Illustrations
Frontispiece:Wh.3802, portrait of Robert Stewart Whipple. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
1.1Wh.1264, a medieval English astrolabe. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
1.2Solomon observing the stars, from a Franciscan Bible. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
1.3Wh.1264, detail from the womb of a medieval English astrolabe. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
1.4Wh.1264, detail from the back of a medieval English astrolabe. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
2.1Wh.5902, a navicula dial. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
2.2Map of all finds whose database record includes the keyword ‘sundial’ in Portable Antiquities Scheme database, on 14 July 2017.
2.3Composite image of thirteen astronomical or time-telling instruments (or parts of them) that are likely to be late-medieval in date, recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
2.5Map of places marked on the back of surviving naviculae and places where naviculae were found or have provenance linking them to.
3.1Peter Apian’s visual representation of the discipline of cosmography, from Peter Apian and Gemma Frisius, Cosmographia (1584). Whipple Library, University of Cambridge.
3.2The paper universal altitude dial constructed in Apian’s textbook cosmography, from Peter Apian and Gemma Frisius, Cosmographia (1584). Whipple Library, University of Cambridge.
3.3Wh.0731, a navicula dial. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
3.4The ‘cosmographical globe’, with pillar dial, horary quadrant, and diptych compass dial, from Peter Apian and Gemma Frisius, Cosmographia (1584). Whipple Library, University of Cambridge.
3.5Peter Apian’s speculum cosmographicum (or cosmographic mirror), from Peter Apian and Gemma Frisius, Cosmographia (1584). Whipple Library, University of Cambridge.
3.6Wh.1681, ivory diptych sundial by the Nuremberg maker Johann Gebhert. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
3.7Wh.1466, the ‘English Globe’ designed by the Earl of Castlemaine and Joseph Moxon. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
4.1Detail of a print taken directly from an astrolabe by Henry Sutton. History of Science Museum, University of Oxford.
4.2Wh.2754, paper on wood quadrant, by Henry Sutton. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
4.3Wh.2754, detail of paper on wood quadrant by Henry Sutton, with Sutton’s ‘reverted tail’ indicated. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
4.4Wh.5831, paper on brass ‘small pocket quadrant’, by Henry Sutton. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
4.5Wh.6644, detail of paper on wood quadrant by Henry Sutton, showing a replacement solar declination scale or calendar, based on the ‘New Stile’, i.e. the Gregorian Calendar. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
5.1Wh.4577, the first volume of Edward Hobson’s Musci Britannici (1818), showing the casing and title page. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
5.2Wh.2766, self-recording auxanometer for measuring plant growth, by Horace Darwin. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
5.3Plate 21 from W. J. Hooker and T. Taylor’s Muscologia Britannica (1818), showing the magnified features by which mosses of the genera Zygodon and Orthotricum were identified.
5.4Wh.1824, Ellis-type aquatic microscope. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
5.5Wh.4577, pages from Edward Hobson’s Musci Britannici showing fixed moss specimens and a small pocket containing loose specimens. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
6.1Wh.2339, Benjamin Herschel Babbage’s drawing of the fragment of the difference engine on show at South Kensington in 1872. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
6.2Wh.2339, demonstration model of a calculating segment of Henry Babbage’s difference engine, assembled by Henry Prevost Babbage. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
6.3Henry Babbage’s explanation of the mechanical notation of the Scheutz engine. Science Museum, London.
6.4Charles Babbage’s brain, presented to the Hunterian Museum by Henry Babbage.
6.5The Babbage family in the early 1870s. Science Museum, London.
6.6Henry Babbage’s model of the difference engine mechanism presented to University College London. Science Museum, London.
6.7Analytical engine mill completed by R. W. Munro for Henry Babbage. Science Museum, London.
7.1Wh.6648, electrometer by George Adams; Wh.1353, Curie-type gold-leaf electroscope by Matériel Scientifique. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
7.2Wh.0939, moving-magnet reflecting galvanometer by Elliott Brothers; Wh.3090, moving-magnet pointer galvanometer. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
7.3Wh.1347, moving-magnet pointer galvanometer by Elliott Brothers; Wh.4190, moving-coil reflecting galvanometer by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
7.4Advertisement for an outfit for teaching resistance technology, by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
7.5Wh.4045, thermal reflecting galvanometer by the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company; Wh.2440, moving-coil pointer multimeter by Siemens. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
8.1Page of a Puttick & Simpson’s sales catalogue, annotated by Lewis Evans. History of Science Museum, University of Oxford.
8.2Photograph of Lewis Evans’s instrument collection, on display in his home. History of Science Museum, University of Oxford.
8.3Wh.0226, inclining dial carrying fake signature of George Adams Snr. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
9.1Wh.0305, astrolabe, signed ‘Ioannes Bos I / 1597 / Die 24 Martii’, but actually an early-twentieth-century fake. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
9.2Letter from Henry Nyburg to Derek J. Price, 16 February 1955, answering questions about the origins of certain instruments in the Whipple Museum’s collection. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
9.3Astrolabes in the Mensing Collection, on display in the 1920s.
9.4The examination of the Piltdown skull, painting by John Cooke.
10.1Wh.6624, a seed herbarium, labelled ‘The Origin of Seeds Source Indicators’. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
10.2A seed analyst weeds out the impurities from a sample of red clover.
10.3A 1906 reference collection of ‘economic plants’ includes both crop and weed seeds of Canada. Nova Scotia Museum Botany Collection.
11.1Wh.5821, Consul, the Educated Monkey. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
11.2‘Calculating Device’ and ‘Toy’ patent diagrams, by William Henry Robertson.
11.3Wh.5821, reverse side of the Addition Table included in Consul’s packaging. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
11.4‘Consul Peter Smoking’. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
12.1Wh.4416, a selection of photographs taken by Robin Hill and preserved with his cloud cameras. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
12.2Ralph Abercromby’s Cyclone Diagram, describing the relative positions of certain cloud forms within a larger ‘cyclonic system’.
12.3Photograph of the sky, by Wilfred Noel Bond using his ‘cloud lens’, with grid superimposed.
12.4Robin Hill’s diagram depicting the translation from photographs produced by his cloud camera to a conventional camera format.
13.1Wh.6547, eleven painted plaster chicken heads, attributed to Reginald Punnett. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
14.1Wh.4529, the Hookham Collection of pocket electronic calculators. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
14.2Wh.4529, calculator ephemera, advertisements, and instruction manuals in the Hookham Collection. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
14.3Wh.4529, advertisement from the Hewlett-Packard Journal, ‘racing the HP-35 against a slide-rule’. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
14.4Wh.4529, an HP-65 advertisement showing the calculator in use in a variety of settings. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.
14.5Wh.4529.227A, an HP-65 with its quick reference guide and magnetic program cards. Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge.