files for setting the teeth as well as standard items for surgeons. ^^ 

 Several immigrant instrument makers established themselves 

 in Philadelphia during the same period. John Denegan (or 

 Donegan), stated to have been "late from Italy," moved his shop 

 in March 1787 to the corner of Race and Fourth Streets at "the 

 sign of the Seven Stars". ^^ There he made barometers and ther- 

 mometers as well as glasses for philosophical experiments. It 

 seems too much of a coincidence that in October 1787 an instru- 

 ment maker named Joseph Donegany established a shop at 54 

 Smith Street in New York City,^* where — according to an adver- 

 tisement in the October 17, 1787, issue of The New York Daily 

 Advertiser — he made "thermometers, barometers and sold hydro- 

 static Bubbles and hygrometers for proving spirits, and also . . . 

 glasses for experimental purposes." It is probable that Denegan 

 and Donegany were one and the same; since Denegan was stated 

 to have been of Italian origin, the name may originally have been 

 "De Negani." 



Joseph Gatty advertised himself as an "Artist from Italy" with 

 a shop at 341 Pearl Street in New York City where he "made and 

 sold every simple and compound form of barometer and thermome- 

 ter as well as curious Hygrometers for assaying spirits which show 

 the actual strength with the greatest precision and are not liable to 

 be corroded, in addition to several new Philosophical Instruments 

 of his own invention, and all types of artificial fireworks."" By 

 1796 Gatty (or Gatti?) had moved to Philadelphia where he had a 

 shop at 79 South Front Street and advertised the same items that 

 had appeared in his advertisements in New York. The Philadel- 

 phia directory for 1800 listed Gatty as a "Weather Glass Maker." ^^ 



Native American Makers 



Comparatively speaking, the greater proportion of the early 

 American' instrument makers were native born. Among these 

 were to be found a substantial number of artisans trained as 

 clockmakers who subsequently produced scientific instruments to 

 meet the surveying and nautical needs of their communities. 



^2 Rita S. Gottesman, The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1 777-1 799 (New York: 

 New York Historical Society, 1954), pp. 220-221. 

 ^^ The Pennsylvania Evening Herald, March 17, 1787. 

 '^* Gottesman, op cit. (footnote 22), pp. 311-312. 

 ^^ The Diary, or Evening Register, November 3, 1794. 

 "^^ GiLLiNGHAM, op. cit. (footnote 26), p. 306. 



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