REPORT
Historic Instruments The
Scientist's 'Heritage ost of my career has been spent in the practice and deI velopment of analytical chemistry. However, I have always had a strong interest in the methods that scientists use and, even more, in the history of scientific instruments. An early association with engineering practices gave me the background needed to appreciate the ingenuity of design and beauty of construction of the output of many of the early instrument makers. Working in their usually small shops in the 18th and 19th centuries, instrument makers in London and elsewhere in Britain provided many of the instruments that mapped much of the Earth and the heavens. They were active in other directions, especially in the field of metrology and, later, in electrical instrumentation. So, some 15 years ago when I decided to turn my interest into an active one, London was an obvious place in which to make a start. Fortunately, London is the location of the Science Museum, the entrance of which is shown in Figure 1. This museum, devoted entirely to science and technology, receives approximately four million
M
From the historical point of view, the prototype of a new instrument is more valuable than all the latest versions that can claim the prototype as their ancestor 264 A
Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 4, February 15, 1994
John T. S t o c k University of Connecticut 0003-2700/94/0366 -264A/$04.50/0 © 1994 American Chemical Society
visitors a year. Its vast collections cover every conceivable area from historic chemical and physical laboratory equipment through photography, machine tools, computers, locomotives and the like, to a massive collection of aircraft. The collections are matched by the presence of a staff of highly qualified experts. Adjacent is the Science Museum Library, of a magnitude and scope to match that of the museum itself. With such facilities, it is not surprising that the Science Museum is afirst-classcenter for visiting scientists and technologists who may wish to undertake research in any branch of the history of their particular fields. The chemistry collections fascinated me even in my boyhood. The upshot, very much later, was a long spell in 1965 that was spent in the examination of the entire collection of historic balances. Eventually these studies led to the preparation of a paperback on this subject (2). This has been followed by other publications (2-7) that extend the work beyond its original scope. A second museum publication that deals with the history of the measurement of electric current is at an advanced stage. An instrument that is in a museum is of course "on record" and safe from destruction. However, as recently pointed out (8), we have a tendency to throw out the old in order to make place for the new. Checking before discarding is not a bad rule. Quite often, instruments that are clearly described in the literature, or are otherwise known to have existed, can no longer be found. Unless these "missing" items have at some time been rigorously inventoried, there is not likely to be any evidence of actual destruction. Hence the only recourse that the instrument historian has is to keep on searching! From the historical point of view, the prototype of a "new" instrument, whether built in the household basement or in a manufacturer's R&D facility, is more valuable than all the "latest versions" that can claim the prototype as their ancestor. History is purely relative. Balances have been
used for thousands of years, while mechanicaltimepiecesand compound microscopes go back several centuries. We are down to a few decades when we are considering instruments like the gas chromatograph or the electronic X-Y recorder. With rapid developments in the field of electronics, some instruments being produced today may have a half-life of only a few years. Apart from the actualfindingof the instrument, the seeker has to face two other problems. The first is to answer the question "Who used the instrument?" Because the answer is commonly "a scientist," this problem may not be serious. Scientists have the habit of writing papers that are well indexed. And when they die, their obituaries often contain a wealth of information. The other problem concerns the maker of the instrument. If we exclude comparatively moderntimes,this problem can be very real. The maker may have published a catalog, but trade material probably belonged to the "junk mail" category even before regular mail came
into existence. Normally he did not write papers but confined his literary efforts to the production of bills and trade letters. These rarely survive long after a particular transaction has been completed. There are some exceptions. Some purchasers are strongly archive minded. An excellent example is the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which celebrated its tercentenary a few years ago. Apart from the expected astronomical and similar records, the archives of the Observatory contain a fascinating collection of letters, invoices, and the like. Sir George Airy (1801-92) was Astronomer Royal for 46 years. Included in the great amount of material sent to him is an announcement by Henry Barrow (1790-1870) of his taking over of the business of Thomas Charles Robinson (1792-1841). With his announcement, Barrow offered the various Robinson instruments listed in Figure 2. Sometimes the instrument maker will have troubled to have drawn up a will. If this can be located, then some clue as to
Figure 1. Science Museum, London. Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 4, February 15, 1994 265 A
REPORT
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weighed in water, tbie renders the iaetrorneot wutchInure compact, and lest liable to injury than the old Nicholson's Hydrometer; Of 0 course it can he used lilte the old instrument, for simply d"term»u0 ing tit* weight of a email solid, or for determining the -pecific η gravity of any fluid that does not act chemically on braes aire nee!. " Q 0 A flu* tTariwwewwl aurJnmtereaO, b y annanadea auatseetaetus for c b n m t e a i avost r t u i o a o n n l c a l rrttrssoaoe. An Artificial Horizon, by Robinson Beam lOg-tnchet, will weigh 2000 grains 14 14 1 4 , 0 A Portable Mountain Barometer, by Robinson H 20-inco Standard Thermometer, divided by Robinson Ditto tc-incb will weigh 1000 grains 12 12 I Ditto ditto ditto 2 12 Ditto 6-ineh will weigh 400 grains 10 10 12-inch ditto ditto I 1) Troy lb. Weight, m Mahogany Case 1 II Various TberntMrsvelere, divided by Robinson lureaisi. SraMi.snri VFaiawr, s i Csrssix Kai Rnbtnaun's Patent Shot Guage Raters Hygrometer 2 12 Microtcope 4g-iaeb Ksler't Attitude sod Aiimuih Circle, fi \ 18.13 Ditto ., 3 0 0 Astronomical purpoaes and Surveying 2S 7 2 10 « Ditto 6.iocb ditto, divided to 10 ascends ,. 4S Î Porisble Drawing Board and Stand . 1 1 5 11 Cinch Repeating Circle and Gooeoinerer .. i A (Tripod} FieidSland of Braes gliding Tubes contained 4 4 2 Goneotnelors, divided to rood to minute* ι Tubular Case, 2 incites diameter, 10j 4, 4 0 15 15 20-inoh Y Spirit Lere!., inches long ! 12 19 20-ioch Improved Level with Compos» A Drawing Board on Sir John rte/schers Plao 1 16 0 s 9-ioch ditto ditto with Compu, g β β 0 Wheel Barometer 2 12 6 t> IS 0 2 Spirit Levels, each ., t> IS Ptttiabhr do. Ivory Scale 2 12 0 5-foot Telescope . . 5 3 0 leory and Bath Thermometers 3-foel ditto .. ,, 3 0 0 Register Thermometers 1 10-iucb Y Telescope .. Opera Class 1 lo.io.ch ditto, with Micrometer Screw Mother of P*ar! Hand Gtasjea 2 Tripod Brass Stands tot TeUacopes, each.. I l l $ Silver Eye Glasses, double sod single rUntae'sl QuaisstavT Spectacles of various hinds Nicholson's Hydrometer ., '2 2 0 Case of Drawing 1 Detriments A» improved by Professor Mobs, of Vienna, and described below. Ditto ditto . /..', Instead ot e bucket et the lower end of the instrument ft» hold Ditto ditto ing the substance during the weighing in water, the upper part is T. Squares hollowed out, so a» to form a dieh to contain the substance In he Parullcl-Uulers, tee. ate.
b T^rreeugClrtue with Handles » 0 6-inch Dipping Circle with Needier . . 15 Î& 6-inch Dippioe. Circle with h'MdlH sod ft neir of 7 vo l u Lloyd-a intensity Needles .. .. {•'»'? 2 Ηsrechel's Aciinomeler* with S u n t Screw», each 5 & 1 Heosieio't Intensity Instrument . . . ., 3' 3
Figure 2. Barrow's 1842 catalog of Robinson instruments.
Figure 3. Early Robinson balance. 266 A
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the final state of his business and of its disposal may come forth. Records of birth, baptism, marriage, and death may allow the bare outline of a career to be sketched. Post office and trade directo ries, backed up by census records, may allow this outline to be filled in to some degree. In 1834 the British standards of weights and measures were destroyed in a fire that swept the Houses of Parliament The lengthy work of the reestablishment of the standards of mass was described by William Miller (1801-80), professor of min eralogy at Cambridge University (9). Mil ler's account shows that balances made by Robinson and by his successor Barrow were used in this work. The 5.5-in. beam Robinson balance, still in excellent condi tion, is in the University's Whipple Science Museum. On inquiring in the Department of Mineralogy in 1967,1 was shown a badly damaged and incomplete 10.5-in. beam Robinson balance that was almost certainly associated with Miller. His account of the principal instrument, "a balance of extreme delicacy procured from Mr. Barrow," indi cates that this balance had a beam length of approximately 15 in and could carry a kilo gram in each pan. Despite my own searches and, at my instigation, those by several British instrument historians over the last dozen years, no clues concerning the whereabouts or the fate of this funda mentally important instrument have been found. Although the catalog of Robinson instruments shows that he made 8-in. beam balances, I have yet to find an example of this version. Sometimes the seeker has an agree able surprise. From an excellent illustra tion in the literature (10), I had long known of a small balance with a swanneck beam that was manufactured by Rob inson early in his career. After much searching, I had almost given up hope of finding an actual balance of this type. Sur prisingly, an example appeared during the interval between two of my trips to the Science Museum. This balance, shown in Figure 3, is part of the Wellcome Collec tion of medical-pharmaceutical equip ment that had been acquired by the mu seum. From Robinson's will we learn that John Dover (1824-81) was his apprentice. Dover stuck to instrument making and
was awarded a medal for a Robinson-type balance that he showed in the 1851 Inter national Exhibition in London. Despite much searching, this balance has not been found. The two existing "Robinson & Barrow" balances show that Barrow had made small but useful modifications to Robinson's well-tried design. How inter esting it would be to be able to see what Dover had done! A master craftsman rarely makes an exact copy, but usually introduces some modification that he sees as an improvement either in design or for easier manufacture (4). Dover's major business seems to have been in the mak ing of surveying instruments (11). The only instrument known to me that appears to be John Dover's work is the dip circle shown in Figure 4 . John's son, Alfred Do ver, was also an instrument maker. The Science Museum has two Dover dip cir cles that were almost certainly made by Alfred. Sometimes we have an existing instru ment, but a "missing" maker. Here I am excluding items that do not carry the mak er's name or other identifying mark. Then there are cases where a so-called maker affixes his name in place of that of the real maker. Considerable patience is needed to sort out problems of this kind. In the Manchester Museum of Science and Technology there is a balance that is signed "Liebricht Giessen" (5). This bal ance is believed to have been brought to England by Edward Schunk, who studied with Liebig around 1840. At my request the German balance expert Hans Jenemann has searched extensively for infor mation concerning Liebricht and his workshop. Any records that would pro vide a clue to the maker may have van ished as a result of the extensive bombing that occurred during World War II. Oersted's observation that a compass needle was deflected when a wire carrying an electric current was brought near opened the way to the study of electromagnetism. Oersted's single-wire device needed a strong current to get a sizable deflection of the needle. The idea of using a multiple-turn coil as a way to obtain higher sensitivity dawned almost simulta neously (and apparently quite indepen dently) on three scientists—Schweigger and Poggendorf in Germany and Cumming in England.
Figure 4. Dover dip circle.
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Figure 5. Cumming's thermoelectric motor.
Figure 6. Page's 1846 moving-iron galvanometer.
James Cumming (1777-1861) was professor of chemistry at Cambridge (12). He described both the multiturn coil and another means for increasing the sensitivity. This is the use of an external magnet to nullify much of the effect of the Earth's field. One form of this arrangement is the ancestor of the "control magnet" system used by later workers in their high-sensitivity galvanometers. It appears that Cumming independently discovered the phenomenon now known as the Seebeck effect. Figure 5, reproduced with Cumming's own caption (13), is a heat-driven device that is really a simple electric mo-
tor. None of Cumming's apparatus has been found. This is not surprising, because the items were simple and probably homemade for lecture work. Europeans are not alone in "losing" historic instruments. The so-called D'Arsonval moving-coil meter dates from 1881, but the basic principle had been used much earlier (14). It appears that the man who "put the coil" in the moving-coil meter was an American, Charles Grafton Page (1812-68), professor of chemistry and pharmacy at Columbian College (later George Washington University). He described a real, if crude, moving-coil device
Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 4, February 15, 1994 267 A
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in 1838 (15) and also two meters of the moving-iron type. Figure 6, reproduced from Page's account (16), shows the later version. As far as I can ascertain, Page's meters disappeared. It appears that the Leeds and Northrup Company made the first pen-recording polarograph. In 1937 V. W. Meloche and his co-workers at the University of Wisconsin used one of these instruments along with a photographically recording polarograph (17). A search made by W. J.
Figure 7. Trowbridge's galvanometer.
Figure 8. Obach galvanometer. 268 A
Blaedel in 1978 revealed only the latter of the gas-density type, which is based on instrument (18). Another of these pena German patent issued in 1893. Numerrecording instruments went to the Bell ous other designs followed rapidly. Many Telephone Laboratories (19). Presently of these are based on the measurement nothing is known about the usage or fate and recording of the decrease in volume of this polarograph (20). At least two lead- of the gaseous sample when this is treated ing analytical chemists have informed me with a C0 2 absorbent such as KOH soluof having strong memories of having used tion. By the outbreak of the first World one of these pioneer American instruWar, flue-gas monitors were in common ments. It is obvious that an item does not use. I am presently searching for early have to be "ancient" to have vanished! examples of these industrial devices. InciThe total history of this pen-recording dentally, the concept of automatic recorddevice is not much more than 40 years! ing is by no means modern. According to Behar (24), the recording thermometer We are more fortunate in another condates back to about 1663. nection, in which an American discovery was commercialized by the Europeans. A reasonable amount of information Figure 7, reproduced from a short paper concerning the ancestry of a typical "laboby John Trowbridge, then assistant proratory" instrument can usually be gained fessor at Harvard University, shows a gal- by thoroughly searching the literature. vanometer in which the sensitivity can be The unraveling of the history of industrial altered by tilting the circular coil (21). equipment seems to require rather more Some years later the electrical engineer than this. Generalized descriptions of inE. Obach had the same idea, apparently struments, control systems, and prowithout knowledge of Trowbridge's work cesses can often be found in appropriate (22). The Obach galvanometer, an exam- periodicals. However, the real history may ple of which is shown in Figure 8, became be contained in the internal reports of the a British instrument of some importance instrument maker or of the company that in the early days of the commercial gener- is operating a particular process. Someation and transmission of electricity. On a times, information "escapes" into the recent visit to Harvard, D. Vaughan of the patent literature. This field is somewhat London Science Museum noticed the difficult for the nonspecialist, but can be Trowbridge instrument and at once identi- useful in specific cases where some backfied it. So we have both the "prototype" ground history has been uncovered (23). and the commercial version! A major problem in the study of the history of laboratory-type instruments is the actual finding of early examples. In the case of industrial equipment, this type of problem appears to be even more acute. Part of the reason may be the speed with which such equipment has developed. Then there is the question of storage. Industrial organizations rarely have much in the way of "junk attics," so equipment is often scrapped (and hence permanently lost) as it is replaced by later versions. One of the earliest examples of the automatic analyzer is the C02 indicator, used to monitor the efficiency of furnace operation (23). Figure 9 shows the Oekonometer, a C0 2 monitor Figure 9. Early flue-gas C 0 2 monitor.
Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 4, February 15, 1994
Figure 10. Presentation of historic industrial chemical instruments.
Then there is the approach to the prac titioner. Ideally, he is a scientist or tech nologist of long service in the particular field of investigation. He may have retired, but will remember (sometimes with docu mentation!) "how things began." In this connection, it is indeed fortunate that many important industrial instruments have quite short histories. For example, process-type gas chromatographs, infra red analyzers, and paramagnetic oxygen meters did not appear until well after the end of World War II. Figure 10, reproduced from a recent issue of a British local newspaper (25), illustrates this point The occasion de picted is the handing over to Robert Bud (second from left), assistant keeper in the Science Museum's Department of Chem istry, of a collection of historic instru ments from the Billingham and Heysham establishments of Imperial Chemical In dustries, Ltd. Jasper Clark (second from right) was Billingham's first instrument manager. He retired in 1960 and was at Billingham when its first ammonia was produced on the old HP plant in 1923. In front of the 'D'-type flowmeter is Clark's own copy of his group's instru ment catalog. Such documents are obvi ously of great value in the tracing of the development of instruments and their uses. The accompanying writeup includes the remark "... saved from the scrap heap following a request by American pro
fessor John Stock... is concerned at the rate at which historic instruments are van ishing " That I do not appear in the picture enables me to stress another fact. My personal collection of historic instru ments is zero, and I intend to keep things this way. My aims are to seek information and to conserve, but not to collect. Actual collection is best left to the museum ex pert. I welcome any information that I can get. Many of the instruments that should have been our scientific heritage have, no doubt, vanished forever. We cannot bring them back. We can, however, try to make sure that, instrumentwise, the heritage of our scientific successors is a secure one. As is obvious, the need to act now is quite critical. Apart from actual loss of equip ment, our living sources of information— and maybe the older internal reports of the developer or user—will not be with us forever!
(4) Stock, J. T.; Bryden, D. J. Technol. Culture 1972,13,44. (5) Stock,J.T.^«a/. Chem. 1973,45,974 A (6) Stock,J.T.J. Chem. Educ. 1976,53,497. (7) Stock, J. T. Chem. Br. 1978,14,76. (8) Stock, J. T. Chem. Eng. News 1979,57 (31), 30. (9) Miller, W. H. Philos. Trans. R Soc London 1856,146,762. (10) Q. J. Sci. 1822,12,40. (11) Stock, J. T.; Laurie, P. S. Technol. Culture 1980,21, 51. (12) Stock, J. T.J. Chem. Educ. 1976,53, 29. (13) Cummings, J. Thomson's Ann. Phil. 1823,22,177. (14) Stock, J. T. Am. Lab., July 1980, 77-80. (15) Page, C. G. Am J. Sci. Arts, 1st Series 1838,33,376. (16) Page, C. G. Am. J. Sci. Arts, 2nd Series 1846,1,242. (17) Borcherdt, G. T.; Meloche V. W.; Adkins, E.J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1937,59,2171. (18) Blaedel, W. J. University of Wisconsin, personal communication, 1978. (19) Kolthoff, I. M.; Lingane, J. J. Chem. Rev. 1939,24,9, footnote. (20) Stumm, R L Bell Laboratories, personal communication, 1980. (21) Trowbridge, J. Am. J. Sci. Arts, 3rd Series 1871,2,118. (22) Obach, E. Nature 1878,18, 707. (23) Stock, J. T.J. Chem. Educ., submitted for publication ("Flue Gas Monitoring: Early Application of Automatic Analysis"). (24) Behar, M. F. Handbook ofMeasurement and Control; Instruments Publishing Co.: Pittsburgh, 1951; ρ 83. (25) Billingham Post, May 8,1980, ρ 2.
John T. Stock is professor emeritus of chem istry at the University of Connecticut. He was born in England and received the Ph.D. andD.Sc. degreesfromthe Univer sity of London. After extensive industrial and academic experience, he joined the fac This work, carried out under the Research Fel ulty at the University of Connecticut in lowship Program of the Science Museum, Lon 1956. His varied research interests include don, was partially supported by the University electroanalytical chemistry, microchemical of Connecticut Research Foundation. Adapted techniques, the history of chemistry, and the bora Analytical Chemistry 1980,52(14), design of apparatus and equipment for the 1518A-1529A teaching of chemistry. Stock received the Dexter Award for outstanding contributions References to the history of chemistry in 1992. He can (1) Stock, J. T. Development of the Chemical be reached at the Department of Chemistry, Balance; Science Museum: London, 1969. (2) Stock, J. T.J. Chem. Educ. 1968,45, 254. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268. (3) Stock, J. T. Chem. Br. 1971, 7, 385. Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 4, February 15, 1994 269 A
