Instruments - Swiss Watches

Up to 1835, the Swiss clock and watch making industry has been based on cottage manufacture of components with hand assembly in a factory. In that year, the Vacheron and Constantin factory in Geneva was converted to mechanised production. In 1842, another Geneva manufacturer, Patek-Phillipe (founded in 1839), produced the first watch with a shaft winder; doing away with the previous inconvenient key mechanism.

While both Vacheron and Patek-Phillipe successfully made expensive watches for a limited market, the real impact of Swiss watch-making began in 1860, when George Frederic Roskopf began manufacturing a simplified, low-priced yet reliable watch.

 1932 Omega

1940 Rolex Oyster Speedking In 1880, another Swiss firm, Girard-Perregaux, developed the wrist watch for officers of the Austrian Navy. The wristwatch was soon popularised by several Swiss manufacturers, particularly Omega, but prior to the 1920s remained prone to damage, dust and humidity. In the 1920s, another Swiss company, Rolex, went to great lengths to improve and demonstrate the strength and watertightness of their watches. Rolex was also the first manufacturer, in 1945, to display the date on the dial of their watches and, in 1956, to display the day as well.

The first automatic wristwatch (powered by the wearer’s movements) was made by Blancpain in 1926. In 1953, Jaegre-LeCoultre produced the first fully automatic wristwatch. Girard-Perregaux produced the first high-frequency mechanical watch in 1966 and the first mass-produced quartz watch in 1969.

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Instruments - Clocks - Vienna Regulators

These popular clocks of the last quarter of the nineteenth century were neither regulators nor always from Vienna. True regulators are clocks designed to achieve the highest possible precision. Vienna "regulators" give the appearance of being precise because they have a second hand. However, because of their short pendulum, the second hand rotates in 45 seconds and is purely for decoration. "Vienna" regulators, which were made in Germany and America as well as Austria, had a rectangular case of polished wood with glass at the front and sides. The top and bottom of the case was finished with ornate turned and carved timber and often a figure, such as an eagle at the top. German "Vienna Regulator"

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Instruments - Mass-produced French Clocks

 During much of the nineteenth century the French mass-produced small, round clock mechanisms which they fitted into an enormous variety of cases. These were the best quality mass-produced clocks of the time.

French clock in a porcelain case   French clock in a bronze case   French clock in a marble case

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Instruments - American Watches

Americans were the first to mass produce watches. Edward Howard and Aaron Dennison founded the Waltham Watch Company in 1850. They designed machinery to mass produce watches and created a company which continued to do so until 1950. Another American watchmaking company which survived for over a century was founded in 1864. The National Watch Company of Elgin continued making watches until the 1960s.

Both Waltham and Elgin made relatively expensive, quality watches. In 1880, the Waterbury Watch Company was founded to make inexpensive watches. In 1892, R.H. Ingersoll began manufacturing their "dollar watch". In the same year, the Hamilton Watch Company, which is still in business, was founded.

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Instruments - American Clocks

A few longcase clocks were made in America in the 18th and early 19th century. These  were similar to provincial English longcase clocks, or had wooden movements similar to Black Forest clocks.

Early in the 19th century, the "wag on the wall" became popular. This was a weight-driven wooden clock with a pendulum swinging in front of the dial.

The first American shelf clocks were made by Simon and Aaron Willard. These were about four foot high with a wide base section like a chest-on-chest. In 1802, Simon Willard also invented the banjo clock.  This had a circular dial above a tapered trunk and a box-shaped base. Other makers produced variations of this design, such as the lyre clock, which had curved sides, and the grandole clock, which had a circular base.

 

 American "steeple" cottage clock

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Instruments - European Wall Clocks

From the beginning of the 18th century, French clock making enjoyed a revival. French clocks were always designed firstly as decorative furniture and only secondarily as timepieces.. The French version of the longcase clock looks like a mantle clock standing on a pedestal. French "cartel" clocks were wall clocks in an elaborate frame of highly gilt carved wood or cast bronze. French cartel clock

Dutch Stoelklock In the 17th century, the Dutch had failed to capitalise on the technological lead given to them by Christiaan Huygens, although they had manufactured longcase clocks following the English style. But in the 18th century, the Dutch evolved their own style. Dutch longcase clocks became bulbous in shape and elaborately decorated and surmounted by all kinds of exotic figures - atlas holding the world flanked by trumpeting angels is a typical example. More typically Dutch were a range of weight-driven wall clocks of different designs depending on where they were made. Zaandam clocks (from north of Amsterdam) had cases made of polished wood with a decorative brass or lead gable supported by columns and often surmounted by a figure of Atlas. Stoelkloks, from Friesland, had brightly painted wall brackets with a roof at the top; the weights were suspended on chains rather than the ropes used in Zaandam clocks. Staartkloks, also from Friesland, have the clock mechanism contained in a hood like a longcase clock and the pendulum in a flat case below it with the weights hanging on chains in front of the pendulum case. Dutch Staartklock

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Instruments - Longcase Clocks

English bracket clock The theory of the application of pendulums to clocks was worked out in 1658 by the Dutchman Christiaan Huygens but was first commercially exploited by the English clockmaker John Fromanteel in the same year.

Early English pendulum c locks were either spring-driven "bracket" clocks or weight-driven "hooded wall" clocks, which look like the top of a grandfather clock stuck to the wall. Bracket clocks stood on pieces of furniture rather than on mantlepieces over the fireplace (as might be imagined) which were not introduced until about 1760.

 

From about 1665, the hooded wall clock began to be superseded by the longcase "grandfather" clock .Despite giving the appearance of being free-standing these were actually screwed to the wall because they were top heavy and quite unstable. After the pendulum was introduced, eight-day duration mechanisms became standard, compared to the thirty-hour duration mechanisms of earlier clocks.

The first period of English longcase clocks is referred to as the "architectural" period because the cases of both bracket and longcase clocks were given a classical form with corner columns topped by pediment. This period lasted from 1665 to 1675. The period from 1675 to 1700 is referred to as the "convex" period because the throat mouldings, between the hood containing the clock face and the trunk of the clock, were convex (as they had been in the earlier period). From 1700, the throat moulding was concave. 

 

 English longcase clock

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Instruments - Pocket Watches

From about 1620, the English began manufacturing pocket watches. (Pockets had been introduced in men’s breeches about fifty years earlier). In contrast to the earlier Continental watches, the English "Puritan" watches were housed in completely plain cases, usually made of silver and, of course, were carried in the pocket whereas earlier watches were usually worn on a string around the neck.

While the English were producing plain Puritan watches, watchmakers on the Continent were creating the most elaborately decorated watches the world has ever seen. Metal watch cases were pierced, chiselled, engraved, beaten and enamelled.; they were made of exotic materials, like rock crystal and in a huge variety of "forms", including crosses, roses, tulips, skulls and shells.

 English pocket watch (from about 1700)

In the 1680s, waistcoats became fashionable for the first time and watches were carried in the waistcoat pocket. Particularly from about 1730, watches were worn as a prominent piece of jewellery. 

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Instruments - Clocks - Early Clocks

Gothic Clocks

The first mechanical clocks were made in about 1300. They were very large clocks often in church bell towers, These clocks were powered by falling weights and regulated by a "foliot", which is a beam, pivoted at the centre and oscillating in the horizontal plane. These clocks had no minute hand and sometimes no face at all, being designed to strike a bell to indicate each hour. On some clocks the hour hand rotated in the way we are used to; on others the face rotated behind a stationery hour hand. They were manufactured from iron by blacksmiths.

Domestic versions of these iron clocks, called "Gothic clocks" , were produced in southern Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. Their design was "skeletonised", that is, there was no case. The mechanism was held up by four iron corner posts; there was a large bell at the top, often surmounted by a spire. These smaller clocks were manufactured by locksmiths or gunsmiths, rather than blacksmiths.

 iron Gothic clock

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Instruments - Pens

The American Lewis E. Waterman is usually credited with inventing the fountain pen in 1884. However, although Waterman certainly manufactured the first reliable leak-proof fountain pens, there were numerous earlier designs and patents. The oldest known surviving fountain pens date from 1702. They were made by M. Bion for the King of France. Waterman’s pen used capillary action to replace the ink in the rubber sac with air so that the ink flowed smoothly. Another Waterman innovation came in 1905 when the Company was the first to add a clip to the cap of the pen.

Parker No. 15 Eyedropper (1905)

In 1889, George Parker, an American schoolteacher, became frustrated with the reliability of pens that he had sold to his students. Parker patented an improved ink feed mechanism, with further improvements in 1891, 1893 and 1894. His final mechanism, called the Lucky Curve became the foundation of the Parker Pen Company’s success. The problem was that pens carried in the pocket retained ink in the feed tube and, when the body’s heat warmed the pen, they leaked. Parker’s pens used capillary action to drain the ink from the feed tube.

The ink reservoir on Waterman’s pen was filled using an eye-dropper. In 1912, Walter Sheaffer, an American jeweller, started manufacturing pens with an inflatable rubber sack fitted into the barrel of the pen so that ink could be drawn up through the nib by raising a lever on the side of the barrel. (A similar mechanism had been used by Conklin in their Crescent Filler pen in which the sac was filled by pressing a crescent which protruded from the side of the barrel.)

During the First World War, the Parker Pen Company was awarded to contract to supply American troops with their unique "trench pen" which converted solid pigment pellets to ink by mixing with water in the barrel of the pen. These pens made the Parker name famous in Europe as well as America.

 1924 Shaeffer Lifetime

1929 Parker Duofold The 1920s and 30s are considered the Golden Age of the fountain pen. Famous examples from this period include the Parker Duofold which was an oversized, vivid orange pen selling for $7 when most of its competitors were black and sold for $4 or less.The Duofold made Parker the leader in prestige pens. The Duofold was filled by pressing a button at the end of the barrel which caused pressure bars to compress an ink sac. (The Duofold was so named because, originally, the cap at the end of the barrel was interchangeable with a long extension of the barrel.)

In 1924, Sheaffer introduced plastic pen cases in place of the conventional hard rubber and introduced its famous "white dot" symbol. Following its listing on the stock market in 1928, Sheaffer’s market share rose from 3% to 28%.

1924 was also the year in which the original Montblanc Meisterstuck fountain pen was launched by the Simplo-Filler Pen Company. The Company had been formed in Hamburg in 1908 to produce the perfect fountain pen. After the First World War a chain of Montblanc shops was established in Europe. The Meisterstuck pen had a lifetime guarantee and had the number 4810 (the height of Mont Blanc) engraved on the cap or point.

Waterman introduced its famous oversized Patrician fountain pen in 1929.

The Japanese Platinum Pen Company began producing its Maki-e lacquer pens in the early 1930s.

 1930s Most Blanc Meisterstuck

1933 Parker Vacumatic In 1933, Parker introduced the Vacumatic in which a filling system using vacuum pressure replaced the rubber sack.The Vacumatic also introduced the arrow-style clip which became a Parker trademark.

Waterman patented the ink cartridge in 1935.

Until 1941, fountain pens had been promoted on their ability to hold more ink than their competitors. The result was pens with bigger and bigger barrels. In 1941, Parker produced a radically different looking slim pen with a hooded nib, caller the Parker 51 (because it was designed in the Company’s 51st year). It became the best selling pen ever.

Platinum maki-e Although the first patent for a ball-point pen was issued in 1888 (to an American, John H. Loud), it wasn’t until the 1940’s that the technology of ball-grinding and measuring was sufficiently advanced to allow Hungarian Lazlo Biro to produce a pen which wrote easily on paper. By the early 1950s, ball-point pens had overtaken fountain pens in popularity.

After the War, Waterman decided to go down market and the American company went broke. The company was rescued by its French subsidiary which made pens using an ink cartridge.

Platinum ceased production during the War. After the War, the were highly successful in producing rollerball pens but also manufactured a range of leather pens, known as Amazons and the 3776 fountain pen which has been in continuous production since 1976. (Mt Fuji is 3776 metres high.)

Montblanc also ceased production during the War. For several years after the War, it produced pens exclusively for export but, thanks to heavy promotion, since the 1980s has emerged as the premier status symbol pen.

 1929 Waterman Patrician

Up to the mid-1920s, pen cases were usually made of hard rubber (which has a distinctive smell, especially if rubbed with the fingers). From the mid-1920s to the Second World War, translucent coloured pens and streamlined, as opposed to cylindrical, pens were made of celluloid (which also has a distinctive smell, like camphor, when moistened).

Prior to the 1930s, all pen manufacturers had plastic made exclusively for their own use; so, 1920s pen can be identified just by looking at the plastic. But during the Depression many manufacturers (with the notable exception of Sheaffer) formed a pool to share plastic stocks. This meant that, for example, exactly the same plastic was used on an expensive Waterman Patrician as on a relatively inexpensive Parker.

Wartime Parker 51s were made of acrylic resin. Postwar pens are usually made of injection-moulded polymers. The use of these materials means that classic pens are susceptible to fading if exposed to bright light and may even be damaged by immersion in plain water.

 Parker 51

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Instruments - Typewriters

The first writing machine was patented in England in 1714 by Henry Mill but was never put into production. It was not until 1874 that the American gun manufacturer, Remington, began manufacturing a practical typewriter designed by Christopher Sholes, Samuel Soule and Carlos Glidden. This machine had a keyboard with four rows of keys, the now familiar Qwerty layout of keys (more correctly known as the Sholes layout), a wooden spacebar and a rubber platen (roller). It printed only capital letters. Remington's Sholes & Glidden typewiter (1874)

Caligraph No. 2 "full keyboard" typewriter (1881) The first typewriter to print both capitals and lower case letters was produced by Remington in 1879. This first machine used a shift key for changing between capitals and lower case but, in 1890, Remington and a number of rival companies introduced an alternative system of a "full keyboard" with both capital and lower-case keys

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Instruments - Telephones

Candlestick telephone (1894) In 1873, Alexander Graham Bell, a professor of vocal physiology, obtained financial backing for an invention that he was working on from Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a lawyer, and George Sanders, a businessman. The proposed invention was a "harmonic telegraph" which would transmit several morse code messages simultaneously at different frequencies. Bell used some of the money to hire Thomas Watson, a talented young machinist, to assist him. Western Electric No. 3 "Potbelly" candlestick phone (from 1895)

Wooden wall phone On 2 June 1875, Bell and Watson were testing a harmonic telegraph when Bell heard the transmitted sound of Watson plucking a tuned string. Dell realised that the device had been adjusted incorrectly allowing a constant current to flow and that this was the key to transmitting sound and speech. Bell and Watson were still unable to make a working telephone but, nevertheless on 14 February 1876, Bell filed a patent. A few hours later Elisha Grey, a professional inventor, also lodged a notice of intent to patent a telephone. In Bell’s application, the key principle of variable resistance was scrawled in the margin as though it was an afterthought. It was speculated that Bell had heard about Grey’s invention and rushed to amend his patent. Many other patent applications and some 600 lawsuits followed Bell’s, most claiming either a prior invention or that the device Bell described would not work.

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Instruments - Cash Registers

In 1879, James and John Ritty patented a device to register transactions mechanically in order to stop pilfering in James’ saloon in Dayton, Ohio. The machine worked but did not sell.

In 1884, the Ritty’s sold the patent to John H Patterson who set up a company, National Cash Register, to improve and market the machine. Patterson’s first machine consisted of a keyboard and a simple adding adding machine with a handle at the side; when the handle was cranked, a cash drawer opened, a bell rang, metal numbers showing the amount of the sale popped up and the amount was added to a tally of the days sales.

By 1897, NCR had 97 different models of cash register, including a five-bank model which was able to keep separate tallies for different departments of sales people.

The first electric register, operated by a button instead of a crank handle, was produced in 1906.

 NCR Model 1

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Instruments - Sewing Machines

The first patent for a sewing machine was taken out by the British inventor Thomas Saint. His machine was designed to sew leather and canvas but never went into production.

In 1829, a French tailor, Barthelemy Thirmonnier, built the first practical sewing machine. When he installed 80 of his machines in a factory, they were smashed by the local tailors who were afraid of being put out of work.

 Singer VS3 Type One (1891)

Singer VS2 (1887) The American inventor, Water Hunt, (who also invented the safety pin) made the first lockstitch sewing machine in 1834, Lockstitch sewing machines sew with two thread and, so, make a much stronger stitch than the earlier chain stitch machines, Hunt delayed patenting his machine because he was worried that it would put seamstresses out of work. When he did seek a patent his application was disallowed on the grounds of abandonment and another American, Elias Howe, patented a machine with the same essential features in 1846. Another American inventor, Isaac Merrit Singer, also attempted to patent a similar machine but was successfully sued by Howe.

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Instruments - Barometers

The barometer was invented in 1644 by the Italian Evangista Torricelli who discovered that the height of a mercury column that could be supported by atmospheric pressure varied between 28 and 31 inches (71 and 79 centimetres). As it came to be recognised that atmospheric pressure could be used to predict the weather, barometers became popular household items.

Aneroid barometer (about 1900) Early "stick" barometers based on Torricelli’s column of mercury were usually made of walnut. After about 1720, other woods such as pear and satinwood became popular. Early barometers were usually made by clockmakers and were hung near clocks and, so, often resembled clocks in design.

Robert Hooke made an improved the stick barometer, known as a "wheel" or "banjo" barometer. In this, the mercury column is bent into a U shape at the bottom. A float, attached to a thread controls a point on a circular dial on which even minor changes in pressure can be easily seen. 

For about 200 years, both wheel and stick types were sold with little variation from their original designs. 

In 1844, the aneroid barometer, which measures pressure by the expansion and contraction of a small, evacuated metal drum, was invented. This enabled the manufacture of much smaller barometers which could be mounted on a decorative wall plaque, on a plinth like a mantle clock or even carried in the pocket. Aneroid barometers were particularly popular from the 1880s to the early 20th century.

With the development of radio and broadcast weather forecast, the popularity of barometers declined.
Stick barometer (1810)

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Instruments - Cameras

In 1839, Frenchman Louis Daguerre developed the daguerreotype, a light-sensitive metal plate on which an image could be permanently fixed.

In 1840, Englishman Henry Talbot developed a process of recording a negative image which could be transferred onto chemically sensitised paper. This meant that many copies of an image could be produced and Talbot’s process quickly became predominant.

In the early cameras, the image was focused on a sheet of ground glass which was then removed and replaced with a wooden frame holding the light-sensitive plate. This was exposed by moving a slide or removing a lens cap.

 

Kodak Folding Pocket Camera The 1870s saw the development of dry plates and flexible film. These allowed George Eastman to produce the first Kodak camera in 1888. The Kodak camera was preloaded with film for 100 exposures. When these were made, the camera was returned to the factory where the film was developed and the camera was re-loaded with film.

In 1898, Kodak produced the Folding Pocket Camera, considered by many to be first modern camera. It produced 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 inch negatives (more than five times the size of todays 35mm frames). The folding Pocket Camera was light and featured an easy-to-use lens and shutter assembly.

In 1900, Kodak created a mass market for photography by selling the Brownie #1 camera for $1 and film for 15 cents a roll.

 Kodak Brownie

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Instruments - Record Players

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Edison wax cylinder and its box The first machine able to record sound was the phonautograph, devised by a Frenchman, Leon Scott de Martinville, in 1855. The device recorded sounds on smoke-blackened paper wrapped around a cylinder. Unfortunately, there was no way to replay the sound.

The phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, recorded sound on cardboard cylinders covered in tinfoil. When the mouthpiece used to create the recorded was replaced by "reproducer" with a sensitive diaphragm the sound could be played back.

Sound was amplified by a horn up to two metres long - the longer the horn, the better the sound.

 1905 Edison phonograph

In 1887, Chichester Bell (a cousin of the inventor of the telephone) and Charles Tainter developed an improved version of Edison’s phonograph which used wax cylinders rather than Edison’s tinfoil ones. Bell and Tainter founded the Columbia Phonograph Company.

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Instruments - Radios

When public broadcasting began in the early 1920s, the most widely available receivers were crystal sets. Crystal sets could only be listened to through earphones and required a long aerial which was usually strung us in the garden like a clothes line. Tuning was very difficult; the crystal had be touched at exactly the right spot with a piece of metal known as a "cat’s whisker". Crystal sets were cheap and were often built by hobbyists from components or kits. 1922 Isaria crystal set

1935 floor-standing Crosley radio During the 1920s, radios with valve amplifiers gradually superseded crystal sets. Early radios were cumbersome with separate receivers, aerials and batteries but technical advances meant that by the early 1930s all of the components could be housed in one cabinet powered by mains electricity.The first radios were free-standing pieces of furniture.

These were superseded by mantle models. At first these, like the floor-standing radios, had wooden cabinets.

Bakelite cases came into use in the 1930s and plastics in the 1940s.

 1931 Philco radio

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Jukeboxes

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1938 Wurlitzer jukebox Coin-operated electric phonographs with a choice of records became available in the 1920s. They were called jukeboxes from "jook-joint", black American slang for a dance hall.

Early jukeboxes had simple wood veneer cabinets until 1937, when Paul Fuller designed the Wurlitzer Model 24, featuring backlit moulded plastic. Soon the other major manufacturers, Seeburg, Rock-Ola and AMI followed suit.

Fanciful chrome and nickel grilles were added and, in 1940, Wurlitzer introduced "bubble tubes", sealed glass tubes full of liquid in which gas bubbles rose and fell under the influence of the beat of the music.

 1947 Wurlitzer jukebox

1951 Seeburg jukebox Production was halted during the War by rationing of plastic, metal and shellac. After the War, the emphasis turned to jukeboxes capable of playing many more records. In 1948, Seeburg introduced their Model 100A which could play both sides of 50 records, more than twice as many as any other jukebox. Achieving this meant long, low designs rather than tall, narrow ones. The brightly lit cabinets were replaced by metal and plastic designs reflecting the designs seen in cars and science fiction movies of the 1950s.

In 1950, the Seeburg 100B adapted the successful Model 100A to play 7-inch, 45rpm singles rather than 78rpm records. Jukeboxes which played 78s were completely out of production by the mid1950s.

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Musical Instruments - Wind Instruments

The origins of the flute can be traced back over 20,000 years and is possibly very much older. 

In the Baroque era, flute were made of three sections. The modern flute began to take shape in the 1760s when an extra length was added and ivory rings were added to reinforce the mounts. From 1770 to 1830, the flute evolved further with more metal keys being added to finally reach reach a total of eight. These "eight-keyed" flutes were usually made of boxwood or ebony with ivory or brass mounts between each joint.

During the 1830s and 1840, the Munich flautist, Theobald Boehm, revolutionised the design of the flute. He made the bore more cylindrical, made the holes larger to produce greater volume, repositioned the holes and devised the method of fingering still used today.

 Flute

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Musical Instruments - String Instruments

The lute was originally an Arabic instrument, introduced into Spain by the Moors. It was an important instrument throughout Europe by the 15th century but was progressively replaced by a number of variants, particularly the theorobo and the chitarone, and by the guitar.

The lute has a pear-shaped body with a broad neck and fingerboard. The head of the lute, which carries the tuning pegs is mounted at 90 degrees to the neck. The lute is strung to give six courses which may be either single or double stringed.

The theorbo has a longer neck than the lute with an extra pegboard giving six or seven extra bass courses. The chitarrone is a larger version of the theorbo with the courses divided between a pegboard lower down the neck and one at the head.

The guitar probably originated in Spain in the 14th century. The earliest guitars had three pairs of strings plus a single string. The guitar became popular in other European countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. Late in the 17th century, a fifth pair of stings was added and in the middle of the 18th century, a sixth sting was added and the double stings were made single, giving the guitar its modern form. Early in the 19th century, the lyre and the guitar enjoyed a period of popularity. During that century, the body of the guitar was broadened and the curve at the waist was made more pronounced.

 Spanish guitar (1838)

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Scientific Instruments - Mechanical Calculators

The first mechanical adding machine was made by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1645. This had a number of interconnected wheels, each with ten teeth representing the digits. Numbers were added by advancing the appropriate wheels. The German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz extended to Pascal’s machine to doing multiplication by repeated addition.

The mechanical principles of these adding machines were used in hand cranked calculators during the 18th and 19th centuries and electrically powered calculators up to the 1950s.

The first calculating machine to be produced in large numbers was made in France by Thomas de Colmar in 1820. The machine, called an "Aritherometer" and its clones was made up until the 1920s.

 Colmar's Aritherometer

In 1905, the Swedish inventor Willgodt Odhner made an adding machine based on a pinwheel mechanism. Dozens of companies made machines incorporating this mechanism which soon superseded the Colmar design. The market leaders were Swedish company Facit, founded in 1918, and the American company Monroe, founded in 1911. Both closed in 1960.

1930 Monroe Adding Machine 1950 Facit Adding Machine


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Scientific Instruments - Microscopes

In about 1610, the Dutch lensmaker, Hans Jannisen, and his son Zacharias made an instrument consisting of a pair of lenses mounted in a sliding tube, which is regarded as the first microscope. The addition of a condenser lens to concentrate light on the specimen, a specimen stage and controls for moving the tube came quickly.

Britain became the major centre for the manufacture of microscopes but there was little further change in the design of microscopes until the late 18th century when compound lens were introduced to correct aberration. At about the same time, English manufacturers introduced a ball-joint at the base of the microscope which allowed it to be tilted for more convenient viewing.

In the early 19th century, the portable microscope, whose parts came in a small box and were fitted together for use, was introduced.

 Kellner microscope (about 1850)

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Scientific Instruments - Telescopes

The telescope was invented in Holland in about 1608. It is usually ascribed to Hans Lippershey, a spectacle maker, who applied for a patent based on the observation that placing a concave and a convex lens in a tube magnified distant objects With at least two other Dutch inventors of similar devices at about the same time, the States General ruled that the device was too easily copied to be patentable. The first recorded demonstration of a telescope was by Galileo in 1609. Newton's telescope

Johannes Kepler discovered the principle of the astronomical telescope, which uses a different combination of lenses to give a brighter but inverted image, and his design was constructed by Christoph Scheimer, a German Jesuit astronomer, in 1630. Because of problems of spherical aberration, astronomical telescopes had to be very long - sometimes more than 60 metres.

To overcome the problem of lens aberration, attention turned to the possibility of using mirrors rather than lenses in telescopes. Isaac Newton constructed the first reflecting telescope in 1668 but viewing with it was difficult because the eyepiece and the head of the viewer blocked a lot of the incoming light. William Herschel solved the problem by tilting the mirror in his telescope (which was about 12 metres long).

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