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Scientific Instrument Society Bulletin March No. 56 1998 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society tSSN09S6-s271 For Table of Contents, see back cover President Gerard Turner Vice.President Howard Dawes Honorary Committee Stuart Talbot, Chairman Gloria Clifton,Secretary John Didcock, Treasurer Willern Hackrnann, Editor Jane Insley,Adzwtzsmg Manager James Stratton,Meetings Secreta~. Ron Bnstow Alexander Crum-Ewing Colin Gross Arthur Middleton Liba Taub Trevor Waterman Membership and Administrative Matters The Executive Officer (Wg Cdr Geofl~,V Bennett) 31 High Street Stanford in the Vale Faringdon Tel: 01367 710223 OxOn SN7 8LH Fax: 01367 718963 e-mail: [email protected] See outside back cover for infvrmatam 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 OXl 3AZ Tel: 016~ 811110 (home) e-mail: willem.hac~.ox.ac.uk Society's Website http://www.sis.org.uk Advertising Jane lnsley Science Museum Tel: 0171-938 8110 South Kensington Fax: 0171-938 8118 London SW7 2DD e-mail: j.ins~i.ac.uk Organization of Meetings Mr James Stratton 101 New Bond Street Tel: 0171-629 2344 l.xmdon WIY 0AS Fax: 0171-629 8876 Typesetting and Printing Lahoflow Ltd 26-~ Wharfdale Road Tel: 0171-833 2344 King's Cross Fax: 0171-833 8150 L~mdon N! 9RY e-mail: lithoflow.co.uk Price: ~ per issue, uncluding back numbers where available. (Enquiries to the Executive Off-a:er) The Scientific Instrument Society is Registered Charity No. 326733 © The ~:~t~ L~n~.nt Society l~ Editorial l'idlil~iil,lo ~If. I I1~ ~ .ata,?..~)vl | ~" " ~ I. ,,-I- -- ~ ~, ,, , F,~, '~ J-~ ~--I~ t" "" " - "k ~ ~ " ~-" 4 ~" ~ ~ "~ r -- ~' 4"- ,,..- * ~ ~ 'm"',~4 -., - ~ ~ ;j.- ' ~ - -~"-- : ~- -- 1-~. Fig.l This year's Annual Invitation Lecturer, Allan Chapman unth the Society's medal presented by. our Chairman, Stuart Talbot. Fig.2 Late eighteenth-century engravm¢ comparin$? set¢nteen contempora~, thermometers .scales. From Strength to Strength this issue, l am now looking forward opportunity, to visitthe Maynooth collec- with anticipation to David Bryden's 1998 tinn this Autumn for those who loint the Now that ! live in the country I have Anniversary Lecture (and its publicatkm SIS trip to Birr to see the Earl of Ross's become much more aware of the chan- in this journal). restored Leviathan {for a description, ging seasons. The days are growing Bulletin No. 53, pp. 31-36. longer, green shoots and buds are This issue has what I sincerely believe to appearing everywhere in the garden be another fine crop of papers. Apart J.B• te Pas has now reached the fourth and the birds in my aviary sensing the from the afore-menti(med paper by Allan German maker in his series, T. Ertel & coming of spring are demanding their Chapman on the early years of Gresham Sohn of Munich, and Allan Mills the nesting boxes. It is true that this could College, Olof Beckman of Uppsala Uni- third part of his series on magnif~,ing still be a false dawn with the sudden and versity has written on Lnneus's influ- glasses. Several readers have contacted dramatic onset of snow and frost as ence on the international acceptance of me to say that they are finding Dr Mills' threatened by the forecasters. 'Dor~'t put Celsius's centigrade scale• This will come analysis of the optical behaviour of away your winter woollies yet' these as a surprise to many of us who only single-lens magnifiers most useful. ! am killjoys tell us in sonorous voices. But I know of Linneus's impact on plant pleased that occasionally readers do take sense optimism in the air, and walk with taxonomy. To indicate the extraordinary .some note of my utterings in these pages. the other commuters to our small diversity of thermometer scales that At least l would like to believe so when country-station (built by Brunel) with a existed in the late eighteenth century ! Ron and Stella Bristow offered their lighter step. Likewise for the Bulletin - ! can do no better then to print this report on the Mystic Seaport Museum. am facing 1998 full of enthusiasm and engraving (Fig. 2) which I was sent a Attentive readers might remember that I optimism. Certainly, if a journal's health little while ago. Seventeen scales are suggested in one of my very first is measured in terms of readers' input listed. editorials that ! was keen to publish brief and articles submitted then the Bulletin is but detailed reports on specific museums doing fine. However, it does not do for an A place of honour in this issue has been under the rubric of 'Museum Report'• Editor to tempt fate by being complacent. given to an 'Appreciation' of Professor The last one appeared quite some time Good articles are always at a premium, Michael Casey, the former Curator of the ago. so please keep the ink flowing or (more College Museum in St Patrick'sCollege, likely these days) the word processor Maynooth in ]relend, the home of that Market Place this time moves to Porto- humming• famous pioneer of the induction coil, bello Road where I lived during my Nicholas Ca]fan. Michael Casey (of student days in the mid-1960s. It is a One of the best ideas of the SIS whom I have very fond memories) made constant regret these days that I do not Commlttee in recent years was instituting time in his king and distinguished career have the time to visit the many antique the Annual Invitation Lecture and what in modern chemistry research and sh(~s in this famous street more often. a delight these have been• A useful by- science teaching to organise the Museum (My wife probably has a different product has been some very fine learned at Maynooth. His labours over many opinion.) What readers should find papers for our journal. The fifth Annual years inspired the publication of a fine especially useful is Desmond Squire's Invitation Lecture by Allan Chapman catalogue of this collection by Charles list of dealers with which he terminates held on 3 December 1997was another Mollan and John Upton in 1995 (see the his piece. ! am looking forward to his such a glitteringoccasion (Fig. I), and l review in Bulletin, No. 52, p. 28). I am future 'Virtual Market Place' in which he am pleased to announce that Dr Chap- most grateful to Charles Mollan for his will tell us about selling by lntemet man has been able to prepare his lecture sensitive portrait of Michael Casey pub- Another person to be pricked into action in double quick time for publication in Eshecl in this issue. There will be the by one of my editorials is Brian Gee. Bulletin of the Scientific Inset Society No. 56 (1998) ~,~,rmng the review of Channing and R~,ert Bud and Deborah Jean Warner's established an intemet website which Dunn's Br:tish Camera Makers Claygate, (eds) Instruments of Science. An Historical we are sure will become a valued link 1906), ! wondered aloud about the Enc.wltq~edia, published by the Science between the Society's memlx~s old and relationship between J.H. Dallmeyer Museum, London and the National new, and it will be interlinked with many referred to in the above b~x~k and the Museum of American History, Smithso- museum websites. H Dallmeyer of Gloria Ciifton's Direc- nian lnstitutitm in association with Gar- to~ of British Scm~tific Instrument makers land Publishing, Inc., 1998, JSBN 0-815,3- 1550-185I (London, 1',~5). Brian Gee 1561-9, at £100 i always take great The website will be domiciled at the proves that they are one and the same delight in the beautiful effects created Museum of the History of Science in person. by the late nineteenth century physics Oxford and maintained according to the glassblowers such as Geissler Christoph Editor and Committee's directives by the l am happy to report that the course tm Meinel has produced an inexpensive Society's printers Lithoflow Ltd. the histow of .,~-ienhtic instruments in catalogue-m(n~graph of this material in the University of Regensburg with the Oxford Ls now in its ~,cond ,,'ear. An item Viewers of the website will be able to of particular interestto the readers of this title, Riihmkt,r~, Rimt~en, Re~ensburg His- h)ri~he lnstrumente :ur Ga.,~mtladung (Re- obtain information about the Society's Ioumal is the Annual Students' Exhibi- activities and view extracts from the tion This ',ear's with the title Lines of gensburg, 1997). All the malor types of current Bulletin: membership forms can Faith. deals with astronomy in the service di~harge tube feature in this catalogue, if Islam and opens on 10 March and which is illustrated by original contem- be downloaded and printed by the ch~,s on 27 June I'~8 (see elsewhere in porary engravings and line drawings. viewer. International copyright of the this issue for details). The exhibition will This worthwhile pn~-,ct was supported website's contents will remain the Socie- iota the others on the Museum's website. by the Hans R. Jenemann-Stiftung der ty's prerogative and will be protected AI~ stain to be featured on this site is the c:uese-II~haft Deutscher Chemiker. The under existing legal tenets. lomt exhibition with the Bodleian Li- 1998 Paul Bunge Prize administered in braq', The C,arden, the Ark. the T~n~vr, and part by the Jenemann Foundation will be The creation of this website will prove a the Temple. Biblical Metaphors t~f gnm~,ledge awarded in late April (see Editorial, steep teaming curve for both the Com- Bulletin No.
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