NA TURE 



ii 



THURSDAY, MAY ii, 1876 



THE LOAN COLLECT/ON 



THE Queen will on Saturday open to the public the 

 magnificent collection of scientific instruments, the 

 arrangement of which has for several months been task- 

 ing the energies of the Science and Art Department and 

 of the eminent men of science who have generously 

 volunteered their assistance. This event may justly be 

 regarded as an " epoch-making " stage in the progress of 

 science, not only in this country, but in the world at 

 large ; for, as our readers know, the collection is essen- 

 tially an international one, the principal nations of the 

 world having vied with each other in contributing to 

 render it worthily representative of the present state of 

 science, and of the progress of its methods from the 

 time when man first began feebly to question Nature. 

 England may well be proud that the idea of such 

 a collection originated with the English Science Depart- 

 ment, and that the first international scientific loan col- 

 lection will be exhibited in her capital. It may be that 

 this collection will not attract such a crowd of visitors 

 as would flock to gaze on an exhibition of pictures, or 

 musical instruments, or embroidery, or old china ; but, if 

 the British public still retains its normal amount of 

 curiosity, surely the magnitude of the present collection, 

 the historical interest attaching to many of the objects 

 exhibited, the number and eminence of the contributors, 

 and the fact that the principal governments of Europe 

 have enthusiastically seconded the efforts of the British 

 Government, ought to excite that curiosity to the utmost. 

 A great deal of mystery still bangs about science and 

 scientific men and scientific methods in the eyes 

 of many ; here then at last have people an oppor- 

 tunity of inspecting for themselves these mysterious 

 instruments by means of which men of science have 

 reached those results that are stirring the minds of all 

 thoughtful men, and have revolutionised ideas and 

 methods in all departments of human activity. English- 

 men must be duller and more incurious than we take 

 them to be, if they do not show a fair amount of interest 

 in that scientific collection which her Majesty will open 

 on Saturday. 



But while many, no doubt, will be attracted to the 

 galleries of the International Collection by mere curi- 

 osity, we are sure that the scientific education of this 

 country is sufficiently advanced to secure a large pro- 

 portion of visitors animated by an inteUigent and edu- 

 cated eagerness to gratify their scientific tastes by in- 

 specting apparatus the importance and uses of which 

 they are well enough taught to appreciate. Both to this 

 latter class and to those who still lie in unscientific 

 darkness, the two thick volumes ^ which have been 

 issued — prepared at the request of the Lords of the 

 Committee of Council on Education — as guides to the 

 Loan Collection ought to be a welcome boon. Some 

 idea of the extent of the collection may be obtained 

 from the fact that these two volumes together number 



^ " Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at 

 the South Kensington Museum." First Edition. — " Handbook to the 

 Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus." 1876. 



You Kiv. — No. 341 



nearly i,ooo pages, and they are both at present incom- 

 plete. With these in his hands as guides no visitor need * 

 go empty away from the collection. A careful perusal of 

 these two volumes combined with a systematic series of 

 visits to the various sections of the) collection, would, like 

 the acquaintance of a certain noble lady, be in itself a 

 liberal education ; and indeed few better methods could 

 be devised of rousing a love for science in the minds of 

 intelligent people. 



In two previous articles we have attempted to give a 

 general sketch of the nature of the collection ; in the 

 present article we shall, with the two volumes referred to 

 as guides, briefly give some idea of its extent and arrange- 

 ment. The large Committee— and there is scarcely a 

 scientific name of eminence absent from it — that met 

 little more than a year ago at the request of the Lords of 

 the Committee of Council on Education to confer on the 

 organisation of a Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus 

 ought to be proud of the results of that first conference 

 as embodied in these two valuable pubhcations. The 

 names on this Committee, and those on the Committees 

 formed in foreign countries, number somewhere about 

 300 ; a glance at the lists shows that the names are those 

 of the foremost scientific workers of our time. Specially 

 gratifying must the result be to the staff of volunteers 

 who have assisted in the arrangement of the collection, 

 and whose names their Lordships justly record with 

 "■ great satisfaction." They are : Capt. Abney, Dr. Atkin- 

 son, Mr. Bartlett, Dr. Brunton, Dr. Biedermann, Prof. 

 Crum-Brown, Capt. Fellowes, Prof. Carey-Foster, Dr. 

 Michael Foster, Herr Kirchner, Prof. Goodeve, Dr. 

 Guthrie, Commander J. A. Hull, Mr. Iselin, Mr. Judd, 

 Mr. Norman Lockyer, Dr. R. J. Mann, Mr. Clements 

 Markham, Prof. H. MacLeod, Prof. Roscoe, Prof. Shelley, 

 Dr. Burdon Sanderson, Dr. Schuster, Dr. Voit, and Mr. 

 R. Wylde. 



Their Lordships, we should say, are particular in calling 

 attention to the fact that this is not an International 

 Exhibition J the purpose and arrangement of this collec- 

 tion are entirely different from those of such an exhibi- 

 tion, which is always arranged according to countries and 

 into which the commercial element largely enters. The 

 arrangement here, on the contrary, is according to sub- 

 jects, and the object is solely to illustrate the history and 

 present condition of scientific apparatus. The transport 

 of all objects has been undertaken by the English 

 Government, and they have been handed over absolutely 

 to the custody of the Science and Art Department. 



Prefixed both to the Catalogue and the Guide is a clear 

 and useful plan of the buildings at Kensington, showing 

 the arrangement of the apparatus in the various galleries. 

 Fourteen galleries in all are occupied with the collection, 

 embracing the ground floors of the entire south and west 

 sides, and the upper floor of the latter. Entering, as the 

 Queen will do on Saturday, by the entrance in Exhibi- 

 tion Road, we come first upon A, the Educational Col- 

 lections ; following which are B, C, Applied Mechanics ; 

 D, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering ; E, 

 Lighthouse Apparatus ; F, Magnetism and Electricity ; 

 G, Arithmetic and Geometry ; H, K, Measurement ; L, 

 Astronomy and Meteorology ; these are all on the ground 

 floor. Ascending to the upper floor, we pass through M, 

 Geography, Geology, and Mining; N, Biology; O, 



