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Bulletin March
No. 60 1999
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society ISSN0956-8271
For Table of Contents, see back cover

President
Gerard Turner

Vice-President
Howard Dawes

Honorary Committee
Stuart Talbot, Chairman
Gloria Clttton, Secretary.
John Didcock, Treasurer
Willem Hackmann, Editor
Jane lnsley, Adzcrtising Manager
James Stratton, Meetings Secreta~
Silke Ackermann
Ron Bristow
Simon Cheifetz
Alexander Crum-Ewing
Liba Taub
Trevor Waterman

Membership and Administrative Matters

The ExecutiveOfficer (Wg Cdr Geoffrey Bennett)
31 High Street
Stanford in the Vale
Fanngdon Tel: 01367 710223
Oxon SN7 8LH Fax: 01367 718963
e-mail" sis@hidex.demon.co.uk
See outside back craw for infiwmation on membership

Editorial Matters
Dr Willem D. Hackmann
Mu~um of the History of Science
Old Ashmolean Building Tel: 01865 277282 (office)
Broad Street Fax: 01865 277288
Oxford OXl 3AZ Tel: 01608 811110 (home)
e-mail: willem.hackmann@mhs.ox.ac.uk
Society's Website
http: / / www.sis.org.uk

Advertising
Jane lrLsley
Science Mu~um Tel: 0171-938 8110
~uth Kensington Fax: 0171-938 8118
London SW7 2DD e-mail: j.insley@nmsi.ac.uk

O r g a n i z a t i o n of M e e t i n g s
Mr James Stratton
101 New Bond Street Tel: 0171-629 6602
Lxmdon WIY 0AS Fax: 0171-495 35~

Typesetting a n d Printing
Lahoflow Ltd
26-36 Wharfdale Road Tel: 0171-833 2344
King's CR~s Fax: 0171-833 8150
Londtm NI 9RY e-mail: lithoflow.co.uk

Price: £6 per issue, including back numbers where available. (Enquiries to the Executive Officer)
The Scientific Instrument S~iety is Registered Chanty No. 326733

¢ The Scientific Instrument Society 1999

Editorial
Millennium Musings
! suspect that curators in quite a
number of museums are now racking
their brains to come up with exhibitions
for the Millennium. A favourite topic
for science-oriented m u ~ u m s seems to
he that of time. Thus, in this issue's
'Current and Future Events' i have
reported on The Sto~ of Time exhibition
currently held until 24 September 2000
at the Queen's H o u ~ of the National
Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The
staff of the Stewart Museum in Mon-
treal is in the planning stages of an
exhibition with the theme 'space and
time'. Divided into three parts, the
Museum will present a wide range from
their collection of scientific instruments,
old maps, booka, engravings, and the
whole of their collection of more than
thirty pre-1800 globes (the largest such a
group in Canada). The instrument part
of the exhibition will be centred on the
'quest for longitude', inspired by Will
Andrewes' recent book on that theme
(reviewed by Gerard Turner in Bulletin,
No. 56, March 1998, p.32). The organi-
zers have decided to develop that
portion of the exhibition around five
instruments or groups of ~struments
that were significant in this quest. One
of the organizers, Jean-Fran~;ois Gau-
vain, has via the intemet thrown down
the gauntlet with the question: 'If you
had to put together an exhibit of the five
most important instruments that were
used to determine longitude in the
period after circa 1500, which would
they be?' Answers please to jggauvin@-
stewart-museum.org. How much will
John Harrison feature in this story? It
cannot be denied that Harrison has
been h a v i n g a v e r y good press
recently and who does not like the tale
of the kmely inventor battling against
the odds? This has been meat for the
clock historians but poison for the
historian of astronomy. Gerard Turner
pR)bably got it about right when he
wrote in the above-mentioned review
that this quest needed both its Harrison
and its Nevil Maskelyne. Sitting on the
fence, of course, does not sell popular
book, a lesson well understood by Dava
Sobel.
Now that the Millennium is almost
upon us, I have as Editor decided to
throw down a gauntlet of my own. !
would like to devote the last issue of
this century, that is December 1999, to
twentieth-century instruments. As a
way into this 1 have asked curators of
ikdletinoftheScientificimmammSoae~ No. b0 (1999)
a number of prominent science mu-
seums to discuss the ten most repre-
sentative instruments of the twentieth
century in their collections. ! have also
presented several prominent members
of our Society with this question, and I
will now ask you the reader. 'What do
you consider to be the ten most
r e p r ~ t a f i v e instruments of the twen-
tieth century?' Answers to me please
before the end of September! The
reactions ! have received to date have
been varied and profound. Why ten?
Well, this is just an Editor's conceit. !
decided that with ten one could chose
one instrument per decade rather then
have them all bunched up for the end of
the century. What is a scientific instru-
ment? That is for you to answer as part
of the fun. Many modem instruments
are made up of discrete components,
such as a radar set which has at its
centre the magnetron, but could not
function without the electronic ampli-
fier of the received signal, i know
several collectors who concentrate on
radio valves and magnetrons rather
than on complete sets. How many
discrete components make up a digital
computer which can be regarded as
separate scientific devices? For instance,
one of the key developments of the
computer had been the memory hard-
ware,
The collector may well ask how much
of this material is collectible? The
criteria here for the science museum
and the private collector will usually be
quite different. I did once receive a
telephone call from an agonized collec-
tor who had a large 1960s valve
computer to give away. He lived in a
bungalow. The central processor was in
the dining room, the memory unit in the
bedroom and the printer in the living
room. And it worked! He now had to
find a home for it as his wife had finally
had enough. Beauty is said to be in the
eye of the beholder, but ! defy any of
you to see the same beauty in an
eighteenth-century Marshall microscope
and a twentieth-century electron micro-
scope. Which of the two instruments
has been scientifically the more signifi-
cant may well be easier to answer. One
collector wrote that if he collected
seriously from the twentieth century,
he might include:
- a Marconi Instrument (originally a
General Radio design) TFI44G signal
generator (probably the first profes-
sional signal generator with accurate
calibrated output in the microwdt
region);
- a BC221 Wavemeter (US Army Signal
Corps highly stable and reliable with
100kc/s crystal calibrator);
- a Transfer function Analyser (Solar-
tron: direct A + jB p r ~ t a t i t m of
signals and reference, a boon to servo
and feedback system designers);
- the Digital Voltmeter.
Here you have the problem in a nut-
shell. ! am very much k~oking forward
to your reactions!
An important event is the checklist of
British Gh~es lip to 1850: A Prtn,isional
lnz,ento~ (London, 1999), by Richard
Dunn and the late Helen Wailis, which
has been circulated free to SIS members
with this Bulletin. The Globe prolect
began in the 1940s with Helen Wailis'
work on Emery Molyneux and contin-
ued throughout her career and retire-
ment. Sarah Tyacke, as Helen Wallis'
Literary Executor, with the help of the
late Derek Howse, Tony Campbell, and
more recently Trevor Waterman, was
able to publish this guide. Helen Wallis
had set aside funds in her will to meet
the research costs and also its distribu-
tion. Richard Dunn had already been
approached before she died in February
1995 to see this work through to
fruition. It is hoped that this publication
will whet the appetites of our readers
for a more substantial and illustrated
work for which grant support is now
being sought.
In this issue we record with great
sadness the death of our dear friend
Aldert Klut on ! January 1999. The
obituary has been written by our Dutch
members Marijn van Hoorn and Peter
Louwman. 'Big AI' has led a remarkable
life and was a great supporter of the
Society. His contributions to the Bulletin
were always interesting, and he was the
Editor's largest (and unstoppable)
source of 'mystery objects' for these
pages. The second death was of Karl-
Heinz. Wilms which occurred shortly
after he completed "rhe Case of the
Stolen Lens?' printed in this issue. The
Editor would like to extend on your
behalf our condolences to both families.
1 had intended to print in this issue
 l)a~id Hrvden's 'Annlver.,,an' l,ectuw'
~the ,~xth m this .~'rit~,L which he
l'~'rtormt~,| last l)e~'emher [h,~4, c4 us
~ h,, ~t're lucky to ha~e been there had
a mo,,t enll~htent,d ,rod t'ntertamin~
t'% e n l l l g |¢) celebrate hns pewF~rzz~mon
.m~m~.,,t the ephemera of .~'nence I
~llt'<l¢ied 1o coRt'elltratl, I!1 thl.. IT*slIt' II~
thn.~ topic hence the co~er ~thlch for mt'
~ta, one t~t the mt~t remarkable ilJtP.-
tr,ltlon', .,,hown by l)avid, and : \ m o w t
[anner'.- Market l'lace' o n ~'ientntl¢
,and other)cl~hemera i am u ) ~ ~t'l~"
much k~kln~ tonvard to thc pnnted
erM,ql ot 1),1~,Id l~r~derl'~, ]t'tttlre II1 the
Ii.|ne I.',M.le
l'hi~ i~ not to .,a~ that there ~, not pk'nt~
of taft" The I~",tle ,,tarts, ~ith a l l o l h e l r
otterm~ by Richard lhll'- the, ,,',m' on
I,Imt~., V~,ltt's |~,lrt)flleler~. ar'l in.~trtlmt,nt
with which he z.,,not u.,uall~ a,,,~'latt~.|.
1~o ,~ther etmtnbutor,, that ha~.e be-
corot' krlv,V~rl to LI~ art' ]re~,or |,e~t'rt,
and r,ltll Zt,ller I'rote_~or l e~ere'.~
paF,er n,, on the lamou~ Cabinet of
•'~ V~' ||aL~¢h ot the .~r,~ ..~cademv in
D~'nmark and =t,, IPlacc in the late
el~htevnth-centur~ 't'hem=cal Re~olu-
lion' l'rote~-4,r Zoller on thi~ t~.'ca,,itvn
anah,t.~ lhe u~' of the ar,thmometer in
them~odvnami¢ ealculahtm.~, Iruk one
of the punnacl¢.,~ of ~icntnti¢ achieve-
n~mt in the mm, h,¢mth et'nturv. I'roh.'~.-
.~r lk,lton and ,Mr~ l~'llliams have
examined a pharmact.~t'~ pre?,crlptVm
box .,~'ale,, by Felton Grlmwade of
.Mel~,z,rnu. ,rod lhere an' two 'mv~,terv
l hc ~tart of the .%.tillenntum I,,, an
ol~portunltv hn taking ~t, wk. ~,%'hat ts
tht" rt, le',al'ice of iIl,~trtllrlellt,, to the
hl,,h~r~ of ..,¢'lent'e, o r n ~ r e gel)erail~ to
cultur.lt hi.~torv? Vthich trl.,truments
~,hould [~' r~rt.'~Iged for the tutlire al~|
~hat art' the m~,t e l h ' t ' t l v e i~,'av~. ¢~
achw~ m~ Ibis? How do we make [~.'sl
u~' of the l~.nta~:e we already, ha~e and
how do ~ve pre,<'rve that hq" tuILwe
.~erwrat~ons' lhe la,,t questi~m i.~ the
~ubpx't ,~t l ioward l)aw't~," refx~rt ~m a
l ~ - d a v '.vork.,,hop l~,Id in Florence
r~'t'nll~ The i n t l ~ r l a n t l ~ l l t ' ~ t ~ ~'on-
..~.rvahon and re,,toration dl~'tl~t'd
there will flare to he addre,~,d by the
m~,trument l',,,loflan~ and collech;rs of
the I~-xl .%lllkmmum
Addenda
.~t'~ era] ~'(~rrt~,'tl~n.~ art, I ~ ' t ~ . , , a r v to ~t'
made to the prt'vit~tl* L,~sue. Attentive
readt'rs m,|~ have notict.~ a couple of
t~titorial blunders made in Silke Ack
t,rlltalllrl'S rel~w't (1t~ the t,tteelk,lrtt exhib~
tion: t',umlia lltrii,trs,,lis Coi£ntt: .,
F,mulu t~'ta','¢~l .~cl,'~h'c mid .4rf. Yt~, rot,
editor repkwt~i the wtwd "Family' 'Will,
'~-ience', thervt~" repeating this word
am! making Ihe title aptx,ar hlghlx
Ph|k~phv:al. whik, in rt,alih' it had
l~,en rentk,red meaningk.,~s, l'he pa,
.,,age ~m Michwl Islartlng with tl~, fifth
paragrat~h) a l ~ got ~'rambk~d wl~.,n I
tyl~'d tip the email ~,nt by .~lke t~ tl~.
twigmal text. It .,J~ntM have read: 'But
naturalh it I~, his ~m, wh~,e extensive
,vu~'rc in manu~-ript.~ and l~,~ks as well
as In m.,,trun~ents is metk'uk)uslv l|sted
in tla' catah~ue, w h o mu~t he in the
ct' n tre td ~ altt'l~tNm. Michk4 wceived an
e~cellent mathematical training, am|
started his can~,r a.~ a te,~'her ~ Fn~-h
and hight~ mathemat~s, and in 15/"2/3
l ~ a m e the city's wine gauger.' My
al~d,~i~.~ to .";dke and, ~d" court,, al.~
h~ the twganizer~ of the exhibiti~m, in
particular to Dr Ad .Mt.~ken~.
t h e .~-ond corrt'ction ctmcerns the
rel~rt ~m the Coremelli ~N~riety Globe
Meeting in Berlin last ( X l o t ~ . Arthur
Middh,hm would like to Ix~int ~ntt that
there were actually f , ~ r SIS tk, k,gate~
(and m~t the three he r~T~ed). The
quartet was c~nnpk~,~l by 5vh, ia Su-

Where Imatrmm.~l Meel~ Toy

l'inplah, ~team kx't~motives lx~ame all the rage in

the latter part of the nineteenth t e n t u w ¢.~pecially
in the hands of Lmtrllpreneunal toy-makers such as
Bing and Marklin. However, ~everal mid-nine-
teenth-venture I-:nglL,,h instrument makers feature
,~did boiler steam i(~'t~notivt.~ in their catak~4ues,
r~ doubt as .~ientifk" ~k,n~mstrati(m pieces. A
particular impre~.,,ive exampk, is the steam kx'(mlo-
tire t~ the cover of Edward Palmer's m,,trument-
catah~ue for IP142. The .,~,¢imen illustrated here is
the hrst such an engine i have ~ r l in the ~ ~ to
sf~,ak. It is a ~mpk, brass engine with ,~ingle
existed cylinck, r hem, ath the rear whk'h drives a
crank. As it L,~si~m~ by Watkins & Hill of lxm~km,
it must date tx, flwe 1856. I am grateful to the
c~dk,ctor who has given us the t ~ w t u n i t y to see
this rare k~:(m~otive. Did Watkins & Hill here have
their eyes tm the embryo h ~ market kw mechanical
d e v i c e s (w w a s this i n t e n d e d as a ~K:k-ntific
d~n~trathm in~rument?

Bulk4m ~ the S o e n ~ Ir<dnm~nl ~de41y No. Id) (IW~I

Cover Story
A Fishy Tale
Willem Hackmann
Angling may be .~1 to be .,~, llke the
mathemat~-s, that it can never ~. fully
k.amt
I/aak Walhm. l'tw Cotnpleet A,.~ler (1#~¢1.t)
This i~,~ue'sc~wer illu~ratkm is I m ~ f yet
again that as instrument hi~,mans we
can k'ave m~ sh~L', or in this ca.,<" no k,af,
unturned Who would have imagined
finding a gk~e and in~rument maker
am~mg the fi~tng tackk, ephen~,ra? I~,re
is am~ther rich veto that awaits expkwa-
ti, w1.
lli~,,'ian.~ have king appreoat¢~l that
ephen~'ra an, a rich m,ur~, of inh,~na-
tK,n. In~,trument hi~orians, ~m the other
hand, have been .~m~ewhat .,,lower t ~ the
mark, u n ~ u b t ~ | l y hecau~, their atten-
thin tended to he hedazzled by the shiny
artefact~ tl~,m,~k't.,s. My own inter~.'~t in
this s u b ~ was awoken by two .~urce~.
First there was lt.R. Calvtq'l's ~i,'ntlfiC
Trad,' Cmr,ts m tit' .~'icm'e Museum G~lli','-
ho,, a m, xk~t text p u b l i ~ in W71. ]-hi.
material dt.,~criM in this catah~ue came
in the main fnm~ two collt*cthms m,~k,
originally by l~nnas Court and George
Gabb rt.~Ix,ctively. For a~,ut thirty years
until the ~ : , m d World War th~,~e two
intrepid collectors of early ~-ientific
in.~truments gathered tr,~k," cards and
bill-heads as well as adverti.,~,n~,nts cut
fnmn nt~'.~papt, r~ and tx~ks..%,c, md, on
a much gmnder m'ak', there was Francis
Klingender's pioneering Art and the
Indu~trml R,'v,,luti, m, first publ"~i~| in
ie47. It has remained ,me of my fay,mr|re
~ k s . KhnKemk'r's main visual ,~mrce
was the Arthur Elton Collection of
picturt.'~, L ~ k s and other material relat-
ing to indt~,trialization. Since his days it
has migrated to the Ironhrklge (;~,rge
Mu~,um, and in more recent ~ears has
been heavily drawn ur~m by ;~a Briggs
in, an)~mg i~thers, In,n Bri, l k,e to Cr.ll~.t,II
I~ila('e, Publish'd in 1~7~. I1 was through
Klinger~ier that I hegan to appreciate the
l~dential of pictorial material.
Evidence fnmn ephemera was aim, u,~l
in the compilathm ,~f (;k~'M Clifhm's
magisterial l)ir,'ct,,~ ,,f British S,'r'nt#k"
htstrlmr'ut Makers 15~',b ! 851. Of particu-
lar m~te are the ~,everal colk, cti, ms of
trade cards in the British Mu.~um, in
particular the Heal Colk'ctkm (which
includes ab~mt 12l) card~ of .~ic,ntific
inter,.~ts), and the Banks Collection.
Oxford Univer~ily's I~dleian Library
h,m~,~ the John k~hn~m Colk,ctkm, but
this is probably ~ rm~re interest to the
coik~,~r of d , ~ i ~ applianc~ (includ-
ing radio) then of antique ~ientific
in~trument~.
Bulletin of the ~ienCtfic Instrument ~ck, ty NM. ~I
.~, who were the John and Daniel
tliggint~tham who feature ,m the unu-
sual tratk, card or advt~rtisen~,nt illu-
strated ~, David Brvden m the I ~
'Annual I'nvitatkm I,ecture'? Gk~ria Clif-
km lists a jo~,~ph Higginbotham, a
mathematk'al ir~trument maker, active
m Cold Bath Field in [.4md,m in the
1744k, w h ~ . ~m David was a]~'enticed
to John (I) Ekmnett, mathematical, optical
and p h i k ~ - ~ i c a l in.~rument maker who
had pn~mi.~.,s in Crown Court, ~ h o ,
hind, re. I cannol iudge whether Cold
Bath Field is angling country, but bt~ick~
I am k~,king flw a John and m~t a J,~'ph.
I decided to turn from the l)iri'ctorv to the
auth~w, Glorm Clifftm, for help, with this
result: A 'J. tliggintxdham fishing tackle
maker" appear~ in the thm,l.r~d I~rltisll
I)in'ctor v, vol. l, 17¢)3 edition, at 91
Strand, h,nd,m. This apl~,ars to be the
John tligginbotham of the John and
l)ank'! iligginbotham adverti~.ment as
in 17~ a John ttigginbotham, fishing
tackk, maker of the Strand, had appren-
tk't~l his ~m William to Jarm~ Sim, ms, a
mathematical instrument maker, inventor
and optician in Mary. k,l~ne Street. John's
nam~.,~ke, Dank,I, apl~'ars in the tilth
volume of the tiniwr~ll British |hr¢ct,,ru,
published tn 17~, al~, as a fishing tackle
maker, at 7 High Holt~rn. John is not
listed in this later volume, l~e John
tligginbotham trade card in the Heal
C'ollecti~m has no re|err'rice to gk~e~ or
.,~-ientific ir~truments, ,,nit' to fi,,hing
tackk, am| fl~wling.
A k~-al man .%~muel Chandler of tlolborn
Bars pnnted the advertL,~,ment. |ie was
training apprent~:e~ in the ~tatiot~,rs'
Company betwz~,n 1 7 ~ ) a ~ | I,,'Tq. Ih'
did not appear m the Universal British
Directortt.'~ and there is no other 5.
Chandler listed. All thi~ .,,uggz.~ts that
the partnership of our 'lovers of angling'
John and Daniel at 'Four [ ~ r ~ ab~we
(;ray's-inn I.ane, near Ilolborn-Bars,
I~mdtm', predated their .~,parate busi-
ne~.,,e~, and that the adverti.,~,n~,nt prob-
ably datt.'s fn~m the 17Nk or 177,tk.
In what manm'r all ti~,~ i t i g g i n ~ h a m s
were related i have n ~ been abk" to
establish ]-he truly common strand
between tl~,m according to surviving
d,~un~,nts was the ~ationers' Ct~rnpany.
Their apprentk't'~ip~ were ~.rved with
masters ,H: the Statkmer~' C,~npan.% or
t h ~ t~-ame ma~te~ thent'~dv~ in the
same guild. Even the printer of John's
and Daniel's advertL~ment, Samuel
Chandler, ~ k m l ~ d k~ the Statkmer~'.
(Igqo)
Ck~-~' reading of their advertl~,ment
¢q~,lr~ up the old chestnut as to whether
we an, ~k,aling with a retalk'r ,vr a maker
,R instrun~,nts. Would the maker of all
~rts of fishing r,x|s and artificial flie~
al,.~ make the extensive range of glot~.,~,
optical and draw,ng instruments li,,ted?
()ur two happy angk.r~ km~" no bounds
h~r be~ick.~:
All .'~,rts ,,f Mathemallcal. I'hdo~hi~al,
and OI'TI('AI. IN'.;TRL;MFNT~. a.
(;I+t)BE,'.;, ~L'AI)RANI%, ll-II-~',~t)l'!!%.
BAR()METEK?,;. [IlFRMi)MFIFR~, HY+
DRt)MFIER~, RFAI)IN(; and OI'FRA
(;LA~fFS, .~I'F(q'ACI.ES. DRAWING IN-
.~IRUMENT.~. RUi.FS..~QL'ARF%. ,rod
B|:VFI~, &c n~de and rtTa,rt~|
they ai.,~ dealt in:
'I'1~"~'~t h~rh.~,lwll, h ore, Bo~. and th,m
Comb,,. amt ~dk I'ur~'~, with a ~-ant~' of
Cutk,rv and Hard-~S'are . ~%tipt.rtim.Black
h,ad l'enctl~, h'orv l'ock*'t I~,~k'.. and
walking (-ant~ Mounted
C,m~e off it Mt.~,rs John and Dan~,l, who
are ,,,Ri t~'|ng to ctmvff~.'e with thi* fishy
tak,? I am plea,~,d, however, that you
appreciate the value of artificml flie~
'made by the bt.,~t and ablest hands', for
as your cimtempora~" .~muel Johnson
pointed out:
Fly tl,,hm~ re,iv be a ~erv pk,a-.ult amu-,=~
m~'nt: but anghn~ or filial tt..hm~ I ~an only
t:oIn~' t o a .~tltk al'kt a -trine.. w i t h a ,,~o1111
.it one era| and a h,ol .it the otl~'r
~ h a t Is illu,,trated by tht'. advertl,~,ment
is the level of ~,phi~tzcation adue~ ed bv
the instrument trade b~. the late eLc.ht-
et,nth century', I't'rhaps L,aak t,~,'aihm ha-
a pomt and happy an.~h,r- are mathema-
ticalh' inclined.
Sour¢~
D.F. McKen,,le. ~t,~tlem'r. C,,mp, utu AI,.
pr¢,tlcCS 1701- I,'~Mt ~l)~fon.|. lq7.~)
I. B a r f ~ and J. ~,Vilkt.~. ed~, 171¢thui'cr.,tl
BrIH~h l)irectom., 2nd edition. ~olume I,
I,'~3 and volume 5, I ; ~
AcknowledKemenLq
itw Editor L,~grateful |or the inhwmat,,n
supphed by Gloria Clifton of the Na-
tional Maritime Museum and Sdke
Ackermarm of the British Museum
Obituary
lng. Aldert I. Klut (1928-1999)
6"ten,t Bob Pratt
Aldert Klut of Am.~terdam died on 1
January l ~ alter a brave fight against
cancer, l i e leave~ hl~ ~v~ft,, Cherie; they
had no children.
Aldert, known to many of hi.,, Enghsh
trwnd~ a.~ 'B~g AI" IFig.l), was an early
member of the ,"k'ienhfic in~trument
~wietv, and h ~ k part in most of its
annual vi~its to mu,,eum~ and collt~.'tions
m d=tferent countrit~,. When the N~.'ietv
x~,ited the Netherland,, in May I'~1,
member~, had the opportumtv to visit
Aldert's hour" m Haarlem. m e r h ~ k i n g
the river ~paame, where he kept the
n'talor part of hi.', collection of ~ientific
mr,trument,, (F~g. 2). In the ba~'ment is
h~s sw,ll-eqtnplx'd work.,,hop, for Aldert%
great ,~ati~,factlon ~va.~ to repair and
re,,tore damaged and mcomplete in.Mru-
ment,, lit' ~va~ able to attend the la.,,t 515
~ ~=t. to l'an~ m March lq~g tit' was a l ~
a contributor to the Bulh'hn
Ira,ned a- an engmet, r, Aldert% first lob
~va~ a,, a t~,~l maker at an Anlr,terdam
dt~.k,.ard tit, u~ed hl~, earh" ~.ear~, to
perfect hi, skill in language-,, and wa,,
fluent m (;erman, French and English He
then moved to the let en~llle company,
Curte,,, ~,nght, and in 1'~2 ~va~, put m
char.e,e of the tt,,tlng of the Hrm'~, engme',
m England, bm,ed at Roll~ Rovce In
( m e n t ~ Ih' ".pent four year.,, In Eng-
land and made g ~ d u~' of hi~ time,
pla~,ng the cornet in a hwal ia// band,
and making what proved to be a lifelong
lr=t.nd-hip w=th bh~b Pratt Aldert and
l~b ~hared an mtert-,t in cars, engineer-
mg and laz,', and also a ~.n~, ot humour.
Aldt.rt% next lob was in Bremen, (;er-
many, w h e w he worked fi~r A G . "We,~'r
on the product=on of 5lkor~,kv helicop-
ter,,, tte played a malor part in the
current change-over from p~ston to let
engine',, and test flew the helicopters
FiX. 2 . t~.t, ,: -i:,,,,:~l,C h:- ,,,/t,',tl,,: t,: I'.'t, , I,.t~,cm.m ,t,,.mtm\'~
lhl,~rh'm tn .41,rtl I'~'~1.
lum~elf. Chew iollowed a brief period
wflh Renault, including si~ months in
Pans.
1hen m 1'-~1 Alderi moved to IBM, in
wh~.,e [)utch divimon he was to remain
till retwement He was clo~.h,' involvt~d in
parts pn~uctlon, and when the Dutch
bm,lness was at its m ~ t ~ucct~sful, he
headed a department of 4110. He was also
most valuable to the compan.v, however,
when the typewriter factory was in
decline. He actecl as mterm~,diarv be-
tween management and the workforce to
great effect. He rehred in lqSq.
There was no question of a lack of
activflv for Aldert ,n rehrement. He had
hi,, interest in lhe restoration of old
in~trument~, but also many other hob-
bit's. He was a .,,upporter ~f the Tevler
.Mt,~,um in llaarlem, a member of the
Fnend.~ of the Mt,~,um, often acting as a
guide to the Cabinet of i'hv~ic~, th,
per,,uaded the Museum, i n l g S l , to
employ an m~trument maker and re-
storer, I~.'rt l~'ver~viik, in its work~,hop, to
en~ure that the ~'lentific colloctions were
in gl,~.| condition
From |q73, Aldert was a mem['~.r of a
Dutch ~ , , , t v of collector,, of technical
obit~.'b, that became tran,,hwmed mto a
foundation, of ~hich he wa~ the first
pre,,ident, tie win, ab,o a committee
member of a divi,,ion of the Royal l)utch
In,4itute of Englntwrs.
Not ~,t,rpri~ingl.v, cars and racing were
another intere~,t. In the tittit~, Aldert
raced hi~ Iriumph TR2 internationally,
and .',eta one-mile ~peed record He was
a notable figure on the roads around
Coventry, overfilling the open sports car
in his motoring coat, scarf, goggk.,s and
w,,fllen cap.
[ w o other preoccupations were his
pa~,,ion for the films of Laurel and Hardy
(a p ~ t e r of them had pride of place in the
Haarh,m hot,~,) and his love of old-st,de
jazz from the twentit~ and thirties. Ald'ert
Bulletin of the ."k-ientific h~trument S~iety
i'h,.to\',al,h t,tk~'~t m
numbered .~.veral well-known iazz mu-
sicians anmng his friends, and helptxl to
organize a Jazz Day in Haarlem
With hi~ background of flying, it is not
.~urprL,,ing that Aldert was an admirer of
the RAF, and an active member of the
Amsterdam Branch of the RAF As.~-ia-
tion, taking a liveb,' part in the social
programme.
But .,,cientific instruments remained his
chief passion, and he was always read)'
to support any proiect connecttxi with
them. tie helped to initiate a Dutch
National inventory of historic scientific
in.,,truments, and urged that k~s well-
known mum'urns should not be ignored
tte was invoh'ed with the 'lnstituut
Collectie Nederland', which carries out
research projects for museums, and
arrangt~ training cour,,~es.
Aldert was a very special kind of
colh'ctor, in that his main interest was
the way the instrument was made, and
its titness for purpose. ]-he meth(~ of
pn~iuction, not the final product, came
tm, t with him. He loved the proces.,~.'s of
cleaning, repairing, replacing missing or
broken parts, and finalh' preserving an
artefact. With these priorities, he was a
.,,eller as well as a buyer, unlike most
colkx'tors. He al.,a~ deeply relishtxl the
prowess of buying and ~qling, particu-
lark' in markets, b e c a u ~ of the interac-
tion with other enthusiasts, like his friend
I:h~b Pratt. For )'ears, Aldert had a stand
at the annual Scientific Instrument Fair in
l,tmdon.
What all his friends will remember about
'Big AI' is his i,,h" de eiz,rc, his boundless
enthusiasm hw any venture, the way he
threw him~qf into .,a~cial events of every
kind.
Aldert's wish w a s that a trust be
established to manage his colh'ction and
continue the activitit.'s as.~ciated with it.
M a r t i n z~n H=,~rn & Peter l a , u w n z a n
No. 60 (1999)
James WaR's Barometers
Richard L. Hills
The barometer was an instrument which
James Watt identified as being one which
he could sell in Greenock after he
returned there from the peril~ he spent
training as a maker o f mathematical
instruments in London in 1756. Later, he
used both barometers and mercurial
manometers or pressure gauges, as
crucial scientific instruments in trials
with experimental apparatus to deter-
mine the relationship between the tem-
perature and pressures of steam and in
connection with various model atmo-
spheric steam e n g i ~ that led to his
invention of the separate conden~r. It
was his invention of the separate con-
denser which turned Watt into a natural
philosopher or scientist and we will see
this reflected in the improvements he
made to ban~meters which were sold
commercially by John Gardner who took
over Watt's instrument business in Gla~
gow most likely after Christmas 1770.~
During the eighteenth century, the mer-
curial barometer was gradually im-
proved to give greater precision in
readings taken from it and also to make
it I:mrtable. Through increasing wealth,
more people could afford to purchase
one for &~mestic use as a means of
predicting changes in the weather, so
that, by the middle of that century, there
was something of an explosion in the
demand fi~r all ,sorts of mathematical and
scientific instruments including barom-
eters. "~ The simplest type of barometer
was the so-called 'Torricelhan with a
straight vertical gla~ tube, cl(~.ed at the
top with the lower end immersed in a
cistern of mercury. For support, this
would be mounted on a wooden back-
board and termed a 'stick' barometer.
While considered the most accurate for
usual purp(~,es, should one of these have
to be moved, the mercury might spill out
of the cistern or surge up the tube and
break the glass so it was not portable. Yet
barometers of this type continued to be
constructed until into the third quarter of
the eighteenth century because they
could be read accurately. The atmo-
spheric pressure was determined by
measuring the height of the column of
mercury in the glass tube above the top
of the level of the mercury in the cistern.
However, as the mercury rose and fell in
the tube according to variations in atmo-
spheric pressure, so more or less mercury
would be taken out of the cistern with the
result that its level continually fluctuated.
The smaller the cistern containing the
mercury, the more pronounced would be
this fluctuation.
One way of reducing this inaccuracy was
to have a large reservoir of mercury in
the cistern. John Smith, writing in 1688,
said that he had discovered by trial and
error that a tube of 0.2 inch bore needed a
6ulletmo~theSc~t~rnmtSc~'tY
cistern of at least 3 inches diameter and
that of 0.25 nnch bore needed one of 3.5
inches to minimize the effect of the
changing cistern level and preserve any
degree of accuracy.' The article in Rees's
Cych~paediastated that the diameter of the
cistern should be ten times larger than
the bore of the tube so that 'the addition
or subtraction of the mercury, contained
between the greatest and least altitudes,
may not sensibly affect its depth'.'
Two bar~nneters made by Watt's c~m-
temporaries are preserved in the Science
Museum in London. Both have large
bowls for their cisterns. One by Jeremiah
Siss(ms, which is probably the earlier, has
a cistern 4.75 inches diameter and a tube
with bore about 0.33 inches? The other
by Jes~ Ramsden has a cistern diameter
of 3.3 inches and the bore about 0.35
mches. Therefore both these barometers
"should have been rea,~mably accurate
but both have devices to show the correct
level. Ramsden's was the simpler being
just a pointer whereas Sisson's has an
ivory slider with a vernier for really
accurate measurement of the mercury
level in the cistern as well as a micro-
scope for ascertaining the level in the
tube.~ However, in neither case can the
level of the mercury be altered so on the
Ramsden instrument, the pointer will
show only that the level is incorrect while
on the Si.,~,am,the reading of the lower
vernier must be added or subtracted to
that of the upper m~e. In neither case is
the method satisfactory. Then the mer-
cury is in open cisterns so that itcould be
spilt easily ifeither instrument had to be
moved. ]n addition, such a large volume
of mercury would add to the cost of these
instruments. Sisson died in 1770 so Watt
may have seen his instruments while he
knew Ramsden well enough to have his
letters directed to Ram.~len when staying
in Lond(m in 1767 and must have been
aware of his improvements."
Most common barometers at the time
when Watt was an instrument maker
between 1757 and 1770 would have been
a form of stick ban~meter with a straight
tube mounted on a backboard but the
lower end of the tube wcmld be glued
into a small wo(~en cistern like an
inverted cup. The mercury would be
contained either in a leather bag within
this cup or leather would be stretched
over the bottom opening which allowed
enough flexibility to cope with changing
atmospheric pressures. Wo(xi, such as
box, was sufficiently porous to allow air
through to vary the internal i~ressure but
dense enough to prevent the mercury
escaping. This made such barometers
more portable but they still suffered from
two disadvantages. First, the mercury
could surge up and break the tube if the
im~t had to be carried. Second,
No. 60 (1999)
and more serious for a scientific instru-
ment but something which did not .seem
to concern the ordinary householder, the
level of the mercury could not be
determined accurately and, because these
cisterns were invariably smaller than
Smith's proportkms, the level must have
fluctuated a great deal and hence the
readings would have been less accurate.
it is not clear who invented the most
common device for preventing the mer-
cury surging u p the tube when the
barometer was being carned. It could
have been Daniel Quare who, before
1700, had some method of sqoeezing
the leather bag so that the mercury filled
the tube." S(a'm after this, there appeared
the screw device which could be turned
to push up the leather b a r of the cistern
and so fib the tube but it is not known
w h o intngiuced it."By the second decade
of the century, this meth(~ had achieved
widespread acceptance.*" Although this
gave rea.,amable portability, it was im-
possible to see the level of the mercury
and therefore such instruments would
not give very accurate readings, certainly
not accurate enough if such barometers
were to be carried up hillsor mountains
to ascertain heights. A true portable
barometer where the mercury level could
be properly adjusted to its proper level
stillneeded to be invented.
Watts Manufacture of Barometers
In June 1756, Watt had finished his
training as an instrument maker in
London and sent to his father an estimate
of the tools and materials which he
wanted to purchase there for equipping
himself at Greenock." Out of the total £
23.12.6, he allowed £I for barometer
tubes and £3 for 'box and other hard
w(axls'? 2 Some tubes must have been
purchased for, while barometers are not
given a ~parate heading in his '[x-,tiger,
January to April 1757'Y, his 'Waste B~k'
on the third of January, that year has the
entry:
8 glasstubes ~r bannnet~ 9.0
Several bits ~ Plate Bra~ tot
various uses I0.0
*/21b. Quicksilver 29 *'
What must be the same eight gla~ tubes
appear in an undated inventory which
most likely was made when Watt moved
his workshop to the College in Glasgow
at the end of July 1757.
So far barometers do not appear to have
been a very profitable line. Watt's
surviving financial records are incom-
plete and they have not been thoroughly
searched h)r references to har~m~ters but
they show two tubes being sold for 3/- to
his Grace the Duke of Montrose in June
1759. The dukes of Montrose were
Chancellors of GlasgowUniversity flxml
5
1715 to 1837. Mercury was bought at the
,same time at 5/6 per I:x~und." Presum-
ably this sale was for repair to some
instruments. A further inventory was
drawn up im 7 October 1750 when Watt
formed apartnership with John Craig to
develop the business. While this inven-
tory appears to be very detailed, it
contains no mention of barometers. This
su~ests that Watt had disfn "~,d of the
remaining tubes either by repainng other
barometers or making ~ m e him~lf.
Barometers continued to be a lint, made
and sold by Waft becau.,~ there is the
price of one ~ l d in Januan" 1761 h~r
£1.1.0 and another that May f~;r £1.17.0.'"
Sales continued because his brother John
purcha.,~ed eighteen 'Barrometer Tub~'
for him at Bnstol m OchR~er 1701.'" Dr.
Wil~m, pr~umahl.v the Glasgow Profes-
sor of Astronomy, purcha~'d a barom-
eter m 1703 h~r £1.15.0'" These prices
compare with Henry Pvetinch chaqsnng
£1.11.6 and (~'orge A~Jams £2.2.0 for
common bannneters in 170~ in l~mdon/"
From the two surviving barometers
which may be a.,~'ribed to Watt and the
~ rinting plah~ for paper ,,~'ales for
arometers preserved in the Garret
Workshop, it is .safe to a.,,sume that Watt
concentrated on the stick or portable
typ:s, lherefore th~,e pnces su~,~est that
Vfatt aimed his production at the lower
end of the market.
We have one piece of evidence to show
that he was mvoh'ed with another type.
The invoice which P r o f ~ r John Ander-
s~n paid m .%,ptember 1762 for Watt
carrying out work on behalf of the
UniveP, itv Natural I~hih~phy class in-
cluded 'Mending a Barnnneter, 0d.' and
'apparatus for a wheel Barrometer, 2/0'. -~
[he wheel barometer must have been the
type with a dial and a hand to I~int to
the pressure. Vfhen Watt went to London
in the .~ummer of 1763 to purcha~ g¢a~ls
for .,~,lling in his shop, barometers were
among the Items. Tht~ may indicate a
change in policy on his part through a
rtx-ogn,tion that it was cheaper to buy
whole,,ale rather than tn' to make a wide
range of instruments him.,~,lf. It ka~ks as
if the numbers of journeymen he em-
plox ed to manufacture both .,,cientific and
mu~qcal instruments started to decline
around this time. So far Watt was
mvoh'ed with barometers only as a
manufacturer and retaih.r of the common
types
Watts Mercurial Manometers
Vfatt carrio:lout his firstexp.,nments on
the ml,.iel atmospheric steam engine
during the winter of 17~34 and through
this he l~,gan to use the barometer as a
~ientific instrument. He probably u.,~-,da
barometer at this time to record atmo-
.~pheric pressures while he was carrying
out expenments to determine the rela-
tionship between steam temperatures
and pres.,,ures as he did later. "~ The actual
steam pressures he determined by a
mercurial manometer. In his note ixx)k,
parts of which were written later, there is
an illustration of his apparatus. (For an
illustration of this, see my article 'How
James Waft Invented the .~,parate Con-
denser, Part !!: The Separate Conden.,K~",
Scientifw Instrument S~,'iettt, Bulletin,
No..~, p.7, Fig.12) He described this as
a spherical ' v e s ~ l made of c ~ p e r '
ctmtaining the water and steam. On its
side was attached another chamber
'having a Gage pipe imme'rsed in a
cistern of mercury and a thermometer
with its bulb in (he inside', u This tube
was ~ inch~ king. In a further series of
experiments carried out in the early pair
of 1774, Watt had a tube 55 inches long
and a mercury cistern put inside a
digester, a form of boiler capable of
withstanding higher pressuresY It is no{
clear how Watt compen~ted his mea-
surements for changes in the level of
mercury in the cistern or for changes in
temperature.
He continued to use the mercurial
manometer in trials of his engines as he
developed his separate condenser, in
April 176,R,he had an accident when the
mercun' from the manometer t+'scap,d
into the cylinder and 'played the devil
with the ~dder', s~tting them back at
least three days. Watt found this ',,'el')'
vexatious as it has happened in spite of
the precautions I had taken to prevent
it'.:' This shows that Watt realized that
the mercurial manometer was not a
~tisfactorv instrument for measuring
pressures ~'hich fluctuated violently as
in the cylinder of a steam engine, thn'~ugh
the inertia or momentum of the heavy
column of mercury, but he had no
alternative, and this was the form of
pressure gauge fitted to boilers and
conden,~,rs on later production engines.
Surviving Barometers
But to return to barometers. In the Garret
Workshop at the Science Mu,,~,um in
la)ndon, there are two plak.,sfor printing
barometer scales on paper. (lhese are
illustrated in my article in Scientific
Instrument S~iety" Bulh'fm, No.57, 'H(~w
Jamt.,s Watt Invented the .%parate Con-
den~,r, Part I: Scientific Background',
p.28, Fig.5) We know that Watt was using
paper ~ales, a cheaper form of construc-
t,on than brass, from a letter to his father
in OctiR'~,r 1757, .,~am after he had moved
to Glasgow:
I have no papers I+or Bar~m'~,ters but the
inches art, counted /rum the surface of the
mercury.., the~' is a box with Ban~meter
tubt.'s in the pr,~s at the Wt.'~t rl~m I~,d
head which pack well & .,~*nd up first
opportunity but not by Willie Crawford as
he's an extravagant ra,~-al.-'~
This letter shows that Watt was fully
aware of the need to measure the column
of mercury ~ m the level of the top of the
mercury in the clmtainer at the bottom
The wording on ~me of the scales must
have been designed for Scottish weather
Bulletin of the ,Scientific I R s ~ t
as it reads on one side, 'Very dry; Set
Frost; Frost; [change]able; Snow; Much
Snow; Stormy'. As a vernier slider would
have soon destroyed the paper, these
have no provision h~r one and the scales
are set ckw,e to the tube itself.
The only complete instrument surviving
from Waif's Greenock and Glasgow days
is a stick barometer now displayed in the
National M u ~ u m of Scoflandin Edin-
burgh (Figs 1-3). The straight glass tube L~
concealed behind a fiat mahogany cas-
ing. It is probable that Watt I:nmght in
partly made w¢~len parts for barom-
eters as he did for some of his musical
instrument. There is no gla~ window to
protect the scales at the top which are
engraved in brass with a semicircular
top. This style became common by the
third quarter of the century. 2" It is
surprising that this barCnneter, although
it has the small w(~den cistern with
leather bottom, has no screw for adjust-
ing the level. This type persisted for a
hmg while in Scotland :: With a cistern
diameter of 21/, inches (m the outside
and a tube bore of 0.35 to 44) inches, s(nne
form of compensati(m would have been
neces~ry for accurate measurements.
The outer cover E~r the mercury cistern
(Fig.2) has been machined on a lathe
from a piece of mahogany to form an
ornate cylinder, ci(~-~d at the bottom and
parallel outside but slightly tapered m-
side. Such a cylinder could be cut in half
giving two for the price of one. This is an
engint~,r's ~)iutiun rather than a cabinet
maker's! The boss on the top has been
turr~,d in the same way.
]he engraving on the scales follows the
more usual wording of 'Very Dry; Set
Fair; Fair; Change; Rain; Mch. Rain;
Stormy', with 'James Watt Glasgow' in
his typical italic style (Fig.3). This may
well have been added to plates I:n~ught in
from another maker as tile lettering is so
different. ]here is a vernier slider which,
as there is no lower compensation
adjustment, would have been more u ~
as a marker to show changes in level
rather than giving accurate readings.
Most barometers sold from about 1770
were fitted with verniers, ~ and it can be
imagined that this would be a device that
appealed to Watt with his mathematical
interests.
There is al~) an incomplete barometer in
Wart's Garret WorL,~hop. (see Scientific
Instrument S~'h'ty Bulletin, No.57, p.29,
Fig.6) The tube has been broken so the
upper part is missing but it was exposed,
being mounted on a round-topped back-
board covered with mahogany veneer
with patterned edging. Although the
brass scales are missing, they were
rectangular with provision for a vernier
slider. A ri~'tangular hinged box also
veneered covers the cistern which is an
unusual pattern. The bottom of the tube
is secured in a wooden rectangular
receptacle for holding the mercury. The
internal dimensions of it are 2.87 inches i
Society No. 60 0999)
J

Fig.! The ban,meter inscril~'d 'James Watt
Glasgow" which has the plato cistern.~wmed
in a u ~ h ' n cup u,ith h'ather acnrss the
l~,ttom. Courtesy the Frust,'es ,!f the Nahimal
Museums of S,,,thmd.
by 0.65 incht,'s by 0.7 incht~ deep. This
upper tray connects with the lower part
by a sma'll hole behind the tube sa~ the
level of the mercuB' could be easib,'
ob.,~,rved in this tray. The lower part of
this rt~'eptacle has been turned into a
cylinder whtme outer diameter matches
that of a wt~Men cup underneath, 1.35
inches outer diameter. ] h e two are
con||eeted by bellows made from gut
.~'un.'d by string. The inside diameter of
the tube is 0.3 incht.'s .~ that adiustment
of the mercury level would be nect.,s.~rv
for accurate measurements. The adiusi-
ment of the level of the mercury can
effected by raising or lowering the cup by
means of a hand .,~'rew. The ~ w w prt.'s,,~es
against the w l ~ | e n bottom of the cup
instead of the leather in other barometers
.,a+ that this part was strengthened for
frequent u~,. The .~rew, its bracket, two
hingtm for the cover and the ~ale platt~
an., the only brass parts in the whole
barometer The bellows and .,~-rew adjust-
ment must have been devi.,~ to allow
the level of mercury in the rectangular
container to he adjusted but there is no
indicator to give the preca~ level needed
for accurate measurement. Perhaps any
pointer has been lost over the years. With
an open tray of mercury, the barometer
was no longer easily portable.
Bulletin of the ~ r l f i f ~ Instrument ~K'iety No. O0 ( i ~ )
--4=
.
Fig.2 Ch~e-up ~¢ us~wh,n mercu~ cistern
with no ad/ustm¢, ~'nm, t!f previous &re,m-
eter. Courtesy the Trust+~ ~¢ the National
Mu.~'ums of Scotland
While this barometer cannot be dated, it
is likely that it was a first attempt bv Watt
to mal~e one which could he adiusted to
give accurate readings when he was
carrying out further experiments on
steam pn..'~sures and teml~.,raturt.~ during
the ~.'ond half of 1773 and early 1774.
He needed to know if the atmt~pheric
pres.,,ure varied during the course of his
trials because this would affect the
accuracy of his results. It was a pentM
when other ].~ple were al.,~+ .,,e~,king It+,
improve the barometer. (.;eorge Adams
had develol.~M an ivory flt~It as a level
indicator around 1766-", and then in
about 1770, Ramsden had made a
barometer which had both an ivory
l~mder over the mercu~' cistern and a].,~
a k,ather bottom to the i:istem and x'rew
.,~ thai the level of the mercury could be
adiusted to the pointer. ]his" was ctm-
tain~l in a ca~ing in which there was a
hole for viewing the mercury with the
hole heing .,~,aled bv an ivt+rv plug. ~'
Such barometers would not apl~,ar to
have heen easily [~wtable. Jean A. de Luc,
who later became a ch~e friend of Watt's,
published his Rech|'rches sur h~ Mt~htica-
tions de I'Atmosphere in 1772 which
contained a study of the barometer. Watt
was making a "barometer to de Luc's
instructions in August 1773 which he
broke during the boiling of the mercury."
Fig.3 Ch~'-u t' ,'t ,,,deFlate ,,t f,n';'wus
barometer. C,,urtes~ the Tru~h','s ot the
National Mum'urns t~¢S,'othm,t.
Watts Portable Barometer
We do not know the extent to which Watt
was aware of all the~, other develop-
ments bet he kept him.,~,lf informed
through, hw exampk,, knowing Ram.,~k,n
and n, ading pubh~hed accounts l-he~,
may have .~tlmvlated Watt to improve the
barometer and try to make it tully
l~wtable as well as more accurate to read.
The |il',~t de~'ription we ha~e is in ~'atl's
Journal fl~r February 1774:
('onlrzvt~.t a ,iew [;,ortabh' b,|romt lht,
¢ l M e m in 2 plt,l.t% }Olnl.,d b~. 3 pl~ o| ~ut -
the lo~,~'er~,urtaceol lht' mercury, to ,l|~|~.,ar
m a bd of open tuN" hxt~t m the top of cl~tn
al~.t to b~, [~rotl~hl in conlact with a black
hmr ,,tn,tched m a horv tork ':
It woukt be intert.~tlng to know it the
hellows arrangement |or the cL,,tern couM
be confirmed as an invention of Watt',,
becau.~, it was taken up by many
manufacturers of barometer~ m ~-otland
He wrote to James Lind in a letter whlch
has not sun'Bed on 7 Februa~' ahRit the
"metht~t of calculating Iklrm. bv Far~
nheit'. '~ and ~tarted to make "a new
barometer the .%ame day. tie fixed the
barometer tube In the cistern on the |oth.
and tried t|lhng d but .~me air got in and
he sl~ilt the cistern when he t r ~ l to boil
it out. u It was only on the 25th. that he
divided the barometer .,~'ale:
 _%___
Fig.4 Wart's dnm,m~ ~ the bellows cistern with additional glass tub" filh'd with a plu~
across the hm~'r end ~ wlnch is stretched a hair line to show ttu' correct level when the mercu~
~s pushed up. Courtesy Birmingham Central Libra..
~'ith new dividing _~rtn~. - 332 teeth of tl~"
h'admg screw correspond to 1t20 inch
exactly & 241 to one revolution ot the .,,,crew
this .,~'rew .,,eem,, to be ve~, exact it L', 9
~.'hes long and is made of ~teel.'~
He htted the gut to the clstern and
presumably filled it ~ti.,,factorilv for he
commenced some experiments on water
boiling in a vacuum on the following day.
it is trom a letter to Lind written on 22
February that we can follow what Watt
was doing. In this letter he first wrote
about expenments de Luc must have
carried out on a 27 inch column of
mercury to see how much it expanded
when heated from freezing to boiling
point of water. Although this was 0.5
inch, Watt eventually decided that in a
thermometer, this '~.'ould not sensibly
atf(x-t the rt.~ult of the exl~,riment'Y The,
teml~,'rature of any barometer recording
barometric pressure would remain near
enough constant during the experiments
•~ he cot, ld d i ~ o u n t any expansion of
mercu~ in thi~ instrument as well but he
did not mention his manometers. He
went on to sketch the cistern of his
portable barometer (Fig.4) in which the
bellows rt~,mbled tho.,,e of the one m the
Garret Work.,,hop. For his portable bar-
ometer, the whole of the upper part for
the cistern was circular. Into the hole
through which the mercury would be
raised, IAatt prop,,sed to insert a short
glass tube ~ that the mercury could be
.,~x.n in it. The top of this tube ~'as sealed
with a w(n~len plug glued in. If this plug
were made of fir, he thought it would be
FnWOusenough for the air to pass through
according to changes in pressure. To
8 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
.
,.~... :~,,~_..=___~
make quite sure, a small hole could be
drilled down it which normally would be
blocked by a wire that could t~e drawn in
or out. The plug was to be flattened into a
wedge ending in two ~ i n t s like a fork.
Across the ends of the fork would be
stretched a black hair to show the correct
level of the mercu~: '1 have made the
Barometer and it seems to answer' was
Watt's final comment.':
While this was the end of the develop-
ment of baromete~ as far as Watt was
concerned, it was not the end of the
development of his portable barometer.
First, if indeed he were the inventor of
the bellows cistern, then this type .~on
became popular especialh' in Scotland.
One by 'J. Gardner, Glasgow' (Fig.5),
which suggt~ts a date befiwe 1799 when
John Gardner was joined by his .,~n, is
displayed in the National "Mu~um of
Scotland in Edinburgh. ~ It has a bellows
cistern (Fig.6) similar to Watt's drawing
but without any level indicator. Stott of
Dumfries had a similar t y p e Y The
diameter of Watt's cistern was quite
narrow with a longer depth. Miller, an
Edinburgh manufacturer around 1800,
was producing barometers with bellows
cisterns shallower but broader which
would have been more accurateY
The ~ c o n d development lay in the
m e t h ~ s of determining the level of
mercury in the cistern more accurately.
We have seen that this was being
attempted by manufacturers in London
but the problem ai.~ interested Watt's
scientific friends. William Small wrote
from Birmingham at the end of March
1774:
Fig.5 Banmu'ter b~ I. Gardm'r which has a
belh,u,s cistern simiiar to one on a barometer
in Watt~ Garret W,,rkshop m the Science
Mum'urn, /amd0n. See Scientific Instru-
ment Society Bulletin, N,,. 57, ]une 1998,
p. 29, F~¢,. 6. Courtestt the Truste~ of the
Natr,nal Mu~ums of Scotland.
In one of my han~meters, the male floats
within the tl.lbe, and ks of such specific
gravity, and of :~o accurately expansile
matter, that it constantly shows the weight
of the atmt~phere corr~tlv. This ks difficult
to be made. The other is ve~' easy. The
ba.,~n is |arge; a float of metal, with a hole
for the tube in ds middle, lies uFn~n the
surface; a .~ale stands Ul~n the float, and
expands and contracts just as much as
mercun'. You can easily imagine how both
may be rendered portable. 4'
No further details are known about this,
and Watt r a i ~ d some objections to it
which he must have related to Small
when he moved to Birmingham at the
end of May | 7 7 4 Y~ Here is another
example of a float which would have
been known to Watt and so possibly
through him to Gardner.
A littletater,back in Glasgow, another of
Watt's type of barometer was m a d e by
Gilbert Hamilton, Watt's second wife's
relative and a ck~e friend. H e thought
such instruments might be a commercial
proposition and suggested:
Ihave one made upon your constructionbut
greatly wider in the tube than yours but
answers exceedingly well - I can always set

Fig.6 Close-up of the bellou,s cistern of previous barometer.
Courtesy the Trustees of the Natumal Museums of Scotland
it up to the same height. A Professor Nin
Hill has been deiring lsic]m e to write to you
that he can get you orders for near a dozen
of Barometers if you will execute them to
some of our Donslhole] Cuningham etc.
w h o wont grudge a price [hole] have them
exact & handsome & wishes you could get
s~me neat contrivance in order to make
them in the form of a Connthian pillar,the
B a ~ to open for adiusting them & on the
top of the Pillar which should he at 27
inches to have a neat brass or bronze figure
holding the ~ale. As the workmen wnth you
are more in the way of fancy things they
could hit it off better ther [sicl than could be
done here or perhaps give you a better
contrivance.4*
Hamilton obviously had a high respect
for Boulton's craftsmen but none are
known to have been built to such a fancy
design. Watt was just starting out on his
career as designer of steam engines and
barometers disappear from his corre-
spondence.
De Lucpublished rules for the construc-
tion a n d use of the mercury baR, meter.
With his formula for relating pressure to
altitude, the barometer enabled sur-
veyors to obtain heigh~ more rapidly
and simply than by trigonometrical
methods. Gardner in Glasgow was quick
to exploit this for he placed an advertise-
ment in the Glasgow Mercu~. in 1779, part
of which stated that he sold:
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
Barometers on the mos! improved pnncl-
pies, so as to admit of bein~ camed to any
distance with the great~t safely. Likewi~
Barometers, for measunng the" heiKhts of
hills, which have a pecuhar adiustment to
regulate the lower .~urfaceof the Mercury m
one place, and have the mercury, boiled in
the tube. In this branch of business he has
been favoured with particular meth(~s and
directions by some Gentlemen of this place
of undoubted knowk,dge and skill in regard
to this instrument. ~
Another later barometer signed 'Gardner
Glasgow' in p r i v a t e possession has
Wart's ~'pe o f h e l l o w s cistern and in
addition an ivory float to indicate the
level of the mercury (Fig,~ 7-9). The float
moves in an ivory guide and is protected
by a small glass dome which can be
unscrewed, l"herefore the level can he
accurately determined. This is in the
same position that Waft drew for his
glass tube and hair-line indicator and
must have been developed from Wart's
design. The lower end of the float is tulip
shaped so it will seal the opening as the
level of the mercury is raised by
operating the ~ r e w at the bottom. There-
fore this instrument is truly portable.
There are two ivory scales with verniers
which give readings on one side for
'Night' and the other for 'Day' with no
wording. The scales read down to 25
inches. This must have been a specially
ordered instrument but it does confirm
i
Fig.7 The later Gardner barometer u,zth
belhn~s cistern and tz~a~fl~at to indicate the
let~l in a position similar to Wart's drau,in~.
Courtesy Mr A Fta#t.
that Watt's method of accurately deter-
mining the mercury, level was unproved
and turned into an instrument which was
sold commercially. Were Watt and Ha-
milton the gentle~nen who helped Gard-
ner develop this instrument? If ~,, this
was thirty years before Fortin developed
his more'famous methc~t?
Acknowledgements
This study of James Wart's development
of the ba~meter arose out of mv earlier
r on his separate conden_~:r. It has
~e~ made possible through the generous
a~istance and advice of many people
and shows the importance of being able
to benefit fix~m other peoples knowledge
as well as consulting archives and
inspecting artefacts. ~ m e h o w the ac-
knowledgements m my first paper were
omitted so here ! wLsh'to thank all t h ~ e
who have facilitated my efforts. The basis
of this research has b~,n the objects in
Wart's Garret Workshop preserved at the
Science Museum, London. I am indebted
to Michael Wright for explaining to me
the purpose of many of the tl~,ls there
such as the rotary, burr tool for chamber-
ing flutes and discu~ing many aspects of
Wart's craftsmanship and business meth-
ods. Also [ wish to thank Michael
Harding for his time and help as well.
The existence of these relics has thrown
light on documents in the various Watt
9
 17 I N d . p I"). 24 Oct 171+I

lit llud. p ~,2.23 April 17h~t

20 pA'I' t ' l I . +.%ccount~. p 2~. 12 ~ ' p t 17t+2

21 .~,e pA'I~ ~A' 14 I hl, ha- | y e n prmhxt In F"

Rlibln,+lln and |) +%,tlkil'. t'd~. ll~lrtlh'r- III
~ili'llll' l~'tt,'r, i,t Iiii111". IV, it/ i|lld Icl~l>ph Blal'l~
It onP+tabh' I o n d o n , lll71i), tilt t,~i,lmph, ~ll. pp
4414 and 440

22 INd, p 440

23 IbM, p 411

24 lltSl; 4 124. I. l%ali to W .~mall, I ~t A p n l

17~

2~ IX%I: I II ~+. I l%ait to I /%'air ~,nior. 10

t let 17~7

20 t;~tl,~+n, iy' ,'it. p 71

27 |bid, p. ,"77
214 IN,I, pp 2~ anti 71
xl Ibhl,, p p ,'~i 123 and 224 -
30 ,Middh.tlnl+ lip llt., p. 2113"

11 B & W, M I, I/2it, ll'ait'~ Ioumal, I1, 23

and 28 Au~ 1773
32 IbM, 3 l:l~0 1774
Pig.q t ' l o - i ' - u p I'/ thl" b l ' l h ' w , cl>tl'rn "tl II,nt, 7 F ~ 1774
dtran,~l'llll'llt lipprl'Uiilll~; Ildrilllli'tl'r Ctilirtl'~u
M r A I+l+litt 34 IbM, 12 Feb 177,4.
t:ig.14 t'Io-c ;,1" ,,' l. ,',t, -,,I/, plat,' ill 3~ IN, t, 2~ Feb 1774
['It';/'hill {'tlllr/l'>l# +lilt .'t [(kitt.
", tlliltlllli'tl'#
l,~l+O. I I ~ i , rvpnnt t%t.~tridge Antique t o l - 3o IVIV C I / I ~ . I I,%'att to I)r Lind, 22 Feb
It,ttor~' t l u b , I~Ol, pp t~l and I~ 177,-I
a n d I ~ u l t o r i a n d tA'att pal,,r,, in thrn~ml4-
h a m ( . e n t r a l I.ibrarv, as well as vice "t Ibid. p .%14 37 II,ld
xersa, a n d I w i s h to t h a n k t h e staff in 4 A Roe'.. 1Tic Cl#~h,pacdla or Um~,,'r.a!
that A r c h i v e l ~ . , p a r t n w n t for their untail- ~l I N tl a rke . A I ) Morrl~nl-l.ow, A I ) C
/lutll,n,lrl¢ l't Art. S~l,'n,c- and l.ltl'r+ltl+rl"
Inl4 a~,slstance, r h e n t h e r e ha,, bt,vn Jam" .~ilnp~ln, Bra,, and t;I,l~s, Stll'ntlhl" hlstrunl('nt
II.ondon I~+rllsman. t,rt,t.n 114Dt), Artidl, ltn
In>h,x at t h e ."x-lenct, .Mt,~,um in L o n d o n i%0rl>/ll~,~ Ill .~totl+l~ld iI> Illu~tr,itl~# h i [nP;/rl/-
ttxl rt Ilntqt.r '
w h o t a u g h t lilt, a k l u t the dt,x t, h i p n w n t tit
Illl'/l/~i trlllll tlh" Arthlsr tri/llt t'olla lion +it Phi"
i .-%Q Morton & I <% ti%l'~", /lllli/ll ~;r Pr/~,,Itl' Rllilil ,Ivlli.+cu.i i# +~lillll/til# I Fdlnbt/rl,~h Nalional
baronlt,it, rs a n d .~howt,d int, the m t , i h o d +
~i+/l'lhl ', Phi" ~k/n,,¢ (;i'llr+t'l' Ill t'lIHl'l'tiilll ( t k f o r d Mtl~,tllll~+ lit k o t l a n d , i+8+), p. 1#+4
b~, i v h i c h o t h e r maker.,, h a d trit,d to L'nlli,r.+llV Prt'~., I / i l l . p -t~+
0% t'rttlnlt, iil,ltCtlracit',., in c o n , , t r u c t l o n 3li (;oodiP, on, tip fit., p 7h
t,+ p o i n t i n g o u t t.x,lmplt,~ u n d e r h e r cart,. h (;oodi,.on, I,p , It , pp 224 and 2"i~)
Iius , t o r y t o u l d not h a v e l~x,n c o n t i n u t , d 7 ihmlinlsham Ct,ntral I.ibra~, ],lmt~ i~i'att 40 I am indl'bil,d ill Mi,+,, A M o r r i ~ n l Low
~ i t h o u t t h e as,,lstanct, of A l h m m Morrl- I'apvr, Ill%1'1, 4 4
20, I i%att to Marl;aret t%+ati, ior ..,howinl~ me ikt, Wall, (;ardnt,r and MiIh,r
.~n-l.o~v at the N a t i o n a l M u ~ , u m ill I1 A p n l 17#+. inMri.lmt,nt~, In lhl, National Mtl+,il, ilm o| .~'ol-
. ~ o t l a n d t~-ho alh~t~ed nit, Ill inb|~.-t t h e i r land and io Mr A Fooli ior brlnl~lnl~ the later
14 Vi' t7 knilwh,~ Middh,hn~, The H/',tilrl/ lit" (;ardl~,r In+Mrllmt~lt tot mr" Io ln+~pi'x'l
l%att a n d I l a r d n c r i n M r t i m t , n l s . It w a s thl" P~/r,mil'tl'r (ll,illlmllrl, lllhn Ihlpkln~, Pn'~.+,
,,he vvhc, 14ave nit' the nalnt, ill A n d r t . w 1'+~-1), p I i i It. I P Mtilrht,ad, Du" ()ri,TIII tllilii illri~rl~;P; i#
Foott w h o tt,mporaril!, r e t r i e v e d t h e tth" ,Ivll'l'hl/nttal I#li,l'lHlllti~; lit /dmls IVatt II~ln-
%t (;olldi~l,n, l)ll fit . p
other t;ardnt,r instrument and brought don ] Mlirray), Vol II, p. ~ , No. I}J, W Small
it to nix' hou,,e . ~ I c o u l d insp~x-t it a n d .~l 10 /bid. p l~t to I Wail, 2~t March 1774, Boulton Papers
ct,mplt'tt" t h e tah'. lho,,e ot us fortunatt, I I IV+P, ~,'4~t~, I Watt to I. l%'ali P~t,nlllr, Ill 34O ,81
to by abh, to ~,tudx the hlstom+ of ~ l t ' n c t ' ]tlne 1 7 ~
a n d t l x h n o l o l s y art' mo~t 14ra+tt'lul to tht' 42 /bl, t , V o l l l , p 78, No 134,1 W a t t i o W
12. /hi,/ .";mall, ~ April 1774, it~,ulton l i a w r s 341,142
-,taft tit o u r in.Mlttltlon.~ a n d titht,r,.; flir
~l%+lnl~ u p lht, lr I l m t " i l l m a k e o u r I1 B & W, ,%1 Ill, 3/1, laxtlser, January to
April 17~7, 1 lan 17~7 43 |WP 4/20 17, ( ; ttamllton to ]. Watt, 14
t, n t l t , a v t l u r s pllsP, ibie bt+t-ailP~t , w i i h i l L i l June 177~
i h t , m o u r i,lsk w o u l d bt, ilnpo~slhh,. 14 B & W , M l l l , J/I,t%'a~teik~k 1757-h3,
3 Jan 17~7. 44 Clarke ,'t ,d., ,,p. cir., p. 1~4
Notes and References I~. Ilu,t, I~ June 17~I ~'t' al,.o Sir W R,im~ll,; Author's addrlss:
I lhrmint~hanl ( vntral I.ibrarv, ~,ulton and 7hi' Ilti' lllli# l,i'th'r~ tit /ll~+tll'h Black, M l') Shlmfi,rd Cotta++e
1A,itt t,,Ih,~tlon IB & i,%.1, .Mulrl~,ad ISll I, I / It:on~tabh'i l~lndlin, ililS), p. 13
57 Old R,~ld
It,. I,%att',, I,mrnal, ,,ee 22 I)ec 'at Iohn Ih IWP. ( ' 1 / i . Account~ a~ Mathematical Mattram
tiardmer~ ,Icu,unts' and 2~ I)vc 17~]11, 'tin- Instrument Maker, 7 (~.'t 17~;q - April 176% tilde
isl'wd John',, acits ' p. 14, 30 Jan. 17hi Cheshire SK l,I 6"LW

10 Bulh,tm of the Scientific Instrument .%clety No. h0 (lli~t)

The Hauch Cabinet
Chemical Apparatus and the Chemical Revolution
Trevor H. Levere
.%, ,+ .
= . . . . . . . . . ~. •
Fi~.I Millet 0+'cn trom A I,V /flinch. I)et I'hvsiske C a b , l e t eller
lk~krlvel.,~, over de tfl t!xp..rlmental-I'hx,lken tlenhort.nde Vig-
~,t:~ste Instrumenter l~lligemtx| Brugen l~.,rafr 2 z~,ls. I Kt,,t,cnhm'n.
I,~3OL Lbl. I. I'latc I.
I Inu,,t he~in h~, thankin~ Danish Iriends
and colh'a)~ue-, for their ~enerotl'~ help and
ho,,pitahtv In iIltn~.ltlt'IIl~ Ille to the rt, ln.lrk-
abk' tlauch Cab,let. which has provld~xt
the enlo~.ablt' ~'ca~,ion for both mv x Islts to
lh.nmark. My ~reatrst debt Is to Ior~en
From Ander~'n and his wife lh'lh', ssho
welcomed me into their homr Ior a wevk.
Iorl~en. w h o is contmuln~ his c ~ , n h a l v, ork
on the catalogue of tilt' cabinet, hel|xx| me
to e,q:,lore the colk'ct.m here I l e m m l n ~
;~,nder~,en, vvho~,,e in%t'ntorv Oi D a n i s h
~lentltit" in~,trtlments ~,aS one of the first
llalional inverltorlt"!',, ~,ive m r phoh~,Oplt~
ot Ilanch's e~s,lv on the prmc:ph-, and
decoml~,,ition of water, and ol lh~.~' pa~e~
of the Royal .%w:etv of [.ondon's l,u~rnal
~ , ~ that dealt ~.dh I lat,ch's readm~ ol lhat
pal'~,r to the .%~letv. Anla ~kaar lac~a'n
had the g~+I )ud~,emt'nt to ~,|x'nd a h, rm in
Ioronto, and there tok| mt'mh'r~ o[ my
ln,,,htute about I lauch'+ role in the intn~hzv-
hon of the ,mtlphlo~I,,tlc theory into l)vn-
nhlrk. She alm~ m,nt me a phoh~opv ol
l lauch's p a w r dt'~:rlhlng his etp.llonleter
(lie I'k~trt.p's |~,+k on the chemical revolu-
tion In [)t.nmark pn~vzdo.| a gcx~.| deal oi
m,ces~m' backlz,m v n d My mdebtedne~m to
the~" .,~'holar~ will h ' apparent in what
tnllow~, and anvth,nl~ that I have to say that
could have come from them, aJmost
invariably did .,~.
tlaueh obtamt~I his mtn~tuction In chem-
i>trv from his Iritmd P. C. Ahildgaard,
I'rotes,'~w at the Veterinary .%.'h*x+l, and
from I'n+tt.'~,~w C. G. Kratltmstein of the
University of L'op.q~hagen in 171'~ he went
tm leave from the' Court in L'openhaKen In
concentrate tm natural phih~phy. In 17~4-
17H9, the year leading to the publication of
Bullehn ,d the .~k'wntific Instrument ~L'iety No. ~)
|,lVOlsler'~. t t . x t - ~ k and nlanlh~,h ~ ot the
chemical r v x o h l t l o n . Ilauch ~ent on a
~':t'ntltic tour. ~ L,,itm~ klaprolh in Fk.rhn.
Van Mature m Ilaarh'm. I'rm..th'v and
C,Bend~,~h in B:rmm~.ham and l o n d o n .
and I,Bol~.ler In I'arls ~A'hen I~" I~,tumrd.
he b,'i~an to build h~', ¢ollechon ol appara-
tu',, anti from 17~1 he ~a~t' demon.,tratlon
It'~'ttln", u~,lng in.,,trtmlent~ lrom the collec-
tion I h' a l ~ t'arrwx| otlt re~.arche,., indud-
zn~ work on the Com~',ltlon of ~,~.ater that
he pre~,nto,| to the Royal I)anz',h ,\cadenzx
ot .%lence in I Tql, and l in nl,~lihtxt form. to
the Royal ,~'~x-letv Of I.ondon m 17q'k lh~
re,,earche', wt'n' puhh.,ht'd Itot o n l y Ill
I)enmark. hut als~ in t;erman pmrnai~ In
17'+4 he puhh,,hed a textl~+k ha,,~xt on his
letttlrt".,; tht,ml,,trv m that t e x t l ~ k ~as
pre~,nted m term', of I.avol',ler"~ ant:phlo-
~l,',ttt" sx,,tem | le rt,nlalnt't| at'tlve In ,,t-lence
until Ii~ll. when he retunwxI tully to court
duhe~ l h ' pubh,,hed the heautltulh fllu-
..trated tir~t part ol his d e ~ ' n p t , m ot his
physical cahn~'t in retzpement, when he ilad
tun~'d eight,,', lu',t two year,, be|ore his
death in II,ilPl
['he i lauch cah.~'t, hke the Van Marum
collection m ['evler's l~llINt'uln in t laarlem
in the Netherlands. am| hke the h"~'~ well
pre~,rved hut ,,,till important collection
a.~,~,mhl~J by (;eorK~ Parrot in I)orpat
(lartu), was a~,,~,mblt,d as a comprvhenswe
cabinet m natural ph:h~+phy embracml~
cah,l,~ont.,,~be~t expre~,~'d by the French a,~
ph~ts,lUe .O'nerale and ptmsique lurhculu'n"
Chemistry. as part of the latter cateKorv.
belonged'm the cab.~et; and althouRh It has
been well arl~ued that chemi.~trv as a
discipline antedates physics, anti was
clearly established bHore the third quaffer
(1~)
%, 1'1
1 ~, .11
¢~,;al
|:i~,2 l~lah'-Inm ¢ln'mlcdl O~'n H."': ~ ~'~'
Iiauch I)et I ' h ~ l s k t ' C a b i n e t V01 t. I'latc
3
ot the L'l~hternth ~enturv. ds Ldrntltv a,. a
part of a ~ l d e r natural |~hlk-,ophv I', a l ~
t~orth ~,arm)~ m llZlntL ,lntl nhlkt", It ea,,ler
to IU,e'p the role ot p~ romet~, caiorlmetP,
|qzeLimatic~. and ele~trRztv a,, part,, ol a
cht.ntl~,trv ~.~.'ho.'~" dl~l|'~hn,trt; [~tindarlt',,
wert" in rapid ant] hotly ~onh',,ted flux
For tho~e ~ h o . hke Ilauch, a d o p t e d
[,Boz~,zer'.,, theoP," anti promoted the ch,,-
mRal re~ olutl~m, an~, t,ltcx'tlx r tahlnet h,td
to have the in,~trtlntent,; rsst, rlt|al Ior
rt'peatln~ and dt.morv.trat|n~ the key
t'xpx'rlmt'nt~ In |.t~oi.,,lt,r',, l'rattc oh'rot'tit,lie('
Jr thrum" of 17~q ihe kev.,,tone of tl~' arch
that constituted I,B'ol.,,:vr's theory wa,, tl~,
demorL,.tratlon ot the t ' o n l | ~ . l t l o n ot ~ ater.
hy synthesis and dex'omp~ttlon l)l~er~
experiments on water were also ino,,t
imix~rtant lor |lauvh 5uwv the ¢lmstlttzent,,
of w a t e r were }~ast,Oll~, apparatu~ for
demon.,,tratml~ the com|'~ttl~m ol water
had to be capahh' of Morln K, nlea',unnl¢,,
traru, h,mnl,I, and conlh|n|nl4 i~a~'~. [ , B o l -
SM'II"S ~asttntt~t,r~ Well~ the mt~,t e~ptmswt,,
the n ~ t elatxwate, and the m ~ t mlprt.~,~we
I1
 •.... ¢.~-
•../.~'.
X"
P.pJ
J o.
+.- " I!.
"= - !i
t~ .l"
"2-
<,
FIg.+~ t t m . h . ~','r.+lou of Gut#on ,It" .~.lor
;'t'at~, <tutti l,mty t?,,m ,41X' tt,mch. Det
I ' h x . l . k e £abmt't l',,I 1, f/Me 2.
m hi.. ar~t.nal lht'x al,,o made ht,axs
demand- on the instrument maker'.., ~,kili.
and ~ ere prohibfl,~ e h exl~'n.,,x e I hi', wa,,
a mator proi,h.m in l~.,nmark, ~hich wa...
not a rich ~ountrx in the 17~I~, and had
~ I t h l-.n~,land'~ h+.'Ip become bankrupl by
the end of the Napoleon,c ~,%ar~
Part of tlauch', challenge, then. hke Van
Marum'~, ~as to hnd ch~.apt.r sohdmn~ to
prol, lem~ po,,ed by l.avo~wr ~m~ehmt-, he
,nxented mlnor ,mproxemerlt,. to l . B o f
s,er'~ apparatt,s, as w a , the ca,,e wflh hi~
llllet lunne]i ..,ornetlnle ~, he made malor
mtt~1111callt+n', or de',,~"d nt.v+ in~,lrt.lmenl~,.
for examph' hi', eudionleter; ~ m e h m e s he
bought m)proxtxt apparatu~ de,.Igned by
cheml,.t,, el'~'whert', including Van Mar-
urn'- ga.,~+mt.ter., manuhtclurtxt hv ()nder-
dessqngaart Can/ius: and in th(~" ¢a~'~
sshere l.avo,..ier's apparatu~ wax both
altordable and elhc,ent, for example his
,ce calormleter, he eflher bought copies or
had them m a d e h~a]Iv It is al~ ntx'essarv
to r e m e m b e r thai although [.avoisier;s
12
__ ~; ~ I at" I _~r_.l
'Ii
• [ +
$4
I1
Fig.4 tt, mclt's i,ersw, of the ~X.'(l,/lfi"s tl,~sk or I,,,tlh" from A W .
tfimch l)t't I'hvslske Cabinet Vol. 1. I'lote 3.
, chenl,ca[ rexohltion defined a corpu., of chenucal apparatus in the cabinet was fiw
apparatt,',, ii x~a+, not the whole ol the demonstration t)[ I.avols|er's keV ex-
che,mstrv the ~,tudx of heal and elet'tr,c,lv, periment',, hi.It there Is much |~'.,ides.
for example, belonged to chemlstrv arld tel
the +~idt,r nattm+l phih..ophx, and .-ome ol ~ much for prehnl,naries; and now for a
the ,i~strument,. [+t,It+il~lil~ to lhe..e sub + clo+er h~+k at chemical apparatus in the
llauch cabinet
dl,,<iphne', should al'~+ l',t. considert'xt in an
account ol Ilauch',, chein,cal ,n-+trunlent,; Ileal is the prmclpal agent of chen~wal
and chemical re..t,arches +\g,un, it should change, and ~+ apparatus flw the controlled
bt, noted thal much ol Lax o,s,er's appara- apphcahon of heal ,s of crucial mlportance.
tus. and oi l lauch's, wa~ tradflmnal, lilt' lhere art, t w o maior cah~ories: mutl;le or
hl~,torv ol chemical apparatus shows strik- cham~'r furnaces, whert, the heal is appht'd
In~ cont,ntl,t,t'% lot example m the d e s i ~ r l md,rectlv, the .~,ubstant-e under invt~tiga-
of retorts, ah'mbRs, distillation apparatus ,n tyro being placn+l in a chamt~,r which is
~eneral. lumace~,, and more. ]here art, al~, heated by the pn~lucts of combustion; and
~vhoh' catt.gorle., o1 m,,trument,, mcludtxt ,n hlmace-( or lamps where heal is applied
the liar,oh cabinet thai t,we nottung to the d,rt~'th' The u~' of rt, torts and crucibles in
chenucal revoluhon, but are the pn~tuct of combination w.ilh mslruments of the latter
inx e,,t,~atlon,, wflh a qum' ~.parate history, catt,gor~" provide,, another way to keep the
that ¢,nlv coincidt.ntalh.' conx ergtxt ~v,th the combustion pr~.tucts .~,parale frnm the
~ ork ot I.avo,swr and his colh,ague~, I have mah,rial being heated, tlauch had a g t ~
,n mind especiallx' the blowpl|~.,, that wa~ range of chamber ovens, and of ~+tlrt'~+'~fl+r
u,med In antlqu,tv in the manufactt, re of the d,rtx't applicalmn of heal, including this
lewelry, continued in u.~" through the work muffle oven lFig.l), a sprat lamp devi.~d
of atchemP.t.~ and metallurglst~, and In the by ~,rzehus, a mor~, elaborate chemical
late e~ghteenlh cenlurv underwent a rena,s- o~.'en (Fig.2), and a spint lamp attributed hv
~mce m tile hand., of mn~.ralogi~.ts, whence tlauch to (;uvton de Mom'eau, which u.,~s
it re-entered lhe mam~.tream oi chemisl~' an Argand lamp (Fig.3).
Fmalh. we need tn remember that although
HauclYs activity in chemical re~.earch was Apparatus for distillation could I~" simple
concentrated in" the years of the promulga- or complex, and junctions between ditfertmt
hon o[ the chemical revolution, he made parts of the apparatus were .~metimes
additions to the cabinet over ensuing efftx'ted by lutes. The trouble with lutes is
decad~.'s, .~ that Liehig's K,dmpp~lrat of that they were likely to contaminate the
1831, which rt,volutionized the practice of reactants, olten leaked, and often could not
organic analysis, appears m Hauch's 1t,13~ be rt,moved without destroying the appa-
dt~cription of his cabinet• Much of the ratus, lavoisier and his co-wnrkers and
Bulletin of the Scienhfic Instrument ~ i e t y No. t~l (P~'~q)
 ,.,

13 ~ f .... i~~

Fig.5 t lauch's filtratio, hmm'l from A W. It, inch. l~,t I'hvsiske

Cabinet. I/ol. 1, Ph~te b.
instrument makers had made extensive use
of brass couplings, lacquered to the glass-
ware, and bearing ~'rew threads. Rubber
t u b i n g was not a v a i l a b l e d u r i n g the
chemical revolution; extrudexl glass tubing
wax ~x'omin~ available, and llauch made
extensive u.~" of it. (;round glass connec-
tions were expensive, since in the 17~ls and
i~1,~ each iolnt had to be gnmnd indivi-
dually, a pn~:¢.'ss at once time consuming
and demanding skill It ix not surprising
that few of t|auch's pwct~ involve ground
glass connex'tions.
In 17~7 Peter Woulfe had devised an
apparatu~ for the transmiss,m of ga.~.~
through Iiqt, ids, to protect chemists from
.,~me of the noxious ~apours pn~tuced in
distfllahon:
In the common manner ot d,~hllation there
~.~-al~,~ a great quantity' of fumes, which
cannot [~' ctlndensed; and in .,~,veral ol~.ra-
F'ig.O I'll, ,tl,'U's pucumutic trou~,h .horn I. Prle~th't/, Exl~'rm~ent~
and ()b~a,rvations on Ditferunt Kind~ of .Air, 2mli ediHou, ,1 z~l~
~l.~,n,to,, 1775-7D, 1'ol. l, fr~,,t~s;uece.
ficahon of ga~.'s and the analysis of that the surface of the paper is almost
mixtures of ga~'s. Its .~tandard form by entirely held from contact with the funnel.
llauch's lime was little dslterent from the and the rate of tiltration is then much more
form that ,t was to preserve through the rapid. Hauch (FigS) arrangex| a ~ t of glass
nmetet,nth and into the twentieth centun,'; nx.|,~around the int~'r suHace o! tl~" tunrwl.
but that my,dyed stoppers, and llauch and u.,~ed a funnel fluted hke a flower, .~
devi,,~exl a slopper-free way of performing that w h e n the hlter paper wax m.~,rled.
the .~m'w operations, by means of a glass
even w,thout folding, at would not stick to
collar within the neck ~f the flask (Fig.4)
the sides of the tunm, l. It is an mgemous
mt~httcahon, but one tl~t ] have I ~ t .~'*m
l i e mL~tified other standard apparatt,s, copied anywhere.
including .~m~ething as apparently unim-
pmveable as a iilter funnel. In using a tilter
iunnel, one either u...Aesa cone ot filter paper
without folding d, and has to ,,~,ttle for a • .>~ [
relahveh.' slow rate of filtration, since the
paper is virtually plastered to the tuner
surface of the funnel; or el.,~, one fold~ the
conical tilter paper into accordion pleats, ,~

T
t,ons these h=m¢~ art' very hurtful to the
lungs By the Iollowing meth,~ of distilla-
tion th~.'~' tumt.'s are totally conden.,~'d.
which makes a great .,,av,ng in some
dL,,tillahons, ant] the ot~'rator is in no
danger of being hurt by any [~.mlctous
vapours./ This new mt,th,~|-con>tits in
making the f u m ~ pass by a .,,mall glass
tutx. through water, which iherebv becomt.,s
chargtxt with the vapours, that would
otherwi.~, t~'ape.

The invention, that we know as Woulfe's

flask or bottle, was thus conceived, as
Stephen Hales had conceived his pneu-
matic trough, as a wash bottle. AI.~ like
Hales's invention, Woulfe's turned out to
have more extenswe u,~es than its begetter
had envisaged - hardly surprising, since
the notion of ga.,~s as chemical species,
non-existent in Hales's day, was only
beginning to become established m che-
mical di~ourse in Wouife's day. Wouife's
invention enabled chemists to pass a gas
or mixture t~ gases through one or more Fig.7 Hauch ~ combustion chaml~r. Phof~ Fig.8 (),," ,q ~,,m M , m . . ~ ,~,:.om,'fi'r. ,at
liquids, an invaluable tool for the identi- graph courtesy Sor~ Ao~demy. T~th'~ m Hgarlem hmthor's photo,£raph '.

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society. No. 60 ( I ~ ) 13

• C
Fig.O Enx'r, wm.x, o)c H,)ucll's ,~asom('h'rs at),l ,,ml,ust~,)u gh,Ix" fi)r
.oml)os~tn)n of water from A.W. H,)uch. "En ti)rbedret G,i:,)meter ('lh'r
Lu(t,),,zal,'r', Vial Selsk 5kr.. 5 ¢1793), p. 20
Gas chemistry was .,~) integral to the
chemical revo[uhon that Antoine Francois
de Fourcrov, co-worker of Lavoisier but,
unlike h~m, surxwor of the French Revolu-
hon and the ensuing Terror, dL'~cribed the
chemical re~olution as the 'pneumatic'
rev,)lutlon Woulte bottles were among the
pneumatic instruments ustxt by chemists;
~ were pneumahc troughs (Fi~.~), For the
centrepiece of pneumahc chemistry', the
demonstration of the composition of water,
which, as we have seen, was one of Hauch's
principal areas of re~'arch, the key instru-
ments were ga,a)meters, replaced b~' around
IS10 by gas holders, and combustion
chambers The comhust|on chamber in the
Hauch cabinet =s like the one devisal by
Ga~.pard Monge (Fig.7), a glass sphere with
a bras,, cover, through which tubes and
electrical w~rt~, were set. The gases enter the
~phere, and are ignited by an electric spark,
prt~.iuced m~ ariablv, at lea-.t before 1~,), by
a trlchona] ek~:tncal machine, fiw example a
cvhndncal machine like the one m the
liar,oh cabinet. But ga,~)meters were an-
other matter - l.avoiswr's were too expen-
ssxe to buy, and extremely demanding to
m a k e Yht're were two route~ open to
I lauch, to m~port smapler and cheaper ones,
or to have ssmpier and cheaper ones made
h~allv to his own speclficahons. He t¢~)k
both ~)f these route'~.
I have already mentioned his purchase of
one of Van Nlarum'~, ga~)meters, made by
( anzms (Fig.8). It is of ve~' simple, indeed
elegant, de,,ign, using a constant head of
~ater to exert a constant pressure on the
ga, in a large )at..~o as to achieve a uniform
rate of flow of the gas into a reaction
chamber %)me experiments, including the
combustion of hydrogen and oxygen to
produce water, requwe two such gas-
ometer~ They really are s=mple, and I've
wondertxf wily Hauch and others did not
have them marie h~callv. A pn)bable answer
14
•
Jlb.~
f I
,)0
Fag.10 tt,mch's S,,)s,)met('rs and n'h~t,'d at,l,,mitus. Pht)h~n~ph
c,)ur/t'sll Son) A,,)d('mu.
] h e one instrument that Hauch invented,
and valued highly enough to devote a
special article to it, was his eudiometer.
As we can ..~e from the de.~ription
published in |7~)'-1, as well as from the
restored instrument itself m the Hauch
cabinet, it contain~l elements of different
generations of Fontana's eudiometers.
was provided by Georges Parn)t, w h o Jo.,~'ph Priestlev had devisecl the first
ordert~.| a Van Marum ga.~)meter from eudiometer, a tube closed at one end
Canzius, and found that the large glass jar and standing m a pneumatic trough It
had been broken in transit - no great prov|ded him with a chemical means of
surprise when shipping glass over large gauging the g ~ l n e s s of air fi)r respira-
distances during the Nal~)leonic Wars. tion He had been unhappy with the need
l)arn)t wrote ordenng a replacement )at,
to ~cnfice lah)rato~, mice in testing airs,
~rving that local glass-workers were
and his new instrument gave him the
unable to pr(~uce lars of sufficient size•
means to work consistently and without
That may also have been true in Denmark
both dunng the wa~, and m the years ,)f expenmental animals. In the wake of the
bankrupts" that fi)llowed. chemical revolution, e u d i o m e t r y had
moved from it~ physioh)gical and medical
Hauch also devised his own gas)meter origins to chemistry proper, for the
(Figs 9 and 10), which might more properly quantitative determination of the oxygen
be termt<l a m~lfication of the ga~)meter content of a mixture of gases. The first
made by Dumotiez in Paris. This appea~ to eudiometers to be made after I'riestley's
have helen based on one of Lavoisier's earl}'
ideas for a gasometer, and maintains
constant pressure on the gas to be stored
and transmitted, by means of a system of
weights and pulleys. Dumotiez's instru-
ment u~ed a bell jar, similar in ~ a l e and
appearance to Van Marum's. Presumably
btx-au~ of the difficulties of making such a
iar, Hauch substituted a h)x for the jar, but
kept the pulley system u.,~l by Dumotiez.
ttauch used his own ga.~lmeters fi)r hi,;
work ,,n the composition of water in 1793. i
haven't ~ Hauch's ga.~,meter anywhere
hut here, but it is worth noting that I'arrot's
~,n Friedrich, who wrote a survey of
gasometers, was favourahlv impressed by
tlauch's design Hauch's ga~)meter was a
well-designed, easily constructt~l instru-
ment. that would have been as simple to
use as Dumotiez's, and, if manufactured bV
a maior instrument-maker, would prohahi.~,
have had a reasonable ~le. But the after-
math of the French Revolution was not the
best time for disseminating inventions from
a small neutral nation. By the time the Fig.ll One of Fout,)na's ,i,'slqn.< ti)r ,)
Napolt~)nic Wars were over, ga,~)meters eudi,,meter with ~raduah,,ns fr,)m gelice
had been displaced by cheap and simple F,)ntana, D e ~ r i z i o n e , e usi di alcuni
gas 'holders' like that of William Hasledyne stromenti per misurare la salubrit,~' dell'
Pepys. aria. fFirenze,1775).
Bulletin of the S,cientific IR,~trument S,~ety No. 60 (19'~)
 l,j "~
ct
^[==
Fig.12 Fontana's ',~'('('(]~ld ~('llt'~lltl()ll
du,meh'r with graduati, ms f r o m Tiberius
C,walh,, A Treati~ on the Nature and
l'roperties of Air, and other Permanently
Elastic Fluids, to which is prefixed, an
intnxiuction to chymistry flare,bin, 1781),
Plate 3.
invention were in Italy, where m 1775 the
abbe Fontana and Marsilio Landnani both
invented new instruments; indeed, Fonta-
na's treati~ on eudiometry gives illustra-
tions for a w h o l e series of related
instruments (Fig.ll). Until recently, it was
believed that Fontana's eudiometers were
invented on paper, but had probably not
been constructed; Marco Beretta's di~'ov-
err of one of Fontana's instruments in the
Uffizi in Florence revi.,~s that picture
substantlalh/. The constant feature of all
Fontana's early designs was that the,,'
consi.~ted of three chambers, the two
lower ones .,,eparated from one another
but both connecting with a third and
higher chamber, into , h i c h water could
be introduced. Ga.,~s in these chambers
could be kept apart by chasing a tap
between them; and opening this tap
enabled the gases to mix and react with
one another.
Fontana subsequently simplified and dras-
tically revi.,~,cl his eudiometer, ~ that what
one might call his second-gtmeration instru-
ment looked more like Priestley's, with a
tube inverted over a water bath; but it was
more elaborate than Priestley's. The grad-
uated tube had two compartments sepa-
rated by a metal slide, shown m figures 1
and 2 on this diagram by ]ihenus Cavallo
m 1781 (Fig.12). This instrument gave the
Bulletin of the ~K~ntific instrum~nt S~loHy No. 60 ( 1 ~ )
Fig.13 Engnwmg qf Hauch's eudtometer
fr,,m A.W. Hauch, "Beskriz,el.~" af en nW
r ('ll- Luttpraver elh'r Eudi,,meter', Vid. Selsk.
Skr, $ ~1793) p. 539.
most preci~ results available, in the right
hands. Cavallo notes that:
the accurate rtmults depended not ,,~ much
upon the particular construction o f the
in~trument, as upon the regular manalce-
ment of it, and uniformity of opt.ration ....
Indeed the exactness of the mea,,,ure con-
tributed a great deal; but Mr FONTANA
having ob~t,r~ed, that with exacth,' the ~rne
quantitie~ of mtrotL,, and common aw, very
dittt.rt.nt rt.~,ult~ could be occa~umed by
their ['~,in K left a |onger or a ,,,horter time
bt'fom agdation, by amount of agitation,
etc., t t ~ k care to p , rtorm tl~, operation
always in a .~=milar manner..
Hauch's eudiometer (Figs 13 and 14) has
es.,~'ntialh,' the construction of Fontana's
first-generation instruments, bt,t with one
significant difference: brass .~lide~ .~rxed to
ch~e or open p a s ~ g e between the cham-
bers. These slidt.'s art, clearly like thine in
Fontana's second-generatu;n instrument,
and it .,~ems likely that Hauch, who was
careful to read the international Iiteraturt, of
chemistD', knew at least at second hand
about Fontana's early instruments, and had
also learned about the version descnbed by
Cavallo.
The r ~ u l t is an ingenious b u t complicated
piet'e of apparatus, which as far as I know
was not replicated el~where. Cavallo gwes
us a hint as to the reason for this neglect.
Eudiometers, he tel|s us in 1781, '.,~em to
have undergone the same fate as barom-
eters, viz. after various complicated ctm-
structions, the simplest of them has been
fnund to answer the best.' Again:
..1
#, ¢,
Fig.14 Hauch's t'l~dlometer (mcomph'fl'k
Phoh~raph courtier Soro Academt/.
~lmple contrivance,, .,,hould alway,, be
pre%rrt~'l to more complicated ont~,: even
when the latter ,,eem to hart, ,,ome
advantage in point of accuracy ovt,r tht.
torrntn', pro~ ,ded it be not very n, markabh.
C o m p l e x m.,,trument,, an, not onK" e~pen-
sBe. and .,,ublect to be ea.,,llv put out of
order, but they ~.ca,,u~n ~erv trt'~ut, nt
mL,,take~, on account that the op,.rator h,|.,
~en~,ralh' many thing.,, to do. and to keep
them in p r o w r order, in which La~',~ it i',
more ea~v to o~er,~'~" or ml~,takt" ~*me of
them
After the 17~)s. Hauch appears to have
camed out no sigmficant chemical work.
although he added to his cabinet. Chem-
istry' may have been the h~'r, but hi.,
cabinet provides us, as Gerard h, mer ha~
remarked of another cabinet, w a h a hme
capsule, a umque record of chemistry in its
years of revolution.
Author'.~ address:
Inshtnte for the Histo~. and I~l,h~#ru
c~ Sclem'e and Technoh~,v
Va,h~rla k'olh'£e
UIIIIYTSI~I Iff ~)ronto
~ronto M5S 1K7
(.)nharm Canada
15
Early Uses of the Arithmometer of Thomas de Colmar for
Thermodynamic Calculations
Paul Zoller
Fig. 1 The mare t,uddm.¢ 0{ Ill; EMx','u(~stsches Palvh'chmkum' al~u,t 1805,
shortlu after zts coml,h'tion. 0i~'rfi~mk" th," ktmmat rwcr ill Zurich Tilt' arclntect
was the tim~,u,s Germ, m Gt,ttfru'd S,'ml,,'r. Caurt,'su af l.ll,n~ru ~¢ th," Sit'is~
Ft,deral Inshtut," t!t ~'t tmal,~¢9 Zurich.
Introduction
In his recent paper in thi~; iournal,'
.";tephen Iohnston co~ers fifty years
(1~20-I~70) of tile h,stor~' of t h e A n t h m -
ometer of ]~homas de C'olmar, an earh'
tour-function aid to computing Johnston
•,tate,, that I'homas hines, If env~.,,iontxt
th=,, machine pr,marfly as a t¢,~l for larKe
commerchll or~anl/atlon~,, such ,is banks.
or ulsurance compan,,s. Apparentl.v, the
dlttt|'~lon e'~en in this obvious arva of
aplPhcathm wa~ qulte slow It was not
untd p~.t-l~';h~ that applications m other
art,a,.. ',uch a', astronomY,, geometry,
archlh'Cture and indu..tr~, were men-
t.,ned m promotional l,ieratt, re' lhe
purpo.~' ot this paper ~s to dt~'umt'nt
carlx ttxhn,cal ~.lenhtl¢ applications in
tht' dt'x t,h,plng art'a o[ ttxhnical thermo-
dvnanli¢.-.. ,tartm~ In about 1,~-~-3,and to
a..~.ss thc bt'l)t'tlt', ol tilt' Arithnlonleter
lot tht,-,~, x-~t,nhhc tt'chnical talculahon,.
Reuleaux and Him: LI~er5 and
Prnmoters of the Arithmomeler
lohnston doctmlt,nts '~crv nlCl, lV the
promotional t,ttorts underiakt'n to ~,ain
atceptance for the A r l t h n l o n l t , t e r l w o
u',t'r', and advocate.., 11ot ¢onnectt,d
dlr~x-tlv la, lth l homas, who wrote com-
pluncntar~. pan~phh,ts on the Arithm-
omt'ter ~ e r e Fran/Rt.uh,aux (lS2'~-IqO~)'
and (;u,,tax e-Adolpht' I tirn ( I~ I "~-18~)) '
In Iohnston's pat~'r t h r n ' L,, character-
i/t'x| as a 'civil en~,neer'. No addfllonal
mlormation is l~xen on him, and no
]h
reformation at all on Keuh,aux ~ In tact,
both of lh~.'~,e~entlemen were important
contributors to ttx'hnology and en~lnt'er-
Ing ~'lence m the ~econd half of the Iqth
centun' t h m is best known for his work
in heat. It had ~ m e t~.arm~ on the
developing mtx'hanical theom" of heat
(therm~3vnamics), and later w a s yen'
mfluenth{I in the mlprovement of the.'
steam en~me. Reuh'aux was a v e r v
influential h~ure in (;erman engint'erua~
throughout the .,~x'ond half of the nine-
teenth century ih' is ~z,enerall~. consid-
en'd the founder of nltx|t,m kint, nlatics.
Reuleaux and hi.~ Colleagues Clausiu.,
and Zeuner in Zurich
As t~e will ~,t., thrn and Reuh'aux were
both n~t,mbt, rs of a circle ot engineers and
~'~t,ntlsts, t,nCOlllpa~,sln~ the Alsace rt ~
~ion ut France, and the city of Zurich in
~wlt/t,rland. ih~s circle also included
Rudolf Inmlanuel Clausius (I,~22-114~4)
and (.;ustav Anton Zeuner (1~2S-1'.~17).
¢clallsitl,. is, of court', one of the most
im|',ortant (mathematical or theoretical)
phv,,icists of the middh, of the I , t h
century, certainly one of the founders of
tilt, .',<lence of thernu~vnan~ics. Zeuner is
the author of what is probabl~,' the first
b~,~k on h'chnical or applied thermo-
dvnanucs." Durin~ his Zurich years he
a i ~ wrote bln~ks on valve linkagt.-, in
steam en~in~.~ and the steam ini~x'tor
pump; later al.~ on turbines Itis bin~ks
were very influential, and were u.',tx| m
.~,veral lan~t,a~t.,s well into the 20th
Bulh,tin of tl'~, .%'wnhhc [nstrun~,nt ,~'iety
Fi~,. 2 Gushn' A,fi,n Zcuner. Caurtesu (?f
L~l,n~rv. ~![ the Su,~ss Fe,fi'nd Instltuti" ~!~
Teclm,,Io¢,9 Zurich.
centu r~,'."
Claus|us, Zeuner and Reuleaux were all
pn,fessors at the 'Eidgenossi~'he l'oly-
technic'he .%:huh" in Zurich ('Federal
I'olvtechmc .%'h~xfl', referrtxt to as FI.'S
~,10w), which opentxt its d~,~rs in the
autumn of Ilg~."' (Fig. I). [ h i s .~-ht,fl is
now known as the Swiss Federal Institute
of [tx'hnolog,,' Zurich, and was perhaps
the first full-fledged polytechnic .~'h~l
with clear university character Reuleaux,
Zeuner and Clausius were among, the
first group of 32 proft~.,~rs recruittxt
internationally for the first academic year
I~,~-~. All three came from Germ'anv,
and all retl,med to I.,)sts in (.;ermanv
later:'" Elausius to the universitit.,~ (;f
Wur/burg in 1 ~ 7 and l~mn in It'~q;
Zeuner to Erelt'~,rg in 1 ~ 7 as dirtx'tor of
the l~'rgakademie tatter a stint as I)ir-
ektor of FILS in Zurich from II'~-h7) and
to the Dre,,den Polvtechnikum in 1~73;
Reuleaux to the I~,rlin (~,werbeakademie
in I St,4.
Zeuner and Reuleaux [~th ioined the
faculty of FI.~ as profe~,,~)rs of mtx'hanics.
For e,~ch, it was the first maior academic
aplm,ntment. Zeuner (Fig. 2) was 'l'ro-
f e s t e r fur M~.'hanik und thm~reti~he
Ma~'hinenlehre' (mechanics and thm~rv
of machinery), whereas Reuleaux (Fig. 3)
w a s to be concerned with the mum,
practical asl,~x'ts of m a c h i n e ~ ( ' l ' r o f t ~ r
fur Ma~'hinenlehre'). I b i s "ml~.lem' divi-
sion of rt~lmmsibihties had n o analolz, y in
other polytechnic ~h(~ls. C l a u s | u s c a m e
No. hO ( 1 ~ )

Fig. 3 t n m : R,'uh'a.~ t'ourtcsu ot 1 ~l,n~ru
of th; Swiss Fnh'nd Institute qf fi'chnoh~u
Zldrldt.
to FI~ as I'n)tes..~)r of Phvsk~ ('particu-
larly for theoretical and techmcal phy-
sics') after a stint at the Royal Artille~'
and En~ineerm~ .~'hl~d in ~,rlin (start-
ing in ] ~ ) ) and as Privatdozent at the
i:k,rlin university (al.,~ from 1~1)." th,
had already published four v e ~ signifi-
cant pal~,rs on the new t h e ~ ' of heat
when he was called to Zuri'ch, m ~ t
notably 'Uber die bewegende Kraft der
Warm~.' in 185,(I." lie was probably the
hr.'stknown of all the initial faculty ,st
Fl,~, and did most of his remaining ~,'ork
in (macroscopic) thermt~.|ynamics while
in Zurich
Two Arithmometer~ in Zurich
Reuleaux wrik,~ in his pamphlet on the
Anthmometer" that FI~ had purcha.~'d
two Arithmometers 'two year~ ago', i.e.,
about I ~ ) . and .~zys 'we are working
w i t h these continuously'. We do not
know for what type of work Reuk,aux
him~,lf u.~,d the Arithmometers at Zur-
ich. M(~t of his published original work
did not entail a hit of numerical calcula-
tions. He might have become inter~.'sted
in the machine mt~stlv through his study
of mechanisms. In his pamphlet,: he
attempts to dt.~cnbe the instrument in a
single .,~,ntence "that permits an ex[~,ri-
enced kinematk'ian to gain an overview
of the mechanisms employed'. He claims
that this simple, one-sentence description
was possible only ~ , c a u ~ of recent
developments in the ~ience of mechan-
isms, or kinematics, rather than the
Bullehn of the Scwntific Instrument S~wzety No. 60 ( 1 ~ )
Fig. 4 V.h,~ R,'¢n, mlt's ..,'It t,,,~trmt lu addit.m to l~'m~: ,o~
mtt~rtant ch,'mtst .rid ph~ts.'tst. Re~u,mlt h~k a ,~rn~t mter,'st m
art, and ma.u ~' cop#s#dered tree of th; /qon,','rs of the pract.'e ~¢
photogntl~h v in Fnmo'.
simplicdy of the mach.ne itself, l i e
sttggt,'sts that Leihniz and Pa,~'al would
not have ,~,arched for a calculation
machine for many years, w i t h 'htth'
success', if they had had the ~,nefits of
such a .~'ience. In his opinion, even
thomas would have pro~r~.~'d much
I~aster with a pnq~,r do~, of the ~'zence of
nto,'hanisms. This mtiM be considered a
bit of ,,~,lf-promotion. Nothmh; m his
de.~'ription of the machine's mechan-
isms" de|'~'nds on an under...tandin~ ot
formal or informal kinematk:~. In fact, his
pr~,'~,ntatlon of the 'the~n,tical basis' of
the Anlhmometer in the pamphk,t is
drawn from a talk he ~ave in I ~ ) to
the Naturfor~'hende (.;~,'~,IL,~'hatt m Zur-
ich [his was a m ~ t n~l~'ctahle and
important .~'ientdic .,~.'it, tv, to bt, sun,,
hut it is certain that his audience did not
consist ot~ 'ex|~'rienct~|k,nematichms'.
His sumerian' iudgement of the machine
is this::
It I were to ~lve a lud~ement on the design
ol the mach~w,, and tt~, appn~pnaten~.,,s.,,|n
the cl~ice of the part.,,, thL~lud~ment could
t|r~t Of all onh' be hlVotlraNe. ~.~.a¢l~, the
pn',blem at h,md was ~dved compk,teh'.
u.~ing com|~,ndloo,~ and eas,h' manufac-
tun,d part~ Even then. =t ts mY earn,~t
opiv'ilon that .,,imphttcahons art, ~tlil p~,,ihh'
..... rhe mare point =sthat we have tx, h~rt, u~
a gelid, practwal and not t¢~ exl~.'nsive an
u~trument, whnch we should, then,ton,. l~e~
to know and u.~' w=tl~ut delay.
Reuleaux mentions only one or two
details of the Arithmometer's features
as exampk.'s of elements of mechanisms
in his later b ~ k s . ' : " In 18q2 he re-is.,,ued
his pamphlet, with a sh~ht but .,,i~nihcant
chan~e in htle, which now has the
adlt~'tive '~genannte' (,~-callt~.|) added
to 'Thomas'.,~'he Rcwhenma.,~'hine'." [he
' ~ ' a l l e d ' was added tx,cau.,~, he was no
longer wilhn~ to Kive all the crL~|it for the
basic mechamsms to i h o m a s |h' ,,howe,|
instead that machines of this type,
characterized by the ~,tepl~xt rotor, were
a (,,erman mvenhon, accomph.~hed long
|~'tore lhomas. |hs m'w favorite ~r ,~ ,:
machine pn~|uced by Arthur Burkhardt
m (;la~.hutte from 1~78 on. ~' In hJ~
opinion this machine had [yen brought
to a perkvhon ,,=gn,hcantlv exc¢,ed|n~
lhal of [homas" m.~lrument Ne~erthe-
k.~s. m ~ t of his hxhn=cal del.nl~ and
dt.~,<rlptions ii1 thl~ 2nd edd,~n ot the
paniphlet were .,,till the one~ In~m the
tir~t edition (.~m~e triune, Ior exampk,)
lh¢.'~' referred ,pecztically to the Artthm-
ometer of lhoma~,; hut he al.~ ~=~e~
.,~me details where Bt,rkhardt's machine
was an improvement (demon~,tratm~
that his pn~phecy m the 1~2 pamphlet
at~ut }x~,,zhle .,,lmpl,ticatton.,, wa~, cor-
rect).
A Per~m who clearly made use of the
Zurich Arithmometers for his ~ h o l a r h
work was Reuk, aux' colleague. /~,uner
In 18~, Zeuner published the much
revL,~,d ~.'¢md ¢~Jition of his (;rund:ux,c."
in addition to the basic laws ot thermo-
dynamics', which had I~,en pretty well
~tabhshed by this time, the hx'hnical
]7
applicati~ms of thermodynamics require
preci~ physical data (m the substances
u.,~-~t in thermodynamic machinery. The
m(~t important substances were (and
still are) water (and its vapour, steam)
and air. By 1862, Henri Victor Regnault
(1810-1871~), Profe~,~)r of Physics at the
College de France from 1841 ira, had
published the two first volumes of results
of his astimishing series of experiments, '~
designed to measure the fundamental
physical data required to analyze and
understand steam engines. These first
two volumes c~mtained all relevant data
not only on water and water vapor
[steam), but m a n y other liquids and
vapors (alcohol, chloroform, mercury,
acet(me, etc.) Ga.,~ and vapours other
than air and water, of course, never
became unportant in heat engines, but
.,~*me play a role in other applications of
thermodynamics, for example in refrig-
eration machinery. Any b~n)k on technical
therm(~lvnamics requires the inclusion of
such data (and other data derived from
the p r i m a l ; directly measured quanti-
ties) in a form that makes it accessible to
the practicing engineer for her or his own
d(.~igrL~ and calculations. Zeuner ch(~e
the form of tables and mathematical
h~rmulae (rather than graphical repr~.,sen-
tat[on) to do this. In the foreword to the
1 ~ 6 (2nd) edition of Grund:U~e" he ~ v s :
]he tahlc~ have all been calculated anew on
the basis of the latest experiments of
Rt'gnault Immediately atter the publicat~m
of the ~'cond volume ot Reg'nault's Relatkm
,h's c~prr,'nces ... I began the cumber.,~me
and tlme-con.-,uming ta~k of calculating the
m'w ~.tt,am table~; l would certainly .~n
have abandoned thiswork if[ had not had
access to the Anthmometer of ]homas; all
yah.-, in the tabh~ of the b~k has,, been
computed with this machine. This L'~ the
rea-on why Ihe numerical valuesare quoted
to more dec=mals than would be required
for ordinal" computation ]f tl~. ','a].vs had
been obta.~'d by ca]culat,ng with loga-
rithms, the quotm~ of the last dtx-imal would
certainly have been unnec,.,~r,,,, becatL,,eit
could not have had any claim to being
accurate
[-he part about the added accuracy is
rob, leading, becau~ the experiments of
Regnault and their evaluation did not
warrant this kind of accuracy anyway
(although they were truly astonishing).
But: the use of a calculatin~ machine, no
matter to what accuracy the calculations
were taken, was apparently a big con-
~enience in Zeuner's estimation; more
on this below. Altogether, both the
Zeuner quote above, and Reuleaux
1862-" pamphlet, sound very much like
solicited testimonials. Zeuner's endorse-
ment was certainly h(mest; the instru-
ment did render him great ~rvices, as we
will see. Reuleaux's effusions are more
suspect. He was known as a promoter of
various technical, commercial and Get-
18
m a n national cau,~esand interests.~ With
regard to the Arithmometer his promo-
tion went pretty far. He offered to
pers(mally facilitatethe acquisition of an
instrument and to advi~ prospective
customers as to the choice of size.2 (See
also note 17).
Him's Use of the Arithmometer
How did Zeuner and Reuleaux join the
'Team Arithmometer'? Perhaps there
were financial arrangements of .some
sort, perhaps welcome to Zeuner and
certainly to the 'promoter', Reuleaux. [n
1855 the maximum pay at FPS had been
~ t at ~X~0 Swi.~s Franks, a relatively
mi~rly amount, and even Claus[us was
only paid 3~10 Franks initially (G. Ronge,
op. tit, note 7). However, Z,euner was
Direktor of FI~ by that time of his
endorsement of the Arithmometer, and
financial arrangements would certainh,'
have been un.seemly for .,~,meone in his
p(~ition.
At the very. end (p. r.~) of the second
edition of his pamphlet," Reuleaux
reveals that Him was the one that
introduced him to the Arithmometer.
This must have been between 1855 (when
Him bought his machine him~lf [~see
below l, and Reuleaux had just become
Profes.,~r in Zurich) and 18~0, when FI~
bought their two machines. During that
period Him was engaged in very ck,ver
experiments on mechanics and heat.
Personal contact between Him and the
new faculty at Zurich was natural
becau.se of "their comm(m interests in
mechanics and heat, and was facilitated
by g(x~d train connections from Colmar
to Ba~,l, and from Basel to Zurich via the
Swiss Nordbahn and Ostbahn, which
was completed in 185~ Him was the
.son of an iml~)rtant 'fabricant' (textile
spinning and weaving) in Logelhach near
Colmar, in A l i c e . He used the factories
(of which he became a technical director,
together with his bn)ther, C.F. Him) and
their large steam engines (to 100 horse-
power) for large-scale, important experi-
ments on heat. Speaking of scientific
instruments!
In addition to using the factory, he
devi.,~-~la number of purpose-built in-
struments, some on a normal laboratory
scale, others on a larger scale, to
investigate the phenomena of heat,
initiallythe question of the equivalence
of heat and work. One of these was a
giant calorimeter. It enck ~sed a volunteer
(sometimes him~]f), in which the heat
developed by the human at rest, while
producing work, or while having work
pn~uced on them, and the usage of
oxygen, could be monitored to study the
relationsamong these quantities.Already
in his early endeavors (human physiof
Bulletin of the Scientificlmtrument Society No. 60 (1999)
ogy, c~mversion of heat to work in steam
engines, as well as more conventional
work tm heat generated by fficti(m and
the l~ring of metals), he made use of an
Arithmometer. He is thus one of the
earliest documented engineering/science
u~rs of the Arithmorneter. He says' that
he was engaged towards the end of 1855
in reducing results tX physical experi-
ments, which he had just finished, and
suffenng from great eye strain he was
forced to suspend his work and had to
entrust the calculati(n~ to someone el~.
He then remembered having seen a five
digit (five slider?) Arithmometer at the
Paris exposition (of 1855), about which
the papers had written much, but which
he had not seen in operation. He
promptly ordered this machine. Alas, it
arrived in a nLm-functional state ('fort
maltrait~ en chemin de fer'), but he
managed to fix everything, which gave
him a good opportuni~, to study the
mechanism of the machine
Him and Claus[us: the 1857 Berlin Prize
Competition
After 1855 Hirn quickly became an
enthusiastic u.ser of the machine," and
he intrl~uced Reuleaux to the instru-
ment before 1860. There are also direct
professional connections between Him in
[x~gelbach, and Claus[us and Zeuner in
Zurich, beginning shortly after 1855.
Clausius was the head of the evaluating
committee established in 1857 to judge
the work submitted to a coml~.,titi(nl that
the Berlin Physical Society had arranged
to 'determine the most accurate value of
the mechanical equivalent of heat'. The
preparaticm of his submission '~ was very
likely the activity Him was engaged m at
the end of 1855 when he sought relief
from the drudgery of the calculations by
purchasing his Arithmometer. His work
was the only submisskm. Yet, it was not
actually 'crowned" becau~ of formal
shortcomings (previous publication, re-
vealing his name), and, more importantly
becau~ H i m endeavoured to show that
there was no mechanical equivalent of
heat, or rather that the relation between
heat and work was variable. This was a
concept the Berlin Physical Society
clearly did not wish to entertain any
longer in 1857! H i m submitted the results
of standard experiments to the competi-
tion, such as development of heat by
friction (really designed to study lubri-
cants, as well), or heat generated while
cutting metals. For these he found
pa.~able agreement with Joule and others
for the equivalence. However, the most
interesting and novel parts of his sub-
mission were the one involving the
human-sized calorimeter, and those in-
volving his use of full-sizesteam engines
as scientificinstruments. He was clearly
able to show that heat disappears when
mechanical work is d(me in an expan-
sively working steam engine. These
experiments are of course very difficult,
but he executed them extraordinarily
well. Unfortunately, they were also
improperly evaluated. His basic assump-
tion was that heat only di~ppeared
when steam was worked expansively,
and he related the heat lost (rely to the
work done during the expansion of the
steam (measured with a Watt-type in-
dicator). His analysis thus led to a
variable mechanical equivalent of heat,
depending on the amount of expansi(m
used.
Clausius, in his report (reprinted in
translation by H i m in Ref. 19),went into
a detailed di~ussion of the errors that
Hirn had m a d e in his evaluations.
Clausius actually re-evaluated some of
the data (as well as he could, ba.,~d on
what details H i m had submitted) to
show that by prnper evaluation a go(~
value for the mechanical equivalent of
heat could have been obtained. Because
Hirn's experiments reallywere the firstto
show clearly that heat di~ppeared when
mechanical work was done (rather than
the more c o m m ( m direct experiment, the
generation of heat by mechanical work),
and were, morenver, at least in Clausius'
corrected evaluation, quite quantitative,
Clausius tbought this work important
enough to justify the award of the prize
money (250 gold Thaler), but not the
prize itself.
It is occasi(mally claimed (e.g. in Ref. 5)
that H i m was one of the 'di~overers' of
the con.~rvation of energy principle.This
honour i.~ clearly inappropriate. In his
1858 vanity I ~ ) k '~ on his prize competi-
tion submissinn, after learning of Ciau-
sius' comments, and many years after
Joule's work, he still argued forcefully
that there was no fixed mechanical
equivalent of heat. Clausius and Him
were adversaries in other instances as
well. Six years after the Berlin prize
competition, Hirn came up with a
'Gedankenexperiment' to show that heat
could be transferred from a lower
temperature to a higher one without the
expenditure of work (in contradiction to
Clausius' axiomatic formulation of the
second law of thermodynamics). This
thought experiment is quite a clever
one. Clausius had no problems in
showing the fallacies in Hirn's thinking
in this instance too; but again he gave
H i m a lot a credit for having thought of
the device in the first place.~' Altogether,
Clausius seems very favorably inclined
to Him's work, and certainly appreciated
it for its experimental content, well out of
the reach of anything Clausius could
have done in Zurich. There was perhaps
a symbiotic relationship between the
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
deep thinker and mathematician Clau-
sius, and the scientifically interested and
gifted engineer Him with unique techni-
cal and financial means at his disl:n)sal.
Perhaps the wealthy Him also treated the
academic Clausius to a meal of choucroute
garnie and a few beers once in a while.
We all know how well academics (the
author included) respond to this kind of
treatment.
Him also collal~rated with Zeuner. In
1862 Him published his own treatise on
the mechanical theory of heatY which
reached three editions This was also a
kind of textbook, but not nearly as clearly
aimed at the needs of engineers as
Zeuner's work. The first edition of Hirn's
b(x)k included a translation of the first
edition of Zeuner's Grundz~il~e." Which is
no to say that they did not have
occasional fun fn)inting out each other's
"errors' in their respective b~,~ks and
memoirs.
RegnaulYs Experimentsand Zeuner's
Calculation of Thermodynamic Tables
Zeuner's calculation of thermodynamic
tables (for water, and numen)us other
substances) from the experiments of
Regnault gives us an excellent opportu-
mty to assess the utility of the Arithm-
ometer for engineering calculations. As
we had already stated, Zeuner's tables
were calculated from the data rel~)rted
by Regnault (Fig. 4) in the first two
volumes (1847 and 1862) of his Relation? ~
These experiment were undertaken on
behalf of the French government ('M. le
ministre des travaux publics', and tm the
order of the 'commi.~sion centrale des
machines ~ vapeur'). The goal was to
obtain all the numerical data required to
enable the theoretical calculati(~n of the
(performance of) steam engines. Thus,
the steam engine, the great prime mover
of the 19th century, was the motivating
force behind this monumental work, just
as it had been Carnot's small treatise
ROqexkms sur la puis.~mce m(arice du feu et
sur ies machines pnrpres d d&,eloF~,r cette
puis~nc¢ (Paris, 1824).
The contrast between Regnault's w(n'k
and Camot's is astounding. O n the one
hand, the lone figure of Carr~t, writing
one of the most influential works on
physics (ignored, to be sure, at the time of
its writing), on the other hand, the
extensive experiments and analysis of
Regnault, which required numerous
collaborat(~ and large facilities(first at
the Collbge de France, and later at the
porcelain factory at S@vres, where Re-
gnault had become director in 18.~4).
Regnau]t had considered doing these
experiments in the traditional manner,
by himself, in a normally equipped
physical 'cabinet'.But after several pre.
liminary efforts, he came to the conclu-
sion that the cost of the equipment he
needed to design and build far exceeded
the means available to him, and he
would have had to abandon his experi-
ments except for the funds made avail-
able by M. ie ministre des travaux
publics, in his work he was supported
by a stream of students, ~ m e named in
his Relatkm, but especially by his long-
term collaborator, M. lzam.
Incidentally,one of the young scientists
w h o hung around his laboratoriesat the
Coll/'ge de France for a few weeks,
starting around March 1845, was Win.
Thomson, later l.x)rdKelvin. He is not
mentioned by name in Regnault's re-
IX)rts. Indeed, he played only a very
minor role in the laboratory of Regnault.
O n 16 March he writes in a letterto his
father,z~ 'He [Regnault] lets m e come as
often as ] ch~se, and ] suppo~, I may
now and then have a job in the way of
holding a tube for him while he is sealing
it, or working an air pump, as [ had the
privilege of doing yesterday'. On other
occasions he got to stir the water in a
calorimeter, in which detennninations of
latent heat were made, and finally
graduated to helping Regnault with
some of the calculations needed to reduce
the experiments. =
This is not the place to assess Regnault's
work. Expenmentally it is of the very
highest order, it is fair to say that never
before was such a variety of large- and
small .-scale, beautiful and accurate scien-
bfic instruments designed and built for a
specific research programme. He in-
vented entirely new scientific instru-
ments and measurement meth(xis, and
analyzed and impr(wed others (including
the mercury-in-glass thermometer). His
experimental prohx~ls were extremely
clever and carefully and completely
executed. As we will see, he al.~ handled
and re~rted vast amounts of numerical
data well, which was in itself an
important ctmtributi(m to the develop-
merit of science and engineenng. His
data were the benchmark against which
all future experimental work in the area
of heat was measured. Until the 1920s it
was simply not possible to write a l ~ k
(m physics or thermodynamics without
c~mtinuous reference to Regnault's great
series of experiments. Still, Regnault's
'press' has not been uniformly favorable
see e.g.R. Fox, cited in note 16. Even
educated persons outside the natural
sciences or engineenng tend to under-
estimate the importance (~f good data
obtained from gtKKi experiments on the
finest scientific instruments, certainly
when compared with their admiration
for the 'big ideas' in the same fields.Of
course, the scientists themselves w h o
have the 'big ideas' recognize the ira-
19
portance of preci~ expenmental num-
bers for the prioress of scnence3'
The method by which Regnault evalu-
ated and reported data is worth a
description, since it definitely represents
the state of the art in experimental
science of the time, and leads to the
calculation of tables by Zeuner and,
therefore, back to the" Arithmometer.
Regnault always reveals the circum-
stanc~ of his experiments, and lists the
evaluated results in the form of extensive
date tables. Realizing that data in this
form could not be very useful to
engineers and .,,cientlstS, t~e employed
an interesting scheme to make them
available to others in the form of
mathematical fits. He graphed the experi-
mental data or. a large-scale graph
against the relevant independent vari-
able, such as temperature, or pressure.
This graph was executed on a copper
plate, which he him~qf had divided into
an 80 cm x 80 cm ct~,rdinate grid with 8
mm spacing. Individual data ]~ints were
marked on this grid with a kind of
.,,cribing micrometer (also developed
and d~.,scribed by Regnault) in both axis
directions to l / I00 m m The marks were
later engraved to the appropriate depth
for printing. On the .,,ingle graph in the
first volume of the R,'hlti,m there are
hundreds of points, representing more
than 20 relationships ph~tted. They are
among the busiest graphs I have ever
.,,een,and they are almost imp~slb]e to
use. Fortunattqv, there is no need to use
them. as tht.~, graphs were really only an
intermediate ~tep in workin~ up the data.
Regnault also rightly points out that
much of the can., and accuracy he had
lavished on tht.'se plates was ],~'t in print
anywa.v, becau~ of the uneven .,,hnnkage
that paper experiences as it was wetted
bv ink during printing. We will consider
as an example the dependence of the
prt.'.,,,ure of (saturated) steam on tem-
perature. There were at least three pieces
of apparatus emplo.ved in these experi-
ments. One of these, applicable to
pres,,ures both below and m,~eratelv
above normal atmospheric flressu~, i's
.shown in Fig. 5. We will concentrate on
mea~,urements above the normal boiling
I~int of 100 C. -'~ These were r e ~ r t e d in
the Rehttion, Vol. l.'" He measured about
260 data pairs, but plotted only about ~/~
of them on the (copper) plot in order not
to make the plot totally unreadable. This
was done in three .segments to gain
rt.'~flution; each time he changed the
scale on the pressure axis, and shifted
the temperature values on the ab~is~.
Actually, for the final analysis, he would
plot not the pressure itself, but its
logarithm, since that curve has a slope
(steepness) which does not change as
drastically as that of the pressure i t . l l ,
and can, therefore, be more easily fitted
20
Fig. 5 I/iew on 0he of R,'k,nault's more simt,le pieces of
equipment, us'd t,, determine the z,ap,,ur pressure of u~lter. It is
his "petit ,Ippareil'. u~'d./i,r pressures l~,tlt below aJrd ,rboz~'the
atmosphere ~about oO nml t0 35¢~1 mm Of H,~L and telnl,eratur,s
t~'tu'een 40 and 150 CL The temperature u~as raised in the boiler
on the r~k,ht, c, mtamm~ four therm,,neters m iron sh'ez~'s,
care~hdly calibrated ,i~aillSt a gas thernl,,meter. Tu~, of them read
the teml~'rature of the z,al,mr space, tzt~, r,'ached into the li,tuid.
This I~,ih,r was c,,mecte,t to a 'balhlst" z,es~l on the right by a
tul~" surrounded u,ith a jacket through u,hich cold u~iter fl,,u,ed
contilm,,t,sly from a re~rz~,ir. In this u~iv steam esc,lpm,~ the
boiler u,,rs c,,nd,'n~'d, and tit; COllden~d u'~rter ran back into the
boiler, m, ikill,~, it possible to continue exl~erirllents for a I,,n,s?
tilne. The spherical balhlst z,essel on the left. m, ide ofcopper and
Ii,rz,itl~ a z,oh,lne ,,f 24 liters ,rpproxinlat,;ly, could be Colmected
t,, a l,acirllnl or t,ressl,r,, punt t, bu nlea/is o f a (.,~'nli-~exlbh,) h'ad
tuN' The htlhrst l,,'~.l Corlhlipted air. kel,t appr,,:imlatelu at a
con.~tanl tenrl,erature t,y l/re surr,,undmg u,ah'r bath." This
htlhrst z','s~l, irl u,hich the pressure couht N" controlh,d by a
tlUlnl, was th," tml,ortant irnl,roz,enl,.nt in tile d,'z,ice wJten
colnp, lred to earlier ¢,,theml,is. silrlihrr) dez,ices of Aray, o and
Duh,ll.~, since it .¢,,rz~ much greater stabilitz¢ t,, the pn,cess, arid
thus COrltributed t,, the a,'curacy ,:f the re,tdnt~,,s taken. Different
trran,nneters u,ere us,',/ ~,r pressures below or aboz,e the
at,l,,sphere. The latter ortiy r,'ach,'d a tu'i,~ht of J ineter m the
'petit appareil'. HI,'/,'y,,.ndarl] 21-metre nlanonteter reCerred to
it1 tit,, text was part of the succes~,r apparatus to this, the "gntnd
,ipp, ireil'. Ezt'rythillg u~s orr a I,rrv,er .~'ale. able to measure and
u,ithstand presst,res t,, more than 20 atrn,,spheres. The "grand
appareir had a 70-1itre boih'r, which al~ c,mtained a gas
thernlom,,ter, in addition to the nlercunl-in-glass therntometers,
and u~s otlly used at presssures higher titan aim,spheric. The
b~llhlst z,es~l now u~s 28¢) litn's. The pressure pump required
tu~, pei,l,le to operate beh,u, 10 atrnospheres, but four fvr the
highest pressures near 20 atnlospheres. Fr,nn Regnault, op. cit.,
note 16, Vohune 1, Plate II, Fi~. 3.
hl.~'r..._.~t:Re v,nault's nleth,gt of cornlecting the 3-metre pieces of the
21 - metre nmn,nneter (and other)class-to-glass connecti,,ns). The
tube ends u w e staled (by means of a mastic) into metal flan,v,es
with conical outside surfaces. A clamp u~as applied to the
cormection, and tighteninl¢ the ~rew of tile clamp u~,uld press
the conical fittings to~ether, axialhl, u,ithout apphling, anzt. torque
to the glass tubes.. The actual ~aJ u~s made by. a minium ga~et
(red lead oxide). This principle of this method is strikingly
similar to the modern ISO-KF system of making vacuum
COmlections. (From Regnault, op. cit., note 16, Volume 1, Plate
VII, Fig. 6).
Bulletin of the Scientific InstrumentSociety No. 60 0999)
to a mathematical expression. The tem- effort involved in fitting and using the calculatorwill be of interest.Altogether I
perature range was 100-231 C (separate Blot formula is much larger than for probably became quite proficient at
series of measurements, with different simple polynomials. Him, a practical doing these calculations the old-fash-
apparatus, extended to temperatures man, points thisout repeatedly.2'~ ioned way (with or without a calculator),
down to -32 C), and the corresponding and the time it took me to perform them
steam pressures varied from 0.76 m to should be representative of what a good
about 21 m of mercury at the highest In addition to the coefficients of the
interpolation formulae, Regnault in his computer might have achieved in the
temperatures. These experiments thus middle of the 19th century.
required an open mercury manometer Relation also presented tables of values
of at least this height, z~ He preferred to calculated from his interpolation formu-
use an 'open' manometer, rather than a lae in suitable intervals. For example, for For each of several substances (water,
compressed-air (closed) manometer, the vapour pressure of (water) steam he ether, alcohol, acetone, chloroform, and
since the latter would have required printed tables in intervals of 1 C from 32 others) Zeuner calculated two tables. The
better knowledge (than he thought he to 230 C, but also in intervals of 0.1 C first contains temperature in increments
had) of the compressibilitybehaviour of from 85 to 101 C. The latter table was of l0 C for most substances, but for
air at the high pressures used, and also meant to be directly useful for the intervals of 5 C for water and CO:; the
lost sensitivitya the high pressure end. application of the hypsometer, the instru- next column contains the absolute tem-
Later (Relation) ~ Vol. 2) he was forced to ment for measuring atmospheric pres- perature; the next the saturated vapour
use a compre~,d-gas manometer be- s u r e ( a n d t h e r e f o r e a l t i t u d e , pressure for that temperature. Six further
cause the pressures he used for other approximately) by the boiling point of columns contain numbers useful for
substances were even higher (up to 76 m water. Regnault does not mention how therm¢ntynamic calculations derived
of H g for CO:). Characteristicallyhe only these calculations were performed in his from the vapour pressure, using the
used a compressed-air instrument after laboratory. It seems likely that he would derivative of the (saturated) vapour
he himself had made careful experimen- have had available an Arithmometer, pressure vs. temperature, dp/dt, which
tal studies of the compressibility beha- perhaps not for the work in the 1840s, was calculated numerically from the
algebraic derivative of Regnault's inter-
viour of air. The next step in his but later. Yet, I could not find a reference
polation formulae.
evaluation was to scribe an interpolation to an Arithmometer (or any other
line through or near the plotted l~)ints. mechanical calculating device) anywhere
In total, there are 160 lines of 8 calculated
Regnault himself judged when the curve in the three volumes of the Relation. T h e
whole computational effort must have columns each. Using the Curta in con-
looked 'right',without any jogs or weird
changes in behavior. Once this was been staggering, clearly involving years junction with log tables, spot tests
of actual time. Regnault, after all, indicated that it would take me a little
achieved, the curves were properly
measured all kinds of thermal properties more than 1 hour for each line, perhaps a
engraved. H e next measured a number
total of about 180-200 hours when
(usually five) of coordinate pairs (log of (not just the ones mentioned here as an
example) on a wide range of substances.- extrapolated to all the tables. This time
pressure and temperature in our exam-
Zeuner went beyond re-calculating the should be more than doubled for the
ple) on thisderived curve, equally spaced
tables that Regnault had already pub- necessary repetitions and re-checking of
in the independent variable (in our
the results, for a total of at least 400-500
example temperature), and covering the iished. In his book" he reported and used
Regnault's fits and other pieces of data to hours of intensive calculation. The sec-
range of the data. These data were used
ond set of tables, involving specific heats
to calculatethe coefficientsa, b, c, ~ and I~ pn~uce tables (which Regnault had not),
in which various experimental quantities and latent heats were less computation-
in a formula for the saturationpressure p
were combined into new quantities ally intensive because the fits used in that
of the form:
directly relevant to technical thermody- case for the "total heat' and the 'liquid
log p = a + b'/+ c~' namics. This is what Zeuner means when heat' given by Regnault were simply
(in which t is the temperature). he says that he re-calculated all tables by polynomials of the second or third order.
This form was suggested by BiotY the use of the Arithmometer. These can be efficiently evaluated using a
Sometimes three coefficients a, b and four-function calculator alone, as Him
were sufficient for a good fit, based on a'lso pointed outY Nevertheless, another
Pretending to be Zeuner 200-3_r~q hours would have to be bud-
three coordinate pairs. Formulas for the
determination of the coefficients were geted for the calculation and checking of
given by Blot, and they were repeated l have tried to re-livethe experience that the second set of tables. The total would
in Regnauit's Relation) ~ Vol. 1 (pp. 595- Zeuner had in calculatinghis tables.Not thus be at least 600 to 850 hours.
597), complete with a printer's error, being the owner of an Arithmometer, I Repeating a representative series of
corrected in Vol. 2. used instead a Curta II calculator from calculations without the use of a four-
the early 1960s, which is, after all, a kind operation mechanical calculator, it is my
of 'Arithmometer in a can'. if anything, estimate that the time savings from the
Of course other forms had been used its operation should be quicker than that use the calculator represents a factor of at
before, and yet others later. A variety of of larger calculators; at least that is what least two to three.
'fits' can usually be found to represent a the good people at the Contina Company
given set of data almost equally well. The in Liechtenstein, makers of the Curta, ! can also confirm that Zeuner's calcula-
choice of functions is not important per se claim in theirliterature.The evaluation of tions were accurately done. 1 used a
(as long as one does not try to interpret formulas of the form given above can spreadsheet to calculate every single
the values of the coefficients in terms of not, of course, be performed with a four- value in certain tables. The results
microscopic molecular parameters, as function calculator alone. The use of generally agree with Zeuner's calcula-
one hopes to do in modem science). logarithms is still required, and i had to tions to within one unit m the last digit
Some forms are more convenient to use re-acquaint myself with the efficient use (of 5 or 6) reported, although there is an
than others. Blot's form, for example, can of log tables. ~' Of course, the formulas occasional larger error. Most of these
not be inverted algebraically; that is, one can also be evaluated without a four- errors involve a number 5 in Zeuner's
can not directly calculate the temperature function calculator, by long-hand arith- tables where a 3 should be in the first
belonging to a certain pressure in our metic and the use of log tables, and the position after the decimal. This was not
example. In addition, the computational time savings achieved by the use of the caused by a defect in Zeuner's Arithm-

Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 6O (1999) 21

ometer, since the last step in the caicula-
tl(m usually does not involve the ma-
chine, but rather the use of k)g tables.
Perhaps the typesetter misinterpreted
Z~uner's handwriting. Finally, here is a
tribute to Regnault: his data of the
vapour pressure of steam alx~ve I0@~
agree to within a few tenths of a percent
with modern data. Below I00'~, down to
0'~C, the errors in the (small) pressures
can increase to I%, still a sign of gt~d
measurellr~,nts.
Summary and Conclusion
D u n n g the period 18~-1870, approxi-
mately, the new physics of heat, which
became thermodynamics, was combined
with the results of Re~nault's large scale
and beautiful experimental investigations
of a variety, of thermal properties on a
wide range of substances. This union of
tht~) O' and experiment brought about the
new di~ipline of technical therm(~y-
namics. Perhaps the first of the engineer-
ing sciences, technical tberm(~iynamics,
was the basis for the development of
I~)wer generati(m dunng the remainder
of the century land it still is, of course),
Later influencing other areas as well, such
as refrigeration, and chemical processing
The Arithmometer, and its many succes-
sors, contributed significantly to this
rapid and important development. One
of the pi~m~ers in technical thermndy-
namics, Zeuner, d ~ ' s not exaggerate
when he says that he would s~am have
given up the calculation of his funda-
mental tables so important to practicing
engineers, if he had not had an Anthm-
ometer at his disfa~al. Similar sentiments
were e x p r e s ~ more than 20 years Later
by the eminent German applied and
numerical mathematician Carl Runge
w h o u ~ d an A r i t h m o m e t e r for his
extensive calculations relative to his
development (with H. Kayser) of precise
series formulas for spectral lines. 'This
[the Arithmometer] is really a splendid
invention. I do not think that I would
have done even a tenth of the calcula-
tions without its help', he writes in a
letter to the famous mathematician
Mittag-L~ffler in 1887,~ referring to the
spectral line work. But one-time activ-
ities, such as the calculation of 'steam
tables' tables for publication in b(xwks on
thermodynamics, was only the beginning
of the rapidly increasing need for
computational power in engineering
and the sciences. Individual engineers
and scientists .~xm needed to make their
own calculations, which had not been
done for them in b(x~ks already, in order
to evaluate experiments or to a~,,ess and
improve their dts|gns. Mechanical calcu-
lators t(x~k perhaps half of the drudgery
out of numerical work (which was still
extremely painful), and probably re-
duced errors. Beyond the period covered
22
here, technical progres~ in 'individual-
scale' digital calculators was very slow
until well after World War [I (except for
the intr(xluction of new counting prinei-
ples, such as the pinwheel, overall better
mechanical execution, and electrification
of the various forms of the l~.l~'muhle).
This progress in digital calculators in the
19th and early 20th centuries was thus
not primarily technical, but based on
reduced manufacturing cost (a concern
from the beginning'~). Reduced cost
made it p(~sible for individuals or small
offices to own some computing power.
The cost of computing has now dropped
so low that huge numbers of "personal'
and main-frame computers, with enor-
mous computing power, daily grind
away at scientific and technical cakula-
tions, many of which are worth doing in
the first place. Re-intrnducing the Ar-
ithm~neter could be helpful in a 'think
before compute' movement for the ben-
efi~ of our students.
Notes and References
I. S. Johnston, 'Making the A n t h m o n ~ r
Count', Bull. Sci. lnstrum. Sot., 52 (19q~, pp.
12-21.
2. F Reuleaux, Die Thomas'sche Rechen-
ma~'hine {Fred~,rg, 1862) loffprint ~mm / ~
Cwdm,¢oneur, 8 (1862)!.
3. G.-A. Him, "Notice sur I'utilit6 de Far-
ithm(m~tre et de rhydn~tat', Annales du genie
cwil, lie Pattie, 2 (1863), pp. !13-118 & 152-164.
4. C.C. Gillespie, ed., Dictrmary of Soent!fic
Bu~,raptw (Scribner, New York, 1970s).
5. Ref.4, Vol. VI, 1972, p. 431 (article by R.S.
Hartenberg).
6 Ref. 4, Vol Xl, 1975, p. 383 (articleby Otto
Mayr).
7. RPf. 4, Vol. Ill, 1971, p. 303 (articleby
Edward E. Daub). ['hereisno fullbiography of
Clausius; his Zurich years are authoritatively
covered in Grete R(mge, 'Die Zuricher Jahre
des Phys|kers Rudolf Clausius', Gesnerus, 12
(lg~;g),p. 73-I(~.
8. G. Zeuner, Grund'-uge der nwcham~hen
Warmetharie (Freiberg, 1860). An estimation o4
the significance of this b~x~kcan be made from
its publication history, note 9.
9. G. Zeuner, Grund:uge der nwctmni~-hen
Wi~rmethorie, 2nd edition (Leipzig, 1866). This
sec~n~dedition was efk'dively a new b ~ k and
was re-printed as a third edition m Leipzig,
1877, with only the addition of a paper on the
theory of superheated sleam previously pub-
listed by Zeuner A third edition was pub-
lLsl~'d in lx,ipzig in 1887 in 2 volumes, under
the new title Techni~he Therna~l.~maraik,1st ed.
There are 2rid (1900/1901) and 3rd (1905/
19(}6) editions of the Techni~he Thermod.~amik
(Leipzig).The thirdediti(m was translated into
English by J.F. Klein as Techmcal Thermody-
namics, 2 vols (New York" Van Nostrand,
1906/1907). Him had included a French
translatam of the first editi(m otr Zeuner's
Grundzuge in a special section in the first
edihm (1862) of his own thermodynamics
Bulletin of the Scientific instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
ixK~k.2. The securededi~m oC Grund:uo" was
also translated by M. Amthal and A. Cazin
(then~elves significant contributors to the
study of heal) as Th~n'ie n~q'aniquede ia chaleur
(Pare, 18(~).
10 J.-F I~,~zer and H.W. Tiller, eds, E~gcn-
Ossi~'iwT~'hnr~'heH~'h~'tmle Zurich 1955-1980
Fr~t~'hr~ :urn 125iahr#~en P~slehrn (Zurich:
Verlag Neue Zurcher Za,itung, 1980).
II, Most of the work of Chusiu,q on the new
theory of heat fn.m ! ~ to 1865 appean,d in
Po~,,£endoff'sAnnalen, sometimes alter the
papers had appeared in the publicatiors of
Swiss scientific ~)delles. Often there were
tran.slations in the Phih~h#cal M,~¢azin¢ (fre-
quently translated by Clausius' friend Tyn-
dall), aM various French journals. The basic
memoirs are available in collected form in
English (with the original publication details)
in R Clausius, The Ma'hana'al Than'y af Heat
u,wth ~ts Apphcations to the Steam Engine amt to
the Phvsu'alPn~,'rt~s of Bodies (h)ndon, 1867).
This work was edih'd by I".Archer Hirst and
contains additkmal useful c~nnments by Clau-
sius, added to clari(~"~)me p~nts m the
original Papers. The original German version
of thiswork (less ~me of the memoirs included
by Hirst)is:R. Clausius, Abhandlungen Uber die
mechanische W~rmetheorie, I. Ableilung
(Braunschweig, 1964),2. Abteilung (Braunsch-
weig, 1867).
12. F Reuleaux, Der Constructeur (Braunsch-
weig, 1861). Later editi,n~ in 1865, 1872, iSSq.
English translati(m(from the 1889 4th German
edition) by H. H. Suplee as The Constructor: A
Handbook of Machine Design (New York, 1893).
13. F Reuleaux, Theoreti~he Kinematik: Grund-
:iige einer Theorie des Maschinenu,esens
(Braun~hweig, 1875). English translation by
A. B.W. Kennedy as The Kinematics of Machin-
ery: (~itlinr;of a Than'y of Machines (l~mdon,
1876).
14. F. Reuleaux, /~e s~eaannte Thmnas'sche
R~hennu~Ehine (Leipzig, 1892).
15. E. Martin, The Calculatm.¢ Machines (Die
Rechawma~hinenl: Their History and Devehrp-
ment (l~s Angeles: Tomash i'ublishers, Cam-
bridge, USA; and MIT Press, 1992) This is
volume 16 in the Charles Babhage Institute
Reprint Series for the Hist(ny of Computing;
translated into EnglL~h by EA. Kidwell and
M R Williams from E Martin, Die Rechen-
machine und dwreEntu,icklungsgeschichte (l'ap
penheim: J. Mayer, 19Z~). In 1892 about 541)
Burkhardt machines had been completed or
were near completion (note 14, p. 60).
16. R{gnaults's results were published in
three monumental volumes (a total of more
than 2600 pages) as: V. R,gnault, Relatam des
experwnc~ entreprises par ordre de n~nsieur le
ministre des trazwux publics, ¢t sur la pn~sitian
de la cararaisston centrale de machines a z~pcur,
pour d~terminer ies prinopalrs lois et les dorm,s
nunK'rulues qui ¢ntrent clans le calcul des nu~chines
a ~ e u r (Paris; Vol. l, 1847; Vol. 2, 1862; Vol. 3,
1870). Actually, the full titles of the volumes
are very slightly different; the title given here
is that (~ the first volume. S~nne memoirs were
also published individually, and the three
volumes also appean~] with identical Pagina-
hon in the M~,noircs de racadhnie des scumces in
1847, 1862 and 1868-70. In many cases expel-
menial work had been completed long berne
the publication date, the extra time taken up
 by the painful evaluati~ms and computations
required. Rw example: the expenments re-
~wted in the 1847 volume started in 11440, and
many experimen~ appearing in the 1862
wdume had been completed by 1852. in 187(I
~" his lab~watory, m~teb~x~ks and equipment at
S~vres (where Rt~o~ault had bectm',e director
oF the ~ c e l a i n factory in 18~4, and where he
ctmtinued his experimental work) were de-
strayed by Pru~ian solditns during the Fran-
co-Pru,.edan war. He abo k,,st a ~m in the same
war, and these event~ effectively marked the
end OF his creative career. For a short biogra-
phy of Regnault ~ the entry by R. Fox, in Ref.
4, Vol. XI, p 352; al~: R Fox, T/~ C,,Iorrc
The,,ry ~" C,a.,~s fn,m Laz~,isier to Reenault
(Oxford University Pre~, 1971).
17. There is pn~ably no truth to the story
that Reuleaux u.~ecl to teach his cla.~.~es in
Zurich weanng a tailcoat embn~idered on the
back with 'Arithn~neter-Staifelwalze dnn-
n~n ~,
18. According to Reuleux, note 14, H i m
would call out to his wife 'l~mnez-moi la
KaffeemUhle' (get me the coffee grinder)
whenever he needed to do s~nne c a l c u l a t i ~ .
19. G.-A. Him, Recherches sur l'iqun~lent
mecanutue de la dmleur prisentf'es ~ la ~rtet~ de
Ph~,lue de Berlin (Colmar, 18~). Alter the
completi(m OF the 1857 ih'rlin prize competi-
titm, H i m arranged for this w,lume to he
printed by the publisher OF the h~cal Colmar
n~vspaper. The volume c~mtains his submis-
skin, much addi~mal technical material, the
letter fn~m the head OF the prb,.e committee
(Prof. F. Du-Bois Reym~md) mh~rmng him of
the result,and Clauisus' re[~wt in the name OF
the prize o~nmittee. It also omtains Hirn's
(~stinate resl~mSe to Clausius" criticism.
20. This s e c ~ skirmish was fought m 1t,163,
first thn~ugh dueling papers OF Him and
Clausius in the ~mrnal G~sm~. Clausius
thought the sub~ct matter was so important
that he wrote a memoir 'On an Axkwn in the
Mechanical Tl~wy o[ Heat' to deal, tmx'e
n~re, and in great detail, with his axk~m that
'heat cannot of itself pass tn~m a colder to a
warmer lx~y'. Hirn's 'Gedankenexperiment'
seemed to invalidate this asimn Clausius
wnRe this memoir in part to answer Him's
oblections ~ne more time, out of his reallzatkwl
that other authors had adopted it.. This
men~/r is the seventh mema~ir in Hirst's
t,dihon of the ctdlected Clau~us memoirs, see
m~te 11.
21. G.-A. Him, Exposition a,alytique et e.rpPri-
~m'ntale de la theora" m&anlque de la clmh'ur
(Paris, 1862). Scs~nd editi~m (same title, 2
volumes), Paris (1865/1868); third edition
(same title, 2 w~lumes), (Paris, 1875/1876).
22. S.P. Thompson, The L~fe af Wilham Thmn-
sam (D,a'Kkm: Macmillan & Co., 1910), 2 Vols.
While Wm. Th~m~um's contnbutkms to Re-
8nault's work were clearly ir~ignificant (VOl. I,
pp. 122-I~I), the time spent in Regnault's
cabinet gave him an intn|ductkm to experi-
mental work, complementing his stnmg math-
ematical orientation. A diversificatkm into
more applied or experimental work was
recommended to him by his father and by
Wm. Th~ns~m, ProFessor of Materla Medici at
Glasgow, who wanted him to he able to show
that he was not 'merely an expert x-plus-y
man' ( Vol 1, pp. 129-I~)). The work aLso
Bulletin of the Scientific l n ~ u m e n t Society No. 60 (19~)
inmduced him to the study OFheat, other than
transmis~i~m of heat, with which he had dealt
mathematically even as an undergraduate at
Cambridge. An~ng his many other credits,
William Thom~m, of course, also became an
unportant inventor of scientific irmtruments
and technical apparatus (telegraphic commu-
nication, galvam~meter, mariner's compa~,
s~amding apparatus, electric supply meters),
s~ne of which he exple,ited in commercial
enterprises m associathm with James White.
See: S. R Th(~nnp~m, 0p. cir.,VOl 2 and T.N.
Clarke, A.D Morns~m-L~w, A.DC. Simpson,
Brass & Glass, ScienHfic Instrument Making
Workstwps in Scotland (National Museums o[
Scotland, 1989), PP. 252-275.
23. ReRnault's name is often included in the
titleOF publications ~m heat by other authors,
as evidened by the following two papers by
Wm.Th~mson (Lind Kelvin): 'On an Ahsolute
Therm~nnetric Scale. founded on Carnot's
The~wy of the M,~ve Power of Heat, and
calculated from the Rt.'sults of Regnault's
Experiments tm the Pressure and Latent Heat
OFSteam' (1848), and 'An Account OFCarn~d's
]'hes~y t~ the Motive Power of Heat with
Numerical Result~ deduced In~nn Re10~ault's
Experiments tm Steam' (184q). These wen.
published in multiple ~mrnals; see. S.P
Th~npson, of. clt.,note 22, Vol. 2, pp. 122~
[or exact r e 4 ~ .
24. In the case of the vaporer pressure of
steam, u,'~ed as an example here, there is a
king list of previous invt,'stigators, listed hy
Regnault in the first volume of the Relation.
mee 16, p..i6S It includes the names of
Dalt(m, Chnstian, Arzherger, Watt, Robi~m,
~utl~,rn, Betancourt, Ure, (~y-Lu.~ac, Du-
king and Arago, and a ownmLsslon OF the
Franklin Institute m Philadelphia, who 'mal-
i~reu.,~,n~nt ne presentent pas une c(~-(w-
dance ~tisfai~nte aw,c celles des savants
fran~ais' (p. 467). The purl~Se OF the inves-
tigation ol the Franklin Inshtute committee
was not to t.'stabli~the pn..~ure of saturated
steam, but rather tn investigate the causes of
steam boiler explosams They did a pioneenng
pb OF th|s, including measurements of the
strengths OF ct~per and malleable iron at
elevated temperatures by n~,ans OF a very
well designed instrument 'for pnwing tena-
city'. ()he of their findings was that malleable
into actually increased m strength with
increasing temperature over the range o4
temperatures found in steam engine boilers,
a rather unexpected result. This research Ls
dt,~cnbed in a rather mm-techmcal manner
(including reprints of the more general ~ec-
tl(~'L~ (~ the I ~ ) r t s Lssu~) by B Sinclair,
Early Research at the Fnmkhn Institute The
Inz~tigatkm into the C.auses ~. Steam lknler
ExpIosmns 1830-1837 (Philadelphia: Franklin
Institute, 1966).
25. This 21-meter manometer is an interest-
ing scientific instrument. For a detailed
description see Ref. 16, VOl. [, pp..~3 ff.
Many OF Regnauit's expenrnents were exe-
cuted at the ln.~tut de France in a tower of
rectangular crtw~t sectkm, of truly approxi-
mately 10 m: area. This h~wer had been
purp~w,e-built fiw p n ~ e d hydraulic experi-
ments t@ F~lix Savart, who died in 1841. The
mamm~eter was rmamted akmg tree side of
this tower. It was made of crystal gla.,~ tubes
in 3-meffe sections, pined together by fittings
invented by Regnault (see FiR. 5). The gla~
tubes had an inside diameter ¢@I0 mm, and a
wall thicknes~ OF 5 mm. Since the height t~
the tower from the tittle to a roof terrace was
only 12.5 m, a cmw,iderahle part extended
beyoncl the tower pn~er, akmg a kind of
mast. lngenk~u~ devices (lifts, and such) am
descnbed for making accurate reading,s twer
the whole length of the mammteter despite
this c o m p l i c a ~ n W m Thom.~m (later ~ r d
Kelvin) menti~ms having seen this man-
ometer, which had just been comph,ted, in a
letter dated 14 April, 1~5 fr,wn Paris to his
father (SP. Thoml~m. 0p. clt.,note 21, Vol I,
p. 131).
26. J.-B.Bk~, Connms~nce des temps pour 1844
(Pans).
27. G.-A. Him, Mhmnre sur la thenn0dvnami-
que (Paris, 1867). This publication contains a
rel~wt (m Him's (fairly successhil) attemp~ at
laboratory scale experimental 'science in the
n~cle of" Regnault. He reports many of his
results Y in the form of I:mlynomials in
h.'mF~'ratu~ t (up to the fimrth degree), i.e.
in the form Y = at + bl2 + ct~ + dP. On p 19he
says: 'For perkins making use OF the anthm-
ometer of Thomas, the solving ol these
equa~,n presents no difficulty,or hetter said,
costs truly little time'. He suggests putting the
l~dynornial into the form Y • t[a + fib + tic +
dt)J], which allows for quicker cakulathm ~m
the Arithrmnneter, by starting with the expre-
sum in round brackets tm the right, and
ctmhnulng to the left. He claims that the
evaluatmn cg this hwmula for a single tem-
perature would take a~ut two minutes on the
Anthm~mwter 'evt~n if t includes five digits
(181.64, for example)'. The author can omfirm
this bv his own uxpenments ~m a Curia I1
calcul,~tor. This m-write OFa I~d,vn~wnial L~still
u~ed m numerical cakulat~ms. The author
does not sugg~t that Him invented it, but
~)inting I ~ t ther~ little hme-savmg treks to
others was a valuable ~'rvk-e prov~ed bv
H i m to u.,K-,rsOF the Anthn~rueter, or o t h ~
calculators. In tact devek~ing these methods
was ~e of the lew ways m which the utlhtv OF
n~*chanical calculators could he increa.,,~ at
no coM.
~ . I used W. (~rdlner. Tables de h~garsthnws
(Nouvelle bditi~m. Avlgtam, 1770). However, I
did na~ re-create the scene beyond this. For
example, I used electric lights and did ra,t
drew in lgth centun:, ct~tume.
29 C~tr~-,vd Richenhagen, Cad Run.ce ¢i856-
1927~: gon der re,wn Mathematik :ur Numenk
(C,othngen: Vandenh~,k & Rupn~'ht, 198~,),p
128 This b~ask was brought to my attentkm by
RK Otnes, based on a review he had .~,en.
This [~x~ ct~tains Ill,re than 10 pages oll the
functioning of the Anthmometer and its
applicati~m~ msca, nce (including many un-
c~rnm~m rden,smes), and more on numerical
methKts adapted to the rmde of calculati~m
empk~yed (paper and pencil, tables, slide rule,
calculators).
Author's mldress"
Uniz~,rsitv k~"Cob)tad0
D~I. of M~'h~ni,'ai Engineering
Campus &,x 427
Boulder, CO 80,~9qk127, USA
e-mail: GNOMIX@idcomm.com
23
The Case of the Stolen Lens?
Karl-Heinz Wilms

out. As well as could bt' di,.cerned from

an illustration, this was a positive lens,
Olltt o t who~.4, ~.urtace,. is a p r o h m g e d
ellipsoid (pos~,lbly d o s e to the idt'al
Ml,lpel ,rod the other an o b h . l g ellip,,old.
In short, an obiect teaturmg both t~ pv,, of
~,tlrt,lct' ~,~hlch art' currentlv ot Intt'rt-',t for
corneal surl~erv and contact optics.

It ~,ot's ~vflhout S,lylng that at the Iinlt, I

F~g 1 50-ram ,,,,~ , ,u.t,d /,,> , , / h i',,t/: -,'J<-,~.l'iz,'~z,,d
/ u r (;v~htchtt' der Llptlk ~I')81L I'ol I. t' 5 4
In the cour,~' of p4g~. I ~va> taced w i t h the
p r o b h ' m of trading a h'm, - or ..,imilar
obltx't - w h i c h ~ o u l d denlon,,,tr,lte the
u~' ot optics m the Ancient ~,\'orld a n d
v, hlch could bt' prc'wnted a', ~,uch m the
planned ( ~phc,II h,chnolo~v Fxhlbmon at
\ h , m c h - l)t'ut-che~ Nh,>eum [hi> re-
quc-t, tronl l)r Brachnt'r of tilt' [X'ut',cht".
\lu-t,un~ x~,l- pa,,,,t'd {111 to lilt' |'W Sir
I arab ot tht' Rodcn.,h~ k k o m p a m , l h u -
b y , a n ,llX que',t for a ,.tutable oblect that
~xould fllu,,tratc Ill a~, mtt'rt',,tln~ and
t'ttt'ctl% t' nl,IDDt'r a',, po,-ibh', the '.tate ot
o p t w a l tcchnolo~x m ,incmnt tinlt",
~B
~.-
. ~,,.,,,.....--...~ ,.. _. ~ ~
.I= :...__= "-
t ,~ ~ ~ "~
,,. --~
X il~ ill. ~ I''%'1"~ " i l l I~ " l ~ lk~'
t rom [ - t l . 5,lint#:. t l a n d b u c h
Fir'.t, I ..varched through all my optical
book,, in the hope of tindmg an ,ippro-
prhlte ~,pecmlen. but my ettorts p r m e d
truffle..., then, Dr l'teitter ot the L,lrl
Z t , i s s c o m p a n y granted rne a prixatt,
xle~vlng ot the ( I p t l c a l M u s e u m m
()berkochen. near btuttgart. | h , rt' he
-.hm~t,d mr, a lughl v int,'it,sting 're,ldmg
~las-', a Vl,~Olt,tt nl,l..g,nlt~.ing ~,la,,,, from
the N'ndlmg (~phcal (;l,I,,,~vork~,: I had
•,tudu,d the eth,ct of thi,, glad,,, m the
~{,rk,, ot I Remer ~t't it ~.v,i,, not qmte
what I wa~, looking for. men though it
max ',vt'l[ h,l,~t' hi'i'll ~Olllt' |Orlll o[
de¢oratlxt' rcadln,c, .ud and could hax t'
conx t'~,i'd an irnprt"~-,hll) {11 optical dt,x el-
Oplllt'llt~ Ill tOrlllt,r tlfllt's.
. ~.1~ w ' ~ ~"
[ then t t l r n t ' d illl. a t t t ' n t l o n a ~ , l l n t o a r{wk
.-%'. = . . . , , ~ ,. ~,
cr~.,,tal lens I~ hlch l)r I".-II ."whnlfl/ had
dt'.,<r~bt'd m tht' Ilmt,tl,,~,L fi, lit,' th.h,ml ,'t
~ __ ...,.,,,.
(.ll,h,.; a h'n,. x~hlch I had conskh,red on
tltlmt,rotls ~.~.t,l'.~l{in~., b u t which
. . . . . .
•.,4.'t'lllt'd I n a n v W,l~, o u t Ot t i l t , o r d i n a r y .
(lilt' d,D,, IlO~N,g. er. ~ l l , ' l ~ I ~ x a , p o n d t , r -
ing the a,,pht,rl<al .urtace.. ot the cornt,a
and lvn.. m the hunlan t,vt,, I .,uddenlv
.:.~.'..~o
rt'nlt'nlbt'red thi- ObleCt. I reah/t,d for thk'
hr-t tim(' that fill,, lens al'.o ha,, ,ispht, rigal
J P - ~ - . - hot]ndarx .,urtace.. (Fig. 1 )
rt'~,ardt'd till', It'll~, a'; a t~pic,iI ~,l:'~.'Clnlerl
ot an~.it, nt optical technolo~,y - .,orne-
where bt'ttst'x,n da.,',igal a n t i q u i t y ,lad
the earlie.,t d,lv,, of glas',nl,lking, in
V e n i c e lot vxanlph'. It w a s then ",ug-
g,t'stt'd that this lens ~,houht be copied
and then bnlught to public ,ittenhon in
tilt' tornl of a .,pechll vxh,b,t. Ihis idt'a
wa,., Inlnlt'dhltt'lv ,ICCt'pt~,'d ,lilt| ,in expert
~,X,l'. conlmlsshmed to pnwt'ed with the
p r o d u c t i o n ot a rvplica I ) r R Harth of the
Rt~h,nsh~'k Conlpany then ]hid the It,ll.,.
nlanufactured to S¢,lh' in the Re~,en
factory. In the ,igt, of CNC-controlh,d
machinery, a pr{~-t,ss of fills t ) p e poses
fewer problem., than in the d.lvs wllt, n
~.uch work was carried out b'v '.',tone
grinders'! But the real lens, ,.uppo~,dly
kept in a mu,,eunl in Visbv on the
~x~t,t|i~.h L..land of (;otl,lnd or in Sh~.'k-
holm it~'lf, ~ i n s out oxer its ill{K.lt,rll
countt, rpart in several i m p o r t a n t re-
spt,cts: it is gt,ntllrlt,, it is con.,,ider,tblv
older, and it n~, m a d e o1: n ~ k cr~ ~,t,ll!
Technical Data
Ih.|ml'h'r ol the' h'w, he, -|~'~ Itlo.|l ~1 m m
I hB. k,~t'~- ol lhi' If'l,', 2~ ~ m m
(b,p~'d o n I ) r \ k u t t n ~ , r ' ~ re-,a',,r~ h) n 1 -344
(ord,lhlrv)
i~[o,,eto tl~e d hne~ n - 1 R;, g
0,'~, | (,1¢II-d in.lr% 1
\bhv d,,ta 7 0 04 or t ~ g 2
\~'rh'x r,khu~ on u|,pt,r -Ide 211 mm
had llot
Retr,,t tl'~ ~' pOl~. er o!
27 dpt
I Ihp.v ,tab, long axl. ,ipprox .111mm
-hort ,ixp..,ppn~x 28 "~mm
"~]uart' o| Illlm
¢'t~vnlrl~lt~, : -S prol
Ud,'al ~alue - 42)
~{'r|l. '~- r , , d l t . ~, ~.,n ]o',~.4.r ~ l d l ' t'l~ illrll

Rt'lr,,~ tP. ¢' Ipo',~.{'r ot Io~.xt'r Mlrt,h t' H~ dpt

The Shape of the Lens
---.-,---,.'-r-_,/= -..' . . . . . . . . .
I Ihp,.v data lon~; axl., approx 2h mm
Mv illlthll rv,ictlon lv,l,,, to Illt',i'.,llrt, the •,hort axl,, appr,,x Ill.~ t o n i
=.. ..... ,.-:.=_=-.-_.-. it,n., trom an t'nlar~,enlt,nt Iht' second ~'~lL,,Irt' o l i l t l m
ta,,k ~v,l,. to ex aluate tht, data on the basis (~Lt,t'|lirltlt~, r = ~¢J4ohl

of a Ioptt,,,t alhllV~,l~, It ~N1n become I o t a l r e l r m |D, t' ~t,~, t'r

appart,nt that the upper part of the lens of k'n,, ~,1 h dpl (1 = 31,~ mini
flattened out considerabl~, tm~,lrd,, the R{.admg ~la,,,, enk, rgvment approx 2x
|:1~. 2 lh,' cPh'<t {m t/w h'n, tr¢t~hcal a~, a edge, wluh' the lower part - to my Reph~a ready from I:.1a',',wflh dhptual ,.urtacts
t(ddlnk' .k'/a-', O~l ~ltl iDItll'llt t,'lt, hlkrH b.i¢ allla/t,lllt,nt - had a ~,|roll~,t,r c u r v a t L i r t , ,
tit,' ,ll~tllor (Material B 2711 a,, pvr ~ h o t t K~, n = 152~, v =
although flu,, was qtnte difficult to make % 22)

24 Bulb.tin of the ."xu'nhhc Im,trument .~wiety No. td.) (l~i~.})

 , ,~ t,. q
• ,8~,
241
I:,~,..; '~t,,~," (,t (',tln~tl,h'. ,,td IC;~','lh'r.,t. 1_. t . "., ,,tcrd, dd'. dt.<o~','r,l
,,u G o t l , m d m 18,';1. I r , , . t tin' ;\nnt,,~l It,|,real t,l 5v~t'd,sh
]ourist Bo,lrd. t' 177. ,=--~"~ ~ ~,4~,,== ~.,=,==,.~.

|:lg. 4 (.'oll¢¢tto~l oP pt¢¢o, (# ,,',~'<lh'rll t.'t| l.m,t,lt~l..t. /Yr.

.'\t fir~t sight tht' It'n~, m,)de lr~q~ n o r m a l
",pt'<t,l¢lt" ~],lss, h,l', the ,Ip|~',lr,lnvt' ot ,I
ttllldt'n,~t'r It'ns Irolll ,l lllOdt,rn-d,iv slidt'
prtqt'ttof L)13 tlt)st,r inspt'¢tlon, howt'vt'r,
,t is t.~,dt,nt th,lt tht, hvwt,r s,t|t, i,~
",Olllt'~*vh.lt unusu,lJ. Ot t't,llr'.,t', tht' rt'pht',l
t.l,lnot qtl,tt' Ill,ltt'h tht' ori)3,,n,ll It'll;: its
rt'tr,ivt,~, t' p~wt'r is Illt'rt'lv ,In ,Ip|'~r~Xilll,I-
tion. L ~ ' d a'. ,I rt'adm~ ~l,l.,.. ,ind pl,zct'd
on ,i printed p,l~t', it shovt,"~ ,I ".light
h,lrrt,l-..h,lpt'd dl..tort,~m, ~vluch d,s,lp-
pt',|P, ¢olllpJt'tt']~,, ht~lAt'lt'r. ,Is ~111 ,P.
tilt' It'n~ i~ r,li,,ed 2 nlnl l r o m the p,i):,t,.
I ht' l w l d ~,t v i e w of the lens ,. rt~u~hlv 211
,llnl, |'~t,t ,I t,t'ld t)t 31) m m or mort' t,ln ht,
t~bt,llnt,d b~," nlo~, i,W, on|",, he,ld to ri~ht
a n d left t~xt,r tilt. h.ns ;\ ~vmtten d~.'u-
,Ill'lit ,s t'nl,lrged to ,l[~t~tlt tIvitt' its
nt,rm,fl ",l,'t', which is .,h~htlv more th,ln
the nl,ll,.;lutlc,lt,~n c,lp,lbfllt~, of the ~vt, ll-
knt~wn V,,.t~lt'tt m,l~nm,'m ~ glass (Fig. 2).
I1: the h'n., is r,IP-a'd to rt'~ldln~, dist,mct'
,rod tht'n t u r n e d sh,wlv, strzkm~ mirror-
,nl.l~t' rt'tlt'¢th~ns t~( Ollt"S .,,tlrround,llgs
,)It' obt,lillt"d. It is dt't,+ils such ,IS them'
which sug).lt'st the prtfl+,+blt' tunct,on of
the lens ,is ,~ pit,el' tfl It'Wt'llt'rv, [.x~.,sibly ,l
provisitu~,~l sh,lpe tot the subst,qut, nt
,~,|zttcdu.~; ,~,., t;,,tl, u t d . I or.~.,d. Ih,.h~r Mu.. in \,,.h~, ,I~')~U
2 5 ,.,' I,'u.,'- m,,uufi'd m .di','r I r , , . t ),! ~;t,vd,c~¢,', /~#iHI.
prt~.ltlctlon ~t ,1 tlrttll,~r ~rindin~ to ~t'
cut ~vflh t,zct't,,
Mr I,iml~ i n c l u d e d tht,..e prt.lmun,zrv
rt,m,lrks m a bmet ~t'ner,~l d t ' ~ r i p t , o n
w h , c h is l'nClo,,<'d with the gilt rt'phc,z,,
Ih,', dt-',<r,ption i,, ,ippenth'd here
Replica of the .,,o-~alled V i ~ b v or F o m ~ a
Lens (E.O. L a m b )
]'hi' ori~,11,1l ~.~,',l'~di~'o~,t'rt'd on I , o t l , l n d
,Is p,lrt of ,I \ l k , n g t,,Id d,ltt,d ,zt ,iround
II00 It ~v,l~, prt,sum,lhl!, m a d e m the
,\r,l|~,,in ~tlrld , l i l t | I~,,l '-, |~roh.l|~lx I l l , l n t l -
tacturt'd ,ibout tilt' ~e.~r ]t)~l (Fl~, .t1
~v't' k n o w th,lt ,,t,th ,|rtt,t,ltt.. ~,vt'rv I.l..~.'d ,P.
h u r n m ~ gl,ls,,e,., hut ,llth~ul~h ~t, .,till
h,ivt, ilo ch,ar prt~f, it c,ii1 |"It' ,Is',ll,tlt'd
th,~t the 111,l~nil~,in~ t'th'ct of stzch It'n'.,t'.,
~,zs ,flso kn,~vn to the I,~'oph' ~t th,zt
tim|', and th,zt this lens w.zs indeed u~'xt
for this p u r p o ~ ' , t.s|~.x-i,lll!,' ,is it colltx'ts
s u r r o u n d m ~ hght hkt, ,~ rt.,~dmg ~l,l..s. A
particul,lrl,," zntt'restm~ point is th,~t the
t,t'ld ot x It'w ,ind t h e nl,I)~,nltlc,It,oll ot tht'
h'n'..Irt' ~rt',ltt'r th.m th,lt ot .z rt',~dm~
~,l,lss. ,,~ th,lt m t'tttx't ,t h,l'. tht' prL,|x.rtw..
of ,I m , l ~ n i l x m , ~ ~ l , l , , In a d d , t , o n .
m ~ x m ~ tile ht,,id I,itcr,dlx ,it .i d,,,t,lncc
of rot,~h]~ 30 ¢111 ,l|~oxt' tilt' it'll. ,l]'.o
tt,rtht'r ,lwrt',l..t". tilt' t w l d ot x it,Ix hi
dolll~ th,',. ,I h~t,i]l,, rt'tlt'<tH1c, r,nl /oi"1,,, ,n
the It'n,. ,., axozdt'd .\ttcmpt.. had
t'~.,dt'nt]% L~'t.n ,ll,ldt' to ,tlt~.|,~% tht'..c
tl,lnk...1 thc m,lnut,l<turc of tilt' orLcjn,ll
,i,Id i~llt'n the h,n~, ,., r,u-,l'd t,~ h,,,k
through ,t...tr, k.I):, mirror illld'~t'", ot the'
rtN~lll t~:tllr ht.rt,
..\rid, ],P,t [~llt not It',l'~tr tat" ~h~u,ld t l | m
our ,ittL'ntlon to tht' .,i~,lpt' of tilt' It'n.,
~vluch ,ipt.r~,lcht'- that ot ,I t,,t'~' ~,t
le~veller} ]h,lt ',uch ,i -.h,ll~' cL,uld bc
Ill,lnut,lcttlrt'd In tho'.t" tllllt",, o f dt't't'~
<ultur,II ch,ln~e mdlc,lte', tilt' ~,rt,at m-
trt',l..,t' ,n knol~ It'd~t' ',~hi<h h,ld t,lken
pl,lce smct' cl,lss,<,ll t,me'.. ,I knol~ It'd~e
which ~a'z'llls to ,int,tlp,ltt'. ,t not stlrp,l',',.
th,zt of the ~t'nu-~pher,c,)l rt',ldm~ ):,l,z,.~ of
I,Iter ¢enturws (|:,~ 4)

Bulletin t~t the ~ientltl¢ In~,trtlmt.nt .%Xlt,tv N¢) h(I (its'4) 2~


Fig. 5 t~ir,,u~ unm,,uut,'d h'n~es m Visby Museum ¢M. Lmdqutst), n7,n,duc,,d l,y R.
Heldstn~m, Gotland's F,,rn~d.
The Origin and Manufacture of the
Visby Lens
It is highly unlikely that the Vikings
(Goths) made the le~. It is much more
probable that they stole it in the course of
one of their first raids or that they
bartered for it at ~ m e later date. I~fore
that happened, of course, the lens must
have been manufactured ~mewhere. In
h~s H,m,lb,~,k to the Htsto~. ofOpth's. E.-H.
Sehmitz only suggests a l~ssible date -
the peruM an~und 5 ~ BC. The matter is
of particular interest, especially since the
shape of the lens leaves so manv
questions u n a n s w e r e d The elliptical
.,,urfaces of the lens raise the question as
to what would have happened to optical
technology in the Middle Ages and in
our prt~.ent age if elliptical surfaces had
, ~
Fig. 6 Illustration of the ancient oriental conception
,,t" I!fe in the form of a readm~ stone From Karel
Clays, A. Held, 'Der Beroer', Genesis, No2 (19~)),
p. 52.
26
been intnxtucecl as the norm rather than
~phencal surfaces (Fig. 5)!
It is said that Vikings invaded present-
day Russia as early as the 9th century,
using diver.~ waterways to do so. They
were able to navigate the River Dnepr.
Moving .,~uth from Novgorod, they
succt~-'ded in capturing the city of Kie~,.
On 18 June, 860 a large fleet of Vikings
appeared off Constantinople - to the
horror of the local i~pulation. Soon after
the first raids, around 910, trading
agreements were concluded. The Vikings
reached not only the Black Sea but also -
via the River Volga - the Caspian Sea,
where they battled with the Chasars and
later traded with neighbouring Arabic
peoples. The m u ~ u m experts are there-
fore of the opinion that the lens fell into
~ ~
BullHin of the Scwntific Instrument S(~ety
the hands of the Vikings at a later stage,
i.e. in the 10th century. The collection
di~overecl on the island of Gotland,
including a number of ~ewellery pieces
with mounted lenses, is believed to date
from the llth century. The larger, un-
mounted len.~s appear to be a different
type of decorative or viewing lens.
Judging by their shape and function,
they were simple demonstration aids to
illustrate the ancient oriental conception
of lift,, as shown clearly in the last figure
(Fig. 6).
Literature
G. Knmer et al, Oph~hes Museum (Oberko-
chen: Carl Zeiss brochure No. Mus. 1 d, n.d.).
12 pp.
E Marasesti, "[:k,itrage zur (~..w,chichte der
Augengla.~,r', Siiddeutsche Optiker Z,'nun£,
Stuttgart, No. 1(1952), p6 and No. 2 (1952),
pp.29-30.
G. Kuhn and W. Rl~,s, Sielwn ]ahrhunderteBrllle
(Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 19e~8),and Deut~he.
Mu.~'um Abhandlungen u. Berichte, 36, No. 3
(1968), 96 pp.
E Rossi, Bnllen Opttsches Museum lena (Jena
Mu~um special brochu~ No. V2 21 Ag 29 1.t4
83), 21 pp.
J. Remer, Optls,-he Instrumente (Dtis~ldorf:
Verlag Willy Schrickel, 1956).
E.-H. Schmitz, Handbuch :ur Gesctuchte der
Ophk. V,m der Antike bts Newton, vol. 1 (Bonn:
Veriag J.p VVayenborgh, 19~1): Zettschrtff der
Auqenopttker, !1 (198'#),p.76.
R. Barth, 'Ein Rundgang durch die Optik-
Ausstellung im [~ut~hen Mu~,um',
Werk-Ze=t~hnft Gute Sicht of the Opti~he
Werke G. R,~enstock of Munich, 72 (Dec.
1990), pp. 50-~I;73 (July 19ql),pp. 52-$3.
M. Lmdquist, 'Pets. Mlttellung aus Ca~tlands
K,rnsal', Htstor. Mu~. m VIsbv, 45 (1990).
L. Thunmark-Nvlen, Pets. M:tteduny, aus Sta-
tens tttstonska Museer. Sthhn, Dnr 915 (1990).
O. Ahlstmm, 'Swedish Vikings Used Optical
Len.,~es',Th; Optu'um (19S0),pp. 459-469.
M Stenberger, 'Zufalls-Archeologe', [ahress-
thrift drr .~hu,ed. ~,ur:stenzwenn£unc, (1966).
FD. Logan, Die WIkme,er in der Geschicht¢
(Stuttgart: E Reclam jun, 1987).
A. Held, "Der Ben~,r',Ca'nesis,No. 2 (Mimch-
en, 1990),p. 52.
Author's address:
H.-Bierlmg-Strasse 47
8227,5 Emmering
Germany
No. 60 (1999)
The Restoration of Scientific Instruments
Report of a Two-day Workshop in Italy
Howard Dawes
Few would try to restore a painting, but
anytme who can mend a coffeegrinder feels
he is capable of restoring a scientific
mstrun~nt.
P a t i o Brermi
A very important and interesting work-
shop was held in Florence on 14-15
December 1998 to di~uss the restoration
of scientific instruments. It was organized
by the lstituto e Museo di Storia della
Scienza and the Opificio della Pietre Dure.
There were ten speakers during the two
days, followed by a dimussion chaired by
Jim Bennett. Rather than report the meet-
m g in chronological order where necessa-
rily some repetition took place, I have
endeavoured in this report to rearrange
the various important points raised by the
speakers into a more logical and coherent
statement of their views.
A mere ten years ago, the only interestin
scientific instruments was through the
history of science and this was a very
small (relativelyspeaking) part of history.
Catalogues or inventories of instruments
were m a d e by some m u s e u m s and
collections and these have been a mawr
protection against loss. Restoration where
it did take place was largely confined to
the repair of damage. Some major mu-
seums, Florence, Oxford, Paris, British
M u s e u m and Deutsches Museum have
joined in a working group OSIRIS to try to
co-ordinate their approach to scientific
instruments, theirrecording and preserva-
tion.
Is the restoration and or conservation of
scientific instruments different from other
obiects d'art? Certainly many of the
restoration techniques for metal, wood,
fabric and paper, etc., apply just as much
for instruments as for decorative arts. But
instruments are more than a piece of
decorative art, they aim contain a scientific
idea which must not be allowed to lose its
relevance in restoration. Models and
replicas should be used to demonstrate
principles, in the early years of this
century, the South Kensington Museum,
was gettin~ into difficulties with available
space a n a it was decided that there
needed to be a split between the RenaL~-
sance art collections and the more recent
mechanical sciences. Art went to the
Victoria & Albert M u s e u m and the science
objects, essentially working exhibits and
models to the Science Museum. This split
gave rise to different attitudes on con-
servation and restoration with the clock
and watch curators somewhere in the
middle. It was interestingto note that the
Museo di Storia della Scienza had its first
exhibition in 1929. The present attitude to
scientificinstruments is relativelynew. Art
~ alleries have been in existence for
undreds of years, so is a science museum
fundamentally different in character from
an art museum? Perhaps part of the
answer ties in the perceptive comment of
Paolo Brenni who said few would try to
Bulletinof the Scientif~Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
restore a painting, but anyone who can
mend a coffeegrinder feelshe iscapable of
restoring a scientific instrument.
Itis appn~riate to draw a cleardistinction
between conservation and restoration
Con~rvation Ls concerned with maintain-
ing an ~ in itspresent state.Certainly
the removal of com~sion or the prevention
of further biological decay and non
destructive cleaning fallwithin thisdefini-
tion, but replacement or any endeavour to
return the object to itsoriginal condition is
outside the scope of conservation. Restora-
tion on the other hand necessarilyincludes
conservation within its definition, but it
may go further and include some recon-
structkm or replacement of missing parts,
insertion of new metal to worn or broken
gears and relacquering of all or part of the
object. Opinions are strongly divided as to
what may be permissible and what should
be left strictly alone but clearly each object
must be considered as an individual
particular case. However, there was clear
unanimity that no action should be taken
that was irreversibleand that all restora-
tion activity should be recorded in writing
for future reference.
For large museums there is a major
problem of restoration/conservation of
many thousands of objects. This has to
be tackled on an organized basis, by
setting a plan of which ob~.~,cts and how
many can be treated in a year so that the
whole collection may be examined and
conserved over a given period say 10
years. Choices have to be made and it was
suggested that the collection might be
divided into sections. Historical ~ l u e -
unique prototype or Scientist's own in-
strument. Prmcnance - an unknown collec-
tion or attractive appearance of object.
Consen~atum - needs of the object, serious
corrosion, damage or stability. Less im-
portant objects can wait for attention and
even De-accessioning of unwanted ob~ec~
by sale or exchange might be considered.
Experience in Italy, with its overwhelming
wealth of ob~.0~tsand paintings has tended
to introduce the idea of a Restoration
Theory (Brandi 1972). This is the concept
of acknowledging that a work of art has its
own physical reality and its own life. Only
minimalist interference with the object
a ~ b e permitted and then only to reduce
slow down decay. This theoretical
concept is rather in conflict with the
Anglo-Saxon view of a greater interven-
tionist attitude. One should leave missing
areas of painting black or at least use a
detachable panel. However, there are
problems with this non-interventionist
policy when one has to consider architec-
ture (safety) or archaeok~gy. Examination
of ob)ects should take place only by non-
destructive techruques. There should be
dPreventative conservation as all artefacts
ecay and should no longer be regarded
as capable of remaining in a static
condition.
Ob~'ts speak to us over the years and
must be allowed to act as documents
the past. It is vital that their mtegnty must
be preserved. An interesting view was
expressed that when an ob~ct enters a
mu~um, it changes its character. It
becomes subject to different controL~ and
objectives and indeed this Ls very much
the purpose of accessing objects in a
museum. As example, clocks should not
be running, they should be stopped to
conserve them. They are not in the
museum to tell the time.
Some Broad Conclusions
Routine examination of the collection is
essential, decay and corrosion are on-
going.
Each ~ should be considered on its
own merits.
Conservation is preferable to restoration.
should remain documents of the
past.
It is dangerous to try to bring back the
function of the instrument.
u~iYertaWOrk that is reversible should be
ken.
Make a permanent record of all restoration
details.
it is bad practice to try to return an ob)ect
to its supposedearlier state.
Replacement of some missing parts
(armoury) are not necessary to convey
the historical significance and breach the
integrity of an object.
Use of heat in restoration changes mole-
cular structure.
Be aware that an ob)ect may have an
unknown history of restoration before
accession.
Artefacts of a known scientist are histor-
ical records and should receive only
conservation in order to preserve the
historical integrity of the object.
Specific restoration of such matters as
cracks in wood or the insertion of new
pieces in a cogwheel may be desirable but
any materials introduced should be simi-
lar,ie ivory for ivory not plastic.
Speakers
Paoio Galuzzi: Introduction.
Robert Anderson: The British Museum.
London.
Louis Andre: Music des Arts ef Mi,tiers/
CNAM, Paris.
Paolo Venturoli: Armeria Reale, Turin.
Marian Foumier: Mu.,~um Boerha~¢, Leiden.
Giorgio Bonsanti: Op!ficio della Pierre Dure,
Florence.
Suzanne Keene: The Science Mu~um, Hm-
don.
Peter Fness: Deutsches Mu~um , Bonn.
Jean-Loius Boutame: Mu:~/e de France, Par/s.
Mara Miniati & Paolo Brenni: Istituh, e
Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence
27
Market Place
Ephemera
Amoret Tanner

m TABLE DE TRONCET
De O k I0~)

t~l I ~ , I1~11~1111111111A"l l l l l l l l r ~ l l l l * l l t ilhl 0~k.I. A i ,,:J~l~ltlll"

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I. 1~(~CI1'.

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i l d l q u n t le ~II~'~i~ il eei~'~, a " l e le I,I.M ~ l l r l l l .

p.~¢.¢m¢11~
P i e | i plrlLr ~* IM.
OPt I / |. d t . |. M ~... I. II IM mok~ $ ..S mo,~ I ..M.
tl-- I If. * ~ l i * I I , I I . - i l l , ~w, l ~ . Im, lm. lak .. ,.

I ~ 1 . ~ 1 . , ~ # ~ %
i I ...I, II. I$ II. I1, ...W. Ikl~l I *. !.1. II. II. I ] , ,,.I,
PI~ I t p ~ r 4~ I
l, ~, I , ~ II, I|, II, !1, | i . , ~ ,

k I I per~r 4e I. 4~ I. Ik $.
i~14~ S I I M ~ T Ik* l eli, I p l ~ l f ¢il
i ~ ' t . , ~ L 4e t, 4* k e~l. 4~ ~I. ¢m IT. ell 14.
PIe i i ~ l ~ , ~ 4 . I, i ' ill
M . 4e I~. i Is, 4 , M
Peru 1 t pl~l~ ~ 1, 4e |, Plrll r ~ht 11~ i l ~ ,
P~ll ~ 4 . I l l , II.
i Ik de 3, i , I, I, "/ II ~ , N . N , t4, l~t

I~o ~ m * l a ~ m @ i m N I ¢ o N ~ * i l N ba
blmtaa e l Ull~laOV~nmMll Ires, ~-rua. a~,~-~ d
Fig.2 Charles Hoarc The Slide Rule and How to U ~ It 6'* ed.,
hmdon 18_~).

town hall, Bridgnorth.' With its two

illustrations showing the signs of the
Zocliac and the orbits of the moon, this
poster still conveyed the awe and
excitement of di~overy felt when it
Fig.1 L. lr, mcet's arithmetical table published by/~m,u~, et Cie, was firstprinted.
Pans. c. 18~). An atem u,luch r~)uld al~ appeal to tywc, raphers.

Nominations for a patron .~aint for cularly on the continent, manufacturers
ephemera ~hould surely include the
published descriptive sheets of their
name of Samuel Pepys, the distinguished
educational and laboratory instruments
diarist and 17th centu~" Secreta~, to the
(Figs.l-2). These were often lifted di-
Admiralty. A keen collector, among his
recth" from the learned ~urnals in which
diam' entries is one for 8 September 1663
the inventors first mentioned the appa-
in which he records buying a pair of
ratus but, long parted from it,they float
globes for L3.10s. from Joseph Moxon in
unrecognized until spotted by the
Warwick Lane. Su~'iving in two large
knowledgeable collector (Figs. 3 & 4).
albums at Magdalene College, Cam-
Handbills for long-forgotten lectures are
bridge, are items he kept to illustrate his
another likely source for both informa-
lift, in London at the time - ballads, trade
tion and entertainment with their de-
cards, funeral cards, invitations and
lightful hyperbole and, as in Figure 5,
tickets. It was to be another three
extravagant use of typefaces. A splendid
hundred years before the collecting of poster printed on yellow paper was seen
such trivia was acknowledged" as an
at an ephemera fair this January. Pub-
academic tool for the ~ocial historian.
lished in 1831 it proclaimed 'The Power
and Wisdom of G(~, in the works of
Still available, and often at moderate Creation displayed in three astronomical
prices, are such pieces of ephemera lectures on the most extensive eidoura-
which can bring history alive when tion or GRAND TRANSPARENCY
placed in context. For example, in the ORRERY in the kingdom (forty feet in
late 19'h and early 20" centuries, parti- circumference) by Mr Franklin in the
The attention now given to such printed
and handwntten ephemera has gradually
built up over the past 25 years due
mainly to one man. in the ]960s and
'70s Maurice Rickards was an established
photographer and graphic designer with
a major interest in posters which resulted
in a number of important I:nx~ks on the
subject. Increasingly he became absorbed
by the interaction of graphic design with
social history. It was this latter inter~t
which caused him to look for the sad
'human documents' concerning for ex-
ample illiteracy, the workhouse, slavery
and prison. It was typical of Rickards and
his attention to the smallest detail that in
the early 1970s he took a stall in the
Portobello Road street m~rket from
which he could gauge the interest in
ephemera and also add to his own
growing collection. Many useful contacts
were made among historians, collectors,
curators and dealers and it was from the
people he met in the market that he chose

28 Bulletin of the Scientific IR~trument Society No. 60 (1999)

 ciety has attracted members with an
. ._.. / ,~"~t"lt, Os.l~ll t'OM~iL'NDi astonishing variety of interests (Figs.6-7)
i ._... ti ," illii", --~1-.. / "-.~.~rr ~l~,,ol__l and an equally wide range of reasons for
s e,,) I - .//7 collecting. The present President, Lord
I I .,"\ 1 " ~, ~ ""~ Briggs, considers ephemera to be the

,l r ,
,
i¢ 1:"1 |
it l_lt,,<=.,,.,i....e..>--
'/
:-..*e backbone of social history and uses it a
great deal as illustrations in his books;
founder member, the late John Lewis,
author of the first scholarly work on the
subiect, Printed Ephemera, collected to
show how pnnt processes changed and
developed.
)J ,, f. li-~-,.,,.,i.,i ,, ~ i ~ l ~ , ~ i ' ~ t , ~ . ' ~ ) ~,. ~i.." _ ' ~ , % " ~ ~ , . , , . " ' , ~
In the eyes of such social historiansand
-'- ,~ ....... ~ = ~ - ~ ! # "1 / ~,.,~'0.",,,.',,~'~ "~."%,.'.,, ~'.,P~"',, "~,,-", typographers, the trade card featured
on the cover of this issue is perhaps
among the most desirable categorie~ of
ephemera. It is also one of the rarest
and most expensive. In the space of a
few inches you have contempora~'
evidence showing where the items were
sold, what type of shop might stock
i~,,~ ;~ ,~,,~l,', \ ~ ~I~,~ ~1,, them and preci~ly what was available
at the time. Sometimes, as for example
Fig.3 /.~ - Directions fi)r using the Camera Luoda, Sold by Mr. Newman, No. 24 in the case of John Hyde, the Bristol
Soho-Square by P & G [~dlond, St. Paul's Church-Yard I~,donl. Watermark 180,5. instrument maker, his splendidly ornate
English 1806-20. Centre - A Description of the Improved Compound and Single Pocket and detailed trade card of the 1840s
Microscope. English c. 182,5. Marked PI. IV .~) couhf al~ have been u ~ d as a b ~ k shows and lists that he is the 'manu-
illustration. R~ght - Ronkett's Improved Glass Hydrometer. English c. 1840. facturer of Mathematical, Nautical, As-
tronomical, Philosophical, Optical &
Surveying Instruments' which he will
also 'accurately repair'. ]-his informa-

OSCILLATIONS"'ELECTRIOO[$ .~<.~,::<.~,::.o ~~I tion together with a street directory for

the town and, perhaps, a stud)" of the
t}'pefaces allows the collector to date
the item as well as the instruments
depicted. Such cards are minor works
of art and it is a bonus when the"
include the artist's name. Paul Revere,

)(
I.~ ~'' , William Hogarth and Francesco Barto-
lozzi are among distinguLshed artists
who also designed trade cards, it is not
easy to find such valuable evidence
outside museums now.

! t.itr """
,,,i
P(~sible sources are the various specialist
fairs which have been established in the
past two decades. The Ephemera Society
has deveh)ped a splendid reputation for
its regular Printed Bygones Bazaars and
,~ Ephemera Specials held in London
(Fig.8). The Specials are staged at the
Hotel Rus,~ll in r~)ms familiar to b ~ k
M fair visitors;dealers now cross both the
Channel and the Atlantic to have stallsat
these fairs. The choice of items on sale is
Fig.4 L~. - Lunette Pyromerrique de Mesur~ et Nouel construit par E. Ducretet immense and of a high standard; prices
[Paris]. Octobr~ 1901. Centre - Electriques, E. Ducretet [Paris]. Avril 1903. Right - range from £1 to £1,00(} or more for
Goniom#tre- R~fractombtre auto-collimateur de M. C. Cheneveau. Ph. Pellin [Paris]. rarities and it is no secret that curators
1910. and archivists buy here to add to their
professional collections.

eight enthusiasts (among them your the time; their definition 'the minor Apart ~ ) m sul:~cts such as theatre, or
writer) to pursue the idea of forming a transient documents of everyday life' is films and newspapers, there are no
society.Their firsttask was to thrash out now an accepted dictionary entry. specialist subject dealers in the field.
a definition for the word "ephemera', a The tendency for the more organized
word unfamiliar to the general public at From the beginning the Ephemera So- dealers, is to concentrate on, say,

Bulletino4 the ScientificInstrumentSociety No. 60 (1999) 29

 MIMSIOM UlTI--Ut7|.

i)OPULAR AND RIIT£RT~llI!~I~

liFII3~LT l l / I / q ~ T~ I ~ ~lu.~LllJJ~lTR LIII '/9 MffTT~111 T a J l l #1 I"RP p l l ~ g n T r~4y

JT 1t9~111~9 t¢~rgll],lalt,, I'.~LS.,
Ik, , ~ " I ~ L L ~ l~al~ M e I . ~ W i T I J I I I H I I •

ON OCEAN TELEGRAPHS
TMAMIJJTLIMTI¢ IMERiOAJJ TilLEORAPH.

•.~d~;'.z,, ~ M I %

,.,~ . . . . . . . ~. . . . . . . . . . . , , ~ . . . . . ~ .... ~ . . . . . . . "-.'- .,..%-;..... ...... ~'

"2'2_ [.~'"............. " ~, "'~" ......... '~ .....~ . . . . . . '............ .....

"7" .....

Dr (,O11111'. DtYL

Fig.8 Ephemera Sm'ietv Flger [or1999.

decorative 19" centuD' items o r moclern

II'I~IIAIIT AM• II~'~l~/lrl(" i l l ~ i ~ Y l l e f l l I~AA|MAM
packaging or posters. H o w e v e r , most
stalls have a wide range in both price
and date so that the collector with
specialized k n o w l e d g e m a y well find
treasure at a price far below w h a t he
would exl~ct to pay. The bazaars at the
Fig.5 Lectures o n Practical Science bu Edmund Wheeler, 1871-
Bonnington Hotel are on a more m o d e s t
72. He clam~s to u ~ man~ m.,truments and is al~ known t,, ha~¢
made m~cr~-ape slides. .scale but it is the rt~ular attenders here
w h o find that their favourite dealer has
kept items of special interest for them.

With the surge in interest in collecting,

it is noticeable that more book fairs are
encouraging members to include ephe-
mera on their stand and it is worth
consulting the PBFA diary to see if a
fair is on in any area you may be
.~-.. visiting; increasing co-operation be-
tween the booksellers and the ephemer-
'' ists is a h)gical progression. A .~,ries of
fairs of p(~sible interest are the four
London Photographic Fairs (Fig.9)
where you might find a scientific
instrument being used as a photogra-
A 81~T P £ ~ WEIGRING ldACRII~B, pher's prop or being held by the proud
pos.~essor of his newly acquired tele-
~ gw v ~ a ~ & I~A, ~au.i IA~OIGI'r@ 1911 ma~urrv
scope or microscope.
/,OMDOM.
Fig.6 Uncut, eny,raped plate for a dry
,,npas~ card. ' T H O ' . S M I T H INVENIT ~. As elaborate trade cards are hard to
s
1/91 . ~" /3-/£ - r3 locate and are so obviously desirable,
more realistic finds could be pictorial
• ".7"- billheads of associated firms which
might show window displays as well
as giving details of the cost of the
instruments sold and a date. Metal
manufacturers or glass factories could
be among those supplying the instru-
Fig.7 Gentlemen's weighin~ nu~chine ad- ment makers and the engraving would
vertising card, c. 1900. Author's collection.
show where the work was done. Exlibris

30 Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 60 0999)

 LOIIIOII ~ A F t l FAIII
1999
!
1(
Bo~lnglo~ ~ ~urhaml~o~ r4o~ Ok'~o~SOu~ WCt
SONOA Y 301t~MAY. Royll Nellon~ 1.4~1~ Wo~d~ P1e¢~
SUNDAY 31 ~t OCTObeR B0mngl0~ Howl
OPEN V.~emto 4pro
ADMISSION I~'
i ~ h v ~ e e am ne~ Io Rue~dl S ~ w ~ lube
l~iO~l~OlO~ ~ Tel 01~I~ ~ I ~ 4
Fig.9 London Photagraphic Fairs postcard-
size publicity card.
(Fig. 10) for eminent scientists can be
found and add a more personal angle.
The vast field of Cinderella or poster
stamps offers a particularly interesting
selection for collectors of electrical instru-
ments or photography. These two sub-
jects captured the imagination of the
public in the late 19th and early 20th
century coinciding with an explosion in
the development of printing techniques
and advertising. As a result leading
artists and graphic designers were com-
missioned to design colourful posters
which, in miniature, would be stuck on
envelopes, letters and billheads to adver-
tise the products and forthcoming
specialist exhibitions. More appreciated
on the continent than m Britain, they
provide a cogent addition to a collection
and have been keenly collected abroad
for the past century. They can be found at
ephemera fairs as well as the special
b o u r ~ run by the Cinderella Stamp
Club.
An advantage in becoming a member
of the Ephemera Society is the compre-
hensive members' listwhich offers the
opportunity to get in touch with others
of similar interests; in addition dealers
are listed, one of whom currently offers
six tons of every kind of ephemera and
another has a tempting range of trade
catalogues of the industries and the
arts. Subjects for the Society's bi-
monthly lectures are wide ranging and
have included the ephemera of clocks
and watches, the history of fireworks
Bulletin of the Scientific lnstcument Socie~ No 60 (1999)
t
J .
I "-.-~ ~ ~':
/ -
Fig.10 Three categori~ of h~tplate sh(ru ing scientihc instruments. The librar~ and the
premium plates haz¢ the aclded bonus of a date. The p~,onal t~kplate is for the author and
astronomer Edu~rd Joshua Cooper 1798-1863; he built an obsen~torv at Markree Castle, Co.
Sligo. Author ~ collectrm.
ltA 6UIRRSOTTIE
fALOON.
liB}ilK DAIIKllI~191~
O &l; 'll ,
GOOD L I l [ I ~ N E S 8 ,
wlfJ n l ~ l ~ l l m l To (~I~ AT Nil
3. ~ I~OMTlJM.
• . . ~ |
Fig.II American poster for a trazwlling
photographer, c. 1860. Author's collection.
and 'the Crystal Palace and the Great
Exhibition. Other popular events are the
special meetings for members only at
venues such as the Royal Society for
Arts, the Guildhall Library and the
British Library Oriental and India Office
Collection. Currently the Ephemera
Society has members from eighteen
countries ranging from Latvia to New
Zealand and there are flourishing
societies in the United States, Canada
and Australia.
In 1984 the Foundation for Ephemera
Studies was set up as an educational
charity and another world first was to
]
"~" " * ................ ',,'".' ........." "L ~ - ' ~ - ' ~ ]
J
.~'2'~o ItOCUS your ' ~ u g * n o,~ ami,Sil~ ~ , 1
is "he OII~|¢T ~ I ~ q m YIIk'W
SO lye 'I"AK|N ?lilt Pl~lTR/llliiMm*olml4
Fig.12 Plate camera greeting card, c. 1900.
Autlurr b collection.
follow with the founding of the Centre
for Ephemera Studies at the Department
of Typography & Graphic Communica-
tion at Reading University. The Rickards
Collection is now housed at the Centre
and under its director Professor Michael
Twyman has established a reputation for
the one day symposiums held there
twice a year The increasing intenest in
ephemera has led to the desire to know
more about the pn~uction of these
fragile pieces of histoncal evidence. The
symposiums offer a hands-on approach
to various printing methods, debates on
dating and the day ends with a surgery
giving participants a chance to ask
questions and bring their own items
for discussion. Among subjects covered
have been Paper in the Producti(m of
Ephemera, the Letterpress Poster,
Gravers and Cutters: printing from
wood and Ephemera and Photography
(Fig.11). The next symposium will be on
Wednesday 12 May when Professor
Twyman will conduct an exploration of
the history, and technique of the litho-
graphic printing process and how it
31

Contact Addresses
Ephemera Societies
The Ephemera Society
The Ephemera Society of America lnc
The Ephemera Society of Australia
The Ephemera Society of Canada
The Bookplate S~iety
The Cinderella Stamp Club
Ephemera symposiums
Fairs - contact numbers
Ephemera Society Fairs
Antaque Scientific & Medical
Instrument Fairs
London Photographic Fairs
Provincial Booksellers Fair Association
relates to ephemera. Demonstrations of
pnntmg from the stone, opl~,rtunities to
handle and discuss examples and help
in identib,.'mg the lithographic process
will be included. This will be followed
Letter to the Editor
Opinions expres~d in this column do not neces~rily reflect the ~,mt~ of the Editor or the Socie~.
Additional Information on Henry Noad
as Lecturer
I was interested to read your note on
Henry. Noad in SIS Bulletin number 59. l
append a note on Noad as a lecturer.
When the Oxford University, Commis-
sioners came to Winchester College in
1856 they complained about the lack of
instruction in the physical sciences. The
Headmaster, George Moberly, refused to
appoint a science Fellow but was willing
'to engage from time to time the best
lecturers of the day in various branches
32
8 Galveston Road, Putney,
London W15 2SA
Tel.: 0181-874 3363
Post Office Box 95, Cazenovia,
New York 13035, USA
345 Highett Street, Richmond,
Victoria, Australia 3121
Macauley Drive, Thornhill,
Ontario L'ff 585, Canada
11 Nella Road, London W6 9PB
Hun. Sec., 31 Springfield Road,
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk 11"333AR
Centre for Ephemera Studies,
Department of Typography & Graphic
Communication, The University of
Reading, 2 Farley Gate, Whiteknights,
Reading RG6 6AU. Tel.: 0118 9318081
01932 829079
0181-8668659
01932863924
01763 248400
by a symposium on Wednesday 17
November focusing specifically on chro-
molithography.
The range of interests among collectors of
of such sciences who should come to
Winchester and give our scholars succes-
sive courses of lectures.'
The Commissioners agreed to this and,
from 1858, 10 lectures in the Summer
term were paid for by the Warden at 100
guineas (£105) per course. Henry Noad
gave these lectures in 1860, 1861 and
1862. ]'he lectures were compulsory and
were described by the Warden as 'very
energetic, full of life and animation.'
However, Moberly reported 'I find, if it
is a fine day, sometimes the numbers look
rather thin behind and ! say 'At the end
Bulletin of the ScientificInstrument Society No. 60 (1999)
scientific instruments rivals those of
ephemera collectors but to give an idea
of the sortof items seen at fairsin the first
quarter of this year are:
A pictorialtrade card for Jean Trabaud of
Marseille who 'faitet vend toute sorte
d'Ustensdes Pour les Pilotes et Navires'
shows telescopes and a quadrant arnt~ng
his stock,c. 1840 £480.
A pich~nal trade card for Anderson & West
"Scale Makers to His Majesty', no 19
Wardour Street. Manufacturers of Scales,
Weights, Measures, SteelYards and Weigh-
mg Machines, Wholesale and Retail. NB
Scales and Weights kept in repair by the
Year' c.1830 £I.~I.
A n American trade card for Erasmus A
Kutz, N e w York, priced at £260 was in
poor condition but the decorative pictor-
ial border showing some twenty five
instruments and gk~es would appeal to
the specialistin those subjects. A n d on a
I/ghter note, the plate camera greeting
card shown (Fig.12) was £20; the back of
the camera opens for the sender to insert
their photograph. There is no knowing
what will be seen at the next fair!
Author's address:
The Footprint
Padu~rth Common
Readiny~ RG7 4QG
of the lecture I shall call the names over'
and I find a few straggle in'.
Whether Noad brought equipment with
him is not recorded. The earliest inven-
tory of scientific apparatus at the College
is from 1866 and includes a cylinder
electrical machine, batteries, electroscope,
Leyden jars etc, some of which still
survive. The College had to wait until
1874 before a full time physics teacher
was in post.
Martin Gregory
Winchester College Science School
A Pharmacist's Prescription Box Scales by Felton Grimwade of
Melbourne, Australia
H.C. Bolton and N.H. Williams
Fig.l The I'harmacists I'rcscrit,tion Box Scales qt the Fdton
Grmzwade Scient!fic Instrument Corot,any.
Introduction
An earlier article described a balance
designed by W. Russell Grimwade and
marketed by the Felton G r i m w a d e
Scientific instrument Company.' The
balance di~ussed in that article is a
mechanical 'n(~ding' balance: when the
obiect to be weighed is placed in the pan
suspended from the single arm, the arm
turns, oversh(n~ts, returns etc, .so the
pointer at the end of the arm also
overshoots and vibrates about its final
position; it is this motion that gives rise to
the word 'nt~ding'. This type of balance
has h e n known for a long time. The
article mentioned that the company had
also marketed a box pattern aFa~thecary's
scales, and an opl~rtunity of examining
one of these instruments arose when the
one shown in Figure l was noticed in a
shop in Brisbane by Norman Heckenberg
of the Physics Department, Universth, of
Queensland. After acquiring it for the
Instrument Collection of the Science
Faculty, Monash Universi~', it was ex-
amined and identified as that mentioned
in the catalogues of Felton Grimwade &
Co. and which was for some time given
the name 'Spencer'.:
Commentary on the Scales
The use of the term "l~x balance' or 'box
scales' is well known among scientific
instrument makers, and one example will
suffice. Gottlieb Haigis of Onstmettingen,
Germany made a 'Precision Table (or
Counter) Balance'.' It was a box scales
made in about 19(}0, of nickel-plated
brass, steel, marble, wo~d and gla~s. Its
base was 300 ram, height 200 ram, depth
150 ram, and there were two pans above
the marble top. Inside the box was a
Roberval structure with a pointer at-
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument ~ciety No. 60 (1999)
AN I POINTER
A Ir
0 81
Q Q
Fig.2 Diagram of the Roberval Structure ~ the Bo.¢ Scales.
tached, which proiected through the
marble and moved on a small ruled scale
about 50 mm long. The maximum load
was 100 g, with an accuracy, of 10 rag.
The two pans were covered with a
hinged glags top, and the instrument
was for use in pharmacies as a prescrip-
tion balance.
The Felton Grimwade instrument is
made to a similar pattern although there
is no ruled scale. The hinged lid cames
the same plaque as thai on the balance
referred to in Reference 1, namely 'Felton
Grimwade & Co./Makers of Scientific
Apparatus/Melbourne'. The dimensions
are length 325 ram, height 101 ram, and
depth 165 ram, and the two 71 mm
diameter pans are of nickel-plated bra.~s.
The vertical supports move through a
stone plate, which has been Identified as
fossiliferous limestone from Lilydale,
Victoria.
The wo(~ of the box is Queensland
maple, and the plyw(n~d of the drawer
in the b a ~ is kauri. These materials could
be expected of Russel Grimwade, who
had a home workshop throughout his life
and was especially interested m the u ~
of w o o d (During the 1939-45 war his
workshop was used for the prl~uction of
wo(~en crutches for wounded members
of the armed forces?)
The small drawer in the centre of the base
(see Figure l) contained a selection of
apothecary's weights: 2 x l scruple (13
mm diameter), 1 x 2 scruple (16 mm
diameter), 2 x 2 scruple (rectangular, 13
mm x 14 ram), 2 x 0.5 drachm (15 mm
diameter). "Ihere were also four small fiat
metallic pieces of varying shapes and
masses, none of these corresponding to
regular apothecary's weights.'
DJ
POINTER I F~AN I
F B .p'
J
A
F
A
P P
The sensitivity, of the box .scales has been
examined. The instrument has no mea-
sunng scale to define equilibrium, but
each pan carries a pointer of length 60
ram, and equilibrium is defined when the
two pointers are pointing towards each
other in the same straight horizontal line.
One way to define the precision of the
instrument is to put equal weights on
each pan and find the least additional
mass which when added to one pan,
causes a iust di~emible vertical motion
to separate the pointers. The following
Table shows the results obtained after the
balance had been stripped down and
cleaned to bring it into full working
order:
Mass on Least detectable
each pan ma~
1g 5rag
2g 2rag
5g 2rag
10 g 2 mg
This sensitivity is consistent with weigh-
ing out a prescription dose 'within one
pill'.
The Roberval Structure
The design of the balances of both Haigis
and Felton Grimwade is due to G P. de
Roberval (1602-1675), known for his
work on kinematic gts~met~'. ~ He seems
to have introduced the idea of two fulcra,
and arms of arbitrary length with the
ability to balance c~rrectiv in equili-
brium, as a kind of gts~metric puzzle.
The solution to the puzzle was given
later by L Poin.,~t (1777,-1859) who had
mtr(~3uced the concept of the couple in
1803."
The Roberval structure i.,, given in Figure
2; its plane repre~,nts the central vertical
plane through the instrument. The es.,~,n-
tial part is the framework A, B, C, D with
two fulcra F and F' about which the
framework moves. A, B, C and D are
}ointed corners. A and B are knife edges,
C and D rotating ioints. The fulcra E F'
are at the centre of AB, CD respectively,
but the extension arms GH and Ki can be
of any length. R ~ n ' v a l found experi-
mentally that despite the difference in
33
lengths between GH and KI, the structure
balanced when the forces E Q at !, G
respectively were equal. The proof that
the unequal lengths of GH and KI did not
affect the balance was g i v e n by L.
Poinsot, as mentioned. The rectangle
ABCD can n~we into a generalquad-
rilateral in the vertical plane and the
arms AC, BD remain vertical so that the
arms HG, K! remain horizontal and the
two pans move up and down with a
slight to and fro movement horizontally.
Two equal weights causing equal forces P
and Q p n ~ u c e equilibrium when the
two horizontal pointers point to and are
level with each other. This equilibrium is
attained no matter what the distances
from the fulcra; as an example, P may be
twice as far ~ m F' as is Q, but when
P=Q the balance is still in equilibrium.
The apparent paradox was viewed by the
people of Roben, al's time as a mechan-
ical wonder, as there was no theory of
mechanical couples until Poinsot. it is
important that the rectangle ABCD,
which becomes a general quadrilateral
when not in equilibrium, should be
accurately made; a di~ussion of possible
errors is given by Owen?
Consider the right-hand side of the
framework : the force P exerts a down-
ward force P at K in the direction KD and
also a turning moment P.IK which tends
to cause a clockwise rotation of the ann
K! about K There is no such clockwise
rotation possible about K, so the effect of
the moment must somehow be elimi-
nated. Any moment about an axis can be
rewritten in terms of another couple,
equivalent in size and rotational direction
(clockwise or anti-clockwise), and in this
case, the new couple can be defined bv
the force P' at B in the direction AI3,
acting at a distance BK. Thus
P.IK = P'. BK
Becau.~, IK and BK are known fixt~
distances, this equation defines the new
force P'. But P' cannot act because it is
I~inting to the right, away from the
fulcrum F, which is at rest and must
therefore be compen~ted by a force P' at
F pointing to the left. The effect of the
couple P'.BK and hence of P.IK is
nullified and the onh; effect of the
downward fi~rce P is that it appears
along the arm BD. When the argument
is expressed in terms of a clockwi~
turning moment about K with the force
P'° acting in the .same straight line as F',
the h~rce is cancelled by a h~rce at the
fulcrum F'. Similarly the~nlv effect of the
force Q on the It,ft-hand'side of the
balance appears as the downward force
Q along the arm AC. Because BD and AC
are at rest in measurement, there are
compen~tlng upward h~rces P at B and
Q at A. This argument is ba.,,<l on the
original pattern of the box balance of
Ri~erval, and the counter instrument
(machine), which appears in m a n y
34
different styles, has evolved from the
onginal Roberval balance.
A further di~ussion of the demands on
the Roberval balance as used in counter
machines is given in Owen', as is a
description of the inverted (or Imperial)
counter machine on which the pans, legs
and stays are all above the beam, which
has advantages for heavy loads.'" Owen
also describes the Beranger variation of
the Roberval balance, a complicated
structure that was u.,~cl commercially in
the UK"; and two examples of counter
machines made by W&T Avery Ltd., of
Birmingham, UK'".
A simple kJcal example of this Roberval
principle Ls the small counter balance,
used by the Westpac Bank in Australia,
for checking the weight of a paper bag
containing a fixed number of current
coins. The least ma.~s detectable by the
balance will be much less than the m a ~
of the paper bag, or of one coin. The box
balance of Feiton Grimwade, shown in
Figure l, is of this simple counter
machine pattern.
It is appropriate to comment briefly on the
relevant balances and scales advertised
by Feiton Grimwade shortly beyond the
period in which the Scientific instrument
company was active, which was May
1920 to 6 November 1922. The catalogu~
have been read for January 1920 to
October 1925," and only the balances that
could be considered rivals to that shown
in Figure I have been included:
January. 1920 to July 1922. 'Webb's dispen-
sing scales with a brass pillar'; this ~ounds
like a conventi(mal two-beam balance with
a central pillar
January. 1~20. 'Chemist's PrescnptUm Scales
Box Pattern fitted with drawer'. This could
be the ~ales in Figure I. It was .~ld for £4/
010.
July 1921)to Apnl 1924. The .same text as for
January. 1920 with the htle 'The Silencer'
added (Felton Gnmwade had ~me offices
in SF~,ncerStreet, lust round the corner ~ m
Flinders Lane, Melbourne.) The cost was
£6/0/0.
July 1924 ]he title 'The Spencer' has been
dropl~d; the rest of the Wxt is the .same as
for January. 1~20. No price was mentioned,
later the price £6/0/0 was restored. The
final entry, noted was (k't(d~er 1925.
Janua~, 1921 to Octt~ler 1925 'Counter
~cales, French pattern in walnut or ebonized
box and marble top'. There were scales hn.
weight rangt~ from 2 I~unds, 4 pounds and
10 pounds. This was pn%ably a scale fin"a
shop counter
April 1924 to October 1925. 'Avery's
[Birmingham, England] Disper~sing Scales,
Steel centre bearings and slide pillar, No.
121'.
February 1924 to Octt~er 1925. 'Avery's
Dispensing Scales, Agate centre beanngs
and slide pillar'. This is probably a
conventional two-beam balance with a
central pillar.
April 1924 only. 'Chemist's Prescription
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Sc~-iety No. 6O 0999)
Scales "Troemner's Peerle~" No. 200, 130~
pattern, fitted with drawer'.
Personal scales and weighing machines
were aLso advertLsed, as were boxe~ of
weights, both pharmacist's and metric. No
make~' names were mentioned.
The company was selling an untitled
prescriphon scales from January 1920 in
competition with Webb's scales, it is
possible that this instrument is the one
made by Russell Grimwade and which
later, from July 1920 to April 1924, was
given the name 'The Spencer', and is I
shown in Figure 1, although the plaque
does not carry this name. Other scales
appeared m later catalogues. The Felton
Grimwade Scientific Instrument Com-
pany was founded in May 1920 and the
catalogue of July 1920 was the first after
the founding. t ¸
The article by Bolton, Holland and
Williams (Reference 1), also refers to a
pyrometer made by the Felton Grimwade
Scientific Instrument Company. The in-
formation comes from the Company's
Minute Btn~k, '* but no trace of the
instrument has been found. If, as has
been suggested, it consisted of a thermo-
couple circuit with a hot/cold junction of
two metals, and a pointer instrument to
register thermo-electric electromotive
h)rce, it would be unlikely to have
survived complete.
Acknowledgement
Our thanks are due to Dr Norman
Heckenberg of the Physics Department,
University of Queensland who noticed
the balance for sale and recognized its
possible imFn~rtance; to Mr Max Hale, 91
Nicholson Street, Carlton, Vic., for valu-
able di~ussions on the problems of
provenance; to Dr Jugo llic of CSIRO
Forest Prt~ucts for identification of the
wood of the balance case; to Professor
Ray Cas, Professor Pat Vickers-Rich, Dr
Marion Anderson and Ms Cainwen
Scutter of the Earth Sciences Department,
Monash University, fl~r identificatitm of
the stone slab; and to Dr ROd Mackie of
the Physics Department, Monash Uni-
versity, for identification of the scale pan
material.
Notes and References
1. H.C. I~dton, J. Holland and N.H. Wil-
hams, 'The Gnmwade Milligram Chemical
Balance: An Early Australian Attempt to
Establish a Scientific Instrument Industry',
Historwal Records of Austral~,m Scu'nce, 9(2)
(December 1992), pp. 107-117. The reference
in this 1992 article to the i'rescnptitm ,Scalesis
on page 115.
2. Market R~7~rt and Prices Current; Felton
Grimwade and Co. Pty Ltd, Wholesale
Druggists and Manufacturing Chemists,
pp. 342-346 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
1920-1925 Held by the State Library of
Victoria, Melbourne.
3. Philtpp Malthai~s Hahn, (1739-1790),Aus-
stellun~en des Wurttenberl~hen I.andes Mu.~,um,
Stuttl~art und der Stadte Ostfildern (1989). Two
 Volumes. Held by the Baillieu Library, Uni- 7. L. Poinsot, £1eraents de stattque (Paris, the University of Melbourne Archives 3/13/
versity ¢~ Mell~ume. The Haigis balance, 18{)3);Oictiona~ of Scumhfic Bu~raphv, ap. cir. It,p 25.
descnption and photograph, is in Volume 1, (note 6), pp. 61-62.
page 183, number 099. Authors addres~,a,s:
8. George A. Owen, A Treahseon Weighing Pr~r H. C. Bolton
4. JR. Poynter, Rus~ll Grlrau,ade (Mel- Machines, (CharlesGriffin& Co Ltd., 1922), pp. Department of Histo~. and
bourne: Melbourne University Press at the 79-80.
Philosophy of Science
Miegunyah Press, 1967), p. 2~. 9. Ibid.,pp. 8~91. Unitcrsity of Melbourne
5. Blakiston'sNew Gould Medical Dtctlmm~., 10. Ibid., pp. 91-95. Victoria, Australia
ed. 2 Illustrated (McGraw Hill, 1956), p.1461. II. Ibid., pp. 95-100.
Brun~ Kith, Scales and Wels?hts; a Historical Mrs N. H. Wilhams
Outline (New Haven: Yale University Press, 12. Ibid., pp. 79 and 96. Lecturer in Chemist~.
196_q). 13. Note 2. Curatln" of the Faculty of
6. D~ctionarvof ScientificBu~raphy, vol. 11 14. The Minute B~a~k (1920-22)of the C~nn- Science Instrument Collection
(New York: CharlesScnbner'sS~axs),pp. 486- pany refersto Mr Payn, the titter who worked Mona~ Unnersitv
491). tm the pyrtnneter. The Minute I~,k is held in Victoria, Australia

i
Current and Future Events
Until 24 September 2000, Greenwich,
London, England
The Story of Time exhibition in the 17th-
century" Queen's House, part of the
National Maritime Mu~um. This is a
truly international exhibition, bringing
together an)und 3(10 objects to present
an all-encompassing history of time
acnw,s the earth from the earliest civiliza-
tions.
17 April lqgq, London, England
SIS hands-on visit to the Horological
Students' R ~ m of the British M u ~ u m
on Saturday 17 April from II.00 to 13.(10 in the afteml~)n by representatives of The
hours. Full"details in flyer circulated in Oughtred ~ciety and of the Dutch,
this issue.
25 April 1999, London, England
The 20th Scient!fic & Medical hlstrument
Fair will be held at the Radiss~m SAS
Portman Hotel, Portman Square, London
W1 on Sunday 25 April from 10.00 to
16.00 hours. "Admission £3. Nearest
underground station is Marble Arch. To
exhibit or for further information tele-
phone/fax the organizer, Peter Delehar,
on +44 181 866 8659 at any time. E-mail:
www.peterdeleha r.co.uk
3-9 May 1999, SIS Visit to Lisbon,
Portugal
This event is well supported. Details
have been posted to the participants.
19 June 1999, Liverpool, England
SIS tour of Liverpiml M u ~ u m and
Liverlx~)l Manfime Museum on Satur-
day 19 June, starting at 11.00 hours. Full
details in flyer circulated in this issue.
June 1999, Paris, France
The Mus6e des Arts et M~tiers is
scheduled to re-open during this month.
To highlight the bicentenary of the
di~overy of the voltaic pile, the Museum
will open a special exhibition in the
autumn of that year on the foundation
of current electricity, including Coulomb,
Galvani and Volta.
7 July 1999, London, England
SIS' A G M at the Society of Antiquaries,
Burlington Hour, Picadilly,L~mdon WI.
21 August 1999, Cambridge, England
Fifth InternationalMeeting of Slide Rule
Collectors in association with The
Oughtred Society at The Gonville Hotel,
C~mville Place, Cambridge. Programme
includes a paper on alcohol sliderules by
Peter Hopp, slide rules from the Man-
chester area by Jenny Wetton of the
Manchester M u s e u m of Science and
Technology, and informal presentations
German, United Kingdom and other
National groups. For details contact Ray
Hems, Elm Villa, Headley, Thatcham,
BerLshire, RGi9 8LT. Tel.: + 44 (0) 1635
268688.
20 - 25 September 1999, Moscow and St
Petersburg, Russia
XVII! Scient!fic Instrument Syn|l,osium
organized by the Scientific Instrument
Commisskm of the International Union
of the History and Philosophy of Science
is to be held in St Petersburg. A National
Organizing Committee has been formed
under the Presidency of the Academician
Yuri Gulvaev.
15 - 16 October 1999, Leiden, The
Netbeflands
The Museum i~,erhaave will organize a
symposium under the auspices of the
Scientific Instrument Commission. In-
vited speakers will address the problems
of authentici~' under such key words as:
original, imitation, reproduction, recon-
struction, copy, facsimile, restoration and
forgery. The symposium is part of the
Anton Mensing Scientific Instrument
Pn~ct, a ~int venture. Details from the
Secretary of the SIC, ER de Clercq. E-
mail: declercq@xs4all.nl
27 October 1999, London, England
The 27th Scient!fic & Medical Instrument
Fair will be at the Radisson SAS Portman
Hotel, Portman Square, London Wl.
Details as above.
19 November 1999, Cambridge, England
SIS tour of the Whipple Mu~um, Free
School Lane, Cambridge. Details to be
announced.
30 November 1999, London, England
'The Astrolabe and the Imagination', the
seventh Annual Invitation Lecture by
Professor John North at the ~clety of
Antiquary, Burlington House, Picadilly,
London Wi.
Autumn 1999, Cumo, Italy
The Volta collection will be re-opened at
'Volta's Temple' in Como, Italy. At the
same time a symposium on Volia will be
held at Pavia and a reconstruction of
Volta's cabinet will be opened.
16 April 2000, London, England
The 28th Scientific & Medical Instrument
Fair will be at the Radis~m SAS Portman
Hotel, Portman Square, London W1.
Details as above.
41-8September 2000, Oxford, England
XIX Scientific Instrument .qynllk~smra orga-
nized by the Scientific Instrument Com-
mi~,~ion of the International Union of the
History and Phih~phy of Science, is to
be helcl at Oxfl~rd at the Museum of the
History of Science, Broad Street,Oxford
OXI 3AZ, UK. Consult the website at
www.sic.iuhps.org
29 October 2000, London, England
The 29th ~'ient#k" & Medical Instrument
Fair will be at the Radig,~m SAS Portman
Hotel, Portman Square, London W1.
Details as above.
Summer 2001, Mexico City, Mexico
XX Scu'nti~c Instrument Syml~ium tO be
held within the XXth lntemational Con-
gress of the History of Science.
Details of Future et~'nts, meetings, exhibi-
lions etc. should be sent to the Editor.

Bulletin of the ScientificIratrument Society No. 6o (1999) 35

Book Review
Optmons expressed by. reviewers are their ozl,n, and dr, m~t m'os.~mlu r=~th'ctthe c'u'u~ of the E,hh,r or the Smu't.V

Taking the Stars. Celestial Navigation

from Argonauts to Astronauts
P.W. ltland
The Mariners" Museum. Neu,l,or t New,
I/~rgmm 6, Krteger Publishing Coml,aml
222 pp, | 98 platts
ISRN 1-575244~_ 5.5
$59

As Peter ifland tells us in his i'reface.

'The preosion available In t.~tabhsh,ng
one's ~ s f l i o n by usmg this ancient and
slightly mysterious art depends on the
accuracy of the hx~ls a~ailable to the
navigat~r'. Everyone, I am sum', who has
ever taken an astronomical .~tght will
understand what he means, fl~r it is in the
ancest~' of such pr~:edures that one
finds the gene~=s of prtx-tsion x-ientlfic
mstrumentation For navigation, across
t~ean or dt.~,rt, p r e s u p p ~ , s a physical
thtx,ra" of the creat,m ot the heavens, a
~)ph~Mication of crattsmanship ntx't,~,~lrv
for the accurate measurement of the
>mall angles, and the combination of
the two .~) that one can reliably establish
terrt~,tnal ct~rdtnates.

Taking the Stars is an invaluable b~)k

born out of decade~ of experience by the
author, first as a deck officer in the" U.S.
Navv, then as a collector, and as a ~holar.
On everx, page, ont~ ~,n.~s Dr lfland's
mastery of what he is talking about, fl)r
his evidence and information is pre-
.,,ented on three levels: through .,,uperblv
detailed photographs (Fig. 1) of tht,
m.,,truments: ~ia documentary histories
of their development, and in lucid and
comprehensive in.,,tructions for the prac-
tical u~, of each instrument. I-he indivi-
dt, al im, t r u m e n t s which Dr Ifland
dL,,cu~,,,es, moreover are either h~gtxt in
collechons around the world, or elM,
b~,long to his own per~mal collection
which is now I¢~dged w=th the .Mariner's
.Mu,,eum in Newport News, Virginia.
The b ~ k break.,, down into nine chapters
deahng w=th 11) early history, (2) lunar
d=~tanct~ and the ~'xtant, (3") the struc-
tt, re and der, ign of instruments, (4) .,,cales,
~ernier~ and micrometers, (5) optics, (hi
artificial hom/ons, (7) survey and coastal
cartography, (8) d~stance-finding, and (9)
,nrcratt ceh.~tial navigation
the b,~k is full of reformation, though I
w'a~ especially fascinated when the
author was describing instruments of
unusual t.vpe that are not generally
covert~.i in the existing literature. These
included the ~ubmarine "~,xtant' (actu-
ally 30") which could be used in
coniunct|on wflh a peri.,,cope (pp. 74-75);
the Macnell 'All Weather Sextant' of 1930,
the photo-electric cell of which could
detect the posdion of the sun even under
thick cloud cover (pp. 12(I-121); and
various simple and complex devices
called '.~tation finders' for making sure
Fig. I E~)h,th,u ,,t tit; I),om'er Aircraft t),'tant: th,m h'fi h,p h, I~th,m right: Aircraft ( )chmt
"Mark II1 ,U~I. 5, Bu. ()/Aer0. U.S. Naz'V. Ser. No. 1J4-37'; tl.S. Armu Air C,,rp~; Aircraft
Ochmt 'No A-7, Serial No. AC-41-41 ': A'lr( raft t),t,mt Mark III M(~t. 7, Bu. ( )f Aen,. U.S.
N,wu. Set No. 08-40': Aircraft Ochmt, Mark IV H.S. Nm'u. Bu o[ Aero. Ser No. 439-41'.
that early 2Oth-centurv battleships were
~iling in exact formation
Ver~" valuable, I felt, was the chapter
dealing with air celestial navigation.
Though the ~ m e in principle as oceanic
navigation, the aerial navigator faces two
particular problems. One of tht.'.~e lay in
,wtuallu :,,eeing the sky at all if one was in
the gondola of a balJ~m or airship. The
other was the rapid change of the
ob~,n'er's gt~,graphical position if one
was in an aerophme, l:k)th pnx|uced their
specialist technoiogit.,s, which Peter If-
land dt.'scn~,,s in detail.
While Chapter 3 deals with the materials
and design structures of astn~nomical
navigation instruments, - .such as h.)w
to combine rigidity with lightness in
brass, aluminium and plastic - we are
told very little about manufacturing
p r o c e s s . For mstrt, ments that hinged
upon the increasing accuracy of gradu-
ated scales, I wish there had bt~t,n ~)me
di~u,~sion about how such ~alt.,s were
generated and checked when made by
hand. There is, of course, di~ussion of
Jt.,s.,~, Rams,den's Dividing Engine of 1775
and its greater facilitahon in the genera-
tion of .sextant scales, though the impact
of the Engine on the economics of
instrument making and the popularisa-
tion of the .sextant are not really touched
upon. For what John Bird could accom-
plish over the cot, r~, of many days upon
the .~ale of a 20-inch radius ~,xtant in
1758, Ramsden's journeymen could do
routineh,, in sixty minutes by 17"/h. ]'he
Ram~ten ~'xtant, moreover, would have
had a more unifl,rm error, and could be
'miniaturi.,~.d' down to a handy radius of
six or eight inches with no loss of
accuracy for the cardinal divisions.
Yet these are matters that are not
fundamental to the wider u~fulness of
Dr Ifland's b~,)k. Taking the Stars contains
lt~8 platt.,s, all of which are in colour, with
the exception of reproduced engravings.
These platt.,s, moreover are fully inte-
grated into the text and explained in
captions. High-quality clo~,-up plates
show details of parts/such as the hard-
to-photograph lines of a vernier .scale.
The Appendict~ are ai.,~ full of detailed
information, consisting of six pages of
patent details, and a five-page Glos~ry,
followed by a bibliography and index.
The bt~k is produced to the highest
physical standard, on fine glazed paper
that gives a brilliance to the photographs.
This is a bt~k of fundamental impor-
tance, and an essential addition to any
library of nautical, technological, or
astronomical history.
Allan Ctuaptrmn
Wadham College, Oxfi~rd

36
Bulletin of the ~tenttfic Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
Mystery Objects

Fig.i

I
~'11 I
L

Fig.3

Leonor (,onz,iles de la [astra of the
National Mu.,~,m of ~'ience and Technol-
ogy in Madrid, Spare, would like
assistance with identi~'inK an acoustic
instrument discovered amongst the in-
struments of the Faculty,' of Physics
collection in the Universi~, of Madrid,
and now prz.~,rved in the M u ~ u m It
(Fig. 1)is made of w ~ d , having the
dimensions 137 x i l 0 x 820 rnm, and
conslsts of a fret joirled to an egg shaptxi
.,~und box. ['he .,,cale on the fret (wntten
m L;erman and French notation) is
chromatic and is made of a brass plate
with gn~ovt,'s to [ix the bridge. In the
~mnd box there is an o w n i n g and a
hammer hidden inside it, that beats the
onh,' string the instrument had (now
mi,~sing). The string can al.,~ be stroked
by a violin bow. The in.~ription (as
shown in Fig. 2) is as follows: 'Chron-
iasnalae / Roll.o / .~ / Bla.,~,chets / Fig.2
Pans'. On the back of the instrument (Fig.
3) there is a sliding w~,~en panel with a
sliding brass plate attached to it, pn~-
vided with a flexible iron strip, probably
[or .,,~.'uring the in.,,trument to a stand.
What is d: a tytx' of mon~K'hord?

Fig.4

] h e .,,econd mystery (~iect has been sent
in by Anita McConJnell. She wrik,~ that it
has been sugg~.,sted to pre-date 18~1, but
she is not convinctxt of the accuracy of
this date. The de,~'ription is as [olh~ws
(Fig. 4). A h ~ x w l ~ container, 7 cm in
diameter, u n ~ r e w s into three parts, with
a brass ring inset m the lid which locates
the optical device r,..sting on the dished
surface of the central section
The optical devices consists of a blued
steel tube with a lens at either end. One
lens has an inner zone which apl~,ars to
focus at a distance of over IlK) metres; it
ha~ not been I~ssible to determine the
hx-al distance of the outer rin~. There is
a brass diaphragm, and one c n ~ - h a i r
[ h e optical tube has no treedom of
movement nor of adjustment of f~'us.
The optical tube is .,~-,cured by. a band to
a heavv Fndished steel or nickel-steel
hemi,,phere, under which i.,, a .,,lot
matching a small steel l~tval l~,g in the
ba.,,e of the boxwood cylinder. [he
photo .,,hows, felt. the lid: centre, lhe
optical device r¢."qlng In the ba~' of the
box; right, the centre ,,~,ctton on whlch
the optical device rl.'~ts when the h~x is
clo,~,d up. ()n the underside of lhe
b o x w ~ d cylinder is written m m k
'Mercury. When un~'rewed let this end
be downwards.' There are no gradua-
lions or maker's identifications.

Bulletin of the bicientific Inslrummt ,~cie~." No. O0 ( l ~ ) 37

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Bulletin of the Scienhfic Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)

 ALAIN BRIEUX
SCIENCES• TECHNIQUES • M~.oec,ne

~=~tJt~ Sciem ific a~d Techni(.-al \T~tK ~

] ( ~ Antique & Collectible Show \ \~1~

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OLD INSTRUMENTS
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Catalogues
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Bullet~ of the ScaentificInstrument .~,ety No. 60 ( I ~ ) 3~
 Fine Instruments of Scien -e
& Technology __
A U C T I O N IN L O N D O N : 2 7 T H APRIL 1999

A rmmarkableTob~ Voikmer horary and geometrkal quadrant,

dated 1597,overall hexjht with stand Fi/4in.
Estimate: £200,000-300,000

An extnmtely rere Peter Doiiond S-in(h brass mile(ring tetas(ope

on stand, Engl~,h,nwd l i r a century/eng~ o f t u ~ 3~n.
Estm~le: t20,O00-]O,O00

Highlights from the sale will be exhib~ted at our

Paris office:
76, Rue du Faubourg St.Honore 75008. Paris
12th - 14th April 1999

ENQUIRIES:
Cathenne Southon • .,.. j , : . . f ' - " ..... ~
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C.-~TAL(~UE S: "' ' ~ ~.,I
0171 293 6444 or fax
on 0171 293 5909
$OTHEIY'S
34-35 New Bond Street
London W l A 2AA A fine Timoth~ Coliet silver and brass Butterfield-type luni-soiar
p o t t l e sundial, ¢.1t75/ength 211M/n.
w w w sothebys tom
Estimate: [7,000-10,000

40
SOTHEBY'S
Bulletin o[ the Scientific Instrument Society No. 60 (1999)
 Fallbrooh, CA 92~8 • (760) 728-3.321 • 728-3322 (Am & FAX)

~tt.~l~ Eighteenth and nineteenth century mathematical, philosophical and

optical instruments of all kinds - including microscopes, telescopes,
~,,rt.44.1H.~j M.. globes,
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~00~,5 Send $2.00 for current catalog "B"
NEW PUBLICATION AVAILABLE FROM THE GEMMARY
Scientific Handicraft
An m,,tr,t,d , ~ Descriptive Catalogue ogScientific Appermtus
Manufactured and Sold By John J. Griffin & So-,, Ltd.
XlVth Edition (1910)
The last and best Scientific Handicraft catalog by the 19th century's most famous maker of science
demonstration apparatus. With 1040 pages and over 2500 engravings of the finest science demonstration
apparatus ever made. An indispensable reference workfor the collector of 19th century scientific instruments.
Hsrdbound facsimile repflnt $150.00 per copy, plus
on high quality paper $3.00 shipping in the U.S. or
F..dttiom limited to 300 copies $$.00 shipping outside the U.S.

Rogers Turner Books Are You Missing Something?

23a Nelson Road, London SE 10
24 Rue du B u i m n Richard, 78600 Le Memil-le-Roi, France like a back issue of the
Tel & fax O0 44 181 853 5271 Bulletin.
T~! O0 33 1 39 12 11 91 : Fax O0 33 1 39 62 07 22
CHRISTOPHORI The Society has now published over 50
CLAVII BAMB ~-RGRNSIS Bulletins, each packed with information
1 SOCIETAT1 ilSV.
about scientific instruments and happenings
ASTROLABIVM within the Society since its founding in
1983. The complete set make an invaluable
Reference Library.

Many of these Bulletins are still available at a

cost of £6.00 each plus postage.

They may be ordered~'om:

The Scientific Instrument Society,
CV M PR I V I L8 G IG 31 High Street, Stanford in the Vale,
Faringdon, Oxon SN7 8LH.
~o,~ ~z.
Where original Bulletins are no longer available,
b T ~ l ~ . M, D, XClll,
phoeocopies will be supplied.
,rtmL~ea,m tsJm~#,,.
Is just one of the rare and mterestu~ titles to be found in our
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Table of Contents
Appropmte m a ~ . ~ will be ~ m~ A ~

F~dtte~ial ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Cover SU~ ..................................................................................................................................................................W~,m H a c k m m $
C~tuary .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
James Watt's Bnromete~ ................................................................................................................................................. ~ L. Hal. 5
The Hauch ~
Chemical Apparatus and the Chemical Revolutma ............................................................................................Trevor H. ~ 11
Early U~es o~ the A n ~ c~ Thomas de Coimar (or Thermodynamic Cak'ulat~x~ ........................................
]~u] ZoUer 16
The Ca~ o~ the Skden Lem? .....................................................................................................................................Karl-Hem W~ms 24
The ResmmXm o~ Scx.n~c inmnunmm
R e p ~ o~ • Two.day Workshop m Italy ....................................................................................................................H o w ~ l I ~ w m 27
Market Price
Ephemm~ ........................................................................................................................................................................ AmonSt T m m r 28
Lener ~ tbe E d ~ r ....................................................................... ,o.,o .................. o ...... ,.. ....... * ............... . ....... 0..oo0 ........ .,ooooo o0ooo.o..,oooo.oooo.o 0.o0,0
32
A Phannacm's~ Box Scales
by Fe4tonG n m w K l e o~ IVlellx~wne,A u ~ m l ~ ........................................................................... H. C. Bolton m~l N. H. ~ l i m m 33
Current and Futme Events .......................................................................................................................................................................... .35
Book~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . o. ......................... o ...... . ................. ,.ooo, ......... ooooo,o,oooo,,,oo, ...... oooo oooo.oooo,oo,oooo,.oooooo

Mv er ot ts .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Adv~ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .o..oo.oooo,.ooo, ............. • o,o ,ooooooo.ooo...,ooo., ooooo,, .,oooooooooooooo

The Scientific Instrument Society

Membership
The Soent~sc ~ Society (SIS)was ~ m April 1983 to bring ~ people with a ~ ~ m
~ t s , ran~ung Irom l~eCiom an~lUm to electronicdevices only recentlyout o/production.
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Regular evening meetmp~ are held m London, am well as occasional one-day and week-end ~ m attnu~ve provinckd
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Thin m the Society's Ioumai, published tour tunes a year and mint free Io member, it is attractively produced and ~mO'atecl, and
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