JF Ptak Science Books: Scientific Instrument Display (1711, with Key)

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Main | On the Speeds of Things (1883) »

Scientific Instrument Display (1711, with Key)

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This interesting image appeared in the Illustrated London News for 21 May 1938 (p 897) and it shows "the Physical Laboratory of the Academy of Sciences in Paris" in 1711, rendered by Sebastian Leclerc (1637-1714). The nice thing here is that is comes with a key and explanation for the 115 (!) displayed instruments. For some reason the editor decided to put scientific instruments in quotation marks, as if to differentiate those instruments from 1711 from the modern standard of 1938 as not being worthy of the title when compared to modern instrumentation. Its an unfortunate display of evaluating and judging the achievements of one period in relation to those of a particular present without regard to context and the capacity of what came before. Apart from the unfortunate title, these are useful images: