R~m, in I~,th of which are had been unsuccessful, at least photo- majority of instruments were loaned out hung i~rtraits of astronomers, many of ~) Bulletin of the ~¢~'ientifi¢ Instrument ~ciety No. 68 (2001) whom played a significant part in the served by Tycho Brahe some 30 years being Cohimba, the Dove, which be- history of the RAS. A portrait of earlier. came Noah's dove, winging her gentle particular significance to the SIS was way back with the olive branch to that of the Rev. Lewis Evans, another Other books displayed included what is Noah's Ark which had conveniently founder member of the RAS and an perhaps the 'all time classic' of astron- replaced 'Argo Naris', the Ship Argo. early collector of instruments, whose omy, the First Edition of Copernicus' De collection formed part of that of his Revolutionibus of 1543 including the descendant, also Lewis Evans, whose A brief return to the sul:qect of early famous diagram with the Sun at the fine collection is a founding collection of photography was made with a later centre of the Universe; Ceilarius' Harmo- print of a very early negative and the Museum of the History of Science at nia Macrocosmica'(actually the 1708 edi- Oxford. positive process photo of William tion, which is virtually identical to the Herschel's .lO-ft telescope, which was earlier seventeenth century printing) demolished in December 1839 by his son The library is arrived at by the fine with its three dimensional visualizations John, and one of A.A. Common's own staircase which is lined by some fifty of various world systems, almost Wag- large prints of his magnificent photo- past portraits of the present and pre- nerian in scale and Petrus Apianus graph of the Orion Nebula, taken in sidents of the RAS, with the most recent Astronomicum C,ae~reum of 1540 with 1888. portraits at the bottom. This means that its many 'volveiles' for working out the when a new president is elected, all the position of planets and other bodies, pictures have to he shifted up one and its key map of the constellati(ms at We were also shown a portion (about six position, with the portrait at the top the front with the older Southern inches long) of Newton's apple tree from going into the archives, as there is not constellations in a sort of 'fringe' round Wooisthorpe Manor, donated to the RAS enough space on the staircase for all of the outside, well demonstrating that in 1912 by C.W. Walker, whose father the past presidents. there were no Southern circumpolar acquired it when the tree was blown constellations at that date, as they had down in 1820. Apparently the tree had The RAS's collection of books is one of not been invented yet! Towards the end blown down and re-grown on more the major astronomical collections in the are views of various comets (including than one occasion and the RAS's piece world. The core of the collection was Halley's) and the first depiction of the of the tree is earlier than most of the donated by Colonel E. H. Grove-Hills of tail of the comet streaming away from other remaining pieces, which derive the Royal Engineers in 1923 and con- the Sun in what we now know as the from later re-growtk~. tains many fine early books on cosmol- Solar Wind, and a short section on ogy. instruments including the equatorial 'Torquetum' of AI-Tuzi. Peter mentioned that, although the RAS Library was privately funded for its In the Main Library and Upper Library members and was not a 'public library', The group were particularly impressed a fine selection of astronomical atlases it was rare for anyone with a sensible by Hevelius' Machina Coelestis of 1679, with charts of the constellations were enquiry to he turned away and any with its numerous engravings of instru- laid out for inspection. These ranged member of the SIS needing information ments including the 150ft 'astronomical from Apianus's Poeticon Astronomicon of on a particular subject would be machine' at Danzig - constructed so as 1482, via Bayer's Uran~raphia of 1601 welcome to use it on a reference basis (the first atlas to use the 'Bayer' to maximize focal length and minimize by prior appointment. designations with Greek letters such as chromatic aberration in the days before 'Alpha Centauri') to Fiamsteed's Atlas the achromatic lens, and a charming Coelestis of 1729. A later English version view of Hevelius and his second wife The visit concluded with a glass of wine of Flamsteed's atlas, Dr John Bevis's Elizabeth ob~rving together with a after which some of the group then Uranographia Britannica, was shown. This quadrant. One of Edmond Halley's retired with Peter to a local wine bar for atlas was never properly published but charts of Eclipse tracks and his famous lunch. dates from circa 1750, and is one of the Chart of the Western Ocean of 1700 rarest major astronomical books in the were also on display. This was a fascinating visit and our World, with of the order of 15 copies grateful thanLs are due to Peter Hingley known. Finally we saw Bode's Uranome- Peter showed us some of the 'quirky who had gone to enormous effort to put tria of 1801 including the many extra extras and oddities' that add depth and so many of the RAS's treasured I:,adcs constellations made up during the 17~. interest to a collection. For example, he and instruments on display for us to see. and 18'h. centuries, especially in the pointed out a triangular distance table Peter must also be thanked for his Southern hemisphere, and Peter Hin- stuck on the overs of the copy of the highly entertaining presentation, which gley's personal favourite, the 32 beauti- Cellarius, very similar to but much more can appropriately be described as a fully coloured cards of Urania's Mirror, attractive than those found in modem stellar performance. Thanks are also dating from about 1820 and now known road atlases. This table shows the due to Dr. Silke Ackermann who to have been compiled by the Rev. distances between major European cities worked with Peter to make this visit Richard Rowse Bloxam and not by a (with Bethlehem thrown in for good such a success. Finally, the author would lady, as described on the title page of the measure). like to thank Peter again for his accompanying book. generous help with the preparation of A more substantial curiosity was Julius this report. The way in which lists of stars were re- Schiller's Coelum SteUatum Christianum used from atlas to atlas was demon- of 1627, where all the ancient Pagan strated by the appearance on Bayer's constellations were replaced by Chris- Author's address: chart of Cassiopeia of the bright star, tian saints and other symbols. The only 9A Belsize Park that was actually the supernova oh- constellation which remained the same London NW3 4ES Bulletinof the ScientificInstrument S~iety No. 68 (2001) 31 Entente Cordiale: A Visit to Paris and the Recently Reopened Conservatoire des arts et m tiers Jane lnsley, Anita McConnell and A.D. Morrison-Low secure home fi~r 80,000 objects, with statue of Gramme stands holding an photography, conservation and work- electric coil. The visitor Ls encouraged to shop facilities on site. Visiting researchers take the lift to the second floor, and steps are catered to and monitored in two out into the eaves of a distinguished dedicated re,,~arch rooms. Over two building, housing the instrument collec- flt,~r~, the racking supFn~rts bar-ct~ed tion. The struggle to understand time and sheh'es and s~,cial pallets. As the (&lects space serves as an introduction to the rest enter the store, they are checked for of the museum, giving the instruments a contamination and their new k~'ations pivotal ride which we thoroughly ap- art, added to the already computerized plauded. The previous cl(z~-packed pries inventory information, li is intended to of objects had been thinned out consider- make this database available over the ably (some 90°,, are in the reserve), internet in due course. allowing a focus on items clustered an~und the date periods pre-1750, 1850 For convenience, the items are kept and 19~1. The new showca~ have a together in subiect groups as far as neutral grey backdrop against which the p(~sible. The exhibitions in the newly instruments shine, and a set of running opened Mu.,,eum u.~ seven main cate- strips at the back form a vermtile way of gories (mientific instruments; materials; allowing clip-on mounting of lighter construction; communications; energy; objects and labels. We were impressed mechanics; transport) but the store uses at the start by an astrolabe shown with its over sixty main subject fields. A weight component parts set apart in s~uence, restriction of up to ~}0 kilos limits items but there were two other exhibition in the basement; larger items are kept at features which particularly stood out. Fig. I ",' ,~ ,,-:, ,;,l~' ,,',/~'!It ,t~:,','~ ,,It,'. ground floor level, with ready access to omctvr l,u I'mvt ,t ( )~.-cn-Brau. 1734. lhts ~s workshops or indeed a sheltert~ exterior th=' carl,'st survtvt~i~" _'~'!f-reN.i..ter,l.~.. t~lstrll- ]'he first of these addres,,~l the perennial bay for messy rand-blasting or paint- problem of how to show a static object merit a'lnch records botll With/dlrt'ctiot! and stripping operations. We wandered en- ~l,eed working. In this and other galleries, the tranced through the rese~'e collections, more iconic pieces had been filmed admiring ~me of the 25,{XX1 technical working, and explanations, demonstra- drawings for which the museum has long tions or other features were shown as a The sun shone and the thermometer been famous; .~me of the 2,000 mt~els of mlection of video clips acces~d by chmbed wlentlt.~,slv throughout our late agricultural and transport machinery, touchmreen. So the pendulum anem- ~prmg excursion across the Channel, large numbers of instruments, including ometer (temporarily removed to the with our mare target the new Conserva- a Hauksbee pump and weights and meteorology exhibition downstairs), nor- toire des arts et metiers (CNAM). The measures. There is a particularly iml~r- mally lived in a case next to a small hrst in.~trument spotted on the trip was tant collection of very early telegraphy con~de where it was shown registering however an anemometer set on the top of material. Our guide for the visit to the either windspeed or direction (Fig. l). the tower of St. Jacques, dating from st(we was Christiane [X~lpy whose kind This was dimreetlv done, and enhanced 1~8. amongst a truly alarming group of and open-hearted welcome extended to the bilingual text iabelling without gen- nineteenth-century statues, including a speaking to us in English, and to whom erating extraneous noi~ to distract other greyhound and a boar. (Don't ask! - but we are grateful for a memorable after- visitors. Another particularly impressive the Bhw Gu,tt' told us that one of the noon, which culminated in an impromp- installation next to the Michel~m inter- .,,tatut~, is of I'awcal. who in 1642 verified tu recital from a street organ being ferometer used computer-generated gra- renovated in the workshop. here ba rometric experiment~ made on the phics to explain how the speed of light l'uv de D6me). We had decided to take in was actually measured. a little general cultural history: a walk to In 1994 commuters on the Paris Metro the old lie de la Citt~ and the stained glass discovered that the Arts et Metiers windows of Notre Dame and the Sainte station, adjacent to the Mu~,um, had Fhe other impressive feature was an Chapelle gave us a flavour of French been converted into a gleaming copper enquiry, rt.~mrce entitled Kiosk, one of hl~.torv. 'nautilus', with porthole showcases ad- these being sited at the end of each vertising the .,~,ven themes of the forth- section. It offenM touchmreen access to information not only ahmt other mu- [hat aftt,rnt~m we pre~'ntt~ ourselves at coming new displays. On 2] March this seums in France and elsewhere in the the remote-contndled gak~ of CNAM - year CNAM opent~ its dtn~rs, and in world which hold related material, but I~e~ re,,erves, a new building in the May hosted a temporary exhibition on also details of training courses and northern suburb of St. Denis. Con- mettnwology - ~ not only were there the careers, and industrial companies in ~,tructed and fitted out between 1993 refurbishments to an institution that most related fields which would welcome and I~'~r~, the ~N}(I .,,quare metre store of us could barely wmember from more visits from the general public. At the ~a~ purpo,~,-bullt to take the collections than a decade earlier, but the first touch of another 'button', the contact trom (NAM in P-~, .,~ that the main temporary exhibition promised yet more information fiw the institution of your bulldmg in rue Reaumur could be instruments. But first, the Museum. choice would be pnnted out on a slip of compk'tely refurbi~ht~. A ten-year pro- paper for you to take away. This was gramme, now brilllanth,' executt~, has The wide and airy entrance hall is terrific stuff, marred only by being clearly della, ered ,in envm~nmentalh,' contndled entered from a courtyard, where a bronze in the early stages of being set up - the 32 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrun'~..nt .~'iety No. 68 (2001) the Ariane rocket. One emerges at ground level (inevitably), near the b,~,k- shop, where a range of well-illustrated books are available in French and Enghsh, together with indispensable postcards. For the meteorological enthusiasts, it was necessary to move on to the teml~,rary exhibition area, to which most of the monitoring instruments had been re- moved from their place on the top flt~,r. The exhibition, mounted with the assis- tance of Met#o-France, was entitled 'Mesurer I'Atmosphere', and first impres- sions were of a very atmospheric space, defined and divided by white gauze drapes, a white floor and blue lighting. Ckr~er inspection revealed that it was going to be very hard work: the level of lighting was so low that the small handix~oks listing the exhibits presented Fig. 2 Tu~ocurah,r5 examine the l~ns,isier display. (free) at the beginning of the exhibition were, with their pale grey print, difficult to read in the gloom. Despite the cost of list of institutions was far from complete Many of the instruments are drawn from production, they provided little beyond or comprehensive, but the technology on three collections - the cabinet of J.A.C. basic descriptions, but as the exhibition the display floor worked like a dream. Charles, professor of experimental phy- included items on loan from elsewhere sics at CNAM, the horologist Ferdinand they formed useful souvenirs. Three Berthoud, and the chemist Antoine other criticisms sprang to mind: the The same could not be said for the Lavoisier. We were pleased to see those central aisle carrying the main messages attempt to include audiotapes. As with old favourites, the workshops of included a block of instruments that were the KiosLs, these were set in clusters at Berthoud and Lavoisier (Fig. 2), also almost completely obscured by the various points through the galleries, and Jesse Ramsden's first dividing engine. gauze; there was no form of temperature offered a choice of four or six short The church, which was previously the control at all, and the little cinema at the commentaries, in either English or entrance, was founded in the llth end of the room used incredibly intrusive French, of seminal moments in the century on an ancient basilica site, and music, which was far too loud'. relevant section. Each commentary had was restored in the nineteenth century, by its own headphones, and the tapes were I£~on Vaudoyer; now restored again, it That said, the exhibition looked lovely. of actors, reading excerpts from speeches houses various icons, which are hoisted The bartnneters came in for close atten- or writings given by the historical skyward in a somewhat alarming fash- tion, but it would have been nice to be character, or in an imaginary monologue ion: Scott's steam engine, the construc- able to see them more clearly (Fig.3). The representing opinion or feelings. For the tion model for Bartholdi's Statue of exhibition was divided into five sections: scientific instrument section, quotes were Liberty, Am~dde Boiide's 'UOb~issante' What is the weather? Modelling the from Pascal, Leewenhoek, Lavoisier, - the first steam-powered autobus, air- atmosphere; Stonng and transmi,~sion of Fortin, Froment and Kelvin; unfortu- craft by Breguet, Bl~riot, Esnault-Pelterie, weather data; Upper air; and Measuring. nately, very few of the tapes were and a model of the Vulcan engine from This last ran the length of the exhibition working properly, and children's predi- lection for pushing buttons at random (and to destruction) was brought to the fore. As the visitors continue on a downward spiral through the building, they pass in tum through rooms devoted to materials, construction, communications, energy, mechanics and transport. The scientific instrument enthusiast will find plenty to admire in the presentation of craft and industrial skills, which remains the museum's main function. We were none- theless delighted to see that some of the old features have been retained - the rails in the floor to assist in moving the exhibits around the building for lectures have been carefully preserved, and the collegiate church of Saint-Martin-des- Champs still contains Foucault's pendu- lum, demonstrating the rotation of the Earth. Fig. 3 it u~as quite a ctkdlen~e to examine th; barometers. Bulletin ot the Scientific instrun~,nt Society No, 68 (2001) 33 r~.,m, and held most of the instruments categorized by what they measured. Meteo-France had relea.,~cl .several items from their various stations, including the Musee de Setim at Trappes, where l'elsserenc de Bort had set up the ob~r~'ato~, at the end of the nineteenth centu~'. it was delightful to see the watercolours of the sk~,; added by Andre des Gachons to his weather repo'rt cards between 1915 and 1917, the engraving of a well- wrapped ¢~rver at the Pic du Midi in 1885, and the early radio-sondes devi.,~xt by Pierre Idrac and Robert Bureau in 1927 and 192~. It was u~ful to be reminded of the balkam flights made by Blot and Gav-Luss~c in 1804, and to .see another, m,~lern, interpretation of Lewis F~' Richardson's dream of the theatre of human weather computers, being kept in Fig. 4 [our ,'arht n,l~'(~,,at.,n instrum,'nts lit tit; Mus,~,, d,' hi Marine, mcludin X an earhl order by the Chief Forecaster, like the marine colPlpass by Manuel Ferreira, Lis&,n, 1744, a cross staff by. van Keulen, Amsterdam, conduct~r of an orchestra. The conical 1776 and a u~h'n m~'turnal by. A. H,~'naer, Leiden. tube of the Amonton barometer, more than two metrt.'s tall, is Dust amazing. And we caught up with the d'Ons-en-Bray Towards the end of the afternoon, we Museum Boerhaave symposium on recording anemometer of 17.'kl. tram the thought that a visit to the Louvre - scientific instruments. ca.,~, on the second fl¢x~r. We ended the especially on a Wednesday, when tickets day with a visit to the church of St. are cheaper - would be a good idea. One Suiptce, to mspect the meridian line laid of our number was enthralled at the idea The Mu~um produces a number of down by Henv," Sully and completed in of ~eing the Nicholas Landau Collection, illustrated guidebooks in both French 1744 bv'Lemonnier. " which contains some interesting and and English, and has published in French early pieces. However, it was not to be: inventories of the weights and measures after some rapid research under the glass coilectmns (198'-)) and the magic lantern The following day, we visited the Mu.s6~ pyramid - worth visiting, if only to buy slide collection. ]here is also literature de la marine, at the Palais de Chaillot in some postcards and visit the b~kshop, the Place du Trocadero. 1-here were no we di~overed in CyberLouvre that most about the Foucault pendulum: J. Foiret et al., Le penduh" de F,,ucault au mu~e des arts barometer~, ~dh', but enough instru- of the Richelieu wing was ck~-,cl on et m,;tiers (CNAM: Paris, 1990), ISBN 2- ment~ to make the visit more than Wednesday evenings, and that that was 908207-04-4; 30 FF; and the record of the worthwhde. An early marine compass where the Nicholas Landau Collection is made by Manuel Ferreira in Lisbon in housed in RCa~m 46. On our last morning earlier temporary exhibition: S. Deli- georges, 1851-1902-1995 Ix pendule de 1744. together wflh a crt~s staff by Van we managed a quick dash into the Palais Keulen ot Amsterdam, dating from" 177,6, de la decouverte before a cluster of school Foucau/t au Panth&,n (CNAM: Paris, 1995), ISBN 2-8~22-146-4; 25FF; and a were two of the .-tar items (Fig. 4), but parti~ arrived, and, finding that it lived there were ai.,~ two Islamic quadrants up to its reputation of an interactive well-illustrated book about the develop- and two Mort~'can planispheric astro- ~ience centre - there was a sighting of a ment of French meteorology: J.P. Javeile labes. There were two n¢~-turnals, one of forlorn Fr~nel lens by Dubosx'q, and a et al., La mf't&,roh~gie du bin,metre au ~ ~,d. one ot brass, both by the l_x,iden reflecting telescope (protected under ~ltellit,, (Delachaux et Niestle: Lausanne, maker. A I-h~,venaer. The guideb~a~k glass) - we .~urried out again and back nd) ISBN 2-6034HI88-X; 290FE tells u,, that the mu~,um has lq octants to the Gare du Nord, and home. dating from atter 17~1, of which nine are Fantastique! French-made: and .~ ~'xtants. the oid¢.'st The Mu.,~e de ia marine al.~) produces its dating from 1,"75, ot which 27 are French. guideb~n~k in French and English edi- Notes and References A g~ ~,lection of the~e is on display. tions. There is al~ a ~tunning collection of hghthou~, optics, which displays some of For recent discussions concerning the the earhe~,t experimental Fr~,nel len~,~-'sto wnovation of CNAM, .~'e articles in Auth,,rs" addres/~.'s: ~,urvt~e Howmer. in the main, this is a ,Mus&" des arts et ,Wtiers - l~l r~'ue, no. mu~.um about the .,,ea, mar=time explora- lane lnsley 28/20 (March 2(XIO), ppl-8. A special S,'wnce Mu~un, hon and .~h,ppmg ttx'hnology, .,~ that, as issue of Connais~mc,. des arts, produced in South Kensi,xh,n ' Lon,hm SW7 2DD one nught expect, the larger part is both Fwnch and English is devoted to the dmoted to marmme paintings and .~hip Mu~,um Visits to the r¢.~,r~'e store at Anita McComwll m~,Jel~, tAe emergtxi, ~ that one of our 21K avenue du I'r~'~kient Wil.,~m, 93210 party could chmb the Eiffel Tower (it is a 46 D~v Hour, La-Pleine-Salnt-Denis must be bln,ked in Barbican, 12radon EC2Y 8DN tradmon, aster all), and m the aftermsm. advance: tel: 01-49-46-~)-~). B. Jacomv, ~ve all paM a visit to the catacombs, '!3~1 cabinet au con,~.rvatoire', ]. th~torv ~f A.D. Morrison-l.ane ~vluch sva~ an unforgettable, if .,,omewhat Co/h'ctio,s, 7 (2)(1~). pp, 227-233 isthe nlaca[a re, cx [~.,rlence. Natiomd Mu.q'ums of Scothmd, published version of his talk at the Chaml,ers Str,','t, Edinburgh EHI llF Bulh.tm of the .'~,'nhfic In.,.lrun~.nl ,%.~'|ety No, 68 (2001) The 'Baghdad Battery' Allan A. Mills In 1936, earth-moving operations were being carried out by Iraq State Railways on the Baghdad-Bakuba line, some 2 miles from the outskirts of Baghdad and near a series of hilloclcqknown locally as Khuyut Rabbou'a (also transliterated as Khujut Rabu'a). On 14" June a stone slab covering an ancient burial was exposed, and this chance di~overy resulted in the site being excavated by the Iraq Anti- quities Department? Over 600 stratified objects and fragments were recovered, including pottery and glass vessels, beads, clay figurines, and bricks en- graved with symbolic characters. These enabled the site to be identified as an important settlement of the Parthian period, around 248 B.C. - 226 AD. The collected artefacts were transferred to the lraq Museum, Baghdad, where in Fig.l The Parthian objects found in association at Khuyut Rabbou'a in 1936. due course they were examined by Wilhelm Konig, then Head of the Con- (Fig. 2). Whether the pottery vessel was Such a function would, of course, vastly servation Laboratory. He was particu- simply a support, or also served to predate the generally accepted invention larly intrigued by an associated group of contain the electrolyte if the copper of the voltaic pile by Alessandro Volta ~ in objects found in level F IV (b), and given cylinder was not watertight, is not clear. 1800. The 'Baghdad Battery' was pub- registration numbers IM 29209 - 29211. Konig further states that more of these licized by the science fiction writer Willy They are shown here in Fig. 1, and assemblies had been found in excava- Ley) and soon came to occupy an consist of: tions in Tel'Umar/so goes on to suggest increasingly garbled and exaggerated that a number of such cells in series place in many popular and uncritical a) An ovoid fiat-bottomed pottery jar, compilations of 'marvels and mysteries would produce a battery, of sufficient with its upper flange broken away at from the past' - for example references 7- the neck. Height 140 mm, max. od. power to permit the electroplating of 14. More unfortunately perhaps, it has 80 ram. small copper or silver ornaments with a'iso found its way into serious textb(~)lcs gold. ('Battery' comes from the term on the history of electricity and the b) A roughly made tube of sheet copper, applied to a fixed, side-by-side array of technology of battery systems. '~ ~ 98 x 26 ram, with one end closed by a heavy cannon used to batter down the disc of the same material. walls of a town during a medieval siege.) Ele.~rical Difficulties A a c) completely rusted remnant of Konig's reconstruction of the object as a crudely pointed iron rod, 75 mm voltaic cell faces a number of technical long. oblecfions that are not mentioned in the articles referenced above: d) Fragmen~ of natural bitumen, with further bitumen covering the base of a) the interior of the copper vessel and There is no supporting wntten evi- forming a collar around the top of the dence for such a device within its rusty iron rod. Apparently, (b) and (c) culture, nor hints from other ~wietit~. were found as an assembly, with the iron rod held within the copper tube b) No 'connecting wire' was as.~ciated (but not in metallic contact with it) by with it. A bare metallic wire would the bitumen collar. This assembly was sen'e, but as these had been drawn itself within the pottery jar. from copper and precious metals from very ancient times a deliberately These materials are concordant with a insulated wire (e.g. wrapped with date between the first century B.C. and cloth and bitumen) would be more the first century A.D.: it is the function persuasive. proposed for the assembly that has led to a certain notoriety. c) Any pair of dissimilar metals dipping into an electrolyte will generate a A Primary Cell? potential difference IP.D.) between themselves. ~" '~ - Electn~es of freshly Konig~-~ prop(~sed that the addition of a abraded copl~.-r and iron were placed dilute acidic electndyte, such as vinegar in the following aqueous electrolytes or lemon juice, would cause the a,~sembly Fig .2 Kim(g's reconstruction as a "~)ltaic and the PD. between them measured to behave as a primary voltaic cell cell'. with an electrometer~: i Bulletin of the Sc~ntific Instrument Society No. 68 (2001) 35 i Electrolyte mV Gilding of Copper and Silver v) Craftsmen to whom mercury was not available might still have gilded Acetic acid (5%) 540 Gilded jewellery is known from early copper ornaments by briefly dipping Citric acid 490 times, and was the major reason for them into the gold/copper eutectic 2, Common salt, NaCi 440 Konig's proposal that the Baghdad melting at c. ,100"C, probably cover- Natron a', sodium carbonate device was used for electrochemical ing the alloy with molten resin to act Na.,CO, 56 deposition of gold. However, apart as a protective flux. Sodium bicarh(mate NaHCO, l0 ~m the above electrical difficulties, Trona ~', sodium sesquicarbonate, problems of a more chemical nature The Real Purpo~ of the Artefact? Na:CO,.NaHCO~ 4 then arise: In 1993, Keyser ~ published by far the These potentials were independent of f) Solubilization of gold is very difficult best evaluation of the Baghdad arte4act, electrode surface area, and were only - the reason for its 'nobility'. The but stillaccepted that it was electricalin slightly affected by electrolyte con- element is dissolved only by a nature: he prol~ed that it was used for centration, but some did tend to mixture of concentrated hydrochloric analgesia. I find this unlikely in view of the 'electrical' objections above, espe- decrea~ with time. The copper was and nitric acids ('aqua regia') or always the ~sitive am¢e, and the s~ium/potassium cyanides. These cially since it takes about 50v to be iron the negative cath,~e. reagents are generally held to be mildly detectable to the fingers, whilst products of medieval alchemy. 'electric fish' generate some hundreds of volts. Demonstration of this phenomenon ~ g) Simply dipping a cleaned copper or d~s not prove that the assembly silver ornament into a gold solution So what could be the purpose of the under di~ussion was ever intended will produce a coating of the latter artefact? Any reconstruction of the func- as an electrochemical cell. metal by displacement. The process tion of an unknown object must be ceases as soon as all the base metal compatible with the way of life of its erstwhile owners, not with some fancied d) Copper/zinc is a more effective has been covered, so the film is resemblance to a modem object - here a couple than copper/iron. Experimen- extremely thin and easily worn off. tal tests with these metals in 5% acetic A well-known demonstration is dip- torch battery. Now, if you are making acid give a PD. of 580inV. It was ping a penknife blade into acidified ~)umeys in an arid land then water is found in ancient times that zinc is copper sulphate solutilm: a film of most precious - your very survival may much easier to smelt from its ores copper (initially an unexpected sal- depend on the contents of a goatskin than iron, so if the device was mon pink) is deposited. 'Displace- attached to the camel's saddle. A crack or intended to produce a ED. why was ment gilding' is not a proof': of hole could prove di~strous. I therefore the latter preferred? electrochemical plating. wish to put forward the mundane and undramatic suggestion that it is the contained bitumen that justified carriage Indeed, the occurrence of gilded ob~cts e) 5 ~parate Cu/Fe cells with 2" x 1" of the agsembly described by K6nig. In in ancient firnes does not necessarily electrodes (spaced 0.25" apart) dip- the event of a leak the iron rod was made point to electrochemical deposition at ping into 5°.0 acetic acid were con- hot in a flame (perhaps the spike was all,for a number of alternative techniques nected in series to produce a battery. were known: once driven into a wooden handle) It registered a P.D. of 2.6 volts on the plunged into the bitumen to melt off a electrometer - essentially open cir- b]ob, and then applied to the leaking area cuit. However, as soon as a nominal i) Coating with 'gold leaf' secured with of goatskin. The hot rod was then a resinous cement. 2.5 v torch bulb (7.5 ohm resistance) returned to the copper container, which was placed across the terminals the in turn was dropped into a (salvaged) P.D. fell precipitously to near zero: the it) 'Pickling': the etching of alloys of a pottery vessel to protect other posses- battery was utterly incapable of low gold content to leave an enriched sions against heat and soiling. causing the lamp to so much as surface layer. glow. -'~ An external resistance of Notes and References liXI0 ohms permitted a long-term iii) Mercury or 'fire' gilding depends on current of no more than 120pA and the fact that gold filings will dissolve 1. A.AI-Haik, "The Rabbou'a Galvanic Cell', a ED of 300 mV, the iron becoming in elemental mercury to form a liquid Sumer 20 (1964), pp. 10,'~4. di~oloured and rust~: alloy traditionally known as an amal- 2. W. Konig, 'Ein galvanisches Element aus gam. When rubbed overa clean copper der Partherzeit?" For~hungen und Fortschritte ]'his phenomenon is known as/x~hlr- or sih'er obk-,ct it forms an adherent 14 (1) (19,'~), pp. 8-9. tzathm.:'- It is believed to be due to a amalgam with them, too. Heating to 3. W. Konig, Nenn ]ahre Irak (Rohre~. Briinn, local diffusion-limited fall in concen- some 300"C then decomp¢~es the 1940), pp. 166-168. amalgam and drives off the mercury, tration of oxidizing ions in the 4. L. Waterman, Prelimim,~. Report upon the vicinity of the am~e. A one-time leaving behind a layer of gold. There is Excazmtlons at Tel Umar (Ann Arbor, 193|), empirical remedy still used t(~ay in nothing deficient about the results: it is voI.L pp.61-62 and plate 12. not (legally) used today simply be- the ve~' successful Leclanch~ cell is 5. A Volta, 'On the Electricity Excited by the packing manganese dioxide around cau~ the evolved mercury vapour acts as a cumulative neurotoxin. Mere Ctmtact of C~mducting Substances of the an(~e? ~ It acts as a depolarizer. Different Kinds', PhiI.Trans.Rov.Soc. 90 pt.2 (18(~)), pp. 403-431. in French: tra~q, into iv) Ca)ld decoration is still applied to English in PhiI.Ma~. 7 (1800), pp. 288-311. Electn~plating only became practic- and glazed china glass by painting 6. W. Ley, 'The Elements of Khuiut Rabu'a able in the late 1860s with the with a colloidal suspensi,m of gold in invention of the polarization-resistant and Ct¢.,siphon', Galaxy. 9/3 (December 1954), aromatic oils. Firing drives off the pp. 44-51. Daniell cell -'', s(nm supplanted by the carrier and leaves the gold as an dynamo. adherent shiny film. 7. H.M. Schwalb, 'Electric Batteries of 2000 Years Ago', Science Digest 41/4 (April 1957). 36 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No, 68 (2001) 8. L. Spragne de Camp, The Ancu'nt En- 16. K.V. Kordesch, ed. Batteries. Vol ! Manga- 22. C.Ar Vincent and B..~k'rt~ati, Modern ,~meers (New York, 1960) Reprinted Cam- nese DioxMe (New York: Dekker, 1974). bridge, Ma~,~. 1970 and New York, 1974. Batteries: An Intn~luct#,m to Electrtwhemical Ptrus'r ~,urces (Arnold, 2"0 ed, 1907) 17. HJ.T. Ellingham, 'Primary Cells', Scheol 9. H Winkler, 'Galvani und Volta nur Scwnce Rev. 18 (19M~-37), pp. 352-.~6. Wiederentdecker - Eine dnngend notwendige Z~¢. B. Bt~we~, Michael Faraday and Electrioty Berichtigung', Elektrie 14 (1960), pp. 71-72 18. P.W. Atkins, General Chemistry (Scientific (Londlm: Priory Press, 1974), p. 62. 10, W. Winton, 'Baghdad Batteries B.C.', American I~oks, 198q), chapter I;~. Sumer 18 (lq~2), pp. 87-89. 19. A transkstori,,~d w)ltmeter of near-infinite 24. P Berg.,~e, 'Gilding of Copper Among the mtemal resistance. pre-Columbian Indians', Nature 141 (1938), p. It. F Hitching, The World Atlas of M~ter~es 829. (Pan B(~)K~, 1978). 20. Natnm and trana are widely available m 12. A C. Clarke, S. Welfare and J. Fairley, dese~ places as a result of the drying-up of 25. ET. Keyser, "The Purpose of the Parthian Arthur C. Clarke~ M~termus World (Collins, ephemeral lakes. Both give alkaline solutions C,ah'anic Cells: a First-Century AD. Electnc IqSO), pp. 62-64. when di.~)lved in water. Battery Used for Analgesia', J. Near Eastern Studies 52 (1~3), pp. 81-98. 13. E Jamt.,s a~u:l N. Thorpe, Anoent imwatnms 21. I am therefore puzzled by the successful (London: O'Mara B~K~,i~5) pp.148-152. applicatiim of large-area (but still elementary) 14. Surf the Web! Cu/Zn/mmeral acid battenes to high current Author's address: applicatitms (e.g. electromagnets) by Davy, Dept. of Ph~ics and Astronomy 15. CL. Mantell, Batteries and Energy S.~tems Faraday and others. This matter is being Uniiwrsity of Leicester (McGraw-Hill, 1970). pursued. Leicester LE1 7RH Mystery Object // , // I 6 7 | 2 4 $ Eyepiece Socket with elec~c light bulb Spectacles support Adju~ng scnew for hight positiontlatcntJ pm/tion it re.rid by hml) Focus adjustingknob Tipping marking device with 3 spcinglonded pins and inking lmd Illuminated dioptres-scale - 20 - 19 - 18 ...0...+ 19 +20 Fig.2 Mystem oblect. VUt==r~t: thinks that this is an older versitm of a The spectacles=re put on the ndjasmldesuPlXm (3). similar device in his collection, which is We see an annular nng of light and turn the focus adjusting Imod (5) till we tee = circle formed by • of Japanese manufacture, signed 'NIP- quantity of sharp dots. If necessm.y we move the spectacles up or down (4) and sidewnys till the nng is I~)N KOGAGU, Japan (N". 41)58)'. He is perfectly in the center. Eventually we adJUSt the focus. not sure about the date, but i suspect that it is from the 19,~s. Our obiect mis,,~s the Then we see the corresponding exact number of diop~ms in the scale oculaw (7) (scale: -20 ....+20). eyepiece and the light ~urce. rht ."~e days, The exact focus point and the lees otimtation can be marknd on tit, lentes by lipping the marking device (6) according to Rt~,rt De Pecker, the rome (in order to compare the distance between the focus points with the exact mitt'distance of the eyes) measurements are made with a black box with digital read-out. Fig.1 Instrument ~w measurin~ the dioptres of spectacle len.~s. This issue's myste~" obiect has been supplied by Peter Wi~,~,. He correctb/ Several members have identified cor- dioptres of spectacles. The most compre- supl~r-~s it to be electrical, it is about 1"1 rectly the mystery object in imue 67, hensive reply was received from Robert tan high and terminates in a cartxm rod which is an instrument for measuring the De Pecker, which ts reproduced here. He suspendtxt over a gia~,~ phial. Bulletin of the Scu~ntific Instrument St~iety No. 68 (2001) 37 Current and Future Events Until 13 May ~01, Paris, France exh~lholl will last three months. For further XX Scwnr!hc Instrument Symposium. Visils will be rhe temp~rary ex}ubit~m VOLT(A~ de I'etpltc'lle details ctmta~ SIS member An(ires Diaz Pazo~, arranged to among others the Observatory la p,le wdl lq~t,,n at the Comervah, re d~~, arts et C/Republica de El Salvador, 17 4A, 15701 Museum and the Nobel Jubilee Exhibition, bo~ Metwrs m Pans {ffJ, rue R~Saumur ~arr) This Sannago de Cmnposteh, Spain. Tel.: ÷M 981 5q m Sti~ckholm, and to Uppsala and Skokloster. For exhibltu,m dlustrate~ the hishwv of elt.~ trl~ try 09 24. E-mail: [email protected] the first circular c~mtact the ctmference address: the ~nnmg of Igm t'ellturv until ehc tn~,/entRln 12 May, London. E~lland The XX International Scwntific Instrument Sym- t~ the ek'ctnc battery Ils~h .Mow than 150 posium, Center for the History of Sciences, Royal apparatus [electrical m.~ Hne,,. dectr,,phoruses, SIS visit to The Museum of London, London Wall, Swedt~h Academy of Sciences, Box 50005, SE-104 Leyden lars and bat' r ,, ,.a~'tncal toys and London EC2Y 5HN 05 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected]. rn ~olltxla~ of the Home page on the Web:http:// demlwlstratlons, etc the it July 21101, london, EnBi~nd CNAM, the Scier, '.':...,urn ,,I l~km, Pavia www.c~,h, kva.se/sic200| .him Umverslty and ,,' ' , , Icmplr and LK't~ Volta The Society's Annual General meeting and October ~01, Londo~ Enl~nd m Conlo will ~ -i,i,,~cd ltl1~ every day Lectures at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington exceIH on M,' Htmse, Picadillv, London WlV 0LQ Speakers: The 31 "~ Scwntlfic & Medical Instrument Fair wdl be 29 ApHI 2~'! Iondon. Lngland Sylvia ,~amira: 2t~11: Another Space Od~sy - The held at the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, Port- Coma'erratum ~¢ Gh#~'s; Peter de Clercq: Rehcs of man Square, Lond(m Wl, frtnn 10:00 to 16.'00 The .'tO~ • . " ", :. kh,hta/i,:,trument Fair will be Science at the Sp~'ial la~n Exhibitara; and Peter hours. See above for details. held at ~hv K.i,tl~,'~nl ~-SIS I',,rtman Ho~el, P~wl- Hingley: The Histo~. of En,¢li~ Telesct~e Mounting man ~.r<.,n' london I% I. from I0:00 to 16:00 211 November 2001, Lemdon, Ensiand hotlr- \var,',t !. ndvrgn,und statam L~ Marble s Sqaember 2~, O~ford, EnF~nd Ar,!, \drl~:-~l,,n '..4 ['hi- lx~pular fair is now SIS visit to the recently rdurhi.~ed Museum of Fnnn Graduatam on Metal to Binary Phase Madula- or~.:.,n~/,xl t,~ I~lk~t I'rom,qi~ms. ~ Box 31525, the History. of Science, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 twn, the 9 'h Annual Invitation Lecture by I ,,i:don iX ll 2X'~ lrk'l~h,,lw/fax: +44 10120 8969 3AZ Pmk,ss~w Michael Cl~q>er, Ementus Professor 04 7!qI t -mad talh,t.tuart~qalk21.com Engmeenng Surveying, City University, London, Sept~nber - October 2001, Bruseels, 2 April 2001. Santiago de Compaetela, at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington Honse, Bell0um Picadilly, London WIV 0LQ Galicia, ~pain An exhibition commemorating the first experi- An exhib~ti(m cm Land-surz~lmg frmn Roman 9 - IS Sepl~mlNmr 2002, Athen=, Gn~ce ment ~dh t-lectnc hght made by Professor Times to the Remns.,~ncewill be organized m the taMre,, tm 2''~ Apnl 1/451, m the Unlve~ltv of Chapelle Nassau m the Royal Library. For this XX/Scwnt~c Instrument S lmlposium, the organi- banhago, u_~mg a regulated voltaic arc-light occaskm Jan de Graeve has translated the first z.ers are Eftymios Nicolaidis ([email protected]) and l'hen, will be around a hundred pK, Scientific Instrument Society Summary of Advertising Services For turther reformation contact the Society's Executive Officer (details on reside cover). 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All detailed arrangements to be made direct with Lithoflow Ltd. Payment Invoices will be i.ssued by the Society immediately after publicati~m of an issue of the Bulletin. [erms ~1 days after date of invoice. The Society "is not registered for VAT. 38 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument S~iety No. 68 (2001) Important Instruments of Science & Technology AUCTION IN LONDON: 19TH JULY 2001 We are accepting entries for this sale until 20th April 2001 A Fine and Rare brans compendium, slgned El~s Alien, English, first half 17th century f/ , /%/ ". ", \," #' r:,s,.' ' J2~'~ i • ,.2 ' • ~ I J . '::~'~ • -'7 ~" ~ :_ ....~ ~'.' ,~ /~~-~,. , , ,. ,. •,.. . ~ .... , ~ 1:.-) .~' , f: ' ENQUIRIES: Cathertne Southon Tel: 020 7293 5209 Fax: 020 7293 5915 SOTHEIIY'S 34-35 New Bond Street London WlA 2AA www. sot hebys corn SOTHEBYS Founded 1744 39 BONHAMS BROOKS Scientific Instruments, Mechanical Music, Cameras & Photography Forthcoming auction: Wednesday 9th May 2001 at 11am Sales held 2 - 3 times a year. Catalogue subscriptions: (£15 post paid) Tel 01666 502 200 Fax 01666 502 107 [email protected] Enquiries: Alexander Crum Ewing Tel 020 7393 3950 Email [email protected] Bonhams & Brooks, 65 - 69 Lots Road, London SWIO ORN www.bonhams.corn Henry Sutton brass Sector, signed, H: Sutton fecit 1659. Estimate £500 - £800. .. L -141 Bulletin ¢~f the ,~'tenttfic In.,,trunwnt ~x'letv No. (d4 (2IX)l) Rogers Turner Books 23a Nelson Road, London SE10 9JB 24 Rue du Buisson Richard, 78600 Le Mesnil-le-Roi, France Tel & fax 00 44 (0)20 8853 5271 T~I 00 33 1 39 12 11 91 : Fax 00 33 1 39 62 07 22 email [email protected] Classic work on one of the great field instruments Charles de Borda Description et usage du cercle de ri'Jlexion, apec diffCrentes mithodes pour calculer les obsert~ations nautiques 2rid edition, Paris, An XI (]8O2). Small 4o, contemporary mottled sheep with light wear, spree gilt, stamps of two different misionary libraries on 1/2 title and tp. Pp 80 + 33 (tables) + [iii, publishers catalogue] with 3 eng plates. A good to very good copy. 103 We~ kliso Stem 00jai. Cflifomia9302.3 Tek'pho~a~mite (8O5)646-02O4 INSTRUMENT BOOKS IN ALL LANGUAGES. ShopOre. l0 ~m. to 5 p.m.every Friday.Saturday, Sunday IF WE KNOW WHAT YOU SEEK WE WILL FIND IT and Mondayor by appoimmem Back Issues of the Bulletin ALAIN BRIEUX Following the clearance Special Offer there SCIENCES • TECHNIQUES e MI~DECINE are no longer any back issues available for numbers I to 59 (ie up to December 1998). The Society intends to make the whole of the Bulletin available on CDROM in the near future and members will be kept informed of developments. 48, RUE JACOB • 75006 PARIS Any enquiries please contact the Executive T~I. O1 42 60 21 98 • Fax 01 42 60 55 24 Officer Wg Cdr Geoffrey Bennett. OLD INSTRUMENTS OLD BOOKS • LITERATURE Table of Contents Appmpmte material ~ be retenswed m ~ Al,~m~ ..... • ...... *.-.o0.*0 ...... • ...... o..-00...0--.-...-0.**.o.0 ...... •°°•°•+°°°••°•*•••••••••••••••°°+••••••••••••••°••••°••*•°°•••••*°°•°°°••••••+••°°°°•°•••••••••••°••°°•°••••••*°°••+•••°••°°°• I Cover Story ...... Mike Cowham 1 Seine ~ Mtlit~ imm.m~ M,kem of the tree 17" Cmtury ...... ~ R. Mtm,um 2 The Amw~'a Imtatiem Lt~ume A Scwntmt and Imtnunen~ ...... A.D. B,y~ 6 The Development of Lmu Cmndin~ and Polishing Techniqum m the Fin,t Half of the 17" Cmtury ...... Roll ~,ch 10 Book Review ...... 15 Analyzm~ Sound i~ the Nineteenth Century The Koem~ Sound An,hr~ ...... David A. i~ t6 An Unumud Bevel ...... Robert De Peck~ 21 Se,ling W,x Scim~. "nw Hencht4s' Cabem of Curimtt~ ...... Emily W~mted~m 22 Solomon Gills'. My~.now imemment Maker of Cromer, or Soutlwe, ...... David ~ 28 V'mt to the Manta' House Mmeum -t Bury St Edmunds: 23"* September 2000 ...... A.D. ~ 29 Vmit to the Royal Astronomical Society. Saturday 20" January 2001 ...... Simon Ciwitetz 30 Entente Cot~liak~. A Visit to Pans and the Recently Reopetwd ~•toire des arts et ~ ...... buw link.y, Anita McConnt41 and A.D. ~ 32 Mystery ~ ...... 37 Current and Future Evmts ...... 38 Advertnem~ts ...... 38 The Scientific Instrument Society Membemhip The Saentific lremumem Society (SIS) was formed m April 1963 to bring toget~ people with • qx,caU,t intm~ im me,~qc mununmts, ranging lmm precious anUqum to ~ devices cmly recently out of productmn. Collectors. the antiClUm Wade. museum staff, pro~mim~i historians and other enthmiuts will find the vaned activit~ of SIS mJed to their tastes.The Society haman internati(mal membership. Activities Regular evening meetmM are ht4d in iamdo~ as well as ~-r.asioml one-day and week-ertd confenmc~ m attractive provincial kr,atiom. Speakers are usually experts m their field, but all members are welcome to give talks. Spemi 'behind-the-mine,' vimU to mtmeums are a useful feature. Above all, the Society's f,atlwrmgs are erqoyable tociai o¢camom, pin.ling opportunities to meet others with similar interests. The SIS Bulletin This is the Society's ioumal, published four times a year and sent bee to ,nmnbecL It is attractively produced and illustrated, and contains informative articles about a wide range of ~ts as well as book and exhibition reviews, news of SIS activities, and meetings of related societies. There is • lively letters page, and 'mystmy ob~' are presented. Another knttu~ is • clamifwd advertisement column, and antique dealers and auction houses regularly take advertising space, m that ~ may find the Bulletin • means of adding to their coflechom. How to join The annual subscription is due on I January. New mmnbets receive back copies of the B.dletm for the year in which they join. 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