Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:47:31.149Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Deborah Jean Warner
Deborah Jean Warner
Affiliation:
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Essay Reviews
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 83 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Van Helden, Albert, ‘The Birth of the Modern Scientific Instrument’, in The Uses of Science in the Age of Newton, (ed. by Burke, John), Berkeley, 1983, pp. 49–84.Google Scholar

2 The men who in 1645 began meeting regularly, often at Gresham College, demanded of each other ‘a weekly Contribution for the Charge of Experiments’. In a similar vein, Hooke was appointed Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society in 1662. Samuel Sorbiere in Paris was referring to similar objects when, in the early 1660s, he mentioned ‘an arsenal of machines to carry out all sorts of experiments’.

3 Webster, Charles, The Great Instauration, New York, 1976.Google Scholar

4 Hartlib's letter is quoted in Weld, Charles, A History of the Royal Society, London, 1848, vol. i, p. 53Google Scholar. Grew, Nehemiah, Musaeum Regalis Societatis. Or a Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society And preserved at Gresham Colledge, London, 1681, p.357.Google Scholar

5 Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, London, 1667, pp. 71, 121Google Scholar. Note that Sprat's famous frontispiece depicts such practical instruments as quadrants and sectors along with such philosophical instruments as telescopes and air pumps behind the figures of Lord Brouncker, Charles II, and Francis Bacon.

6 Quoted in Taylor, E. G. R., The Mathematical Practitioners in Tudor and Stuart England, Cambridge, 1954, p. 4.Google Scholar

7 Webster, , op. cit. (3), p. 486.Google Scholar

8 Bennett, J. A., ‘The Mechanicians and the Mechanical Philosophy’, History of Science. (1986), 24, 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 Hunter, Michael, Science and Society in Restoration England, Cambridge, 1981, p. 58.Google Scholar

10 Shapin, Steven and Schaffer, Simon, Leviathan and The Air-Pump. Hobbes, Boyle, and The Experimental Life, Princeton, 1985.Google Scholar

11 Boyle, Robert, Some Considerations Touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Natural Philosophy, Oxford, 1664, Book II, pp. 18–29.Google Scholar

12 Porter, Roy et al. , Science and Profit in 18th-Century London Cambridge, 1985.Google Scholar

13 Quoted in Millburn, John R., Benjamin Martin. Author, Instrument-Maker, and ‘Country Show man’, Leyden, 1976, p. 38Google Scholar. See also Desaguliers, J. T., Lectures of Experimental Philosophy, London, 1719Google Scholar, Whiston, William, A Course of Mechanical, Optical, Hydrostatical, and Pneumatical Experiments, (n.d.)Google Scholar, Nollet, J. A., Leçons de Physique, Expérimentale, Paris, 1745Google Scholar, and Gravensande, G. J.'s, Physices Elementa Mathematica Exerperimentis Confirmata, Leyden, 1721.Google Scholar

14 Schaffer, Simon, ‘Natural Philosophy and Public Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century’, History of Science, (1983), 21, pp. 1–43CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Daumas, Maurice, Scientific Instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, New York, 1972Google Scholar, especially Part Two, chapter IV, ‘The Collections of Philosophical Instruments’.

15 According to a private communication from Michael Crawforth of Project Simon, Glynne's advertisement is in Gordan, G., An Introduction… to Geography, London, 1726Google Scholar, and Hickman's advertisement is in the Daily Advertiser, 27 06 1747.Google Scholar

16 Warner, Deborah Jean, ‘Astronomers, Artisans and Longitude’, in Tekniska Museet Symposium, Transport Technology and Social Change, Stockholm, 1980, pp. 133–140.Google Scholar

17 Hunter, , op, cit. (9), p. 68Google Scholar. Turner, Anthony, Early Scientific Instruments. Europe 1400–1800. London, 1987Google Scholar, chapter VI, ‘Contrasting Collections’.

18 [Whewell, William] review of Mrs Somerville, ‘On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences’ in Quarterly Review, 03, 1834Google Scholar. Whewell, , Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, London, 1840Google Scholar, introduction. Whewell, , History of the Inductive Sciences, London, 1837, vol. iGoogle Scholar, preface. Ross, Sydney, ‘Scientist: The Story of a Word’, Annals of Sciences, (1962), 18, pp. 65–85.Google Scholar

19 Bennett, J. A., Science at the Great Exhibition, Cambridge, 1983.Google Scholar

20 First Report of the Department of Science and Art, London, 1854.Google Scholar

21 Home, & Thornthwaite, , A Guide to the Purchase and Use of Scientific Instruments, London, 1857Google Scholar. Murray & Heath advertised as ‘Manufacturers of Scientific, Chemical and Physical Apparatus to Her Majesty the Queen’ in The Photographic News, 1858Google Scholar. , R. and Beck, J., An Illustrated Catalogue of Scientific Instruments, London, 1865Google Scholar. Casella, L. P. is listed as ‘Scientific Instrument Maker to the Admiralty’ on the title page of his Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Surveying, Philosophical, Mathematical, Optical, Photographic, and Standard Meteorological Instruments, London, 1871.Google Scholar

22 Holbrook's Scientific Apparatus, Berea, Ohio, 1857Google Scholar. See also the evaluation of ‘Common School Apparatus, consisting of Juvenile Instructor, Numeral Frame, Geometrical Forms, Arithmetical Solids, Geological Cabinet, Globe, Tellurion, Orrery, Thermometer, &c.’ by various County School Superintendents in New York State: ‘This is to certify, that after a careful examination of the Scientific School Apparatus …’ cited in Pike, Benjamin Jr., Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical, and Philosophical Instruments, New York, 1856, i, p. 386.Google Scholar

23 Daumas, Maurice, ‘Le corps des Ingénieurs brevetés en instruments scientifiques (1787)’, Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, (1952), 5, pp. 86–96Google Scholar. ‘Liste Generale des Membres’ appended to Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale, 1824, 23.Google Scholar

24 Lerebours et Secretan, Catalogue et Prix des Instruments d'Optique, Physique, de Chimie, de Mathématiques, d'Astronomie et de Marine, Paris, 1853, advertissement.Google Scholar

25 ‘Maihat’ and ‘Ducretet’ in Syndicat des Constructeurs en Instruments d'Optique & de Précision, L'Industrie Française des Instruments de Précision, Paris, 1901–1902.Google Scholar

26 Doggett's New York City Directory for 1850–51.

27 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Mechanik und Optik, Special Catalogue of the Collective Exhibition of Scientific Instruments and Apparatus, Berlin, 1893.Google Scholar

28 Brachner, A., ‘German Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instrument Makers’, in Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and Their Makers, (ed. by de Clerq, P. R.) Leiden & Amsterdam, 1985, p. 119Google ScholarPayen, Jacques, ‘Les Constructeurs d'Instruments Scientifiques en France au XIXe Siècle’, Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences, (1986), 36, pp. 84–161Google Scholar, excerpted in de Clerq, (ed.), vide supra pp. 159–182.Google Scholar

29 Jungnickel, Christa and McCormmach, Russell, Intellectual Mastery of Nature, Chicago, 1986, vol. i, p. 63.Google Scholar

30 Arenstein, , Austria at The International Exhibition of 1862, Vienna, 1862, p. 57.Google Scholar

31 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Mechanik und Optik, op. cit. (27)Google ScholarGerman Educational exhibition, Scientific Instruments, Berlin, 1904.Google Scholar

32 J. W. Queen & Co., Catalogue of Physical Instruments, Chemical Apparatus, Chemicals and School Apparatus Generally, Philadelphia, 1881, preface.Google Scholar

33 Cannon, Susan Faye, Science in Culture, New York, 1978, p. 145.Google Scholar

34 Schaffer, Simon, ‘Scientific Discoveries and the End of Natural Philosophy’, Social Studies of Science, (1986), 16, pp. 387–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Graham is quoted in Turner, Gerard, Nineteenth-Century Scientific Instruments, London, 1983Google Scholar, preface. Herschel, John, A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, London, 1830, p. 125Google Scholar. Whewell, William, The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences. London, 1840, iiGoogle Scholar, book xii.

36 Harman, P. M., (ed.) ‘Introduction’, in Wranglers and Physicists, Manchester, 1985Google Scholar. The quote is from Morrell, J. B. and Thackray, Arnold, Gentlemen of Science, Oxford, 1981, p. 481.Google Scholar

37 Maxwell, J. C., ‘General Considerations Concerning Scientific Apparatus,’ pp. 1–21Google Scholar in Handbook to the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, South Kensington Museum London, 1876, pp. 1–21.Google Scholar

38 For some, however, scientific referred to instruments used for original investigation and professional training, while philosophical referred to those used for ‘demonstrating the laws, principles and facts of physical science’. see J. W. Queen & Co., Priced and Illustrated Catalogue of Physical Instruments, Philadelphia, 1882, preface.Google Scholar

39 ‘Report on Customs Duty on Philosophical and Scientific Apparatus’, Report, National Academy of Sciences, 1884, pp. 65–67.Google Scholar

40 Whewell, , Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, London, 1840, p. 513.Google Scholar

41 Quoted in Lehrburger, Egon, The Cavendish Laboratory, London, 1962, p. 16.Google Scholar

42 Jungnickel, and McCormmach, , op. cit. (29), pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

43 Gieryn, Thomas F., ‘Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists’, American Sociological Review, 1983, 48, pp. 781–795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

44 For an American example see Molella, Arthur and Reingold, Nathan, ‘Theorists and Ingenious Mechanics: Joseph Henry Defines Science’, Science Studies, (1979), 3, pp. 323–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Great Exhibition Report of Juries, p. 316. see also Catalogue of the Philosophical Instruments, Models of Inventions, Products of National Industry, &c. &c. Contained in The First Exhibition of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1838, and Patent Office of Great Britain, Abridgement of Specifications Relating to Optical, Mathematical, and Other Philosophical Instruments, London, 1875.Google Scholar

46 Cannon, Susan Faye, op. cit. (33), chapter IGoogle Scholar, ‘Science as Norm of Truth’. For a later example see Paul Forman, ‘The Self-Image of the American Physicist Before and Since the Second World War’, paper presented at Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Science, 22 April 1988.

47 Sviedrys, Romuldas, ‘The Rise of Physics Laboratories in Britain’, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, (1976), 7, pp. 405–436CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Thomson, William, ‘The Structure of Matter and the Unity of Science’Google Scholar, 1871 presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, quoted in Victorian Science, (ed. by Basalla, G., Coleman, W. and Kargon, R.) Garden City, 1970, p. 103.Google Scholar

48 Cattemole, M. J. G. and Wolfe, A. F., Horace Darwin's Shop: A History of The Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, 1878 to 1968, Bristol & Boston, 1987Google Scholar. Ladd, William in Nature, (1869), 1, p. 38Google Scholar. Buff, and Berger, , Catalogue of the Engineers' and Surveyors' Instruments, Boston, 1889Google Scholar, noted that, in addition to their regular work, ‘We have made and do make scientific instruments’. By the 1920s in England there was also the Endicott Scientific Instrument Co., and Heath & Co., Ltd at the New Eltham Scientific Instrument Works, while in the U.S.A. there were such companies as the Central Scientific Co.

49 ‘List of Apparatus Available for Scientific Researches Involving Accurate Measurements’, Harvard College Library Bulletin, (1879), 11, pp. 301–4, 350–4.Google Scholar

50 U.S. Patent Office, Subject Matter Index of Patents for Invention… Granted in France, Washington, D.C., 1883Google Scholar. Paris Universal Exposition, Reports of the U. S. Commissioners, Washington, D.C., 1867, iii, p. 469Google Scholar. Paris exposition Universelle Internationale, Rapport Général, Paris, 1889, iv, p. 532Google Scholar. At the Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1876, Group XXV comprised ‘Instruments of Precision, Research, Experiment, and Illustration’.

51 Francoeur, , ‘Rapporth… sur le théodolite de M. Gambey, fabricant d'instrumens de précision’, Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale, (1822), 21, p. 151.Google Scholar

52 Harman, P. M., op. cit. (36).Google Scholar

53 Daumas, Maurice, Scientific instruments of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, New York, 1972, p. 289Google Scholar. Middleton, W. E. K., History of the Barometer, Baltimore, 1964, pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

54 Pixii, , Catalogue des Principaux Instruments de Physique, Chimie, Optique, Mathématiques, et Autres a l'Usage des Sciences, Paris, 1832Google Scholar. Lerebours et Secretan, Catalogue et Prix des Instruments d'Optique, de Physique, de Chimie, de Mathématique, d'Astronomie et de Marine, Paris, 1853Google Scholar. Chevalier, Maison Charles, Catalogue… des Instruments de Physique Expérimentale, Paris, 1861.Google Scholar

55 Marbach, Oswald, Physikalisches Lexicon, Leipzig, 1850, pp. 244–78Google Scholar, offered as examples the physics apparatus of Emil Stohrer in Leipzig and Meyerstein in Göttingen, the optical instruments of Merz, Utzschneider & Fraunhofer in Munich, the microscopes of Schief in Berlin, and the mathematical instruments of Ertel & Sohn in Munich and Boller in Leipzig.

56 Gerhardt, C., Preis-Verzeichnis uber Physikalische Apparate, Bonn, 1893Google Scholar. Kohl, Max, Physikalische Apparate, Chemnitz, 1904Google Scholar. Leybold, E., Catalogue of Physical Apparatus, Cologne, after 1905.Google Scholar

57 Ritchie, E. S., Catalogue of Physical Instruments, Boston, 1880Google Scholar. J. W. Queen & Co., Catalogue of Physical Instruments, Chemical Apparatus, Chemicals and School Apparatus Generally, Philadelphia, 1881Google Scholar. Knott, L. E., Physical Instruments, Boston, 1912.Google Scholar

58 South Kensington Museum, Handbook to the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus, London, 1876Google Scholar, introduction. Chicago, Columbian Exposition, Katalog der Universitats Ausstellung, Berlin, 1893Google Scholar. German Educational Exhibition, Scientific instruments, Berlin, 1904Google Scholar, historical remarks p. 97.

59 Field, J. V., ‘What is Scientific About a Scientific Instrument?’ Nuncius, (1988), 3, pp. 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

60 Simcock, A. V. (ed.), Robert T. Gunther and the Old Ashmolean, Oxford, 1985.Google Scholar

61 Gunther, Robert T., Early Science in Oxford, Oxford, 1923–1945Google Scholar, and Early Science in Cambridge, Oxford, 1937.Google Scholar

62 Von Bezold, G., Wissenschaftliche Instrumente im Germanischen Museum, Nürnberg, 1899Google Scholar. Rohde, Alfred, Die Geschichte der Wissenschaftlichen Instrumente vom Beginn der Renaissance bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1923.Google Scholar

63 Turner, Gerald L'E., Ninteteenth-Century Scientific Instruments, London, 1983Google Scholar, and de Clercq, P. R. (ed.) Ninteteenth-Century Scientific Instruments and Their Makers, Leiden & Amsterdam, 1985Google Scholar, begin to rectify this situation.

64 Robischon, Mary M., Scientific Instrument Makers in London During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1983)Google Scholar, especially chapter 11.

65 Bryden, David, Scottish Scientific Instrument Makers, 1600–1900, Edinburgh, 1972, p. 33Google Scholar. Hackmann, W. D., ‘The Ninteenth Century Trade in Natural Philosophy Instruments in Britain’Google Scholar, in de Clercq, (éd.), op. cit. (63), p. 77.Google Scholar

66 Thompson, Silvanus P., Life of Lord Kelvin, London, 1901, p. 239.Google Scholar