Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- Scientific Instruments for Sydney University in the 19th Century
- In
- Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992
- Imprint
- Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1995, pp. 83-86
- Url
- https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/holland.htm
- Subject
- History of Australian Science - General
- Format
- Description
And HTML
- Abstract
To interpret historic scientific instruments there are several basic questions for which museum curators such as myself seek answers: What is it? How old is it? When was it purchased? How was it used? What was the context of its acquisition and use? Some of these questions are important in cataloguing an instrument. Others become more important in preparing an exhibition or publication. It is especially significant when surviving instruments have remained in the context of their institution of use. In this paper I am concerned with the background to the surviving collections of historic scientific instruments at Australia's oldest university. The University of Sydney has several residual collections of instruments in departments such as Physics and Psychology.
A lot of information about what an instrument is and when it was made can be found out from the thing itself and the accumulated knowledge and experience of the curator. Instruments often bear names which indicate the maker, the wholesaler or the retailer. This, in conjunction with the materials and stylistic features of the instrument - its 'feel' - can give a good indication of its provenance and age. Sometimes an instrument will bear a date, a serial number, or a trade label (on the case) with an address, which can give a very specific date range. Instruments which bear a patentee's name and patent numbers offer a strong lead for detailed research. In all this basic documentary research various primary and secondary references are invaluable; for example, early textbooks such as Ganot's Physics, original trade catalogues (when they are available), and the growing modern literature about early instruments and their makers.
- Source
- Carlson 1996
Related entries
Corporate Bodies
- Australian Science Archives Project, The University of Melbourne (1985 - 1999)
- Macleay Museum (1892 - )
- The University of Sydney (1850 - )
People
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- Recovering Science: Strategies and Models for the Past, Present and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Melbourne, October 1992 edited by Sherratt, Tim; Jooste, Lisa; Clayton, Rosanne (Canberra: Australian Science Archives Project, 1995), 124 pp, https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/confs/recovering/contents.htm. Details