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NA TURE 



\April 27, 1876 



can up to the latest moment, and this has somewhat 

 retarded the arrangements. The Russian contributions 

 have not yet been received. The collection of instru- 

 ments from Italy is, in many respects, of a peculiarly 

 interesting character. 



A catalogue and a series of handbooks are in 

 course of preparation. Some idea of the extent of the 

 collections may be obtained from the fact that in the 

 former there will be somewhere about 6,000 entries. 

 The nature and value of the handbooks tor the various 

 departments may be learned from the fact that they are 

 prepared by such men as Huxley, Henry Sm tb, Clifford, 

 Maskelyne, Carey Foster, Guthrie, Clements Markham, 

 Lockyer, and others. The entire work, extending to some 

 300 pages, in which the history and functions of the several 

 instruments are dealt with, will be expounded in a clear 

 and succinct manner. 



It would be impossible, we imagine, to walk through 

 those corridors and inspect the various objects encased 

 on either hand, without soon beginning to marvel at the 

 multiplicity and complexity of the tools which science has 

 come to construct for herself in the progress of her in- 

 quiries ; and at the degree of precision and skill to which 

 she has at length attained, after many a tentative and 

 faltering step towards the end in view. Yet it may truly 

 be said, that as the branches and divisions of science 

 multiply in increasing ratio, and therewith also the appara- 

 tuses become more and more complicated, the investigator, 

 acquiring a deeper insight and wider range, ere long 

 perceives a unity where he had not previously imagined 

 it, and finds that many things which had seemed to be so 

 many disjecta membra are knit together in the closest in- 

 terrelations. It is perhaps not among the least benefits 

 accruing from an exhibition like the present, that scientific 

 men are enabled to survey, in close juxtaposition with 

 their own line of research, other lines which they may 

 have given little heed to, or but imperfectly compre- 

 hended. To an outsider also, who appreciates the keen 

 enjoyment of scientific tastes, and is not hopelessly devoted 

 to a hobby, the comparison cannot fail to be pleasant and 

 instructive. 



Again, that progress of science just referred to, from the 

 less perfect to the more perfect, from the rough and 

 clumsy to the finished and refined, in the construction of 

 her instruments, affords a retrospect that is fascinatingly 

 instructive. In the inspection of the collection one comes 

 ever and anon upon some antiquated-looking instrument of 

 plain proportions and great simplicity, which almost seems 

 as though it had stumbled by mistake into the company of 

 its elegant and brightly furbished conquerors — had come 

 among a generation that knew it not. Yet these ancient 

 relics have a deeply interesting history, and they will 

 doubtless attract to themselves no small share of 

 attention from the visitors who will take advantage, we 

 trust, in large numbers, of the unique opportunities this 

 exhibition affords. Nor would any contempt which 

 might momentarily arise for the impretentious and un- 

 couth figure of these instruments be long in giving place 

 to a sort of veneration and awe, for the story they have 

 to tell that they took shape under the hand or at 

 least under the thoughtful direction of a Galileo or 

 a Herschel, 



The general arrangement of the exhibition, which, as 

 already mentioned, is by no means complete yet, may 

 here be briefly indicated. The space occupied is in the 

 West and South Courts. After passing through the 

 South Court, in which stand the South Kensington 

 Museum instruments, the Educational apparatus, and 

 those relating to Applied Mechanics, the visitor enters 

 the West Court, the northern portion of which contains 

 the greater bulk of the present collection. Here in 

 succession are arranged the departments of Magnetism 

 and Electricity, Mathematics, Meteorology, and Astro- 

 nomy. On proceeding upstairs and returning, the 

 rooms devoted to Geography and Geology, Biology, 

 Chemistry, and Physics, are successively passed through. 

 This will indicate the general arrangement of the whole ; 

 but the classification of the various instruments in the 

 catalogue now being prepared is considerably more 

 detailed. 



It is not our intention here to attempt anything like an 

 exhaustive account of the various objects of interest which 

 line these courts. In the Astronomical department will be 

 seen several of Galileo's instruments, including two tele- 

 scopes made by himself, one of which served for his 

 most important discoveries and experiments. The object- 

 glass is shown by which he discovered Jupiter's satellites, 

 and first saw spots on the sun. The Reale Institute of 

 Florence, to which the Exhibition is indebted for these 

 instruments, has sent sundry other relics of the great 

 astronomer, including a natural magnet, which he armed, 

 and an air thermometer and microscope, which were his. 

 Nor should we fail to be interested in such instruments 

 as a quadrant of Tjcho Brah^, some object-glasses 

 and eye-pieces, which were mostly polished by Christian 

 and Constantino Huyghens, and a telescope of Huyghens. 

 A venerable wooden object near the wall ir, Sir W. 

 Herschel's 7-fcet telescope, both mirrors of which were 

 finished by Sir William's own hands, and there is also 

 shown a lo-feet reflecting Newtonian telescope also made 

 by him. Several of Gravesande's instruments are shown ; 

 also the appar.itus used by Baily in repeating Cavendish's 

 experiments, Foucault's pendulum apparatus, Gauss's 

 ptndulum for demonstrating the rotation of the earth, &c. 

 The more modern aids of astronomical observation are 

 largely represented, and, among others, there is a beau- 

 tiful transit instrument, of novel construction, from 

 Germany. 



Among the instruments of a mathematical order are 

 Babbage's celebrated calculating machine, also two 

 calculating machines constructed in 1775 and 1777 by 

 James Black for Viscount Mahon. We might also 

 note the integrating machine of Sir W. Thomson. 

 The laws of combination of harmonic motions have 

 been illustrated by some ingenious apparatus of Messrs. 

 Tisley and Spiller, and by a machine invented by 

 Mr. Donkin ; but the most important application of 

 these laws is to be found in Sir W. Thomson's tidal 

 clock, and in a more elaborate machine which draws 

 curves predicting the height of the tide at a given part for 

 all times of the day and night, with as much skill as can 

 be obtained by direct observation. Then there are the 

 " Napier bones " of the inventor of logarithms, used for 

 performing multiplication and division. Among measur- 



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