How Scientific Instruments Have Changed Hands
Published on 29. September 2016
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-90-04-32492-3 (ISBN)
Description
This collection of essays discusses the marketing of scientific and medical instruments from the eighteenth century to the First World War. The evidence presented here is derived from sources as diverse as contemporary trade literature, through newspaper advertisements, to rarely-surviving inventories, and from the instruments themselves. The picture may not yet be complete, but it has been acknowledged that it is more complex than sketched out twenty-five or even fifty years ago. Here is a collection of case-studies from the United Kingdom, the Americas and Europe showing instruments moving from maker to market-place, and, to some extent, what happened next.
Contributors are: Alexi Baker, Paolo Brenni, Laura Chazaro, Gloria Clifton, Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Richard L. Kremer, A.D. Morrison-Low, Joshua Nall, Sara J. Schechner, and Liba Taub.
Contributors are: Alexi Baker, Paolo Brenni, Laura Chazaro, Gloria Clifton, Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Richard L. Kremer, A.D. Morrison-Low, Joshua Nall, Sara J. Schechner, and Liba Taub.
Reviews / Votes
"this is a volume that helps to broaden our understanding of the complex nature and status of what for convenience we call scientific instruments and to think about them as consumed commodities."Richard Dunn (Royal Museums Greenwich), British Journal for the History of Science 50:1: 149-150.
"Recommended. Faculty and professionals only"
- N. Sadanand (Central Connecticut State University), Choice, 1 May 2017.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
503 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-32492-3 (9789004324923)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
A.D. Morrison-Low, D.Phil. (2000) in Economic History with Physics, University of York, Research Associate at National Museums Scotland since her retirement in 2015. Her recent publications explore the 18th and 19th century instrument trade, and the early history of Scottish photography.
Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. (1988) in History of Science, Harvard University, is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and Lecturer on the History of Science at Harvard University. Her research has focused on time-finding and social change, instruments of glass, colonial astronomy, and workshop practices in America.
Paolo Brenni, Ph.D. (1981) in Experimental Physics, University of Zuerich, specialized in the history of science and technology. His researches are focused on scientific instruments, instrument making and trade (18th to early 20th centuries). He studied and restored several collections of instruments and he is working at the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence.
Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D. (1988) in History of Science, Harvard University, is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and Lecturer on the History of Science at Harvard University. Her research has focused on time-finding and social change, instruments of glass, colonial astronomy, and workshop practices in America.
Paolo Brenni, Ph.D. (1981) in Experimental Physics, University of Zuerich, specialized in the history of science and technology. His researches are focused on scientific instruments, instrument making and trade (18th to early 20th centuries). He studied and restored several collections of instruments and he is working at the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence.
Content
Preface vii
A. D. Morrison-Low, Sara J. Schechner and Paolo Brenni
List of Illustrations ix
Notes on Contributors xvi
Colour Plates xix
1 Symbiosis and Style: The Production, Sale and Purchase of Instruments in the Luxury Markets of Eighteenth-century London 1
Alexi Baker
2 Selling by the Book: British Scientific Trade Literature after 1800 21
Joshua Nall and Liba Taub
3 The Gentle Art of Persuasion: Advertising Instruments during Britain's Industrial Revolution 43
A. D. Morrison-Low
4 Some Considerations about the Prices of Physics Instruments in the Nineteenth Century 57
Paolo Brenni
5 Mathematical Instruments Changing Hands at World's Fairs, 1851-1904 88
Peggy Aldrich Kidwell
6 Connections between the Instrument-making Trades in Great Britain and Ireland and the North American Continent 104
Gloria Clifton
7 European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories 119
Sara J. Schechner
8 Selling Mathematical Instruments in America before the Printed Trade Catalogue 171
Richard L. Kremer
9 Trade in Medical Instruments and Colonialist Policies between Mexico and Europe in the Nineteenth Century 212
Laura Chazaro
General Index 227
A. D. Morrison-Low, Sara J. Schechner and Paolo Brenni
List of Illustrations ix
Notes on Contributors xvi
Colour Plates xix
1 Symbiosis and Style: The Production, Sale and Purchase of Instruments in the Luxury Markets of Eighteenth-century London 1
Alexi Baker
2 Selling by the Book: British Scientific Trade Literature after 1800 21
Joshua Nall and Liba Taub
3 The Gentle Art of Persuasion: Advertising Instruments during Britain's Industrial Revolution 43
A. D. Morrison-Low
4 Some Considerations about the Prices of Physics Instruments in the Nineteenth Century 57
Paolo Brenni
5 Mathematical Instruments Changing Hands at World's Fairs, 1851-1904 88
Peggy Aldrich Kidwell
6 Connections between the Instrument-making Trades in Great Britain and Ireland and the North American Continent 104
Gloria Clifton
7 European Pocket Sundials for Colonial Use in American Territories 119
Sara J. Schechner
8 Selling Mathematical Instruments in America before the Printed Trade Catalogue 171
Richard L. Kremer
9 Trade in Medical Instruments and Colonialist Policies between Mexico and Europe in the Nineteenth Century 212
Laura Chazaro
General Index 227