778 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 308. 



On this auspicious occasion, when the 

 great French nation has invited the peoples 

 of the world to inaugurate the 20th century 

 by joining together under her hospitable 

 sky in a brilliant exhibition of the worlis of 

 peaceful competition, it would not seem ir- 

 relevant to glance back upon the departed 

 century. It has been essentially an age of 

 scientific and technical development and, 

 naturally, the mechanical and optical trades 

 claim a prominent share in the progress of 

 mankind within the last hundred years. If 

 we compare our present fundamental basis 

 of all scientific measurements, our weights 

 and measures, in their present perfection, 

 with those existing a hundred years ago ; 

 if we place our finest astronomical and sur- 

 veying instruments side by side with the 

 to us almost primeval forms as they existed 

 at the beginning of the century ; or if we 

 glance at our present sensitive physical and 

 electrical measurements, remembering that 

 a hundred years ago these were undreamt-of 

 things, or in existence only in the crudest 

 form, we cannot escape from a gladden- 

 ing appreciation of the enormous progress 

 made within the last century in the con- 

 struction of philosophical instruments, as 

 well as their reaction upon the progress of 

 scientific investigations by dint of improved 

 methods. A prominent share in this de- 

 velopment of the aids of science is due to 

 the German mechanicians and opticians. 



At the commencement of the 19th cen- 

 tury the French and English makers of 

 scientific instruments were far in advance 

 of the Germans. True, the 18th century 

 knew of prominent mechanicians, and at 

 the very beginning of the 19th century 

 Fraunhofer and Eeichenbach and their dis- 

 ciples, Repsold, of Hamburg, Pistor, of Ber- 

 lin,-and others, had secured general respect, 

 in the scientific world, for German mechan- 

 ical skill ; yet the French and English 

 makers took the lead at that time, so as to 

 almost supply the world's entire demand in 



scientific instruments. This predominance 

 had the further consequence of causing 

 young Germans to emigrate to France or 

 England in order to thoroughly master their 

 subject. Many a German mechanician of 

 the present day owes to French or English 

 masters a substantial portion of his knowl- 

 edge, and even in these days it is the aspira- 

 tion of many a Teuton to widen his practical 

 knowledge in France or England. The 

 prominent position of the French and Eng- 

 lish instrument-makers was mainly due to 

 the support which in both countries the 

 State bestowed upon technical art. In Eng- 

 land, the interests of the navy and mer- 

 chant service gave rise to the assiduous de- 

 velopment of astronomical and nautical 

 measuring instruments, more particularly 

 of astronomical chronometers, so as to en- 

 sure in these branches an absolute suprem- 

 acy, which German mechanicians have only 

 within the last ten or twenty years been 

 able to contest. France owed her prominent 

 position to the great geometrical survey of 

 Cassini and his followers and, in a still 

 greater degree, the admirable comprehen- 

 sive labors leading to the establishment of 

 the metrical system of weights and meas- 

 ures, which in its turn resulted in far- 

 reaching improvements in the construction 

 of appliances for weighing and measuring, 

 astronomical and surveying, physical and 

 chemical instruments. 



In Germany, it is only within the last 

 twenty or twenty-five years that the State 

 has espoused the interests of the home in- 

 dustry in scientific instruments, but such 

 have been the efforts and results that the 

 position has, at a blow, as it were, changed 

 in favor of Germany. Every possible en- 

 couragement was offered and great problems 

 were created by the expenditure of the Ger- 

 man governments, within the last thirty 

 years, on art and science, the establishment 

 of numerous large physical 'and chemical 

 laboratories, the erection of new and the ex- 



