Scientific Instrument Society

Bulletin March No. 76 2003 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society ISSN 0956-8271

For Table of Contents, see back cover

President Gerard Turner Vice-President Howard Dawes Honary Committee Gloria Clifton, Chairman Alexander Crum Ewing, Secretary Simon Cheifetz,Treasurer Willem Hackmann, Editor Peter de Clercq, Meetings Secretary Ron Bristow Tom Lamb Tom Newth Alan Stimpson Sylvia Sumira Trevor Waterman

Membership and Administrative matters The Executive Officer (Wg Cdr Geoffrey Bennett) 31 High Street Stanford in the Vale Tel: 01367 710223 Faringdon Fax: 01367 718963 Oxon SN7 8LH e-mail: [email protected]

See outside back cover for information on membership

Editorial Matters Dr.Willem Hackmann Sycamore House The PLaying Close Tel: 01608 811110 Charlbury Fax: 01608 811971 Oxon OX7 3QP e-mail: [email protected]

Society’s Website www.sis.org.uk

Advertising See “summary of Advertising Services’ panel elsewhere in this Bulletin. Frther enquiries to the Executive Officer,

Design and printing Jane Bigos Graphic Design 95 Newland Mill Tel: 01993 209224 Witney Fax: 01993 209255 Oxon OX28 3SZ e-mail: [email protected]

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The Scientific Instrument Society is Registered Charity No. 326733 © The Scientific Instrument Society 2003 Editorial

Turning Over a New Leaf pretty Cotswold town near where I live. like to share with us about how to improve This Bulletin is the first issue produced by the site will be gratefully received. I am this team, and I hope that it meets your always amazed by what a rich fount of infor- This has been an eventful few months for approval.The quality has not been reduced. mation the internet is, and am particularly the Bulletin. It was decided by the SIS Costs have been cut primarily by making interested in projects putting scanned sci- Committee that in these competitive times more use of computer technology and by entific instruments catalogues on internet. a means had to be found to reduce pro- using local facilities. In the process, your duction cost in order to give the member- One such project is by Steve Turner of the Editor is on a steep learning curve! ship best value for money. Regretfully, this Smithsonian Institution. The Max Planck Changing our facilities has given me the could only be achieved by relocating the Institute in Berlin already has a large num- opportunity to rethink the Bulletin’s graphic design and printing from London ber of trade catalogues on the net on appearance.I still believe that the three-col- to the provinces.And thus has come about vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/library/trade cat- umn lay out is the most flexible, but am the end of our association with Lithoflow, alogues.html. Paolo Brenni is involved. It is pleased to receive comments from mem- our London printers. For more than a suggested that the links of scanned trade bers about any aspect of our journal. decade Roger Hill, Ron Atherton and other catalogues should be accessible at the members of Lithoflow have looked after us We are still analysing the best way forward homepage of the Scientific Instrument with great efficiency, and it is with some about digitalizing the Bulletin’s back num- Commission, probably together with the trepidation that we have moved from this bers and should soon be able to make a Online Register of Scientific Instruments.It safe anchorage into the unknown.Our new decision, hopefully before the June issue is is quite amazing how much information we production team is Jane Bigos, graphic due.The Society’s web page is another item will have at our fingertips. designer, and the Flying Press at Witney, a drawing our attention.Any ideas you would

Collectors with Unusual Objects required for the AGM For this year’s AGM on Wednesday the 2nd July we have departed from our customary three speakers.We have two speakers, Emily Winterburn and James McCormick, and instead of a third speaker we decided to have in this half hour slot an ‘open’session for members to present items from their own collections or mystery objects. If you would like to present an object, please contact our Meetings Secretary,Dr Peter de Clercq on [email protected] or four unusual objects could be presented in this way.

Obituary Arthur Davis Baynes-Cope

Pioneer in the study and restoration of American research. Baynes-Cope was a fel- globes and a long-standing member of our low of the Society of Archivists and of the Society, died on 27th February 2002. He Society of Antiquaries of London, a gave the Society’s Annual Invitation Lecture Liveryman of the Stationers’ Company, a for 2000.A chemist,he was an expert in the some-time member of the Architectural field of document examination and conser- Advisory panel of Westminster Abbey,and a vation at the British Museum for over 20 former chairman of the United Kingdom years. He is best known for his pioneering Group of the International Institute for work on the structure and conservation of Conservation. He was a fellow of the Royal Bulletin’s Cover globes and his monograph, The Study and Society of Chemistry and a member of the Conservation of Globes (1985), is still the British Standards working parties on the The illustration on the March cover is of an main work of reference on the subject. storage and exhibition of archival docu- old photograph of a group of instruments More popular, but equally authoritative, is ments (BS 5454) and on the binding and on loan from Florence for the Special Loan his Caring for Books (1981) still in print. treatment of books (BS 4971).He took early Collection of Scientific Apparatus, exhibit- Born in London in 1928, Baynes-Cope was retirement from the British Museum in ed in South Kensington in 1876,which fea- educated at the Stationers’Company School 1984, and moved to a cottage in Stanton, tures in this issue in the fourth and final at Hornsey, and then at Trinity College, Suffolk, where he died.When I was a con- part of Peter de Clercq’s papers on this Dublin, gaining a degree in Chemistry in servation student in London Baynes-Cope remarkable event.The physical devices are 1951. His first employment was at the taught me paper conservation, or rather from the Accademia del Cimento,and these Laboratory of the Government Chemist.He that it should only be tackled by experts, are complemented by astronomical, math- contributed to showing that Piltdown Man which was good advice. He had a wicked, ematical and time-measurement instru- was a modern hoax.In 1960 he transferred dry sense of humour and was dedicated to ments from the Royal Institute of ‘Studii to the Research Laboratory of the British his field of expertise. We renewed our Superiori’. Today these evocative instru- Museum with responsibility for the investi- acquaintance when he received the ments are exhibited in the Istituto e Museo gation of artefacts made of animal and veg- Society’s medal, of which he was very di Storia della Scienza in Florence. Science etable products. He soon specialized in proud. Museum Pictorial Collection SME 110. paper artefacts. He was convinced that the Picture no.AST/C100276. Credit: Science Vinland Map was a fake,later confirmed by Willem Hackmann Museum/Science & Society Picture Library.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 1 The Annual Invitation Lecture Scientific Instruments: Why? Gerard L’E Turner

This Society was founded in 1983; twenty me, the essential target. From this comes a essential to find a skilled craftsman, and years ago next year. I was a founder mem- slowly growing awareness of where the desirable to have the instrument made as ber, and was honoured to become the first centres of precision instrument-making large as possible,to minimize errors in read- Chairman.This lecture will not, I hope, be were located, with important social and ing the scales. Searches in other museums, my swan song, because I intend to go on economic implications. and in the literature,finally revealed a group working as long as I am able.What I shall of twenty-six instruments that I could In my early years at the Museum of the try to give you is a brief account of how I ascribe to Giusti. Of these, three quadrants History of Science, Oxford, the optical study scientific instruments, and what and a nocturnal bear his signature,and were instruments were my special charge.Before results my method can produce. shop goods.The remainder are finely craft- turning to history, I had worked with the ed pieces that were commissioned. Some The first task of the instrument historian is electron microscope, and I was closely of these bear the initials or name of the to find the instruments. This may sound involved with the Royal Microscopical patron, in two cases Egnazio Danti. easy, but it is not. Many museums identify Society,whose historical collection is now instruments incorrectly, and cannot housed in the Museum, and has been cata- As well as the nucleus of Giusti’s produc- attribute them to the maker,or even to the logued by me.For more than a century after tion, the Museo in Florence presented me, country of origin.In this connection,a great the invention of the telescope and the in 1992, with an even greater prize. I was stride forward was made with the Directory microscope around 1608, the lenses were able to identify as being by Gerard Mercator of Scientific Instrument Makers, the bible kept the required distance apart by tubes (1512-1594) a superb Flemish astrolabe for the English trade, whose author is your made of wood or pasteboard covered with with five latitude plates,and a map plate,all Chairman, Gloria Clifton. My contribution vellum or leather.This received a decorative unsigned and undated.There is a sixth lati- was to find the necessary funding for this finish of gold-tooling,in the manner of book tude plate with the instrument, and, using project, and I know that everyone con- bindings.Until I studied these tooled motifs the method described above, I was able to cerned with instruments is aware of its in detail, it had been assumed that each attribute this plate, designed especially for value. maker had his own distinctive set of tools, the latitude of Florence, to Giusti. It was and that an unsigned instrument could known that Mercator made instruments,but The next task is to go and look at instru- therefore be confidently attributed if it had none was thought to have survived.In fact, ments - and I mean go and look.It is not suf- the same tooled motifs as one that was three of Mercator’s astrolabes are in exis- ficient to find or obtain a picture,important signed. I examined the tooling on 70 tence, the finest at Florence, the other two aid though photography is.There is no sub- English telescopes and microscopes, using at Augsburg, and at Brno in the Czech stitute for close examination, using at least a technique akin to brass-rubbing.I was able Republic.The last, and earliest of the three a magnifier, and if possible a binocular to establish that the same tools were used bears on its rim Mercator’s monogram.The microscope. Such an aid should be essen- on instruments signed by different makers, connection between the Florence astrolabe tial equipment in any museum housing sci- suggesting that one or more tube-makers and Giusti is of particular interest.A key fig- entific instruments. were responsible for supplying body-tubes ure here is Egnazio Danti, who was What need to be examined are the follow- to the trade.I was also able to propose that favoured by Cosimo de’ Medici, designed ing: tooling motifs fall into three stylistic groups, maps for him, and was also, as we know with the approximate date spans, 1660- from his published treatise, interested in • The material, usually brass, but also 1700; 1700-1725; 1725-1750. The signifi- astrolabes.The treatise was published in the silver, wood, ivory,card, or paper. cance of this early study lies in the need to same year,1569, that saw Cosimo crowned •The engraving or punching, with refer- examine a considerable quantity of instru- as Grand Duke of Tuscany.I have postulated ence to style, skill, mistakes; and always ments, and the importance of detailed that the Florence Mercator astrolabe,made looking at the back as well as the front, scrutiny,followed by analysis. in the world’s most famous instrument workshop,was acquired to be presented to and any accompanying case or contain- The extraordinary collection of the Museo Cosimo on the occasion of his coronation, er. di Storia della Scienza at Florence has pro- and that Giusti was recommended by his vided the gold mine from which much of • Decoration: there can be useful infor- patron,Danti,to make the Florence latitude my work on instruments is derived.One of mation here on dating, and place of ori- plate. gin. the most striking exhibits is the very large astrolabe, nearly 3 feet in diameter, that is The identification of the three Mercator • Technical efficiency: with mathematical commonly, but erroneously, said to have astrolabes, for which I received much car- instruments, the accuracy of the mathe- been used by Galileo,and made by the cler- tographic and astronomical advice from Dr matics; with astronomical instruments, ic, Egnazio Danti, cartographer to the Elly Dekker, provided the best possible the placing and naming of stars and con- Medici.The astrolabe has punched numbers endorsement of my forensic method for stellations;with optical instruments,the and letters on the rete only, the rest being examining instruments. Mercator’s engrav- quality and condition of the lenses; and engraved.Since punches can be matched,I ing, and the punches used by Giusti, so on. examined other instruments in the Museo, became as recognizable to me as hand- • The words used, including spelling, and found two horary quadrants with the writing is to experts in that field.It was par- choice of names of towns, stars, winds, same punches, signed by Giovan Battista ticularly satisfactory to have my Mercator etc. Giusti, and dated 1565 and 1568. Also identification ratified,as it were,by the mas- attributable to Giusti by the same method ter himself,when his monogram was found, Instruments are most challenging when are a primum mobile and an astrolabe in and recognized, on one of the astrolabes. unsigned and undated. Much of my work the Florence collection.These discoveries has been in trying to identify unsigned led me to conclude that Giusti was a fine Another of the remarkable treasures of the instruments,using detailed examination and craftsman with a successful workshop. It Museo at Florence is the group of some 20 comparison. If an instrument is signed, or seemed likely that he worked for Danti, instruments made by English craftsmen,and can be securely attributed,then it becomes whose Trattato dell’Uso et della Fabbrica brought to Italy in 1606 by Sir Robert possible to identify workshops,which is,for dell’Astrolabio (1569) advises that it is Dudley.These instruments, of great quality

2 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) and sophistication,led me to consider those instrument-makers working in London dur- ing the Tudor period,effectively the second half of the sixteenth century.This was the time when Flanders was the world cen- tre of the printing trade, thriving through the production of copper- plate engraving for printing maps and globes. The arrival of the Fleming,Thomas Lambrit,who used the pseudonym,Thomas Gemini,in London in the 1540s can be seen as the start of the London preci- sion instrument trade.Gemini,who made his name with his three edi- tions of Vesalius’ Anatomy, also made instruments, seven of which have survived. Four of these were made expressly for the Tudors,Gemini having earned a royal pension from Henry VIII for his first edition of the Anatomy in 1545.Two astrolabes and a quadrant, bearing the royal arms, were made for Edward VI,and the fine signed and dated astrolabe of 1559 has the name and arms of Queen Elizabeth I.The twin of this astrolabe is in the Florence collection. The strong links between Gerard Mercator and Thomas Gemini, which I have described in detail in my book on Fig. 1 Italian-hour nocturnal, c. 1590, made Elizabethan Instrument Makers (2000) for Caesar de Gambara, Bishop of Tortona.It form the starting point of my most exten- uses the guide star eta UMa, Benetnash. sive instrument search. Using the signed Courtesy of the Whipple Museum for the work of the leading makers in Tudor History of Science, Cambridge (Wh 734). London, Gemini, Humfrey Cole, James Kynvyn, Augustine Ryther, and Charles Whitwell, as my source, I was able to iden- I came across a very simple nocturnal with Falcono,I have been able to find five more, tify just over one hundred instruments that the latitude given in the form of a Climate, not by this maker, and different in appear- could with confidence be considered of and with month arcs that varied by a factor ance, but definitely of this variant type, English, sixteenth-century manufacture.All of 2:1. On this instrument, in the first half which I have named the Italian-hour noc- these instrument makers were engravers, of the year from December to June, the turnal. I have no doubt that, once the char- and the majority - James Kynvyn is an months are longer.This is because Italian acteristics have been identified, other noc- exception - engraved maps and other pic- hours are being used,and these,24 in num- turnals of this type will be found.It is worth torial artefacts as well as instruments.The ber,begin at sunset,and a nocturnal is con- noting that, because of their simple design two most prolific were Humfrey Cole, cerned with the hours of darkness.Through and obviously inexpensive construction, whose legacy is 26 signed instruments,and the change in sunset time, the months are these Falcono nocturnals have been Charles Whitwell,to whom I have been able longer in the first half of the year,and short- thought by some to be fakes. In my experi- to ascribe 27 instruments. Whitwell was er in the second half, by about 3 minutes a ence, it is common for an instrument that apprenticed to Augustine Ryther, a superb day.Therefore these nocturnals are latitude is in any way unusual to be dismissed as not engraver of maps,by whom only two instru- dependent.Thus a regional time system was genuine; this is a great mistake. ments have survived. My book gives such in use for both night and day. information as there is about these London I gave this lecture the title, ‘Scientific craftsmen, and describes their instruments The discovery of this simple instrument Instruments:Why?’ What I was implying is in detail. It also gives an account of the (Fig. 1) with its unusual design not only that working with instruments often seems remarkable career of Robert Dudley, the alerted me to a new type of nocturnal, but to be somewhat undervalued by historians, patron for whom Kynvyn and Whitwell pro- also led me to search for other instruments who think that history is best studied duced some unusual instruments, and pro- by its maker,Falcono of Bergamo.To date, I through the written word, in books and vides in an appendix by my son, Mark have been able to locate six of Falcono’s manuscripts. My perception has always Turner,an account of the method by which nocturnals, all of the same design, and also been that one can ‘read’ instruments, that individual images of the engraved letters, four quadrants and two astrolabes, one a they are ideas made brass. Moreover, the numbers and symbols can be computerized particularly fine instrument. The earliest information they contain is unique, since for comparison. nocturnal is dated 1504, so Falcono was craft skills seldom go with literary ones,and working at the very beginning of the six- instrument makers have left few written Regular readers of the Bulletin will recall a teenth century in a provincial centre of memorials.All historians have a well-devel- recent article on nocturnals,in which it was northern Italy. He is recorded as being a oped detective instinct, and mine works stated, as on many other occasions, that all clockmaker, and was for a time the keeper best on three-dimensional objects.If I have nocturnals are universal, and not latitude of the astronomical clock in the Torrazzo carved a small historical niche for myself dependent;only the calendar and the guide at Cremona. with my magnifier and microscope, the star are significant. Indeed, until less than Sherlock Holmes of the precision instru- two years ago, this was my own view.Then As well as the six similar nocturnals by ment trade, I shall be content.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 3 Sources for Illustrations Origins of the London Trade in Precision pp. 289-293 ‘Decorative Tooling on 17th and 18th Instrument Making (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000). The instruments ‘A Tudor Astrolabe by Thomas Gemini and Century Microscopes and Telescopes’, its relationship to an Astrological Disc by Physis: Rivista internazionale di Storia described (figures in bold are catalogue numbers) were: Gerard Mercator of 1551’,The Antiquaries della Scienza, 8 (1966), pp. 99-128. Journal, 81 (2001), pp. 400-9 (with K.Van Reprinted in Essays on the History of the Gemini astrolabe Edward VI, 5 Cleempoel). Microscope (Oxford: Senecio Publishing Co., 1980), chapter 4. Gemini astrolabe Elizabeth I, 6 ‘An Astrolabe belonging to Galileo?’, Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza, Gemini compendium of quadrants, ‘The Florentine Workshop of Giovan 3 12, pt 1 (1997), pp. 87-92, 4 plates. Battista Giusti, 1556 - c.1575’, Nuncius: Cole altitude sundial, 13 Annali di Storia della Scienza, 10,pt 1 ‘The Italian-Hour Nocturnal’, Annals of (1995),pp.131-172,15 plates.Reprinted in Cole plane table alidade, 32 Science, 60 (April 2003), in press. Renaissance Astrolabes and their Makers, Whitwell altitude sundial and perpetual cal- Variorum Collected Studies Series 766 Note endar, 41 (Aldershot:Variorum, 2003). This was a slide lecture, which cannot be Whitwell Blagrave-type astrolabe, 43 reproduced here.The topics are therefore ‘An Astrolabe attributed to Gerard Mercator, summarized in the above text, and the list c.1570’, Annals of Science, 50 (1993), pp. Sir Robert Dudley’s Italian Blagrave-type of Sources guides the reader to the pictori- 403-443 (with Elly Dekker). Reprinted in astrolabe, pp. 86-89 al matter. Just one instrument is illustrated Renaissance Astrolabes and their Makers, here, an Italian-hour nocturnal, my latest op. cit. Whitwell lunar computer, 51 discovery (Fig. 1). ‘The Three Astrolabes of Gerard Mercator’, Kynvyn sector, 68 Annals of Science, 51 (1994), pp. 329-353. Kynvyn simple theodolite, 70 Author’s address: Reprinted in Renaissance Astrolabes and Museum of the History of Science their Makers, op. cit. Kynvyn altitude semicircle, 71 Broad Street Elizabethan Instrument Makers: The Elizabethan craftsmen’s engraved numbers, Oxford OX1 3AZ

Honorary Fellowship for the President

Gerard Turner, our President, has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society.He served the Society for many years as, among other positions. Chairman of the Education Committee, Editor of the Proceedings, Honorary Secretary,and President 1974-76. He has for many years served as Honorary Archivist, and more recently as Honorary Historian. He has published extensively on the history of the microscope, in particular The Great Age of the Microscope:The Collection of the Royal Microscopical Society (1989) and God Bless the Microscope! A History of the Royal Microscopical Society over 150 Years (1989), both to mark the 150th anniversary of the Society.In connection with optics, his latest paper is ‘The Government and the English Optical Glass Industry,1650-1850’, Annals of Science, 57 (2000), pp. 399-414. This shows how taxation prevented research into quality optical glass by George Dollond, Michael Faraday and others, leaving the field open to the French and Germans.

Fig. 1 Professor Turner with framed Honorary Fellowship certificate

4 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Letters to the Editor

The True Shape of California which collects in C2,until the potential dif- Arthur Middleton,in his report on the Paris ference between C1 and C2 reaches a suf- Kugel sale (Bulletin SIS, No.75) noted that ficient value for a spark to pass. the Gessner Globuspokal of c. 1595 Failure prompted me to sit and work out showed California correctly as an isthmus, how the thing SHOULD work. Firstly,since not as an island.Pointing out that some later we have an electron current (I always find mapmakers showed it as an island, he sug- it easier to think of electron, rather than gested that it was either wishful thinking or conventional currents: I blame Benjamin specialized knowledge on the part of the Franklin) from the negative to the positive Globuspokal engraver to show it correctly ball,there must be a circuit.The circuit is,of as a peninsula. course, completed by the two nozzles and California was depicted as a peninsula on the water in the reservoir,which must pro- all known maps until the deHerrera’s vide a low resistance path.Part of my prob- Descriptio Indiae Occidentalis. Published lem was therefore due to my use of Araldite in Madrid in 1622,this atlas had a small map to fix the tubes into the reservoir (because on the title page that showed California as the latter was aluminium). A length of thick an island.This is the first known map to copper wire was placed in the reservoir show California as an island. Interestingly, with its ends inserted into the nozzles, and Fig. 1. Kelvin’s water dropper generator with this produced sufficient charge to deflect the maps inside the atlas showed it as a the two streams connected to Leyden jars. peninsula! For reasons not entirely clear, an electroscope leaf. The other crucial From J. Gray, Electrical Influence Machine point is that the flow from the nozzles must some mapmakers adopted the island con- (London, 1890), p. 175, Fig. 71. cept which, as Arthur Middleton correctly be so adjusted that the issuing streams split points out, lasted into the 1700s. Indeed, into drops WITHIN the copper tubes; this Seutter showed it as an island as late as is accomplished by means of screw clips on c.1744. It is noteworthy that many promi- the rubber connectors.These modifications nent post-deHerrera 17th-century cartogra- did produce tiny sparks but I did not go phers, such as the Blaeus, and Hondius, beyond the ‘lash up’ stage, hence the lack never deviated from showing California as of a photograph. The full mode of opera- a peninsula, either on their World maps or tion is as follows. As before consider T1 and on their Americas maps. C2 to have a small negative charge. Electrons are repelled from the left hand Although the reasons why the erroneous stream through the reservoir to the right cartography was seized upon by some is hand stream, which will thus be negatively unclear, it is important to emphasize that charged while the left stream is positive.As the peninsular model of California predates drops separate from the streams their the island model.Maps such as the Gastaldi charges are carried to C1 (+) and C2 (-), World of 1548;several Ruscelli worlds from which stand on insulating supports,increas- 1561 on, the Montanus World (1572), the ing the charges on the tubes until the Porcacchi World map (1590s) and both the potential difference between them is suffi- world and Americas maps of Ortelius (c. cient to cause a spark to pass. 1595-8),to mention just a few 16th century maps,all predate both the Globuspokal and More work may take place on this gadget, the deHerrera and all show California as a but not until several clocks are overhauled peninsula.The Globuspokal’s depiction of and the Van de Graaff machine and the Tesla California is not unique. coil are completed.Incidentally I should be Fig.2 Schematic diagram of the water drop- interested to correspond with anyone who Francis J. Manasek per generator by the author. has experience with these two instruments. Finally,Anchor Supplies, mentioned above Kelvin Water Dropper Generator the earth, each of which is connected to (usual disclaimer) are a wonderful source Always fascinated by high, and also very one pole of a spark gap. of vintage cameras,nineteenth-century div- low, voltages I decided some time ago to ing equipment,old chemical apparatus,sig- Having a redundant aluminium pot from a investigate the Kelvin water drop generator nal generators, power supply units, engi- derelict slow cooker,a good supply of brass (Fig.1).There are no photographs of this as neering tools, etc., etc. If you have an old tubing from old garden sprayers rescued it never progressed beyond the ‘lash up ‘ Gloucester Meteor in need of an engine from neighbours’skips,and a couple of cop- stage,and is not the ideal practical machine they probably have one (but not two!),but per calorimeters from Anchor Supplies of for producing a high,constant potential dif- you will have to go and find it as they pub- Nottingham (of which more later). I set to ference.However it is,perhaps,an interest- lish no lists, and if you ring them and ask work to build the assembly shown diagra- ing field for the amateur experimenter as it they never know what is in stock. I have matically (Fig. 2) below.The copper pipes requires even less in the way of workshop had from them,at knock -down prices,cop- were araldited into the reservoir and con- facilities and expertise than the Wimshurst per calorimeters, enormous reels of wire, nected via short rubber tubes to nozzles cut machine.The principles of its operation are and a splendid five-volt, forty-amp DC from disposable plastic pipettes. Nothing shown in Fig.2. power unit for running Induction coils and happened. The theory is as follows. small powerful motors. Their address is A reservoir of water is mounted on an insu- Consider T (tube) 1 and C (can) 2 to have a Anchor Supplies, The Cattle Market, lated support some two or three feet above small negative charge.This induces on the Nottingham. Telephone 0115 986 4902. the bench. Two outlets allow controlled stream of water from N (nozzle) 1 a posi- They also, I understand, have a branch at streams of water to issue from the reservoir tive charge which accumulates in C1. Peasehill Road, Steamhill Lane Ripley and these fall through two metallic tubes Conversely T2 and C1 are positively charged Derbyshire Tel. 01773 570139. electrically connected to two metallic con- relative to T1 and C2,and therefore induce tainers,insulated from each other and from a negative charge on the stream from N2, Chris E. Dyos

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 5 Scientific Relics: John Napier’s Bones

D.J. Bryden

John Napier’s Calculating, or ‘Speaking’ Rods In 1662 Glasgow-born almanac compiler James Corss lamented: ‘... in Arts and Sciences Mathematical, all exceed us.And had not that thrice Noble and Illustrious Lord, viz John Lord Nepper, Barron of Merchiston, &c. Preserved the honour of our Nation by his admirable and more then mortal invention of Logarithms, we should have been buried in oblivion, in the memories of Forraign Nations’.1 John Napier, the Laird of Merchiston (it was his son Archibald who was raised to the Scottish peerage in 1627),published tables of logarithms in 1614.This book took the learned world completely by surprise. It was immediately appreciated as providing an immensely powerful computational tool. With a single publication Napier took, and retains an honoured place in the front row of mathematical greats. Such was the state of mathematical education in the seven- teenth century, that many who knew Napier’s name associated it not with loga- rithms,but with the simple calculating rods that he devised largely as a help to begin- ners in arithmetic. Napier’s Latin account, Fig.1 John Napier’s posthumously published text describing his ‘speaking rods’, promptuary, Rabdologia, literally ‘speaking rods’, was and chequer board arithmetic, together with mid-seventeenth century London-made set of published in Edinburgh shortly after the rods in ivory.Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge. author’s death on 4th April 1617 (Fig. 1), and was rapidly taken note of. To protect copyright in England,the book was entered Scotland to the English throne on the death by the English. In 1667 William Leybourn, in the register of the Stationers’ Company of Elizabeth may have united Scotland and surveyor and writer of textbooks on a range on 22 May 1617.2 Copies were available for England under one monarch in 1603; but of practical mathematical subjects, indicat- sale at the Frankfurt Book Fair later that they remained separate kingdoms, with ed that it was ‘because they were first made year.3 A German account of the rods was independent legislatures, distinctive legal in ...Ivery’.13 (Fig.2). It is quite possible that printed in 1618.4 Italian, Dutch and conti- systems and very different established the first rods seen in London were made nental Latin printed editions of the whole churches.John Napier’s eldest son was one from ivory, indeed the very few surviving work soon followed.5 of many Scots who followed their monarch early sets that follow Napier’s original to London in a move of court and intelli- design are made in ivory. However, by In his preface, Napier noted that the calcu- gentsia that left a lasting intellectual vacu- Napier’s own account,it was silver,ivory or lating rods ‘are so approved of as to be um at home. In late autumn 1617 London box that could be used.14 Nathaniell Gosse, almost in common use, even carried to for- almanac writer Thomas Bretnor told a wide who Bretnor noted as making the rods in eign countries’.He had been warned that it audience of ‘an excellent Treatise of 1617, is recorded by others as working in was possible that they might ‘be published Rabdologia’ 9 but as early as midsummer wood,15 whilst the earliest English language in the name of another’.6 Perhaps some- that year other London mathematical prac- account of the rods, which appeared in one had reported the mention of ‘dix petits titioners were sufficiently familiar with the 1627, states ‘The matter these bones are bastons’ that could be used to simplify and calculating rods to call them by quite anoth- made of is box,ebonie,brasse,silver,&c’,16 speed multiplication, division and the er name:‘Napiers Bones’, using the term in with no explicit mention of ivory. Seth extraction of square and cube roots, in a a context which supposed their readers Partridge noted rods made in silver, brass, work by a Flemish military engineer called understood what they were.10 Bretnor had ivory or wood; he preferred boxwood as Jean Gallé.7 It took me several months to also announced that the calculating rods being much lighter and easier to handle locate a copy of his book; there is now a ‘commonly called Napier’s Bones,are made than metal, adding that sets could be pur- microfilm in the Science Museum Library, by Nathaniell Gosse in Hosier-lane’11. chased ‘ready made’ in wood from John from the copy in the Library of Liège Napier’s ‘speaking’rods had rapidly become Thompson, Anthony Thompson, or John University. It deals with elementary arith- an item of trade. Browne and in silver or brass from Elias metic and includes,en passant,a brief men- Allen. Partridge does not name a craftsman tion and slight description from which an Ivory ‘Bones’ who was manufacturing in ivory,at least for optimistic historian has claimed that Gallé A decade ago I outlined the various design off-the-shelf sales, but that was 30 years may have invented the rods independently changes to Napier’s original design, how after the term ‘Napier’s bones’ had been of Napier.8 17 they are used, and the context in which coined. When Napier noted that the invention had they were a genuine aid to computation.12 ‘even been carried to foreign countries’, Here I am concerned with Napier’s rods as ‘Bones’ As Relics: A Literary Trail that descriptor would have included relics, and in this context it is relevant to Whilst Leybourn connected ‘bones’to their England. The accession of James VI of expand on the naming of the rods as ‘bones’ manufacture in ivory, I wonder if the ter-

6 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) minology might relate to the fact that Napier’s account was published posthu- mously - and was a punning deference towards the recently departed inventor of logarithms. There is a hint of this in John Dansie’s 1627 acknowledgment that he was presenting ‘the use of a dead mans bones’.18 This phrase may have stimulated Joseph Moxon to make a very Protestant wordplay when he re-printed Dansie’s book in 1654,comparing Napier’s bones to those preserved as reliquaries and venerated by Catholics: Religious Romanists strongly maintain That by the Bones of their dead Saints are wrought Wonders;‘tis strange! Yet they the purses drain Of them that to their fond Belief are brought.

Bit we’l regret those fancies, let them go With their dead Trump’ry,here’s Lord Napier’s Bones Which Ile ensure you will more wonders show Than all those Reliques they count holy ones.

Canst thou but Add,then thou maist Multiply, And if Subtract,‘twill teach thee to Divide, And likewise to Gauge Vessels suddenly, And measure both Glass, Board and Land beside.19 Fig. 2 Slip-form Napierian rods in boxwood, with the second (1685) edition of William Leybourn’s 1667 account, which describes this design as being ‘according to the best and lat- A religious connotation was similarly est Contrivance’. The geometric decoration of the case is typical of London work, c. 1700. employed by the nineteenth century nov- Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge. elist Walter Scott,who inter-weaved fiction with fact in historical novels reeking with authenticity.In a tale set in the early Stuart ‘Bones’ As Relics: A Trail of Artifacts diately prior to entry 28. period, Scott introduced David Ramsey, a Dundee born clockmaker, working in This article was stimulated by Peter de Original Calculating Machine, known as “Napier’s Bones”. London. There was indeed a Scot called Clercq’s fascinating pieces on the historical treasures included in the Special Loan Lord Napier and Ettrick. David Ramsey, appointed clockmaker to One of the earliest attempts to construct a cal- James I in 1613, whose professional stand- Collection of Scientific Instruments exhib- ited at South Kensington in 187622,and has culating machine, made by John Napier, the ing and expertise was such that in 1631 his inventor of logarithms. His method of calcu- contemporaries elected him first Master of greatly benefited from his comments.Figure lating by rods was published in a volume the newly formed Clockmakers Company. 12 in the Illustrated London News engrav- (which is exhibited with the machine) at In Scott’s fictionalization Ramsey, exasper- ing of treasures from the exhibition is item Edinburgh in 1617.The apparatus was com- ated by the high-spirited and errant 28 in the catalogue: monly known as “Napier’s Bones.” behaviour of his two London apprentices “Napier’s Bones” or Rods. Made about 1700. swears ‘by the bones of the immortal Dring and Fage The lender of the second set of Napierian Napier’.20 At the time Scott was writing, Invented by Baron Napier, the originator of rods on cylinders was the diplomat Sir Napierian rods were fading from the math- logarithms, used for performing division and Francis Napier (1819-98), ninth Baron ematical scene and fast becoming a histor- multiplication. Napier, created Baron Ettrick when he ical curiosity.In this instance,by the 1820s, As Peter de Clercq notes,Messers Dring and retired in 1872. After the exhibition this except for the cognoscenti,Napier’s bones Fage donated this cylinder version of the item returned to the family. It re-entered had been raised to the status of a religious instrument to the Science Museum where it the public scene in 1914, in parallel with relic! In contrast, the seventeenth century remains - still without the minor restoration the formal activities celebrating the ter- satarist Samuel Butler described an required to replace the missing cover strips centenary of the publication of Napier’s log- astrologer as having in his pockets ‘a moon between each cylinder; in its current state arithms.A leading London antiquarian book- dial, with Napier’s bones, and several con- the advantages of ‘dial’ and ‘read-out’ seller,Bernard Quaritch, issued a catalogue sellation stones’. Butler expected that the achieved by arranging the multiplication of Napieriana, whose provenance was the Restoration reader was not just familiar tables on rotating cylinders is less than obvi- library of the Dowager Lady Napier and with the name as a scientific artefact, but ous. The third edition of the catalogue Ettrick, sold through Sothebys in 1912. knew that Napier’s bones permitted the Included was the box of rods on cylin- implies that the initial display of ‘Calculating 23 performance of complex calculations:21 Machines’ had been expanded by addition- ders. The attribution to Napier is based on a manuscript inscription in the lid of the For as Old Sinners have all poynts al loans,in particular two further examples of Napier’s Bones. Peter de Clerq noted instrument: ‘This Box was the identical o’th Compass in their Bones and Joynts property of the author of ye Logs. Napier Can by their Pangs and Aches find the young Lewis Evans (whose collections All turns and Changes of the wind; were later to enrich the Museum of the 1824’ (Fig.3). And better than by Napier’s Bones History of Science in Oxford) contributing The provenance of this instrument is cer- Feel in their own the Age of Moons; item 28a - though the dating ‘16th century’ tainly interesting. Presumably the inscrip- is clearly incorrect. My interest is item 28b, tion was written by William John Napier, inserted in the published catalogue imme- eighth Baron Napier, who succeed to the

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 7 with what he called ‘infinite’numbers,dec- imals with a single recurring digit, and engraved in a similar hand to that which appears on surviving rotulas.30 This too was included in the 1914 Quaritch cata- logue and also acquired by the Science Museum in 1925. A set of calculating rods ‘Supposed to have been made and used by the Laird of Merchiston himself’, was presented to the Royal Society during the 1837/8 session. That is all that is known of them, for they cannot now be found. So it is not possible to examine them and judge whether they might have been contemporary with Napier himself.31

Another Putative Napier Relic In his second Special Loan Collection paper, Peter de Clercq included a modern photograph of item 1773 in the exhibition, captioned using the catalogue heading. Astronomical Quadrant, said to have been the property of Napier of Merchiston, the inventor or Logarithms University of Edinburgh The telescopes attached are evidently of much more recent and clumsy workmanship than the instrument itself. They are reported to have Fig. 3 Napierian rods or cylinders, made to the design of Gaspar Schott, probably dating to been added by a ‘college bailie’ (in the days between 1659 and 1666 (published 1668). Scottish, c. 1700. Exhibited in 1876 at South when the university was under the government Kensington in the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Instruments as the ‘Original Calculating of the town council), who fancied that he was Machine, known as “Napier’s Bones”. …made by John Napier, the inventor of Logarithms’. thereby enhancing the value of his gift to the Purchased as such by the Science Museum in 1925.Picture no.MAT/B002563.Credit: Science university. Museum/Science & Society Picture Library. After 1876 this quadrant re-appeared as a Napier relic in the 1914 Napier Tercentenary Exhibition.32 The attribution title in 1823. He served in the navy Superficially the attribution seems attrac- to Napier dates to1833 and was made by throughout the Napoleonic wars, being tive.The item certainly came from the fam- James D. Forbes, Professor of Natural raised to post rank in the year that Waterloo ily of John Napier of Merchiston.The scales Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, brought lasting peace,but is not known as and tables are written in ink on paper - it in whose charge the instrument was kept. an expert on early mathematical instru- looks like an inventor’s prototype rather The story of the addition of telescopic ments. Perhaps because of the Great War, than a professionally made instrument. sights suggests that Forbes had sufficient the instrument remained with Quaritch However there survive at least three other knowledge of the history of astronomical until 1925 when the Science Museum sets of rods on cylinders with their scales instruments to know that telescopic sights bought it,the Director having to raise £200 and tables written in ink on paper. All are would not have been on an instrument he by writing round to potential benefactors.24 clearly the product of the same workshop, believed had been erected in the college in However, the design was soon recognised which rather undermines the prototype 1621.33 Members of the Scientific as being the same as that published in 1668 idea, even if one of the three also has a Instrument Society can make their own by the Jesuit encyclopaedist Gaspar Napier family provenance.28 It is my belief judgements as to the originality or other- Schott.25 The entry in the published cata- that this group of instruments were made wise of the telescopes vis a vis the instru- logue of the collection acknowledges that in Edinburgh, possibly by or for George ment as a whole if they join the spring 2003 the acquisition was made ‘through the gen- Brown, a Scottish episcopalian minister study visit to Scottish collections. My con- erous assistance of a number of persons who, having lost his living in the religious sidered judgement, published in 1990, is interested in the history of computing settlement that followed the Williamite rev- that the quadrant is London work and com- devices’. Relying on a century old attribu- olution of 1688, turned to the teaching of pares directly with that made by John tion, written two centuries after the event, mathematics. In 1698 Brown had been Rowley in 1707 for the observatory of the catalogue implies that Napier had antic- given a patent by the Privy Council of Trinity College, Cambridge. As to prove- ipated Schott.26 It certainly would have Scotland for a simple adding machine - nance, it may be the very quadrant pre- been embarrassing, given the effort made Rotula Arithmetica. Surving examples sented to the Philosophical Society of to raise the purchase money from private show that he presented examples to influ- Edinburgh in 1737 through Colin benefactors, to have written otherwise; ential people.29 Perhaps it was as a gift Maclaurin, Professor of Mathematics at the however that entry remained unchanged from George Brown around 1700 that the University of Edinburgh, who was then when the catalogue was re-printed almost set of rods on cylinders reached the Napier actively campaigning for the construction half a century later.27 Yet,the design is not family.Certainly,that is also the provenance of an observatory in the city.34 It is also pos- mentioned in Napier’s posthumously pub- of the set of brass strip-form Naperian rods, sible that it might be the instrument used lished book, though two other instrumen- a set that includes the only known exam- in 1747 by Maclaurin’s protégé the hydro- tal aids to arithmetical computation are ples of the supplementary rods designed by graphic surveyor Murdoch Mackenzie, to described in considerable detail. Brown (c.1700) for undertaking operations establish the base latitudes for his survey of

8 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) the Orkneys.35 It is certainly an important Notes and References 23. B. Quaritch, The Tercentenary of Logarithms, Books and Relics (London, 1914). instrument, but it has nothing at all to do 1. J. Corss, Uranoscopia: the contemplation of the with John Napier of Merchiston. In 1968 as heavens in a perpetual speculum, or a general 24. I am indebted to Ms Jane Wess, curator of prognostication for ever (Edinburgh,1662),sig.A3r. Mathematics at the Science Museum for this infor- a callow and doubtless tactless young cura- mation. tor I was unwise enough to openly doubt 2. E.Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the 25.G.Schott,Organum Mathematicum (Würzburg, the Napier connection immediately I was Company of Stationers of London, 3 (London, 1876), p.282. 1668),pp.133-6. It is clear from the text that Schott shown the hallowed relic. Professor was rather proud of his design - it presumably dates 3.W.R.MacDonald, The construction of the won- from after 1659, for it is not mentioned in his earli- Norman Feather firmly showed me the derful Canon of Logarithms ... and a catalogue of er discussion of Napier’s calculating rods - see G. door, and it was left to my curatorial suc- the various editions of Napier’s works (Edinburgh, Schott, Cursus Mathematicus (Würzburg, 1659), cessors to re-build relationships with the 1889), p.106. pp.50-51. University of Edinburgh! 4. J. Napier, (ed. & trans. D. Bayern and F.Keszkern), 26.D.Baxandall,Catalogue of the Collections in the Künstliche Rechenstäblein zu vortheilhafftiger und Science Museum, Mathematics 1, Calculating leichter Mannigfaltigung und Theilung (Strasbourg, Conclusion Machines and Instruments (London, 1926), p.10- 1618). As long as there are individuals and institu- 11. 5. Macdonald, op.cit. (note 3), pp.131-6, 152-3. tions that collect, the relics of great men 27.Idem; reprinted with a list of additions to the col- 6. J. Napier, Rabdologia, seu Numerationis per lection by J. Pugh (London, 1970). and women will be preserved.Some will be Vergulas (Edinburgh, 1617), sig.¶3r-v. The transla- 28.A: National Museums of Scotland,Inv No:NMAS genuine. Some may have innocently tion is from Mark Napier,De Arte Logistica Joannis 1935.604: NL68. The acquisition is recorded in acquired invalid attributions through igno- Naperi Merchistonii Baronis (Edinburgh, 1839), Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of p.xiii. See also John Napier, (trans.W.F.Richardson, rance. Some will be deceptions practiced Scotland, 70 (1935-6), p.149-50 which notes ‘The with intro. by R.E. Rider) Rabdology Charles on the credulous by the greedy. Those family tradition is that the relic was given to bailie Babbage Institute reprint series for the history of charged with the custody,display and expo- John Gibb of Stirling in or about 1732 by a Napier computing, 15, (Cambridge Mass., 1990). sition of Museum collections have a respon- who belonged to the Merchiston family, and that it 7.J.Gallé,Nouveau Epitome d’Arithmétique (Liége, has been handed down the Gibb family ever since’. sibility to ensure that the current genera- 1616), sig.A3r, pp.3-4, 10-11. tion reaps the benefit of modern scholar- I am indebted to Dr David Caldwell for drawing my 8.C.Le Paige,‘Notes pour servir à l’histoire des math- attention to the PSAS reference. This instrument is ship.Visitors should not be fobbed-off with ématiques dans l’ancien pays de Liége’, Bulletin de illustrated in M. Holbrook (ed R.G.W.Anderson and presentations that merely repeat old myths, l’Institut Archéologique Liégois, 21 (1888),pp.503- D.J. Bryden), Science Preserved: a directory of sci- even if it means the loss of immediate pub- 4. The story has been repeated by luminaries such entific instruments in collections in the United lic appeal,and trampling on cherished shib- as C. de Waard, ed., Correspondence du Kingdom and Ireland (London, 1992), p.61. boleths. In 1995 the Royal Society coura- P.M.Mersenne, 2 (Paris, 1945), p.73 and A.J.Turner, B: Newdigate Collection. Formerly on loan to the Early Scientific Instruments, Europe 1400-1800 Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. geously published a careful study of the (London, 1987), p.166. venerated relic of Isaac Newton, exhibited C: Traquair House – illustrated in P.Maxwell Stuart, 9.T. Bretnor, A new almanacke and prognostica- in their rooms since 1766 as ‘The first Traquair House Inverleithen, Peebleshire,…a his- tion for ... 1618 (London, [1617], sig.C8r.Annual torical survey (Norwich, 1981), p. [22]. reflecting telescope invented by Sir Isaac almanacs were invariably published in the last 29.D.J.Bryden,George Brown,author of the Rotula, Newton and made with his own hands’, months of the previous year. Annals of Science, 28 (1972), 1-27. exhibited as such at the Special Loan 10. Richard Harris ‘More usefull a device then 30. Idem, pp.7-8, 17-18; G. Brown, A compendious Nepairs bones, for what he did at twice, this doth Exhibition in 1876,and a sufficiently impor- but a compleat system of decimal arithmetick at once’ and John Johnson ‘For Nepairs worthy tant item to be included in the Illustrated (Edinburgh,1701),passim.Science Museum,Inv.No. Rods, of some cal’d bones, It setteth downe the London News woodcut that Peter de 1925.800. numbers by infusion’ in W.Pratt, The Arithmetical Clercq reproduced in this Bulletin. That Jewell (London, 1617), sigs.A7r,A8r, where stanzas 31.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, study concludes: by Harris and Johnson compare Pratt’s new instru- 128 (1838), addendum,‘Presents received by the ment favourably to Napier’s. Pratt’s book was regis- Royal Society’, p. 4.The set of calculating rods were not among the many instruments passed on loan to it is perfectly feasible that the whole or some sub- tered at the Stationers’ Company on 21 June 1617 - the Science Museum in the twentieth century. stantial parts of the third or Newton-Wickins see Arber, op.cit. (note 3), p.282b. telescope of 1671-72 survived some 65 years 11. Bretnor, op.cit. (note 2), sig.C8v. 32. E.M. Horsburgh, ed., Napier Tercentenary Celebration: Handbook of the Exhibition of Napier after 1694.There is evidence of substantial recon- 12.D.J.Bryden,Napier Bones: a history and instruc- relics, and of books, instruments and devices for struction of the instrument in the early eigh- tion manual (London, 1992). facilitating calculation (Edinburgh, 1914), p.2. teenth century,perhaps by Thomas Heath,to con- 13.W.Leybourn, The art of Numbering by speak- 33.D.J.Bryden,‘Britain’s First Observatory?’, Journal solidate and preserve a damaged but revered ing-rods, vulgarly termed Nepiers Bones (London of the History of Astronomy, 3 (1972), p.205. icon of Newton’s work. The extent of this recon- 1667), p.2. 34. D.J. Bryden,‘The Edinburgh Observatory 1736- struction is not clear, but it is suggested that at 14. Napier, op.cit.(note 6), p.1. least the tube, the re-figured main and flat mir- 1811; a story of failure’, Annals of Science, 47 15. D.J. Bryden, ‘Evidence from Advertising for (1990), p.447. rors and parts of the stand may be original.The Mathematical Instrument Making in London, 1556- 35. M. Mackenzie, Orcades: or a geographic and similarity between the completed instrument 1714’, Annals of Science, 49 (1992), pp.308-9. and the contemporary drawing of the better- hydrographic survey of the Orkney and Lewis 16. J. Dansie, A Mathematicall Manuel: wherin is Islands (London, 1750), p.3. On Maclaurin’s semi- known 1671 telescope may indicate that the handled Arithmeticke (London, 1627), p.1. reconstruction has been in part informed by this nal role and relationship to Mackenzie see D.C.F. 17.S.Partridge,Rabdologia: or the art of numbering Smith,‘The Progress of the Orcades Survey,with bio- illustration.36 by rods (London, 1648), sig.A2v,pp.2-3. graphical notes on Murdoch Mackenzie senior 18. Dansie, op.cit. (note 16), sig.A3v. (1712-1797)’,Annals of Science, 44 (1987),pp.277- The historian of material culture must not 288. be blinded by the aura of the relic, and fail 19. Idem (2nd edition, London, 1654).The poem is reprinted in H. Davis and H. Carter, eds, Joseph 36.A.R.Hall and A.D.C.Simpson, An Account of the to examine it as an artifact. Attribution Moxon, Mechanick Exercises on the whole art of Royal Society’s Newton Telescope (London, 1995), claims should be evaluated with as much printing (Oxford, 1958), p.xxv. p.16. Over a decade earlier Dr Allen Simpson had care as any other historical evidence. John 20. W. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel (Edinburgh, seriously questioned the status of the relic, see Napier was considered a great man in his 1822), p.29. A.D.C. Simpson, ‘Newton’s Telescope and the own lifetime,and retains that status among Cataloguing of the Royal Society’s Repository’,Notes 21. S. Butler, Hudibras (London, 1663 [pt 1], -1678 and Records of the Royal Society of London, 38 historians of mathematics. That various [pt 3]).The quotations are from Part 1, canto III, (1984), pp.187-214. putative items of Napieriana surfaced in the p.258,and Part 3,canto II,p.48,in the London 1819 nineteenth century reflects an awakening edition edited by Z. Gray. antiquarian interest in his reputation. No 22. P. de Clercq, ‘The Special Loan Collection of Author’s address: matter how spurious the attributions, they Scientific Apparatus, South Kensington, 1876, parts 11 Pensham Hill 1 & 2:The Historical Apparatus’, Bull. SIS, No. 72 remain of relevance in that context. Pershore, WR10 3HA (2002), pp.11-19 and 73 (2002), pp.8-16. e-mail: djbryden@fish.co.uk

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 9 The Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, South Kensington, 1876 Part 4 Photographs and Copies Peter de Clercq

Introduction In previous articles1,we have seen that hun- dreds of historical instruments were sent to South Kensington in 1876 by private and institutional owners across the United Kingdom and the Continent to be part of the Special Loan Collection. Some were so fragile that one wonders whether the own- ers did well to allow such relics to travel; a case in point are the 17th-century ther- mometers lent by the Accademia del Cimento in Florence. James Prescott Joule, one of the many British men of science invited to act on the Organizing Committee (and incidentally, one of the few who declined), suggested that delicate instru- ments should be replaced by photographs.2 Indeed, concern for their safety was given as a reason for not lending certain pieces. The Astronomer Royal, Sir George Biddel Airy, wrote that some instruments from Greenwich Observatory, ‘being fixtures, cannot be moved without imminent dan- ger’ and suggested substitutes.3 And things did go wrong, occasionally,as the Director of Leiden Observatory found out. Some of the instruments he had lent to South Kensington were returned ‘in a wretched condition’, and he had to look for funds to repair the damage.4 If not all objects, then, were available for the Special Loan Collection, some owners tried to compen- sate for this by contributing photographs of the instruments instead, and in a few cases they even sent copies.These are listed in the catalogue, and I shall discuss some examples. For their part, the organizers of the Special Loan Collection had photographs and copies made to document important Fig.1 Galileo-related loans from Florence.Below the bust, one discerns his two telescopes, his objects before these had to be returned telescope objective in ivory frame, the proportional (military) compass and air-thermometer, after the exhibition.Those photographs and both of his invention, and his microscope (‘occhialino’).Science Museum Pictorial Collection copies that survive, - some on display in SME 109.Picture no.PER/C100128.Credit: Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library. museum galleries,but most in storage - are not held in high esteem, but they are inter- esting as mementos of the 1876 exhibition. The main purpose of this fourth and final article in the series is to discuss these pho- in the exhibition. Italy was by far the most care, dating from the mid-18th century.10 tographs and objects and trace their present important contributor in this respect.The Glimpses outside Europe were provided by whereabouts. universities of Rome, Padua, Pavia, Pisa and photographs of the old astronomical circles Naples, as well as the Observatory of at Delhi, contributed by Mrs. Norman Copies and Photographs Sent by Palermo sent hundreds of photographs, Lockyer,spouse of one of the organizers of Owners showing both modern and historical the exhibition,11 and by photographs of objects,and these are described in detail in two armillary spheres and a celestial globe Close study of the catalogue reveals a few the catalogue.7 Florence,which contributed at Peking Observatory.12 A number of these instances of copies sent to the Loan dozens of original treasures, additionally photographs remained in South Kensington Collection instead of the originals.These sent photographs of the Tribune of Galileo, and were given inventory numbers.Two are were of ancient,archaeological objects held where the instruments could be seen as it in the Pictorial Collection (see the last two in museums in Turin5 and Madrid; the plas- were ‘in situ’.8 The apparatus used by anoth- items in the checklist), and with persever- ter casts sent by the latter remained behind er Italian hero,Alessandro Volta, was repre- ance others can probably also be traced.13 to become part of the collection of the sented exclusively through photographs, South Kensington Museum.6 contributed by the Liceo Volta in Como and Photographs of Exhibits The catalogue also lists photographs of the Royal Lombardian Institution of Science A few hundred instruments on display were apparatus, which gave visitors a glimpse of and Letters.9 The Physical Institute in the photographed by the School of Military the instrumental riches,some as far away as Bernoullianum in Basel, Switzerland, sent Engineering in Chatham,Kent.14 Some sixty India and China,that were not represented three photos of historical instruments in its of these photographs survive,of which four

10 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Fig. 2 Room L, the gallery of Geography & Meteorology in the Special Loan Collection, 1876.The Galileo-material can just be seen in a case on the right. Science Museum Pictorial Collection SME 170. Picture No. ENY/C00011. Credit: Science Museum/ Science & Fig. 3 von Guericke’s air-pump with Magdeburg hemispheres, lent by Society Picture Library. the Polytechnic School, Brunswick.One of the exhibits of which a series of copies was made in 1876, now preserved in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle. Science Museum Pictorial Collection SME 12. Picture no.PHY/B005728B.Credit: Science Museum/Science & Society Picture are reproduced in this article and one on Library. the cover. These heliotypes, signed SME, often preserved in multiple copies (some Kingdom.Among the photographs showing tographed by the School of Military in reverse), are in the Science Museum historical apparatus,the three recording the Engineering, I single out the interesting Pictorial Collection.A checklist, compiled large loan from Florence15 are particularly range of early air-pumps. Some were lent by the curator,Wendy Sheridan, is printed striking ‘group portraits’.One is an arrange- from Germany and Holland: one of von here.They are stored in Blythe House near ment of Galileo-related instruments, sur- Guericke’s travel-pumps with Magdeburg Olympia, where they can be viewed by mounted by a bust of the great man himself hemispheres, lent from Brunswick (Fig. 3), appointment; prints can be ordered (Fig. 1) That these objects were not merely and two pumps built in the Musschenbroek through the Science & Society Picture grouped in this manner for the photograph, workshop, an early single-barrelled one Library. but were displayed in this fanciful arrange- from Cassel (1686) and ’s Gravesande’s own ment,is evident from an interior view of the double-barrelled pump from Leiden (1722). That hundreds of objects were pho- gallery (Fig. 2).An even more impressive From London came Hauksbee’s pump from tographed in this action is evident from the group photo shows no fewer than twenty- the Royal Society,built in the early 18th cen- numbering of the surviving pictures,which two items from Florence (Cover tury but erroneously catalogued as ‘(1662) runs to 310; and some photographs show Illustration).The third in the Florence series, by Boyle’, and George Adams’s double-bar- more than one item. It is not known how SME 123 (not reproduced here),shows the relled pump (1761) from King’s College, the objects were selected for this pictorial delicate seventeenth-century thermometers part of the King George III Collection. It is documentation.The surviving heliotypes from the Accademia del Cimento. gratifying to note that these magnificent air- show both antique and contemporary appa- pumps all survive to this day. ratus from within and outside the United Among the other historical exhibits pho-

SCIENCE MUSEUM PICTORIAL COLLECTION

PHOTOGRAPHS OF SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS IN THE SPECIAL LOAN EXHIBITION 1876 a checklist of holdings Heliotype photographs of scientific apparatus and other objects from the Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum,1877 Third Edition / [School of Military Engineering?],nd.[from negatives made 1876]. c. 60,on paper;each 31x23cm or smaller.Selection,each numbered between 5 and 310.The negative number and ‘SME’also appear in most of the images. Some are pink toned, most are brown or copy quality. Source: School of Military Engineering (Chatham, Kent) Sets available: Inventory 1992-32 [stored individually in secol wallets for study] Inventory 1985-403 [stored together in wallet] Non-inventoried set A [stored together in folder] Non-inventoried set B [stored together in folder]

Reference: Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum 3rd edn 1877

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 11 Image Brief Description 1877 SME No. Catalogue No. 5 Davy’s Balance 2400 10 Three Violins 12* Air Pump & Magdeburg Hemispheres 606-608 (von Guericke’s originals from Brunswick) 18 Optical Bench 915 34 Ancient Striking Clock (Dover Castle) 491 36 Model of Great Melbourne Reflector 1791 39 Cooke & Wheatstones Earliest Needle Instrument 1508 41 Cooke & Wheatstones Double Needle Telegraph 1681 43 Double Current Sounder Translator 1566 48 The Kew Photo-heliograph 1852 49 The Greatest Natural Magnet (Teyler Foundation) 1106 50 Siderostat 1851c 53 Ramsden’s Great Theodolite16 3036? 54 Gramme’s Machine for electric light 1327 56 Gramme’s Machine for demonstration 1329 57 Gramme’s Machine, high power electric light 1328 59 Tisley’s Compound Pendulum 539c 60 Gambley’s Declination Compass 1227 62 Photo-heliograph 1853 65 Cubic Feet Measuring Standard 197 66 Transit of Venus Equipment 1853 68 Indian Vina 757A 70 App.for Projecting Rectangular Vibration 732 89* Five Wire Models of Lissajous’s Figures 718 [with] Apparatus for showing Vibrations 782 97 Transit of Venus Equatorial 1853 98 Transit of Venus.Altazimuth 1853 100 Thomson’s Tide Predicting Machine 40 101 Ramsden’s Small Theodolite 2945 103/104* Gravimeters invented by JW Brown 421D 105 Model Ballistic Pendulum 417 106 Siderostat by Colonel Campbell 2853 107 Siderostat by Foucault 1851D 108 Orrery by Graham17 1882B 109* Bust of Galileo & Instruments various 110* Instruments of the Accademia del Cimento 1811-1829 111 Newton’s Telescope (Royal Society) 1831E 116 ‘s Gravesande’s Air Pump (Leiden University) 2053 117 Air-pump with two barrels (Royal Society) 587 118** Air-pump (King George III) (King’s College) 614 121 Newcomen’s Steam Engine (King’s College) 1943 122 Quadrant of Tycho Brahe (Cassel, Royal Museum) 1775 123* Instruments of Accademia del Cimento 126 Heliostat by Foucault 1851D 127 Heliostat RCS (Ireland) 898 154 Telegraphic Apparatus 157 Six-inch Theodolite,with 2 telescopes 3401 162/163* Dent’s Glass Spring Chronometer 447A 166 Tide Integrating Machine 167* Attraction Meter 421A [with] Bathometer 421B 168 “M”Room (Geography & Geology) 170 “L”Room (Geography & Meteorology) 172 Siberian Lodestone (Faraday’s, King’s College) 1733A 189 Early Hygrometer (King’s College) 2871 261 Syren Fog Signal 2185 273 Gyrometric Governor 1998A 277** Fixed Harbour, exterior lighthouse view 279** Fixed Harbour (Stevenson’s fixed azimuthal condensing light) 2199 299* Two Microscopes by Marshall18 3527, 3529e 310** Herschel’s Prismatic Apparatus19 825

Notes * one sheet depicts two or more items: 12, 89, 103/104, 109, 110, 123, 162/163, 167, 29 ** set Inv.1985-403 has two copies each of 118, 277, 279, 310 12 a reverse/mirror image of Inv.1876-586 116 a reverse/mirror image of Inv.1876-583 117 a version of Inv.1876-584 118 a reverse/mirror image of Inv.1876-585

12 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Other Photos Held

mainly albumen adhered to card Inventory 1876-582 Air Pump with Magdeburg hemispheres20 (Cat.no. 603, p. 160) Inventory 1876-583 reverse of helio 116 Inventory 1876-584 reverse of helio 117 Inventory 1876-585 reverse of helio 118 Inventory 1876-586 reverse of helio 12 Inventory 1876-919 Deleuil Air Pump from Padua (Cat. p.1080, no. 11) Inventory 1876-946 Fresnel lens used by Melloni from Naples (Cat. p. 1083, no. 4568) Curatorial Note All except Inv.1876-919 and 1876-946 were record photographs of the day pro- duced in multiples. It is unknown how many other photographs in the series were taken - above 310?- or where any of the other numbered items now are. In 1956, owing to limitations of space and consequent reorganization of the collec- tions, sets inventoried as 1876-898 and 1876-899 were among several in a long list of minor items it was decided to withdraw from exhibition.A formal Board of Survey Fig. 4 Altazimuth quadrant, dated c. 1560, from Cassel. Of this instrument too copies were deaccessioned surplus sets. One set was made in 1876 and these too are preserved in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle. Science issued to Birmingham Museum & Art Museum Pictorial Collection SME 122. Picture no. PER/C100127. Credit: Science Gallery. Sets were issued to various other Museum/Science & Society Picture Library. Science Museum staff. Papers denoting how many and who are no longer avail- applied arts for comparative study on a and art schools.25 able. large scale. Later generations came to hold these in low esteem and many were How much museums at that time valued It is not possible to determine if the sets copies, is evident from a suggestion by inventoried as 1985-403 and 1992-32 or destroyed, but even so large numbers are still found in museums today.An impressive Henri-Édouard Tresca, assistant-director of our other sets were the 1876 inventoried the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, the sets or among the remaindered ones, but example are the gigantic copies of archi- tectural sculptures from Italy, Spain and main French contributor of historical instru- it does not greatly matter.The remaining ments to the Special Loan Collection. He sets after 1956 allocations were destroyed. Northern Europe, displayed in the Architectural Courts or Cast Courts in the said that, if this event were to lead to the ws 2/02 Victoria and Albert Museum.23 While plas- creation of a permanent museum for sci- entific apparatus,he would gladly consider data on historical instruments, in italics ter casts predominate in these two enor- mous rooms, there are also some metal an exchange of copies of historical instru- in the text or in endnotes, added by the ments between Paris and London.26 It was author copies, made by electroforming or elec- trotyping.24 Electrotype copies also occu- not until three decades later that a separate Science Museum emerged from the South Copies of Exhibits py a prominent place in the newly re- arranged Silver Gallery in that museum. In Kensington Museum, and the intended In this Bulletin, Stuart Talbot has discussed 1857, the South Kensington Museum, as it French-English exchange of copies never 21 electrotype copies of instruments. was then named, had made an agreement came about; but it is significant that it was Electrotyping is a reproduction technique, with Elkington & Co.to reproduce historic being considered. developed by the firm Elkington & Co. in silver using their new technique of elec- the 1840s,to make highly detailed and pre- It is typical for the cultural climate of the trotyping. For decades, it was accepted 1870s, then, that the Science and Art cise copies of metal objects in metal, an practice for the museum to acquire copies 22 Department decided to have copies made equivalent of the plaster cast. In this sec- of fine pieces that it could not acquire as tion, I shall discuss the copies that were of a number of antique instruments in the original, in order to ‘fully illustrate human Special Loan Collection as three-dimen- made in 1876 of instruments lent to the taste and ingenuity’.By the 1920s,the muse- Special Loan Collection. To see these in sional records to be preserved,studied and um held over a thousand electrotypes,some exhibited in public collections in Britain. proper perspective, it should be remem- of which toured the country as part of the bered that the Victorians produced three- museum’s educational programmes and From a manuscript list of ‘Reproductions of dimensional copies of masterpieces of were sold to the public and to museums Scientific Objects’made at that occasion27,

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 13 we learn that twelve items,all lent from the inventory number 1876-1032.36 Stuart cat. no. 1760, p. 393 / Three or four copies Continent, were reproduced.These were Talbot claimed that the inventory number made by Elkington, three located: SM 1877-8, five astrolabes and quadrants from Madrid 1876-1032 on the electrotype displayed in BM 1893,6-15.2 (transferred in 1992 to the and Cassel; what was held to be the oldest the Science Museum ‘confirms that the Department of Oriental Antiquities), NMS microscope from the Netherlands, reput- astrolabe was copied for the Special Loan T.1931.269. 37 edly dated 1590; three devices for physics Collection’, but it does not occur in the 5. Brass Tychonian quadrant on iron experiments, two from Germany (a von manuscript list of ‘Reproductions of stand, lent by the Royal Museum, Cassel Guericke air-pump and a Nollet-type Scientific Objects’ of 1876.That is under- pyrometer), one from Leiden (’s standable: the copies ordered to be made cat. no. 1775, p.398 / Three or four copies Gravesande’s heliostat); from Paris in 1876 were of objects that would return made by Elkington, three located: SM 1877-9 Lavoisier’s calorimeter and Ampère’s appa- to their owners.As a new acquisition, the (Fig. 4), NMS T.1931.267,NEWC SE 1903. ratus; and from St. Petersburg an early tele- mariner’s astrolabe was not in that catego- 6. Janssen’s Compound Microscope, graph. British contributions that were ry, and the electrotypes now in existence from Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg, The copied were a large set of volume measures will have been made only later. It is possi- Netherlands and weights,mainly from the Tudor period. ble that the copy in the Science Museum Various firms were involved in supplying was only made in 1954, when the original cat. no. 3510, p. 900 / Three copies made: two these reproductions.The British Telegraph was transferred to the National Maritime by R & J Beck,one by Elkington.Two located: Manufactory made copies of the electrical Museum, and that the old inventory num- SM 1877-616, SM 1877-534 devices. The old compound microscope ber was then given to the replacement 7. Otto von Guericke’s air-pump with from the Netherlands, made in wood, tin- copy.Museum inventory numbers can indi- Magdeburg hemispheres, lent by the plate and glass, was copied by the London cate the year an object was acquired.But as Polytechnic School, Brunswick, Germany microscope manufacturers Smith and as this copy of a mariner’s astrolabe shows, Beck.28 Another Dutch instrument, profes- they can also, occasionally, wrong-foot a cat. no. 606+607, pp. 158-9 / Three or four sor ’s Gravesande’s heliostat from Leiden, researcher! copies made by Elkington, three located: SM was copied by the clockmakers Dent & 1877-2+3, NMS T.1931.268 , NEWC TWCMS: Co.,29 not surprising as this instrument Checklist of Copies Made in 1876/77 of J4912 (formerly SE 109) includes a clockwork. The Lavoisier Historical Instruments Lent to the 8. Pyrometer by Gallonde, Paris, lent by calorimeter was copied by a somewhat Special Loan Collection at South Schloss Fürstenstein, Germany40 non-descript ‘Works Department’. But the Kensington cat. no. 1076, p. 257 / Three or four copies great majority of copies were made by SM= Science Museum, London Elkington, the electrotype specialists, and made by Elkington, two located: SM 1877-1, included the astrolabes and quadrants, BM = British Museum, London NEWC TWCMS:J10524 (formerly SE 1351) whose engraved surfaces were ideal for the NMS = National Museums of Scotland, 9. ’s Gravesande’s heliostat, lent by ‘casting’ process. But they also supplied Edinburgh Leiden University copies of objects (weights and volume mea- sures,a pyrometer,an air-pump and a micro- NEWC = Tyne and Wear Museums, cat. no. 897, p. 246 / Copy made by Dent & scope) which would seem less suitable for Discovery Museum (formerly Municipal Co., location SM 1878-134 Museum of Science and Industry), that particular reproduction technique,and 10. Lavoisier’s original calorimeter, lent Newcastle upon Tyne perhaps other techniques were used for by the CNAM, Paris these. IC = International Checklist of Astrolabes38 cat. no. 1064, p. 268 / Copy made by the Elkington supplied three or, as my source 1. Arabian (Islamic) horary quadrant by ‘Works Department’, location SM 1887-4 suggests,even four,of each of these copies, Ahmed Ibn Abd el Rahman, lent by the 11. General table by Ampère, with appa- allowing them to be used elsewhere.30 Archaeological Museum, Madrid Indeed, while one copy remained in the ratus used in the discovery of the action Science Museum to this day,31others found cat. no. 1775a, p. 397 / Three or four copies of currents, lent by the College of France, their way into other museums.In 1893,four made by Elkington, three located: SM 1877-5, Paris BM 1893,6-15.3 (MME reserve collection), electrotypes were donated by the cat. no. 1398a, p. 327 / Copy made by the NMS T.1931.272. ‘Committee of Council of Education’to the British Telegraph Manufactory. Location: SM British Museum, where two years later Sir 2. Astrolabe by Ibrahim Ibn Said of 1877-342, commutator 1877-532, galvanome- A.W.Franks selected them for an exhibition Toledo, dated 459 = AD 1066-67, lent by ter 1877-533. arranged for an international audience of the Archaeological Museum, Madrid [IC 12. Receiver and alarm call of Baron P.L. geographers.32 Some forty years later, the 117] Science Museum transferred six copies to Schilling’s electric telegraph of 1830, lent by the Physcial Science Cabinet of the the National Museums of Scotland,its sister cat. no. 1757c, p. 392 / Three or four copies Imperial Academy of Sciences, St in the north33, and others to the Museum made by Elkington, three located: SM 1877-6, Petersburg. of Science and Industry in Newcastle upon BM 1893,6-15.1 (transferred in 1992 to the Department of Oriental Antiquities), NMS Tyne, presumably around 1934, when the cat. no. 1680a, p. 347 / Copy made by the T.1931.271. museum was opened to the public.34 British Telegraph Manufactory. Location: SM 3. Astrolabe by Walter Arsenius, dated 1877-341. Some readers may wonder why the so- 1566, reputedly39 made for King Philip 13. Weights and measures, lent by the called Greenwich Valencia mariner’s astro- II of Spain, lent by the Archaeological City of Winchester and the Board of labe does not figure here, considering that Museum, Madrid [IC 231] more than a dozen electrotype copies of Trade cat. no. 1757a, p. 392 / Three or four copies this instrument are known in museums and These cover twenty-four entries in the 35 made by Elkington, three located: SM 1877-7 private collections around the world. The manuscript list of reproductions.Identification (=IC 3015), BM 1893,6-15.4 (in MME reserve astrolabe was found off the Irish coast in in the catalogue requires further research,but collection), NMS T.1931.270. 1845, and was lent to the Special Loan will include nos 201-209, pp. 47-8.Three or Collection by its private owner. He then 4. Planispheric Astrolabe by Ibrahim Ibn four sets made by Elkington,location requires decided to deposit it in the South Said of Valencia, dated = AD 1085, lent by further research, but will include NEWC for- Kensington Museum, where it was given the Royal Museum, Cassel [IC 121] merly SE 1904 to 1927, now re-numbered.

14 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Acknowledgments some to try to access these. I am grateful to Kevin 29.Z 64/6,p.276:From Dent & Co.([illegible] 5737) Johnson for helping me with this search. s’Gravesande’s Heliostat No.897 in Catalogue £27. Wendy Sheridan,curator of the pictorial col- lection at the Science Museum, compiled 14.Science Museum Z-archive 180/2,13th October 30. Z 64/6, p. 277: Three sets of Reproductions, 1876,no.9598:Capt.Abney “As to the Photographic together with Type pieces, were purchased from the checklist of photos, printed here, and Prints to be executed by the School of Military Elkington & Co.and paid for out of Reproductions Emily Lewis at the Science & Society Engineering”.Unfortunately,the letters referred to in Vote (C.4).Two sets are in Circulation; one in Educ. Picture Library helped to find the images this ledger do not survive, but the brief indications Division.Type pieces are deposited in Art Museum. reproduced in this article. For supplying of their contents can be informative. Below this in a later hand: The type pieces were information on copies in their institutions, 15. Except for the bust, all objects are listed in the transferred from V+A M. Store to Sci. Mus. Store I thank Silke Ackermann (British Museum), catalogue. For a list of the Florentine contributions, 5.2.15 S.N.2291 See details in Inventory E2840-’78 Alison Morrison-Low (National Museums of shown in SME 109, 110 and 123, see Part 2 (SIS + RP 14 / 2421 (As some of the handwriting is Scotland),Kevin Johnson (Science Museum) Bulletin, No. 73), pp. 11-12. unclear, this transcription may contain errors). and John Clayson (Tyne and Wear Museums, 16. I cannot locate no. 3036 in the catalogue and 31. See checklist below for details. The Science Discovery Museum). assume this is the 36-inch theodolite made by Museum acquisitions database for 1876 and 1877 Ramsden, first used in 1792, lent by the Ordnance was kindly put at my disposal by Kevin Johnson. Survey (cat.no. 2944, p. 726) 32.Report of the Sixth International Geographical Notes and Records 17.This is the orrery lent by The Earl of Cork, not Congress, held in London, 1895 (London, 1896), 1. Peter de Clercq,‘The Special Loan Collection of further specified in the catalogue (p.428).The photo introduction, and the Catalogue of the Exhibition. Scientific Apparatus,South Kensington,1876.Part 1: shows a plate attached to the object which reads Revised added as appendix, with a total of 34 The ‘Historical Treasures’ in the Illustrated London ‘Orrery invented by Graham 1740. Improved by Oriental and 224 European instruments News; Part 2:‘The Historical Instruments’; Part 3: Rowley and presented by him to John Earl of (‘Instruments in the British Museum. List of ‘Contemporary Publications’, Bulletin of the Orrery after whom it was named at the suggestion Astrolabes, Quadrants, Sundials and other Scientific Instrument Society, No.72 (March 2002), of Richard Stoke’. Scientific Instruments’, pp. 182-190). The elec- trotypes are entries 2 (= my checklist no.2),4 (idem pp. 11-19; No. 73 (June 2002), pp. 8-16; No. 74 18. Marshall microscopes were lent by Schloss no. 4), 21 (idem no. 1) and 44 (idem no. 3). (September 2002), pp. 16-21. Fürstenstein,Germany (cat.no.3527,p.900) and the 2.Science Museum Z-archive 180/I Letterbook,23rd Royal Microscopical Society,London (cat.no.3529e, 33. See checklist for details. and 25th February 1876. p. 902). 34. See checklist for details.They are listed, with 3. Ibid. 6th March 1876. 19. Lent by Prof A.S. Herschel, Newcastle (cat.no. inventory numbers since altered, in Municipal Museum of Science and Industry. Catalogue (City 4. H.G. van de Sande Bakhuysen, Verslag van den 825, p. 207). and County of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1950), pp. 86- Staat der Sterrenwacht te Leiden[...], July 1876 - 20.Musschenbroek air-pump,dated 1686,lent by the 89. Juni 1877 (Amsterdam, 1877), pp. 12-13: ‘In het Royal Museum, Cassel. 35.A.Stimson,The Mariner’s Astrolabe.A Survey of begin van het jaar heb ik de instrumenten,welke in 21. Stuart Talbot,‘Astrolabes and Electrotypes: An Known Surviving Sea Astrolabes (Utrecht: H&S 1876 naar de tentoonstelling van South-Kensington Enquiry’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument 1988), pp. 45-46 and 64-65. waren gezonden, terug ontvangen, doch enkele in Society, No. 46 (1995), pp. 18-22. 37. Cat.no. 1754a, p. 391,‘Ancient Astrolabe, sup- een deerlijk gehavenden toestand. Een volgend jaar 22.For further details on this remarkable technique, posed to have belonged to the Spanish Armada’,con- hoop ik de noodige gelden te kunnen vinden om see Peter de Clercq, ‘Study Afternoon on tributed by Robert J. Lecky, FRAS. The Science een en ander in orde te doen brengen’. Electroforming in the British Museum:29th October Museum database for 1876 has as no. 1032 Early 5.Mrs.Chisholm,Surrey,sent a ‘Model of an Ancient 1999’,ibid. No.64 (2000),pp.30-31.A repeat of this Mariners astrolabe supposed to have belonged to Egyptian Standard Cubit [...], found in the ruins study afternoon is planned for 26th November 2003. of Memphis’; this was a copy of the original in the the Spanish Armada, source R.J. Lecky. It was trans- 23. Malcolm Baker, The Cast Courts (5-page V & A ferred to Greenwich in 1954. Royal Museum at Turin (cat. no. 223a, p. 50). Brochure, 1982). 37.Talbot (note 21),p.21,where he also writes that 6.The Archaeological Museum in Madrid sent plaster 24.I located twelve electrocopies in the Cast Courts, casts of a collection of Roman liquid measures, dis- the astrolabe ‘was given to the South Kensington dated between 1861 and 1884.These include the Museum probably in the late 1860s’. covered in the province of Malaga (cat. no. 319a, p. doors of churches in Florence, Pisa,Augsburg and 38. D.J. Price, ‘An International Checklist of 78), and of a sundial, an astronomical symbol in the Hildesheim which are up to seven meters in height, Astrolabes’,Archives Internationales d’Histoire des form of a Phoenix and a fragment of the Zodiac so these are assemblies of electrocopies of smaller Sciences, 34 (1955),pp.243-63 and 363-81.Price fol- (Aries),all found at Yecla in the province of Alicante parts.To judge by name plates on the objects and/or lowed the numbering given in Robert T. Gunther, (cat.nos 1849a,p.419,and 1924e and f,p.443).The museum labels, the main supplier of these electro- The Astrolabes of the World (London, 1932, 2 vols., respective South Kensington inventory numbers of copies were Franchi & Son in Florence.I found one repr.1976).Price’s list was updated and extended as the casts are 1876-375, 322, 323 and 324; I did not copy by Elkington & Co.:‘Boy Blowing a Trumpet’, Sharon L.Gibbs.Janice A.Henderson,Derek de Solla investigate whether they still exist. a bronze assigned to Pietro Tacca in the Hermitage, Price,A Computerized Checklist of Astrolabes (Yale 7. Catalogue nos 4556 and 4562 to 4570, pp. 1073- copy inv.no.1884-82. University,1973). 1084. 25. The information on the South Kensington 39.This is disputed in the discussion of this astro- 8. Cat. p. 437 (no number). Museum/V&A and its policy towards copies is taken labe in Koenraad van Cleempoel & others, 9. Cat. no. 4566, p. 381, and no. 1745, p. 386. from labels in the Silver Gallery. Instrumentos Cientificos del Siglo XVI: La Corte 10. Catalogue nos 1003, p. 257, 1110, p. 280 and 26. He made this suggestion in his lecture ‘Upon Española y la Escuela de Lovaina (Madrid: 1176, p. 289: a horse-shoe magnet made by Johann objects illustrating the history of science and the Fundación Carlos de Amberes,1997).An English edi- Dietrich, an inclinatorium (dip circle) by Daniel means of ensuring their conservation’,on which see tion without illustrations appeared as Scientific Bernoulli completed by the same Basel maker, and Part 3 (SIS Bulletin, No. 74), p. 17. instruments in the sixteenth century.The Spanish old thermometers, including four made by Micheli 27. Science Museum Z-Archives 64, vol. 6, court and the Louvain school (Madrid: Fundación du Crest. Educational Museum Register / Science Library Carlos de Amberes, 1997). 11. Cat.no. 1912e, p. 433. Her husband J. Norman Register for 1875-1878, pp. 276-277, specifying 40. The catalogue calls it ‘Musschenbroek’s Lockyer,FRS,also contributed photographs of instru- objects (sometimes with catalogue number), sup- Pyrometer’, but it was in fact a typical Nollet-type ments, cat. pp. 420, 432-3. pliers of copies and prices. In case others may be pyrometer, with a transparent cylinder containing 12.Cat.no.1914a,p.433-4:‘Photographs of Chinese able to match this with other data, I note that the the gearing. On this object, see. my ‘A note on 18th- Astronomical Instruments, enlarged by the Continental items have as heading RP 38762, the century instruments from Schloss Fürstenstein in Autotype Company from the original photographs UK weights and measures RP 38212. Silesia’ elsewhere in this volume. taken by J.Thomson, F.R.G.S.’ 28. Z64/6, p. 276: from R & J Beck P.R.11333 / 2 13. From the Science Museum database for acquisi- Janssen’s Compound Microscope no.3510 £3 Dec.’ tions for the year 1876, I selected for viewing thir- 76 One of these sent to Science Circulation. Cf. Z Author’s address: ty-three photographs showing instruments that were 180/2, no. 10047, letter R & J Beck dd. 30 October 13 Camden Square historical at the time. It was found that most have 1876: ‘Have completed copy of “Janssen” micro- London NW1 9UY probably been disposed of,while others are record- scope. State price’. Incidentally, Elkington also sup- e-mail: [email protected] ed in six different collections, making it cumber- plied a copy.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 15 A Note on 18th-century Instruments from Schloss Fürstenstein in Silesia

Peter de Clercq

Introduction Among the contributors of historical instru- ments to the Special Loan Collection,exhib- ited in South Kensington in 1876, was a German nobleman,His Highness Prince von Pless. From his family residence at Schloss Fürstenstein, a number of 18th-century mathematical, optical and philosophical instruments were sent to England. The entries in the exhibition catalogue1 inspired me to search for information about this pri- vate collection. It appears that none of the instruments survived the ravages of the Second World War and its aftermath;if they did, their present whereabouts are unknown. In England, I located two 19th- century copies of a French pyrometer from Schloss Fürstenstein.That is not much, but combined with what archival and printed material emerged,it should be enough for a note on this vanished collection. Schloss Fürstenstein is now named Ksiaz and is situated close to the Czech-Polish border, seventy kilometers southwest of Wroclaw, formerly Breslau. Dramatically Fig 1: Schloss Fürstenstein in the late 19th century. located on a steep rocky hill (Fig.1),it hous- es a museum and a hotel. For more than manifold spheres and large instruments of four centuries, from 1509 to the 1930s, it metal, almost all fire-gilded, all by the best mas- was the seat of the Counts (Reichsgräfe) ters; such as Schindler in Vienna, Schober in von Hochberg.2 The first half of the eigh- Leipzig, North in Berlin, Joh. Eggerich Iversen teenth century was a period of peace and in Leiden, Chapotot in Paris, Joh.Willebrand in prosperity for these Silesian noblemen,and Augsburg, Joh.Loots Esling in Berlin, and other accordingly a time of growth for the library famous mathematicians.Last year, having com- and the various collections at Fürstenstein. pleted his studies and travels, [...] Heinrich Carl Ludwig, the Count of Hochberg, returned [...] th and extended the cabinet with the following Buying instruments in the 18 rare and curious instruments: a Newtonian Century telescope, such as Mr Desaguliers in London The foundation of the cabinet of instru- makes them.A pyrometer, to experiment on the ments was laid around 1705, when Count expansion of metals by heat, made by the Abbé Konrad Ernst Maximilian von Hochberg Nollet in Paris.An instrument to demonstrate the friction, by the same. A microscope, also (1682-1742) (Fig. 2) returned from a pere- from there. [...] In the third room stands in the grinatio academica which included centre on a completely gilded pedestal a very sojourns in Utrecht and Leiden.His son and large, good air-pump by Rennwold successor Heinrich Ludwig Karl (1714- (“Rennwoldische Antlia Pneumatica”), also a 1755) shared his father’s interest in the arts smaller one from the workshop of Leupold in and sciences.At the aged of eighteen, he Leipzig (“aus dem Museo Leupoldiano von went to Leipzig to study, after which he Leipzig”), and the instruments and other rari- made a two-years’ Grand Tour to Holland, ties fill the entire room. England, France and Italy, returning to Some of the makers mentioned by Fürstenstein just before Christmas in 1738. Kundmann are well known, and most can An article published in the following year be identified in publicly accessible bio- 5 describes the young Count’s studies abroad graphical dictionaries and databases, although with some inconsistencies.6As I (he attended demonstration courses by Fig 2: Count Konrad Ernst Maximilian found no information on two of them, I Desaguliers and the Abbé Nollet) and the von Hochberg (1682-1742), who laid the posted a query on the rete mailing list,ideal instruments that he brought back from his foundation of the cabinet of instruments to address fellow instrument historians. travels.3 And in a gazetteer of Silesian at Schloss Fürstenstein. libraries and collections, that appeared in From this, I learned of Ernst August North, 1741, the coin specialist Johann Christian mechanic at the Berlin Academy of Science Kundmann writes on the instruments at since 1734, from whom the young Count Interlude Schloss Fürstenstein:4 will have bought mathematical instru- ments.7 Perhaps future research will also For more than a century after Heinrich The library is magnificent, and at the far end reveal the identity of the other unknown Ludwig Karl’s early death in 1755,I find no 8 are three rooms, with in the first one in glass maker, Rennwold or Rennswolde, who specific information on the instruments at cases a large number of mathematical, espe- apparently built large air-pumps in the first Schloss Fürstenstein. We can only guess cially astronomical, instruments of all kinds; half of the 18th century. whether any additions were made to the

16 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) collection.A guide to the castle, published in 1838, merely hints at the riches of the library and the collections, offering no details “since most visitors will not have time to see these”.9 Meanwhile,in 1848 the family entered a new phase when the large principality of Pless in the south-eastern corner of Silesia fell to the Fürstenstein branch of the Hochbergs, who made the palace at Pless their summer residence. In the 1870s, they turned it into a monumen- tal and luxurious French-style residence towering over the nearby town,surrounded by a park.The Pszczyna palace, to use the Polish name for Pless, was to remain in the Hochberg family until the Second World War.After 1945, a museum of interior dec- orations was installed in the palace, cover- ing the period from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. It is in south-west Poland, 75 kilometers west of Cracow.10 The grand remake of the Pless palace was commissioned by Prince Hans Heinrich XI von Pless,Count of Hochberg (1833-1907), who successfully developed the agricultur- al and industrial potential of his newly acquired principality. For part of his time, however, he continued to reside at Fürstenstein. It is during his régime that Fig 3: Copy of the Gallonde pyrometer from Schloss Fürstenstein, made in 1876 and preserved the,by then antique,instruments in the cas- in the Science Museum.Picture no.PHY/B000103E.Credit: Science Museum/Science & Society tle re-enter our story. Picture Library.

Fürstenstein Instruments Sent to chaired by professor Poleck,which was list- beginning of the last century.The instrument, South Kensington ed as contributor of the instruments,which which is in capital condition, may therefore the entries usually specify as being be considered as one of the oldest of its kind. In his article on the collections at “Property of His Highness the Prince Pless, Fürstenstein,Dr Jerzy Polak writes:“The col- Schloss Fürstenstein”.13 The instruments are nr.1383 (p.324):Old Electric Egg (beginning lection of the Kunstkabinett was well described as: of last century).The great age of the instru- known in German scientific circles and ment appears both from tradition and from even abroad. For example, in 1876 the the style of the wooden frame and the nature nr. 55 (p. 16-17): Large Collection of British Government appreciated the impor- of the brass work. It is certainly one of the Mathematical Instruments for Geometrical oldest instruments of the kind. tance of the Ksiaz collection and asked and Fortification Drawing, as well as for Hochberg to lend physical, astronomical Artillery Purposes. This ancient collection, and geometrical instruments and micro- dating from the commencement of the last nr. 1758 (p 393): Two Astrolabes with four scopes from Ksiaz to the Kensington century, is remarkable for the excellent work- double sights. Museum in London to show them in an manship and good state of preservation of exhibition of scientific instruments’.11 At the instruments. It contains 19 compasses nr.1759 (p.393): Astrolabe with movable sun- my request, I received xerox copies of the and 11 accessory parts, 28 rules and scales, dial archival documents to which Polak refers. two of the same with two keys for fortifica- tion drawing, eight triangles and set squares, They turned out to be two letters,12 writ- nr.1776 (p.398): Two Quadrants, with double 10 protractors, two pantographs, and 52 sights; old ten in Gothic German,hard to decipher,but other instruments. In all, 134 pieces. the gist of their contents is as follows.Two professors at Breslau University, Poleck nr. 1777 (p. 398): Quadrant, for the observa- nr. 523 (p. 130): Watch with spindle without tion of the height of the sun, old (chemistry) and Meyer (physics), spiral spring; constructed in the East in the approached the Prince about a loan of his first half of the last century, indicating nr.1779 (p.398): Small Semicircle, with dou- instruments.At first they were discouraged, month, day, and hour in Arabic figures. ble sights, for observing the heights of the but when they insisted they were allowed (Remarkable for its age and origin). sun, old access to the castle,where they “character- ized some objects as very interesting and of nr. 794 (p. 203): Burning Glass (German), nr.1847 (p.419): Two Ring-shaped Equatorial historical importance”. They were then made probably by Count von Tschirnhausen Sundials allowed to borrow these, and to pack and in the 18th century. clean them at their own expense.These let- nr. 1848 (p. 419): Two Sundials, with calen- ters are not very revealing, but they do not nr. 1076 (p. 257): Musschenbroek pyrometer dars seem to corroborate Polak’s claim that the made in the first half of the 18th century, Fürstenstein instruments were known in with five different metal bars, and an auto- graph. The apparatus has been constructed nr. 1896 (p. 430): Apparatus for demonstrat- Britain before the exhibition. Not surpris- after the description and drawing given on ing the alteration of the date in journeys ingly, tracing and obtaining a loan of these p.12 and Table XXX of Musschenbroek’s round the world, from west to east. This antiquities was achieved by two professors Tentamina Experimentorum Naturalium instrument dates from the first quarter of the at the regional university.And in the cata- Captorum in Academia del Cimento,Lugduni, 18th century logue,it was The Breslau Committee for the 1731, Pars II.The orthography of the French, Scientific Apparatus Exhibition London, on the annexed slip of paper, is that of the nr.2415e (p.667): Appliances for testing Gold

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 17 and Silver. All these objects date from the Prussia [and] was among the exhibits of 61, with summary ‘Das Kunstkabinett in Ksiaz time of the first quarter of the 18th century the ‘Loan Collection’, South Kensington (Fürstenstein)’ on pp. 207-8. [...]”in more detail than the catalogue entry, 3. Gottfried Balthasar Scharff, ed., Gelehrte nr.2415d (p.670): Seven different metal Wires suggesting they may have seen it.18As both Neuigkeiten Schlesiens, vol. I (1739), pp. 13-21. of equal Strength and Weight, for determin- authors were mere boys in 1876, perhaps Unfortunately I had no access to this volume,as the ing the Specific Gravity from their length, by they later saw photographs made of it at the British Library run starts in 1740, and I had to con- means of a scale time.19 tent myself with the condensed version in Endemann (note 2), p. 15, which ends with: nr. 2863 (p. 701): Catgut Hygrometer, dating Of course, they may well have visited “[Scharff’s] article concludes with a description of from the first quarter of the 18th century. Schloss Fürstenstein and seen the micro- the most important instruments, which the young Interesting on account of its age. scope there.A researcher who almost cer- Count brought back from his journey to enlarge his father’s art collections”. tainly did visit the castle and studied its nr.3527 (p.900): Old Microscope, 1705, made instruments was Dr Ernst Zinner (1886- 4. Johann Christian Kundmann, Academiæ et Scholæ Germaniæ, præcipue Ducatus Silesiæ, cum by J. Marshall in London, with seven objec- 1970). In his well-known study on German tives, objective table, object stand of ebony, bibliothecis, in nummis; oder Die hohen und and Dutch instruments and their makers, niedere Schulen Teutschlandes, insonderheit des ivory plates, two forceps, needle, and leaden he lists five instruments from Fürstenstein channel Herzogthums Schlesiens, mit ihren Bücher- in some detail and with what seem to be Vorräthen, in Müntzen (Breslau,1741),pp.398-401. inventory numbers.These are four instru- Except in the last entry,no makers are men- 5. Besides the well-known biographical lists by tioned,making it hard to link the catalogue ments by Christian Carl Schindler and one Zinner and Rooseboom, I consulted the Western data of the 1870s to those from 1741 given by Christian Schober,both of whom, as we Instrument Makers Database compiled by R & M by Kundmann, quoted earlier. Perhaps the have seen,the Counts of Hochberg patron- Webster at http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/histo- only object that can be linked unequivo- ized during their study tours.20 As Silke ry/websters/location.htm and the list of more than cally to that earlier report is the pyrometer, Ackermann has described, Zinner and his 2000 makers represented in the Oxford collection, of which Kundman wrote that the young wife Susi visited many instrument collec- at www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/database/index.htm. Count bought it in the later 1730s and that tions all over Europe before and after the 6.Christian Carl Schindler is listed as German,active it was “made by the Abbé Nollet in Paris”. Second World War, and they painstakingly in Halle,not in Vienna as Kundmann has it.Joh.Loots Esling is probably identical with Johann Ernst The original pyrometer from Fürstenstein noted what they saw and which pictures is not known to have survived, but the Essling.As for Joh. Eggerich Iversen in Leiden, this Science Museum has a copy (Fig. 3), made they took.Thus, they accumulated an enor- could be Johannes Eggerich in Leiden; in Dresden by Elkington during the Special Loan mous reference collection on instruments, there was a sector by him, suggested date ca. 1660; Exhibition with the explicit permission of and since many of the objects they saw and alternatively, more contemporary with the foreign the Prince of Pless.14 This typical Nollet- recorded were lost or destroyed in or after trips of the Counts of Hochberg is a Johannes type pyrometer, with transparent cylinder the war,the Zinner papers constitute a his- Eggerich (Frers), listed as active in the early 18th containing the gearing,is signed ‘Gallonde A torical record in themselves.21 A search of century,but in Berlin. Paris’, a clockmaker who worked with the Zinner-archive at Frankfurt University 7. On-line response by Dr Jörg Zaun dd. 29 15 Nollet. Only one other example of a may well bring to light additional informa- November 2002,who adds:“Since 1725 he produced Gallonde pyrometer is presently known to tion on this vanished Silesian collection. mathematical instruments for the Garde du Corps,a me, in the Musée des Arts et Métiers in military division of the Prussian army. His appren- Paris.16 tice was Johann Ludwig Koch, who also obtained a Acknowledgments position as a mechanic of the Academy in 1742. Epilogue I am grateful to Dr Ewa Wyka of the There is a pricelist of North in which he offers math- ematical instruments, astrolabes and also models of After the Special Loan Exhibition was Museum of the Jagellonian University, Cracow,and Dr Jerzy Polak of the Museum watermills and cranes. All information closed to the public in the last days of 1876, from the Archive of the Berlin Academy (I-III-81).” all loaned objects were returned to their Pszczyna, for supplying information and assistance. I am also indebted, once again, 8. Another cabinet described by Kundmann (note owners,and we may assume that the instru- 4) is that of Georg Christoph Graf von Proskau, ments from Prince Pless made it safely back to that stupendous treasurehouse, the British Library. which contained “a large, highly decorated Antlia to Silesia.They remained in the castle until pneumatica by Rennswolde”(p. 408). the 1940s, when the occupancy by the Notes and References 9. August Zemplin, Fürstenstein in der Hochbergs ended and we read of plans to Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Ein Beitrag zur convert the castle into headquarters for the 1. See Peter de Clercq,‘The Special Loan Collection vaterländischen Geschichte und ein Wegweiser für Führer. Dr Polak writes:“The collections of Scientific Apparatus, South Kensington, 1876 Besucher (Breslau, 1838), p. 116:“Der Freund der were still preserved in Schloss Fürstenstein Part 2.The Historical Instruments’, Bulletin of the Wissenschaften dürfte wohl den Wunsch haben,die Scientific Instrument Society 73 (June 2002),p.13. Bibliothek, welche um 40 000 Bände enthält, und in 1944,what happened to them afterwards The shortened description of the Fürstenstein I do not know.The Schloss was plundered die Münz- und Kunstsammlung in Augenschein zu instruments in that article is replaced by a verbatim nehmen; aber die Zeit vergönnt diesen Genuss nur in 1945, it is possible that parts of the col- quote from the catalogue in the present paper. wenigen”. lection ended up in Wroclaw,as happened 2. On the history of the building, the family and its 10. www.poland.net/castles/silesia/pszczyna.html. for example with the archive and the library collections,I consulted www.poland.net/castles/sile- The reconstruction of Pless palace in the 1870s was of the Hochbergs. Perhaps this part is still sia/ ksiaz.html;W.John Koch, Schloss Fürstenstein. carried out after designs of the French architect to be found in the collection of the Erinnerungen an einen schlesischen Adelssitz.Eine Destailleur, who at that time also built Waddeston University in Wroclaw?”17 Bilddokumentation (Würzburg, 1989); Hugo Manor, Bucks., for the Baron Rothschild, which the Weczerka,ed.,Handbuch der Historischen Stätten. Society visited in 2001; Peter de Clercq,‘Visit of the It is sad to consider that,following the brief Vol. 14: Schlesien (Stuttgart, 1977), pp. 112-114; SIS to Oxford and Environs: 7th - 9th September exposure of a selection to an international Helmut Sieber, Schlösser und Herrensitze in 2001’,Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society public in 1876,the instruments acquired by Schlesien (Frankfurt am Main, 1961), pp. 84-6; Karl 71 (December 2001), 34-37. th Johannes Endemann, Die Reichsgräflich von the Counts of Hochberg in the 18 century 11. Polak,‘Kunstkabinett w Ksiazu’ (note 2), p. 58, Hochberg’sche Majoratsbibliothek in den ersten do not appear to have been studied in any referring to Archiwum Ksiazat Pszczynskich II 916, drei Jahrhunderten ihres Bestehens, 1609-1909. detail;now that they are dispersed and per- k. 25-31. I thank Ewa Wyka for translating this and Darstellungen und Quellen zur schlesischen other parts of his article. haps even lost altogether, it is too late.We Geschichte Bd.11 (Breslau, 1910; facsimile reprint find occasional references in the instrument Aalen, 1981); Jerzy Polak,‘Kunstkabinett w Ksiazu’, 12.17 March 1876,Court official (name illegible) to literature to the Fürstenstein instruments. in Materialy Muzeum Wnetrz Zabytkowych w the Prince Pless,4 pages;14 April 1876,Prof.Poleck Clay and Court describe “A Marshall micro- Pszczynie (Material on the Antique Interiors of the to the Prince Pless, 3 pages. scope that belonged to the Prince Pless of Pszczyna Museum), vol.VI (Pszczyna, 1990), pp. 55- 13. Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of

18 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington cm., acier, bois, bronze, textile, verre. It is conceiv- Silke Ackermann), giving FS where Zinner has Museum (London: third edition, 1877). able that this is the erstwhile Fürstenstein specimen, Fürstenstein Schloss: s.v. Christian Carl Schindler, 14. Science Museum, inv.nr.1877-1, and an identical but regretfully I have been unable to get more Undated:Square brass calendar plate with moon-dial, copy in Newcastle. For details, see my article ‘The information on this object and on Descamps from signed ‘Schindler, MJM’, FS / Brass nocturnal, prob- Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus,South the CNAM. ably by Schindler, FS B113 / Octagonal brass table Kensington, 1876 Part 4. Photographs and Copies’ 17. Letter (in German) to the author, 4 June 2001. sundial with compass,moon-dial and equatorial dial, signed ‘Christian Carl Schindler’,FS B67 / Brass noc- elsewhere in this volume.For the permission of the 18.Reginal S.Clay and Thomas H.Court,The History turnal signed ‘Schindler’ FS B114; s.v. Christian Prince of Pless, see the letter book regarding the of the Microscope... up to the Introduction of the Schober:Brass graphometer with pointed sights.The Special Loan Collection in the Science Museum Achromatic Microscope (London, 1932), p. 97 Archive Z 180/I, nr. 9477, dd. 3 October 1876: J. point lies within a heart-shaped form (?), signed 19.For a discussion of the heliotype photographs of Rinval:“His Highness the Prince Pless will allow ‘Christian Schober 1714’, FS B64. exhibits from the Special Loan Collection of objects to be reproduced”. 21.Silke Ackermann,‘Dormant treasures.The Zinner- Scientific Apparatus,see my article listed in note 14. archive at Frankfurt University’, in Anthony Turner, 15. On Louis- Charles Gallonde (1715-1770/71), see Of these,SME 299 shows two Marshall microscopes. ed., The archives of scholars, collectors and deal- Jean-Dominique Augarde,Les Ouvriers du Temps.La According to the catalogue,there were two Marshall ers: their place in the study of the history of scien- Pendule à Paris de Louis XIV à Napoléon Ier / microscopes on loan;the second one came from the tific instruments. Papers from the XIXth Ornamental clocks and Clockmakers in Eighteenth Royal Microscopical Society (cat. p. 902, nr. 3529e). Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Century Paris (Paris, 1996), p. 318, which specifies A photograph, inv.nr. 1876-579, showing the Commission. Nuncius. Annali di Storia della that he worked as ouvrier libre from 1738 onward, Fürstenstein Marshall, may still be in the Science Scienza XVI (2001), pp. 711-722. was related to Nollet and made among others Museum microscope collection. “instruments for physics experiments such as pre- 20. Ernst Zinner, Deutsche und Niederländische cision scales,dilatometers,pyrometers,barometers, astronomische Instrumente des 11-18 and thermometers”. Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1956), pp. 502 and 527. I Author’s address: 16.Under ‘Gallonde’in the CNAM on-line database I note,however,that Zinner does not list Fürstenstein 13 Camden Square found a Gallonde dilatometer bought in 1985 from among the collections of scientific instruments on London NW1 9UY the collection Rene Descamps at the Hotel Drouot, pp. 607-9. Follows my translation (with advice by inv.nr. 40322-0000, nr. renvoi 41771; 21 x 31 x 10 e-mail: [email protected] Conference ‘Do Collections Matter to Instrument Studies?’ at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, Saturday 29th - Sunday 30th June 2002 David Pantalony

Historians and curators of scientific instru- tice,yet stopped short of using a collection increases appreciation of issues surround- ments gathered at Oxford in the Summer of or examining instruments as evidence. ing practice, ‘adding meaning to instru- 2002 to hear papers about, and to debate What, then, can historians learn from a col- ments in collections’,and providing a novel the question ‘Do Collections Matter to lection? teaching method to stimulate questions and Instrument Studies?’ It may be safe to say insights about the collections. There appears to be a great variety of ques- that most attendees came to the conference tions that can be asked of instruments and Whereas historians may visit a museum or with the answer ‘yes, of course’, and left collections. Katie Eagleton of Cambridge storage facility to investigate a specific ques- with the feeling that it is not such a straight- offered a tale of three quadrants connected tion, curators work on a regular basis with forward question to answer. But the diver- to the fourteenth-century court of Richard collections, and therefore take for granted sity of papers and experience provided a II. Her paper illustrated how instruments that questions,insights and lines of inquiry fruitful start to what will surely be an can provide useful information beyond derive directly from instruments. Debbie increasingly important issue in years to technical issues,revealing insights about the Snow, who curates the university collec- come.1 politics and self-image of Richard II. Sara tions at Leeds, showed how a seemingly As Stephen Johnston stated in his opening Schechner of Harvard has been examining simple collection of chemical samples pro- remarks, there is no question that a gap collections of historic mirrors and lenses as vided information about teaching and lab- exists between historians of science and part of a larger technical and social history oratory practice at Leeds and the laborato- curators who care for scientific instrument of these instruments.She used her findings ry’s connections to industry.Gerard Turner collections. One might think that this gap to critically examine David Hockney’s presented a story about some recently dis- is narrowing given the increasing attention recent claims that old masters, starting in covered sixteenth-century nocturnals.The paid by historians in the past few decades the 1430s, were making use of improve- variations he found overturned previous to the role of experiment and instruments ments in mirrors and lenses to produce assumptions about these instruments; pro- in the development of science.Surprisingly, (through projection) more realistic paint- vided new information about the craft cen- however, very few historians have actually ings.2 Peter Heering and Christian Sichau tre at Bergamo,Italy;informed us about the used collections or examined instruments of Oldenburg presented a number of case elusive maker Falconi; and told us some- to learn more about their topic.The first studies of what they call ‘replications’ - thing about the use of regional time systems speaker at the conference, Iwan Morus of based on the construction and use of his- in sixteenth-century Italy.Yet even with so Queen’s University Belfast,admitted that he toric instruments.The construction of sci- much original information and the empha- had only recently seen one of the electrical entific instruments,a fundamental aspect of sis on using instruments and collections as medical instruments that he studies. He scientific activity that is often ignored by evidence,historians and philosophers of sci- then tantalized the audience with his voy- historians, is seldom recorded in print, and ence often remain standoffish from the age into new methodological realms, but Heering described several case studies more traditional instrument studies.They ultimately, as one questioner pointed out, where his team visited collections to gath- want to know what significance these kinds gave a paper that relied on texts and er ‘construction information’ from the of stories have outside of themselves, how images.His paper showed the value of look- instruments themselves. Sichau, in turn, they link to other histories, or inform us ing deeper into questions of usage and prac- emphasized how replicating experiments about the processes of science.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 19 Jim Bennett nicely straddled both sides of the fact that historians traditionally view usage; and the problems with getting cura- this divide in his BSHS Presidential Address, instruments as archetypes; they see only tors and historians together. Brenni coun- showing that collections can illuminate clas- one type of galvanometer or telescope, tered that collections offer valuable infor- sic problems in the history of science. He without appreciating the need to explore mation on materials, construction, trade, used studies of sixteenth-century mathe- the varieties of construction and design at trends and changes by makers, and the dif- matical instruments, and the insights they different times and places. fusion of instruments. He also pointed out provide into mathematical practice,to shed that one can often use collections to recon- light on some of the more enigmatic areas We are not alone in the issues we face.As struct histories of practice and institutions. of William Gilbert’s De magnete. Perhaps part of her doctoral research in Paris,Marta Robert Anderson and Robert Fox expressed more studies such as this will allow us to Lourenco has been studying the challenges their views in an interview session, and see the benefits of each other’s approach involved in university collections through- again in a round table session. Fox told us and methods. out Europe, and is finding similar patterns about the challenges of being a historian at in art,natural history,and archeological col- Cité des Sciences in Paris, while Anderson, Even after recognizing the variety of ques- lections. Curators of all kinds, for example, just retired as Director of the British tions that can be asked of instruments, it can be ‘paranoid’ when historians intrude Museum but who earned his Ph.D.in chem- remains a daunting challenge to learn how in their field; on the other hand, Lourenco istry in the early seventies,spoke of his sur- to read them like documents.This problem finds that teachers seldom encourage the prise, early in his career, that histories of becomes especially apparent for the seem- use of the rich collections at their disposal. chemistry almost totally ignored questions ingly less transparent instruments of the of practice and instruments.An issue that twentieth century. Roland Wittje of the The accessibility of collections is another major challenge related to the main theme raised much discussion in the round table Norwegian University of Science and related to the many possible contexts in Technology took us into the world of early of the conference.The Internet seems to be one way that people are dealing with this which instruments could be displayed, Van de Graaff generators and accelerators, beyond the technical and scientific. some of them still in operation,to reveal the issue. Oxford has been maintaining the practices and changes embedded in these International On-line Register Scientific These sorts of discussions also apply to the complex, large instruments. Gerard Alberts Instruments in an attempt to create a large, less known university collections of historic of the National Research Institute of centralized database of instruments around instruments.Researchers are starting to use Mathematics and Computer Science in the the world. There are now almost 10,000 these vast resources, and universities are Netherlands described the kinds of insights objects described on-line for researchers, seeing them as a good opportunity for into early computer practice one can gain teachers and the public. Henning teaching and displaying the material culture from the cumbersome computers and Schmidgen of the Max Planck Institute in of their scientific history.With this in mind, equipment of the 1950s through 70s. Berlin gave us an introductory tour of the Dartmouth College is holding a conference new ‘Virtual laboratory: Essays and in 2004 addressing some of the issues - Neil Brown, Marian Fournier and Ulf Resources on the Experimentation of life, practical,pedagogical and scholarly - related Hashagen discussed the realities of instru- 1830-1930’. This is a growing web-based to university collections (see www.dart- ment studies and collections from the per- database of exhibits,essays,objects,people mouth.edu/~mundi). Perhaps the universi- spective of national museums. Brown, a and print sources (which includes a large ty campus will provide an ideal location to senior curator at the Science Museum,pro- and growing database of scans of rare help bridge the gap between curators and vided a sobering perspective,telling us that instrument catalogues). It is a model site, historians. their Blythe House storage facility costs demonstrating how instrument studies can £400,000 a year to maintain, yet receives matter to collections, providing sources, Notes fewer than 1000 visitors a year (only a frac- context and awareness for researchers and tion of these being researchers).This talk the public. 1.A good survey of the many issues related to this theme can be found in Liba Taub,‘On the Role of illustrated tough questions museum cura- The conference included an interview ses- Museums in History of Science, Technology and tors are facing about costs and the possi- Medicine,’ Endeavour, 22-2 (1998). bility of ‘deep storage’. Hashagen of the sion, a round table and a debate. Graeme Deutsches Museum spoke of the challenges Gooday squared off with Paolo Brenni in a 2.David Hockney,Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering of building a research program devoted to ‘head to head’ session. Gooday was kind enough to present an undiluted view from the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters (London: studying objects.This project involves cre- Thames & Hudson, 2001). ating connections between curators and the historian’s side of the debate, singling historians of science; Hashagen has discov- out what he termed ‘the collection fallacy’ Author’s address: ered that free lunches seem to be a good (many are not true collections but merely Dartmouth College enticement to bridging this ‘widening gap’. the random savings of an institution or the Department of Physics and Astronomy Fournier,from the Museum Boerhaave feels ‘contingent vestiges of posterity’);the limits 6127 Wilder Laboratory that part of the ‘gap problem’ stems from of locally driven research;the insufficiency of collections to capture the perspective of Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA Current and Future Events Details of future events, meetings, exhibitions, etc. should be sent to the Editor. 27 April 2003, London, England Conference address: XXX Symposium ICOHTEC 2003 International The 34th Scientific & Medical Instrument Fair will be held at the Relations Administration, 29, Polytechnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, Until 7 September 2003, Greenwich, London, England Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, Portman Square, London W1, from 195251, Russia. E-mail: [email protected]. Tel / Fax : /7/ The Beagle Voyages-From Earth to Mars, a new exhibition at the 10:00 to 16:00 hours. Nearest Underground station is Marble Arch. (812) 247 2088. Registration and payment before 1st May 2003 - National Maritime Museum, linking two great voyages of Admission £4. Organized by Talbot Promotions, PO Box 31525, $ 250; after that date - $ 300. The second circular will be sent in exploration and discovery, inspired by next year’s Beagle 2 mission London W11 2XY. Telephone/fax: +44 (0)20 8969 7011. E-mail: March 2003. to Mars. The exhibition links the space mission back to Charles Talbot.stuart.talk21.com 30 September to 4 October 2003, Newport News, Virginia, Darwin’s voyage on HMS Beagle in the early 19th century. Key USA exhibits will be the scientific instruments used on HMS Beagle. 21-26 August 2003, St. Petersburg - Moscow, Russia Information on +44 (0)20 8858 4422 or www.nmm.ac.uk The ICOHTEC Symposium will be held in Russia. Organizers of the XXI1 Scientific Instrument Symposium to be held at the Mariner’s Symposium are the International Committee for the History of Museum at Newport News, Virginia, with excursions to Colonial 25-27 April 2003, Yarnfield, England Technology, St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and the Institute Williamsburg and Washington. Note that the XXIII Symposium will Conference of the British Sundial Society at Yarnfield Conference of the History of Science and Technology, Russian Academy of be held in Dresden, Germany, in 2004, and the XXIV Symposium, in Centre, Staffordshire. For details contact their Secretary Douglas Sciences. The sessions are held in St. Petersburg Polytechnic principle in Beijing, China, in 2005. For information consult the Bateman, tel.: +44 (0)1344 772303; e-mail: University (August 21st-24th) and in the Moscow Polytechnic Commission’s website at http://www.sic.iuhps.org [email protected] Museum (August 25th-26th).

20 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) On Double Windmills

Paul Zoller

Two Examples of Double Windmills to attach it to the plate of a vacuum pump In G.L’E.Turner’s descriptive catalogue of (Fig.2,insert).The pointed pivot ends of the instruments in Teyler’s Museum (Haarlem, axles turn in recesses in the frame and in Holland)1 we find the following entry for finely adjustable set screws on one end.This the ‘double windmill’ shown in Fig. 1: is clearly a somewhat later (and more sophisticated) windmill than the Teyler The four-vaned windmills (diameter across 110 apparatus, perhaps made in the second [mm]),made of brass,are mounted on a common quarter of the 19th century.The adjustabili- axle that is rotated by a spring, with release ty of one set of vanes allows an experiment catch. The whole is on a block of mahogany that to be performed at atmospheric pressure can be attached to the plate of an air pump.One set of vanes strikes the air broadsides, the other as well as in a vacuum. With both vanes edgewise. In air, the former soon become still, striking the atmospheric air edgewise, one while the latter continue to revolve,but in a vac- should observe the same duration of rota- uum both turn for the same length of time. tion;with the adjustable ones set broadside, a shorter duration should be observed. This apparatus was bought for two guineas by Teyler’s in 1790 from Johann Heinrich On the History of Double Windmills Hurter, a Swiss maker established in 1 The two earliest descriptions of double London. It serves to demonstrate that air 2 offers resistance to a moving body,and that windmills I know of are by Nollet and Sigaud de la Fond.3 Nollet may well be the the resistance depends on the shape of the th moving body. It demonstrates much the inventor of the device, as earlier the 18 same philosophical principle as the perhaps century philosophy texts by s’Gravesande, more famous ‘guinea and feather apparatus’ Musschenbroek and Desaguliers make no in which a gold piece and a feather are mention of a similar apparatus. From the shown to fall at the same rate in an evacu- description of the two windmills above, ated tube. especially their vacuum connection ports, and the similar description of a double The ‘common axle’feature of the apparatus windmill in the Museum Boerhaave4 in is, of course, an error in the description. Leiden (dating from 1803,signed ‘F.Pasteur Each set of vanes is mounted on its own, Fig. 1 Double windmill in Teyler’s Museum, Fecit Leiden’),one could conclude that dou- separate axle.The vanes in this example are Haarlem Holland.1 Insert: threaded nipple ble windmills were essentially accessories set in motion by a cocked leaf spring that for mounting the mill to the plate of a vac- to the vacuum pump.This is certainly the presses against pins passing through each uum pump. The vanes are not adjustable. case for the Teyler and Boerhaave examples, axle.A bar attached to a release rod blocks Copyright Teyler’s Museum, with kind per- but the originally proposed experiment was the opposite ends of the pins until the rod mission. different. Neither Nollet nor Sigaud de la is withdrawn through a seal in the bell jar. Fond make any mention of vacuum at all. The vanes are set in motion at the same rate Experiments were to be performed in air only if the leaf spring acts with equal force only. Nollet2 describes a double windmill and duration on each axle pin,and each mill with adjustable vanes on one mill (Fig. 3) has the same moment of inertia about the and adjustable pivots for the axles, set in axle (to use modern language). motion by much the same mechanism as the Teyler mill.It was used to demonstrate, Such simple and amusing scientific devices in air, that the duration of the rotation of have always interested me, and I was able both sets of vanes was equal when they to acquire a double windmill of my own were both in the broadside position, and (Fig. 2). It is also made of brass, including that a longer duration would result with the the four vanes on each mill,which measure adjustable vanes in the edge-on position. about 97 mm across. It is not signed, but Interestingly enough, the fixed vanes are was acquired in England. In contrast to the ‘broadside’ vanes in contrast to the later Teyler apparatus, one set of vanes is practice, where the fixed vanes are usually adjustable; i.e. these vanes can be set to ‘edge-on’ (see for example Fig. 2). In the strike the air edge-on, or broadside, or any- Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence where in between. The fixed vanes are there is an incomplete double windmill5 mounted edge-on. The vanes are set in (missing the fixed vanes and part of the motion by two rigidly connected racks, release mechanism), which looks very each acting on a pinion attached to each much like Nollet’s description. Sigaud de axle.The rack assembly is powered by a sin- la Fond’s apparatus3 has fixed vanes only, gle coiled spring.The racks disengage from and since he also does not mention the use the pinions at the end of their travel,allow- of a vacuum, his experiment was simply to ing the mills to spin freely.This mechanism, Fig. 2 Example of a double windmill with show that the broadside vanes slowed more so than a leaf spring,assures that both one set of adjustable vanes, placed here in down more rapidly in air.This would have vanes always have strictly the same initial the ‘broadside’ position. Here it is mounted been a singularly unconvincing experiment, velocity at release.The use of a stiff coiled on a wooden base for use in air.The nipple as factors other than air resistance have a spring gives the vanes quite a high initial by which it is threaded into the base is also large effect on the duration of the rotation rotational velocity (see below), which is used to attach it to the plate of an air pump (see below).Perhaps Sigaud de la Fond had important as the air resistance likely increas- (insert). Double windmills also make very no first-hand experience with windmills es with something like the square of the nice cat toys. and had simply overlooked that one set of velocity. This mill, too, has a screw thread

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 21 vanes should be adjustable to make for experiment.Some mills I have seen can a good experiment. Nevertheless, this barely be put in motion at all by their type of apparatus (fixed vanes, no vac- driving mechanism because of corro- uum port) became quite common.An sion and poor adjustment. My own example is Utrecht University example (Fig. 2) required careful pol- Museum’s inventory No.49 (pre 1838). ishing of the axle ends and mounting Other than lacking adjustability of the recesses before a reasonably success- vanes it looks very much like Nollet’s ful experiment could be performed. I picture (Fig. 3). will probably be berated on the Rete I found the first written mention of the list for this polishing activity (loss of use of double windmills in a vacuum ‘historical information’in this case:cor- by George Adams Jr., who says, after rosion already existed in the 19th cen- describing a mill with fixed vanes: tury), but my sin cannot be as serious as polishing brass. The mill started out The experiment will receive additional at a speed of about 300 revolutions per force,if,at your leisure,you place your mills minute.In air,and with the vanes in the under the receiver of an air-pump, and edge-on position, the rotations lasted when the air is exhausted put the mills in Fig. 3 Nollet’s double windmill2 with one set of about 28-30 seconds for both mills. motion; the resisting medium being adjustable vanes, shown in the edge-on position. removed, they will both stop at the same This was reduced to about 14-15 sec- time. 6 examples known to me are in museums in onds (an easily observable reduction by about half) for the mill with vanes in the This is probably an original thought Denmark (Hauchs Physiske Cabinet), Harvard University, the Smithsonian broadside position. Despite difficulties in (although the publication date is later than releasing the mechanism through a bell-jar, the sale of the Hurter mill to Teyler’s),while Institution, and above all (and how appro- priate) in Holland.In addition to those men- in a vacuum the duration of the rotation the rest of Adams’ description looks like it was somewhat longer,and essentially inde- has been transcribed from Nollet,including tioned at Teyler’s and Museum Boerhaave, Utrecht University Museum owns four,giv- pendent of the direction of the adjustable the lessons learned for a waterman, viz. in vanes. which direction he should point his oars to ing Utrecht perhaps the largest concentra- propel himself,or lift them out of the water. tion of double windmills per inhabitant in the world.Two are definitely before 1838, Acknowledgments: George Adams Jr.listed double windmills in I would like to acknowledge the generous his (last) catalogue (1795).7 Under the sub- and all are 19th century. Other than the Boerhaave model signed by Pasteur, the help of the curators at the Dutch museums: heading ‘Apparatus for an Air-pump’ we Marijn van Hoorn (Teyler’s Museum), Jan find: only signed example I know of appeared in Tesseract’s catalogue 64 (item 36), signed Deiman (Utrecht University Museum), and Trienke van der Spek (Museum Boerhaave). Guinea and feather apparatus, for experiments on the ‘Deleuil à Paris’ (c. mid 19th century). I am sure it was not easy for them to keep resistance of air, from 18s. to 1 11 6 During the 19th century there were only a straight face when I asked for an [pounds/shillings/pence] minor changes in the design of double appointment to see their holdings of dubbel A set of mills for ditto 1116 windmills.These are most apparent in the molentjes. Communications from Paolo A ditto on a better construction 440 framework holding the two mills and in the Brenni, David Coffeen and Jørgen From A search through several serious but ‘ele- drive mechanism. Many continued to be Anderson were also appreciated. mentary’ natural philosophy and physics driven by leaf springs, but later in the sec- books of the 19th century, including those ond half of the 19th century the rack and Notes and references of Haüy (French, 1821), Biot (French, pinion mechanism now driven by a weight 1. G.L’E.Turner,Van Marum’s Scientific Instruments 1824), Despretz (French, 1836),Atkinson - rather than by a spring as in my example - in Teyler’s Museum (Leyden, n.d., 1973). Offprint (English-French, 1873), Müller-Pouillet seems to have become the method of from E.Lefebvre and J.G.de Bruijn,eds,Martinus van (German-French,1886),Deschanel (English- choice. Most surviving or catalogue exam- Marum, Life and Work,Volume IV (Leyden, 1973). French, 1897) revealed no mention of dou- ples have fixed vanes only (thus requiring a The double windmill is item 136,Fig.140,p.228-229. ble windmills at all. Physics became much vacuum for a convincing experiment);some 2.L’Abbé Nollet,Leçons de physique expérimentale, more abstract,quantitative,and mathemati- have special provisions for mounting under Tome premier, 6ième Edition (Paris, 1764). III. Expérience, pp. 223-224 and Planche 3, Fig. 7. cal as the century progressed,and I am sure the receiver of a vacuum pump, others do that serious scientists considered double not.The dubious pinnacle of double wind- 3. Sigaud de la Fond, Description et usage d’un cab- mill design is perhaps the German mill driv- inet de physique expérimentale, Tome premier windmills more a scientific amusement (Paris, 1784), pp. 112-113 and Planche VI,Fig. 6. than an experimental tool that could sup- en by a clockwork motor,the axle of which 4. Peter de Clercq,The Leiden Cabinet of Physics, port anything other than the most qualita- can be coupled to and de-coupled from pin- 8 Museum Boerhaave Communciation 271 (Leiden, tive conclusions.Their use was likely limit- ions on each mill. 1997). Item 74, p. 79. ed to demonstrations in introductory 5.Paolo Brenni,Catalogue of Mechanical Instruments physics courses in secondary schools and The Practice of the Double Windmill (Florence:Museo Di Storia Della Scienza ,1993).Item in non-specialist courses of study in uni- Experiments with the windmill seem sim- 59, p. 76 and p. 80. versities, or to evening lectures for inter- ple to perform, but to be successful one 6. George Adams, Lectures on Natural and ested amateurs.Still,double windmills con- really does need a well-designed apparatus Experimental Philosophy (London, 1794).Vol I, pp. tinued to be offered in the catalogues of in first-rate condition. I am certain that vir- 137-138 and Volume V,Plate III, Fig. 4. suppliers of scientific teaching instruments tually all examples in collections are no 7.This catalogue is reprinted in John R. Millburn, (Queens, Chamberlain in the USA, Leybold longer able to demonstrate the effect of air Adams of Fleet Street, Instrument Maker to King and Max Kohl in Germany, Griffin in resistance.In addition to air resistance,fric- George III (Aldershot:Ashgate, 2000). England, among others), at least through tion in the pivots affects the duration of the 8. E. Leybold’s Nachfolger, Einrichtungen und World War I. According to Paolo Brenni rotation.Making the effects of friction small Apparate für den Physikalischen Unterricht (Cöln a. they are common in Italian and French col- and equal in both mills is a problem that Rh., n. d., c. 1914). Item 1458, p. 172. lections.They are also found in the collec- requires clean bearing surfaces and very Author’s address: tions of American universities and colleges, precise alignment and positioning of the 3809 Birchwood Drive and no doubt in the collections of educa- pivot points. Any corrosion between the Boulder, CO 80304, USA tional institutions in other countries.A few axles and the frame is likely to queer the [email protected]

22 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Americans in Europe: The Purchasing Trip of Ira and Charles Young in 1853.1 David Pantalony

Records related to the purchasing trips of generally accompanied pur- scientists offer a potentially vast and under- chasers from America) adding used resource in the history of science. that I should get better instru- Through their visits to instrument shops we ments in full value for my gain access to a world of activities that had money.8 no small impact on the development of sci- In this way the purchaser ence. James Bennett, for example, has stud- knew what he was buying ied the buying trips of Europeans in Paris and had confidence that he and London in the late eighteenth century.2 was getting the best deal. Tracing the paths of a few notable scientists we learn of the vibrant commercial context Purchasing trips,therefore, of eighteenth-century science, the specta- offered far more than cle of demonstrations and experiments,and ordering from catalogues. the value of shops as meeting places for Instrument shops were a diverse classes, skills, traditions and intel- place to inspect and exper- lectual exchanges. One of the great advan- iment with original instru- tages enjoyed by North American collec- ments not yet found in cat- tions is that they offer an abundance of alogues and institutional these sorts of materials that not only inform laboratories. In the 1890s us about the development of American sci- Alfred Mayer performed ence, but also provide new details and some fundamental experi- insights into the European instrument ments at Koenig’s shop trade. Ironically, North America may have using the famed tuning some of the more valuable information on fork tonometer.This instru- the European makers, and there are still ment (a series of 167 forks numerous collections of instruments and with over 2000 frequen- papers unexplored.3 cies) was not yet complete when Mayer visited, but, Visits to Rudolph Koenig even unfinished, it was of unparalleled precision and The nineteenth-century acoustical instru- had no equal in any labora- ment maker Rudolph Koenig provides an tory in the world.9 excellent example for this kind of study. Koenig was one of the leaders in the famed Visitors were also put in French precision trade of the mid- to late touch with trends in the nineteenth century. He was also a benefi- market through a visit to ciary of the explosive growth in North the instrument shop. J.C. American teaching and student laborato- Fig. 1 Rudolph Koenig’s Atelier, 27 Quai d’Anjou, Paris. 2000. McLennan of the ries.His studio was a well-frequented desti- Photo by Author. University of Toronto nation for North American scientists who learned from Koenig in were on buying trips,or simply journeys to chasing trip to Europe in 1878.In fact,these 1898 that Carpentier (a maker of precision Europe to keep up with current develop- demonstrations had a profound impact on electrical instruments) was really the only ments (Fig.1).A number of well-document- Loudon’s administrative struggles to found good one left in Paris.The rest were found ed visits to his shop reveal much about his a student laboratory. in Germany,the emerging centre of the pre- business, and the French instrument trade On learning that our Chancellor (William Blake) cision instrument trade. The workshop, 4 in general. [The second Premier of Ontario] and Vice- therefore, was a window into the shifting commercial and even national trends in sci- Even early in his career, we find that good Chancellor C.T. Moss were in Paris at the same time, Dr. Koenig invited us all to a scientific ence.10 demonstrations were an important part of séance at his place where we witnessed many of doing business. L’Abbé Hamel of the his most beautiful acoustical experiments…The Loudon made three more visits to Paris in Séminaire de Quebec lived in Paris in the success of this séance was not without its influ- the following years, but during his busiest 1850s during what one could call an ence in interesting the chancellor and the Vice period of buying instruments in the 1880s, extended purchasing trip for the Séminaire Chancellor in the development of experimental he, in fact, hired Koenig as his agent.As a and other Quebec lycées.5 Before he science at the University of Toronto.7 trusted agent Koenig was able to take returned home in late 1858 there was a flur- Loudon would become one of Koenig’s Loudon into the world that the average pur- ry of buying activity, and Koenig, who had best customers and the builder of one of chasers did not know about – delays, bad just started his business, was one of those the more ambitious student laboratories in accounting,needless instruments,etc.When visited by Hamel.A follow-up letter from North America in the last quarter of the asked for his advice in equipping a new Koenig in early 1859 reminded Hamel of nineteenth century. electrical cabinet in the late 1880s Koenig the demonstrations he had found particu- advised Loudon not to be hasty. larly attractive during his visit and Koenig Agents played a major role in the purchase listed the instruments that could be pur- of instruments in the nineteenth century. In seeing the enormous quantity of electrical instruments that already exist, and that will chased in order to reproduce these demon- We learn of Koenig’s opinion of them dur- always be growing, one can no longer know 6 strations at the Séminaire. ing Loudon’s first visit. where true science ends and simple industry begins.11 James Loudon of the University of Toronto On arriving at Dr.Koenig’s place,his first expres- greatly appreciated the vital importance of sion was one of delight that I had come unac- He suggested going to a handful of makers Koenig’s demonstrations on his first pur- companied by a commissioner (who it appeared for a wise selection of instruments.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 23 As a veteran of the Paris instrument trade Koenig provided details from the inside,not accessible to the average North American visitor.The famous Brunner brothers, who made precision instruments for astronomy, geodesy, and meteorology were, according to Koenig,‘maniacs’,and he was anxious to terminate his business dealings with them. Jules Carpentier, the precision electrical instrument maker,was ‘very rich and a con- structor by preference rather than to make money’. Koenig valued instrument makers like himself who strove for quality and worked from pure motives. One maker whom he did not name and who was con- structing a precision lathe for Loudon was referred to as a ‘mechanician who works a little more like an artist than as a trades- man’.Alvergniat,who made glass apparatus for laboratories (e.g. precision thermome- ters, hydrometers, and mercury vacuum pumps),was disorganized.Koenig had to go through his books methodically to save Loudon from being cheated;he finally gave up on ‘this totally detestable atelier’. Laurent, the famous optician, does ‘great work’, wrote Koenig, but he is very busy and ordering from him ‘will be like playing roulette’.The Seguy brothers, according to Koenig, made Geissler tubes ‘with love’.12 The only known description of Koenig’s workshop comes from a visit by D.C.Miller of Case University in the 1890s. He found Koenig’s apartment at 27 Quai d’Anjou to Fig.2 Meridian Circle with Five-Foot Telescope, Troughton & Simms, London, 1854.Dartmouth be part showroom, part laboratory, part College. workshop, and part living quarters.Tuning forks and other apparatus filled shelves and 13 lined the walls. This was in contrast to the listed the need for instruments in mechan- Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, Halle, Leipzig, majority of makers, such as Duboscq, who ics,hydrostatics,pneumatics,frictional elec- Münich, several places in Switzerland, the separated their workshops (ateliers), show tricity, magneto-electricity, projection, and south of France and back to London, 14 rooms (boutiques), and living quarters. meteorology. Glasgow and Edinburgh. They spent the In acoustics, we are entirely deficient in appara- longest period in Paris, over three weeks. The Purchasing Trip of Ira and Charles took many detours to tour sites, Charles Young, 1853 tus. On account of its expense, I have hitherto deferred purchasing a complete set for illustrat- while his father conducted business.They The 1853 purchasing trip of Charles and Ira ing the laws of sound, and their applications in returned to America in September. In total Young of Dartmouth College is extraordi- the construction of musical instruments. Costs they spent $3,750 on books, $2,530 on nary for its detailed descriptions of well- in Paris about one hundred and fifty dollars. apparatus, $160 on freight charges, and known European shops. Ira was a fifty-two $1,960 in expenses. The building of the For Optics,his case was even more clear,as year-old professor of Natural Philosophy.His observatory cost $4,800, and was not fully these instruments were ‘expensive and nineteen year-old son,Charles,was a recent completed until September 1854.17 many of them can be only obtained by graduate of the College and would later Fortunately,Charles recorded the events of importation’.A new solar microscope, for become a pioneer in solar astronomy and his trip in a journal.18 In addition, many of example, astrophysics. Dartmouth had a fairly good the instruments he purchased survive today collection of instruments dating to the is almost indispensable.The old one procured at in the Dartmouth Collection of Historic founding of the College in 1769, but second-hand almost forty years ago,is so inferior Instruments.The Observatory still stands, spurred by the example of other American an instrument and with all so much injured, as with a new dome added in the mid-1960s. schools Ira wanted to update and revitalize to be scarcely decent for our use. Unfortunately,because Charles was not yet Dartmouth’s natural philosophy course Schools were competing with each other in Europe to keep his diary, there is not with new books, apparatus, and an obser- regarding the development of physical cab- much information on the London part of vatory. He was aided in his mission by inets at this time, and Ira noted that this their purchasing activities.The largest pur- George Shattuck (Dartmouth 1803), a new collection (costing nearly $2,800) plus chase of the entire trip, at $1,400, howev- wealthy Boston physician.Shattuck gave the the already existing collection would still er, was in London from Troughton and College over $9,000, on the condition that ‘fall considerably short of what already has Simms for the transit telescope.19 This the Board of Trustees provided an addition- been expended by Amherst for similar pur- instrument did not arrive until 1854. It sur- al $4,000.15 16 poses’. vives today in the observatory,still in excel- In a letter to Shattuck of October 1852, Ira With the money secured,Ira left in April and lent condition (Fig. 2). It has two circular made his case especially for money for spent time in England making plans for the reading scales,a separate striding level,and instruments so as ‘to render our instruction observatory. Charles followed in May and is mounted on two granite piers,which rest most efficient and useful to our pupils’. He they both traveled to Paris, Brussels, on bed rock. Charles’s only mention of a

24 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Left: Fig. 3 Vibrating Plate with Pasteboard Resonator.Marloye et cie, Paris. 1853. Dartmouth College.

Above: Fig. 4 Nobili Galvanometer.Breguet, Paris, 1853. Dartmouth College.

London maker related to their purchase of world are made. We found him very kind. He tance of the Parisian precision trade at this two barometers,a standard Fortin type and showed us all about his establishment. I saw period. Their days started with a visit to a mountain barometer from the shop of there in one drawer 7 large object glasses,one of their agents—Hector Bossange and Sons, John Newman.At the end of the summer he 14 in aperture (French = 15 eng) – 1 of 9, 1 of 7 for instruments, and Mr. Durand for books. ?, 1 of 7, 1 of 6, 1 of 5 ? & 1 of 5; besides these had to return to London to collect these there were in the same room two other large Bossange, whose offices were located at instruments, one of which (the Fortin telescopes, with their object glasses in place, 1 Quai Voltaire, near the Institute and within barometer) still remains in the Dartmouth of 12 in aperture,& 1 of 9.I shall never see such walking distance of several instrument Collection. Perhaps Newman could not a collection again. shops, seems to have been a well-known insure their safe and timely delivery, so agent in Paris as we find his services being Young decided to carry them himself on He showed us in the mechanical part some fine used by other notable North Americans lathes, all made in Münich by different makers: 25 the return trip across the Atlantic ‘as it is he mentioned as at present, Messrs. Meinhart, & such as Joseph Henry and l’Abée Hamel. very necessary to have someone with them also Maffei.The lathes have all a very solid frame- At the top of the Young’s list, around the who will see to their management’.20 work of wood, otherwise much like ours, possi- corner from Durand’s office near the bly rather more simple.They are all driven either The descriptions of the various makers’ by foot,or by a large wheel turned by a crank by Pantheon,was the famous acoustical maker workshops are one of the more valuable hand. His gear cutting engines are very peculiar, Albert Marloye, where the Youngs made at features of Charles’s diary. They include in having a divided circle to take the place of our least two visits and bought $170 worth of things that were not mentioned in cata- plate-full-of-holes, which answers the same pur- apparatus. They bought some classic logues or articles, such as the tools used, pose; & also in an apparatus to alter the angle & demonstration pieces such as the vibrating helping us piece together the material con- form of the teeth. His grinding & polishing plate with resonator (Fig. 3).The resonator text of instrument making. In Berlin, for machinery is very simple, mostly of wood.The was made of pasteboard, a common mate- example, they visited the workshop of grinder is fixed, the lens movable, & the same in rial used to make early cylindrical resonat- Pistor and Martins (surveying,astronomical polishing,except that the polisher revolves rapid- ing chambers.The stand was made from a ly.He employs 42 workman, 38 on the mechani- and physical instruments) where cal & optical part here, & 4 at the foundry at dense, richly coloured wood, needed for steadying the vibrating apparatus, but also we saw some very fine instruments, but found Benedict Bay among the mountains 80 miles difficulty in conversing.His workshops are large. from here.22 reflecting the ornamental purpose of many of Marloye’s instruments. Part of Marloye’s All the lathes etc. as far as I saw driven by hand. Charles made particular note that the lath- Nothing looking very extraordinary.21 success was, like Koenig’s, his demonstra- es were operated by hand or foot,opposed tions that for Americans transcended the Charles was more impressed by his visit to to the water or steam driven lathes found sometimes awkward language barriers. In the workshop of Georg Merz, the world- in more advanced machine shops at the this way, we see the importance of instru- renowned optician and successor to time,especially around New Hampshire and ments in transmitting ideas beyond the spo- Fraunhofer in Munich. Here we are given a Vermont.23 But such an arrangement was ken or written word. On June 21st Charles rare glimpse of Merz’s shop from the per- common among instrument makers who records that they spent the day buying spective of a future astronomer. Especially were generally conservative and clung to books and apparatus, at Durand’s and important is the information about the tools tradition, not wanting to invest in new and Marloye’s. used,the number of workers employed,and expensive infrastructure.24 the instruments that were being construct- He [Marloye] is a pleasant old gentleman about ed. Paris 60,a member of the institute,& red ribbon wear- er, and though he can understand no word of We afterwards went to Merz’s optical institute, It was in Paris that Ira and Charles spent English, written or spoken, he very kindly where so many of the great telescopes of the most of their time, reflecting the impor- showed us many very interesting experiments

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 25 upon sound, with his different apparatus. It was a pretty serious trial for my French, but I suc- ceeded in making myself understood & under- standing him much better than I had feared.26 Purchasing records offer an obvious advan- tage in dating specific instruments.A tun- ing fork in Dartmouth’s collection from Marloye’s shop,for example,can tell us a lot about the material foundations of precision tuning at mid-century,before the standard- ization of pitch.The fork is of medium grade steel with some corrosion.A recent x-ray micro-analysis of the constituents has revealed that it contains approximately one percent carbon by weight with the rest being iron. Because of the accuracy of the purchasing date, one can compare this to later forks made by other makers such as Koenig to determine changes in the quality of materials, manufacturing processes, and design.27 There were several visits to each shop,first for a quick survey, and later for more care- ful consideration.They visited Deubreuil, Duboscq, Nachet, Deleuil, Chevalier, Fig. 5 Spherometer,‘J. Duboscq-Soleil’, Paris, 1853. Dartmouth College. Lerebours and Secretan,and Godot.28 From Breguet, who was at this time devoting his efforts to telegraphy, they purchased a Nobili type galvanometer.This instrument survives today and is a rare example of Breguet’s work in this area (Fig.4).They vis- ited the shop of Gambey,the maker of high quality dividing engines. In the PM we called on Gambey but did not find him in. He has a large shop with some very nice lathes and planing machines.His dividing engine I did not see.29 Again, this account provides the elusive knowledge of the machines one found in Gambey’s shop. Lucky buyers witnessed demonstrations of the making of the instruments, possibly Fig. 6 Rigault Label on receiving some souvenirs.The same morn- the Bottom of Wooden ing they visited Gambey they dropped in Spherometer Platform. on Perreau Dartmouth College. who rules the fine lines on glass.He seems to be a very ingenious man, & is certainly a very nice reputation. acquired the workshop for scientific instru- workman, & though he can not speak English at ments,while Henri acquired the workshop all,he was very earnest in showing & explaining This evening, at Mr. Duboscq’s I have been see- for the production of optical glasses and to us…We saw him rule some fine lines on glass ing the finest optical experiments I ever saw.He several specimens of which he gave us. used the electric light,with his own arrangement crystal.This division is nicely represented for keeping the charcoal points at the same dis- by Dartmouth’s polarizing apparatus signed These demonstrations were especially inter- tance apart….His experiments were many of ‘J. Duboscq-Soleil’, the crystal samples esting to Charles who was now able to see them magnificent, especially in polarization. He framed in cork were signed ‘Soleil’.In later the, until then, hidden processes and the showed one experiment which pleased me years, the instruments were simply signed, machines underlying the famed final prod- much. It consisted in making the light pass into ‘J.Duboscq’.From Charles’s account we see ucts. & through a stream,or rather jet of water,flowing that Duboscq was clearly better known out of one side of a vessel.The water was full of than H. Soleil. The machine with which he does it is very sim- light from one end to the other, & the light was ple, but beautiful. It is a screw over 2 ft long, & dispersed where the water dashed.32 The surviving instruments also convey about ? of an inch in diameter,with threads about information about the operation of the 1/50 of an inch apart, 1/ millimeter exactly.30 2 All of the Duboscq’s instruments are signed Duboscq-Soleil enterprise at the time of the The majority of their visits were to Jules ‘J.Duboscq-Soleil’which reflected the short purchase.A spherometer,for example,rests Duboscq, the famous optician, successor transition period when Duboscq had taken under a glass dome on a wooden platform and son-in-law to Soleil.31 They spent $330 over his father in-law’s firm following the made by a glass blower named Rigault,who at his shop.This is the largest part of the sur- latter’s retirement in 1851. Both Duboscq worked at 16 rue Guénéaud (Figs 5and 6). viving 1853 collection at Dartmouth, and and Henri Soleil (son of J.B.F.) took over the There is also a hand-engraved signature on we get a hint from one of Charles’s descrip- business at Rue de l’Odéon, but they ran the brass stopper that fits on the central tions of how Duboscq maintained his separate parts of the company. Jules adjustable screw. It reads ‘roger Mathieu,

26 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 14. Paolo Brenni, ‘Soleil, Duboscq, and their Successors’, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 51 (1996), pp. 7-16. 15.John King Lord,A History of Dartmouth College, 1815-1909, (Concord, N.H.: The Rumford Press, 1913), pp. 286-289; 607-609. 16.Sanborn C.Brown and Leonard M.Rieser,Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth: From Surveyors’ Chains to the Pressure of Light, (Hanover,New Hampshire: The University Press of New England,1974),pp.51- 54. For more on the Amherst Collection,see Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., ‘Collection Profile: Visits to Apparatus Collections III – Amherst College’, Rittenhouse, 15, issue 53, (2001), pp. 39-46. 17.Ira Young,‘Report on the Purchase of Books and Apparatus in Europe’, Dartmouth College Archives, Ira Young Papers, (1853).Also see Lord, p. 289. 18.Charles A.Young,‘Diary of Trip to Europe,1853’, Dartmouth College Archives, Charles A. Young Fig. 7 Spherometer Screw, ‘roger Mathieu, 7 Notes and References Papers, (1853). rue s. Severin, 1853’ Dartmouth College. 1.This article is based on a paper delivered at the 19. Ira Young,‘Report’, (1853). XXI International Scientific Instrument Symposium, Athens, Greece. Sept 9-16, 2002. Special thanks to 20. Charles A.Young,‘Diary 1853’, p. 145. Paolo Brenni, Michael Wright and Julian Holland for 21. Ibid., p. 77. their helpful comments following the presentation 22. Ibid., pp. 93-94. of this paper. It is part of a larger project that I am currently researching and writing on the purchas- 23.These types of machines are well represented at 7 rue s. Severin, 1853’ (Fig. 7). Mr. Mathieu ing trips of North American scientists in the nine- the American Precision Museum in Windsor, most likely made precision screws for teenth century. Vermont, now the largest collection of historic pre- Duboscq and other makers. His signature cision machine tools in the United States. It was 2. James A. Bennett,‘Shopping for Instruments in once home to the famous Robbins & Lawrence signifies the ‘dispersed factory’ run by Paris and London’, in Pamela H. Smith and Paula Armory dating back to 1846. See www.precision- instrument makers at this time. It also tells Findlen, eds, Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, museum.org us that his work was valued enough to Science and Art in Early Modern Europe (New York: London: Routledge, 2002), pp. 370-395. In the 24. Paolo Brenni,‘L’industria degli strumenti scien- make his own personal mark on the instru- tifici in Francia nel XVIII e XIX secolo’, in ment.Both Rigault and Mathieu were locat- United States, Joseph Henry provided a detailed diary of his trip to Europe in 1837. See Bruce G.L’E.Turner, ed. Gli strumenti, (Turin: Einaudi, ed on the left bank a short walk from the Sinclair, ‘Americans Abroad: Science and Cultural 1991), pp. 450-463. Duboscq workshop. Nationalism in the Early Nineteenth Century’ in 25.See Joseph Henry Papers, Smithsonian Institution The Mathieu screw and other materials Nathan Reingold,ed.,The Sciences in the American Archives, Washington D.C., and Thomas Etienne from this trip take us down into the streets Context: New Perspectives (Washington D.C.: Hamel Papers, Archives du Séminaire de Quebec, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979).Also see Brian Quebec City. of Paris, where we can retrace the experi- Gee,‘Joseph Henry’s Trade with Instruments:Makers 26. Charles A.Young,‘Diary 1853’, p. 34. ences of makers and consumers,and broad- in London and Paris’, Bulletin of the Scientific en our view of scientific culture in the nine- Instrument Society no. 25, (1990). pp. 19-24. 27. David Pantalony. Article in progress, ‘Tuning Production Means Tuning the World: Rudolph teenth century. North American science 3.To this end, Dartmouth College is hosting a con- Koenig and the History of the Standard Tuning Fork’. would have developed much differently if ference in 2004 related to hidden university collec- the purchasers had simply stayed at home tions. See www.dartmouth.edu/~mundi 28.For more details on all of the major French mak- ers see,Paolo Brenni,‘19th Century French Scientific and ordered from catalogues or worked 4. For more on Koenig, see David A. Pantalony, Instrument Makers’, Bulletin of the Scientific through agents. Charles Young’s visit to Rudolph Koenig (1832-1901), Hermann von Instrument Society, Nos 38-51,(1993-1996).Also see Merz, for example, was a formative experi- Helmholtz (1821-1894) and the Birth of Modern Deborah Jean Warner,‘French Instruments in the ence that would guide and inform his later Acoustics. Ph.D.Thesis,(University of Toronto,2002). United States’, Rittenhouse, 8, (1993), pp. 1-32. interactions with makers such as Clark and Also see Paolo Brenni,‘The Triumph of Experimental Sons of Cambridge.33 Likewise,a large part Acoustics:Albert Marloye (1795-1874) and Rudolph 29. Charles A.Young,‘Diary 1853’, p. 41.According of being a maker entailed entertaining Koenig (1832-1901)’, Bulletin of the Scientific to Brenni, Gambey died in 1847 and the shop was clients,which would have a large influence Instrument Society, No. 44 (1995), pp. 13-17. actually run by his widow and brother at this time. Paolo Brenni,‘H-P Gambey’,Bulletin of the Scientific on the nature and direction of their enter- 5. Paul Carle, Le Cabinet de Physique et Instrument Society, no 38, (1993), pp. 11-13. prise. We find that they also spent much l’Enseignement des Sciences au Canada Francais: time managing money, material resources Le Cas du Seminaire de Quebec et de l’Universite 30. Charles A.Young,‘Diary 1853’, p. 40. and labour that had a significant impact on Laval (1663-1920). Ph.D. Thesis, (Universite de 31. For a complete history of this firm, see Brenni, the development of instruments and prac- Montreal, 1986). ‘Duboscq’ (note 28 for 1996). tice.Take, for example, Rudolph Koenig’s 6. Letter from Rudolph Koenig to l’Abbé Hamel, Feb 32. Charles A.Young,‘Diary 1853’, p. 45. 28,1859.Archives du Séminaire de Quebec,77,no.92. struggles in 1859 to make the original res- 33.Young worked directly with Clark and Sons on 34 onators for Helmholtz. He first went to a 7.James Loudon,‘Memoirs’,unpublished manuscript several projects,including the making of his famous glass blower who failed in the commission, in the University of Toronto Archives,Loudon Papers multi-prism spectroscope.See Deborah Jean Warner, and then made them himself, first of glass (1916), p. 40. Alvan Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics. (Washington and then brass. One wonders how these 8. Ibid. D.C.:Smithsonian Institution Press,1968),pp.49-50. seemingly common activities shaped the 9. Pantalony (note 4), p. 47. 34. Pantalony (note 4), pp. 92-97. creation of the standard resonator, and in 10. Ibid., p. 45. turn the theory of resonance, which has Author’s address: been such a fundamental concept in mod- 11. Ibid., pp. 38-39. Dartmouth College ern physics. Purchasing trips provide one 12. Ibid., pp. 37-40. Department of Physics and Astronomy of the more fruitful means for uncovering 13. D.C. Miller, Anecdotal History of the Science of 6127 Wilder Laboratory this hidden, yet vital world. Sound. (New York: MacMillan Company,1935). Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 27 AMATEUR PAGE The ‘Zig-Zag’ Microscope Dave L. Hirsch

In most modern microscopes,rack and pin- were placed between the leaf pairs at the ion arrangements raise and lower the body centre of each span to minimize backlash tube and/or the stage to achieve course and to assure an equal amount of deflection adjustment. For fine adjustment, some vari- for each span. ation of a micrometer screw may apply. Other methods for fine adjustment were The spring leaf assembly fits on a vertical featured in some 19th century microscopes, retaining shaft which serves to keep the two of which are described below. leaves in mutual alignment.A knurled,inter- nally threaded adjustment thimble assem- The stage detail of a Chevalier stand signed: Fig. 1 Stage detail of a bled to the top of the retaining shaft raises ‘C.W.Dixeys’ is shown in Fig. 1.A spring Chevalier stand signed:‘C.W. and lowers the complex.The top and bot- loaded adjustment screw is secured Dixeys’. tom leaf elements remain parallel to each beneath the lower right hand portion of the other as deflection occurs.The retaining lower stage assembly.The upper stage por- shaft is assembled to a 0.5 in.knurled brass tion includes a pair of attached guide pins post allowing the instrument to be hand which pass freely through, and are moved held. parallel to the lower stage by means of the adjustment screw. The surfaces of the upper end of the post and the lower end of the adjustment thim- A second fine focus scheme was used on a ble are spherical to assure smooth and con- c. 1909 Leitz compound monocular micro- tinuous contact with the faying spring blade scope.This stand is shown on page 122 of surfaces during flexure. A slotted detent the Billings Microscope Collection.The fine secured to the upper part of the post pre- focusing portion shown here in Fig. 2 uti- Fig. 2 Detail of fine focus vents the spring assembly from rotating.The lizes parallel linkages which connect the with parallel linkages. post has an internal thread on the bottom post to the body tube assembly.The link- to which a removable pedestal base was ages remain parallel to each other as the added. body tube is raised or lowered by means of the knurled knob atop the post.The body The microscope was fitted to accommodate tube is at a maximum distance from the two-types of magnification systems.The first post when the linkages are horizontal. attachment, shown in Fig. 4, uses an early When the linkages are above or below hor- Bausch & Lomb magnifier containing three izontal, the body tube moves towards the fold out lenses.Various combinations of the arm. All portions of the specimen will three lenses yield seven magnifications, from 5x to 20x.A removable brass mount- remain in focus but the optical centre will Fig. 3 Brass ‘zig-zag’ strip. be longitudinally displaced. ing assembly secures the magnifier to the upper blade. Further literature search might reveal other joined at one end and forced together to For the second attachment, a search mechanisms for fine focusing but curiosity grasp and hold objects with the other end. through my cache of random objects besets us and we go forth in search of that How could the flexing action of the forceps brought forth a lens module which once ‘better mousetrap’. Let us, therefore, pro- blades apply in the development of a focus- served as part of the telescopic eyepiece pose yet another version of a fine focusing ing mechanism for a microscope? Our assembly in a long defunct surveyors instru- system. objective (no pun intended) was to devise ment.The 2in. long x 0.5 in. diameter mod- a configuration whereby the (forceps) tips The project started some years ago during ule was converted into a 30x microscope were constrained to move toward each a romp through a local scrap metal yard. as shown in Fig.5.The ocular and objective other in a mutually straight paths. The shed containing metal cutoffs and roll are held in the tube by a friction fit, allow- ends yielded a metallic treasure weighing To illustrate the concept, a brass strip was ing the lens assemblies to slide in and out about 2 stone;a coil of half hard strip brass, bent into a ‘zig-zag’ configuration with the for varying the magnification. 0.030 in. thick x 0.375 in. wide. For several four sections set parallel to one another as The one-inch diameter stage is made of years the coil reposed in my garage along shown in Fig.3.Applying a force (f) at dis- brass. It is assembled to a mounting screw with other ‘might need it some day’ trea- tance (a/2) causes all four sections to flex which provides for vertical positioning to sures. Eventually, the brass took on a nice the same amount. By such flexing, the free accommodate various sizes of specimens. patina. ends of the configuration are constrained to move parallel to each other, providing Brainstorms occurred from time to time, A further incursion into my treasure chest the basis for a fine focusing mechanism. suggesting applications which could utilize of fragmented vintage instrumentation brought forth a 19th century gimbaled sub- the brass strip.The dimensions of the mate- To enhance stability and control, the con- stage mirror mount,lacking a mirror.A short rial, along with the physical properties of tinuous shape of the single strip design was focal length lens added to the mount yield- brass, such as springiness, led to the devel- modified.Two leaves were used in each arm ed a bulls-eye condenser. The resultant opment of forceps. Over two dozens for- instead of one continuous brass strip for the assembly fitted into a block mounted on a ceps of various configurations came into entire body.The increased stiffness of this rod which, in turn, was fitted into a rotat- being. Serendipity then kicked in, leading arrangement resulted in a higher spring rate able collar on the upper part of the post. to the development of a fine focusing sys- and smoother action. Spacers joining the This arrangement afforded maximum tem for microscopes. leaves were sized to allow for optimum dis- adjustability of the bulls-eye. placement of the end leaves and at the What then, is the connection between for- same time, assuring a minimal assembled ceps and microscopes? Design-wise, a for- To wind up this project, a compact carry- height of the configuration. Coil springs ceps is essentially a pair of flat (leaf) springs ing case was built. Finding lumber for the

28 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) A 19th Century Japanese Camera Obscura Francis J Manasek

Hokusai’s Fugaku Hyakkei, (‘Hundred Views of Fuji’) is a series of one hundred and two single and double-page woodblock printed images (single page image size Fig.4 ‘Zig-zag’ focusing with Bausch approximately 18 x 12.6 cm), & Lomb magnifier. each showing Mt. Fuji viewed from a unique perspective. Each image was printed from more than one woodblock. The black (key) block was printed first and subsequent impressions from other blocks supplied the various tones of grey. Considered one of Hokusai’s masterpieces, the work appeared in three small woodblock-printed books,the Fig. 5 ‘Zig-zag’ focusing with 30x first two appearing in 1834 microscope. and 1835, respectively. The date for the appearance of third volume is less certain, but possibly c.1849.The work was reprinted several times, using the original blocks well into the Meiji Period. Each of the images in the first two vol- umes of Fugaku Hyakkei iden- tifies the woodblock carver. This information is lacking in Fig. 6 Microscope and accessories Volume III,which contains the in new carrying case. present image,but it is likely that they were Fig. 1 Woodblock of the upside down image done either by Egaro Sentaro, or by a team of Mt.Fuji projected by a camera obscura in case was the first order of business.By-pass- working under him.1 Hokusai’s Fugaku Hyakkei. ing the local timber yard, I searched through my cornucopia of random objects The subject matter accompanying the for suitable wood pieces.A thick piece of image of Fuji varied widely. One of the maple, formerly the seat portion of a plates that has always intrigued me is illus- defunct kitchen chair,served as the timber trated in Figure 1.2 The image of Fuji source.That portion which wasn’t convert- appears projected onto a paper screen.This lapping image of Fuji is unclear.The open- ed into sawdust and wood chips evolved is an inadvertent camera obscura.A small ing in the shutter may be acting as a dou- into a fitted carrying case enhanced by hole in a window shutter (pointed to by the ble pinhole.It could also result from a single brass hardware as shown in Fig.6. servant with the mop) acts as a pinhole and pinhole,but with the image appearing first the viewers react with amazement. The In closing, we note that the seed of an idea on the paper on the far side of the translu- lower-class servant, not in view of his mas- can lie dormant for years along with mate- cent screen,and then also on the paper cov- rials which may be on hand while waiting ters, exhibits a very self-satisfied smile! ering the near side,hence there are two off- for the ‘right idea’ to germinate.Any ‘pack According to Smith,the phenomenon of the set images. rat’ worth his salt is reluctant to dispose of projected Fuji had been observed before, materials which, for the time being, may but nobody had attempted to provide an have little utility.These same materials can explanation. Japan, under the Tokugawa Notes suddenly take on high value as candidates Shogunate was not noted for technological 1. Henry Smith, Hokusai One Hundred for integral parts of an end product. innovation, but by the late 18th century Views of Mt. Fuji (New York: George Fragmented ideas come together, forming (Western calendar) several European ency- Braziller, 1988) the concept.With a nip and a tuck here and clopedias had been translated into there, we cut and try until everything falls 2. Illustration from the author’s collection. Japanese, and published with accompany- into place and finally, are blessed with another innovative hunk of hardware to ing woodblock illustrations copying the European copperplates. Perhaps Hokusai Author’s address: fondle and fawn over.We had fun and in Dartmouth passing, may have learned a thing or two. learned of the camera obscura from one of these,or,as Smith suggests,from the writer Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments Author’s address: Takizawa Bakin, who had written of this 6127 Wilder Hall, Dartmouth College 11815 Indianapolis Street phenomenon. Hanover, NH 03755, USA Los Angeles, CA 90066-2046, USA e-mail: e-mail: [email protected] The reason Hokusai shows a double, over- [email protected]

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 29 The Several Faces of Earth Induction

Deborah Warner, Roger Sherman, and Klaus Hentschel

Michael Faraday’s discovery that the mag- to go was with multiple coils which would netic field of the earth would induce an form a ‘battery’. At this point he associated electric current in a rotating coil of wire led himself with a certain Santi-Linari,who had other physicists to repeat his work and seek 1 served as a professor at the Collegio ways to magnify his results. Some physi- Tolomei in Siena before coming to Naples cists used earth induction to produce elec- on account of an eye disorder. Santi-Linari trical effects suitable for demonstration or had made a name for himself by being the research purposes. Others used earth first to generate an electric spark from the induction to determine magnetic dip. torpedo fish. One strand of the story begins with The two physicists had their batteria-elec- Leopoldo Nobili,Professor of Physics at the tro-tellurica constructed by a ‘clever Ducal Museum in Florence, and his col- mechanician’, Bonaventura Bandieri, and league Vincenzio Antinori, who used coils announced it in 1840. In many respects it of various sizes. Even with the largest coil, Fig.1 Palmieri earth inductor signed “Angelo resembled Botto’s machine, which they do 1 however, 10 /2 feet in diameter, the results Sonda Padova” now in the Museum of the not mention. The original model consisted were not impressive. This was a time when, History of Physics at the University of Padua. of several iron cylinders,each with three or by using other ways of generating electric- Sonda served as mechanic at the University four layers of windings, all connected in ity,such as induction from permanent mag- of Padua from 1843 to 1870. series and mounted on an axis. At first, it nets and electromagnets, physicists found could do no more than deflect the gal- themselves able to produce, in each case, vanometer needle, but by increasing the galvanometer deflections,chemical decom- speed of rotation with a mechanism such position, shocks, and sparks. The consis- as that used in the magneto generator of tency of these results was confirming physi- Clarke, the Italian physicists expected to cists in the belief that all electricity,no mat- produce other effects.4 ter how it might be generated, was funda- mentally the same. Thus there seemed to Their second batteria,announced in 1842, be little point in trying to put induction had ten elements made from sections of from terrestrial magnetism to any of the gun barrels,a high-speed pulley drive,and a tests more difficult than the capability of set of slip-rings (not a commutator). It gave affecting a galvanometer, since that test it electric shocks and decomposed water,and barely passed.2 earned Palmieri and Santi-Linari a grant of 200 ducats from the Royal Academy of Giuseppe Domenico Botto, a professor of Sciences of Naples.5 After Bandieri physics at the University of Turin, took up equipped the machine with a gear drive, it Fig.2 Delezenne circle marked ‘JAS.W.QUEEN the challenge in 1834. No doubt inspired finally made sparks,on December 16,1844. & CO. MAKERS PHILA’. This was used at by the great increases in effect in other Palmieri concluded, induction experiments brought about by Franklin College in Indiana, and is now in introducing soft iron rods and armatures, the National Museum of American History, With our battery we thus obtain all the main phe- Botto built an earth induction apparatus cat. no. PH*337246. A similar instrument nomena that are produced by the magnet,and it that relied on large iron bars. With it he was shown in James W.Queen & Co., Priced and is of such a design that its power can be 6 able to deflect the galvanometer needle,and Illustrated Catalogue of Physical Instruments increased indefinitely. then to decompose water.3 and School Apparatus (Philadelphia, 1874), Although Palmieri suggested that a machine p. 99, is described as an ‘Induction The most successful Italian investigator was of this kind, with two or three iron tubes, Apparatus. To show the induction arising would be ‘perfectly sufficient to demon- Luigi Palmieri, a professor of physics at the from the action of the earth’. University of Naples who worked on elec- strate the principal induction phenomena tricity and magnetism and,later,volcanoes. of terrestrial magnetism’ and thus suitable for a cabinet de physique, we have found Palmieri began by repeating and varying was developed, destroyed, or reversed no evidence that such machines were ever Nobili’s experiments. He started with small according to their orientation in the field. put on the market. helices wound on wooden cylinders, veri- He then considered that since, in electro- fying Nobili’s findings as to the direction of magnetic experiments,the effects are great- Yet there remained more to do. The batte- the induced currents. He then tested the ly amplified when soft iron cores or arma- ria-electro-tellurica relied on its soft iron effects of varying the size and shape of the tures are used instead of empty coils, the cylinders:the induction was only indirectly coil and the positioning of the axis of rota- same should be true with induction by ter- from the earth’s magnetic field,as amplified tion,endeavoring to deduce the laws of the restrial magnetism. He accordingly by the field of the cylinders. To secure the phenomena. Using a hoop three feet in replaced his wooden cylinders with iron position of telluric induction firmly in the diameter, he added more and more wind- ones,‘and the experiment corresponded structure of electromagnetic theory,it was ings, getting stronger currents, but after a marvelously to our expectation’. A winding necessary to show that the standard evi- certain point, the increase failed to be pro- on a small iron cylinder gave a much greater dences of electricity could also be pro- portional to the increase in the length of effect than a much larger open coil. duced by it without the help of soft iron. wire. Nobili had started to do this, but gave up, Palmieri then asked himself how he could finding the effects were weak. Palmieri considered the analogies with the increase the effects still more. First he phenomena of induction from magnets,and worked on the optimal proportions of the Palmieri applied himself again to this prob- concluded that his helices in the earth’s core and the disposition of the winding. He lem, which had occupied him before he magnetic field behaved as if they contained then decided that simply making the appa- devised the batteria-electro-tellurica. Those cylinders of soft iron, in which magnetism ratus larger would not be practical;the way early experiments had suggested that the

30 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Fig. 4 This earth inductor uses an acoustic method to find the position of minimum induced current: the clicking in the telephone receiver is no longer audible when the axis of the coil coincides with the direction of the earth’s magnetic field. From G. Meyer ‘Eine neue Methode, die Inclination und die Horizontalintensität des Erdmagnetismus zu messen’, Annalen der Physik 64 (1898): 742- 751, on 743. See also F.Kohlrausch, Leitfaden der praktischen Physik zunächst für das physikalische Praktikum in Göttingen, 19th ed. (Leipzig 1951), vol. 2, pp. 118f.

A slightly different instrument–with a cir- Fig. 3 Wilhelm Weber’s 1853 Induktions-Magnetometer. Fig. 1: Vertical cross-section of the cular coil rotating around a horizontal inductor. A: form for the coil. c: wooden disc with grooves for wires coming from coil. d, d´: axis–was also available. German dealers at brass pins serving as axis of rotation. f: brass ball with socket for supporting coil when turned the end of the century, influenced in large to have its axis of rotation vertical (resulting configuration shown in dashed outline). C: part by Müller-Pouillet’s Lehrbuch der removable level for ascertaining that axis dd´ is accurately horizontal. Fig. 2: Plan view of Physik, described this as an Erdinduktor 16 inductor coil in its horizontal position. mm: frame around coil. nn: two strong brass pins serv- nach Palmieri. Other sources credit ing as stops to limit rotation of coil to a half-turn. Fig.3: Horizontal cross-section of ballistic Delezenne with the design. The University galvanometer driven by inductor. Fig. 4: Vertical cross-section of ballistic galvanometer. of Coimbra has an instrument of this sort Between d and f: mirror. Fig. 5: Plan view of arrangement of apparatus. A: galvanometer dated 1864; here the base can be tilted to 17 telescope and scale. B: galvanometer. C: inductor. a, b, c: leveling screws. From Weber, Werke, adjust the angle of the axis of rotation. Vol.2, Pl. 9. Jules Jamin illustrated a similar instrument in the physics text that he prepared for stu- optimum form for a spinning earth induc- Pierre Daguin mentioned Palmieri’s appa- dents at the École Polytechnique.18 Another tor coil was an ellipse. Accordingly in 1845 ratus in 1860.11 form of the instrument has a driving pulley (Santi-Linari’s eye troubles by this time or gear mechanism to allow more rapid The French story of earth induction begins forced him to give up his collaboration with rotation of the circular coil. The École with Charles Delezenne, an instructor of Palmieri) he provided a simple rotating Polytechnique has an example made by physics in Lille who unveiled his cerceau elliptical coil of wire mounted so as to Louis-Clément Breguet in Paris.19 The électrique in 1845. This was a wooden revolve on its major axis, which was set Instituto Tecnico Toscano in Florence has hoop covered with several rounds of wire, perpendicular to the magnetic meridian. It one made by Ertel & Sohn in Munich.20 the ends of which were connected to a bal- was large (the major axis measured 1.2 listic galvanometer; the hoop could be Daniel Davis, Jr., an electrical apparatus meters and the minor axis measured 0.9 rotated, and its axis of rotation could itself manufacturer in Boston, mentioned earth meters) and powerful (it could create a be angled up and down, and aligned paral- induction in the first edition of his Manual modest spark, cause shocks, and decom- lel with or perpendicular to the direction of Magnetism (1842). Currents of elec- pose water).7 A copy built to Palmieri’s of magnetic dip (Fig. 2). Delezenne was tricity,he noted, may be induced in a helix specifications for Francesco Zantedeschi is probably not aware of Palmieri’s work or spiral of wire ‘by the influence of terres- now in the Museum of the History of when he began his researches, but he cer- trial magnetism’. Because of the ‘feebleness Physics at the University of Padua (Fig. 1).8 tainly was by the time he published his arti- of the action’, Davis connected the wire Carlo Matteucci,an Italian scientist who had cle.12 Lerebours et Secretan in Paris adver- with a delicate galvanometer. And,to obtain been aware of this Neapolitan work from tised a ‘Cerceau de M.Delezenne,pour don- a more ‘evident effect’, he wound the wire the start, described Palmieri’s large instru- ner naissance à un courant par l’influence around an iron core. He also used a ‘pole ment in his textbook of 1854. He also men- de la terre’in the early 1850s13,and French changer’ (what we now refer to as a com- tioned a commutator ‘similar to that in textbooks regularly included accounts and mutator),so that the current produced will Clarke’s electromagnetic machine’, by illustrations of this device.14 These circles flow in one direction.21 In his 1848 means of which the current induced by a were routinely equipped with a commuta- Catalogue of Apparatus Davis offered a full rotation of the ring ‘enters the gal- tor,a feature not found on Delezenne’s orig- $12 ‘Apparatus for showing Induction of the vanometer in the same direction’.9 inal instrument. Portuguese students could Earth’. This is similar to that shown in 1842, Leonardo Doveri presented a similar read about the apparelho de Delezenne in but has a handle to rotate the helix around account in his Elementi di Fisica (1854).10 a physics text published in 1865.15 a horizontal axis.22 Since Davis’earth induc-

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 31 Fig. 5 Weber’s großer Erdinduktor built by Meyerstein in the early 1860s. From Hermann Schreiber, Historische Gegenstände und Instrumente im Institut für Geophysik der Universität Göttingen (Göttingen, 2000), p. 21.

tion apparatus does not appear in the inven- tories of dealers who offered other Davis instruments, and since no examples of this apparatus appear to have survived, we assume that it was not particularly success- ful. Fig. 6 Top view of earth inductor based on the 1853 design of Wilhelm Weber. It is signed American instrument dealers began offer- ‘Hartmann & Braun (/) Frankfurt A/M (/) No.15’. This is not a piece of demonstration appa- ing the Delezenne apparatus in the 1870s, ratus but a precision instrument. To make observations with it, a ballistic galvanometer explaining that it was used to illustrate would be connected to the terminals of the coil. National Museum of American History cat. ‘induction by the action of the earth’.23 In no. 327,878. this period, American colleges started describing the apparatus in their well- commissioned Meyerstein to build equipped laboratories and lecture halls. The report of this work to the Literary and 25 Stevens Institute of Technology,for instance, Philosophical Society of Manchester. Joule a more finished version of the instrument [... mentioned a lived in Manchester, and was active in this with] a three-fold improvement over the earlier organization. Thompson did not, however, one, namely: 1. more even and faster rotation by Delezenne’s ring,for developing galvanic current pursue the matter–perhaps because he means of anti-friction rollers;2.greater precision from the earth’s magnetism;also,another instru- learned that Wilhelm Weber had beaten him by doubling the deflections to be measured; 3. ment of the same sort, two and a half feet in to the punch. greater precision by microscopical readings of diameter, for class illustration.24 the deflections.28 Weber was a professor of physics at the While nineteenth-century physics text- University of Göttingen and, together with As it happened, Weber never used this books in Britain, France and the U.S. rou- Gauss, an organizer of the Göttingen instrument for official geomagnetic mea- tinely note that the alignment of the earth 29 Magnetische Verein.26 He had introduced surements. induction instrument affects the magnitude his Induktions-Inklinatorium in 1838, of the induced current–if the axis of revo- In 1853,having returned to Göttingen from claiming that it offered a novel way to cir- lution of the coil is perpendicular to the political exile in Leipzig,Weber published cumvent the two main problems with dip line of terrestrial dip, the current is maxi- a description of his new and different circles:the effect of gravity,and the need to mum,while if this axis is parallel to the line Induktions-Magnetometer.30 To use it reverse the polarity of the needle.27 This of dip,no current is produced–they do not (Fig.3),he measured the successive throws instrument consisted of a copper ring rotat- suggest that these instruments might be of a ballistic galvanometer caused by pulses ed by a gear mechanism.With the axis of used to measure the dip. In retrospect, of current induced in a coil each time it was rotation horizontal and in the plane of the however,the idea seems fairly obvious. One flipped half a turn,back and forth. From the magnetic meridian,the vertical component to whom it occurred at an early date was ratio of the strength of the pulses generated of the earth’s magnetic field induced a cur- William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin),a pro- with the axis of rotation in the vertical and rent in the ring which deflected a compass fessor at the University of Glasgow. In horizontal positions,Weber calculated the needle swinging at the center of the ring. 1860,while showing his class an instrument vertical-to-horizontal ratio of the earth’s With the axis vertical, the horizontal mag- designed to illustrate ‘the induction of elec- magnetic field strength. Other experts, netic field affected the needle similarly. The tric currents by the motion of a conductor however, in later decades, preferred a null ratio of the vertical and horizontal values across the lines of terrestrial magnetic method in which the rotational axis is so obtained yielded the tangent of the angle force’,Thomson ‘perceived that its sensibil- aligned precisely in the direction of the of inclination of the earth’s magnetic field. ity was such as to promise an extremely earth’s magnetic field, causing the induced sensitive means for measuring the dip’. Moritz Meyerstein (1808-1882), mechanic current to vanish (Fig.4). In any case,earth And, although Thomson ‘had a small and and machine inspector at Göttingen inductors of Weber’s design provided the more portable instrument constructed for University, built an instrument of this sort best measurements of magnetic dip well this special purpose’, he did not return to in 1837, using components that happened into the 20th century.31 the problem until 1867, when James to be at hand (a compass, a gear mecha- The first Induktions-Magnetometer that Prescott Joule came to visit. The two old nism,and copper sheet metal for the induc- Meyerstein built for Weber, probably in friends did enough work to convince them- tor ring). Weber was pleased with this pro- 1853, has not been preserved.32 But the selves ‘that it will be quite practicable to totype: the individual readings agreed to großer Erdinduktor that he built in the improve [the device] so that it may serve within 1/2 a degree,and the final result was 1860s,on the same principles,can today be for a determination of the dip within a satisfyingly close to the dip measured by a seen (Fig.5) in the Gauß-Haus,the historic minute of an angle’. Thomson gave a brief conventional instrument. Accordingly, he

32 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) magnetic observatory that has been relo- earth inductor in 1913. Several examples were built, and remained in use for several cated to the outskirts of Göttingen on the 52 premises of the Institute for Geophysics.33 decades (Fig. 7). This instrument is aptly named. It has a coil measuring 89 cm in diameter, whose axis Notes and References of rotation is supported by a sturdy wood- 1. Michael Faraday, ‘Experimental Researches in en frame. This frame can be turned 90o on Electricity–Second Series’, Philosophical Transactions (1832),pp.63-194. News of this work a horizontal axis to turn the coil’s rotation was actually made public in late 1831. axis from horizontal to vertical, as in 2. Leopoldo Nobili and Vincenzio Antinori,‘Sopra la Delezenne’s instrument. The großer forza elletro-motrice del magnetismo’, Annali delle Erdinduktor was used for decades in the Scienze del Regno Lombardo-Veneto, 2 (1832), pp. laboratory sessions (Praktika) in physics 96-105;Annales de Chimie,48 (1832),pp.412-430; and geophysics at Göttingen University. Bibliothèque Universelle des Sciences, 49 (1832), Friedrich Kohlrausch, who taught physics pp. 127-146; Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 24 at Göttingen, discussed an instrument of Fig. 7 This earth inductor was made in the (1832), pp. 473-488; Journal für Chemie und instrument shop of the U.S. Naval Physik, 44 (1832), pp. 450-466. It appears that this this sort in his Praktische Physik. Since paper was also translated in the Philosophical Kohlrausch’s book was widely read in Observatory, and installed in the U.S.Coast & Geodetic Survey’s magnetic observatory at Magazine n.s.,11 (1832), pp. 401-413. Nobili and German as well as in translation,the instru- Antinori also published ‘Nuove esperienze elletro- ment was known to physicists around the Sitka, Alaska, in 1951. It is now in the magnetiche, e teoria fisica del magnetismo di world (Fig. 6).34 National Museum of American History; cat. rotazione’, Annali delle Scienze del Regno no. 1982.0671.01. Lombardo-Veneto, 2 (1832), pp.166-169; Annales Weber’s ideas found fertile ground with de Chimie, 50 (1832), pp. 280-304; Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 24 (1832), 621-632. Max Thomas Edelmann, an instrument tern,with very accurate adjustments;micro- maker in Munich who began in business in scope for reading angles, &c’. They also 3. Giuseppe Botto,‘Expériences sur l’action chim- 1868 and who specialized in electricity and ique des courants électriques produits par l’influ- 35 offered two types of ‘Delezenne Circle, ence du magnétisme terrestre et des aimants élec- terrestrial magnetism. Edelmann includ- Weber’s form’. One had ed a ‘Weber’s Earth Inductor, new con- trodynamiques’,Bulletin Universelle,58 (1835),pp. 200-205;English translation in American Journal of extremely accurate arrangements for setting the struction’ in the extensive exhibit that he Science, 29 (1836), pp. 369-371. coil vertically in the plane of the magnetic merid- sent to London for the Special Loan 4.Luigi Palmieri,‘Alcune esperienze di induzione del 36 ian; stand made entirely of brass; coil wound in Collection of Scientific Apparatus in 1876. magnetismo terrestre e invenzione di una batteria In 1881 he received a PhD in physics from two sections; it can be used vertically or hori- zontally. magneto-electro-tellurica’, Il progresso delle scien- the University of Jena, with a dissertation ze, delle lettere e delle arti, 27 (1840), pp. 77-90. that concerned the determination of mag- The other had a special tripod stand for set- 5.‘Relazione intorno alle nuove esperienze sull’in- netic dip by means of an improved Weber- ting the coil at any angle. Since no price duzione del magnetismo terrestre...Santi Linari e type earth inductor,with galvanometer,that was listed, we assumed that these instru- Luigi Palmieri’,Rendiconto della adunanze e de’la- he had designed, in part, for the German ments were all special order pieces.45 vori della Reale accademia delle Scienze, 1 (1842), 37 pp. 433-435. See also [Macedonio Melloni],‘Sur les arctic expedition of 1883. Edelmann’s courants d’induction provenant de l’action de la 1882 Catalog offered Weber’s Erdinductor In 1911, the editors of Terrestrial Magnetism stated clearly that, in terms of Terre’, Académie des Sciences, Paris, Comptes in two sizes: the smaller model cost 750M, Rendus, 16 (1843), pp. 1442-1444; this was reprint- and the larger cost 1200M.38 accuracy,earth inductors were far superior ed, in French, in Archives de l’Électricité, 3 (1843), to dip circles,especially on board ships and pp. 341-344, and as ‘Ueber die durch Wirkung der Heinrich Wild,a Swiss scientist who moved in fixed observatories. The best were those Erde erregten Inductionsströme: von HH. Palmieri to Russia in 1868 as a member of the made ‘by the Potsdam mechanicians’–that und Santi Linari’, Annalen der Physik, 59 (1843), Russian Academy of Sciences and director is, by Otto Toepfer & Sohn.46 The pp. 641-644. of the Royal Observatory in St.Petersburg39, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the 6. Palmieri,‘Extrait d’une lettre...à M. Le Professeur included at least two forms of Weber’s Carnegie Institution of Washington devel- De La Rive’, Archives de l’Électricité, 4 (1844), pp. Inductions-Inclinatorium in the magne- oped a new earth inductor for use at sea in 172; and ‘Continuazione delle richerche intorno ai tometeorological observatory that he estab- 1912. It has three key elements: an fenomeni d’induzione del magnetismo-terrestre’, Rendiconto della adunanze e de’lavori della Reale lished in the St. Petersburg suburb of improved gimbal stand, a means for rotat- accademia delle Scienze, 3 (1844),pp.339-342. See 40 Pavlovsk in 1876. Charles Marsh, an ing the coil without disturbing the gimbal also [Macedonio Melloni],‘Suite des expériences American who toured the major magnetic rings, and a galvanometer of sufficient sen- électriques de MM.Palmieri et Santi-Linari’,Académie facilities in Europe in the summer of 1889, sibility suitable for use at sea.47 des Sciences,Paris,Comptes Rendus, 18 (1844),pp. was particularly impressed with Pavlovsk, 762-764, reprinted as ‘Verfolg der elektrischen describing it as ‘the most complete mag- A universal magnetometer is a complex Versuche der HH.Palmieri und Santi Linari’, Annalen netic establishment in the world’. Marsh instrument combining a theodolite for der Physik, 62 (1844), pp. 285-287. also noted that ‘Earth Induction determining latitude, azimuth, and time; a 7. Palmieri,‘Nuovo apparecchio d’induzione telluri- magnetometer for declination and hori- ca’, Rendiconto della adunanze e de’lavori della Inclinometers’ furnished ‘the best method Reale accademia delle Scienze, 4 (1845), pp. 173- of dealing with the inclination and vertical zontal intensity; and a technique for dip. Heinrich Wild described a universal mag- 177; ‘Production de l’Étincelle Électrique par les force’,and the best were those designed by Courants d’Induction dus au Magnétisme Terrestre, netometer that used a dip circle in the early Sans l’Emploi du Fer Doux’, Archives de l’Électric- Wild, with ‘improvements in mechanical 48 detail’ by Edelmann.41 Wild published an 1870s. In 1879, Moritz Meyerstein ité, 5 (1845), pp. 189-190; and ‘Elektrische Funken account of the improved earth inductor at described a similar instrument designed by allein durch erdmagnetische Inductionsströme her- Pavlovsk in 1891.42 One instrument of this Weber that used an earth inductor rather vorgebracht’, Annalen der Physik, 67 (1846), pp. 49 244. See also Macedonio Melloni,‘Aperçu sur l’his- sort,made by Edelmann,is now in Genoa.43 than a dip circle. Wild described his ver- sion of the universal instrument with earth toire des courants électriques induits par le mag- Other makers were soon offering similar inductor in the mid-1890s.50 The U.S.Coast nétisme terrestre’, Annales de Physique et de Chimie, 15 (1845), pp. 34-46. instruments. The Science Museum,London, and Geodetic Survey purchased several uni- has an earth inductor marked ‘G. Schulze 8.This was shown at an Italian electrical exhibition versal magnetometers with earth inductor held in 1977,on the 150th anniversary of the death 51 Werkst.F.Precisions-Mechanik Potsdam No. from Edelmann around 1900. The of Volta. See http://www.corrierecomo.it/pginter- 44 103’. In 1895, Elliott Brothers in London Department of Terrestrial Magnetism na.cfm?IndiceID=78&MenuID=5. offered a ‘Delezenne Circle,Wild’s large pat- designed a universal magnetometer with 9.Carlo Matteucci,Cours spécial sur l’induction, le

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 33 magnétisme de rotation, le diamagnétisme; et sur Elektrizität 1804-1891 (Stuttgart, 1967). 39.A. K. Biswas and M. R. Biswas,‘Heinrich Wild’ in les relations entre la force magnétique et les 27. Weber and Gauss, Resultate aus den Dictionary of Scientific Biography,vol.14,pp.356- actions moléculaires (Paris,1854),pp.7-8,and fig.3. Beobachtungen des magnetischen Vereins für das 357. 10. Leonardo Doveri, Elementi di Fisica (Florence, Jahr 1837, [publ. 1838], pp. 81-96, reprinted in 40. Heinrich Wild,‘Über die Bestimmung der abso- 1854),vol.1,p.222;and Giovanni Cantoni,Elementi Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 43 (1838), pp luten Inclination mit dem Inductions-Inclinatorium’, di Fisica (Milan, 1873), p. 476. We thank Paolo 493-511, and in Weber, Werke (Berlin, 1892), vol. 2, Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Brenni for these references. pp. 75-88. This was one of the first applications by St.-Pétersbourg, 26 (1878), No. 3. See also Wild, 11.Pierre A.Daguin,Traité élémentaire de physique a German scientist of Faraday’s 1831 principle of ‘Genaue Bestimmung der absoluten Inclination mit théorique et expérimentale (Paris,1860),vol.3,pp. induction,the full significance of which Continental dem Inductions-Inclinatorium’, Bulletin de 85-86. scientists took some time to appreciate.Cf.a study in l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.- preparation by Michael Barth on the reception of Pétersbourg, 27 (1881), pp. 320-333; and Wild,‘Das 12.Charles Delezenne,‘Notions élémentaires sur les Faraday’s ideas in Germany. neue meteorologisch-magnetische Observatorium phénomènes d’induction’, Mémoires de la Société für St. Petersburg in Pawlosk’, Repertorium für des Sciences de Lille, 23 (1844), pp. 1-132, on pp. 28.Weber (1837/38) Werke, vol. 2, p. 81. See also Experimental-Physik, 15 (1879), pp. 57-80. 109-120. Although the journal is dated 1844, [H.A. Oppermann & Bock], ‘Die Universität Delezenne includes a reprint of a Melloni article of Göttingen’,in Deutsche Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft 41. Charles C. Marsh, A Report on Some of the 1845. Reprint copies of Delezenne’s article, dated und Kunst 1842; separately published in Leipzig in Magnetic Observatories of Europe (Washington, 1845, are also known. 1842. D.C., 1891), esp. p. 24. This also appeared as Appendix 1 to U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington 13. Lerebours et Secretan, Catalogue et Prix des 29. Karl Heinrich Wiederkehr,‘Aus der Geschichte Observations, 1887. Instruments d’Optique, de Physique, de Chimie, de des Göttinger Magnetischen Vereins und seiner Mathématiques, d’Astronomie et de Marine (Paris, Resultate’, Nachrichten der Akademie der 42.Heinrich Wild,Inductions-Inclinatorium neuer 1853), item 713 bis. Wissenschaften in Göttingen, 2. mathem.-physik. Construction und Bestimmung der absoluten Klasse [1964],pp.165-205,on 178. See also Clemens Inclination mit Demselben in Pawlowsk (St. 14.Adolphe Ganot,Traité élémentaire de physique Schaefer,ed.,Briefwechsel zwischen Carl Friedrich Petersburg, 1891). See also Wild, expérimentale et appliquée (Paris, 1859), pp. 681- Gauss und Christian Ludwig Gerling (Berlin,1927; ‘Induktionsinklinatorium neuer Konstruktion und 683; the instrument does not appear in earlier edi- reprinted Hildesheim, 1975), pp. 69-71, 127, 134. Bestimmung der absoluten Inklination mit demsel- tions of this work. See also Pierre A.Daguin, Traité ben im Observatorium zu Pawlowsk’,Zeitschrift für élémentaire de physique théorique et expérimen- 30.Wilhelm Weber,‘Ueber die Anwendung der mag- Instrumentenkunde, 11 (1891), pp. 203-218 and tale (Paris, 1860), vol. 3, pp. 85-86; and Augustin netischen Induktion auf Messung der Inklination mit 248-256. Privat-Deschanel, Elementary Treatise on Natural dem Magnetometer’, Annalen der Physik und Philosophy,English trans.by J.D.Everett (New York, Chemie, 90 (1853), pp. 209-247. This originally 43. M. Basso Ricci, et. al., Due Secoli di Strumenti 1878), p. 760. appeared in Abhandlungen der Königlichen Geomagnetici in Italia (Rome, 1997), pp. 118-119. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 15. Francisco da Fonesca Benevides, Curso elemen- 44.Anita McConnell,Geophysics & Geomagnetism. (1853), and was reprinted in Wilhelm Weber, Werke tar de physica, vol. 2 (Lisbon, 1865), pp. 156-157. Catalogue of the Science Museum Collection (Berlin,1892),vol.2,pp.277-327. For the underlying (London, 1986), p. 34. 16. C. S. M. Pouillet and J. H. J. Müller, Lehrbuch der theory see Karl Schering,‘Beobachtungen im mag- 45.Elliott Brothers,Electrical, Optical, Engineering Physik und Meteorologie (Braunschweig,1888),vol. netischen Observatorium. I. Bestimmung der & Mathematical Apparatus (London,1895),p.143. 3,pp.754-755. See also Max Kohl, Preisliste No.21. Horizontalintensität’, and ‘Magnetische Inclination Physikalische Apparate (Chemnitz,c.1904),p.707; und allgemeine Theorie des Erdinductors’, 46.‘Dip Circles versus Earth Inductors’, Terrestrial and E. Leybold, Catalogue of Physical Apparatus Nachrichten der königliche Gesellschaft der Magnetism, 16 (1911), pp. 249-250. (Cologne, n.d..), item 6580. Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (1881), pp. 133-176 47. J.A. Fleming,‘Description of the C.I.W.Marine 17. http://www.fis.uc.pt/museu/147ing.HTM.This & pl.; 1882, pp. 345-392 & pl. I-II. Earth Inductor’, Terrestrial Magnetism’ 18 (1912), refers to the device as a ‘Delezenne disc’. 31.Cf.the opinion by the experimental physicist and pp.39-45. C.W.Hewlett,‘Report on the C.I.W.Marine 18. Jules Jamin, Cours de physique de l’École editor of Gauss’s works on geomagnetism,Clemens Earth Inductor’, Terrestrial Magnetism, 18 (1912), Polytechnique (Paris,1866),vol.3,pp.280-282. This Schaefer, ‘Ueber Gauss’ physikalische Arbeiten pp. 46-48. does not identify the instrument by name. (Magnetismus, Elektrodynamik, Optik), in Gauss: 48.H.Wild,‘Ueber ein neues magnetisches Universal- 19.http://www.bibliotheque.polytechnique.fr/pat- Werke,vol.11,2 [1929] p.71,and a similar statement Instrument’,Repertorium für Experimental-Physik, rimoine/instruments/electricite/electromagnet.This by the editors of Terrestrial Magnetism, 18 (1912), 8 (1872), pp. 208-216, and in Repertorium für refers to the device as a ‘Cerceau de Delezenne’. The pp. 46-48. Meteorologie, 3 (1872). alleged date–circa 1840–is at least five years too 32.Item no.62 in the instrument accession book of 49. M. Meyerstein,‘Wilhelm Weber’s transportabler early. the Göttingen physics institute is ‘Erdinductor mit Magnetometer und dessen Erdinductor nach der neuesten Construction’, Repertorium für experi- 20. Paolo Brenni, Gli strumenti di fisica Galvanometer mit Dämpfer nach Weber von mental-physik, 15 (1879, pp. 735-743. dell’Instituto Tecnico Toscano. Elettricità e Meyerstein’. The entry is undated. Magnetismo (Florence, 2000), pp. 170-172. 50. H. Wild, ‘Theodolit für magnetische 33.For the dating of this instrument see K.Schering Landesaufnahmen’, Vierteljahrschrift der 21. Daniel Davis, Manual of Magnetism (Boston, in Nachrichten der kgl. Gesellschaft der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Zürich (1896), 1842), pp. 197-198. Wissenschaften zu Goettingen, 1882 p. 359. vol. 2, pp. 149-173. 22. Daniel Davis, Catalogue of Apparatus (Boston, 34.F.Kohlrausch,Leitfaden der praktischen Physik 51.Daniel Hazard,Results of Observations Made at 1848). zunächst für das physikalische Praktikum in the Coast and Geodetic Survey Magnetic 23. E. S. Ritchie & Sons, Catalogue of Physical Göttingen (Leipzig, 1870); also translated into Observatory Near Honolulu, Hawaii, 1902-1904 Instruments (Boston, 1878), p. 101. See also James English by Thomas Hutchinson Waller and Henry (Washington, D.C., 1909), pp. 12-13. W.Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue Richardson Proctor (New York, 1874), into French of Physical Instruments and School Apparatus by J.Thoulet and H. Lagarde (Paris, 1886), and into 52. J.A. Fleming and J.A.Widner,‘Description of the (Philadelphia, 1874), p. 99. Japanese etc. C.I.W.Combined Magnetometer and Earth Inductor’, Terrestrial Magnetism, 18 (1913), pp. 105-110. 24.Stevens Institute of Technology,Announcement 35. J. C. Poggendorff, Biographisch-Literarisches (1873),p.26. The ‘immense Delezenne’s ring’is men- Handwörterbuch zur Geschichte der Exacten tioned in ‘Stevens Institute of Technology’, Journal Wissenschaften, vol.4,pp.366-367,and vol.5,p.321. Authors’ addresses: of the Franklin Institute, 64 (1872), pp. 75-78, on 36. South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of the p.78. The earth inductor that Hawkins & Wale made Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus Deborah Warner, Roger Sherman for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in the (London, 1877), p. 292. See also M.Th. Edelmann, National Museum of American History early 1870s is now in the National Museum of Neuere Apparate für Naturwissenschaftliche Schule P.O. Box 37012 American History. und Forschung (Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 113-118. Smithsonian Institution 25. William Thomson, ‘On a New Form of the 37. M. Th. Edelmann, Untersuchung über die Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA Dynamic Method for Measuring the Magnetic Dip’, Bestimmung der erdmagnetischen Inclination ver- e-mails: [email protected] Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical mittelst des Weber’schen Erdinductors (Munich, [email protected] Society of Manchester (1866-1867), pp. 157-158, 1881). See also Edelmann, Die Erdmagnetischen reprinted in Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin, Apparate der Polar-Expeditionen im Jahre 1883 Mathematical and Physical Papers (Cambridge, (Braunschweig, 1882). Klaus Hentschel 1911), vol. 5, p. 393. Cankebeerstr.97 (Westdorf) 38. M. Th. Edelmann, Neuere Apparate für 26. Karl H. Wiederkehr, Wilhelm Eduard Naturwissenschaftliche Schule und Forschung D-26553 Dornum 2, Germany Weber–Erforscher der Wellenbewegung und der (Stuttgart, 1882), pp. 113-118. e-mail: [email protected]

34 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Venetian Makers of Optical Instruments of the 18th-19th Centuries Part 1 Biagio Burlini Alberto Lualdi

Long after the Galileo demonstration from the San Marco bell-tower in August 21st, 1609 and the offering of his telescope to the Doge,Venice became a production cen- tre of optical glass of growing quality. Although lightly opalescent and bubble- rich, especially because of devitrification resulting from an excess of sodium oxide supplied to lower the melting point,and of defects in workmanship,the lenses for opti- cal instruments made around the half of 18th and during the first decades of 19th- centuries were of quite good quality espe- cially when considered that they were intended for a cheap and easy-to-sell mar- ket.All the instruments were sold by the occhialieri (i.e. spectacle-sellers), a kind of guild already known in the 16th century. They had their businesses and premises in Fig. 1 Frontispiece ‘noble’ areas of the city (S.Marco, Canal of Burlini’s Grande, la Giudecca) and sold spectacles booklet (1758). and optical instruments (telescopes,opera- glasses,microscopes,optical devices) direct- ly to the passing trade, as we can see, for instance, from the frontispiece of Biagio Burlini’s Raccolta di Macchine, ed instru- menti di Ottica of 1758.1 Some makers used to sign the instruments by stamping their name in gilt or black char- acters on the main tube of cardboard tele- scopes, others by engraving lenses and brass lids.Although these instruments are common in most of the public and private collections around the world, no systemat- ic attempt apart from a merely descriptive Fig.2 record has been made to trace an outline ’Fondamenta of the Venetian optical production.This arti- dell’Osmarin’ in cle will be the first of a series concerning a 2002. Has any- number of these opticians; data have been thing changed? taken from a recent extensive research in Venetian archives and libraries besides the examination of the existing instruments. The following maker-names occur on instruments in alphabetical order: • Biagio Burlini • Angelo De Regni • F.lli (brothers) Dolci • Olivo (Ulivi) • Tommaso Santini • Domenico and Lorenzo Selva • Leonardo Semitecolo To begin with,only few of the known mak- ers can be certainly dated to be from the 18th century while others never put a date on their instruments or few biographical details are known at the moment.Among the former we found Biagio Burlini and the Selva family. Biagio (Blasio) Burlini A study published in 19992 gives us some new information on his life and activity.He was born to Francesco Burlini in 1709 and Fig. 3 Folded plate from Burlini’s Raccolta with his products

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 35 Fig.4 Full-page engraved plate from an early Fig.5 Side pillar compound microscope. Fig.6 Ellis-aquatic simple microscope mount- opuscolo with a long telescope. Accessories comprise four objectives, prepa- ed on a fishskin-covered box. Museum ration revolver, stage forceps. Museum Boerhaave, Leiden (inv.no.7125) (ex Nachet died on January 13th,1771 at the age of 62. Boerhaave, Leiden (inv.no.7109).See Fig.3, coll.). See Fig. 3, n. 14. From the booklet he printed in 1758 and n. 8. the ‘Catalogo’at its end,we can deduce the All the four existing copies of the Raccolta products of the ‘Officina Burlini’. From the that I examined have the folding plate but frontispiece (Fig. 1) we know that Burlini von Pflugk3 described a copy which besides had premises in the ‘Fondamenta del this plate also has three other plates: Pl. II Rosmarino’(today the ‘del’Osmarin’,a quiet depicting a twenty-foot telescope (c. 7 m)4 ‘calle’not too far from the Arsenale,Fig.2) at mounted by ropes on a pole; Pl. Ill with an the sign of Archimedes.The vignette shows optic chamber and Pl. IV with an heliome- a prospective view of a Venetian optical lab- ter and its description. oratory and shop.This is viewed directly from the ‘canale’ where a gondola has dis- Burlini was mainly an optician (although we charged three gentlemen. Inside the shop, do not have glasses signed by him). Von three different zones can be distinguished: Pflugk listed 92 entries with prices only for at the bottom left, in a room where a holy ‘Occhiali da naso’ (glasses and spectacles) image is hung, four apprentices are work- from a leaflet he found in the copy of the ing by the light of two windows;in the mid- Raccolta he examined.We find silver and dle room another four attend to the grind- gold-mounted spectacles as well as of bone ing-polishing of lenses and mirrors (note and horn. In the Raccolta, Burlini was loud the water pipe coming from a duct above) in praising Domenico Selva - he died in the and to the rolling of cardboard tubes; at same year - declaring that he surpassed the their shoulders we see eighteen boxes with contemporaries in skill and intelligence.5 glasses of different patterns, and along the 6 shelves cylinders for anamorphosis, micro- On the rare book market appeared a two- scopes, and a big mirror; while from the page folio ‘opuscolo’ (i.e. a brochure), ceiling are suspended lenses and a tele- including a full-page engraved plate of a scope.At the front, two shop assistants are complicate telescope with a double altaz- Fig.7 Compound microscope signed `Blasii showing a microscope to customers. imuth, horary pointer and an ocular hous- Burlini Opus Venetis’. Seminario Vescovile, ing for oblique viewing (Fig.4).On the table The booklet ends with a folding plate Padua. See Fig. 3, n. 10. are other accessories. Although undated, where twenty-one different instruments are this ‘opuscolo’ most probably came from illustrated (Fig. 3, and Figs 5-9 which iden- tifies instruments in collections),and with a four-page ‘Catalogo’ at the end of it where- by we can deduce the vast scope of Burlini’s production (different glasses and spectacles,telescopes of different sizes with four lenses with silver or brass mounts, galilean telescopes, opera and spy glasses, ‘admiral’s sticks’,prisms and burning lenses, microscopes, optical chambers, magic lanterns, zogroscopes, glasses for watches, etc.). Fig.8 A 3-draw telescope made of cardboard tubes and horn mounts. P.Louwman coll.

36 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) the earlier phase of his production, as he Notes and References takes the trouble of introducing himself in 1. B. Burlini, Raccolta di Macchine, ed instru- the opening paragraph and refers to only menti di Ottica che si fabbricano in Venezia da one: an instrument made by him. On the B.B. Occhialajo sopra le Fondamenta del whole the apparatus seems very unstable Rosmarino (Venezia: M. Fenzo, 1758), pp. 23+1 and difficult to manipulate; the idea given plate. by this brochure suggests an `impossible’ 2. A. Lualdi, ‘Biagio Burlini, un ottico del ‘700 instrument, whose image could have been veneziano’, Nuncius, Annali di Storia della used to demonstrate Burlini’s potential to Scienza, 14-1 (1999), pp. 213-220. customers and thereby made him rise 3.A.Von Pflugk,‘Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der above the other opticians in the market. Brillenerzeugung Venedigs im 18. Jahrhundert’, Zeitschr.Ophthalm. Optik, 17 (1929), pp. 65-71. The activity of Biagio Burlini thus occurred 4.Venetian braccio = 694.8 mm; piede (foot) = between the second quarter of the 18th cen- 347.4 mm. tury and 1771. In the Registro dei Morti of 5.[Domenico Selva] di cui non può ben dirsi se the San Giovanni Novo parish, now in the la Professione fatt’habbia più onore a lui, ò che Archivio Patriarcale of Venice, is reported egli lo abbia fatto alla Professione’ p.VIII.[ the the death of ‘Blasio Burlini quondam profession honoured him or was it the contrary?] Francesco, di anni 62, de pulmonite 6. Martayan Lan, Rare Books, Cat. 15 (1995), n. acuta’, and dated January 13th, 1771. 54. 7.Museum Boerhaave,Leiden (inv.no.7125) and Apart from spectacles,I already mentioned ex Nachet collection (Coll. Nachet, 1929, n. l4, the wide spectrum of this production. tav.X). Despite this,very few instruments have sur- 8. Seminario Vescovile of Padua (see: AA.VV, vived.We found two simple microscopes7, Galileo e Padova. Mostra di strumenti, libri e four compounds8,and four hand-held tele- incisioni, 1983, p.92 and fig.); ex ‘Crisp scopes.9 All instruments are very similar to Collection’ (see: R.S. Clay and T.H. Court, The those of the plate at the end of Raccolta; History of the Microscope (1932),p.106,fig.68); several are signed ‘Blasii Burlini, Venetijs Museum Boerhaave,Leiden (inv.no.7109);Henri Optices Profitensis Opus’.The materials of van Heurck Museum, Antwerp, in: E. Frison, the tubes were fish-skin-covered card- Geillustreerde inventaris van den Historische Microscopen onderdelen en uitrusting (1966), boards, the mounts of ivory or horn, some- pp. 96-98. times with elaborate brass stands,and black 9.Museum Boerhaave,Leiden (inv.no.8889),see: fish-skin (zigrino) boxes.We also find the Fig.9 Compound microscope. On the brass E. Enberts, Descriptive Catalogue of the ‘Ellis-acquatic’ type (first invented by John Telescopes in the Rijksmuseum ... Leiden Cuff in 1752).The eyepieces of the com- collar: `Antonio Zatta a Venezia 1763’. (Leiden,1970),p.145);Science Museum,London; pounds are made of two converging lenses Private coll. See Fig. 3, n. 3. P.Louwman and priv.colls. and have 3-4 plano-convex objectives, one 10. Antonio Zatta (1722-1804) was the most of them spherical. renowned editor and printer in 18th century Venice.Among hundreds of distinguished edi- A different pattern of microscope is shown On the whole,instruments made by Burlini tions of classics and beautiful atlases, we know in Fig. 9.The optical system is composedof are manufactured with better care com- his greater project,a reprint of the Encyclopedie four lenses;the cardboard tubes are mount- pared to other Venetian opticians (e.g. (see M. Infelise, L’editoria veneziana nel ‘700, ed inside a brass collar on which the name Angeli ed.). Semitecolo, De Regni, Olivo; forthcoming). of the owner, ‘Antonio Zatta a Venezia Lenses have few bubbles or striations, are 11. Museun Boerhaave, Leiden (inv. no. 8889); 1763’ is engraved.10 Science Museum, London; P.Louwman and priv. rarely shaded and do not have strong aber- coll. The surviving telescopes made by Burlini ration. Among the opticians, Burlini cer- 12.The Selva family: Domenico (died in 1758), range between two and a half piedi (i.e. tainly was at the top-end of the market, his son Lorenzo (1716-1800) and his grandchil- about 83 cm) and nine piedi (i.e. about 3 together with the Selva family, as we see dren Giuseppe (1755-?) and Domenico (1761-?). m).11 The shorter ones are made of card- from the variety and the optical quality of See A. Lualdi,‘La famiglia Selva, ottici del ‘700 board tubes covered with vellum,the main his products. Careful to the conceptual veneziano’, Nuncius, Annali di Storia della tube being light brown in colour and with innovations of the other side of the Alps, Scienza , 16-2 (2001), pp. 531-546. the maker’s name impressed. Lens mounts Biagio Burlini shows us the contrasting fea- Next: the Selva family. are made of horn and the eyepiece consists tures typical of a changing time,both in the of a 3-lens system. The Science Museum use of materials and in construction;the use Author’s address: telescope – the biggest of Burlini in exis- of brass became in time more and more fre- Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra tence – has six green vellum-covered card- quent in his instruments, but not so exclu- Università di Pavia board draws and the main tube dyed black. sive as in Selva’s who was the most famous Via Ferrata It has wooden mounts. optician at that time.12 I - 27100 Pavia Italy

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Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) 37 An exceedingly rare English compound microscope signed John yarwell Fecit, datable to c.1690, made of lignum vitae, pasteboard, brass and gold-tooled leather.

Estimate £22,000-28,000

Exceptional Scientific and Engineering Works of Art

Auction Enquiries South Kensington 10 April 2003 Tom Newth 85 Old Brompton Road [email protected] London SW7 3LD +44 (0)20 7752 3147 View catalogue Catalogues and leave bids online at +44 (0)20 7389 2820 christies.com SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY including Mechanical Music, Arms and Militaria AT AUCTION Saturday, May 3, 2003, Bolton, Massachusetts

An Important Repeating Telegraph Disc, signed and dated Thomas A. Edison, 1880.

Illustrated catalogue #2170 available for $29 by mail, $35 foreign For further information please contact George Glastris at (978) 779-6241, fax (978) 779-5144, or email: [email protected].  ’       : £, - ,

This sale also includes scientific instruments associated with James Watt and his son James Watt Junior, and their extensive library of scientific books and manuscripts.

The James Watt Sale Art & Science

Auction in London: 34 - 35 New Bond Street London W1A 2AA   · Friday 24 March 9am-4.30pm Sunday 16 March 12noon-4pm Monday 17 - Wednesday 19 March 9am-4.30pm  · 20 March 2003  · James Miller Alexandra Reece 020 7293 6428  · £18 + p&p 020 7293 6444 www.sothebys.com Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 76 (2003) Table of Contents

Approriate material wil be referenced in Physics Abstracts

Editorial ...... 1 Cover story ...... The Annual Invitation Lecture: Scientific Instruments:Why? ...... Gerard Turner 2 Honorary Fellowship for the President ...... 4 Letters to the Editor...... 5 Scientific Relics: John Napier’s Bones ...... D. J. Bryden 6 The Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, South Kensington, 1876 Part 4 Photographs and Copies ...... Peter de Clercq 10 A Note on 18th-century Instruments from Schloss Fürstenstein in Silesia...... Peter de Clercq 16 Conference ‘Do Collections Matter to Instrument Studies?’ at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, Saturday 29th - Sunday 30th June 2002 ...... David Pantalony 19 Current and Future Events ...... 20 On Double Windmills ...... Paul Zoller 21 Americans in Europe: The Purchasing Trip of Ira and Charles Young in 1853 ...... David Pantalony 23 Amateur page:The ‘Zig-Zag’ Microscope...... Dave L. Hirsch 28 A 19th Century Japanese Camera ObscuraFrancis ...... J Manasek 29 The Several Faces of Earth Induction ...... Deborah Warner, Roger Sherman, and Klaus Hentschel30 Venetian Makers of Optical Instruments of the 18th-19th Centuries Part 1 Biagio Burlini...... Alberto Lualdi 36

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