At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the core of a typical teaching collection was composed by apparatus, which were very similar to the ones proposed in the eighteenth century by 's Gravesande, Nollet, Desaguliers and others lecturer demonstrators and makers. Since 1820 circa, new didactic instruments were introduced. Most of them concerned the fast developing branches of physics such as wave optics, electromagnetisms and acoustics. Instrument makers (and many scientists as well) were extremely prolific in inventing new devices for better demonstrating all the laws of physics and for clearly visualizing all its phenomena. Therefore, around 1900 all the most important German, French and British makers proposed in their thick catalogues thousands of didactic apparatus. But were all these instrument really used? Probably not. Many of them were acquired by schools and universities because they were considered ''status symbol'' marking the importance and the completeness of a collection. Others were simply shown as ''tri-dimensional'' illustrations. For various reasons, during the first decade of the twentieth century the number of available didactic instruments was drastically reduced. The introduction of student training laboratory, the increasing cost of labour and of materials after WWI, the needs of a more standardized production, the progresses of physics not only eliminated from the trade catalogues many of the classical but old fashioned instruments but also stimulated the use of modular and simpler didactic apparatus.
The Pavia Museum of Electrical Technology preserves a remarkable collection of a number of electric batteries of the 19th and 20th centuries, deposited by the Govoni family. Starting from replicas of the original battery invented by Alessandro Volta, a professor of the Pavia University, it is therefore possible to make a journey through the history of electrochemical batteries, in particular, produced in the past two centuries. The variety of batteries includes primary and secondary batteries, different according to the nature of the electrodes and of the electrolyte, batteries with one or two liquids, wet and dry batteries, etc.
Abstract<title> SUMMARY </title>During the 19th Century the systematic collecting of meteorological data became a general practice. Several scientists and instrument makers invented new meteorological instruments and improved the existing ones. Probably the most impressive and sophisticated recording apparatus was the meteorograph devised between 1855 and 1865 by the Italian astronomer Padre Angelo Secchi (1818-1878). This huge and complicated machine was presented to the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition where it was considered the technological masterpiece. The instrument worked in Rome for several years and then, partially dismanteled, was finally stored in the Osservatorio Astronomico di Monte Porzio (Rome). Recently carried to Florence, the meteorograph is now beeing restored in the laboratories of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure under the supervision of the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza. My paper will trace the history of this ingeniuos instrument which represented a technological achievement but an economic failure.
This article focuses on the evolution and transformations of the instrument-making industry between 1850 and 1930. It begins with an overview of some broad categories of instruments, namely: research and precision measurement instruments, didactic and teaching instruments, industrial instruments, professional instruments, and scientific instruments. It then examines the history of the production of physics instruments and how workshops were organized, along with some of the techniques and materials used in the production of instruments. It also discusses the advertising, trading, and selling of instruments during the period; how instrument-makers in France, Britain, and Germany fared; the state of instrument-making from 1900 to World War I; and instrument-making in the United States and other countries in Europe. Finally, it evaluates instrument-making during the inter-war years.
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