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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 Old Ashmolean Building Tel: 01865 277282 (office) Broad Street Fax: 01865 277288 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

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' ~ - -~"-- : ~- -- 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~, .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 '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 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 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 '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 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 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. 53, p. 2). The inexpensively m Early Modern Eurt~e which opened on mittee and members, and suggestions for produced ]ournal of the Microscopical 2 Eebrua~, and closes on 2 May 1998. The improvement will be welcomed. E-mail Society of Southern Cal![brnia continues to" exhibititm was linked with four success- inquiries about the Society will be replied ful lectures at the Museum held in the catch the eye. Unmarked Indian-made after due processing. Inquiries about Ba~ment Galle~,. This Gallery is now and other 'replicas' is exercising the mind individual instruments and/or their pro- ch~d heralding the start of the Mu- (and quite rightly) of Rick Blankenhom seum's building work to begin in earnest of C,emmary. This and other instrumental spective values should be referred to later in the year. issues are aired on httpdlwww.gemmary. local museums, auctioneers and dealers, comlrcblinststforum, which is well and will be outside the Society's website worth a visit. remit. Interesting publications continue to drt~ on the Editor's desk. Some will be reviewed m future issues, but this is not The Committee's sincere thanks to Roger always i~ssible. Derek Howse's Green- Hill, Ron Atherton and Sharon Wagner at with Time and lam c,itude was published Announcement Lithoflow, and to Dr Jim Bennett and recently by Philip Wilson, ISBN 0-8.%67- Giles Hudson 04 the Museum of the 4o8-0, at £19.95. It is in essence an The Society's Website:. History of Science at Oxford for their upgrading of his b~a~k originally pub- http'J/www.sis.or&uk creative input and advice on this land- hshed b',' Oxford University Press in 1980 mark project. ~ htch was in smaller print and had no The Committee is pleased to announce ,,Iour illustrations. A very useful addi- that the Society along with many •,,,n to the instrumental" b~a~kshelf is Stuart Talbot, museums and institutions has now Chairman SIS

An Unusual Sundial

\ rt~:urring theme in the Bulletin has been unusual instruments. But how about this one: a 'living sundial' that ! have just read ,bout in the March 1998 issue of the Horoh~ical ]ournal (p. 79). Two Scottish companies have recently won the 'Euronews' prize :,,r a novel sundial which was originally conceived as a DIY gardening idea, and was approved by Gardening Which in April ; '~'~'~. It immediately became popular with schools in this country and abroad as an inexpensive and vandal proof outdoor ,.d ~cational feature." All that is required is a level, sunny, area about the size of a boxing ring. The shape of the dial depends on i,,ngaude and latitude and is accurate to 15 minutes. It can be made from wood, paving stones, paint, flowers or anything ',~ hlch allows a per~,n (acting as the gnomon) to stand on it. The dial, which was awarded first prize in a National Garden 1~'~,ign competition for Junior Schools in the 1994 Chelsea Flower Show, costs f.24.95. Contact: 0141 633 5858. Future museum ,urators may well wonder where to put this novel dial in their collection.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998)

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4 Cover Story Emblems of The New System of Natural Philosophy

Philosophical issues that occupied seven- Magna (London, 1620), which shows a ship it with the publication of Sprat's complete teenm centu W natural philosophers were sailing through the pillars. Histor~.m 1667. By this time Evelyn had expressed visually in allegorical title page companen the design of the emblematic engravingr and frontispieces. It is a theme The spirit of the new Baconian science is frontispiece which Beale now offered to to which I plan to return in future 'Cover well illustrated in the highly emblematic Sprat for insertion in his book. The absence Stories'. What could be more appropriate frontispiece to Sprat's History celebrating of the frontispiece from many of the copies for this issue, however, than to reproduce the early Royal Society which is reproduced may well be because by the time the offer the frontispiece to Thomas Sprat's The on this cover. The three figures in the reached Sprat the publication of the History History of the Ro~l-S(riety of London, for the foreground are the central bust of Charles had reached an advance state, and some Improving of Natural Knowledge (London, ii the formal Patron and Founder of the copies may have already been printed? The 1667) as a way of celebrating Allan Royal Society, flanked by William, Viscount engraver was especially Chapman's 1997 SIS's Annual Invitation Brouncker, the then President of the Royal known to us for his engraving of the Elias Lecture' on ? Society (on the left),and (on Allen portrait, executed in 1666 aft~ a lost the fight). No divine illumination here. This cpohartrait by H. van der Bonaht (Fig.3 in Allen pman s Annual Invitation Lecture). A key debate tackled visually in this way is a thoroughly secular picture celebrating was the relative status that should be given both the founding of the Royal Society and to the evidence of the senses, as compared the Stuart monarchy so instead of God's The copy reprod~ on our cover is from to that received through faith or reason. 1 light the king's bust is crowned with a laurel the Royal Society s archives.' There is have to admit to a sneaking sympathy with wreath by Fame with her characteristic written underneath in 's hand: the Inquisition who challenged Galileo's trumpet. The original scheme was even 'Presented to the R Society from the Author science for being based on and more sycophantic: columns of the malor by the hands of Dr John Wiikins, Octob. 10. not on Aristotelian reasoning. As far as classica/orders to symbolise the three Stuart 1667'. Wilkins is our link between this they were concerned how could he argue kings. This was rejected. Instead Charles I1 'Cover StoW' and Allan Chapman's SIS's Annual Invitation Lecture. When commen- that his imperfect senses were equal to has been placed on a nondescript pedestal. wisdom received from sacred scripture? A Other symbols that illustrate the social tators spoke of 'Gresham College' in the popular argument was in terms of the light prestige of the Society are Bacon's Lord early 1660s, they generally meant 'Royal metaphor: the Light of Reason, the Light of Chancellor's robes, the mace presented by Society'. An informal group of like-minded Nature, and the Light of the Sen.,aes, the king and the Society's charter and experimentalists first met at Gresham in 1645, but within a few years most moved to Scripture and Grace. In Retracing the Arts statutes (on the table on the left),and above to Theology, Bonaventure categorised an them illuminating the scene, the Society's Oxford because of the Civil War. Wilkins ascending succession of four lights: (1) the coat-of-arms granted by Charles II. the brilliant Master of Wadham College Light of the Mechanical Arts, (2) the Light who, according to Sprat, was hosting a club of Sense Perception, (3) the Light of It has been suggested that the arch and the in his lodgings for men interested in Philosophical Knowledge, and four, the tiles were meant to be reminiscent of the experimental philosophy attracted them there. Experiments were resumed at Gre- highest, the Light of Sacred Scripture which on the north and south sides of came directly from God.' More about this ~ Court at Gresham College, but sham in about l&r~q, and following the on another occasion, it is sufficient to state this is probably fanciful. In the left-hand king's return, the 'Royal Society had its beginning in the wonderful here that it became for a while common- bookcase are woric~ by Bacon, heroes of the pacifick year, lace to see the scene lit up in these early new science like Copernicus and Harvey, 1660'.s The move to the Society's own ontispieces by God's light. Among these and by Fellows of the Royal Society. The premises took place in 1710. is the well-known frontispiece that dec- instruments of the new science are promi- orates Francis Bacon's Syh,a Syh,arum nently displayed. Of particular note are the Notes and Referen¢~ (London, 1627) which uses a somewhat revised version of Boyle's air pump in the unusual light motif. An illuminating flash centre-left background with in front various 1. W.B Ashworth, 'Light of Reason, Light of descends from divine gioW with a quota- bits of chemical apparatus, and in the rear a Nature. Catholic and Protestant Metaphors of tion from Genesis: 'And God saw the light, large , possibly the 35-foot instru- Scientific Knowledge', Science m Context, 3 that it was good'. This light shines on an ment presented by Sir Paul Neile to (1989), pp. 80-107. indistinct gk~0e, the 'Mundus Intellectualis' Gresham College in 16,58. In the far distance (or globe of the intellect). For Bacon the is a building perhaps representing 'Solo- 2. Willem Hackmann, "Natural Philosophy light of the Intellect comes up from the mon's House' from Bacon's New Atlantis Illustrations 1600-180{Y, in Renato G. Mazzo- senses, therefore his natural philosopher (London, 1627). lini, ed., Non-verbal Communication in Scwnce had to focus on the facts of nature Prior to 1900 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1993), 'receiving the images simply as they are'. This engraving's association with Sprat's pp. 169-196. One interesting point is the use of Bacon's most widely used metaphor for the History has always been a bit of puzzle the word 'spieghel' in the original title intellect was the uneven mirror that since it is not found in all copies and, in any translated as 'mirmur' in the English edition, distorted the rays of the senses. For him case, is too big for the format of the book. but which in Dutch can also mean 'to reflect' intellectual light was the 'Light of Nature AI~ the book has another frontispiece,the or 'meditate on'. and Experience'. In his frontispiece the Society's coat-of-arms which faces the title Pillars of Hercules, the symbol of an e. It is now known that the Sprat 3. For further details see Michael Hunter, outward ioumey of exploration, frames tispiece had been intended for a work Science and Society in Restoration the image. Bacon may well have been bv John Beale which had similar aims but (Cambridge University, Press, 1981), pp.lqub inspired for this design by the frontispiece which was never published. Beale was keen 197. in the most popular navigational manual of to use the fame of Bacon as the moans to this period, Lucas Janszoon Wagenaer's romote the ideals of the Royal Society. Hb 4. Reproduced by kind permission of the Spieghel der Zeemerdt (1585), translated by ~.rst idea was an engraved broadsheet but President and Council of the Royal Society. Anthony Ash]y as The Mariners Mirrour this he developed into the more ambitious (?1588), which features a ship going about plan of a book, and John Evelyn became 5. Th(wnas Sprat, A History of the R,~al- its discoveW of new worlds by sailing involved in the design of the frontispiece. In fa~c/ety (London, 1667), pp. 5~. quoted by through the selfsame pillars. 2 The Syh~ the meantime Sprat was commissioned to Margery Purver, The R,~al S~rietv: Concept and Syh*arum was published posthumously by write his History part of which was printed Creatam (London: Routl~,,dgeandKegan, 1967), Bacon s chaplain and friend, William Raw- in 1664. When tlie complete book failed to p. 103. lay, but Bacon had already used a similar materialise quickly, Beale returned to his motif in the frontispiece to his lnstauratio own projected book but finally abandoned Willem Hackmann

Buik~in of the Sck.ntific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) Appreciation: Reverend Professor Michael Casey O.P. (1902-1997) Charles Mollan

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Fig.I A lt,haH C,lscu a'ith nlcmt~'r.~ of the S,'lentific Instrument S,x'tctu at Mavn(x,th on May 17, 1990.

Fig.2 Michael Ca.~,~. studies the Mavnooth sundial (Saunders, Dublin, 1796) with the late/on Darius and Jan de Grazw.

Ireland in chemistry in the Senior Grade Ireland (1988) and the Institution of Examination of 19"19. He graduated in Engineers of Ireland (1991). He remained chemistry from University College Du- an active chemistry researcher in May- blin in 1'~22, and went on to take an M.Sc. nooth after his formal retirement as and a Ph.D. He became Assistant to the Professor, still working in the State Chemist, Professor Hugh Ryan, in in his 94th year, publishing papers and 1924, but r~igned his post to join the even taking out patents, and was claimed Dominican Order in 1928, being ordained as the world's longest serving active priest in 19M, after study in Rome. He chemical researcher! became science master at Newbridge College, Co. Kildare, in 1935, transferring to Mavn(~)th in 1957, where he was Those members of the Scientific Instru- appointed Profes~w of Chemistry in ment Society who visited Maynooth in 1960, retiring in 1976. May 1990 (Figs 1 and 2) will remember the characteristic welcome and h(~spital- ity with which they were received by From 1974-1997, he was Curator of the Michael. He was in his element, being Mavm~th College Museum, to which he surrounded by appreciative enthusiasts, added greatly during his term in office. and that day, May 17 1990, was one of the Although the Museum, as would be happiest of his later life. expt~'ted in a Pontifical University (the only one in the British Isles), contains a fine collection of ecclesiastical artefacts, This is the essenceof his contribution. He Michael made no secret of the fact that it was not usually surrounded by enthu- F ,¢, ~ Rez' Profi'_~,,r .\tch(,hls Callan was the scientific instruments which siasts - quite the reverse. During his lifetime, old instruments were not exactly !-a~ l,'it,4~ lni'cntor t!f the induction coil where his particular joy. He was the •~! 18h, instigator and inspiration behind the centre stage (nor are they today). He catalogue of the scientific instruments in needed determination and courage, as the collection, published (in 19~4) as part well as enthusiasm, to ensure that the of the College's 21X)th anniversary cele- Museum remained open to the public (it brations of 1995.~ is the only significant public exhibition of Xhchael Ca~'v, the former Curator of the scientific instruments in Ireland), and to (olle~c Mu~;um in St Patrick's College, increase the scope and improve the \layn~,~th. Co. Kildare, dit~ on Christ- Father Casey was honoured for his presentation of the exhibits. Any chance ma~ I)av, L~'cember 25 19q7, in his 95th contributions to chemistry, to science ear he had he sought additions and, with teaching, and to the appreciation of essentially no budget, these had to be Ireland's historic scientific heritage, by donations. [ remember, some years ago, being made an Honorary Life Member of Michael was born in 1',~)2 and, under the being at the presentation of a medal to an the Royal Dublin Society in 1996. He had eminent . Right after the ~uidance of the Christian Brothers in already been made an Honorary Fellow ~,aterford, took second place in all presentation, Michael asked him if he of both the Institute of Chemistry of would consider leaving the medal to the

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No, 56 (1998) Fig.4 A giant induction coil built by Nicholas Callan betucen 1859 and 1863, which could produce sparks of 15 inches.

Fig.6 Telescopicsurveying instrument by Thomas Heath, London, circa 1725.

establish Callan's priority, especially as against Heinrich R/ihmkorff, to whom this achievement was (and is still) too often erroneously attributed. Readers can assess themselves whether this ambition has been achieved.

The Maynooth collection includes instru- ments made and used by C.ailan himself (Fig.4), teaching and demonstration in- struments used over the last two cen- turies by lecturers in Maynooth and elsewhere, a collection of surveying instruments (including the oldest Irish signed instrument surviving in Ireland - a circumferentor dated 1688) (Figs 5 and 6), many Irish made instruments (Fig.7), and other artefacts, like apparatus used Fig.5 The oldest Irish signed instrument in by Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), and Ireland- a circumferentor by. Iohannes Lewis, the insignia of office of the Pontifical Dublin, 1688. Note that East and West are Academy of Science awarded to the reversed, an early e:cample of this reversal. mathematician and Arthur Conway (1875-1950).

Members of the Scientific Instrument Society will again have the opportunity Muse,Jm. This remembrance of mortality to see the Maynooth collection on the at that happy moment was perhaps less way back from the visit to Birr being than tactful - but Michael was character- planned for Autumn 1998. it is such a istically grasping any opportunity to pity that, this time, Michael will not be broaden his future exhibits! there to greet them. Fig.7 A fine Norrembe~, P(@ri.q'i~emade in Dublin by. John Spencer & Son. circa 1870. On December 27, after Funeral Mass at Note Newbridge College, Michael was buried in Maynooth beside Rev. Professor 1. The Scient!fic Apparatus ~. Nicholas Callan Nicholas Callan (Fig.3), as was his wish, and other Historic Instruments, by Charles by the President of St Patr;ck's College, Mollan and John Upton, a ~ page A4 Ix~k, Monsignor Dermot Farrell, himself a with 390 phot(~raphs (ISBN 18~8706 0l 8 Author's address: Maynooth graduate in physics and hardback, | 898706 02 6 softback), is available 17 Pine Lawn from Samton Limited (Tel: +35~!-2/~-6186. Newtownpark Awnue . Nicholas Callan (1799- Fax +353-1-2~-7970, E-mail [email protected]) at the 1864) was the inventor of the induction special price to SIS members of £25 k~r the Blackr~-k coil in Maynooth in 1836, and one of hard back or £12 for the soft back (surface Co. Dublin Michael's ambitions in life was to postage worldwide £5 extra). Entail: cnu)[email protected]

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) The Annual Invitation Lecture Gresham College: Scientific Instruments and the Advancement of Useful Knowledge in Seventeenth-Century England Allan Chapman, Wadham College, Oxford, OX1 3PN

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Fig.2 Gn,sham Colh'~e. Bishops,gab, Stn'et, London. From Ward, op. cit.L

first institute of adult , where Sir Thomas Gresham died in 1579, with- [.ondon citizens and visitors could meet out any surviving children, and from his to hear lectures on subjects that interested revenues accruing fn)m the Royal Ex- them, without the constraints of matri- change, and th(rse specified in his Will of Fig.l .';:r Th,,.z,z. Gn'~lzam ~1519-1579~. culation or examination, or even having 5 July 1575, left endowments which thunder of the Colh'~e. From , to pay for admission. What is more, the generated annual sums of £200 and Lixes of Gresham Professors ~London, accessibili~, of the College to all was £150.' This money was to be divided 174th Copyrz~,ht Museum ,,t" the Hzst,,ry qf emphasi.,~,d in the statutorv provision evenly between tl~e seven Professors of Scz,'nce, Ox~i,rd. that lectur~ delivered in English had to Astronomy, Geometry, Divinity, Music, be repeated in Latin for the benefit of Physic, Law, and Rhetoric, who came to non-English-speaking visitors.: live and teach in his Bishopsgate Street 'if to be nch and to be leam'd mansion kdlowing the death of Lady The munificence of the hmndation lay in Gresham on 23 November 1596. ~ The • , eve~ Nation's cheifest gloQ" the fortune acquired by Sir Thomas College (Fig.2), as Gresham House now Gresham (Fig.l), mercl~ant, financier, became, was administered through the How much are English men concem'd and King Hem3, VIii's, King Edward Mercers' Company. (.;re',ham, to celebrate thv ston Vi's and Queen Elizabeth l's Agent in the [x~w Countries. For Gresham, like many Fif0' pounds a year was a sum reckoned Vsho built th' Exchange t' enrich the other great merchants of the age, was a to be a 'very handsome one for the time', (.]th man of humane culture. A graduate of especially when the bachelor Professors 7 Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, were given spacious suites of rooms in And a Colledge founded for the wit~'.' he combined great wealth with a deep the College and could, with permission, sense of the duty of the rich to endow combine their Chairs with an ecclesias- Ballad ~,.fGrcsham Colh'~e ( 1663)' and improve the Commonwealth, creat- tical benefice, a medical practice, an ing also the Royal Exchange, along with absentee Oxbridge Fellowship, or busi- [hL. e~tabli,,hment of Gresham College, various charities.' Gresham was also a ness connections. The salary alone, how- h*ur hundred vear~ ago, in 1507, was one significant contributor to the beginnings ever, would have provided a living of the landmark', of the English Renais- of the ~ience of economics when he standard similar to that of a very •,ante, and enshrined ~me important enunciated what now came to be decently-beneficed parson in the late concepts in the culture of the early acknowledged as its first properly-for- Elizabethan age, or twice the value of m~iern age. For the founding of the mulated law: that 'Bad Money drives out an average Oxford Fellowship, and College's two Profe~r.,,hips of Astron- Good'/in other words, the iead-debas~cl, would have constituted 'a proper en- and Gex~metr~, in particular pro- omy below-face-value coins of mid-Tudor couragement for persons of the best claimed practicat mathematics to have an England encouraged people to hoard abilities in the several professions'." e~,,mtial role in the world, linked that the old full-value silver coins from the role to in.,,truments of various kinds, and earlier part of the reign, wherever they prox ided an m',titutional format whereby Edward Brerewood was the first Astron- got them, and pass on the debased ones omy Professor, and the much more tht~, .,,ubj~xTts could be made readilY,, as quickly as they could. As a result, acce~,,ible to people with commerciaJ, famous Briggs the first incumbent coins became progressively scarcer, of the C~ometry Chair in 1597. And over maritime and craft interests. Gresham moved faster, and produced an infla- College, moreover, was al~ the world's tionary spiral. the next ninety years - the most sig- nificant in the College's history - there

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) Dee, the massive re-distribution of land ested in dialling, observational astrono- ownership which followed the dissolu- my, and the techmques of computation, tion of the English monasteries after 1540 each none the less displayed a contempt created that voracious demand for land for what was termed 'iugglers' tricks' surveys and estate plans out of which a with instruments. When personallv inter- new mathematical professi(na emerged, viewing for one of his with a concomitant demand for instru- new Chairs in Oxford in 1619, for ments by its practitioners." instance, Sir Henry Savile ordered the Christ Church scholar to be gone, as he One man, perhaps more than any other, would appoint no man who showed him came to epitomise this new mathematical mere clever tricks with instruments of his movement. He was own devising? ~ Instead, Savile head- (1575-1660), a Cambridge graduate and a hunted the original 1597 Gresham Geo- Surrey parson, who, while never himself metry Professor, Henry Briggs. As Briggs a Gresham Professor, had connections moved from Gresham College to Oxford, into every branch of contemporary so Gunter took up Briggs's vacant Chair mathematics. His Clavis Mathematica at Gresham, and one can only assume (1631) was famed at home and abroad, that the gentlemen of the Mercers' and be was a pioneer in the development Company had fewer ob~.,ctions to ap- of algebra and , an academic pointing a sound classical mathematician who corresponded with and moved who was also an ingenious inventor than amongst London craftsmen, and who had the Warden of Merton. An Oxford owned a fine private collection of Fellowship, a Gresham Professorship, mathematical instruments. From Henry and then back home to a Savilian Fig.3 Elias Allen (ft. 1606-1653~. A rare Briggs in the to Professorship (with its higher salary) depiction of a craftsman surrounded by his and Robert Hooks in the late , he was a route that several other Gresham products and imwntions. Allen had contact was admired by a succession of Gresham astronomers and geometers would fol- with all the leadin,¢( of his Professors, as he was by craftsmen like low over the next few years in the wake day. Many of the leading instrument makers Elias Allen (Fig.3) and Ralph Greatorex. of Henry Briggs. These would include of the se~wnteenth centurv, had connection Everybody who was anything in English John Greaves and Sir Christopher Wren. with him, via apprenticeship or other mathematics between 1600 and 1660 had Isaac Barrow would progress likewise U!tluence. dealings with William Oughtred, and it is from Cambridge: from Peterhouse and interesting to note that the 1630s Salford, Trinity. Fellowships to a Gresham Chair Lancashire, astronomer William Crabtree in Geometry, to a Lucasian Professorship would be eighteen Astronomy and was perhaps in touch with him via his of Mathematics in Cambridge, and then C~,metry Professors in all.~ Eleven of Gresham College go-between, Astrono- to the Mastership of Trinity. them would be from Oxford (with Christ my Professor Samuel Foster. (Crabtree Church and Merton College between had also urged Foster to observe the solar In spite of the ambivalence of attitude them providing seven), five fn~m Cam- disk with his telescope on 24 November towards a flair for instrumentation which bridge, one from both, and one, Mungo 1639, to watch for the Transit of Venus Oughtred and Savile may have dis- Murray, from St. Andrews. L° And be- predicted by his Liverl~ol friend Jere- played, virtually all of the Professors of tween them, these eighteen men pub- miah Horrocks. Crabtree and Horrocks Astronomy and Geometry appointed at lished 175 books and papers, about saw the first Venus Transit ever to be both Gresham and Oxford showed a eighty of which were upon mathematical witnessed by man, but Foster missed it.) ~ keen interest in practical mathematics, practice, the rest being devoted to and several of them made malor con- l~litical, religious, linguistic and other In addition to the Gresham Professor- tributions to the development of scientific matters." Henry Briggs, John Greaves, Sir ships, another clear sign of the growing instruments. Christopher Wren, and Dr Robert Hooke unportance of mathematics to culture in published over seventy per cent of these Jacobean England was the founding of Geomagnetism was a research area to eighty books and papers, with Hooke the two Oxford Professorships by Sir which the early Gresham Professors streaking ahead with thirty-seven math- Henry Savile, Warden of Melton College, made outstanding contributions. The ematical and four physiological and in 1619. Savile was a Yorkshire Knight Earth's magnetic field was, of course, of archaeological publications to his name who had been smitten with the beauties great practical iml~rtance to navigation, alone..Sixteenth- or seventeenth-century of arithmetic and Euclid when an under- but in the wake of the publication of Dr university professors, one must remem- graduate at Oxford in the 1560s, and William 's De magnete (1600), it ber, were paid to profess, or teach, their who, as a Fellow and then as Warden of had shown itself to be a subject of great subjects, and not necessarily to conduct his College, became a driving philosophical potential as well. Edmund original research as they are today. The behind the teaching of mathematics in Gunter had been the first Professor to high volume of publications which came that university. To Savile, mathematics contribute to this field, when he found, out of Gresham College, therefore, hinted was not merely useful, but intellectually upon making obser~'ations at Limehouse at the emergence of a new type of pure and exciting when placed in the in 1622, that his value for magnetic north Professor, who would gradually have context of a classical education, and it was less easterly than that recorded hv an influence upon the perceptions of was to the Greek geometers in particular William Borougi~ in 1580. ~" But it was his Oxford and Cambridge chair holders, that he was drawn?' successor to the Astronomy Chair, Henry and their attitudes towards original Geilibrand, who took the" work further, research. Indeed, this concern with the intellectual when he found by 16M that his values purity of mathematics, and its relation to for magnetic m~r:th were less easterly a wider education which included logic, than Gunter's. From an analvsis of his Late Tudor and Jacobean England were philosophy, civillaw, and divinity.,was of own and the " of other developing a vigorous mathematical paramount importance to men like scientists and navigators, he concluded culture, especially in the application of Oughtred and Savile,and one sometimes in 16,34 that there was indeed a systema- mathematics to practical problems. In glimpses an ambivalence of attitude on tic variation in the Earth's magnetic field, addition to the major contributions to their part towards mathematical practice. as the magnetic north moved west- phih~)phical mathematics made by John Although both men were clearly inter- wards. L" it was the beginning of a new

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (!~8) Galileo's telescope in 1610, so geomag- netism, like the mountains on the m(xm or the 'Medicean Stars' around Jupiter, was completely unknowable by the unaided human faculties. And in the wake of planetary astronomy and geo- magnetism, the ~venteenth century would see the emergence of the equally instrument-based of meteorol- ogy, microscopy, and pneumatics, all of wl~ich would be advanced within the walls of Gresham College.

Navigation was another science-based technology that was furthered by the Gresham Professors. Considering the maritime basis of Londlm's prosperity, however, this was hardly surprising, as figures like Henry Briggs, Edmund Gunter, Henry Geliibrand, and Ri~ert Hl~ke in particular displayed a sus- tained interest in the problems of navigation. While Gunter s Sector and Fig.5 The "Queen Elizabeth' by. Quadrant were not instruments of ex- Thomas Gemini, 1559. Aim,st certainly this Fig.4 Tah'Fuge (:f the 1002 edition of The clusively maritime usage, they none the is the Astrolabe with which John Gremws Workes of Edmund Gunter. Note the less simplified and aided several math- measured the latitude of Rhodes in 1638. Cross-St,lff, Sect,,r, Quadrant and other ematical tasks inherent in navigation Copyright Mu~um of the History. of Science, d,'Pices di~'us~'d by. Gunter. The ohs~,er (Fig.4). "~' And what is more, the Gresham Oxford, inv. no. 42,223. on the right is usm,¢ a similar, thouy,h Professors - and their Savilian counter- smaller, Rcatius ~or cross sta~ to that u,ith part, - maintained go(~ which h~hn Greaves survewd the Great relations with sea ca[,tains, requesting plex sums containing big numbers and them to observe and report eclipses, awkward frattion~ to be worked by Pyramid in 1638. G,pynght Mu~um of simple addition and subt.action, once the Histo~ of Science, Oxford. magnetic and meteorological conditions, and all manner of curious phenomena the operator knew how to arrange the on their voyages. Briggs wrote on the engraved 'bones' or rods. And likewise, ~ience, to which Robert H(~)ke would possibility of reaching the Pacific Ocean the invention of logarith:v.,s around the make his own contributions, and most of via Hud~m's Bay and the North West same time made problems in spherical all, the Savilian Geometry Professor, Passage in 1622, and Gellibrand collabo- that only a skilled mathe- Edmond Halley. (Henry (~ellibrand, it rated with Captain Thomas James in matician could have handled in 1600 should be mentioned, had been acciden- 1631 to work out the longitude differ- solvable by a working master mariner tally bitten by the mathematical bug ence between London and Charleton in 1640. (The same can be said for the when straying into one of Sir Henry I:n)pularisation of and simple Island, James Bay, from a lunar eclipse, algebra.)2' Savile's lectures in Oxford when an while Hooke's I~iary refers to his man), undergraduate and finding that the dealings with sea-captains and travel- experience changed his life.) TM lers. :~ Robert Hooke's invention of the Sets of Napier's Bones, and their devel- watch balance spring, we must not opment into geared calculating machines Gt~magneti~m was found to be fascinat- forget, was made as part of his wider ing on a number of grounds: how was b~' people like Sir Samuel Moreland, efforts to develop a reliable marine along with new printed tables of loga- the Earth's magnetic field generated and chronometer. .~ustained? Why did it vary, and how was rithmic functions and logarithmic sectors, it related to the Earth's nlotion in space? were the mathematical instruments of the In our own time of instant electronic new age. Long-established analogue William Gilbert, after all, had tried to mathematics, it is all too easy to forget argue the ca~ for the Copernican motion 'corner-cutting' ir~struments like the as- how arcane and laborious mathematical trolabe and counting-frames were ra- of the Earth on magnetic grounds. And in calculation was in the past, and as late as pidly, consigned to obsolescence, in addition to its physical characteristics, 1662 Samuel Pepys, a Cambridge M.A. mucn the same way as the seventeenth- the Earth's magnetic field was of the and senior Civil Servant, was receiving highest iml~rtance to navigators, and century sector and its later development, lessons in basic calculating skills from the slide-rule, would in turn be swept when its h,cal lateral variations were Richard Cooper, Mate in the warship combined with its changing vertical dip away by the tx~cket in the late Rovall Charh, s, and delighting in his 1960s. angle, this pointed towards a possible mastery of the multiplication table. ~ way of determining a ship's longitude at ~'a~ Physics, mathematics, and practical Before the early seventeenth century, application all came together in the study The Gresham College Professors were at indeed, all scientific instruments were the forefront in the propagation of these ot geomagnetism, and all of the data mathematical (not yet optical or philoso- depended upon the use of increasingly new mathematical techniques, and phical), as devices like the astrolabe, Henry Briggs, the first holder of the ~phisticated instruments whereby to abacus, travers~board, and sundial tried detect this invisible phenomenon/" " Geometry Chair, was actively teaching to cut mathematical comers and make and writing upon both Napier's dis- mensuration in its various branches more coveries and upon logarithms, as were (;eomagnetism was, moreover, the sec- accessible to the merchant and traveller. ond ~cience to emerge in the seventeenth Gunter and Gellibrand/~ But Sir Christo- This is why the invention of 'Napier's pher Wren, who held the Astronomy century that was entirely dependent Bones' by the Scottish ni~oleman, John upon instruments for its very existence. Professorship between 1657 and 1660, Napier (or ), VIII laird of Merch- was one of the finest mathematicians of For just as the physical study of the iston, was so portentous for practical planets and stars" had begun with the age, and a man with a European- mathematics, for it enabled quite com- wide reputation. ~

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Fig.6 The end (~. the limb ~ the finely graduated six-fi)ot radius quadrant s~gned and dated "Elias AIh'n Fiecit Londmi, 1637'. Copyright Mu.~'um of the Histo~. of Science, Oxfi)rd. Fig.8 Elias Allen pocket sundial signed/n/ him but undated The sihw-mounted dial ~s placed within an exquisitely turned its~. l~,x, 2Y~ inches in diameter, with a ~'rew-on- lid. Acknou,h'dgements to Tre~sw Waterman.

Isaac Barrow travelled in the Levant, studied and collected scientific manu- scripts in Arabic, Persian, and other languages, and were of enormous im- I~)rtance in opening up an awar~ of the mathematical and astronomical con- tributions of the medieval Islamic world, before leaving Gresham for Savilian and Lucasian Chairs in their respective uni- versities."; John Greaves was especially significant, for as a classically-trained astronomer, he was interested in visiting Fig.7 24-inch radius quadrant, unsigned, but probably by. Elias the Turkish-occupied Lsland of Rh(~es - Allen. It has an imn frame and a finely transtersal-dn,ided brass limb. the 'Greenwich Meridian' of antiquity. - It u~mld originally have had a pair of either telescopic or el~ naked to determine its exact ct~+rdinates with eye sights, one rotating around its gam|etrical centre, and the other relation to established European astro- nomical centres. Using the 14-inch-dia- fixed upon its sl(clhtly-rai~d upper edge (.~,'n sideu~ys at its present meter 'Queen Elizabeth' astrolabe by angle). They. u~mld hatw allou~'d the instrument to measure the angle Gemma Frisius (155q) standing up betu~een any tu~ objects in the sky, whih' the quadrant~ geared against the walls of the city, and 'm~t setting circles enabled it to be hx'ked either to the Equah~rial, or any venturing to make use of a larger other plane in the sky. Copyright Mu~um of the Histo~. of Science, instrument for fear of raising any suspi- Oxfi,rd. don of the Turks', he found the latitude of Rhodes to be 37 50'. He then went on to Egypt, and became the first ChrL,~tian Though an immensegain to the post-Fire and mathematics, were appointed sepa- to make an accurate survey of the Great visualbeauty of London, Sir Christopher rately by the King and Aldermanic Pyramid, along with other buildings in Wren's migration into architecture in the Council to design not only all of the northern Egypt in 16.'~. ~ The "Queen late 1660s was in iL~elfa distinct loss to important spiritual, administrative, and Elizabeth' astrolabe made by (emma astronomy and mathematics. It says charitable buildings of the capital, but to Erisius in 1559 (Fig.5), now in the something about the enterprise and implement new fire-preventing building Museum of the History of Science, broad culture of that age, though, that it regulations and act as expert wi~ in Oxhwd, is almost certainly the same was the two Gresham Professors, one in lanning disputes. It would be im~ssi- instrument as that which Greaves used office,and another having migrated back ~ le to imagine such an enterprising on Rh~es. When 1 measured its scales to Oxford to hold a Savilian Chair, who course of action being in any on a dividing engine .~)me years ago, I were appointed to re-design London mtxiern stricken city, but in 1666, two found the astrolabe to have a mean error after the ravages of the Great ]:ire of mathematicians, who knew their Vitru- of only 2 arc minutes. At the Great 1666. For Sir Christopher Wren, currently vius' De architectura (befi~re A.D. 27), had Pyramid in Egypt, Greaves's main in- the Savilian Professor of Astronomy, was studied the engravings of Bernini, were strument was a 'radius of ten feet mtvst now appointed by King Charles II to re- deeply read in classical culture, and accurately divided into 10,000 parts, create all the Royal buildings and possessed discerninl,~ eyes and exquisite besides some other instruments', which churches (including St. Paul's Cathedral) tastes, were natural choices to oversee (including the astrolahe, one presumes) of the capital,while his friend and %llow- any grand architedural prt~ct. he does not itemiseY Oxonian, Dr Robert H(~ke, became Surveyor to the City of London. ~ Indeed, Oriental studies may not have seemed an Considering their abundant concern with a pair of amateur architects, who~ obvious subject for the Gresham Profes- practical mathematics, it is suwnmngly professional reputations lay in astronomy sors to engage in, but John Greaves and difficult to establish regular links be-

Bulletin of the ,Scientific Instrument Society. No. 56 (IYq~I) tween particular Gresham i'n~fes.~rs and specific c'ommi~sitms m individuals with- in the thriving community of instrument- makers in early sevefiteenth-centurv lxmdon Between lt~)6 and Ihg3, how- ever, I,tmdon mathematical instrument making was dominated technicalh" anti intellectually by Elias Allen. Though his apprenticeship'antecedents are not clear. Allen may have been trained by Chark, s Whitwell, for in the decade alter it~10 both the elderly Whitwell and the young Alkm were practising by lemple Bar. They may in fact have been part of an instrument-making dynasty extending back into Tudt~" times/for I-{umfrev Cole seems to have stopped trading "=~ar the North Dt~)r of St. Paul's' at around the .same time that Whitwell started to rise to rOminence down Fleet Street, by/t~ple Fig.g Rt~'rf Ht~ke~ $cr~'dee quadrant ~. c. 1671. The u~rm- r. around 1501Y u,tu~'l frame on the o~d of the h'h.~'(v,ic alidade ach'd as a iarce mien,meter, readin¢, ~ the an¢le as.fractions of a tan eent If i cures 1 As a tnend of the influential William and II], rather than using a comvntkmally enxraped scah,. The Oughtred, however, it Ls hard to believe t~serzcr h~ed into an ~epieee a&n¢ the centre, where he had a that Elias Allen was not on familiar terms simultmm,us z,ww thmueh a pair of teh.~'(~,s at the same time w~th the Profes.,~rs who held office IFi¢.12]. This enabh¢! the a~¢le betu~een a pair t~ stars to be taken at dunng the years l~16-1653 And while tlw ~me moment. Fn~n H~gce, Animadverskms ... tm Hevelius direct comn~issions to Allen are me easy ¢l,andon, 1674~. G~pyricht Mu~um of the History of Science, to prove, it is virtualh,, bewmd doubt that Ox~,rd the beautiful 6-ftR)t-radius quadrant (Fig.h) engraved "Elias Allen, Fiecit I~mdini 1637', now in the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, was built & adminiculo instructus'fi)r Greaves, fi)r became a craftsman of note: a pumping for John G'reavt.,s, who in 1637 was living the correct adaptation of telescopic sights engineer who built Robert l~yle s first in Gresham College (though departing for astronomical instruments was not airpump ~ 16.~ (improved by Htx~ke), later that year for Itah,' and on to made until 1640. For in thai year, the and familiar to Wren and Ht~ke. Great- Constantinople), and wht~, along with Yorkshire mathematical squire, William orex's own 'great apprentice' Thomas his brothers Thomas and Nicolas, later Ga~oigne, announced his inventitm in a Tuttell had sufficientstature in his own bequeathed an instrument of identical letter to William Crabtree and William right by the late wventeenth century to .,,pecification, designated 'Quadrantis Oughtred." Now Ga~oigne, who was become Instrument Maker to the King, muralis limbus aereus radio sex pedum', .said to have b~Yn familiar with l~)th and to be commissioned to make, and to Oxford University" This large quad- Oxford dnd Ltmdtm, was a friend of the exquisitely engrave, the ivory back-s'taff rant, indeed, along with the astrolabe, above-mentioned Salford astronomer, and cross-staff,obviously intended for six-fi~)t .sextant, , various an- William Crabtree, who corresponded presentation, which are now preserved in ~ h,-mea.~uring instruments, and "(X'tans with Gresham Profes,~r Samuel Foster; the Natitmal Maritime Museum. '7 erreus radio pedum duum cure pedi~ and one wonders how the news of the quandrante limbo aereo distinctus' corrt~t optical configuratitm of the tele- Anthony Thomps~m, a lateconteml~rary Iwhich could well have I~,en the 24-inch ~o~ic sight became familiar to ~)ndtm of Allen ~. 1638-1665), was also a geared instrument (Fig.7) referred to craltsmen. '~ Unfortunatel); the surviving craftsman of eminence, who has docu- above), formed part of the sixteen items frame of the 24-inch quadrant has neither mented connections with Gresham Pro- in the Greaves Oxford donation, made in tek~'opic nor naked-eye alidades in situ, fes,,~r Laurence Rt~ike, Sir Christopher I h'~q. ': although their cenm.,s of rotati~m and Wren, and Rt~rt H(~ke, and wh(~e Iocatitm are evident in the into frame. It is engravin~ of Samuel R~ter's impn)ve- I hough neither the 24-inch quadrant nor possible, however, that this quadrant in ment to Gunter's Sector was added as a the 6.fts)t .sextant from the (;reaves the Museum of the History of .Science fold-out plate in the 1662 edition of the donation, now prt.'~.rvedin the Museum collection could well be the oldest long-deceased Gunter's Works. TM But of the l|i,,to~' of ~'ience collection,bear surviving astnmomical measuring instru- much more archival and museum colk,c- any maker's name, their .scale divisions ment in the world to have trace carried a titm work has to be dime before we can an, of such a ~jualitv as to suggest a tek.'scopic sight. adequately demonstrate the Profess)r- relationship with the;Jr present compa- craftsman collaborati(m in the deveh~- nion-piece, the signed and dated AIk,n 6- Elias Allen's circle of friends was large, ment of specific mathematical instru- h~,t quadrant of Ih37. I have examined a crossing the academic and working- ments. number of signed Elias Allen instruments craftsman divide, to include Gresham of different typt.,s - large and small Profi.,s,~rs like Edmund Gunter, mathe- Yet when tree spoke of 'Gresham College' astronomical instruments and sundials malical gentlemen with Royal connec- in the early l~)s, as did the antmymous (Fig.8) - and find that what they all have ti(ms like Sir Jonas Mt~re (who came author of the l~llad, tree generally meant in common is a superlative quality, of from Lancashire, was a conteml~,rary of the Royal Society which met there atter ~'ale graduation." Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree, 1660. This group of men, who ~ive(J and William Ga~oigne, l~,ught a b~xly 'to knt~w all things by l~,monstration, It would al~) be instructive to know the of their papers from Crabtree's widow, had first ctmvened at the College lm an date upon which Elias Allen, or some and later pas.~,d them tm to the Royal informal basis in 1645. After 1649, when other master-craftsman, built the '()clans S~x:iety), and influencing subsequent many (~ the growing number of experi- ferreus radio pedum duum ...', or Profes.~rs like Robert Ht~)ke.~ And mentalists migrated to OxftmJ during the 'Ouadrans aereus binis tubis Teh.'scopicis Allen's apprentice, Ralph Greatorex, Commtmwealth, where they were h(~ted

I0 Bulletin t~ the ~ntific Imm'ument ,~Iciety No. 56 (1998) who was appointed to the (;e~nactw Chair in it~5(having been alneadv given the unpaid post o# Curator ot F:xperi- mints to the Royal ~x-ietv in It~2), that one finds the I~'lst dynamic and intluen- tial of all the (;reshim ~'ience proh.~.iors We hive already seen ltooke's signifi- cance as an architect, tolhlwirlg his appointment to the Litv Sun'evor,,hip in 1(,~',6, when he was thirty-one ,,ear~ r @" 6"%~ old, but by this date he had ain,adv fllllv served his Icienlific apprentict.~hlp and hid begun to distinguish him,ielt I:rom Westminster Schalol, i hxlke had goiw up i to Christ Church, Oxhlrd, and whibd what we would mlw call a I~tgraduate student, hid become a skilled anatomist. an experimental physicist, and the lifted mechanician who built the famous air- pimpum (where Ralph Greatorex had tai l, whe ,v he and hid the .~'ientifi(" hlundations of cllmbtlS- lion and rt..spiratkm. ° With these achieve- Fig.10 The ~me quadrant, set ulam an ,'quitorial mount with a minis already behind him by the age ¢~ cka'k driw. Notice that the ob~rwr (tt~aOce h,n.,itq~, perhaps) ha~S 24. he was a natural chog'e f~lr the Royal into the pair of catadhffric ~epieces Of the tas~ /ei,,'~'o~s that rotate ~ciety's Curator. while his Gresham about the quadrant~ centre. The a4a~le is ~t upon a counterla~ised Chair gave him a Miary. ru~L.L and equatorial mount similar to which Fraunh,/[er m the earhl nineteenth filrmal academic status. ,~ltl~ .n/ u~uld re-inR,nt ~ the 'C,erman Mount'. As "Jar as I am aullre, this is the earliest depiction Of a cl,~'k-driwn, equato,all.l#- With Robert Hooke it became pl~llble mounteded teh.~'opic instrument.. From H,~,', Animadversions ... not only k~ a.~,~ciate a Gresham i'n~k,.~sl~r on th.velius (h~ndon, 1674L C~ll,yrieht Mum'urn Of the Histo~. i.~ with particular scientific instrument ma- Scw,u'e, O.rfi,rd ke~, but also wilh specific lines of re.arch and instrumental mnovalkm. While we do not know Eir certain who made the famous micn~cLq~e with which th~lke pnxtucl~l the mlmumental Miin~- in Wadham College by Warden John In its pnx'laimed intentil~ns - as encapsu- ,lraphhl Ili~5), he wa.~ ceriamh, well Wilkin~, the group once more resumed lated in the 28 verses of the Ballad in It,63 acquainted with John Yarwell, who was its Gn,sham moetings at the Restoration - and from its first seven years of leading Londlm gla~,i-gnnder of the in 1660." Under the welcim~ing aegis of achievement, recorded by Thomas Sprat day, and ime presumes,/urthermone, that Geometry I'n~fes~)r Laurence Rooke, and in 1667. it is clear that the Royal ~cieW he di,.~'u~'.~d pumping machines with Astronomy I'rok,ssor Waiter i'ope (John dkt m~t simply meei in Greshim College; Ralph (.,reaiorvx. But the craltsman with Wilkins's ex-Wadham half-brother), the it worked very much within the spirit of whom Hia~ke hid the longest-standing newly-chartered Royal ~)ciety com- the College's fimndation. In addition to connection was Thomas Tompi~m." menced its first two brilliant decades at i~ aim to know all things 'by l)emt~n~qra- (;resham, and did m~t move out to Crane film', the &~:iety addressed it.ll k) a Tompam was m~t just a clotkmaker, but Court, Fleet Street, until 1710. host o# practical problems, most o# which the n~t skilled and versatile precisi~m involved devices made bv skilled arti- mechank'al tqigineer practising in Lon- sans. l"he~ problems wen; as diverse as dim by 1(~74. For m that year. |h~lke "ihe a.,~,ociati(m between the (;rt.,sham- the manufacture of cloth, the dt.'...ign of de~-n6ed m his annual Cuth;rian let'tune based Royal ~lciety, ~ra~tical insirumen- cannim, the compilation of a 'l'ubliqu¢ to the Royal ~'ietv an a..tnmomical ration, and the latt'er s use in a 'Di,m(m- Register' of useful knowledge, and the mstrument L~ extraon|inarv design It stration' of nature, is obvious and development of a wide range ot .,~'ientific was a ~fi~lt-radius into quadrant, im undeniable. In addition to specific Gre- instruments." Pure science was com- which the degrees and ~racti~ms were sham l'nifes.,~irs like Rialke or Wren, who bined with practical applicatilm in the read not from a clmveniiouallv enllravl~| were ~m familiar terms with craftsmen spirit ~ oul by Sir Francis Bac~m in The bra.~.; limb. but were delinl~atud to a like (;reatorex, l'uttell, or John l'rujean, it N,'n, Atlantis (lh2H), and all plated before smile arc second by tm.ans of an endh.,s~ is clear that several of the early Royal the public within an Hhos thit declared t,ingl~al screw, ih,tt moved acnl~ the ~x'iety Fellows directly employed crafts- war up~m obscurantism and arcana in all 1,0011 teeth cut into the quadrant limb men. John Wilkins himself employed the their fiirms, its Hlumal. the t)hlh~glh'al IFig.tl). " The instrument, in hlct. is a large Oxford and hlndon craftsman, Chmto- l'ran~ctions, whk'h is the parent of all micn~mHer, A catadioptric mlrnlr .,ivy- her Bn~ikes; Dr Jonathan (kxldard, a sub~,i]uerlt ~ientifie journals, first ap tern, two centunl~ ahead of its time, oyal Phy.~kian, kept 'an operator in hi.~ peanm in 1665, and is still in print today. enabled a single oi'~erver to killk thn~ugh I~mse to make tek.'scol~.'s,"~ while Chris- The Tran~clkms reported the research~'.,s a pair o| tek.,~'opes simultaneously via topher Wren almost certainly patn,ni:,~l of the R, Ilows0 received, read out the the ~me eyep,.LY at the two stars Whl~e. the master clockmaker Jl~eph Knibb. letters of, and communicated with, angular separation was being Inea...ured. (Though we do not know whether Knibb s~ientists acn~ Eurt~e, reviewed b~x)ks, whih. the whole apparatus was mounted actually made the Hooke-escapement published letters reporting curious phe- uraln a counterbalam'ed equatorial a~i~. state-obthe-art clock which m,nena acrosa England. and tried to and made to fidlow the sky by means of a College tradition says that Wren pre- stimulate technological and industrial ck~'k drive. sented to Wadham in 1670, it was mnovatkm. certainly Knibb who enioyed an annual l'his extraordmardy far-sighted m..tru- rHainer h~r its maintenance.p' But it was in the per~m of Rohert thatke, mint. incorporating elema~nts such as

Bulletin i~ the Sck.ntffk" In~m'ument ~ciety No, 56 (I~) counwrl~)i,,~'d clock-driven equatorials between phili~phy and practicality, Memoirs ... of lereraiah Hom,x (London, 1859), (Fig.10) that would not become generally ideas and mechanisms, craft, commerce, makes m) mention of Samuel Foster when feasible until the nineteenth century, i's and exi~,rimental ingenuity out of which di~u.~ing other possible i~ervers of the one of many examples of Hla)ke's genius m(~lem science was En~rn. Venus Transit, pp. 127-35. Crabtree and as an instrumenta/scientist. And if any Homocks (H(wmx) were the only people to Fellows of the Royal S~rietv wished to Notes and References have recorded ~',servati(m of the 16,39Transit pos~ss such an instrument, Hooke of Venus, though in his letter to William advised them to 'imploy Mr Tompion, a I. Ballad=9 c Gn.'sham Ggh',¢.e, c. 1663, i~sibly Ga~oigne, 7 Aug. 1640, Crabtree speaks of watch maker of Water Lane, near Fleet by the Revd Dr Joseph (;lanvil, repnnted by 'Mr. f(~,ter's [(R~servati(m] at Londtm'. Foster Street', who had built his original Don~thv ,c,tim.~m, Isis, 18 (1932), pp.103-17, never published any record of his own quadrant, and "hath seen and experi- ¢~p. p.l(~ ~R~servati~ms of the Venus Transit, however, enced the difficulties that do occur there- although Crabtree's and Hormcks's work in'. When the Anglo-irish astronomer 2. John Ward, Lwes of the Pn!fessors of was known: Crabtree's 1640 letter was Samuel Molvneux commissi~med such Gn'sham Gdh~e" To u'hich is t,refi~:ed The L!fe of published by William Derham, Phil. Trans., an instrument in 108g, however, he the Founder. Sir Thomas Gresham (lxmdtm, 27 (1711), pp. 284)-90. William Ga~oigne, 1740), p. iii, for the statutory reading of William Crabtree's astnmomical friend and engaged Richard Whitehead, who with correspondent, who lived near Leeds, York- his still hefty charge of £21) was probabh' lx~-tures in Engli~ and Latin. rh*maas Sprat, in A Htstaru of the g(~al S~icty (L~md(m, 1667), "shim, was writing direct to Oughtred by 2 cheaper titan Tompion would hav~' Dec. 1640, though signing him~]f 'Your been. ~,- p. 93, prai:,~J Gresham College, where "by the Munificence of a Citizen, them have been troublesome unknown friend': SJ. Rigaucl, Lectunes of several Arts, indow'd so liberally, Cm'respondence of Scient!ficMen of the S~,en- In 1675, and no doubt benefiting from the that if it were beyond the Sea, it might well teenth Century, 2 vols., (Oxh~rd, 1841), vol I, high-protile advertising that he had pa~ for a University'. pp. 3.1-4. received from H(~)ke, Tompion built three far-reaching astrora~mical instru- 3. Ward, IJz,es (ramie2), pp.16ff; Will of Sir 14. Anth(my Wood, Athenae Oxonwnses, vol. 1 ments for the Revd John Flamsteed, the Th,nnas Gresham, 5 July 1575, pp. IO-25, 30ft. (London, 1721), pp. 46~-9, for life of Savile. His first Astroranner Royal, who was then life was also recorded by John Aubrey: ipping the newly-founded Royal 4. Eric Roll, A Hish)~. of Eapnmnic Tlu,u~ht Aubrey's BriefLncs (note 8), pp. 267-.8. rvatorx,. The first was a 7-foot-radius (l.xmdon: Faber, 1966), p. 52. sextant with an iron frame and a brass 15. Aubrey's Brief Lncs (note 8), p. 268. limb. Its two telescopic sights were used 5. Ward, Lwes; for Royal Exchange, p. 18; hn" Aubrey, p. 267, says that Savile was 'hated' to measure £200 and £150 endowments, pp. 20-I. in Merton for his severity, being 'too much inflated with his learning and riches'. celestial angles by means of a denticu- 6. Ward, Liz~, p. 31. lated limb , and while it had 16. Henry Geilibrand, A Di~ourse Mathema- no clock drive, it was none the less set 7. Ward, Liz~, p. 26; for bachelors, p. 2.'4. tical on the Variation of the MaXnehcall Needle. upon an iron, manually-operated, equa- Tqcether u~th Its Diminution lately discovered torial axis. 8. Ward, Ln~s, p. 26. Even so, it was only (Lond(m, 1635), p. 7. Taylor, Mathematical half the £1(X) p.a. mcmne which the mathema- Practitioners (note 12), biogr, p. 106. Tompkm's second instrument for Fiam- tician the Revd William Oughtned received st~ was a 10-flx)t-radius into mural tnnn his Albury, Surrey, Rectory after 1603: 17. Geilibrand, Discourse Mathematical (note quadrant with a novel system of gradua- Aubr~'s BrwfLiz~,,s, ed. O.L. Dick (Secker and 16), p. 7. tions; while the third was a pair of long- Warburg, 1975), 'Oughtred', p. 222. [More will be said of Oughtred bebw.] pendulum (13 feet) regulator clocks, 18 W~x~, Athenae Oxon/enses,vol. I (n(~te14), adjusted for solar and sidereal time 9. In total, th~re were twenty Professorial p. 612, says: 'but at length upon hearing one of r~pectively. Hooke's designing hand is Sir Henry Savile's Mathematic Lectures by ck, arly evident in all of the instruments, appointments up to 1687, but Samuel Foster resigned his Astnmomy Chair in 1637, only to accident, or rather, to save the sconce of a for in addition to his work on quadrant resume it again in 1641 after Mungo Murray, Groat, if he had been absent, he was extreandy and .,,extant graduation, Hooke's re- his successor, returned to . Laurence taken with it, that he intmediately fell to the .,~'arches into the isochnmal properties Rtmke r~igned his As~momy Chair in 1657 study of that noble Science.'Ward's L/z~ (note of long conducted around in exchange for the vacant tree of Geometry. 2), repeats the skny, p. 81. 1670 had provided the physical basis for Flamsteed's clocks. +: 10. Walter Pope was originally at Trinity 19. Edmond ]-[ago],'A Theory of the Varia- College, Cambridge, and then at Wadham tion of the Magnetical COMPASS', Phil.Trans., ~hile the Astronomer Royal never held a College, Oxford. 13 (1683),pp. 20~-21. Also Halley,'An Account Gresham Chair, Flamsteed did, in fact, of the cause of the change of the Variation of deliver a course of lectures on practical il. ~ figures were cmnputed fn)m the the Magnetical Needle ...',Phil. Trans., 16 a.~tronomv at the College in 1681, though publicatkms listed by Ward, La~ (n~e 2) after (1692), pp. 563-78. the lectur~ were not well attended. + the bi(~raphy of each professor. 20. The Workes of Edmund Gunter, Containing it is hard, indeed, to overestimate the 12. I believe that scholars have still to The Description and Use of his Sector, Cross-Staff, impact of Gresham College upon the properly examine the impact of the land re- Bow, and Quadrants ... & Lagarithras .... 4th edn. ~ientific culture of England, and of distributt(m that followed the English Refor- (London, 1662). I~mdon in particular, during the seven- mation on the extraordinarilyrapid gn)wth of teenth century,. For from a private land surveying and cart~,raphy in England 21. Henry Briggs, A Tmat/se of the Nortku~,st mansion turned into a collegiate |ounda- after 1540 (often based ulxm techniques Passa~ to the South Sea througk the Continent of tion sprang an institution that was to do deveh~ped in ). For practitioners and Virginia and by Fretura Hudson, a ~ne-page far more than simply instruct the citizens techniques see E.G.R. Taylor, The Mathematical Appendix to Edward Waierhouse's A Declara- Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England, 1485- tion of the Stale of the Colony of Virginia (London, of London in Astronomy, Geometry, 1714 (C.U.P., 1954), p. 31. Divinity, Music, Medicine, Law and 1622). Thomas James, The Strange and Danger- Rhetoric. With that peculiar vitality ous Voyage of Captaine Thomas lames, in his lHormxI, ~ characteristic of organisations that meet 13. Jeremiah Hormcks Post- intended Di.,;cmcryof the Northucst Passage into huma (Lord(m, 1673), p. 331; Hormcks to a prt~sing need within a rapidly-moving the South Sea (London, 1633); see Henry Crabtme, 26 Oct. 1639, for n4emnce to Foster. Gellibrand, 'An Appendix touching Long- cultural climate, Gresham College played Horrocks in his Venus sub sole Visa (Dantzig, a malor part in bringing about that union itude" attached unpaginated to the above, for 1662), as translated by A.B Wharton in his Charleton Island longitude determination.

12 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) Pepys, in 22. Samuel Dm~, The Shorter Pepys, 30. Taylor,Mathematical Prachtioners (mee 12), 40. Ward, Lnvs (n~ 2), p. x. ed. R. Latham (Guild Publishing, London, Cole, pp. 171-2; Whitwell, p.190, l~,th Cole 1986), pp. 4-9 July 1664, p. 212. C~x)per was and Whitwell were engravers, and Dr Taylor Mate in H.M.S. R~wall Charles in 1662, but he cites Dr Lynam's view, p. 190, that Whitwell 41. C.F.C. Bream, Ck~ckmakmg in ()xfi~rdshtre, and Pepys seem to have been friends, and on 7 had been Cole's apprentice. 141X}-18.50, 3rd edn., with new mm~luction Aug. 1662 (p. 217) he got Co~er made Master and index by A.V. Simcock (Oxford: Museum of H.M.S. Resem,. On 23 Oct. 1664 Pepys and of the History of Science, 1962, 198q), pp. 04-5. Cooper dined tog~ber, and Pepys was shown 31. Listed in the C,atal~us The original nmvement is preserved m the l~w to use 'Plats'or charts, p. 43~. Librorum Manu~nptorum (1697) and printed in Museum of the History of Science at Oxhnd. RT. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, vol. 2 23. John Napier, Mir!fici Loxanthnmrum cano- (1923), p. 79. 42. Sprat, History. of the R,~I Society(note 2), nis descr:ptio (, 1614) and Rhabdolo- pp. 115. ,¢iae (Edinburgh, 1617) first expounded the 32. R.T. Gunther, 'The first Observatory cortcept and use of kv,arithms. The young Instruments of the Savilian Professors at William Gascoigne taught himself how to use Oxford', The Obserz~tory, 60 (July 1937), 43. Robert Boyle, New Experiments Ph~ico- logarithms and Neper's Ri~Is [l~a~s] at his pp.190-7. Gunther identifies the 24.inch-radius Mechamcal, Touching the Spring of Air, and Its Imme at Middleton near Leeds in the 1630s: brass-limbed iron quadrant, set on a geared Effects (Made, for the most part, with a see his Ms. Notebook preserved in Chetham's stand, with the Bodleian 1697 C,ataloxus's (m~e Pneumatk-al Engine), 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1662). Colk~e, Manchester, Chetham Ms. A. 3110. 31), item no. 4: 'Octans km~us ...'. The 1697 Richard Waller, Posthumous Works of Robert Catalogus a~, specifies at no. 8 'Quadrans H~ce (lxmdon, 1705), says that Greatorex's 24. Aubrey in Aubrry's Brief Lit~ (note 8), aereus binis tubis Telescopicis & adminiculo airpump had been 'too gross to perform any 'Henry Briggs', 39, says that William Ought~d mstructus', although no two-foot brass (aer- great matter', p. iii. styled Briggs 'the English Archimedes'. eus) quadrant survives. It is unclear which Brlggs's Loxarithmorum chdias prima (Lm~Jon, item in the 1697 C,atakrgus is supposed to 44. The names of Yarwell, Greatorex, and 1617) and Arithmettca Ioxanthmica (London, match the surviving 24-inch uron quadrant, 1624) were extremely influential works which many more instrument makers are found tlmugh its presence L~ easily explained if one within The Diary of Roberf Hooke, M.A., M.D., Fa~pularised the new calculating techniques. assumes that a librarian or scribe who was They were soon available, translated ~m F.R.S., ed. HW. Robinson and W. Adams unfamiliar with astronomical instruments (Lond(m: Taylor and Francis, 1935). Latin to English; Briggs's in the massive folio made the list. if, in no. 4, a 24-inch quadrant Loxarithmicall Anthmetike, or Tables of l.,oxa. was mistaken for an octant, o¢ in no. 8 a 24- rithms f~r Absolute Numbers ... (London, 1631). inch iron quadrant with a brass limb was 45. Robert Hca)ke Some Aninmdzccsams on the Briggs gave full acknowledgement to Napier. mistaken for a tamished brass-flamed instru- First Part of Het~elius, his "Machina Codestis" ment, then things fall into place more easily. (London 1674), p. 55. 25. Sir Christopher Wren and Stephen Wren (son and grandson of Sir Christopher), Par- entalia: or Memoirs of the Eamdy of the Wrens 33. A. Chapman, 'The Design and Accuracy 46. Hooke, Animadzcrsams (note 45), p. 54. (London, 1750), pp. 181if, for Wren's early of Some Ob~rvatory Instruments of the William Molyneux to Flamsteed, 22 Dec. 1685, mathematical and instrumental interests. For Seventeenth Century', Annals of Science, 40 Ms. Southampton Civic Record Office, D/M/ ass~iatinn with Oughtred, p. 184. Also Ward, (1983), pp. 457-71. .I/1. ft. 95rv, 96rv. (note 2), pp. 98-103. M. See Gascoigne and Crabtrt~, letters 1640- 47. The 'Preface'to Jahn Flamsteed~ 'Historic 26. Wren's architecture is well known, but for 1648, cited by W. Derham in Phil. Trans.,30 Corlestis Britannica °, or Bnti~ Catalogue of the Hooke's see Mar)orie Isabel Batten, 'The (1717), pp. 604-10. Gascoigne to Oughtmd, Heazcns, 1725, edited and introduced by Architecture of Dr. Ri~ert Hooke, F.R.S.', undated, but containing observa~ms up to Allan Chapman; basecl upon a translation Walpole S~riety, London, vol. 25 (O.U.P., 19:~- Feb. 1641, printed in Rigaud, Correspondence, by Alison Di(me Johnson (National Maritime 7), pp. 83-113. His only complete surviving vol. I (note 13), pp. 35-~. See p. 47 for Museum Monograph No. 52, 1982), pp. 11,3- building is the church at Willen, now in Gascoigne's use of 'one glass' to take the sun's 16" 118-19. A. Chapman, l~rndm~¢ the Circle. Greater Milton Keynes. altitude on a 4-foot sextant at 'the sun's last The De~elopment of Critical An~ul~r Measure- eclipse' (16407). raent in Astn~tomy, 1500-18,50 (Chichester and 27. Ward, L/zvs (note 2); John Greaves was in New York: Praxis-Wiley, 19q0, 2nd edn. Constantinople, Rhodes, Egypt and other 1~95), Pp 45-5q. countries in 16`38 and 1639 (pp. 138-42), and 35. C,ascoigne chimed his farmliarity with Barrow was in the Levant and eastern Oxford and London in his letter to Oughtred, Mediterranean in 16.58-9 (pp. 159-60), though Feb. 1641 (?), cited in Rigaud, Correspondence, 48. The Gresham College Lectures of Iohn hoth men were out of England for a longer vol. 1 (note 13), p. 35. Flamsteed, ed. Eric G. Forbes (Lond(m, 1975). stretch on their overall journeys in Italy and other European countries. 36. Recorded by Jolqn Flamsteed, and pw- Acknowledgements served in his manuscripts now in Cambridge 28. Ward,/./zcs (note 2), p. 141. The Turks of University Library RGOI/6~ L li2v, cited in C(mstantinople, however, do not seem to have Frances Willma~th, Sir Jonas M(~,e, Practical ! wish to thank Trevor Waterman h)r minded Greaves using 'a brass Sextant of Mathematics and Restoration Science (Wool- permitting me to examine the Elias Allen alxwe four foot radius' to determine the bridge:. Boydell Press, 1993), p. 26. ~cket sundial, and for permission to latitude of that city, at 41 6', at the summer reproduce his photograph of it. ! solsticeof 1638: 'An Account of the Latitude of particularly thank the staff of the Constantinople and Rhodes' in Mi~ellaneous 37. Thomas Tuttell (fl 1695-1702) had been Works of Mr. John Greaws, vol 2, ed. Thomas apprenticed to Henry Wynne, who in turn had Museum of the History of Science, Birch (Ltagion, 1737), pp. 364-71: 368. been apprenticed to Ralph Greatorex: Taylor, Oxford, Dr J.A. Bennett, Giles Hudson, Mathematical Practitamers (note 12), p. 292. and especially Tony Simcock, for their 29. A. Chapman, 'A Study of the Accuracy of Greatorex, in turn, had been Allen's appren- unfailing help, and for access to the the Scale Graduations on a Group of European tice, p. 229. Library and collections. 1 also wish to ', Annals of Science, 410 (1983), pp. thank Professor G. UE. Turner and Dr 473-88: 476, reprinted in Chapman, Astronom- Willem Hackmann. iml Instruments and Their Users: T~cho Brahe to 38. Workesof Edmund Gunter (note 20). William Lassell (Variorum, Aldershot, 1996). Greaves, Pyramido~raphia, in Mi~. Works ... of 39. Sprat, History of the Ri.~l Society (note 2), Greta,,s, vol. | (note 28), p. ix. W(~d, Athenae pp. 52-7, for the Royal Society with Wilkins at Author's address: Oxonienses, vol. 2 (note 14),p. 157, for Greaves Oxford, and at Gresham. Ward,/~,s (note 2), Wadham College in Egypt. pp. x-xii. Oafi,rd OXI 3PN

Bulletin d the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) 13 Museum Report Mystic Seaport Ron and Stella Bristow

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, t IL.

Fig.1 A Corner ~. Mystic Seaport Mum'urn. Fig.2 Nautical Instrument Shop Mystic Seaport.

Mystic Seaport and its Museum activities eral ships are owned by the Museum; the public interest and providing entertain- do not seem to be well - known or Charles W Morgan is a whaling bark built ment because State and Federal grants publicised outside the United States,, yet in 1841; Joseph Conrad a Danish sail are insufficient and their continuity is not this extensive site has been in existence training vessel built in 1880, and L.A. guaranteed. Admission fees, member- since the 19.~)s and has goal collections Dunton a Gloucester fishing schooner. ships, a good quality shop, an art gallery, which include many navigational instru- Some ships are kept in operating condi- catering facilities, help in the generation ments. A brief report on a recent informal tion and in use for the public. Sail of funds. visit may therefore be of interest. training is carried out. We were told that there were about We fi~t visited Mystic Seal~wt Mu~um In the outdoor Village, in addition to the twelve curatorial staff, which seems very some years ago, out of general interest. remaining original houses, appropriate low in relation to the range of activities Even by New England standards, we buildings have been preserved and being carried out. Considerable use is found i't to have many charms and a transferred from other locations and made of Volunteers, who may aspire to great deal of historical interest and have incorporated in a representative and inclusion in a Garden of Remembrance. often considered a return visit, one of the attractive layout. Thus, there is a rope- Recently a digital camera has been used aims being to see the instrument collec- walk, a iighthou~, a chandlers, fishing to answer outside queries via electronic tions. Chris White of the Curatorial staff sheds, rigging loft, sail loft, a nautical mail and while this has worked very kindly arranged this and with Dave instrument store, amongst many others. satisfactorily it raises awkward questions .Mathi~.~m guidtM us through the reserve These are run as Museum displays and concerning data rights. collection of navigational instruments. there is a programme of live demonstra- l_im~ttM time meant that not everything tions and talks, aimed at both informed Instrument Collection could be inspt~tt-~ and not all questions and popular visitors. ask~M or answered, despite the courtesy The instrument collection is maintained and willingnt~s of our hosts, hence the In the third area of Museum activities, in the context of and in support of the superficial nature of this report. eight buildings are used for museum maritime theme of the Museum. displays and there is a planetarium in Mv~t|c SeaD~rt lit~ on the Mystic River which five displays are given daily in the The number of instruments in the (Fig.l), a comfortable two h~urs drive summer. The Library has 70,000 volumes collection is, at a guess, in the low ,~uthwt~t from B~ton and a similar and nearly 75,000 manuscripts. Conser- hundreds. Most are in the reserve ioumey northeast fn~m New York. In the vation, research, education, recording, is collection, which is in an off-site building earh' nineteenth centu~, it was a ship- all carried out. There is an active with a controlled environment. The store building town and not a ~,aport; ships publication programme, which has pro- is well organi,~-,d and the objects are built there would be sailed to ports such duced over 50 titles, and a comprehen- carefully stored, although it is a little as New London or Newport to be fitted sive bookshop. The existence of original crowded. Most instrument conservation out. 1-he site was established as a hou.,~s and the known history of their work is done on-site, trade labels being Mu~um in 1931 and embraces some of owners mean that archaeological and an exception as they are handled by the original dwelling-houses of the archive work on them can be carried paper conservation specialists. If it is town's shipbuilders within its seventeen out within the site and this is an active thought necessary to prevent deteriora- acres. pursuit. tion, trade labels are removed from the instrument box and stored separately The site is divided into three main areas. Mystic Seaport aims to be primarily an after conservation; sometimes during In the Presen'ation Shipyard the Mu- educational establishment and the scho- their removal others have been discov- seum's historic ships and small boats are larly aspects of museum work necessarily ered underneath and thus more informa- maintained using traditional skills. Sev- coexist with the activities of generating tion has been gained about an instrument

14 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) or its owner.

The Collection has been catalogued for Museum purp(~,es in database form but ,so far not published for outside use. ['his is a pity becau~ the collection is quite large and interesting, having many examples of American instruments and others l~ssibly indicating the trade in British - made instruments. In the time available it was not possible to scan the entire list of objects and the following small selection was listed during a random viewing of the reserve collection and a sight of the relevant exhibits.

Reserve Collection

Rules, Scales, Logs Fig.3 A Corner of the Nautical Instrument Shop. "['here are numerous scales and rules in the Collection but not all could be noted. Stick Barometer by John Merrick, sole name "Alexander Hyde 1733 London' Of particular interest is an eighteenth proprietor US Office, Worcester, Mass. largely obliterated. Trade label in case century rule for gauging produce for tax for 'Joseph Gaitskill 332 Wapping Union purposes, although it could not be Marine Barometer by Bassnett, Liverpool, Stairs, London, Compass Maker & Ships specifically identified during our visit. with barley twist case and thermometer. Chandler'. Dating from before the American Revolu- tion, it has been suggested that it Another Marine Barometer, this one with Binnacles symbolises the discontent of that period. barley twist case by B.Wond, Liverix~ol. Another unusual item was a Whale Oil The Reserve Collection includes about a gauging rule. A by John Banjo Barometer by Watson & Martin, dozen binnacles; note was taken of the Fullton was noted as was a Rust's Slide Dunfermline. following examples: Rule for Navigation (paper on wood) in very good condition. Mechanical logs by Banjo Barometer by Charles Wilder, T.S. & J.D. Negus, New York (sold by). John Bliss & Company, New York, were Peterborough, New , patent seen, as were many other instruments 1860. John E. Hand & Sons, Philadelphia (sold bearing rids name. Other objects briefly by). inspected were Shipwrights rules, Divi- A mahogany Banjo Barometer, highly ders (iron) by Timmins & Son, a Traverse decorated with carved block & tackle J. White, Glasgow, Thompson's Patent. Board. and a strange wood device said to and other nautical devices. be a Polynesian navigation instrument. Telescopes Surveying Instruments Backstaves There is a large collection of hand A few surveying instruments were seen telescopes including: There are several Backstaves. Seen were but details not noted through lack of one by Benjamin King, Newport, Rh(~e time. Single draw 30-inch ,black leather deco- Island, marked 1758, also marked Mr rated with pennants, belonging to Wm. Jonathan Delano (a New Bedford name), Chronometers Brady, US Navy and signed 'J.P.Culls& and another also by Benjamin King of Sons, Opticians to Her Mapes .ty,Sheffield'. Newport, Rh~e island, marked 1762. A A number of chronometers, perhaps further example by James French was twenty or more, were stored but most Octagonal wood - barrelled about 33 marked 1788. It is perhaps unusual for could not be studied in the time avail- inches, single draw, possibly seized or such instruments to be marked with their able. Several were by American makers, possibly fixed focus; aperture about I dates of manufacture, but may have been one British example was by John Poole. inch, no signature discerned. the practice for American manufacturers (Others are on display in the Nautical after the Revolution. American readers Instrument Shop in the Museum.) A local maker, Edgecombe of Mystic, was may be able to comment. referred to but we did not see any Octants examples. Barometers Again there are a significantnumber of In Nautical Instrument Shop There are probably two dozen or more octants in the store of which only a small mercury barometers of which the follow- number could be closely inspected. Some This Museum display site represents a ing were the most accessible and were examples were: nineteenth century nautical instrument briefly inspected. retailer's shop (Figs 2 - 4) and had an Octant 15 tol6-inch, owner Mr. Hazzard, interesting range of items 'on offer' Marine Barometer in Ebony and ivory painted decoration on case. including: with boxwood stringing by Hunt]ey, London. Octant of ebony, brass, ivory, decorated Binnacle, John Bliss,New York. brass radius arm, signed 'J. Calmer, Stick Barometer by C.E. Porter, Boston. maker, Wapping New Stairs',but another Brass sextant, ivory scale, Grey & Kerr,

Bulletin of the Scientificinstrument Society No. 56 0998) 15 maintained collection of nautical instru- ments. There are I~sibly more impor- tant examples than th(~e we saw, but we were impres,sed with the number of early American pn~ucts. A study of the instrument business in America would certainly have to draw Ul~m the exam- pies in the collection at Mystic, yet strangely it is hardly ever mentioned. There is no reference to Mystic in the new Index to the SIS Bulletin, for example, but there must be much material there which would be of interest to members.

It would be presumptuous to imply that no one else has heard of Mystic. it may be that our American members are so familiar with this collection as to take it Fig.5 Dtsl,h~y ,#" Instruments in the Plane- for granted. Perhaps they can be per- tarium Buildm¢. suaded to produce a proper account of it, and in turn to encourage the publication of a catalogue for external consumption. Eight-Day Chronometer No184/6392 Jas. John,,~m Liverpool. Acknowledgements Fig.4 Nautical Instrument Shop St~,n- h~mt. Conclusion Photographs taken by the authors. We thank the Mystic Seaport Museum for their permi~ion to use these to illustrate Strand, Liverl~x~l. Museums' policies with regard to photo- graphy are necessarily strict and require this report. LX'ck Watches by Waltham some previous arrangements. For this rea.~m and the shortage of time no Our thanks are also due to Chris White and Davie Mathies(m of the Museum ~,veral Chronometers, Eluding: photographs were taken of individual instruments. The general views are staff for their kind assistance during our visit. D. Eggerrs Sons (sic), New M}rk. reproduced with the kind permission of the Director of Mystic Seaport Museum with whom copyright remains. This short I.S & J.D Negus, 100 Wall Street, New Authors" address: 'fork visit only equips us to report tm a small 10 Ashdcmm Close selection, and then in not much detail, on Maidstone what .seems to be an interesting and well- Jt~,~'ph ~.well, No 4632, Liverl~nfi. Kent MEI6 8AD

Bliss & Creighton, No 855, New York.

There were al.,~ ~veral Octants, some Lines of Faith- MHS with trade labels, which were not legible in their displayed situatkm. 1998 Student Exhibition j,.-~ ~

" ' I~H' ~,'atche~ by American Watch Company. Special exhibition in the Mu~um of the A Binia-ular Telescope about 4 ft in length History of Science 10 March - 27 June 1998. and about 0-inch aperture, on ornate The exhibition Lines of Faith is this year s ca~ed tripod and pillar base, un.qgned, Annual Student Exhibition connected to the pos~,bly mid-nineteenth century (from M.Sc. course at the Museum of the History of ~,tvle of furniture). Science, Oxford. The exhibition displays Islamic scientific instruments from the Mu- In Planetarium Building seum, which houses one of the best collec- tions in the world. The instruments are ~;~ .~ . We did not see the planetarium demon- interpreted in relation to the religious context stration itself but noted several instru- in which they arose. The Quran states the ments db, played in vitrines (Fig.5): Muslims should pray in the direction of ~.'7 Mecca at certain times of the day, and last Backstaff, made 176:5 C (Clark) Elliott, during the Holy Month. Each of these New London, for Mr A~ Waterman, of requirements involves complex astronomical boxw~a~d & ivory, ivory, label, in very and mathematical problems, and this led to Fig.1 Details of the "Lines of faith on a gtn~ condition. the production of scientific instruments with Qibla Map inscribed on the back of an astrolabe. Bears the signature Muham- a clear religious functionality, displaying (k'tant, George Gnwer 1783, about 18- mad Mahdr aI-Kkddim, undated but c. many beautiful features including 'Lines of 16.50. Copyright Oxfl~rd Mu~um of the inch radius, boxwtx~ & brass, ivory Faith' (Fig.l). scale & vernier, in very complete state. History of Science, inv. no. 41, I10.

16 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) Celsius, Linn( and the Celsius Temperature Scale

Olof Beckman

Abstr~ interest. The thermometers were mainly to make a careful analysis of the used in metenrology, in horticulture,and reliability of the fixed points. At the beginning of the eighteenth century possibly also for indoor purpose, which numerous different temperature scales implies a temperature region from about Freezing Point of Water existed, often locally defined. This prob- plus forty to minus twenty in modem ably influenced to pay Celsius degrees. Further it is important to Celsius notices that 'the same degree of attention to the thermometer problem. He remember that several phenomena which cold' that is needed for making water was exceptional in his careful measure- we today take for granted were not freeze should reappear when the ice ments of two fixed temperatures of a clarified in the firsthalf of the eighteenth melts to water. He concludes that the thermometer scale, the freezing and century. The concept of heat was not fully temperature at freezing point should be boiling points of water. This formed the understood. One could argue that the read when the thermometer has been basis of a true international temperature cellar temperature under the Paris Ob- immersed in 'cloggy' snow for at least scale. Carl yon Linn~, originally using servatory (.~ 12 C) was more reliableas a half an hour. Measurements were re- degrees, was certainly familiar reference than the temperature of melting peated under different conditions several with Celsius's work, and he adopted the ice. The constancy of the temperature at a times during the winter months for two new temperature scale for use in horti- phase transition, such as the melting of years. He investigated the possible culture. His influence as regards the ice, was not at all obvious. Joseph Black influence of barometric pressure on the graduation of the Celsius scale is dis- in Scotland and Carl Wilcke in Sweden freezing point of water (on the analogy of cussed. did not clarify these phenomena until the Fahrenheit's discovery of the change in end of the eighteenth century. The boiling point with atmospheric pressure). development of modern thermody- Introduction He found no such effect, however. The namics occurred still later, during the freezing point on the thermometer was mneteenth century. always exactly the same, independent of In the early eighteenth century standards the barometer reading. He made other of weights and measures were far from Anders Celsius's Determination of the experiments, which we today feel are universal. In general each country or Two Fixed Points superfluous, but at that time was province had its own standard measures, necessary. During a very cold winter and they were often interchanged for The large variety of temperature scales day he took the cold snow into his mutual comparison. This created minor most probably influenced Celsius to pay chamber and waited until it got wet problems as regards weights and lengths, attention to the problem of making a around the thermometer bulb. Another but temperature standards offered diffi- temperature scale based on well-defined time the thermometer, in a bucket with culties of another magnitude. Tempera- fixed points, which could really be of snow, was placed in a hot stove. Celsius ture scales were often based on reference international use. After some years of observed that the themunneter always temperatures of local origin, which were experiments he published a detailed showed the same temperature under the impossible to interchange. In Sweden, report in 17422 on the determination of important condition that both snow and Anders Celsius (1701 - 1744, professor of two fixed points on a temperature scale, water really surrounded the thermometer astronomy at the University of Uppsala based on the freezing and boiling bulb. from 1730) was engaged in the general temperatures of water. In this report problem of weights and measures. Al- Celsius stresses the necessity for a In the eighteenth century it was not ready at an early stage he must have reliable temperature scale, and discusses obvious that the temperature of melting realized the necessity of a standard the two generally accepted ways of snow is independent of the geographic temperature scale. In the late 1720s as establishing a scale. The first method is latitude. Thus Martine ~4 found it impor- an assistant to professor Burman in to use only one fixed point. The scale is astronomy he, for instance, used thermo- tant to point out that no change in then based on the thermal expansion of temperature readings of the freezing meters made by the English instrument the specific thermometer liquid, e.g. spirit maker Francis Hauksbee. In a meteorol- point of water were observed when he of wine or mercury. This method was exchanged thermometers with people ogy report years later Anders Celsius used by R~aumur, who chose zero at the living as far apart as nine degrees in describes the scale of this thermometer freezing point of water as the single fixed latitude. Celsius took part in the French (translated from the Swedish)': '0 degree point in his spirit-of-wine thermometer. expedition under Maupertuis to northern indicates the the sunshine highest heat in However, Celsius definitely prefers the Sweden in 1736-37 in order to measure in London, 45 deg temperate, and at 65 other method, i.e. to determine two fixed the length of a latitude degree. Using a deg water freezes'. Such a temperature points, and then divide the temperature Rtaaumur thermometer Celsius noticed scale is hardly suited for international interval in a suitable number of degrees. the same freezing point of water when use. Among other reference temperatures This explains his choice of title: Obscr~- measured in Torne~ as he had observed (called 'fixed points') one can notice the tioner om twitnne bestiindiga Grader p~ en in Uppsala and Paris; a span of 17 temperature in deep cellars, the blood Thermometer ('Observations of two well- degrees in latitude,s (Celsius remarks that point ('the maximum heat that the defined Degrees on a Thermometer'). As the freezing point according to his thermometer can attain by contact with fixed points he chose the temperature measurement always lies I/5 degree the human body'), etc. However, fixed when water starts freezing and the above the freezing point marked on the points of general character were also temperature of boiling water. He thereby R~aumur thermometer. This is probably used, like the freezing and boiling points refers to 'a beautiful Tract on Thermo- due to the less reliable method applied of water. meters' by Dr Martine in 17407 Celsius by R~aumur for the determination of the also remarks that 'Drs Halley, Taglini and freezing point.*) As a result of all his When discussing temperature scales it is others' are suspicious about the con- observations Celsius concludes that the important to consider the very limited stancy of the above-mentioned fixed freezing point of water is well suited as temperature domain that was of practical points and he therefore felt impelled a fixed point on a thermometer scale.

Bulk,tin of the Scientific lmtmme~ Society No. 56 figs) 17 pressure and the boiling lx)int of water. As is evident, the agreement with Celsius's experimental ob~rvations is very gea~l. Anders Celsius certainly made very accurate measurements in spite of rather primitive methods.

Celsius concludes that the temperature of the boiling l~int of water is reliableas a fixed point, but only in combination with a defined barometric pressure. As a ! 25 ' " ¢' 4, standard Celsius pn~nlses the pressure of 25.3 inches of mercury, which he considers to be the mean value of the .,,,~ atmospheric pressure. This equals 751.2 mmHg or I001 hectopascal (millibar).He marks this fixed point with zero on his Thermometer rndinit, (;ran thermometer scale. The freezing point gets the value I007 Fig.l Anders Celsius~ measurements ,~. the h,iling Ix,int t~f uuter at d!fferent barometric pressures. The abscissa indicates the readinc.s In 1737 the French astronomer J(r~ph- ~. the mercu~, le~'l ,~ the thermometer expressed in "Gran', where 1 Nicolas de Ulsle in St Petersburg sent Gran equals 0.3 mm on the thermometer stem. The barometer two thermometers to Anders Celsius. readm¢s are gizvn in inches with | inch equal to 29.69 mm The One thermometer is stillkept at Uppsala stra~¢ht line indicates the relatum betuven atmospheric pressure and University (Fig.2). It measures 180 mm the &,iling t,oint t~ u~ter accordm¢ t0 modern thermodynamics, between the boiling and freezing points adiusted to the units used by. Celsius. (The ~, cros.ces indicate of water. The thermometer Celsius used Celsius's measurements of uuter fiom a bad u¢ll, not suitable for tea.) for the above-mentioned experiments measured 235 mm (i.e. 792 Gran) between the freezing and boiling points, Boiling Point of Water indicating that the temperature of boiling and most probably it has got lost. water is dependent of 'the height of Celsius undertta~k a series of experiments mercury in the barometer'. He decided One can speculate about the practical to obsen,e carefully the boiling i~)int at in order to determine the temperature of reasons behind the design of different different barometer readings. He marked this fixed point. In his report he remarks temperature scales, particularly as re- that the temperature remains constant an arbitrary i:x)int on the thermometer gards the fixed points and the position independent of the length of boiling time stem and measured the I:x~sition of the of zero. Thermomete~ were only used 'm,twithstanding the oblections raised by mercury level downwards from this within a limited temperature range. mark when the water was boiling. He Mr Taglini'. In his experiments Celsius Hence it was natural to ch,~se the fixed placed the thermometer deep in the gives a table of in total 31 experimental [x~ints inside this range, such as the boiling water in a teakettle and kx,k a readings. They are plotted in Figure 1. temperature of the human b(gly and the reading when the water had been boiling (Since some readings are coincident the temperature in the Paris Observatory hard for several minutes. Using present diagram contains only 23 [x)ints.) The cellar. The cellar temperature was re- methods a more exact reading will be thermometer readings are given in markably constant, at least considering obtained if the thermometer bulb is not in 'Gran', i.e. ,me hundredth of a Swedish the accuracy that was needed at that time, direct contact with the boiling water.: inch, which at that time equaled 29.69 and this temperature reference was al- However, in spite of this, Celsius got mm." The readings are given with an ways available (at least in Paris). "]'he reliable readings, since he was careful to accuracy cl,~e to 1 Gran, i.e. 0.3 ram! The freezing and boiling points of water were keep the water boiling intensively. His height of the mercury column of the sometimes used as reference points, readings are remarkablv accurate. barometer is given in Swedish inches. although the Ix)iling ix)int was outside the temperature regkm usually applied For the experirm,nts Celsius u~'d water Celsius finds that a change in atmo- and the freezing ix)int was easily avail- from different sources, such as 'snow- spheric pressure of one inch on a mercury able only in winter time. When Joseph- water', water from the Fyris river and barometer causes a change in the boiling Nicolas de L'Isle in Paris invented a water from three different wells. 'One [n~int of 8 Gran on his thermometer scale thermometer in the 1720s he chose zero well had bad water not suitable h,r tea, (as can be checked in the diagram). He at the boiling point of water and hundred one well had reasonably got~ water and divides the distance between the boiling at the temperature in the cellar of the one well had g,a~ water, usually used and freezing points, which amounts to Paris Ob~rvatory" (not the freezing for tea.' He suspected that the quality of 792 Gran on the thermometer stem, in point of water). In 1725 he moved to St the water could i~ssibly influence the one hundred degrees. The size of one Petersburg where he remained until 1747. measurements. The water from the bad degree is thus approximately 8 Gran, and There he made mercury thermometers well seemed to give somewhat low Celsius concludes that the change of one with zero stillch,~en at the fixed l~)intof readings, although this observation is inch in barometer reading approximately boiling water. There was no suitable cellar not clear-cut. His final conclusion is, equals a change of one degree in the available for a second fixed point. Instead however, that any kind of water can be boiling point. he first tried to use the expansion of u,,~cl in establishing the boiling point on mercury to define the degrees in the same the thermometer scale. Celsius's results are remarkably accurate way as R~aumur did. However, later the in the light of modern thermodynamics. freezing point of water was applied as a Celsius was well aware of the observa- A straight line in Figure I indicates the second fixed point, and this was given the tions made by Fahrenheit in Amsterdam present relation between atmospheric value 150 degrees (Fig.2). Probably

18 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Stxiety No. 56 (1998) Fig.2 Ph"tt~l, rat'h Of the de L'lsle th,'rm,,m,'h'r at Upl,~la tlntwrsttu. L)e l.'lsh" ha~ printer! his s,'ah' t(; the h.'~ rullllltl,( .from the bOl/lllq~ l~,int ,~f uuter. 0, at "the top CChah'ur deau bouillante') It, the .~'e~ing point, i.50 , ('Pn'ntu,re Ca'h~") and fi~rther down h, 205 . 1io the ri;lht is a s,'ah' {t,n.sumably marked ~ Celsius him~'lD a,tth 0 at the &,th~N t~,int. There :s a / singh, dot at .50. Fn,m 70 d,,wmtunts then" are dots fi,r each degm'. The t,'mpenaun' n:~tt,n rty, ht beh,w the/~,i/tng tN,int has no dots; this part uus Of tu, mten,st, since the th,'rmomet,'r u~as intended.h,r m,'tt'on,h,~,,y. The mark No. 100 at the [reezmg l~,int t'orn'st~,nds t,, 151.l{ ,h' L'lsh'. Ut!h,rtunately, the thermom,'h'r bulb ttus &mu:ged .~,me tin; ago. hi i 9q4. y,h]ssbh,wer Nils lJ~rss,,n. Ul,psah~. ntanac.tat to make a utm, tht'rm, mteter bulb and ++ternu,tth measun'ment~ +...: ~, :" as ch~" as t.,sstbh, h, the old tht'rm,,meh.r, K,ml~,rature readin,~s are. ho~{~'t,er, no Itms~er in exact a,~rt'ement {£,lth the ~'ah'. Coltrtesy Institute (!f Meteor,,hN, V, []t,t,~l,i LJni~,ersittt .~,-it 4; .' t~ .'-/ I.

4~ :i! '

," • +4 ~ :

~,~,:tie'~" i '+f+"+'

I'l ~ : : ~, .51 : .... i

":~ :., ,I .,~

Fig.3 Part of the ~rontislm,ce Of l,mmicus th,rtus Chttort:a,m~ with the putto holdm,~, a thcrmt,m,'ter y, raduate, t up and dozen Prom a ~ro (mditated I~. the number I ).

Negative numbers could al.,~) be avoidt~J the Cel.,,ius ~ale as we know it today, hm) by .setting zero at a very low temperature. much attention has thereby been gi+ en to This meth~x:l was u..~-,cl by Ri,mer and the direction of the scale+rather than to then adopted by FahrenheitY The zero the ~'ientifk'allv more imi~rtant work of I~)int was ckrse to the temperature of a defining the fixed [~ints. mixture of salt, ice or snow, and water (around -18 C), probably the lowest Carl Linnaeus and Hortus Cli~h,rti,mu~ temperature that could easily be obtained artificially at that time, ancl colder out- Carl Linnaeus (later Carl yon Irene) is d,~t,r temperatures did not ¢x'cur ve~' .,~)n)etinlt~ considered to be the first to often. No specification was given of the use our m~iem Celsius thermometer, on relative concentration of salt. ['he zero rare ix'casions he is even placed as the I~)int was not a fixed point the scale. of (almost) sole inventor of the scale Fahrenheit at first u.,~d the in~.,zing I~)int Around 1735 I.inneaus was a guest of of water (32 F) and the "bk~,d i~int' the wealthy banker (;. Clitford at .i (% F) as referenct.,sY]'he blood l~)int was Hartekamp in the Netherlands At the later replaced by the boiling i~)int of rk~qut.'st of CIitford, [.mneaus wrote the water (212 F). His mercury thermometers famous dt.'~'ription of Cllttords garden, wen., of a high quality anti the Fahrenheit t oi '+ ftortus ('ht~,rthoms (1737).': In a biogra- .~ale was ~n generally u.,~d in English- phy on Linnaeus, Thr ('omph'at N,aturah~t. speaking countries. Wilfrid Bkmt di~u~,ses 'Hortus Chth~r- tianus'." In the lower right hand corner Anders Celsius often u~'d a R¢~aumur of the frontispiece there is a puttt) thermometer with a 'direct' scale, but in holding a thermometer (Fig3). Blunt Celsius fl)llowex| de [.'isle in ~,tting the designing his temperature scale he mak,.,s the following comment as regards followed de [.'Isle and placed zen) at zero at the boiling I~)int of water. Thereby the fmntispi~-e of the work: the boiling point of water, thus creating he escaped a mixture of ~sitive and an 'inverted' scale. ]'hn~ugh the years With n,gard to the thermon~,ter m the negative numbers when measuring out- this has raised extended di.,~.'ussions pIt'ttlrt, - t~rle that is i~)w call~t the Ceh.tu~, d(x,r teml~,ratur~ in the wintertime. about his position as the true founder of or, more ottt~n and It,s.,, mcorn'¢tlv, the

Bulletin of the ~'ientific Instniment ~cieW No. % (199R) lg centigrade thermometer - it is interesting to in the winter greenhouse than 40 degrees, as the utmost b,nmdary of vegetation, on remember that Celsius made his zero the while the American plants are comfor- the warm side; beyond which plants will Ix, hng-pomt of water and 100 degR.es its table with 70 degrees' ('Harum afrae rather fade than vegetate, such a degree of heat separating and dispersing, instead of treezmg-point; [~ did the opposite, calorem hybernaculi ultra gradum 40 and the thennom~er which the is congregating, and uniting the nutritive h~)ldmg is clearly graduated according to nolient, quem 70 n¢m respuunt amer- particles. Linnaeus. [n a letter to a French correspon- ican~'). Linnaeus visited Fahrenheit in dent he wrote: "It was I who invented our Holland, and the thermometer therefore This space 1 divided into 90 degrees on all in which the freezing point of could have the Fahrenheit scale. How- the Thermon~ers, beginning to number from water is 0 degrees and the boiling point I00.' ever, this gives rather low values, since 40 the freezing point. Sixty four of these Celsius did not publi~ his plan until 1742, and 70 Fahrenheit indicate temperatures degrees is nearly equal to the heat of the and thus [~ clearly had precedence; of 4 C and 21 C respectively. Several blood of anunab; which I found by the rule how then did Celsius's name become other temperature scales are possible. ~ven in the Philosophical Tran,~,ctions, Vol II. associated with what was undoubtedly Middleton" suggests that Linnaeus p.l of Mr. Motte's Abridgment, viz. by Linnaeus's therm(m~=r? Can it be that the adopted the Fowler scale, which was placing one of the Thermometers in water C, which stands for Centigrade, was used in horticulture in England. Since heated to the greatest degree, that l could mistakenly believed to stand for CeLqius? bear my hand in it, stirring it about: And Linnaeus visited England in 1736, he which ! was further assured of, by placing This depreciation of Celsius's work probably knew of the Fowler scale, which the ball of my Thernunneter in the flowing probably originates from a general had a 'direct' scale with zero at about blood of an expiring Ox. The beat of the ignorance of Celsius's careful thermo- 12 C. According to the Fowler scale the blea'~d to that of boiling water is as 14+3/11 meter investigations, and also from two temperatures 40 and 70 should he about to 33. papers (in Swedish) by Nordenmark." 26 C and 37C, which are acceptable Nordenmark pays too much attention to values. Hales considers the greatest degree he the putto holding a thermometer with a could bear his hand in without stirring as scale graduated from I00 down to I (not Beckman ~* suggests that the frontispiece an upper temperature for vegetation, zero!) and symmetrically further down to shows a thermometer by Stephen Hales about halfway between the freezing and I00. Nordenmark interprets this as a (1677-1761). Hales was a well-known boiling points of water. This temperature centigrade thermometer, but he then English botanist, who did pioneering he marks 90, in rough agreement with his arbitrarily concludes that the scale is work in plant and animal physiology. In later definition of I00 as the melting based on the freezing and boiling points 1727 he published Vegetable Staticks, in point of wax. Hales gives the value 64 of of water. Considering the large number which he described a vast number of the 'blood point' on his 90 degree scale, of different temperature scales existing at plant experiments in physiology. Lin- indicating a reasonable value. Later in the beginning of the eighteenth century, it naeus certainly knew of Hales's work, the text of 'Experiment XX' Hales also is not sufficient to use an artist's since it was available in the Clifford makes a remark about the Fowler rendition of a thermometer to make a library. In Hortus Cliffortianus Linnaeus thermometer:. 'And I am informed that statement about the scale. Furthermore, lists three copies of Hales's 'Statica many of the most curious Gardiners the depicted scale is scientifically wrong. Vegetabilium" (nos 198, 199, 200; printing about London have agreed to make use The zero point is incorrectly marked by years 1727, 1731, 1734) under the heading of Thermometers of this sort; which are the figure 1, and there are no minus Bibliotheca Botanica Cliff~iana. made by Mr. John Fowler in Swithins-ailey, signs. The thermometer should simply be near the Royal-Exchange;' However, he considered as a piece of art. Which temperature scale did Hales use? makes no comments as regards any fixed Beckman'" refers to the 3rd edition of points on the Fowler thermometer. As pointed out above a temperature scale Hales's book (London 1738) with 0 must include well-defined fixed points. degrees at the freezing point of water In order to illustrate the various tem- Unfortunately Linnaeus gives no clue to and 100 degrees at the temperature of perature scales, a diagram is here given any type of temperature scale or fixed melting wax (beeswax, melting point of the three thermometers by Fahrenheit, points in Hortus Chffortzanus. In fact he around 60 C), thus defining a 'centi- Fowler and Hales in relation to the gives only a few temperature readings, grade' scale. In the first edition of 1727 modem Celsius scale (Fig. 4). The Fowler and they are all found in the preface (reprint London 1961) '7 Hales gives a scale is taken from Middleton ~* and the (Praefatio). There he mentions plants slightly different scale. In 'Experiment Hales scale is drawn in close agreement from Africa, which 'in the warm winter XX' he explains the graduation of his with his above-mentioned temperatures. greenhou~ grow magnificently during thermometers'~: Further, the two temperatures 40 and 70 some months if they are subjected to a given by Linnaeus in his preface to temperature of 70 degrees' ('In Hyberna- ! provided me six Thermometers, whose Hortus Ciiffortianus are indicated. In the culo calido, si 70 gradidus caloris ex- stems were of different lengths, viz. from region of these two temperatures the ponentur, per menses aliquot immense 18 inches to 4 feet. I graduated them all by Fowler and Hales scales lie close to- one proportitmal scale, beginning from the accrescunt & luxuriant, at ingruente ver~ freezing point; which may well be fixed as gether, but the Fahrenheit scale gives pereunt quam certissime'). Such a tem- the utmost boundary of vegetation on the rather low values. Judging from the perature cannot possibly refer to modern side of cold, where the work of vegetation actual temperature values given, the Celsius degrees! ceases, the watery vehicle beginning then to scale given by Hales seems quite reason- condense and be fixed; tho' many trees, and able. However, after his return to Sweden Linnaeus was indeed interested in tem- some plants, as gra~, moss &c. do survive Linnaeus wrote an article about the perature measurements as is indicated by it; yet they do not vegetate at that time. nursing of plants, which was published the thermometer on the frontispiece. by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Since a thermometer of modern kind is The greatestdegree of beat, which I marked Stockholm (founded in 1739); in fact the excluded, it is worth while to try to find on my Thermomefers, was equal to that of very first article in the first volume of the out what type of thermometer Linnaeus water, when heated to the greatest degree that I could bear my hand in it, without Proceedings of the Academy? ° On page alludes to. It must be a thermometer with stirnng it about. A degree of beat, which is 18 Linnaeus writes under paragraph 42: a 'direct' scale as is indicated by another the middle, between the freezing point, and sentence in the preface: 'The African the heat of boiling water, which being too Zonae Calidae (40.)w~ixter tola a[deles ingen plants do not need a higher temperature great for vegetation,may thereforebe fixed, k61d, begl sig vJl under 50 til 70 graders

20 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) maker Francis HauL,d~ee were used. In the report of 1740 Celsius, as mentioned above, makes a remark about the degrees on the Haukshee thermometer, n The following year Celsius compares some different thermometer readings, z~ On the morning of January 25 in 1740 (translated from Swedish).

there was an unusually great cold, when this Hauksbee thermometer was fallen to 126 degrees below the largest heat in the sunshine during summer or 0 degree. - Mr R~aumur's O~n'mometer was 19 degrees below the freezing point and Mr De L'lsle's mercury thermometer 192 degrees below boiling water.

These figures indicate a temperature around - 26-C in modem terms. The sentence shows that Celsius was well acquainted with the Reaumur thermo- meter, which has a 'direct' scale and zero at the freezing point of water. In fact, he himself used a R(~aumur thermometer both in Pare and in Tome/t. Celsius's familiarity with the R(~aumur thermo- Fig.4 Diagram of the Hauksbee, Fahrenheit, Fowler and Hales meter is further clear from a paper temperature scales as expressed in modern Celsius degrees. The published 1744 in the Proceedings of the numbers 40 and 70 given by Linnaeus in Hortus Cliffortianus are Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.=' especially indicated. The dashed line gives realistic temperatures as Celsius describes some experiments with discussed by. Landell. ~' The small circles mark temperatures, a pendulum clock, manufactured by discussed in the text. George Graham in 1741. Graham had carefully measured the period of the pendulum in London, and Celsius took the opportunity to repeat the measu~- w~irma (efter Fahrenheits Thermometer) naeus is referring to Fahrenheit degrees ments in Uppsala in order to compare the winteren genom, och tarfwa en dritwande in Hortus Cliffortianus, although the difference in earth gravitation between lord ellerbarck, orn de upgro skola. ('Plants temperatures are quite low. Lars Jonsson, London and Uppsala. Celsius's measure- from a h(~ zone do not endure any cold,and Linnaeus's Garden at Uppsala Univer- prosper from 50 to 70 degrees of heat ments took place for one and a half years sity, has pointed out to me, however, that (according to Fahrenheit's Thermometer) from September 1741 to April 1743. For all through the winter, and need a driving Linnaeus probably refers to temperatures such accurate measm~nents he had to soil or bark if they should grow.') appropriate for greenhouses in Nordic know the exact temperature. Since Gra- countries. During the winter season the ham had used a R6aumur thermometer in In a newly published book Landell gives temperature should preferably be kept London, Celsius used the same kind of a review of Linnaeus's work during his rather low, which could justify Lin- thermometer, although at the same time he stay in Stockholm from 1738 to 17412L naeus's temperature values. made his measurements of the two fixed Landell especially discusses Linnaeus's points using the thermometer by de [.'Isle. article, mentioned above. In paragraph As regards the type of thermometer on In my opinion he used de L'lsle's 43 Linnaeus indicates that plants in the frontispiece, it is not possible to give a thermometer for the determination of the 'Zonae temperatae subcalidae' during definite statement. The most plausible fixed points because this thermometer was winter-time are exposed to temperatures explanation is that the artist wanted to more handy to operate than the big of 30 to 40 degrees, and this applies to express Linnaeus's interest in tempera- R/mumur thermometer with a bulb around Spain, Italy, Greece, Marocco, Algeria, tures by including a thermometer. Any 12 cm in diameter and tubes of 6 mm bore Cape of Good Hope, Japan, Southern attempt to try a closer interpretation of and considerable length. He then followed China etc. Landell points out that these the shaping of the thermometer seems de Ulsle in the 'inverted' graduation figures are rather low if applied to the superfluous. The thermometer should instead of R~umur's 'direct' scale. Fahrenheit scale, which gives tempera- simply be considered as an artistic tures from slightly below freezing to plus illustrationand nothing else. The question often arises about when and five degrees Celsius. Winter temperatures by whom the original Celsius scale was around 4 to 12 C are more realistic for Celsius or Linn#? changed to the present one with zero at these countries. In Figure 4 Lmnaeus's the freezing point. Linn~ undoubtedly temperatures as estimated by Landell are Temperature readings were taken at was familiar with Celsius's work on the given as a dashed line, which lies well Uppsala from about 1722. The Royal determination of the fixed points at the above the line according to the Fahren- Swedish Academy of Sciences published freezing and boiling points of water, it is heit scale. In the above mentio;~cl article yearly weather reports from 1739. They then natural that he abandoned the where Linnaeus clearly refers to Fahren- are excerpts from the Uppsala journals Fahrenheit thermometer and turned to heit degrees, he constantly refers to and contain the maximum and minimum the new centigrade scale, it is known that Hortus Cliffortianus. The temperature barometer and thermometer readings for he ordered a centigrade scale thermo- numerals are about the same in both every month. At the beginning thermo- meter with zero at the freezing point essays. This indeed indicates that Lin- meters made by the English instrument from Daniel Ekstrom, the leading instru-

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (19'~) 21 ment maker in Stockholm. He sl~wed the Pn~-'edings of the Academy, the meter has three diffen~t names in the this thermometer to the senate at Uppsa- Haukshee thermometer readings have documents: Celsius novum, Str6mer and la Unive~itv on 2 December 1745.~ This been replaced by temperatures given in Ekstr6m There is no sen~ in trying to thermomett;r was intended for the green- Ceisius's original, inverted scale. How- give the credit to any single person. In hamse in the garden. In the same war ~me ever, in the original ~umals of Uppsala fact nothing is mentkmed about thermo- of his student, Samuel Naucler, de- ob~rvatory a new thermometer was mete~ in the obituaries of either Celsius, fended a thesis (most probably written already being used in (.)ck~=r 1746. This Stromer, Hiorter, Ekstrom or Linn~, as by Linnaeus) with a descripti~'m of the thermometer, called 'Celsius mwum', published by the Royal Swedi.~h Acad- garden. ~ in a h~tnote it m whiten: '(.hir had the direct ~ale. In April 1747 the emy of Sciences. ]'hermam~eter has 0 at the freezing I~)int designation was changed to 'Ekstrom'. ~ and counts up to 100 degrees for boiling Obvk~usly Celsius felt the importance of water.' in 17.~ Linn# wrote a letter to In the I'nxx-Ydings the direct scale did m)t creating a general temperature scale. He • ~issier de la Croix de Sauvages, M~mt- appear until the weather reF~)rt of 1750, was well aware of the different tempera- pellier, with the following sentenceZ:: beginning with the re(ruth of May." The ture scales of his time; scales with direct change is commented in a note: as well as inverted graduation. The Ego pnmus fui qui parare con..~titoi therrm~- significance of Celsius's achievement lies metra nostra, uhi pun~-tum ctmgelah¢mis 0 N.B. ,.Herr I'n~. Celsii ['hermon~,ter Jr et gradus coquefltis aquae It)t): et h~c pm in his careful determination of two p~ det .~tte~ inrattad,al O stSr vid kokheff fundamental fixed I~)ints. in his al~we- hyhernaculis horti; si his adsuetus es.,~-,s. vattens punt-ten, ~-h I00 vid fry.~ur~l~n; ,-~'tus sum qtaxt amderent. mentioned es,,~iy, Celsius gives practical men p~ Herr Prof. Simmers st,~r 0 vid instructions fi)r a correct marking of the t~'spunt-ten ~h ItlO rid kokhett vallens degrees on the temperature scale, includ- Middleton gives the h)llowing English punch,n. ('late Prof. Celsii thermometer is translati~m~': made m snt'ha way that 0 is marked at the ing a rule fi~r calculating the fixed point point t~ boll,ng water, and 100 at the of boiling water if the barometric I was the hrst wl~ d~'tdcd h* omstruct our Irvvling [~inI; ['ro~..C~romel~(thern~meter) pressure deviates from the standard therm~neters in which the freezing-point is has 0 at the tree/in K point and I(10 at the pres,~ure of Z~.3 inches of mercury. Taken 0 and the heat of boiling water IO0:and this kxnling F4~int") together these facts flwm the main rea~m for the greenhousest~ our gardtm. I am .sure for the name 'Celsius ~ale'. Celsius thus that If you were accust0~lled to these, they The new thermometer thus hears the created a true international temwrature would pk,ase you name Stn~mer. scale as is expressed with his own words (translated from Swedish)'~: As mentioned above Blunt~ uses the in 1753 Anders Hellant (a member of the hdlowing words: Academy) published an article tm water ... then t~ne can be sure thai several such temperatures in the Nordic countries. '4 thermometers placed in the sann~ air. will It was I who mvented cmr therm~e(er in Hellant used thermometers with Reau- always .show the same degree; and for which the treezing-polnt of water is 0 tour and Celsius scak.,s in parallel, h)th ux~tance a therm~wneter made in Paris, will degroP~ and the boding I~x~lnt IIlO. with zero at the |reezing point. As at the ,same heat show the same height as a thermometer made in Upsala. regards the Celsius scale he refers to In the Latin sentence the key word Anders Celsius's es.~y of 1742. 'parare' can be interpreted in two ways Modern Temperature Scales w|th different meaning; either I) 'ci~- in 1740, l'ehr Wargentin, secretary of the trive', 'invent', 'design' or 2) 'acquire', Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, In the middle of the nineteenth century a 'obtain'." According to the second inter- published an account of the history of supplementary scale, the absolute ther- pretation LinnP simply ordered his thermometer." He writes (translated modynamic scale, was devised by Wil- thermometers from the instrument maker from Swedish): liam Thom~)n, Lord Keh'in. The scale Daniel Ekstn~m More likely however, he was intended hw scientific use in connec- wanted to point out that he really had The thermometers, made in Sweden by tiqm with the development of m(~iern been the first to use a thermometer with a Mt.~srs. Celsius, ~rtnner and Ekstmm are therm(~lynamics.'7 The size of the degree direct scale. He had a great interest in already descnhed in these documents (It. is the same as in the Celsius scak,, but thermometers, and he realized the prac- freezing tx)int is in general at 0 and the zero is at the k~west tx~,,ible temperature tical rea~m to place the zero at the boiling ga)int at I00. i(I) refers to Anders defined by nature; absolute zero. The free/rag i~,nt of water for thermometers Celsius's artick,, see note 2]. cor,cept of an ab~dute zero dates back u~,~,d m horticulture. On the other hand several hundred years, but n(cf until this thi~ was by no means a new idea, since "l'he change of the scale Ls na~t commented century was the zero temperature drier- thermometers wah centigrade scales as up~m in the two articles, and no single mined as -273.15 C. well as with zero at freezing point pers4m is given the credit for the present already existed. direct scale. If any c(mtribution by Linr~ The thermodynamic .scale has absolute had been consn~tered to be O( major zero as (me fixed point. The scale then lh,,~ides the words from [.inn,~ it is of iml~)rtance, Wargentin could be expected (rely needs (me additional fixed point. At mterest to study other documents, spe- to have mentioned him in his review first sight the ordinary freezing i~)int of article. chilly the abo~'e- mentioned weather water at atmospheric pressure might reports published in the i'r(x-eedings of seem suitable, but it does not fill modem tbe Academy. Fn)m 173q" to 1743 they Concluding Remarks requirements of scientific accuracy, since art, given by Anders Celsius with the solubility of air in water creates an temperatun.,s in Hauksbee degrees. After ]he choice of zen) at the freezing point of uncertainty of al~)ut ~me thousandth of a the death of Celsius in 1744 the reports water was practical r~t only in the field dt~ree. Instead, the triple [:x)intof water, were taken over by M,~rten Stromer, of horticulture, but in general life as well. which lies one hundredth of a degree of astnm- Celsius's succt,'s~)ras profes.~)r For this rea~m the advantage of a direct al~)ve the ordinary freezing [:x~int has omv, and Olof lliorter (married to .scale must have been obvious to the been cht~n. The triple point is the Celsius's sister), 'ass, g'iate profes~w' of Uppsala scientists working with thermo- temperature at which pure water is in astronomy. In the yearly report of 1747 in meters. As menti(med al~we the thermo- equilibrium with both ice and water

22 Bulletin of the ~-ienfitic in*trumem S~y No. ~ (1~1 vaFa)ur with no presence t~air" According between the freezing and h,iling Faants 1727¥ Reprint with hwt,wtwd by M. A. Htmkin to thermtglynamics this equilibrium o~ water. Aecordingly the name centi. (l~mdtln IS61). between the three pha~s of water grade scale is m+ kruger formally correct. 18 /des, pp. 32-33. implies an exact temperature. The correct name is the Ce/sius scale. 19. W.E. Knowles MiddlettwL 0p. tit (note 4), p. 100. The unit of the thermcdvnamic scale, Acknowledgements called the (K), was designed m be 20. Cad IJnnaeus, 'ROn own Wii~ter~ P~nter- equal to the Celsius degree. Careful The autha)r is greatly indebted to Sten rag, gnmdat pl Naturen', KVAH, I (173qL pp measurements showed that the tri~le Eklund and Hans Helander, Dept of 5-24. point of water must have the exact value Classical Philology, [or valuable help 21. Nils-Enk Lin(lell, Tr,bl,~rd~n~tarrn Lmn~ 273.16 K in order to keep the distance with tran~slation of Hortus Cl!ffiwtianus IStockh~dm, I~7) between the freezing and l~iling l~gnts and to Nils-Enk Landell for nmmt helpful 22. Anders CeL+Jus, of,. cst. (note I), p. 25+~. c@ water equal to I00 degrees Celsius. di~usskms about Lmnt~ and his years in The freezing point o~ water at atmo- Stock~)lm. Special thanks go to Enk 23. Anders CeLsius, 'Met~gUlke t)bserva- spheric pressure, 0 C, lies 0.01 degrees Tt~t~ for his continuous suppt~ and lhmer l~llne iUpsa[a ir 1740',/(I~H,2 [1741), lower, i.e. at 273.15 K. The formal encouragement m my thermtm~.ter in- pp. b4-70. decision ctmcenning temperature scales quiries. Further I appreciate spirited 24. Anders Celsius, '(.~,.rva~e'r twn tyng- which are valid tt~av was taken at the di~ussions with Lars Jonssa)n, Lin- dens tiltagande frJn I.,ondtm til Up~Ia', 13th CGPM (Ctmf~rtmce C,~n~rale des naetm's Garden at Uppsala University. F, VAH. S (1744),pp. 41-49. Poids et Measure) in Paris 1967 with the Z~. W.E. gnt~vle~Mkid~, 0p. cir.(note 4). following text": Notes and References p. 100. KVAH mdicates gon¢l. Stwn.',,ko Vefenskaps~ca- 26. ~muel Naucler, Dr~*npfw H(wft Up~ll~n- The kelt,in, umt ¢~f therm~d~ma" temperature. s~s, Di~. Upl~la, 16 [}eceml~, 174~ is the fr~wt~on 1/27J,1o ,~ the therm~wl~rmmw demwns ttandhn¢~ (Pnreedings of the Royal temperatureaf the triple pmnt ~. uvter. Swedish Academy d ffien(~). 27. I~}uis Augustin d'H(mnlxes-Fwn~, ed., !. Anders Celsius, "Tankar t~n waderskiflens Lettres inPdetesde l~nn~ d l~+a,r de IA Cn,ix de At the same conferem~ the Celsius scale u~kttal~nde; eller Met~)k~udur t)bserva- Saut,ag~ (A]aLq,II~1), p. 22+~ was formally ctmfirmed: The unit "dexree tkmer, hAIIne i Upala Jr 173q', KVAIt, 1 2N. W.E. KntnvlesMiddlel, m, up. ,'st.(ntm, 4), Celsius' is equal to the unit "hit,in'. It was (1740), pp. 252-Zr~9. p. I(I0. further confirmed that readings on the 2. Anders Celsius, 'Ob.~rrvationer om 29. Wilfred Blunt, olp. tit. (m~le 13), p. 117. Celsius and the thermtglynamic scale twitnne bestAndiga Grader pi en -should differ by 273.15 degrees. meter', KVAH, ~ (1742), pp. 171-1140. 30. I am greatly indebted to S~n Eklund and c~ txw 3. Ge~mrgeMarline, Essa~ M~licM and Phdo- llans Helander,DPpI Cla~cal Phik~gy, help with interpretation t+ the Latin ~Li1[tl High-precision temperature measure- s~phical, ~ C~llection of Six Essay. (London, ments are a speciality of truly a few large 1740), pp. 175-214. 31. Anders CeLsius, ~IP. eel.(note I). natkmal ,where the contin- 4. W.E. Kn~vles Middk~m, A Hestc~ry.~the 32. Anna Beckman, up. tit. (note lh),p+ M!~ uous development of new measuring Thermometer and Its Use in Mete~)n~/ogy(Balti- techniques is taking place. Several 'sec- more, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins I~,~, 33. Bengt ~, "Uldrag af Met~mhge+~J ondary fixed points' were defined and 1966),pp. I15-I16. Observatitww.r. hAIIne i Ups~la, lr 17~}, dels at framledne A.,~rtmomut" (.X~ervattwen il)~wter. listed in the Internatitmal Practical Tem- 5. Anders Cebius, up. cir. (note 2), p. 174. dels af Astnmtwni~' Profe~.~wen S~mer', perature Scale, IPTS-68. They are used as 6. Hilding goblet, 'N.Sgtd twn term~wneten~ KVHA, 14 (17S3), pp 2.q~261. references for t~her laboratories in cali- aidre hi.,dtwia', gun fl. Veten~aps-S~'tetetens 34. Anders Hellant, "tkn Vattnen.q vamut i brating resistancethermometers, thernm- Ars/~ (Uppsala, itM4), pp. &~l17, ~ee p. I10 couples etc. These secondary fixed Fa~/nts Ntwden', KVAH. 14 (1753), pp. 312-320 7. J.A. Hall, 'Fifty Years of Temperatunr cover a large span from very low Measurement', ].Sci.lnstrum.. 45 (1~,), pp. 35. l'ehr War~=nfin, "V~pemas Hislt~ temperatures (tripleFa~ints of gases such 541-547. ~. t)m rhern~mnelrar',Kt,~4H, 10 (174g),i~p. as hydn)gen and n~m) to high tempera- 161-175, see p. 173 tures (melting points of metals such as 8. Rolf t)hkm, 'FrAn .c,tiernhielnxs Carl-~af till metem', Statens (EkwAs, ,'~. AI~ (.'~ius,,~p. fit. (m~te 2) p. 179 tin, silver and gold). Pnn,nin¢-.,~nstalt 37. W. Thom,,~m (l~wd Kelvin), 'On an Ably- 9. Ande~ Celsius,0p. cat. (n~ 2), p. 17q lute Thenmwnetric ~ale Ft~mded ~m Carr~s In the 1980s improved thermometer "i'h~wy of the Mi~se I'ower o~ th,at, and technadogy revealed that a mir~)r revisits I0. W. E. Knowles Middleh,n,o V cir.(nole 4), Calculated tnwn Regnaul~ Ob~.rva~w~', Phil of the temperature scale was imperative. el+7. M~,~. (IN4~).pp 313-317. In order to avoid awkward changes of II. Ides, p. 06.72. the whole lemperature scale, it was ,'~I. LA. (;uildner, 'The Measurement of 12. Carl I~nnaeus, Hortus Chfli~mnus (Am- lherm~dytutmic ]'t,mperature', Phw fi~lav. 35 decided in 1990 Io keep the old definition sterdam, 1737) (19R2L pp. 24-31. of the triple I~)int of water al 273.16 K, but to sacrifice the old criterion of exactly 13. Wilfred Blunt, The CompImt Naturalist, A .~. E. Richard Ct~en and I'a-rre (;~k~m~, (l~mdtm, PrTl), 116. hundred degrees between the [reezmg Lift,~Linnaeus p. Symbols. Unsts, Nomenclature and t'umlamental Gmstants Ph~ws (Intematkmal Unam t~ and boiling points of water. The old leTS- 14. N+V.E. Nordenmark, 'Anders Celsius, m Linntt och den hundragradiga tenmmnetem', Pure and Appl~d Phvsws) IUI'AP-2 IReprint 68 was replaced by a new list of !~7 Phvsfca, 146A (1~7), pp I-~, see p 20 secondary fixed called the St,. l.lnni~llskapefs Jrskr!O 1193~), p. 124-133; points Inter- Anders Celsms (UppMla: [+ychn(w.biblit~lek I, national Temperature Scale of ITS- 40. H. i'resttm-D~m~s, 'l~e Intern~ttt~l 1990, 1936),pp. 155-167. 91W. The revLsion implies a change of the remperatune Scaleol I ~i~11(l'rS-~o)', Mefn~/,~a. 2"7 (ItP4o), pp. ,3-10 I~iling point of water at atna~spheric 15. W. E. Km~wles Middlekm, 0p. cir. (note 4), pressure from exactly 100.000 C to p. I00. Au#nw's address: 99.975 C. Of course this small change 16. Anna Beckman, 'Andcrs Cel~tm och den Deer of M~t~riais ,~'wmv does not influence daily liD, but it hundragradiga tcrmometerskalan' (Lychnos Upp~la [In#t~'rs#/V Plies a formal departure frtwn CeLqius's Iq~-1970, pp. 340-,'147. &,x 5.~1 criterion of exactly hundred degrees 17. Stephen Hakm, Vei~r~aNeStatwks (L~w~hm, 5-751 21 U~la, Sweden

Bulk.tin of the Scientific lmtrument Society No. S6 {19~1) 23 The House of Dallmeyer A Query Answered and Other Notes Brian Gee

In the editorial for issue 52 of the Bulletin, After only a few weeks in London, Having aLso assisted the late Andrew Ro~ Willem Hackmann raised a query con- Dallmeyer found employment with a in developing the construction of the cerning J.H. Dallmever whose name les~serknown maker called W. W. Hewitt, Orthographic lens (his last pn~iuction) ! appeared in that issue to the review of a man who seemingly had trained for the shall ~on be in a p~ition to supply this Channing and Dunn's British Camera wine trade but who transferred his Instrument aim, as well as the Ordinary Portrait and Landscape Lenses, etc., etc., Makers.' In particular, he asked what interests to instrument making after a was JH.'s relationship to the H. Dall- and by following in the wake of Science, ! spell with Andrew Ross, the well-known tu~pe to prove myself a worthy pupil of my meyer mentioned in Gloria Clifton's telescope maker.' Probably talk of Ross much respected father-m-law. Directory. of British Scwntific Instrument by his employer caused him to seek out Makers. ~ This very simple question the latter because, within a short space of caused me, once more, to dip into my Yet, Dallmeyer was not entirely alone in time, Dailmeyer had moved to Ross' perpetuating the Ross tradition. Ross' treasure box of nineteenth century instru- workshop in Clerkenwell. Unfortunately, ment makers to seek out an answer. second son, Thomas, received the re- the transfer was not entirely agreeable at maining two-thirds of the fortune and first because, as a foreigner, he was given so continued his father's busine~ at 2-3 In short, ! find that there is no difference somewhat menial tasks to perform. Featherstone Buildings, High Holborn.' between the two sets of initials: J.H. and Determined to make a stand, he quit this position and survived instead by taking H. are one and the same person. Clifton's Indeed, Dallmeyer kept to his word by on correspondence work in French and Direct~n'y was compiled to include all producing very fine object lenses. His German for a firm of coffee importers. makers up to the time of the Great name was somewhat boosted when Sir Ross' foreman, however, had valued Exhibition of 1851. The inclusion of John Herschel singled out the name of Dalimeyer's skills and so he enticed Dallme.ver, however, does not come from Dallmeyer in his description on grinding him back, whereupon Ross reconsidered any of the Great Exhibition catalogues the requisite curvatures of lenses for his his prospects and offered him the but rather from Anita McConnell's useful article on telescopes for the 8 ~ edition of position of 'scientific advisor' together list of makers, often apprentices, who the EncyclopaediaBritannica. At this time, were enrolled at the London Mechanics' with the job of testing and finishing the optical work. the largest apertures were about four Institution. Presumably 'JH.' had simply inch, a restrictionimposed largely due to registered under 'H', maybe a preferred the mode of polishing which was a first name. But since he had only just then Over the succeeding years Ross must difficultprocess carried out under water arrived m Britain from Westphalia in the have been well satisfied with the im- to produce the desirable 'black' surface Summer of 1851, he was certainly not migrant worker because, in 1859, he effect. trading nor hardly in a position to exhibit allowed Dallmeyer to marry his second at Paxton's glorious Crystal Palace. His daughter, Hannah. Furthermore, he In celestialpl~tography, quite a new art entry in Clifton's Directory. is, therefore, made provision for the young son-in- in the 1860s, he developed the photo- fortuitous although he certainly deserves law to set up his own business through heliograph for taking a four-inch picture a detailed entry in any planned extension the terms of his will. Thus, when Ross of the Sun. The firstof these was supplied to that work. Indeed, J.H Dallmeyer was died, in the same year as John Henry's to the Russian government for the Wilna of sufficient standing in British science by marriage to Hannah, one third of the Observatory in 1862 and such was its the end of his lifetime for W. Jerome family fortune became available to the success that another was bought by the Harri~n to prepare a lengthy entry for the Dictiona~ of National Biography. ~ young German. More or less immedi- Harvard College Observatory in the ately after Ross' death, Dallmeyer set up following year. This particular trade his own business at 19 Bloomsbury continued throughout the 1870s with It so happens that the Dallmeyer archives Street, not far from the British Museum. one such instrument being made for the are extant and so what follows may be of As he explained in his firstcircular, dated transit of Venus expedition in 1874. That some interest to readers of this journal. I December 1859: he veered away from telescopes to give My own rather incomplete notes, based full attention to the production of the largely on obituary notices, together with My father-in-law having bequeathed me the photographic lens is not surprising since those prepared by certain company whole of the machinery used in the that market was then on a very sharp employees, published under the title The Manufacture of the Astronomical Telescope, rising curve. Fame and fortune followed House of Dallmeyer, form the basis of the and having imparted to me the results of his and so it is worth outlining some of the following account. 4 expenence, with the intentionthat l should special developments and items that be his ~de successorin that branch of Art, l stemmed from his workshop. J.H. Dallmeyer 0830-1883} am prepared to supply Telesct~oesof the same high characteras those Manufactured Special Developments during his lifetime,which, for the last six Johann Heinrich Dallmeyer (who later years have been exclusivelymade by me. Anglicised his forenames to John Henry) Dalimeyer's early fame hung on the came from Loxton in Westphalia. His development of three lenses: the recti- In regard to all other Optical Instruments I Enear objective lens (aperture f/4) ex- origins are largely unexplored although it am aim in full possession of A.R.'s entire is known that he had some excellent experience, and since he has also left to me hibited at the 1862 Exhibition which was mathematical tuition at school and a the Implements used in the Manufacture of popularly used for copying and architec- successful apprenticeship with an opti- the Obiect Glass, it is my tural work; the Petzval lens (aperturef/I) cian in ()snabruck called Aklund. He intention to develop more fully his dis- used in the 'pistolgraph'camera; and the certainly fulfilled his ambition to practice coveries, and l hope soon to produce an 'baby" lens (/'/2.2)(called so because this his trade in England and the story behind improved article,the resultof long pursued lens was considered ideal for photo- analytic dioptric calculations combining all graphing children) used in his 'speed' the business Ls one of determination and the advantages which Theory has rendered SUCCESS. available. cameras. His portrait lenses were based upon an established pattern by Josef

24 Bulletin of the Scientific lnstnunent Society No. 56 (1998) phical Society (RPS), serving on the council of the RPS. He married twice, ...... J,~ ,~,~'~,,: ~.~ his second wife, Elizabeth Mary, being the daughter of T.R Williams of Seller's Hall, Finchley. But, largely due to over-

'..;.... .:~- ~o /,./~", work, and not even 50 years of age, his _ .°. / , , °.-a ,°, . • .._/ . health began to fail. As a restorative, he undertook a round world voyage but it was during the expedition, somewhere between Tasmania and New Zealand that he died in his 53~ year* ~..... /.., ~p...... ,' /., .d,.< ~ae • Business Developments °~, ......

,:'~, ,. ~' .!;, :: ....., For some time before his death the business had been under the manage- ment of his second son, Thomas Rudol- phus Dailmeyer (1859-1906), his eldest son having predeceased him in 1878Y ...... d Thomas had been educated at Mill Hill +~ School and then at University College where, under Oliver Lodge, he gained theoretical and mathematical insights Fig•l Dallmeyer's note paper, dated 20 into the subject of optics that he other- March 1896, with au~ards listed from 1862 wise knew well from his father's work- to 1894. shop• Like his father, he held memberships of the RAS and RPS, Fig•2 Dallmeyer trade catalqcue dated serving as president on the latter during ]anua~. 1896. 1900-1903, and also the Royal Cornwall Petzval who had invented a double Polytechnic Society and other public objective lens using pairs of air-spaced bodies. Particular contributions to the doublets with the front (Fraunhoffer- business included improvements to the type) lens corrected for spherical aberra- telephoto lens and some of the earliest his cousin James Thomson (nephew of tion with some coma, corrected by the rapid lenses made with the new Jena the better known William Thomson, Lord rear air-spaced doublet. Dallmeyer's glass. As evidence of the firm's profes- Kelvin) at the Great Eiswick factory of m¢~lification was to reverse the position sional standing, a contract was made for Armstrong in Newcastle. During the first of the crown and flint glasses in the a six-inch rapid rectilinear lens that was decade of the present century he took out posterior combination with some ac- used for the Cape Durchmusterung project. many patents for improvements to claimed advantage7 He also purposely The business remained under his man- photography and the telephotographic designed some lenses with a certain agement until 1892 when it became a lens. Lan-Davies' essays on the 'Theory "diffusion of focus' (i.e., by allowing a limited company. of the Iris Diaphragm' and 'Sector degree of spherical aberration), a feature Shutters' attracted much attention and apparently preferred by some photo- Under the style 'J.H. Dallmeyer, Ltd' his published work on 'Telephotography' graphic 'artists'. Other developments in (Fig.2) it was James Ludovic, better ran into many editions. Sadly, he was the photographic lens entailed wide- known as the 26'h Earl of Crawford and killed in 1915 in active servic-e during angled lenses for landscape work. sometime president of the Royal Astro- World War I as an airman. nomical Society, who was company The history of the company into the Honours and Accolades chairman. But, lest it should be thought that Ludovic was a mere figurehead it present century has yet to be written should be pointed out that he was a keen although a company profile exists?° It is Over his lifetime, Dallmeyer's business photographer himself, often engaging in sufficient to remark here that a number of made some 30 000 optical instruments for expeditions by yacht to practise the art. milestones were laid as photography photography, astronomy and micro- Nor was this a fleeting pastime because developed, not only in cameras of scopy. He exhibited and received top he developed his own workshop. Indeed, various kinds but ai~ in cinematogra- rewards at the various major exhibitions: his home in Cavendish Square was phy. that is, London (1862), Berlin and Dublin reputed to be more like the workshop (1865), Paris (1867, 1878) and Philadel- of a mechanic than the mansion of a Archives phia (1876) (see Fig.l). For work of nobleman! His mechanical skills as well national importance in he re- as theoretical understanding made him Although this article began originally as ceived the l_~gion d'Honneur and in an ideal chairman of a special govern- a simple note to clarify a trivial matter of Russia the order of St Stanislaus. The ment committee set up to deal with British government also gave him many initials I am now taking the opportuni .ty patents, designs and trademarks. to announce that archives of J.H. Dall- contracts for work of topographical meyer, Ltd are extant. During the early importance. His tract On the Choice and Following on from T.R• Dallmeyer, as 1980s 1 carried out a survey of some U~ of Photographic Lenses' ran into six manager under James Ludovic, was Cyril London libraries and smaller district editions. He was a member of the three Frederick Lan-Davies. He had been museums to see what evidence, if any- professional societies relevant to his educated at St Paul's School, the Royal thing, of the early instrument making business, namely, the Royal Astronomical Polytechnic and University College but, industry had survived in local reposi- Society (RAS), the Royal Microscopical for a short while before joining Dall- tories. One of the very few successeswas Society (RMS) and the Royal Photogra- meyers, he had worked as engineer for to note that the Dalimeyer archives were

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (P~J~) 25 kept at the Grange Museum m northwest details to provide 'the truth' for the balanced but, of course, m~ corrected. London." Today, this museum is devoted record, particularly those details to do to k~cal and ethnic histxn-y and so the with T.R. Dallmeyer's education." 8. Dailmo/er, obituary notice, MNRAS, 4~ archives have recently been transferred to (1884-85), pp.190-lgl. the Cricklewood Library and Archives Notes and Referent'e, where Adam Spencer~ the borough 9. T.R. Dallmeyer, obituary notice, MNRAS, archivist for the London Borough of I. N. Cbannmg and M. Dunn, British Camera 67 (1906-07), p.231; The Photoxrapkic h)urnal Brent, is currently seeking grant-m-aid Makers. An A-Z Guide to Companies and (Jan. 1907), pp.20-21; Brit./Almanac (1908), through the National Manu~ripts Con- Pnvlucts (Claygate, E,she~. Parkland Design, p553. servation Trust (administered by the 1966) reviewed by Michael Pritchard in SIS British Library) towards the preservation Bulletin. no. 52 (19q7), pp. 28-2~. 10. [Anon], Industrtal and Commercial Photo. of the Dallmeyer Collection." Therefore, grap~. (Feb.i~tS0). it is hoped that m some small measure 2. G. Clifton, Directo~ of British Sc:ent~c this brief account will assist the archivist instrumen~ Makers 1550-18,51 (Limdtan: Zwem- II. The cmnpany was at Church End, High met/National Maritime Museum, 1995), p.75. to secure whatever he needs for this very Road, Willesden Greeb until 1987 when they worthwhile pro~. di~ppear ~wn the Kelly's Post Office Direc- 3. DNB, Dailmeyer, John Henry 0830-1883), tories. It is n(~t surprising, but fortunate s.v. The DNR is currently undergoing vast nevertheless, that archival material should Readers of this loumal who may have an revisions and it is likely that the original entry finish up at a local museum. interest to research the company history will be ~vamped for ~/eu, DNB. may like to know that the archives 12. Contact:. The Archivist at the Cricklewond comprise a number of stock books for 4. [J.H.Dallmeyer to C.F. Lan-Daviesl, in The Library and Archives, 152 Olive Road, Crickle- the peritxl 1866-1944 and rough stock Early History. of the House of Dallmeyer Gwmg an w~md, London NW2 6UY (tel.:0181-937-3540). Outline of the Progress Made in Phott~graphic books which include the names of tum- Optics (lxmdon: The Company, n.d.). ers, and some employees from 1894. 13. Portraits of the Dailmeyers, father and There are also a number of photographs 5. Whisscan White Hewitt, son of James son, appear in Image, 28(1) (1985), p.8. it is likely that these stem from the Photographic of employees and other miscellaneous Hewitt, a hotel keeper in Covent Garden, Journal items. u'aded at 46 Red Lion Square but does not for which the originalsare held by the appear to have been a maker of any particular Royal Photographical Society (Bath). Acknowledsements memorable standing. G. Clifton, op. tit. (note 2). 14. Obituary notices tell of T.R. Dallmeyer as having studied under Oliver lodge at KCL. l am grateful to C.N. Brown (Science 6. Thomas Ross' supersedes his father's However, Lodge lectured at UCL, not KCL. I Museum) for locating portraits of both name in the Kelly's Post Office Directory from am gratefulto VK. Chew for pointing out this Dallmeyers." I am also indebted to 1860. perpetuated error and for Joanna Shackk~k, Adam Spencer, Archivist to the Borough Records OfficeSupervisor at UCL for verifying 7. JosefPetzval (1807-1891),a Hungarian by that T.R. Dallmeyer was in attendance there of Brent, for supplying the illustrations from 1877178 to 1879180. reproduced here. Not least of all, I am birth, was professor in mathematics at Vk.nna indebted to V.K. Chew (formerly curator from 1837. Ost~reichi~hcs Ba~rapki~hes Lex- Author's Address: and recently research scholar at the icon, 1875-1950 (Vienna, 1979), pp.17-18. Petzval lenses were popular both as portrait 18 Barton Close Science Museum) for his interest and for lenses and as pro~ction lenses because of the tracking down a number of interesting Landrake Saitash sharp central focus. Their astigmatism was Cornwall, PLI2 5BA

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26 Bulletin of the 5ck.ntific Instrument Sock.o/ No. S6 (1~) T. Ertel & Sohn G.m.b.H. Mathematical Mechanical Institute for Geodetic Military Scientific Instruments in Munich, Germany, 1802-1984 J.B. te Pas

Traugott Leherecht Ertel was born in 1778 near Freiberg in Saxony. He was soon to become the sole partner of Reichenbach and had the responsibility for the mechanical parts of the manufac- turing process. Joseph yon Fraunhofer (1787-1826) joined the Optical Institute founded in that year by Joseph yon Utzschneider (1763-1840) and Reichen- bach. The new types of glass and optics developed were important in the emer- ging optical ind_ustry,and were also used for Reichenbach s surveying and astro- nomical instruments. He leftthe Institute in 1814, and the following year Ertel became a partner in Reichenbach's en- terprise. F~g 1 A mtrror sextant the first mstru ment in Mannheim made by the 18-year old Georg yon Reichenbach. Reichenbach invented so much and had Fig.2 Reichenbach's 12-inch , so many pro~ to supervise for the used by . Bavarian Crown, that in 1821 he decided to leave the direction of the instrument factory entirely to Ertel. Reichenbach just T. Ertel & Sohn is just one of the names politician and promoter of science, Jo- reserved the right to inspect from time to this company adopted since it began seph von Utzschneider. Orders now time the products of Ertel's workshop, in around 1802. At that time no one named poured in from all parts of the world. order to guarantee a constant high Ertel was to be found in the little work- The observatories of Prague, Warsaw, quality. When he died in 1826 he was shop. It was originally the brainchild of Pest, Vienna, Paris, Uppsala, Copenha- only 54 years old. Georg yon Reichenbach (1771-1826), gen, Milan, Naples, Bremen, Mannheim while the funds came from the Bavarian and Munich purchased Reichenbach's It soon became clear that Ertel was much Academy of Sciences, which meant in- instruments. Topographical offices, forest more than just a firstclass mechanic. He directly from Elector Max IV Joseph (from administrations, universities and indivi- expanded the factory gradually, and the 1806 King Max I). Reichenbach first dual scientists ordered transit instru- good name of his instruments brought became well known for constructing a ments, (Fig.2), plane table him customers from all over the world, very fine circular-dividing engine, used by alidades and levelling instruments from such as the Observatory of Sydney and him, among other things, for dividing the the Munich workshop, and the 'Mathe- the Office for the Triangulations of the scales of a mirror sextant, which was matical-Mechanical Institute' was hardly American Coast and Geodetic Survey. He made in 1789-90 (Fig.l), and more or less supplied a very important piece of copied from an English instrument. In able to supply all the instruments ordered. In those days, the circles divided equipment to Pulkowa, the Observatory 1791 he travelled to England to improve of St Petersburg, which was not only his knowledge of precision mechanics. By by Reichenbach had absolutely the high- est precision. His instruments formed the rewarded by payment of his bill,but also 1796 he had moved to Munich, and in with the Russian Order of Saint Vladimir. 1800 he found a new principle for peak of technical development. Reichen- bach was a genius who also thought of The triangulation of Bavaria was dividing circles. This invention was to achieved with his repetition-theodolites, form the basis for his workshop. At the details generally overlooked by geodetic instrument makers of his era, such as the and was followed by similar sur~'eys in end of 1801 he returned safely from war the states of Baden, Wiirtenberg, Spain, influence of temperature fluctuations on and he started a workshop with Liebherr, and Italy. He built a new factory in metals, and the deforming of metals a watchmaker. This workshop flourished Munich, which was completed in 1825 under their own weight. He created with the aid of the Academy and the and which for almost the next hundred Topographical Office. The first achieve- smaller instruments with higher preci- years remained the home of the factory. ment was a new circular-dividingengine, sion, less weight, and simpler in use. When Ertel died in 1858 nearly I00 men based on his new principle. Three astro- Instrument parts were made more pre- worked in his factory, then a world nomical geodetic instruments were di- cisely, and devices for reading the finer leader. vided on this machine, and these were divisions were improved. He also created the instruments about which Reichenbach stadia lines of greater accuracy that were Georg Ertel was the eldest and techni- wrote his first publication. then adopted by many manufacturers. In cally the most talented sons of Traugott. order to achieve a higher accuracy of When twenty-one years old, he became a construdion and for the best telescope member of the firm now renamed I".Ertel Further orders soon arrived. Reichen- optics Reichenbach sought assistance at & Sohn, to which was added 'Reich- bach's fame resounded far and wide. his level of competence. Fraunhofer's enbach'ses Mathematisch Mechanisches Already in 1804 the workshop could be optics would satisfy that aspect of the Institut'in honour of its founder. A price- expanded and a new partner taken on. work, while Ertelcame onto the scene for list from 1834 contains 69 types of This was no less than the important the mechanics. instnunents, including meridian circles,

Bulletin of the Scientific Imtnm~t Society No. 56 (1998) 27 new were a meridian-circle and a reduc- given to reaching the highest p~vssible tion-tacheometer as prop~"v~d by Profes- degree of efficiency, as well in the design .,~r Kreuter. Under the direction of Diez as in the manufacturing of the instru- the step from creating each instrument ments. These became smaller and han- separately to the beginning of mass dier as the basic raw material of production was taken. August Diez aluminium alloys was introduced. Ertel realised this change in manufacturing flourished and their instruments were system without kvsing even the slightest again sold world wide. in 1928 Walter percentage of accuracy in the Ertel Preyss acquired all the shares in the instruments. Under the ciirection of Diez company and as the sole shareholder gold medals were the logical outcome at changed the company into a 'one person' the great industrial exhibitions in Niirn- firm, which now finally got the name of berg (1882), Amsterdam (1883), and Paris 'ErteI-Werk for Feinmechanik'. (The dif- (lqiX~). Diez roamed a granddaughter of ferent name this company has had over Traugott Ertel. His daughter married the the years is useful for collectors to date successor of Bauernfeind, the important their Ertel instruments.) The Second Professor of Geodesy, and Privy Coun- World War interrupted the successful cillor Niibauer. development of the company when the manufacture of military equipment be- The rapid growth of the company and came the dominant task. The factory was new developments made it necessary to completely destroyed on 25 April 1944. enlarge it. Diez, therefore, sought and h, und a partner in the person of Julius Fig.3 Ert,q's tacheometer-th,~olite as de- Rinnebach. In 1911 the firm became a veh,ped in co-operation with Pr,,fessor limited company (in German, 'Ge- Walter Preyss died in 1942 and his ,son Kreuter, taken from a reprint by. Alain seilschaft mit beschrlinkter Haftung, or Carl Preyss ttx,k over the direction in Brieux, Paris, from the cat,lh,~ue t~ the G.m.bH.) with the extremely long, but 1945. A few months later 'production German scientific industry, published at the apparently required name of 'T. Ertel & authorisation" was obtained. (In the occasi,,n of the Paris VC,,rld Exhibition of Sohn G.m.b.H., mathematisch-mechan- immediate post war years the allied 1900. isches lnstitut fur gei~iitische und mil- military gave such production tarwissenschaftliche Instrumente'. Adolf authorisations.) Ertel began a new period Hahn became the technical director. He in its long history. Under the inspired concentrated mainly on the militarv- management of Carl Preyss, Ertel became scientific part of the business, but la(er the manufacturer who put the first passage instruments, repetition circles, took over the whole company. Diez automatic builder's levelling instrument equatorial instruments, universal instru- retired gradually and died in 1920. onto the world market. This instrument ments, multiplication-theodolites, terres- was a great success, also in the Nether- trial theodolites, levelling instruments, The First World War had an important lands where so many makers from all plane table alidades, and compasses. over the world were competing. Later on Apart fn~m these instruments a number impact on the development of Ertel. Military. prt~uction required a bigger opto-electronic encoders were developed of totally different apparatus and ma- and put on the market, but unexpected chines was constructed, such as pumps factory, and the workforce was raised from almost 20(} to 600. Civil production, acts from a second party involved caused and hydraulic presses. Even parts of the a rupture in the direction, and Carl first kicomotives built in Munich seem to however, fell back considerably. At the same time the wonderful team spirit of Preyss - as he wrote to me in 1997 - left have been developed and constructed in the company, which in turn lost the name the Ertel factory. the Ertel factory began to disappear. The company was sold in 1916. The new Ertel: the name that for more than 180 owner had no feeling for either the name years had been a guarantee for precision New constructions in the main field of or the fame of the company. Manufactur- and reliability. Any Ertel instrument in Ertel's interest were a plane table and a ing was extended into areas totally new any collection can certainly be considered tacheometer-thei~olite (Fig.3). Important to Ertel, such as cinema-recording, musi- to be the result of a combination of orders arrived from the topographical cal instruments, and even safety locks. optimal care, accuracy and experience, offices in Naples and for a scientific These new developments were partly achieved after many years of dedication expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. spoiled by an untrained and uninspired and hard work. workforce, and were also started during Georg Ertel died in 1863. His brother an unfavourable economic period. Gustav, and later on Gustav's son Georg Acknowledgements t~k over. Neither was a real expert but Under the regime of Walter Preyss, in 11,170 they h~und an almost ideal university engineer, who became director partner in the person of August Diez, a of the company in 1921, the company's top precision instrument maker as well as name was considerably shortened and This short review of the Ertel history has an excellent entrepreneur. Already by became 'Ertel-Werke A.G. fur Feinmecha- been made possible by the kind co- 1876 he was the sole director of the'firni, nik'. In the following years the newly operation of Mr Carl R. Preyss and the and in ll.190 he acquired the whole acquired products gradually disappeared Technical University, Delft, the Nether- company by simply buying it. In close from the catalogue. The astronomical lands. c~,peration wRh men of science such as instruments ai.~ had to be discontinued Privy Councillor yon Bauernfeind, the owing to the difficult years of inflation first Rector of the newly founded and the continual growing specialisation Technical University of Munich, he Author's address: of this market. On the other hand, Jan Lighthartplein 36 con.~tructed a number of new instru- completely new getntetic instruments ments, like micn~4cope-theodolites. Also 3706 VD Zeist were developed. Great attention was The Netherlands

28 Bulletin of the Scientif~ Instrument So~e~/ No. 56 (1998) Single-Lens Magnifiers Part III: Loupes and Stanhoscopes Allan A. Mills

h,

.i \

/I /

Fig.12 The u~ell-known 'Gou,Uands' Ioupe.

Fig.10 A folding loupe incorporatinl~ tu~ h,nscs, Selection gives three possible pouters.

(Continued from Part I!) convex lenses in close proximity (Fig.10). becoming objectionable with a single lens This arrangement may increase the of short focus. Thus, as long ago as 1668, it has already been stated (formula IV) aberrations, but is inexpensive and does Divini ~2 found that mounting two piano- that the magnifying power of a single have the advantage that selection of convex lenses with the apices almost in lens is conventionally found by dividing lenses allows the overall power to be contact (Fig.lla) gave a much flatter 250 by its focal length in millimetres. changed. A well-known American sup- field. This design has proved remarkably Therefore, to obtain a nominal magnifica- plier " lists folding ioupes variable in successful, and is still far from redun- tion of 10x, it is necessary to use a lens of steps from 4-20x. This last figure repre- dant. Thus, until recently it was the basis 25ram focal length. This will inevitably sents the point above which a compound of the condensing lens in most photo- be a strCmgly curved piece of glass, so its system is nowadays definitely superior. graphic enlargers and pri~ectors, whilst liability to optical aberrations will be successive generations of biology and high. However, a portable magnifier of However, combination of lenses that are geology students continue to purcha~ 10x is desirable for much scientific field- not symmetrical (most simply piano- thousands of 'Gowilands' hand lenses of work, so considerable effort has been convex) at certain fixed distances and this simple optical construction (Fig.12). invested over the years in the design of orientations can mitigate the spherical Contemporary 'Gowllands type' magni- improved lenses of this type. Much of aberration and other defects that are tiers are moulded entirely in plastic. this development and manufacture be- gan in Germany, so it was perhaps natural that the German term 'loupe' should originally be applied to compact roll magnifiers taking over where the old hand-lens left off, at about 5x. They were always intended to be used in close proximity to one eye, with the hand O braced against the cheek bone - the best position for maximum field of view with a b minimum distortion, although that field C is curved. (See Part ll). Nowadays, however, the word 'ioupe' is obsolescent in the UK - all but watchmakers' eye- .q loupes are termed 'hand lenses'. Stran- t gely, it is still current in the USA, f ~,U S am particularly when combined with a measuring scale in the focal plane. G d Q Multiple Lenses

The easiest way to obtain shorter focal Fig.ll Outlines of various forms of loupes. (a) Dwini, !008. ¢b) lengths is to position two or three simple Wollaston, 1812. (c) Breu,ster, 1813. (d) Bre~i~ter, 1820. (e) Coddington, 1829. (fl Stanhope, C. 1800.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (19~1) 29 Other 'separated doublets' were em- his father Philip, the 2rid Earl (1714- to produce what would now be termed ployed by Huygens and Kepler for the 1786). Neither Philip nor Charles Stan- 'personalised' jewellery. Queen Victoria eyepieces of early telescopes and micro- hope formally published the design, had some examples made, z' but ob- sctves and, in developed and refined although the latter was quite active viously the market was extremely lim- forms, are stillin use today. scientifically. ~ However, any textb~mk of ited. optics (e.g. Bra~) will show that the 'Solid' Lenses bending of light induced by a spherical it was a professional photographer, boundary of radius r separating two Dagron of Paris, who foresaw the vastly Another pathway in the development of media of refractive indices p~ and ~, is greater potential for microphotographs in the ioupe is represented by lenses shaped such as to give a focal length f, according the form of memorable scenes incorpo- from a single piece of gla~ in various to the expression: rated in Iow-pnced souvenirs aimed at ways, although still (originally) employ- the emerging tourist and seaside visitor ing surfaces that are parts of spheres. f, = ~ (W) markets. Any form of fi~cusing or careful These have their origin in Woilaston's positioning was financially impossible, idea of combining two hemispheric so the 'fixed focus' Stanhope lens was plano-ccmvex lenses base-to-ba~ to re- Now air has a refractive index very close ideal, supporting and protecting the constitute the sphere, but with a dia- to unity, so the deviation produced by a photographic transparency at the correct phragm between to block the marginal spherical surface in air simplifies to: distance to give a well-magnified virtual rays that cause much of the aberration image. A very shrewd businessman (as (Fig.llb This topic will be expanded in f _ r (Vll) he proved during the siege of Paris~') Part IV). He recommended ~ an optimum p-1 Dagron attempted to patent the idea in diameter for the aperture of I/5 of the 1860, but was refused because of Brew- focal length. This 'Wollaston doublet' With ordinary soda glass ~ is about 1.5, star's prior publication. ~ He prospered design was published in 1812, and so the 'in-glass' focal length f approx- without it, selling both finished 'Stanho- Brewster soon thought of eliminating imates to 2r. These distances must be scopes' (i.e. Stanhope lens plus mounted the reflective losses between the two measured from the n(xtal point within microphotograph) and the apparatus to interior surfaces by filling the gap with the glass (see Part ll), giving the outline make themY He found that if the entire his newly-promoted Canada balsam. '''~ shown in Fig.llf. This reconstruction photographic montage was reduced to (Fig.llc).But bv 1820 he had realised that agrees with the only annotated sketch lmm square then a plane end could be the same resuit, along with the advan- of the Stanhope lens that has been found substituted for the shallow curved face of tage of automatically correct alignment, in the literatureY the Stanhope design, enabling the entire could be achieved b,,' grinding a deep lens to be mass-produced from 2.5ram grtxwe around the equator of a glass A couple of Stanhope lenses, both about diameter glass rod at a very low price. sphere,t" (Fig.lid). Cl~dington ground 10ram across the cylindrical diameter, are (Dagron retailed these 'Stanhopes' at 8 away the surplus glass to leave a displayed in the Optics Gallery of the francs per gross.) The collection of scenes cylindrical rod with convex ends Science Museum, London. (Nos. 1945-285 to be reduced was projected upon (l~ig.lle), and mentioned the product in and 1960-1400). One is mounted perpen- clarified collodion-based emulsions on his 1869 textt~x~k." The result was that dicularly to a short handle, and may have glass with microscope objectives in the lens was produced and sold as the been produced commercially." Of course, reverse,z~ batteries of these on a panel "Ct~ldington lens'. Brewster was, of fortuitous magnified views of parts of enabling up to 15 microphotographs to course, incensed.': However, all single- objects immersed in liquids contained by be made at each exposure.~ The pro- glass Ioupes were soon to be supplanted transparent curved vessels are not un- cessed pictures were cut apart with a for the serious user by the cemented common; for example the wick in an all- diamond, fixed emulsion-side down crown/flint aplanats designed by Zeiss, glass oil lamp, or cherries in a cocktail. upon the Stanhope with balsam, and Stemheil and Hastings. The last-named is finally put in a simple lathe to be ground still in active prt~uction." The Stanhope ler~s was not successful in down flush with the cylindrical body of its intended role as a naturalist's magni- the lens. An example in the form of a The Stanhoscope tier, but does illustrate the way in which propelling pencil for the watch chain is scientific instruments sometimes enjoy shown in Figure 13, with its 'Memories of Another approach to the problem of field remarkable sales when reconstituted as Llandudno' reproduced as Figure 14. curvature is simply to accept it, and make a Popular novelty; bringing profits to the This Stanhoscope is 2.5ram diameter by the surface on which specimens are to be manufacturer and retailer if not the 7ram long from the apex of its convex mounted as a matching curve rather than inventor. Brewster's kaleidoscope is end to its plane base. However, the a plane. Designing the thickness of the probably the best-known example. 17 microphoto is behind lmm thick glass, lens such that this cun'ed surface forms Stanhope's lens was to find its niche in so the 'in glass' focal length is close to both its ~ond face and is at the correct the purveying of microphotographs to 6mm, equivalent to a formal magnifica- 'm glass' distance to be at the focus of the the masses. In 1853 Dancer2~ made tion of about 42x. This littlebit of glass fi~t convex face cleverly eliminates the limited numbers of microscopic copies enables most people to see the pictures difficult problem of freely adjusting the of the Lord's Prayer and Portraits of and read the captions clearly enough to di.-tance between a high-I~ower lens and famous people, retailing these as stan- remark that there are two shots of 'The the oblect under examination. Of course, dard 3" x 1" slides for viewing with a Pier'! The Science Museum, London, has a limitation is that only certain objects conventional coml~mnd microscope. Ob- a somewhat larger unmounted Stanho- Wg a ~u~pension of Pollen) lend them- viously only those wealthy enough to scope (No. 1931-792; Fig.15) containing a ~'lves to being mounted in this way. p~w~ess such an instrument would wish Portrait of Andrew Pritchard, the well- to purchase such slides. Brewster, with known microscopist. [his h~rm of ~flid, single-glass Ioupe is his wide experience of what small, high a~.,~-iated with Charles Stanhope, the I~)wer single lenses could do/" suggested These souvenirs continued to be made by 3rd Earl Stanhope (175~1816; refs. 18 in 1857 (ref. 24) that tiny Portraits of this several firms in France right up to the and lq), although he him~lf is reported '' nature might be mounted behind jewel outbreak of World War 11.~' Tens of to have .,,aid that ,t was really invented by lenses of topaz and other precious stones thousands must have been sold over an

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 0998) ~1" ..... J ,m., t q rm ~ls ~q l A t m[ lUlalV b 4

Fig.13 Stanh~cope in the top of a propelling pencil, the latter 36ram hmg when closed. The decoratit¢ cover appears to hat~e been made from a nutshell.

Fig.14 The vieus incorporated in the Stanhoscope of Figure 13. The entire montage is lmm square.

Fig.15 Unmounted Stanhoscope in the Science Museum, London. (No. 1931-792). It contains a portrait of Andreu, Pritchard.

incredible 80 years existence. Poor Brew- (Edinburgh: Royal Scottish Museum, 1984). 25. H. Gemsheim and A. Gemsheun, The ster - if he had known the future he Histow ~. Phot~wraphy, (London: Thames and would have felt even more cheated! 18. S. Lee ed., Dictionary of National Bu~raphy, Hudson, Iq~O), pp. 317-319. Vol. 54, (Lond(m, 1898). Notes and References 19. G. Stanhope and G.E Gooch, "/'he Life of "On the 11. Edmund Scientific Company, 101 East Charles, Third Earl Stanhope. (London: Long- 26. D. Brewster, Photomicroscope', Gloucester Pike, Bamngton, NJ 08007-1380, roans, 1914), pp. 264-5. The PhotL~raphic Journal 15th Jan. 1864, pp. 43Q- USA. Represented in the UK by Paling Electro- 441. Optics, Greycaine Road, Watford, HerOs WD2 20. EM. Beatty, 'The Scientific Work of the 4PW. Third Earl Stanhope', Notes and Records R~.. Sloe. Lond. 11 (1955), pp. 202-221. 27. PR.P Dagron, 7rmt+de PhottNraphle Mlcro- 12. E. Divini, 'Description of a New Micro- scaplque, (Paris, 1864). (See BM cal. no. 1399 scope', Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 3 (1668), p. 2l. HJ. Cooper, ed., Scientific Instruments. c.60 (3).). 301. (London: Hutchinsons, 1946).

13 W.H. Wollaston, 'On A PeriscopicCamera 22. EL. West, The Stanhope Lens: Directions foe Obscura and Microscope', Phil. Trans. Roy..Soc. its Use. Made and Sold by. F.L West, Opticzan 28 Anon. "Micro-photl~raphs' The Bratlsh /_and. (1812),pp. 370-377. (l.xmdon: West 1864), 7pp. journal of Photography 13th July 1900, pp. 4~-5 14. D. Brewster, Treati~ on New Philosophical This pamphlet is mentiimed by Gita Stanhope Instruments, (London, 1813). and G.E Cax~h mref. 19, but it has not proved possible to locate a copy. Apparently the To be contmued. Part IV: Spheru-al Lenses and 15. A.A. MilLs, 'Canada Bairn', Annals of instrument sold for 4s 6d. Simple Micnr~'~es. Science 418 (1991), pp. 173-185. 23. J. Wetton, 'John Benjamm Dancer: Man- 16. D. Brewster, 'Account of Some Single chester Instrument Maker' Bull. SCi. Inst. ,Sot. upon a New Construction',Edin. No. 29 (1991), pp. 4-8. Author's address: Phil. Journal 3 (1820),pp. 74-77. Astronomy Group 24. D(avid) B(rewster),'Microscope' Encyclo- The University 17. AD. Morrison-Low and J.R.R. Christie, pedia Bntanmca 8th edition, 185Y1860 Vol. 1O Leicester eds., "Martyr of Science: Sir Daz~ Brrwster, pp. 765-768. LEI 7RH

Bulletm of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) 31 Book Reviews t ~,m,,ns ='wrt~.,~.d by n'vwu,er~ are ttu,~r own, and do not nece~..~mhl n~ect the vu'ws ¢# the Editor ar the ~U'ty

achieven~,nt, ant| tmalh,', ith the perfecting of great 48-inch, neflector h)r Mell~mrne, Aus- the manne chnmometer. [his is done m 17 tralia in 1800. It was at this time that his .~m chapters, each by a ddk,nent author, represent- Howard neally gets invoh'ed in the busin~.,~s. mg as complete a treatment as one could wish In an appendix, (_;lass lists over fifty, reaper of an absorbing topic. instrument, ['n~th rcflectors (largest 48-inch Melhmrne) and refractors (largest 27-inch [.ongaude became an urgent problem in the Vienna) made by the Grubbs. Ihth century, when crl~.qng the t~'eans was an t~.'onomlc necessity. F:ttectivel',' it could be However, lan Glass devotes the main part of ~dved e,ther bv astronomical or bv mechan- his b~x~k to the extensive correspondence ,cal means. Fitl~t,r the celestial clock could he between Howard Grubb (1844-1931) and the used. more specitically the rt, lative p~itions of many observational astronomers, who ar- the M~n and stars, known as the lunar ranged the purchase and actually used his distanoe methc,d; or, in principle, a sea-going instruments. Sir David Gill, Astnmomer Royal ckwk could be built, to ket, p the time at the at the Cape of (k~d Hope in ~uth Africa, was port of departure on board ship. a maHw and critical corn~,_pondent. Gill, a lifelong friend of Grubb, was a very demand- Certainh," the mt~t exotm g part of the quest fi~r ing customer and his high specification longitude in human terms is John Harri.~m's requirements and meticulous attention to (Fig.l) long struggle to make a ~a-going detail combined with Grubh's chn~nometer and earn the h~rtune on offer to skills and artist~; to pn~uce ,~)me of the the inventor by the British government. This is finest telescopes of the century. By no means dealt with in detail and with enthusiasm by was this a smln)th association, Gill was attention, ',he horologists. Less and far les~s exasperated by Grubb's delays and said so, credit is given to the astronomers wht~e work only to receive in reply pleading for under- perfected the lunar distance tables that were standing of the great and many difficulties Fig. 1 3,h'::,,tmt ,,f Iohn Harri.~,n then tn m,ed with great success until the mid-19th Grubb was endunng ~m Gill's behalf. hl.~ carh/ .-ez,cnties bt/ Ph~hppe /oseph century. In fact, it is claimed that was Tas~u'rt tI732-1803L published in 17t,8, wnmg in thinking that longitude was not to be The demi~ of the business, now in St AIbans alter the l,,rtraH by Thomas Km~. In the found "by clockwork alone'. Though this is sad. Howard Grubb was knighted in 1887 make~ aninteres ng academic debating I:x~int, htck~,round are H3 and a re£ulator u,dh a but after the First World War and then aged it is un~und historically. The quest for nearly eighty, he could not cope. Orders had ¢,rMmm lwndulum, a,hth' on the tabh" is longitude needed both its" Harri.~m and its fallen off, and a cash crisis fi~rced a hurried phaced the famous l,r~ze,-wmmn¢ uutch Nevil Maskelvne. sale to Sir Charles Parsons, an old Irish friend H4. Gerard Turner and youngest .~n of the Third Earl of Ross, The new firm of Grubb-Parsons lasted another .~.1 years. The Quest for Longitude:. The Proceedings of Victorian Telescope Makers: The Lives and the Longitude Symposium Letter~ of Thomas and Howard Grubb In spite of the 'letters h)rmat' for the majority Cambr,d~','. Ma~., 4-O ,\',,~'m~'r 1993 I.S. Gla~ of the hx~k, it Ls very readable and interesting Vfdham I H .4ndr~ces, edHor lOP Pubh.,hm~ Ltd. 1997, viii + 279 pp., though there art' too many tyl~)graphical C,lmbrld),'c Mas< Han,ard Um~'rsHlfs Scama" mtludm,£ apt,a.ndict~ and index errors. This L~ nonetheless a worthy addition Centre" lOe,O ISBN 0-7503-1N54-5 to the history of telescope making. " 448 PF" 2o~ dlustrat,m ¢120 m colour~ ISBX I~-oo34.:12q-0-0 Hou~rd Daubs lan Glass has, with this h~ok, filled a gap in .¢,7"; CR~ t.4a 05 the published biographies of the major Exhibiting Electricity telescope makers of the I~th century. Thomas lh~s exceedingly hand~,me book owes its K.G. ~aucK~mp and Howard Grubb, as Patrick Mix;ne says in ex~.qence hrst to the enerl~,, and organizing Histo~. ~ Technoh.ot" Series 21 his Foreword. rank very high amongst the abd~t', ot the 1~3 I~mdon, The Institution (~. Electrical Engineers, ItS Eddor. who planned telescope makers of ihe 18th and 19th 1 ongitude .~,. ml~mm at Harxard University 1997 centurk,~ and were respon~,,ible h~r ~)me of on ~ h~ch ~t is ba.,ed. The success of the bt~k x + 337 pp., illustrated the world's finest tele~opes, of which ~me ISBN 0-85296-895-7 ~a~. al.,~ ,nfluenctM bv the popularity of ane still in full working order. ant~quanan horolog',,, ol~ ~,eatanng, and of a £45 bt~.t-.,eller pubh~.h~M in l~e4"~, Dava S~el's ga~,d in Rathmmes in the suburbs of Dublin, l,',~¢ttudc The,, author, a .~ienhfic p~umahst. Public exhibitions may well have their ongins the Grubb Optical and Mechanical Works in the medieval trade and sample fairs. The attended the ~ymp~qum, and was tired with pn~luced, in the mid 19th century, large enthu,qa,.m for Iohn Ham~)n, 'the lone genius author traces the development of public tele~'opes for some of the great t~ervatones exhibititnls from their beginnings towards the ~ ho ~,hed the gneate,,t ~,'ientffic prt~lem of m the British Empire, highly speciali,~,d his t~me'. She wrote I frankly l~pular, but late eighteenth century. l'he French were mechanically and optically to sub-micnm pioneers in staging national exhibitions after ~ cll-n~,.earched account of Harn~m's 20-year- accurao.: The first major contract secuned by long -truggle. ,,panning the mMdle dtx'ade-, of the Napoleonic wars as a means of sfimulahng Thomas Grubb (1800-78) was in 18,M, for the trade. The first industrial exhibition in Britain the l~th

~2 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) exhibitions, and many 04 the illustrationshave been p~)rly reproduced. It is, useful, however to have all this material, some of it difficultto k~cate, in a single source. One question that might strike the reader is how tm earth were the exhibits classified. According to the Playfair system adopted for the Great Exhibi- tion, the walking stick could be found under 'obtect for personal use', while according to the French system, it was to be found under 'a machine for pmpagatitm of direct m~on'.

Willem Hackmann Memoir¢ de Mblierl. Collections, Mode d'empIoi lacques Attali Les Ed#ums de I'Araateur 25, rue Ginoux, 75015 Paris October 1997 ISBN 2-85917-2,14)-8 395 F.F. Fig. 2 TIw National Gallery. of Practical Scwnce in the A,tcla,tr Galle~. just off the Strand London. Print by. Thomas Koerman 1833. This is a beautiful Ix~k - the 'virtual collection' of most sandglasses ever published, it brings together superb photographs of most sand- m(~lels demlmstrating electromagnetic effects. concentrated on electrical technology, but glasses constructed over the last five centuries Much nu~re popular became the 'National other themes could also have been picked in the majority of Eun~ean countries - as Gallery of Practical Sciences' established in lint as easily, such as the devek~ment 04 instruments or iconographically in paintings, the Adelaide Gallery in 18.t2 (Fig.2). Ara~her heavy engineenng or precision instrument engravings, books and pamphlets, from the well-known early pioneer of eled~m~agnetic making, to name just two. Early electrical earliest fresco in Sienna m the Palazzo Publico devices, William Sturgesm, was appointed one exhibits dealt with electric (cable) telegraphy, dating from the 1340s, to the computer of the 'Professors of the Gallery' to give 04 which one of the most remarkable was timekeeper. scientific ledum-demonstrations. Early exhi- Bakewell's electric telegraph which could bits were the magnetoefectric generators 04 the transmit hand-written messages, shown at This catalogue 04 sandglasses is also a g~ American J~=ph Saxton and the Frenchman the Great Exhibition, electric clocks and model Imok to read. The author Jacques Attali, an Hippolyte Pixii. electric motors (technologies which were 04 advLser to the late French President M~tterand, course closely related). The first industrial was former president of the BE.RD in Two other early venues were the Royal application 04 electricity was in electroplatmg, London, and has written many books on Polytechnic Institution, with its 500-seat and industrial dynamos began to appear in the economics, politics and philo~l~y. For many lecture theatre [orded over by John Henry early 1870s. The period from 1873 to 1900 years time has been a source 04 concern and Pepper best known for "Pepper's Ghost' (an represents the formative period for the elec- reflectkms. It so happens that a sandglam ~:~tical illusion), and the Royal Pam~ticon 04 tricity supply industry in Europe and America, caught the author's imagmation and collec- Science and Art. These were permanent reflected in the extraordinary number of tor's instinct. His progress was from 'ditte- venues. The author also describes the rote 04 exhibiti(ms held at this time. The first major tante' to serious amateur, eventually maturing the Mechanics' Institutes in promulgating use 04 electrical illuminatitm was at the Paris into a passionate colfecttanneur whc,se ultimate technological exhibitions. These became so Exhibition of 1881 utilising 2(}0 arc and 2220 pleasure is not to possess, collect, find, guard, popular in the late 18"hqs and 40s that incandescent lamps, while the Chicago Exhibi- preserve, clean, catak~gue, identify and study. 'publicans were concerned that their custo- tion 04 1893 increased this to 8000 arc and but to communicate all that the sandglasses mers were said to be forsaking the public 130,000 incandescent lamps. During this have taught him and to enjoy with others this house to visit instead the Mechanics' Institute 'heroic age of ' an marvellous instrument by means of his exhibitions with their wives and families!' essential requirement for any exhibition, beautiful book. national or provincial, was the need to satisfy A table lists some 175 exhibi~ms for the the public's demand for electric lighting, The French text might he difficult to translate petit'gJ 1756 to 2005. Included are such high- which in Britain reached its dazzling height into English or any other language as his lights as the London Great Exhibition (1851) at the 'Jubilee exhibitions' held dunng 1886-7. n,~ltris¢ 04 his native language is great and specific. The text is also a study of the araateur. and the lesser known Second Great Exhibition In the last two decades of the nineteenth (1862), the Paris International Exposition century electrical techradogy had advanced c'ollechonneur: a psychad(~ocal analysis of an (1867), the famous Philadelphia Centtnmial enough for special exhibitions or large amateur starting a collection. By reading this Exhibition (1876), Paris Applications of Elec- separate secti¢ms of international exhibitions l~w)k I remember l.,esdouze lows du collettum- neur by Henri Michel. tricity Exhibition (1876), the First London to be devoted entirely to electrical apparatus, Electrical Exhibition (1881), followed by such as the Paris International Exposition 04 similar ones in Paris (1881), Munich (1882), This I~k fills a gap in the literature ~m Electricity (1881), or the two Crystal Palace sandglasses it is m~ a scwntific study t~ the Manchester and Vienna (1883), Philadelphia Electrical Exhibitions (1881, 1t~92). By the late mathematics on sand in movement, the (1884). The listcontinues inexorably, and ends 1920s electric lighting had becmne common- with important future exhibitions: the San angular shape 04 the gla~s bulbs, m~r on the place. Exhibitors moved to other key develop- chaos theory of sand flow, but readers will find Franci~o World Fair (1999), four Millennium ments such as wireless broadcasting (the first exhibitions (l~,iiing, Denver, Hanover, and additional inhYrmatkm in the bibliographa:al Natkmal Radio Exhibition at Olympia was in refermk--es at the end, just before the onomatic London), the Swiss National Exposition 192,3), IBM computers (such as at the Brussels' (2001), and two in 2005, the Aichi World table and the photograph references. The World Fair of 19~), transistor applications photographs really are superb. Exposition in Japan, and Calgary Expo'2005 in (International Convention on Transistors and Canada. A hx)tnote listsa further large crop 04 Associated Semiconductor Devices at Earl's If you start reading this h~ok, you will read it smaller and provincial exhibitions with some Court in 1959), and in the more recent in one go, and when you find that you are technical contents. exhibiti~ms increasingly into telectnnmunica- getting hungry, you will hoil an e~ and tions and Intemet. appreciate that y~mr sandglass gives you the What is interesting are the technological right time for boiling. changes recorded by these exhibi~ms as time It has k~ he admitted that, at times, this hK)ks goes on. As it happens the author has reads more like an extended catak~gue 04 Jan De Graetr

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society (1998) l No. 56 33 Market Place

Desmond Squire

/.

ui .! : !i/I =" _ I 0 L) c" °~

LU o Portobello Road

g..

0 Ilnf°rmati°nl ! >.m I I w 0 C) I~- S ~ North (.9

Towards NottingHill Gate I

Underground Station E D (; S*~snr: J Map of the Portobello Road Antique Market it has been a while since the UK retail you are doubtful ask about the age and all the side galleries and visit any market was covered. The purpose of this origin of an item and get a receipt, with a basements. article is to explain where to find the description, date of manufacture and dealers that have instruments for sale. price, if the dealer will not supply one The free pocket guide to the Portobeilo The article concentrates on person to do not buy. person dealing rather than by catalogue Road can be picked up fr(nn stall holders or other means. This article covers the or the information centre at the cross- greatest concentration of scientific instru- The Portobeilo Road Antiques Market is roads, see the map. The guide is also ment dealers m the UK - the Portobello only open on Saturdays. Traders arrive available at hotels in London. A copy will Road Antiques Market. A future 'Market very early, some at 4 am. The galleries be sent to you on request, see the address Place' will cover the rest of London, the and arcades open at about 7 am and at the end of the article. The guide has a provinces and selling by the Intemet. trading continues until mid afternoon. map of the market, listings of specialist Dealers have individual opening hours dealers and places to eat, etc. and some attend erratically. If you are I have listed all the dealers in the coming to the market specifically to see a For the purposes of this tour ! have l'ortt~ello Road Antiques Market who, particular dealer a check on opening assumed that you are approaching the to ms" knowledge regularly stock scien- hours may prevent a wasted journey. 1 market from its southern extremity, the tific instruments or th(~e who occasion- would recommend getting to the market end closest to Notting Hill Gate Under- ally stock them and are worth visiting. I at 7 am as this will enable you to avoid ground statilm. I am going to describe may have omitted some or included the crush of tourists who arrive about the various dealers in the sequence that some who do not appear to have any- three hours later. If you come by car get you might meet them as you walk thing relevant. This is very much "a there early to find a legal parking place. around the market. The accompanying per~mal guided tour to the Instrument The closest Underground station to the map Ls diagrammatic and shows the dealers of the Portobello Road. No market is Notting Hill Gate, with a walk relative positions of the stalls and judgements have been made about the of half a mile. if you intend to get there galleries mentioned but it is not to scale. shx-k carried. It is left to the collectors to very early you may prefer a taxi. There is The antiques section of the market is make sure that they are happy with what a free shuttle bus that runs to and from about half a mile long. they art, buying. As a general warning, it the market to various hotels, the schedule .~h¢~uld be noted that there are a couple of is published in the Portobello Antique Stuart Talbot has a prime spot at the .~tall~ in the Portobello Road that stock Dealers Association Guide, see below. quantities of the Indian reproduction entrance to Roger's Antiques Gallery, the The Portobeilo road is marketed as a first gallery on the left that visitors come instruments. There are al~ other dealers tourist attraction, consequently it is who put out a single reproduction item. to. Stuart deals in a wide variety of deluged with people looking for street scientific instruments, with an emphasis The range and the quality of these entertainers and souvenirs. At first sight reproductions have improved consider- on the 18th & 19th centuries. When [ the tourist attractions can disguise the recently visited him he had among other ably over the years, which can make it real antique market that lies behind difficult for the inexperienced colh,ctor. If items a John Dancer microscope in its them. it pays to be systematic, to go into case with accessories, made in 1860, for

Bul|etm of the ~.nhfic Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) sale. At the back of Roger's is Brian Neal made of lacquered brass on a stand of Branksome Antiques. Brian deals in a include some scientific items such as signed 'Optorn6tre de Maurice Perrin & sextants, micn~scopes, balances, theodo- range of instruments with an emphasis Mascart', sold by A. Aubry, Paris. lites, etc. Inside the Admiral Vernon on marine and optical items with some Fletcher Wallis deals in scientific and medical, Brian was displaying a 'Faithful James Layte and Alan Miller share a medical instruments, corkscrews, writing stall. Their stock covers a wide range of Freddie' submarine binnacle, with its two implements and other technical antiques. scientific and medical items together with iron balls for sale. In the Chelsea Fletcher had a miniature lodestone set in Galleries next donr Paul Hamilton has other small decorative antiques. James silver for sale. Elisabeth Bennion, who had a small celestial globe by Newton, a stall in the window. Paul deals mainly deals soley in medical antiques, had a three inches in diameter made in 1840. in marine and optical instruments. sterling silver thermometer case, in the While in this gallery always visit Rubens form of a Celtic cross, set with a moon- an eclectic dealer who carries a wide In this vicinity are three camera dealers stone, presented at the Royal Infirmary range of items and often has scientific, who occasionally have instruments or Edinburgh as a nursing prize in 1890. medical and technical antiques. Jillings related items, such as optical toys, Desmond and Elizabeth Squire deal in Antiques in this gallery are clock dealers camera lucidas and so on. The firstone calculating, electrical,microscopes, opti- who stock barometers, particularly the can be found on the right hand side of the cal and physics apparatus, items relating pocket type together with thermometers road, outside 84 Portobeilo Road, oppo- to communications and b~x~ks on scien- and the occasional instrument. site the Chelsea Galleries, Lionel and tific instruments and technokgy. They Christine Hughes. While a little down had a late 19th century electrostatic Come out of the Admiral Vernon, cross the hill on the left, in the Atlam Gallery, is machine compendium, with its acces- over to the other side of the road, keep Brian Burford. Toby Whitfield is a bit sories, in a case. going down the road, until you come to further on in the window of the John the Delehar shop. This shop is the last Dale Gallery. From here you can move along to the (me in the antiques section of the market. other basements without having to go up Peter Delehar shares the shop with his As you walk down the hill you come to to the street. three sisters who deal in other items. He the Portobello Studios. They are easy to can be found tucked away at the back. recognise as there is a giant teapot At 288 is Reginald Dyke who though When ! visited Peter he had a Polar hanging outside above the entrance. Here mainly a dealer in radios, typewriters and planimeter by Amsler, for sale made of is Michael Welch who, deals largely in gramophones often has slide rules and lacquered brass and in a case, made small scientific instruments, telescopes, . Also in the basement of 282 about 1870. drawing sets, compasses etc. On going Westbourne Grove there are three dealers down the hill we come to Colin Gross who can be worth visiting. Andrew That is the end of the antiques market. As who has a unit in the Geoffrey Van Crawforth deals in a wide range of small you come out of the Delehar shop and Arcade. Colin sells a wide range of antiques and some scientific items and look to the right you are faced with a antiques but usually has some items of Nick Podmore who often has scientific fruit and vegetable market. If you are scientific interest. When i visited Colin instruments. At the end of this gallery prepared to penetrate the vegetables and he had an L.N. Fowler phrenokgy head, tucked away behind the stairs is Lawr- keep heading north you come to an area c. 1870, 10 inches high in white pottery ence Cooper who has a very large display that is under a motorway flyover. with a blue design. of pharmacy and related items. Going Ignoring the second hand fashion market back into Westboume Grove, go west on the left, there is a small, chaotic flea Near the crossroads of the Portobello along to the Arbras Gallery where down- market on the right hand side that is Road and Westboume Grove are three stairs is John Carnie who sells barom- worth looking at, particularly if you are book dealers who often have books on eters, clocks and a range of instruments. looking for electronic calculators or more science and technology and trade catalo- recent items. After the flea market keep gues. The first is Demetzy Books at the Walking back east to the Portobeilo Road, heading north, this time up hill. There are Antiques Arcade, ll3 Portobello Road. ham left down it. Three doors down at street stalls that contain real junk, but This is on the left just before you reach 117 Portobello Road is John Odgers. John worth looking at iust in case. Keep the junction. Turning left into West- has a range of items, scientific,marine, walking until the market turns right into bourne Grove you come to the 289 music boxes, barometers and decorative Goldbourn Road. The stalls in this area Gallery, where S. Biltcliffe deals in antiques. John had a small table telescope sometimes throw up real finds. Early books. Opposite and upstairs at 282 in a case, signed 'Lowes & Co. 42 St. electrical apparatus, optical and wireless Westbourne Grove is Laurie Christie. James St., London' for sale. telegraphy items have been found here. Occupying the comer of this junction diagonally opposite of the EaH of Lons- Bill and Mary Kiiby have a street stall Turn around and go back, keep kx~king. dale Pub is a large, white painted, arcade number 18, on the right side of the road, Items can often be missed, obscured by called Lipka. This is five shops and their some way down from the )unction. They cn)wds. basements that have been linked together specialise in all kinds of telescopes and to make one arcade. This arcade has the binoculars and have a small selection of Portobelio Antique Dealers Association greatest concentration of dealers in other items, such as microscopes and scientific instruments and related items, theodolites. At street stall 25, still on the 288 Westi~)urne Grove in the Portobello Road market. The right, is Tim Collins who has binoculars London, WII 2PS entrances are in Westbourne Grove and and small scientific items. When I visited Tel: 0171-229 83~ are not numbered, so you will have to ~m he had a Victorian ships compass in Visit the Web Site count along from number 282 on the its oak box. http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk comer. Going into number 286 there are Email: [email protected] four dealers in the basement. David Moving down the road on the left is a Bums, who is primarily a medical large gallery called the Admiral Vernon. Directory of Dealers specialist,always has a variety of other There are several dealers here. Outside instruments such as microscopes and 141 Portohello Road is David Browne Elisabeth Bennion °, Lipka Arcade, 286 calculators. David had an optometer, who has a stock of items that usually Westbourne Grove, tel: 0181-543 0043.

Bulletinof the ScientificInstrument Society No. 56 (1998) 35 S. Biltcliffe I~n)ks, 289 Westbourne Colin Gn~.s, C~)~f~y Van Arcade, 107 Rubens, Admiral Vernon Antiques Mar- Grove, tel: 0181-740 5326. Portobello Road, tel: 01923 822497. ket, 141-149 Portobello Road, tel: 0181- Brian Burford, Atlam Gallery 77 Porto- Lkmel & Christine Hughes, outside 84 291 1786. bello Road, tel: 0181-428 4773. Portobello Road, tel: 01676 533901, Desmond & Elizabeth Squire*, Lipka David Burns*, Lipka Arcade, 286 West- fax: 01676 532560 Arcade, 286 Westbourne Grove, tx)urne Grove, downstairs, tel/fax: Jillings', Admiral Vernon Antiques Mar- downstairs, tel: 0181-946 1470, hx: 0181-940 6579. ket, 141-149 Portobello Road, tel. 0171- 0181-944 7961. John Carnie, Arbras Gallery, 292 West- 235 86(}O. Stuart Talbot*, Rogers Gallery, 65 Porto- bourne Grove, tel/fax: 01622 813~)4. Bill and Mary Kiiby, Stall 18 in the street, bello Road, tel/fax: 0181-969 7011. Laurie Christie, Lipka Arcade upstairs, tel: 01273 3(g'~187 D.E Wallis*, Lipka Arcade, 286 West- 282 Westbourne Grove. James Lair', Admiral Vermin Antiques bourne Grove, downstairs, tel/fax: Tun Collins* Stall 25 in the street. Market, 141-149 Portobello Road. 0171-402 1038 Lawrence Cta~per, Lipka Arcade, 282 Brian NeaP, Rogers Gallery, 65 Porto- Michael Welch*, Portobello Studios, 103 Westboume Grove. belio Road, tel: 01202 76M24. Portobello Road. Andrew Crawforth, Lipka Arcade, 282 Paul Hamilton*, Chelsea Galleries, 67 Toby Whittle]d, John Dale Gallery, 87 Westh~urne Grove, tel: 0411 307289. Portobello Road, tel: 0973 618187. Portobello Road, tel: 0181-694 6868, Peter Delehar*, 146 Portobello Road, tel/ Alan Miller', Admiral Vernon Antiques fax: 0181-694 6969. Market, 141-149 Portobello Road. fax: 0181-866 8659. "Exhibits at the twice yearly Peter Dclehar Demetzy B~a~ks, Antiques Arcade, 113 John Odgers, 117 Portobello Road, tel: Scientific & Medical Instrument Fair. Portobello Road. 01255 .rsN079. Reginald Dyke, Lipka Arcade, 288 West- Nick Podmore*, Lipka Arcade, 282 Author's Address bourne Grove, tel: 0181-363 7494. Westbourne Grove. PO Box 4252 london SW20 OQY

Current and Future Events

Until 6 May 1998, London interpreted by the students in relation to discover how the scientific and naviga- the religious context in which they arose. tional instruments are conserved. On 22 Humphr~ Gde - Mint, Measurement and This will be the Museum's last maior March at 12.00 noon there is the Maps in Elizabethan England. An exhibi- exhibition before building work starts in opportunity to find out through historic tion at the British Museum, Great Russell June this year. Contact the Museum's pictures how the Observatory buildings Street, London WCIB 3DG. Most of the Secretary, Mi~ Penny Jackson, tel: 01865 evolved. For further information tele- instruments made by Humphrey Cole, 277280. phone 0181-312 6565 (24-hr information the map he engraved'for Richard Jugge's line) or 0181-858 4422. Bible and obK~'ts from the mint will be on 13 - 14 March 1998, London display. An illustrated volume containing es~','s and an exhibition catalogue will Harmony of the Heavens. A two-day 2 April - 27 September 1998 be available. For further information conference organised by the British contact Silke Ackermann in the Depart- Museum (Great Russell Street, London ment of Medieval and Later Antiquities WCIB 3DG) and the Warburg Institute Peter the Great in England; an exhibition at the British Museum, telephone 0171- (Wobum Square, London WC1H 0AB). commemorating the four months he 323 8395. Invited papers from renowned historians spent in England between January and working in different areas such as April 1698. The exhibition focuses on Tsar Until the foreseeable future, Cambridge astronomy, art and music with a strong Peter's stay in Deptford, where he learnt emphasis on scientific instruments. For about in the Royal Dock- "An Um~erstty Within Our.q'h~s'. Science further information contact Silke Ack- yards and navigation and astronomy at m Cambrid~,e in the E~c,hteenth Centu~. ermann in the Department of Medieval the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. The Thig exhibition deals mainly with astron- and Later Antiquities at the British venue is omy and natural philosophy in the Museum, telephone 0171-323 8395. various Cambridge colleges, in particular 26 April 1998, London in TriniW and St John's College. Further 13 - 22 March 1998, Greenwich details from the Whipple Museum of the Hi.~tory of Science, Eh,partment of the Events at the Old Royal Observatory for The 24th Scientific ff Medical Instrument I'ti~to~' of Science, Free Sch~a~l Lane, set98 - the National Week of Science, Fair will be held at the Radisson SAS Cambridge CB2 3RH, tel: 01233 334545, Engineering & Technology 1998 - include Portman Hotel, Portman Square, London fax: 01223 3.M554. E-mail: Ict1001@cam. on 20 March during the (Yoservatory's ac.uk Wl from 10.00 to 16.00 hours. Admission opening hours Gilbert Satterthwaite talk- £3. Nearest Underground station is ing about making observations with the Marble Arch. Note new closing time. To 10 March 27 June 1998, Oxford Airy transit circle; on the same day at exhibit or for further information tele- 14.00 metal conservator Lawrence Birnie phone/fax the Organiser, Peter Delehar, Lmeg of Froth. the MHS students 1998 describing how this famous circle is kept on: +44 181 866 8659 at any time. Email: exhibition dt.~ribt~ elsewhere in this in full working order; and at 15.00 a visit http://www, mik ronet.demon.co.u k / issue. Islamic scientific instruments are the Museum's conservation studios to pdelehar/

36 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1990) 20 - 24 July 1998, Brighton Union of the History and Phikr-~)phy of Summer 1998, Nollet Exhibition, Science will be held at Soroe Academy, CNAM Paris FIG (the International Federation of whose main building dates back to 1827. Surveyors) ad h0c Commission on Sur- The conference is the first visit by the veying is organising an exhibition The Art For details of this exhibition entitled commission to Scandinavia. It includes and Histo~ of Sur~yin~, and a tree-day L'Art des Exp&iences ('The Noble Art of full of symp(~sium to coincide with the 21st FIG three days papers, a one-day trip Experimenting') which is intended to Congress in Brighton. As part of the FIG to Copenhagen with visitsto Rundetaarn open in the Conservatoire National des Congress technical activities a sympo- (Copenhagen University Observatory), Arts et Metiers (CNAM), Paris, m the sium entitled 20(h9 Yea~ of Measurement is the Danish National Museum and Ro- summer of 1998 and then move to other to be held on Wednesday 22 July 1998 senborg (the Royal Chronological Collec- venues contact Guy Vadeboncoeur, Da- (9.15 to 17.30) in a lecture theatre adjacent tions). There will be a post-cor6erence vid M Stewart Museum, Le Fort-I'le to the above exhibition. Some of the tour to the Danish National Museum for Sainte-H~l#ne, C.P. 1200, Station A, papers concentrate on pre-18th century the History of Science, the Steno Mu- Montr6al, Canada H3C 2Y9. It Ls still topics, others cover the anniversaries of seum, in Aarhus on the 25th. There are intended to publish an illustrated catalo- the intrc~iuction of the metric system in two central themes for the Conference: gue of the Nollet collection. the 1790s and the introduction of EDM Cabinets of Physics and Chemistry and instruments in the late ]940s. Details Instruments and Instrument Makers in 25 October 1998, London from JR. Smith, FRICS, Honorary Secre- Scandinavia. Papers related to these areas tary, FIC ad hoc Commission, 24 W(n~cl- will be given priority, but papers not bury Ave., Petersfield, and HANTS GU32 The 25th Scientific & Medical Instrument related to these subjects will also be Fair will be at the Radisson Portman 2EE. Tel/fax: 01730 262619. E-mail: considered. For those interested in giving [email protected] Hotel, London WI from 10.00 to 16.00 papers, deadline for abstracts is May Ist hours. For details telephone/fax: + 44 181 1998. Further information is available 8668659. 20-24/5 July 1998, Seroe, Denmark from: The XVII International Scientific Instrument Symposium, Postbox 37, DK- The XVllth International Scientific Instru- Details of future etcnts, meeting, exhibi- 4180 Soroe, Denmark. Tel.: + 45 5782 tions etc. should be sent to the Editor. ment Symposium of the Scientific Instru- 0135. E-mail (Jan Tapdrup): ievhlan@d- ment Commission of the International fi.aau.dk.

Classified

Advertising CharRes Extensive reports available on business and biographical histories of Bristol- Whole page £17S sourced instrumentmakers; detailed list Half page £90 on application with sae and four first Quarter Page f.S0 class stamps. All priced at £1 per page, £5 Eighth Page £35 minimum, plus postage. Terence Bryant, Classified £0.20 per word, 75 Ravenhill Road, Bristol 8S3 5BS, tel rain. £5 0117977 7944. Clauified Box Number £1.50 per insertion Flier, Single A4 £100 BROKEN or MISSING LENSES/ Flier, Double A4 £125 OPITICAL MIRRORS/PRISMS Other Advertising Ask for Quotation Look no further! Opti~ bespoke made to ANwork, if required At cost Match All Periods. Repolishing and Silvering. Contract work undertaken. The rates shown are for camera ready art- All Scientific/Medical Instruments per- work. A 10% discount applies on booking for fectly restored. Mechanical work, includ- •-A'--, J,~.,,~., ,.d~,., 4 or more consecutive issues. Detailed Rate ing Gear Cutting through to Gilding, Card available on request. Shagreen, Enamelling, etc. dealt with to Copy Date no later than 4 weeks prior to the highest standard, including a full publication, i.e. end January, April, July • October. apidary Service covering all Gem Stones ~ecorative or functional. All Fine An- Box Number replies to the Advertising Manager as below. tiques, Object D'Art and Objects de r .... Payment for advertising is due in advance Vertu Restored. From Arms and Armour with order. Payment by cheque, Visa or MC through to Japanese Works of Art ex- accepted. Foreign advertisem requested to pertly dealt with plus a full Engineering Arthur Frank, invites offers for sections use c~lit card paymenta to avoid losses to and Metal Finishing Service (Patinating of his private collection of early scientific the Society on currency conversion. and Plating etc). For full details send a instruments. Included are spectacles and All payments and copy details Ice.- SAE to MR. G. COOKE (CONSUL- ophthalmic instruments and also bino- Jane lnsley, Science Museum, TANT RESTORER} Mill House, 9 Wot- culars, opera and field glasses. Arthur London SW'7 2DD. ton Road, Kingswood, Wotton-under- Frank, High Beech, Mont Cambrai, St Tel: 017/-938 6110 Fax: 0171-938 8118 Edge, Gloucestershire GL12 8RA. Tele- Lawrence, Jersey, Channel Islands. Tel/ phone: 01453 842681 fax: 01534 35114

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 56 (1998) 37

m 10.t We~t AlisoStrt'et 00pd. Cahfi~ia 93023 TekphoadFacsimil¢(~1)5) 6464)~}4 ShopOpen 10 a.m. Io 5 p.m. ever) Friday.Saurday. Sunday and Mondayor by apl~in{mem

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CHRISTIE'S interact: http://www.christies.com Table of Contents Appropriate material will be referenced in P/Nsks Abstracts Editor! ...... °'""* ...... "'"'"''"*"""" ...... "" ...... • ...... "." ...... '"...*'0""'""" ...... '0"0""'o.."" ...... o..'.-...... -.o....0.o...... o...... o0...... o. 1 Cover Story ...... Wilknn ~ 3 Appneciaticn: Reverend Professor Michael Casey O.P. (1902-1997) ...... Charles Moilan 4 The Annual lntntation Lecture: Gresham College:, Scientific Instnunents and the Advancement of Useful Knowk,dge in Seventeenth-Century England ...... Allan Chapman 6

Mystic Seaport ...... Roo and Stt,lla lkistow 14 Celsius, ~ and the Celsius Temperature Scale ...... Ok~ Becknum 17 The House of Dallmeyer A Query Answered and Other Notes ...... Brian Gee 24 T. Ertel & Sohn G.m.b.H. Mathematical Mechanical Institute for C,ecxietic Military Scientific ~ts in Munich, Germany, 1802-1984 ...... J.B te Pas 27 Smgk,-te Part Ill: Loupes and Stanhoscop~ ...... Allan A. Mills 29 Book Reviews ...... •...... ""°'"'"*'"'"'"'..--o.-..o...... 32 Market Place ...... "°'" ...... " ...... " ...... "...... °"*""'"" ~ ~ 34 Current and Future Events Adv~ts ...... °'""" ...... "* ...... "'*" ...... "'*'*'"'"'o".o.--.o.-...o.-...-...... *... 37

The Scientific Instrument Society Membership The Scientific Instrument Society (SIS) was formed in April 1983 to bring together people with a specialist interest in scientific

ors, me annques trade, museum staff, professional histormm and other enthusiasts will fund the varied activities of SIS mated to their tastes. The Society has an international membership. Activities Regular evening meetings are held in London, as well as occasional one-day and week-end co~erenc-es in attractive provincial locations. Speakers are usually experts in their field, but all members are welcome to give talks. Special 'behind-the-Kenes' visits to museums are a useful feature. Above all, the Society's gatherings are enjoyable social occaskms, providing opportunities to meet others with similar interests.

The SIS Bulletin This is the Society's }ournal, published four times a year and sent free to members. It is attractivelyproduced and illustrated,and contains informative articles about a wide range of instruments as well as book and exhibition reviews, news of SIS activities, and meetings of related societies. There is a lively letters page, and 'mystery objects' are presented. Another feature is • classified advertisement column, and antique dealers and auction houses n~gularly take advertising space, m that collectors may find the Bulletin a means of adding to their collections. How to join The annual subscription is due on I January. New members receive back copies of the Bulletin for the year in which they join. Current Sub.cription rates Subscriptions

Resident in UK £30.00 (Student £15.00) Resident elsewhere ~ £35.00 (Student £18.00) [ $55.00 (Student $28.00) Please note that higher cost of overseas membership is due to additional postal rates. Please contact: The Executive Officer (Wg Cdr Geoffney Bennett) 31 High Street, Stanford in the Vale, Faringdon, Oxon SN7 8LH. Tel: 01367 710223 Fax: 01367 718963