Scientific Instrument Commission

The SIC promotes scholarly research on the history of scientific instruments. Tweets by Taha Yasin Arslan with a bit of help from several friends.

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Follow us and our activities at our website:
https://t.co/yk0bIa8EYK

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

See a new study on her biography: https://t.co/4CvES5BiEp

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Margaret Bryan (d. 1836) was an English scholar and educator. She taught young ladies from 1791 to 1836 in her boarding school giving lectures on standard topics to non-standard topics like exact sciences.
#instrumentexplorations

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

She has several scientific works intended for educational purposes. Among them, Compendious System of Astronomy (editions in 1797, 1799, 1805), Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1806), and Astronomical and Geographical Class Book for Schools (1815) are particularly noteworthy.

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Science History Institute has digital collections which contain scans of the illustrated pages of numerous rare books ranging on scientific instruments and apparatus. https://t.co/eHNe8FVpfy

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

That's spot on, @peter_heering! It is an electrostatic perforator, first invented as an experiment by Jean-Antoine Nollet in the 1740s.
https://t.co/SGoVrj5ePt

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Here's our final #mysteryinstrument of 2023. Have a guess. We'll post the answer later.

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

It was invented as 'pyrometer' by the Dutch physicist Petrus Van Musschenbroek in the first half of the 18th century.

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Our #instrumentofthemonth is a dilatometer made in 1772 by the Spanish instrument maker Juan González. This device is used for measuring the changes on different types of metal rods which is quite essential for watchmakers. https://t.co/uhVUZIRbTF

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Most of his designs were improvements to existing technologies such as cars and phones.
Image source: https://t.co/1RI6DTludV

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Granville T. Woods (d. 1910) was arguably the first African American engineer in the US. He was an inventor who had 50-odd patents. These include a type of railway induction telegraph, a steam boiler furnace, and an egg incubator.
#instrumentalpeople

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Ever wonder how many types of microscopes there are? Check out the Museum of Microscopy: https://t.co/vmzEtORUf8
#instrumentexplorations

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

They are part of a 19th-century gas photometry experiment which is conducted to test the quality of luminosity of burning gas. https://t.co/HfmjtYUHgt

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Here's this month's #mysteryinstrument Any idea what these devices were used for?

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Our #instrumentofthemonth is a 3-foot theodolite known as the great theodolite. Made by Jesse Ramsden in London in 1791. It was used by the Board of Ordnance for ‘the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain’, a project for accurately mapping the country.
https://t.co/HI0cAhzQP0

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

https://t.co/dzQLuVz45O

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

A Lahore family of 4 generations of instrument makers dominated the production of scientific instruments in Mughal India in the 16th-17th centuries. At least 134 astrolabes and 33 globes by their hand are extant. The globes were made via the lost-wax method. #instrumentalpeople

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Image of a celestial globe made by Qa'im Muhammad ibn 'Isa ibn Allahdad Lahuri Humayuni in 1626/27.

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

The online collection of the Surveying Instrument Museum, the University of New South Wales Sydney, offers images and descriptions of about 200 instruments. https://t.co/6JRVUmdEvF

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

That's spot on, @peter_heering Thank you. It is indeed an instrument to measure the speed of light on the surface of the Earth. Made in 1849, it was used by the French physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (d.1896). https://t.co/ZF9Ha1BHUe

[Scientific Instrument Commission @ScientificInst5]

Here's this month's #mysteryinstrument Have a guess. We'll post the answer later.