SIS Bulletin Issue 43

Scientific Instrument Sot iely f j /// Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 43 December 1994 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society tSSN 0956-8271 For Table of Contents, see inside back cover President Gerard Turner Honorary Committee Howard Dawes, Chairman Stuart Talbot, Secretary. ltfflla Didcock, Trett~urer Wiilem Hackmann, Edihw Michael Cowham, Adt,erttsmg Manager Trevor Waterman, Meetin,~ Organizer Ronald Bristow Peter Delehar Kristen Lippincott Anthony Michaelis Alan Morton Membership and Administrative Matters The Executive Officer (Wing Cmdr. Geoffrey Bennett) 31 High Street Stanford in the Vale Fanngdon Tel: 01367 710223 Oxon SN7 8LH Fax" 01367 718963 See inside back ctn~r for information on membership Editorial Matters Dr. Willem D Hackmann Mu~um of the History of Science Old Ashmolean Building Broad Street Tel: 01865 277282 Oxford OX1 3AZ Fax: 01865 277288 Advertising Mr Michael Cowham The Mount Toft Tel: 01223 263532/262684 Cambridge Fax: 01223 263948 Organization of Meetings Mr Trevor Waterman 75a Jermvn Street Tel: 0171-930 2954 London SWIY 6NP Fax: 0171-321 0212 Typesetting and Printing Lithoflow Ltd 26-36 Wharfdale Road Kings Cross Tel: 0171-833 2344 London N1 9RY Fax: 0171-833 8150 Price: £6 per issue, Lncludmg back numbers where available. (Please enquire of Exec.Officer if sets are required.) The Scientific Instrument Society. is Registered Charity No. 326733 The Scientific Instrument Society 1994 Editorial Fig.2 Part (y the Mc,.mx. (.,,lh',t~,,t~ I'h,,t,,~,,r,q,h t,,',, tit, Fig.l I r,mc1~ M,M,/t~m and /i),u Smtcotl~ ,it the t,rwah' rc(ct,twn catah~ue Uit Collection Ant. W.M. Mt~nsing (Amsterdam. /924). organi:'ed by. the Museum's staff m the 'Beeson Room'of the Mu.~'um Copyr(¢ht Museum ~¢rham,e. on 29 September 1994. Changing Places strating the wealth of historicalinforma- history of science in (_-)x~rd through the tion that could be derived from use of its collections - an exciting 'A state without the means of some change is instruments when studied in combina- prospect for tho~ of us who have without the means of its conservation'~ tion with conteml~rary sources and always advocated this role. surviving examples. This study has formed an important foundation for Edmund Burke's aphorism about the On I October Jim Bennett left the more recent scholarship on Arabic French Revolution came to mind when Whipple Museum in Cambridge to take instruments. The Museum became thinking about the important changes up his post as keeper (previously known for its detailed scholarly ins['ru- that have come about in our sub~ct 'curator') of The Museum of the History ment-studies, notably through the work during the latter part of this year, of Science. In his place has been of John North and Gerard Turner, whose brought about by the retirement of appointed Liba Taub of the Adler catalogue of the Martinus van Marum Francis Maddi.~m hx)m the Museum of Planetarium. Bennett has brought with collection was another milestone. the History of Science in Oxford on 30 him an interest in unusual temporary September (Fig. 1). In his valedictory, exhibitkms such as his current ~ne /.q~}O: address he alluded to some of the Ln 1964 Maddison succeeded Kurt J(~ten The New A~e, about which he wrote in the changes that had taken place in his as curator. His interests were widening previous Bulletin. In the same k~sne he forty-~)ne years in post. The contrast further to embrace early navigation, described a computerized vb~ual data- between war-torn Europe and the particularly that practised in the Iberian base prt~'t, The Virtual Teaching Collec- quietude of Oxford must have seemed peninsula, and new languages such as tion, 'aimed at giving th~se who teach extraordinary to the ex-servicemen who Armenian and Georgian. These interests, history of science without ready access to resumed their studies in the late 19~ and his crt~s-cultural approach to the a collection a resource for integrating scientific instruments into teaching and when Francis Maddison came up as a study of scientificinstruments (combin- young man to read Modem Languages ing the archaeologist'sdelight in ob~'ts, learning'.'The Oxford collectiLmwill also (French), but which he soon changed to the philologist'sfascination with linguis- be used. Modem History. He also had a keen tic problems, the art historian's eye for interest in archaeology and archival decorative embellishments, the histor- in this year of change the Whipple is studies. After a brief spell as an archivist ian's need for clmtext, and the archivist's celebrating its half centenary and the first in the Glamorgan County Record appreciation of documents) have been Museum of the History of Scit,nce its Office and then in WarwicKshire, he was celebrated in afest.~'hrfft.' During the last seventieth anniversary." The move in encouraged by the then curator, C.H two decades of his tenure the academic Oxford from 'curator' to 'keeper' can be Josten/to apply for the assistant curator- climate began to change. Oxford was not seen as symbolic and augers more than ship in 1953. His first task was to immune to the increasing financial simply an alteration in title. If the redisplay the Museum's remarkable restraints produced by the world-wide changes are ct~nducted with care and collection of sundials and astrolabes. recession, which brought with it a much sympathy to the existing fabric,it will be The latter led to his intenest in Arabic, more demanding university admimstra- of great benefit to the subg.,ct.Perhaps ] and to the publication of his Supplement tion and a need to show accountability should leave the last word to Richard in 1957 to Josten's A Catalogue of Scientific and 'value for money'. As a result the Hca~ker, quoted by Johnson in the Preface Instruments from the 13th to the 19th University began a thorough appraisal of to his dictionary: 'Change is na~t made Centuries, the Collection of ].A Biilmcir its departments, libraries and museums. without inconvenience, even from worse (Oxford, 1954). Twice as large as the The emphasis in the future will be much to better'. We wish both institutions a parent catalogue although it describes more on the University using all its succesful future. fewer instruments (1~.1 as oppoced to facilities as 'teaching resources'. The 154), the Supp/eraent is a model of Museum of the History of Science will The Museum Boerhaave has done the detailed descriptive cataloguing, demon- fully play its part in the teaching of the instrument connoisseur proud by arran- Bulk.tin of the Scientific Instrument Socieo} No. 43 (1994) photograph (Fig. 2) taken in 1924 of the the emerging natural philosophy. How- Amsterdam collectitm by Anhm W.M. ever, this is, as they say, another story. Mensing, which has since been dispersed Tony Simcock's exhibition in Oxford is a world-wide. If only tht~,eearly collectors smaller affair and concentrates on early had been keener on provenance. It would surveying. He describes thirty-six books, perhaps have made it easier for us to five instruments in books, and sixteen distinguish fake from real! instruments in context (Fig. 3). Elsewhere in the course of a tongue-in-cheek Three current exhibititms of early science description of his exhibition, Tony des- books demonstrate the importance of the cribes the book in computer program- scientific image. These are A Truly ming parlance as being 'a wad of folded Hea~,nly Libra,. Treasur~ frwn the Royal paper with characters printed on it ... Obserz~atorv~ Crau~rd Collecthm at the usually in an old programming language Royal ObServatory in Edinburgh (re- known as Latin ... kept on shelves in viewed in this issue by Jane lnsley), monasteries ... retrieved and read or Sphaera Mundi Astronomy Books searched manually, mostly using Win- 1478-1o00 at the Whipple, and Scientific dows (but sometimes just candles) ...'~. B~,ks & Instruments Fn~m R~Jertus An~li- Oh, but what treasures are to be found in cus to Lamhard Zubh'r 1478-1614 at the all three exhibitions among this anti- Museum of the History of Science in quated form of information retrieval! Oxford. The Edinburgh and Cambridge exhibitions concentrate on astronomy. Notes Fig.3 An instrument for setting out Both have produced a well illustrated catalogue of very similar appearance, sundials in L. Zubh'r, Novum instrumen- !. Edmund Burke, Reflecthms on the Revolu- turn sciotericum. Das ist, kurtzer und although the Cambridge volume is more tion in France(1790), p 10. grundtlicher Bericht, wie nicht allein aller extensive. Indeed, Sphaera Mundi illus- hand Sonnenuhren ... (Zurich, 1609). trates the richness of the Whipple's Zubh'r ~ eh.gant engraving appears to have library on this subject. Ninety-three 2. lostendied aged 82 in July this year, see are described the obituariesin The Independent,12 July (and been ct~Jiedfrom B Leemann, Instrumen- works in 19 groups. Topics two supplements),The Times, 16 July,the Daily turn mstrumentorum: horologiorum scio- covered are incunabula, the legacy of Telegraph, 19 July, and The Guardian, 21 July tericorum ... (Zurich, 1604L Puerbach and Regiomontanus, commen- 1994. taries on Sacro Boseo's Sphaera Mundi, astronomy and the university curricu- 3. WD. Hackmann and A.J. Turner, Lmrn- ging in September three conferences with lum, the astrolabe, sundials, astronomical in$, Language and lmcntion. £s~ Presented to at their heart a fine exhibition dealing nngs, surveying instruments relevant to Francis Maddi~m (Aldershot and Paris: Vario- with the changing attitudes towards astronomy, astrology, Peter Apian and rum and the Soci~tc~ lnternationale de instrument collecting over the last four Egnatio Danti, the calendar, sources for l'Astrolabe, 1994).

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