Читать книгу Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers - Silvio A. Bedini - Страница 25

A surprisingly small number of the Massachusetts craftsmen working before the end of the 18th century produced scientific instruments. Among the very earliest were several members of the King family of Salem. Daniel King (1704–1790) was born in Salem on November 17, 1704. At the time of his death Rev. William Bentley spoke of him as a "maker of Mathematical Instruments" and a "teacher of Mathematics."[28]

Figure 17.—Brass surveying compass made by Stephen Greenleaf (fl. 1745) of Boston. Photo courtesy New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord.

Following Daniel's death, his business in instruments was inherited by his son Benjamin King (1740–1804), of Salem. Benjamin specialized in producing nautical instruments, and several of his Davis quadrants have survived in public collections. When he died on December 26, 1804, Reverend Bentley wrote that King was " … a Mathematical Instrument maker, in that branch which immediately regarded practical navigation by quadrant and compass. He supported a very good character through life & was much esteemed."[29]

Another of the very early mathematical instrument makers in Massachusetts was Stephen Greenleaf (see fig. 17), who kept a shop on Queen Street opposite the prison in Boston where

He makes and Mends all Sorts of Mathematical Instruments, as Theodolites, Spirit Levels, Semicircles, Circumferences, and Protractors, Horizontal and Equinoctial Sun Dials, Azimuth and Amplitude Compasses, Elliptical and Triangular Compasses, and all sorts of Common Compasses … N.B. He sets Load Stones on Silver or Brass, after the best manner.[30]

Jonathan Dakin worked as a mathematical balance-maker "at the Sign of the Hand & Beam, opposite to Dr. Colman's Meeting House" where he made a variety of scale beams in 1745.[31]

An interesting advertisement by Rowland Houghton appeared in the January 17–24, 1737, issue of the Boston Gazette. Houghton announced that he had "lately improv'd on his new Theodolite, by which the Art of Surveying is rendered more plain & easy than heretofore." Houghton was active in the political scene in Boston, as evidenced by the fact that in various issues of the Boston Gazette for January and February 1739 he is listed variously as "Commissioner," "Proprietors' Clerk" and as "Collector."

Isaac Greenwood, Jr. (1730–1803), was born at Cambridge, where he married Mary I'ams in 1757. He maintained a shop where he combined the business of mathematical instrument maker and ivory turner, and also imported hardware. After the Revolution, he engaged in dentistry, specializing in making artificial teeth and in the manufacture of "umbrilloes." Paul Revere apparently did printing for him on five different occasions between 1762 and 1774, and in about 1771 engraved his trade card, which read:

ISAAC GREENWOOD, Ivory Turner Next door to Doctor John Clark's at the North End Boston. Turns all sorts of work in Ivory, Silver, Brass, Iron, Horn, Wood, etc. Such as Billiard Balls, Tea Boards, Scallop^d and Plain Salvers, Decanters … [32]

Isaac's father, Isaac Greenwood, Sr., was "Professor of Mathematicks and Natural and Experimental Philosophy" at Harvard. In the Boston Gazette for February 19–26, 1728, there appeared the following notice of his installation:

On the 13th of this Month at Ten in the Morning, The Honorable & Reverend Overseers of the College at Cambridge, met the Corporation in the College Hall, to Inaugurate Mr. Isaac Greenwood into the Office of Professor of the Mathematicks, and Natural and Experimental Philosophy, lately founded by that great and living Benefactor to this Society, Mr. Thomas Hollis of London Merchant. The Rev. President being detain'd by illness, Mr. Flint the Senior Fellow perform'd the part of Moderator, began with Prayer, and then Pronounc'd a Latin Oration proper to the Occasion: Mr. Wiggleworth Divinity Professor, read the Founders Instructions. Mr. Greenwood took the Oaths and made the Declarations required in them: and pronounc'd a Latin Oration. The Rev. Mr. Appleton Pray'd: and Singing part of the 104 Psalm concluded the Solemnity. After which the Overseers & Corporation repair'd to the Library; till the Publick Dinner in the Hall was ready, where all the Gentlemen Spectators of the Solemnity were hansomely Entertained.

Greenwood continued to teach privately for a decade. In various issues of The Boston Gazette of 1738 and 1739 he featured an advertisement, the text of which always stated:

Such as are desirous of learning any Part of Practical or Theoretical Mathematics may be taught by Isaac Greenwood, A.M. &c. in Clark's Square, near the North Meeting House, where Attendance will be given between the Hours of 9 and 12 in the Forenoon, and 2 and 5 in the Afternoons.

N.B. Instructions may also be had in any Branch of Natural Philosophy, when there is a sufficient Number to attend.[33]

John Bailey II (1752–1823) of Hanover and Lynn, Massachusetts worked as a clockmaker from about 1770. His father, John Bailey I, and his brothers Calvin and Lebbeus also were clockmakers. Bailey married Mary Hall of Berwick, Maine, and settled in Hanover where he made scientific instruments and clocks. A brass surveying compass in the collection of the New York Historical Society is inscribed "J. BAILEY HANOVER 1804."[34]

Undoubtedly the best known instrument maker in Massachusetts was Joseph Pope (1750–1826), of Boston, who was described by contemporaries as the "local mathematician, watch-maker and mechanical genius." In 1787 he completed the construction of a gear-driven orrery displaying the motions of the solar system in a horizontal plane with eccentric and inclined orbits. At each of the twelve corners were mounted cast bronze figures, claimed to have been carved in wood by Simeon Skillin and cast in bronze by Paul Revere. Although the instrument was made for Harvard, the university lacked funds for its purchase. Accordingly, it held a public lottery which realized a substantial sum in excess of the £450.3.0 paid to Pope, and the orrery was delivered in December 1788.[35] The orrery (fig. 18) has survived and is part of the collection of historical scientific instruments at Harvard University.

According to a statement in the Boston Gazette for February 16, 1789, an apparatus for displaying planets in their proper orbits by means of wires was made and exhibited in Boston by Bartholomew Burges.

Mention must also be made of several members of the Folger family of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Peter Folger (1617–1690), founder of the American branch of the family, emigrated from Norfolk, England, in 1635 and occupied himself in Nantucket as blacksmith, schoolmaster, watchmaker, and surveyor. He was a grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. Another notable descendant was Maria Mitchell (1818–1889), professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Vassar College.

The best known member of the family was Walter Folger, Jr. (1765–1849), a self-taught clockmaker and watchmaker with great interest in the sciences. A telescope that he produced about 1818 was considered to be the finest in the country at that time. His greatest achievement was a tall case astronomical clock that he devised and constructed; it was completed in 1790 and is considered to be the most complicated domestic clock on record.[36] Folger also produced quadrants and compasses, and made astronomical observations. His observations of the solar eclipse of September 17, 1811, were published in 1815 in Memoirs of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Probably one of the most significant of the surviving early American scientific instruments is a pair of gunners' calipers made and used by PAUL REVERE (1735–1818) of Boston. The calipers are made of incised brass, measuring 7 inches in length and 1–¾ inches in width. They are signed on the reverse side with the name "Revere" in the style of script signature used by this maker in many of his engravings. The design of the instrument is substantially different from that which is commonly found in English, French, and German gunners' calipers of the period, and was probably Revere's own. (See figs. 19, 20.)