Johann Gottlieb Bohnenberger, “Beschreibung einer Maschine, welche die Gesetze der Umdrehung der Erde um ihre Axe, und der Veranderung der Lage der Erdaze zu erlautern dient”, in Annalen der Physik, series I volume 60, 9th section, article V, 1818 last quarter 1818. The paper occupies pp 60-71, and is illustrated with one small figure on plate 1. (There was an earlier publication of this article in 1817 in a very obscure journal, otherwise this is the first appearance of the invention in a major publication.)
Offered in the full volume 60 of the Annalen, 475pp, with three plates (including a hand-colored map). Bound together with the very scarce (pinkish) outer wrappers. Bound in half cloth and marbled boards (ca. 1935). Ex-libris Deutsche Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung, then Wright Patterson Field Library (USAF), then Library of Congress. Library markings: small gilt-stamped "Akademie der Luftfahrtforschung", page edges stamped "Wright Field Library/Dayton, Ohio" on top and bottom. Scarce item. $350
“Johann Gottlieb Bohnenberger (1765-1831) was a Professor of physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the University of Tübingen, Germany, as well as the scientific head surveying officer of the Kingdom of Württemberg. He made not only significant contributions to introducing modern geodesy in Germany but also constructed various physical instruments. The “Machine of Bohnenberger” is considered to be the first gyro with cardanic suspension and forms the precursor of J.B.L. Foucault’s Gyroscope of 1852...”, Jörg Friedrich Wagner (University of Stuttgart), in “The Origin of the Gyroscope: The Machine of Bohnenberger”.
And this description of the apparatus from Pike's illustrated descriptive catalogue of optical, mathematical and philosophical instruments:
- "Bohnenberger's Machine. -- This apparatus (see figure 146 below) consists of three movable rings,A,B,C, mounted on a stout base. The two inner rings are mounted on pivots; those on the smallest ring at right angles to the middle one; in the smallest ring is supported a metal ball, having a roller on one of its pivots; around the roller a string may be wound, and when pulled off a rapid rotary motion may be given to the ball. This motion may be given with the axis in any position required, and when communicated, the ring supporting the ball will resist considerable effort to alter its position, and whatever way the instrument may be turned, its axis will continue to maintain the position it had when set in motion, illustrating the inertia, or that property of matter which resists any change of state, whether of rest or motion." --Benjamin Pike, Jr. Pike's illustrated descriptive catalogue of optical, mathematical and philosophical instruments : manufactured, imported, and sold by the author, with the prices affixed at which they are offered in 1856. Found on page 142, illustrated by figure 146 and sold for 5 bucks, which could've bought you a month of lodging at a decent hotel in Manhattan in 1850.
- This volume also contains: Friedrich Stromeyer (1776-1835), “Ueber das Kadmium”, pp 193-210. This is a report on cadmium, a discovery he made at the same time as C.S. Hermann, who reported his results in the preceding volume (though in the same year) of the Annalen, in "Noch ein schreiben über das neue Metall". Annalen der Physik, volume 59, 1818.
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