NATURE 



301 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1875 



THE LOAN COLLECTION OF SCIENTIFIC 

 INSTRUMENTS 



WE do not think we are going too far in assuming 

 that the unusually influential meeting held at 

 South Kensington last Saturday may be regarded as the 

 first and a very emphatic step in a most important work. 

 What the nature of that meeting was will be seen from 

 the following report, which has appeared in most of the 

 daily papers : — 



" A meeting was held at South Kensington on 

 Saturday for the purpose of discussing the advisability of 

 bringing together a loan collection of scientific appa- 

 ratus. The' Duke of Richmond, the Lord President of 

 the Council, took the chair, the Vice-President, Lord 

 Sandon, being also present. The following noblemen 

 and gentlemen attended the meeting :— Lord Hamp- 

 ton, President of the Institute of Naval Architects ; 

 Prof Abel, Chemist to the War Department ; Dr. All- 

 man, President of the Linnean Society ; Mr. W. B. 

 Bascomb ; Prof. F. A. Bradley ; Mr. F. J. Bramwell, 

 President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers ; 

 Mr. H. Cole, C.B. ; Admiral CoUinson, C.B. ; Mr. G. 

 Dixon, M.P. ; Prof W. T. Thiselton Dyer ; Prof. G. Carey 

 Forster ; Prof E. Frankland ; Dr. Gladstone, President 

 of the Physical Society ; Prof Goodeve ; Mr. T. E. 

 Harrison, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers ; 

 Dr. Hooker, C.B., President of the Royal Society ; Prof 

 T. H. Huxley, Secretary of the Royal Society ; Mr. J. 

 Norman Lockyer ; Mr. C. W, Merrifield ; Prof. Odling, 

 President of the Chemical Society ; Prof Ramsay ; 

 Major-General Sir H. Rawlinson, K.C.B., President of 

 the Royal Geographical Society ; Dr. Burdon- Sanderson, 

 Vice-President of the Royal Society ; Mr. T. Savage ; 

 Sir J. P. Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart. ; Mr. C. W. Siemens ; 

 Mr. Warington Smyth ; Rev. J. Twisden ; Prof Tyndall, 

 President of the British Association ; Prof W. C. Unwin ; 

 Sir J. Whitworth, Bart. ; and Dr. J. Woolley. On the 

 motion of the President of the Royal Society, it was 

 unanimously agreed that such an exhibition would be 

 most instructive and valuable. The question of the limits 

 of the collection was discussed, and sub-committees were 

 appointed to deal with the various branches of science to 

 which it is proposed the collections should have reference. 

 It was generally understood that the main objects of the 

 exhibition would be to show modern apparatus for teach- 

 ing and for research ; the applications of science to 

 industry ; and such apparatus as is historically interesting 

 from the occasions in which, or the persons by whom, it 

 had been employed. The exhibition will be opened at 

 the commencement of June. It is, however, doubtful at 

 present whether all branches of science will be taken 

 during this year, or whether the exhibition will be 

 extended over two years, as the space disposable in the 

 South Kensington Museum, where the exhibition is to be 

 held, is rather restricted." 



The presence at a meeting of this kind of two such in- 

 fluential members of her Majesty's Government as the 

 Duke of Richmond and Lord Sandon may, we think, be 

 taken as significant that the present Government is wiUing 

 to do what it can for the advancement of science and of 

 scientific education, and in order to do this, is seeking to 

 learn what its duties are in the matter. The tone of the reply 

 of the two above-named Mmisters to the King's College 

 deputation last week is quite in accordance with this view. 

 Vol. xr. — No. 277 ^ 



The meeting was altogether a remarkable one, consist- 

 ing as it did of two of her Majesty's Ministers, together 

 with many of the most eminent men of science in the 

 country ; and their unanimity in favour of the proposal is 

 a proof of its high importance, and we hope a guarantee 

 of its success. 



With regard to the proposal itself, the wonder is that 

 no steps have long ere now been taken to organise a 

 Museum for the illustration of the Physical, Chemical, and 

 Mechanical Sciences. One of the recommendations con- 

 tained in the Fourth Report of the Commission on Scien- 

 tific Instruction and the Advancement of Science pro- 

 poses the forma:ion of a collection of physical and 

 mechanical instruments, and submits for consideration 

 whether it may not be expedient that this collection, the 

 collection of the Patent Museum, and that of the Scien- 

 tific and Educational Department of the South Ken- 

 sington Museum, should be united and placed under the 

 authority of a Minister of State. In our article on this 

 Report (Nature, vol. ix. p. 397) we went so fully into the 

 subject that it is unnecessary to dwell again upon it now- 

 Why the particular departments mentioned above should 

 be left out in the cold it would be difficult to give a reason 

 for ; probably, as we before suggested, it has been simply 

 from want of thought ; and nowthat so many eminentmenof 

 science have met together, under the auspices of two mem- 

 bers of her Majesty's Government, we may hope that the 

 great gaps in our system of Museums will not remain longun- 

 filled up. Natural History, including Geology, Zoology, 

 Botany, not to mention nearly every practical application of 

 science, such as Mining, &c., have, in London at least, 

 resources for the practical study of their history and 

 methods ; and we are exceedingly glad that this is the 

 case. Greatly on this account, we believe, is it that these 

 sciences are so popular, and that so much more is known 

 about their results among the people at large, than about 

 the various departments of the Physical Sciences. If a 

 student in any of the above sciences wants to pursue an 

 investigation on any point connected with their history, 

 their methods, or their results, he has magnificent scope 

 for so doing both in London and in other large towns 

 throughout the country. But the unfortunate student of 

 any department of the Physical Sciences — Electricity, 

 Magnetism, Heat, Light, Chemistry — if he wants to study 

 thoroughly or to investigate any point connected with his 

 subject, has nothing for it but to buy his apparatus, 

 borrow it from a friend, or perhaps only look at it in a 

 shop window. 



A collection which exemplifies the history of the pro- 

 gress of any science may be made both interesting and 

 instructive ; and of all the sciences none can be more aptly 

 and fully illustrated in this respect than the Physical Sci- 

 ences. How interesting even to the uninitiated was the 

 recent exhibition of a historical series of musical instru- 

 ments at South Kensington; but how much greater 

 would be the interest that would attach to, and how much 

 higher the instruction to be derived from, a collection of 

 apparatus that would exhibit the progress in the single 

 department of Optics, say from Newton down to Cornu 

 and Fizeau, embracing as it might very well do all the 

 work that has been done in recent years by means of the 

 prism. So in the department of Heat in all its branches, 



