Scientific Instruments in the History of Science: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Edited by: Marcus Granato Marta C. Lourenço
Museu de Astronomia e CiĂŞncias Afins Rio de Janeiro, 2014
Ficha catalográfica elaborada pela Biblioteca do Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins.
S416 Scientific instruments in the history of science: studies in transfer, use and preservation /Organization by Marcus Granato, Marta C. Lourenço.- Rio de Janeiro: Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins, 2014. 394 p. : il. 1. Instrumentos científicos. 2. História da Ciência. 3. Museologia. I. Granato, Marcus. II. Lourenço, Marta C. CDU: 069.02:5
TITLE: Scientific instruments in the history of science: Studies in transfer, use and preservation Selection of papers from the XXXI Symposium of the Scientific Instruments Commission Edited by: Marcus Granato and Marta C. Lourenço Scientific Committee: David Pantalony, Jim Bennett, Louise Devoy, Marcus Granato, Marta C. Lourenço, Paolo Brenni, Peter Heering, Richard Kremer, Silke Ackermann. Design: Ivo Almico, Mast Published by/Editor: Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (Mast) Rua General Bruce, 586 S. Cristóvão - Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL 20-921030 http://www.mast.br Published in: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Date: 2014 ISBN: 978 85 60069 57 6 (e-book) © 2014, Mast, Rio de Janeiro All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the MAST.
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: STUDIES IN TRANSFER, USE AND PRESERVATION
Table of Contents Introduction Marcus Granato and Marta C. Lourenço
7
Transfer of Scientific Instruments between Europe and the Americas Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
15
America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory, founded and used by Georg Marggrafe in Dutch colonial Brazil, 1638-1643 Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
33
The use of useless instruments: The gnomonic inventions by V. Estancel (S. J.) in transit through the Portuguese empire (1650-1680) Samuel Gessner
53
How telescopes came to New England, 1620-1740 Sara J. Schechner
69
Heaving a little ballast: Seaborne astronomy in the late-eighteenth century Richard Dunn
79
Instruments in transit: The Santo Ildefonso Treaty and the Brazilian border demarcations Isabel Malaquias
101
Talk, tariffs and trade: Restricting the global circulation of scientific instruments in Britain after the First World War Richard L. Kremer
117
The development of the Laussedat phototheodolite and its use on the BrazilArgentina Border Bruno Capilé and Moema de Resende Vergara
143
Recent Heritage of Science The trajectory of chromatography in Brazil: The case of the gas chromatograph Valeria Freitas and Marcio Rangel
161
Instituto Butantan's first electron microscope Adriana Mortara Almeida
173
Shaping 'good neighbor' practices in science: Mobility of physics instruments between the United States and Mexico, 1932-1951 Adriana Minor
185
4
Scientific heritage in Brazil: Surveying collections and groups of artefacts from the 'exact' sciences and engineering Marcus Granato, Marta C. Lourenço, Elias da Silva Maia, Fernanda Pires Santos, Gloria Gelmini de Castro and Mariana S. Damasceno
207
The Scientific Heritage of Education The Physics teaching instruments at Colégio Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro: Study and preliminary results Marcus Granato and Liliane Bispo dos Santos
231
Tools for teaching Physics and Chemistry in secondary schools: The case of the Colégio Culto à Ciência, Brazil, 1899-1902 Reginaldo Alberto Meloni
247
Scientific instruments for physics teaching in Brazilian secondary schools, 1931-1961 Maria Cristina de Senzi Zancul and Elton de Oliveira Barreto
259
The collection of scientific instruments of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano Museum, São Paulo: Origins, context and significance Katya Mitsuko Zuquim Braghini
277
The Use of Scientific Instruments for Teaching, Research and Innovation Photographing microscopic preparations in the nineteenth century: Techniques and instrumentation Maria Estela Jardim and Marília Peres
299
Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil: Building bridges and roads in Minas Gerais, 1835-1889 Télio Cravo
319
Health collections in museums: The case of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Pedro Paulo Soares and Inês Santos Nogueira
345
Resumos
355
Notes on Authors
387
5
Introduction Marcus Granato and Marta C. Lourenço
Interest in the organization, preservation and public access of Brazilian collections of scientific instruments has been growing in recent years. Given it geographical scale, Brazil has surprisingly few museums of science and technology. The public understanding of science movement has been strong in Brazil since the 1990s but, like in so many other countries, its impact on museums and collections has been limited. Only recently has progress been made on this front, largely through the initiative of the Museu de Astronomia e CiĂŞncias Afins [Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences] (MAST), and the collaborative partnerships it has established with multiple academic, scientific and cultural institutions, in Brazil and abroad. The MAST opened to the public in 1985. It is a research institute pertaining to the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. One of its most important missions is to preserve its collections and heritage, especially the most remarkable, the collection of scientific instruments, which grants MAST a special role and identity as a museum of science and technology. The Museum is located on the campus of the old National Observatory and it occupies several historical buildings. The whole site, including the collections, is listed and preserved by Federal Law since 1986. MAST's main building houses the Museum's storage, which is open to the public and where part of the collection of historical scientific instruments is displayed. The MAST holds one of the most important collections of scientific instruments in South America, with c. 2,000 objects. Around 1,600 instruments belonged to the former National Observatory of Brazil. They were used for research and services of great significance, such as the determination and
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
broadcasting of the official time in Brazil, forecasting the weather, the study of astronomical phenomena, the delimitation of Brazilian borders, the magnetic mapping of Brazilian soil, among others. Most instruments date to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, though some of the more aesthetically interesting pieces, such as the quadrant by J. Sisson and the G Adams theodolite, are from the 1700s. Many of the objects are connected to astronomy, topography, geodetics, geophysics, meteorology, weather and optical measurements. However, the collection also comprises other scientific areas, such as electricity, magnetism, mineral technology, nuclear engineering and chemistry. As a collection, it has always grown, albeit not always regularly. Today, the MAST collection contains objects from multiple national research institutions Its most recent accessions come from the Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear [Institute of Nuclear Engineering], the Centro de Tecnologia Mineral [Centre of Mineral Technology] and the Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas [Brazilian Center for Physics Research], all also research institutes under the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The collection is the target of a comprehensive preservation programme. The MAST also preserves a major historical archive comprising manuscripts, iconography and other documentation from different scientific institutions in Brazil and from some of the country's leading scientists. Finally, the Museum preserves outstanding in situ architectural heritage – functional buildings specially constructed for astronomical observations, whose design is typical of the turn of the twentieth century. It was in this context that the MAST hosted the 31st edition of the Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission (IUHPS/DHST). The conference took place between 8 and 12 October 2012 and it included visits to important collections of scientific instruments in the state of Rio de Janeiro (MAST, Museu Nacional/UFRJ, Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ, Museu Histórico Nacional and Museu Imperial in Petrópolis). It was the first time a SIC Symposium was organized in the Southern hemisphere. The conference was attended by 130 participants, particularly researchers and students from multiple institutions in Brazil and abroad. Sixty oral papers and 20 posters were presented. This volume results from a selection of these papers and posters. We are grateful to the members of the Scientific Committee who accompanied all the review process: David Pantalony (Canada Science and Technology Museum), Jim Bennett (Science Museum London), Paolo Brenni (Fondazione Scienze e Tecnica Florence/CNR), Peter Heering (University of Flensburg), Richard Kremer (Dartmouth University) and Silke Ackermann (Museum of the History of Science Oxford). More generally, we are grateful to the SIC international community for coming to Rio and the members of the SIC Board – Paolo Brenni, Sara Schechner and Hans Hooijmaijers – for their commitment and support. Papers and discussions addressed issues and challenges pertaining to research, interpretation, and promotion of scientific instruments, with emphasis on their use, trade, and transfer between Europe and the Americas. The book mirrors these topics, with 19 chapters organized in four sections: 'Transfer of
8
Introduction Marcus Granato and Marta C. Lourenço
Scientific Instruments between Europe and the Americas', 'Recent Heritage of Science', 'The Scientific Heritage of Education' and 'Scientific Instruments for Teaching, Research and Innovation'. The transit of objects, people and practices between countries has raised considerable interest in recent humanity studies. Rather than a mere unidirectional transmission from the so-called 'centers' of makers and trade to vague and indistinct 'peripheries' of users, instruments are increasingly perceived as vehicles of knowledge adaptation and negotiation. Moreover, the role of local makers and regional trade is increasingly valued by the history of science community and by museums that want their collections well documented. Silvia Figueiroa's chapter discusses the relation between global and local in scientific instruments in South America, with a focus on Brazil. The state of the art she presents on instrument studies and its relation to the history of science is comprehensive and covers the most important concepts and methods in recent historical and epistemological literature. Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart highlight early transfers of scientific instruments between Europe and South America. They present results of recent studies on the Astronomical Observatory created in 1638 in Recife, Brazil, by the astronomer, naturalist and cartographer Georg Marggrafe under the patronage of Governor of Dutch colonial Brazil, count Johan Maurits van Nassau. More or less around the same period, but in Portuguese colonial Brazil, namely Bahia and Pernambuco, the Moravian Jesuit Valentin Stansel designed instruments that have been considered 'useless' by some historians. Using Stasel's case as a point of departure, Samuel Gessner explores the concept of purpose in scientific instruments. The method he proposes in his chapter for analysing complex and multidimensional uses is likely to have applications beyond seventeenth century instruments. Moving on to North America, Sara Schechner follows the introduction and diffusion of the telescope in North America after its invention in Holland in 1608. She examines the period between the establishment of Plymouth Plantation until the first hundred years of Harvard College, identifying for the first time the earliest telescopes in North America. Nowhere were instruments more in transit than in expedition ships across the world. Richard Dunn examines the journal and correspondence of George Vancouver's expedition to the Pacific (1791-1795) on the Daedalus, particularly the daily use of instruments on the ship and in the field. Two chapters address the transit and use of scientific instruments in Brazilian border demarcations. Isabel Malaquias focus on the demarcations of Southern Brazil by Portugal and Spain following the Santo Ildefonso Treaty in 1777. J. H. de Magellan, based in London, prepared 11 collections of scientific instruments for both the Portuguese and Spanish expeditions. More than a 100 years later, scientific instruments were again used in the demarcation of the border between Brazil and Argentina. Bruno CapilĂŠ and Moema Vergara discuss these expeditions, with a focus on an instrument developed in France, the phototheodolite. Issues of national identity, economic development, power struggles and technical innovation are discussed in both chapters.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Transit and trade of commodities between countries typically involves tariffs and scientific instruments are no exception. Richard Kremer examines protectionism tariffs on the import of scientific instruments in post-World War I Britain. Perceived as critical for national security, the British Parliament considered that scientific instruments should be manufactured locally. Kremer examines the Parliamentarian debates and discusses economic, social and political implications of the UK Safeguarding of Industries Act between 1921 and the 1930s. Scientific instruments are traded, transferred and used for research and teaching in schools, universities, workshops and laboratories. Much more research needs to be done on the uses, re-uses, appropriations and adaptations of scientific instruments at local level. After they were acquired, what happened? Who used them? Were the uses expected or unorthodox? How were instruments absorbed by the social, political and scientific conditions of the institutions that acquired them? Did they act as catalysers for local innovation and change? Did they stimulate local instrument making, industry or trade? How did this happen in different countries, different institutions, and different environments? Recent heritage of science is benefiting from a growing interest from scholars. Fluidly defined by post-WWII scientific instruments, it raises new issues both in its study and its preservation. This volume presents four cases, all American. Valéria Freitas and Márcio Rangel illustrate how the Brazilian industry stimulated instrument innovation and trade. The gas chromatograph developed by scientist Rêmolo Ciola in the late 1950s was used in chemical analysis of organic compounds in the petrochemical industry. A few years later, Ciola and Ivo Gregori created and managed Instrumentos Científicos C. G. to supply the needs of gas chromatograph in Brazilian universities and industrial laboratories. It operated until the 1980s and one of the gas chromatographs produced is now at the MAST collection. Adriana Mortara Almeida examines local uses and training associated with the first electron microscopes installed in Brazil in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She focuses on a Siemens UM 1000, acquired in 1952 for virology studies at the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo. The electron microscope is part of the collection of the History Museum of the Instituto. Adriana Minor analyses the complex relations between science and geopolitical alliances between neighboring countries, namely the United States and Mexico between 1932 and 1951. Using two examples as a point of departure – the 1930s Compton cosmic rays expedition and the intervention of US Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations in early physics research in Mexico – Minor convincingly argues that there was a deliberate geostrategic interest from the US in developing science in Mexico, particularly theoretical and applied physics. Instrument transit, training and development were integral parts of that strategy. To close the section on recent heritage, Marcus Granato and his colleagues present the methods and tools used in the Brazilian survey of
10
Introduction Marcus Granato and Marta C. Lourenço
cultural heritage of science and technology, coordinated by the MAST, as well as some impressive preliminary results. A more in-depth study resulting from this survey – the collection of physics from the Colégio Pedro II in Rio – opens the next section, 'The Scientific Heritage of Education', in a chapter by Marcus Granato and Liliane Bispo dos Santos. In the case of Brazil, historical scientific instruments in secondary schools have raised considerable interest recently. Often preliminary in nature and requiring further collaborative research involving historians and collection/museum professionals, these studies are beginning to lift the veil on the uses and practices of scientific instruments in secondary education. This volume presents four contributions under this scope, from three schools in São Paulo (the Colégio Culto à Ciência, the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano and the Escola Estadual Bento de Abreu in Araraquara) and one in Rio de Janeiro (the Colégio Pedro II), respectively by Reginaldo Meloni, Katya Braghini, Maria Cristina Zancul and Elton Barreto, and the above mentioned Marcus Granato and Liliane dos Santos. In essence, the four chapters follow the same research approach: on the one hand combining material and archival sources, particularly old lists and inventories, on the other hand combining historical research methods with collections documentation, preservation and museology. Concerning the local uses of scientific instruments in research and development, this volume presents three fine case-studies. Maria Estela Jardim and Marília Peres provide a synthesis of innovation at instrumental and technical levels in microphotography applied to medicine and biology in the nineteenth century, as well as their introduction and dissemination in Portugal. Télio Cravo examines the use (and re-use) of scientific instruments by engineers in infrastructure development in nineteenth-century Minas Gerais, Brazil. Using an important historical source – the complete development processes of all the bridges and roads made in Minas Gerais between 1840 and 1889 – Cravo examines which instruments were used, the conditions of their maintenance and repair, as well as the books that complemented use. Finally, Pedro Paulo Soares and Inês Nogueira discuss the challenges of preserving the history and memory of an important Brazilian research institution devoted to health and Medicine: the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. This volume and more generally the SIC Symposium in Rio reinforced two conclusions that the international community of scientific instruments had already identified and debated in previous meetings. The first is that scientific instruments need to be studied and documented in order to be adequately preserved. It is no longer enough to merely identify function and maker. Instruments are bought, developed, cannibalized, put aside and trashed by researchers, students, engineers, technicians, industrials, and professors. They travel from Colombia to Canada, from the US to Europe, from Japan to Iceland. They are transferred from universities to secondary schools and often live 'second' and 'third' lives. They shape institution policies and geopolitical strategies. Museums and historians alike increasingly want to know more about the intricate lives of objects.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
12
Transfer of Scientific Instruments between Europe and the Americas
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueir么a Introduction This paper, originally presented as a lecture of the Symposium of the International Scientific Instruments Commission held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 2012), reviews some major issues related to scientific instruments, bringing together references from the history and philosophy of science and technology, and privileging the focus on Latin America. The starting point is the very definition of 'scientific instruments'. To address this topic, one necessarily has to start with a well known review article, published in 1990 in the British Journal for the History of Science, in which Deborah Warner asks, straightaway, in the title: 'what is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?'.1 The reply that the author provides along the pages is variable, coherent with the authors she mentions, not because she lacks analytical capacity and power of synthesis, but because the definition of this object is variable in itself according to time, contexts and fields of knowledge. Warner goes beyond the obvious verification of the historicity of the definitions and suggests that the contemporary terms of the instruments themselves be used, aiming at revealing or at least not obscuring significant aspects of their invention, use and circulation. Nevertheless, despite agreeing with the observations of Deborah Warner, for clarity's sake, I am going to use the expression 'scientific instruments' almost as a collective noun, to denominate a set of objects, instruments, apparatuses, machines, and so on, that carry out the function of mediators between the world, our perception of it, and the knowledge that we
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
build about it. In this sense, scientific instruments through their use and circulation, overlap and connect different cultural and professional contexts and disciplinary areas, allowing analyses under a scientific, technical/technological and educational focus or, better still, in the interconnection of these, as I will endeavor to argue here, in dealing with the teaching of science. Dominique Pestre summarizes this admirably: Scientific instruments are nothing more than objects built and validated by natural philosophers or by scientists, and their status varies according to the contexts in which they are put to work. They are objects that fulfill technical or production functions (and that are also built and evaluated according to specific criteria, by communities of artisans, entrepreneurs or engineers); they are devices endowed with varying symbologies and which have rhetorical and political functions (a given telescope or mathematical instrument specifically built for a Prince in a Court context); they are objects that may be conceived for collections (and that therefore respond to new aesthetic or social criteria); they may even be pedagogical instruments whose objective is to allow an easy and non-controversial reproduction of exact phenomena.2
For Ana Carneiro and Marianne Klemun,3 the connection produced by scientific instruments between nature, elements of science and scientific cultures bestows on them a communicative function, far more complex than that of mere measuring instruments, since 'to measure' is a more problematic operation than simply 'translating into numbers' a given phenomenon. The historiographical transformations undergone by the History of Science, of Techniques and Technologies in the last four decades, as interest shifted to the practices of doing Science without, however, disconnecting it from the universe of ideas and theories, made it possible for scientific instruments to emerge as epistemologically legitimate objects of History. Moreover, since Ian Hacking's seminal book Representing and Intervening,4 published in 1983, Philosophy of Science has also identified scientific instruments as having fundamental importance for scientific practices. Drawing attention to the role of experiments in science, Hacking offered a new perspective to the debate on realism and to the constructivist criticism of rationality. An original and important addition to these discussions was the role of manipulation and intervention in experimental practice.5 In a general classification, Paolo Brenni,6 drawing from G. L.' E. Turner,7 subdivides scientific instruments, in accordance with their use, into the following categories: 1) investigation and measure; 2) professional and industrial; and 3) educational/didactic. Evidently, however, this classification is not rigid, as the author reminds us:
16
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
Many of them derived from apparatus, which had been originally conceived and used for research and measurement. When these apparatus were completely 'exploited' and were not capable anymore of producing new data or unknown phenomena and finally when they had exhausted their 'investigating potential' they were used, in a sometime simplified version, as didactic instruments8. 9
As we know, and as competently shown by authors such as Otto Sibum, there is an abyss between what is used in the frontier of research and what, after standardization and normalization, lends itself to practical demonstration and manipulation. Brenni goes on, remembering that some other apparatuses belong to the branch of 'Physics is Fun' and can be defined as scientific toys that are intended to awaken curiosity and draw attention by means of surprising or even materializing paradoxical effects.10 Other instruments, moreover, become didactic due to the context in which they are used, such as thermometers, microscopes, calorimeters, among others, that freely circulate between environments of research, teaching and professional activities. Thus, concludes the author, “we can say that in many cases the borders between didactic, research and professional instrument are not well defined, fuzzy and are totally independent from their technical characteristics”.11 In turn, 12 philosophers of science who dedicated themselves to scientific experimentation and whose reflections are gathered in the book The philosophy of scientific experimentation edited by Hans Radder in 2003, seek to explain and understand the following crucial issue: “An experimenter tries to realize an interaction between an object and some apparatus in such a way that a stable correlation between some features of the object and some features of the apparatus will be produced”.12 The authors seek to establish a classification of apparatuses based on the role played by instruments or experimental equipment in physical sciences and in technological investigation. Peter Kroes, for instance, distinguishes three ways in which technology is used in scientific experiments: “(1) overcoming imperfections and limitations in human perception by providing measuring equipment; (2) studying systems under very special man-made conditions; (3) producing systems that generate a certain phenomenon or law-like behavior to be studied”.13 Michael Heidelberger,14 in order to categorize the instruments, links them to investigation context: (1) in relation to a theoretical context, the instruments have a representative role; the objective is to represent symbolically the relations between natural phenomena and thus better understand how the phenomena are ordered and relate to one another. Examples of this kind of instruments would be clocks, scales and other measuring equipment; (2) a second category is more closely related to the manipulation of the causes of
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
phenomena by means of instruments in this case, instruments are used in 'discoveries' and can have two functions: i) a constructive function (when phenomena are manipulated) and imitative one (when the effects are produced as they appear in nature); or ii) a productive function, when instruments are used to present phenomena that are not usually available to the human experience, whether because they had never appeared thus before (e.g. through a microscope or telescope) or because they were as yet totally unknown. Another author of the same book, Davis Baird,15 presents a classification of instruments based on differences in epistemological functions, since different types of knowledge emerge from these instruments. Thus, this author proposes three classes: (1) measuring instruments, which show results, irrespective of how the users understand or interpret the data obtained; (2) instruments that generate material representations of the world, whether by 'denotation', 'demonstration' or 'interpretation', and are used to produce explanations and predictions about the world, functioning in a similar way to theories; (3) instruments that show phenomena, such as Faraday's electromagnetic engine. When critically reviewing the book, Mieke Boon proposes regrouping, in a simplified way, the different proposals into three big categories, as follows: 1) Measure, 2) Model and 3) Manufacture.16 For this author, 'Measure' is the category for the instruments that measure, represent or detect certain characteristics or parameters of an object, process or natural state. 'Model' refers to types of laboratory systems designed to function as models both for natural and technological objects, processes and systems. 'Manufacture' would be a type of apparatus that produces a phenomenon that could either be conjectured by a new theory or not yet theoretically understood. According to Boon, the distinction between these types is based on the differences in function that these instruments have in experimental investigation or in the epistemological objective of the experimental conjuncture of which these instruments are a part. The function of the Measure is to generate data, e.g. values of physical variables under specific conditions. The function of the Model is to generate scientific knowledge about a model system, be it natural or technological. The apparatuses that are domesticated versions of natural systems, or the computational simulations, give some idea of what comprises the category Model. Finally, the author suggests that experiments involving instruments from the Manufacture category aim to produce ontological proposals and conclusions. Experiments with this type of instrument are designed to show the existence of 'building blocks' or fundamental processes of material reality.
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Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
Evidently, all the afore-mentioned classifications seek to encompass the understanding of the set of scientific instruments, based on the intensification of their uses and production as a result of the new way of knowing the world through which modern science is constituted. Indeed, the practices of Natural Philosophy and Natural History from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards depended on intervention in the world to obtain knowledge, in a process that sought to relate the observation of phenomena, obtaining data on them, and the explanation of them. Despite instruments and apparatuses having been long used in the investigation of the natural world, their importance grew sharply since the early seventeenth century with the inventions of the telescope and the microscope, the barometer and the air pump, and the pendulum clock.17 These apparatuses and instruments, by standardizing data gathering, could circulate outside their place of manufacture and from contexts in which they were first used and validated, contributing to the construction of the notion of science as universal knowledge, for “scientific facts only circulate with the know-how that allows them to be put into action”.18 Furthermore, through their use and circulation, instruments acquire their own identity at the same time that they legitimize users and manufacturers. Deborah Warner observes that: Investigators then, as now, were excited about particular instruments or experiments, but expressed little concern with the commonality of the various instruments used for observation and experiment. Increasingly, however, these instruments came to be grouped together, identified as the tools of experimental or natural philosophy, and distinguished from other sorts of instruments, such as musical, medical, and mathematical. The collective identity was forged, in large part, by people charged with organizing collections: curators, historians, dealers, authors of tariff regulations, and officials of exhibitions and patent offices.19
A relevant question emerges from the statements above: to what extent is this “collective identity” uniform in time, space and disciplinary conjunctures? I believe that reflecting on this aspect can supply themes, approaches and research itineraries to examine the Brazilian case and perhaps even the LatinAmerican one reinforcing what some studies have been showing, highlighting and making explicit points that remain collateral in our investigations. Unfortunately, there are still very few studies, and the Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST), in a process that began when it was founded and that continues with Marcus Granato and the Museology group, is the worthy exception that confirms the rule. I will take advantage here to make explicit just in case it is not already the position I am at and from which I shall continue: as someone who practices
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
the History of Sciences from Brazil, bearer of a 'bias' for having been trained in Geology and possibly 'absolved' thanks to a dedication to Science Education in relation to its close links with the History of Science. In this sense, it is unavoidable to present the colonial dimension, on the one hand, and the geosciences on the other, in order to highlight and complement disciplinary differences. Authors such as Schickore20 or Rabinow21 have produced reports on the use of scientific instruments in different disciplines, more specifically in biomedicine and biotechnology, which are significantly different from the natural sciences and geology in particular. After all, just like Marianne Klemun asks herself, is a geological hammer, a piece of equipment of obligatory use for centuries for geologists all over the world, a scientific instrument or not?22 From which point does its status of ancestral tool symbolically associated with pagan gods change to become an extension of the hand of naturalists/geologists, not to carry out measurements, but indispensable for obtaining samples, which could in fact supply measurements? For the quantification, peculiar to physics or even to chemistry, is not a typical feature to define the identity of the sciences originating in natural history. The relation between journeys and instruments was examined in detail, for example, in a book organized by Marie-NoĂŤlle Bourguet, Christian Licoppe and Otto Sibum (2002).23 In this quoted work, the historical process that gave rise to an instrumental culture, to put it that way, is analyzed, making explicit the circulation and appropriation, all over the world, of instruments, skills, practices and values associated with them, as well as the tensions between what is local and what is global, from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century. In the Iberian case, particularly, Henrique LeitĂŁo and Walter Alvarez, in a recent article on the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of discovery, endorse the argument that Portugal and Spain did not become pioneers in maritime exploration simply because they had an Atlantic Coast this was also true of other countries, such as France and England , but rather because of geopolitical questions of the time.24 The relative originality of the thesis they defend, previously forwarded by Reijer Hoykaas three decades ago, lies however in the pre-eminence of technical and scientific advances generated by Portuguese sailors, pilots and cosmographers. According to the authors, technical innovations developed in Portugal fell into four categories: ship-building, instrument production, navigation and cartography.25 On the subject of instruments, which is what interests us here, the authors are clear: To navigate in the Mediterranean did not require using sophisticated naval techniques, as the navigator rarely was out of sight of land for long periods, and his position could be determined by observing the coast. This completely changed in the vast ocean incursions across
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Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
the Atlantic. New techniques were necessary and celestial navigation had to be developed. This was only possible thanks to the invention of new instruments capable of measuring the angular position of the sun and the stars in small ships and moved by strong winds. The Portuguese produced a critical advance when they designed the nautical astrolabe, the ancestor of the modern sextant. [This instrument], like the magnetic compass, was crucial for the Portuguese skill in navigating the Atlantic Ocean, with its much greater latitudinal breadth.26
In a simplified and reductionist view, but one which highlights the importance of this event in connection with the History of Brazil, I can summarize what Leitão and Alvarez stated in the following proposition: Brazil was the result of the perfecting and use of scientific instruments. On the other hand, in the nineteenth century, according to Richard Dunn, it was changes in the vessels that led to consequences in the instruments: The increasing use of iron in ships and the greater and greater firepower of their guns, for instance, had significant, often problematic, effects on the instruments the ships carried. So we encounter here the need to ensure the reliability of compasses and chronometers on ships whose magnetic characteristics might render those instruments untrustworthy. The introduction of new technologies often had a downside, therefore, with existing technologies needing to be redesigned or resituated as a result.27
On some of the great naturalist journeys undertaken in the eighteenth century, ships were specially prepared for the examination of natural history and for sea voyages. In some cases, vessels constituted important “floating laboratories” during the voyages.28 On these voyages, naturalists plotted their own route, anchoring in places of interest for the study of Natural History and Geography or in places that were important for colonization, in which the duration of their stay was determined by the dynamic of the scientific journey.29 This situation undoubtedly increased what was already being advocated since the previous century. In his Brief instructions for making observations in all parts of the world (1696), the Englishman John Woodward annexed a long list of instruments that could be useful for the naturalists and sample collectors, which included a thermometer, barometer, hygroscope “to test and compare the gravity of liquids”, a magnetic needle, a large quadrant “to measure the height of the mountains”, a level to evaluate the inclination of the rock layers in relation to the horizon, a ruler two feet in length, large and small hammers to obtain samples and break them so as to observe the insides, mortars, grinders and different auxiliary substances for the fusion of materials for chemical analysis in
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
30
situ. Already in the nineteenth century, guides for geologist-travelers, like those of Ami Boué and Nerée Boubeé, included a list of essential instruments among which at least one hammer was compulsorily and even supplied addresses of trustworthy places where they could be bought without risk. In the eighteenth century, scientific instrumentation would keep its vital relevance for exploratory journeys undertaken by Portugal and Spain, let alone for the Commissions for the Demarcation of Limits. In 1988, Virgínia Gonzalez, in one of the very rare articles published about scientific instruments in Quipu Revista Latino-americana de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia specifically dealt with the scientific instruments of the well-known31 Malaspina Expedition. Gonzalez relates: In the first place, the stock of instruments located in the Real Observatório de Marinha de São Fernando [the Royal Naval Observatory of São Fernando] were commandeered. The technical problems faced by the overseas exploration forced the kings, ministers and officials of the Armed Forces to give increasing importance to the purchase of precision instruments that would help in the astronomical, cartographical, geodesic and meteorological investigations etc.32
Moreover, in 1790, a machine workshop was created within the Royal Astronomical Observatory in Madrid aimed at training artisans capable of building instruments for scientific purposes.33 However, most of the instruments were bought abroad __ Paris, London and Italy __, leading Malaspina to request tax exemption from the authorities. At the same time, the Portuguese Crown sponsored a great project to learn about the natural resources of its colonies through the so-called Philosophical Voyages, which aimed at observing and interpreting nature in the various domains of natural philosophy and natural history. Widely studied by several authors, the Philosophical Voyages, which took place in the late eighteenth century and the end of the Brazilian colonial period, reflect Portuguese colonial dynamic, political as well as economic and cultural. Ermelinda Pataca, in her doctoral thesis (2006), analyses in detail the preparation and products of these voyages “in the relations between the different colonial regions of Africa, Asia e Portuguese America, in association with the space of the Kingdom of Portugal, where the places to be investigated were determined by the types of products that could be found and explored”.34 This author, referring to scientific instrumentation, states that: The scientific instruments used on the Portuguese voyages were produced in Portugal and others were imported, mainly from England. The materials and equipment helped in the collecting, both of data and
22
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
natural objects, and in the fixation of the material to be collected. The equipment presented few variations throughout the development of field practices. For the activities related to Geology, including Mineralogy and Paleontology, hammers of different weights and sizes, knives, glass and wooden boxes to accommodate the samples.35
Pataca found various signs of studies and experiments in physics and mathematics that took place during the journeys, especially referring to the use, experimentation and development of scientific instruments. The author goes on to say that: During the crossings, the naturalists carried out a number of measurements that were a preparatory exercise both for the measurements that would be taken on land and for the basic investigations necessary for the development of Earth' dynamics explanatory theories. Thanks to the lists of instruments, we can ascertain the kind of measurements taken by the naturalists. In an inventory of the Physical Instruments owned by the naturalist [Domingos Vandelli (1730-1816)], 36 barometers, thermometers, magnets, ships compasses, clocks with a second's hand, compasses and protractors. Thus, measurements taken by naturalists comprised atmospheric pressure, temperature, density, the speed of fluids; the routes were mapped with a mariner's compass, the speed of the ships with the clock with a second's hand, which was also used in calculating longitude. These measurements were essential for navigation and for theories about the 'physics of the Earth'.37
With few changes, this pattern of exploratory journeys will be repeated in the nineteenth century, with Brazil already as an independent country, such as during the Comissão Científica de Exploração, created by imperial decree in October 1856, but only began to operate in 1859. This enterprise, studied and discussed in several relatively recent academic papers,38 traversed the Province of Ceará, as well as part of Maranhão and the Amazon region between 1859 and 1861. It comprised sections that encompassed the fields of Botany, Zoology, Astronomy and Geodesy, Geology and Mineralogy, as well as Ethnography. In a text by Pinheiro, we can confirm the purchase of scientific instruments in Europe through the reproduction of a report by Guilherme Schüch de Capanema: The geodesic instruments are today the cause of a delay in the expedition's departure; they were promised for the coming mid-February and we doubt that they will fulfill that promise: we are familiar with this practice and are aware of the great difficulty in obtaining good instruments from reputable builders, who do not allow them to leave their
23
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
premises without having conscientiously verified, corrected and determined with the greatest precision the coefficients of the constant quantities with which a calculation must be made, based on the observations.39
It is noteworthy that a photographic camera, a fairly modern device for the times, was among these instruments. As shown by Maria In锚s Turazzi in her doctoral thesis on engineers and on constructing the memory of Brazilian engineering, Innumerous applications of photography began to be integrated in the techno-scientific culture of the 1800s, broadening the knowledge and control of the engineer over the physical world around him or making technology itself a reality that can be more easily assimilated. Through an image, capable of illustrating and explaining Science and the art of the engineer to society at large, it became possible to value his profession and keep in memory the main achievements of the profession. The documentation and dissemination, through photographic images, of the social and technological conquests of engineering made the works of art of engineers and the great public works of the nineteenth century more talented and notable.40
Thus, in the nineteenth century, the camera becomes yet another item of scientific instrumentation, substituting cameras obscuras that were frequent in eighteenth century scientific expeditions, in the inventories of objects and material achievements. However, besides being an instrument for field registration, the camera was also incorporated into measuring apparatuses. Gregory Good41 affirms that during the 'Magnetic Crusade', launched by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber during the 1830s to investigate geomagnetism, the most important innovation, allowing considerable progress, was the incorporation of the camera into the magnetographs.42 In a diverse analytical approach, we can move into a different direction and ask: to what extent did scientific instruments contribute to the construction of institutions? Undoubtedly, the collections that enrich Brazilian national heritage in various spaces, as is the case of the Museu Nacional [National Museum] in Rio de Janeiro, competently studied by Margaret Lopes, among others, or the case of MAST, can be seen as bricks that fortified the institutional edifice. However, some studies can take us a little further. In one of the rare articles in Quipu addressing scientific instruments, Marco Moreno discusses the influence telescopes had in the development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Mexico.43 In particular, the author recounts the trajectory of the telescope used in the international project Chart of the Sky, which was imported and installed at the Observat贸rio Astron么mico Nacional in Tacubaya, at that time the end of the nineteenth century a suburb of Mexico City. After several decades and as a result of the growth of the Mexican capital, and thus of light
24
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
contamination, in 1951 the telescope was relocated to Puebla, to a plot of land next to the Observatório Astrofísico Nacional. Besides the interest in itself, it is important to bear in mind the author's following affirmation: At present, this ancient instrument the largest refractory telescope in the country is installed on the same wooden dome that covered it in Tacubaya. Most of its mechanisms were reassembled with original parts, because besides being functional, those are true works of craftsmanship and very beautiful. […] The new generations of Mexican astronomers, albeit better prepared than their predecessors, are ignorant of the major role that this instrument played in the consolidation of the Observatório Astronômico Nacional and in the later development of the discipline, and thus fail to give it its true value.44
This is one case, among many, of instruments that propelled institutions that were built and expanded around them. Another example, still very much in vogue, is the case of the particle accelerators, equipment of Big Science, around which were erected institutional complexes. In Brazil, the pioneer research of Cesar Lattes and others and the Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron (LNLS), as well as CERN in the international sphere, are widely known examples. According to Dominique Pestre,45 the way in which equipment is acquired, and the options for one or another technical system, are not common subjects in the History of Science and of Technology. The choice of reactors, equipment to detect particles or medical imaging devices reveals the intricate workings of different groups of players that, at a given moment, result in a choice, and even a particular arrangement about the apparatus. In Europe in the 1950s and 1960s, the vision of equipment builders carried more weight than that of users. In the USA, however, the relations between engineers, theoretical physicists and experimental physicists arose in a different context, mainly because physicists became the people who conceived and built their own equipment.46 Nowadays, new questions emerge because “a rapidly increasing selection of laboratory equipment can be fabricated with open-source threedimensional printers at low cost”, as mentioned by Joshua Pearce47. Indeed, “most experimental research projects are executed with a combination of purchased hardware equipment, which may be modified in the laboratory and custom single-built equipment fabricated in-house”.48 The manufacture and customizing of the scientific equipment redesigns the scenario of use and circulation, as well as the history of scientific instruments, while the variety and quantity of instruments can increase enormously and the contingent aspects of scientific knowledge production are even more in evidence.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Therefore, it is obvious that the dynamics of the different communities vis-à-vis the instruments and their roles will sharply reverberate in the processes of the institutionalization of science. What is more, governments and states also interfere in this articulation in their own way, as was the abovementioned case of LNLS, studied by Velho and Pessoa.49 Besides more strict scientific justifications, the basic question that intrigued authors can be summarized thus: what leads a developing country, economically peripheral, to invest millions of dollars in this type of equipment? The answer is neither simple nor trivial and emerges from scientific policies put into practice over the years and throughout successive governments. It is a fact that Brazil will this year (2013) begin building a third generation electron accelerator, baptized Sirius. Accelerators and equipment of Big Science lead us to another aspect, already mentioned albeit tangentially, in this presentation: the challenge of obtaining data from inaccessible environments and means, be it due to distance other planets , to material conditions inside the Earth , or even to infinitely small dimensions, as in the case of elementary particles and chemical elements. Gregory Good50 states that the usual problems of measurements and their meanings get complicated and are amplified when the object of study is, in fact, inaccessible. When one phenomenon occurs in a place where our instruments cannot reach, Good asks: “what is the relation between the instrument, the measurement and the phenomena itself?” The author shows that researchers who investigate the Earth's magnetic field, the galaxies and the inner Earth deal with this problem in different ways, far more complex and full of nuances than the traditional opposites inductive versus deductive method, or field science versus basic science. When direct access to at least some of the macroscopic features of a phenomenon does not occur, the level of control over the experimented significantly decreases, no matter how sophisticated the instruments are. So in a rather drastic way, we begin to deal with what Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, in an earlier, well-known article of 1986, called “inscriptions” that is, results measured by instruments, something more than mere representations of natural order.51 These topics inaccessibility and loss of control are still barely dealt with in the History of Science and Technology. For, as Greg Good concludes, Very often we assume, as if it were obvious and clear, that uniformity is intrinsic to sciences. I suspect that this familiarity, felt by many scientists and historians, reinforces the discomfort and alienation of those who have not structured their lives around these questions.52
Directing instruments to the limits of the Universe, to the inner Earth, or to the composition and structure at micro and nano levels, are actions which are included in the movement, from post-Renaissance to the twentieth century, of seeking increasing precision and the construction of 'scientific objectivity'.
26
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
Nevertheless, in the transition to the twentieth century, data interpretation of images acquired vital importance, practically an exclusive action of the specialist who carries out an 'instructed evaluation' to produce the facts and explanation of phenomena.53 In the first decades of the twentieth century, Mineralogy aspired to decipher the regularity of crystalline structures and exact chemical composition by means of precise, invasive and essentially instrumental methodologies, such as X-ray diffraction and Spectrography. I would like to highlight the work of the Brazilian mining engineer Alberto Betim Paes Leme (1883-1938). Graduated at the École des Mines in Paris, Betim Leme was a pioneer in spectography, qualitatively and quantitatively applied to minerals, author of books and articles related to this topic. The fact that he worked in Brazil, a peripheral country, and in institutions such as the Museu Nacional, the Serviço Geológico e Mineralógico do Brasil [Brazilian Geological and Mineralogical Survey] and the Universidade do Rio de Janeiro, did not prevent him from doing cutting-edge work. On the contrary, as I showed in a recent article,54 his quest for precision and accuracy was linked to a greater effort to develop the so-called 'pure science' in Brazil, led by the Academia Brasileira de Ciências [the Brazilian Academy of Science] – of which he was a very active founding member – seeking also, by means of the manipulation of the 'spectrographic inscriptions' to 'inscribe' the Brazilian scientific community in the international sphere. Besides being a scientific instrument, the spectrometer was thus also a symbolic instrument in the process of letting the world know the structure, composition and processes of Brazilian science and its practitioners. The symbolic dimension points us to some institutions roughly contemporary with Betim Leme, such as the Comissão Rondon, the Demarcation Commissions and Geographical and Geological Commissions of São Paulo and of Minas Gerais, whose use of scientific instruments gave its activities a powerful foundation. In the case of the São Paulo Commission, which is the one I know best as it was the subject of my Master's degree dissertation,55 scientific instruments employed in topographical surveys and geoscientific explorations, in a manner of speaking 'posed' for the photographs that copiously illustrated publications dealing with the clearance of the “unknown hinterland inhabited by wild savages”, reinforcing the mythology of Science overcoming barbarity. The symbolic aspect of scientific instruments also constitutes a relevant element in forming professional identities, as shown by Marianne Klemun (above mentioned) in the case of the geological hammer, present in practically all the logos of the institutions in the area. Nevertheless, this is not the privilege of geology, as can be seen by a brief examination of the logos of scientific and professional associations of any area using magnifying glasses, microscopes, theodolites, beakers and test tubes, to list but a few.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Through the symbolic but not just that, it is crucial to say – , we can return to nineteenth century Brazil, on a journey guided by the doctoral thesis of Alda Heizer on the alt-azimut instrument.56 Its use was strongly advocated by Emmanuel Liais when he was director of the Imperial Observatory of Rio de Janeiro (IORJ), in Astronomy of position and Geodesy. Heizer tells us that when Liais returned from Europe, the institution tried to make the organization of observatory viable, allowing for the repair of instruments, the perfecting of others, as well as creating a workshop for the building and repairing of the observatory.57
Moreover, in 1869, two years after the astronomer Emmanuel Liais published his Traité d'Astronomie Appliquée à La Géographie et à la Navigation suivi de la Géodésie, José Maria dos Reis requested the privilege of making an instrument created by the French astronomer, at that time director of the IORJ, to manufacture the Azimuthal instrument that years later, would represent the Empire in the Paris Exhibition of 1889, where it even won a prize.58
Without a doubt, the prize highlights the symbolic dimension of the instrument, as proof of the 'advanced stage of Civilization' achieved by Brazil. What is more, as Heizer fittingly concludes, more than presenting itself as a 'regenerated' and 'civilized' country, there were men doing research, doing Science in the country, despite the little importance that historians and other researchers give to the analysis of this kind of documentation scientific instruments; there were men building instruments, devising theories in an intense exchange with other centers inside the country and abroad.59
This conclusion is only possible because techno-scientific heritage does indeed exist and is well preserved, restored and investigated by MAST and other institutions. Such heritage is resisting and insisting on disproving the beliefs that still persist as to the infeasibility of our Science & Technology and invite us to examine the past with new eyes and new insights. Reinforcing the words of Richard Dunn: If there is just one thing that we could wish to come from this, it is that researchers continue to appreciate the value of researching the material culture of science, technology and medicine as a key strand in future historiography.60
28
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
A part of this heritage, albeit only located in lists and no longer physically accessible, belongs to teaching institutions the theme with which I close this chapter. I base myself on a statement by Dominique Pestre: the machines, apparatuses, scientific instruments are privileged means of culturally integrating individuals into science and technology, vital in the acquisition of 61 experimental know-how. In Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America, teaching institutions built their laboratories and equipped them as a requirement of quality education or at least of something presented as such. Unfortunately, the History of Science Education, inseparable from the History of Science, is still a neglected field, even though this panorama is gradually beginning to change. Elizabeth Cavicchi wonders: how have scientists made their way to their observational and research projects but by educational experiences of some sort, whether formal or not? Typically regarded as a repository for receiving and relaying the results of professional science, education under a broader view makes those findings possible. The boundary between education and research is permeable.62
A sign of change in this picture is the recent book, edited by Peter Heering and Roland Wittje entitled Learning by doing: experiments and instruments in the history of science teaching,63 which focuses on how instruments and experimenting manifest themselves in the teaching of science, from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth – a period in which both sciences and education underwent intense transformations. Instruments inventories and catalogues, as well as teaching programs and curriculums, allow us to understand the scientific and pedagogical practices both inside and outside the school. They enable us to identify the builders of school apparatuses and buildings, and to weave networks between social groups, governments, teachers and students. Clearly, and no matter how much has been achieved, there is still a world to be investigated, at least in the case of Brazil. Notes 1 D. J. Warner, 'What is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?' The British Journal for the History of Science (1990), 23, 83-93. 2 D. Pestre, 'Por uma nova história social e cultural das ciências: novas definições, novos objetos, novas abordagens', Cadernos IG/UNICAMP (1996), 6 (1), 3-56, pp. 26-27. 3 A. Carneiro and M. Klemun, 'Instruments of Science Instruments of Geology; Introduction to Seeing and Measuring, Constructing and Judging: Instruments in the
29
SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
History of the Earth Sciences', Centaurus (2011), 53, 77-85, p. 77. 4 I. Hacking, Representing and Intervening: introductory topics in the philosophy of natural science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. 5 M. Boon, 'Technological instruments in scientific experimentation', International Studies in the Philosophy of Science (2004), 18 (2 & 3), 221-230, p. 221. 6 P. Brenni, 'The evolution of teaching instruments and their use between 1800 and 1930', Science & Education (2012), 21, 191-226, p. 191-2. 7 Turner, G. L' E., Nineteenth-century scientific instruments, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983; Turner, G. L' E. (ed.), Gli instrumenti, Einaudi, Turin, 1991. 8 Brenni, op. cit., 192. 9 O. Sibum, 'Beyond the ivory tower. What kind of science is experimental physics?' Science (2004), 306, 60-61. 10 Brenni, op. cit., 192-3. 11 Ibid., 194. 12 H. Radder (ed.), The Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2003, p. 153. 13 Kroes cited by Boon, op. cit., 21. 14 Heidelberger cited by Boon, op. cit., 222-3. 15 Baird cited by Boon, op. cit., 222. 16 Boon, op. cit., 223. 17 Warner, op. cit., 83. 18 Pestre, op. cit., 24. 19 Warner, op. cit., 83. 20 J. Schickore, The microscope and the eye. A history of reflection, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2007. 21 P. Rabinow, Making PCR. A story of biotechnology, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996. 22 M. Klemun, 'The Geologist's Hammer 'Fossil' Tool, Equipment, Instrument and/or Badge?', Centaurus (2011), 53, 86-101, p. 86. 23 M. N. Bourguet, C. Licoppe and O. Sibum (eds.), Instruments, travel and science: Itineraries of precision from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, Routledge, London, 2002. 24 H. Leitão and W. Alvarez, 'The Portuguese and Spanish voyages of discovery and the early history of geology' GSA Bulletin (2011), 123 (7/8), 1219-1233. p. 1221. 25 Leitão and Alvarez, op. cit., 1223. 26 Ibid., 1225. 27 R. Dunn, 'Material culture in the history of science: case studies from the National Maritime Museum', British Journal on the History of Science (2009), 42 (1), 31-33. p.33. 28 Sorrenson cited by E. M. Pataca, Terra, água e ar nas viagens científicas portuguesas (1755-1808), PhD thesis, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, 2006, p. 191. 29 Pataca, op.cit., 191. 30 Cf. E. Vaccari, 'Travelling with Instruments: Italian Geologists in the Field in the 18th and 19th Centuries', Centaurus (2011), 53, 102-115, p. 103. 31 And well-studied by Juan Pimentel, here present at this symposium of the Scientific
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Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
Instrument Commission. 32 V. Gonzalez C., 'La Expedición Malaspina y su instrumental científico', Quipu (1988), 5 (1),143-160, p.144-45. 33 Gonzalez, op. cit. (30), 146. 34 Pataca, op.cit., 9. 35 Ibid., 15. 36 In the Arquivo Ultramarino there is a document possibly written by Domingos Vandelli, entitled: Rol de instrumentos, drogas e mais utensilios pertencentes a Historia Natural, Physica, e Chimica, q são indispensaveis a hum Naturalista, q viaja [List of the instruments, drugs and other utensils relevant to Natural History, Physics, and Chemistry that are indispensable to a Naturalist in his travels]. 37 Pataca, op.cit., 199. 38 S. F.de M. Figueirôa, 'Associativismo científico no Brasil: o Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro como espaço institucional para as ciências naturais durante o século XIX', Interciência (1992), 17 (3), 141-46; M. M. Lopes, 'Mais vale um jegue que me carregue, que um camelo que me derrube... lá no Ceará', Manguinhos: História, Ciência, Saúde (1996), 3 (1), 50-64; L. B. Kury, 'A Comissão Científica de Exploração (1859-1861). A ciência imperial e a musa cabocla', In Ciência, civilização e império nos trópicos (eds. A. Heizer and A. A. P. Videira), Access, Rio de Janeiro, 2001, 29-54; R. Pinheiro, As histórias da Comissão Científica de Exploração (1856) na correspondência de Guilherme Schüch de Capanema, Masters Degree Dissertation, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, 2002; L. B. Kury (Ed.), Comissão Científica do Império, Andrea Jakobsson Estúdio, Rio de Janeiro, 2009. 39 Capanema cited by Pinheiro, op. cit., 89. 40 M. I. Turazzi, As artes do ofício: fotografia e memória da engenharia no século XIX, Ph.D. thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 1998. p.4. 41 G. A. Good, 'Measuring the Inaccessible Earth: Geomagnetism, In situ Measurements, Remote Sensing, and Proxy Data', Centaurus (2011), 53, 176-189, p. 180. 42 See also Jardim and Peres, in this volume. 43 M. A. Moreno C., 'Telescopios que han influído en el desarrollo de la astronomía y la astrofísica em México', Quipu (1991), 8 (1), 51-62. 44 Moreno, op. cit., 56-57. 45 Pestre, op. cit., 38. 46 Ibid., 39. 47 J. M. Pearce, 'Building Research Equipment with Free, Open-Source Hardware', Science (2012), 337, 1303. 48 Pearce, op.cit., 1303. 49 L. M. L. S. Velho; O. F. Pessoa (Jr.), 'The Decision-Making Process in the Construction of the Synchrotron Light National Laboratory in Brazil', Social Studies of Science (1998), 28 (2), 195-219. 50 Good, op. cit. 51 B. Latour and S. Woolgar, Laboratory life. The construction of scientific facts, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. 52 Ibid., 187-88.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
53
L. Daston and P. Galison, Objectivity, Zone Books, New York, 2007. S. F. de M. Figueirôa, 'Minerals Scrutinized: Alberto Betim Paes Leme (18831938) and the Application of Spectrography', Centaurus (2011), 53, 164175. 55 S. F. de M. Figueirôa, 'Modernos bandeirantes: a Comissão Geográfica e Geológica de São Paulo e a exploração científica do território paulista (1886-1931)', Masters Degree Dissertation, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 1987. 56 A. Heizer, 'Observar o céu e medir a terra: instrumentos científicos e a participação do Império do Brasil na Exposição de Paris de 1889', Ph.D. thesis, Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, 2008. 57 Heizer, op. cit., 144. 58 Ibid., 147. 59 Ibid., 168. 60 Dunn, op. cit., 33. 61 Pestre, op. cit., 24. 62 E. Cavicchi, 'Review of Learning by doing: experiments and instruments in the history of science teaching, IHPST Newsletter (2012), http://ihpst.net/newsletters/may2012.pdf, 19-24, accessed: 29 August 2013. 63 P. Heering and R. Wittje (eds.), Learning by doing: experiments and instruments in the history of science teaching, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2011. 54
32
America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory, founded and used by Georg Marggrafe in Dutch colonial Brazil, 1638-1643 Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Introduction One of the earliest examples of the transfer of scientific instruments between Europe and the Americas, especially with regard to Brazil, is the case of the astronomer, cartographer and naturalist Georg Marggrafe (16101643/44), working in Dutch colonial Brazil from 1638-1643. He is probably best known as the co-author of Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648), the influential first account of Brazil's zoology and botany, presenting also an early form of antropology.1 But Marggrafe was also the first European scholar to build a European-style astronomical observatory on the South American continent (Fig. 1). In the Dutch settlement of 'Mauritiopolis' in Brazil (now Recife) he performed astronomical observations from June 1638 until June 1643, with interruptions when he was on cartographic and perhaps other missions elsewhere in Brazil. In August 1643, also for cartographic reasons, Marggrafe was sent to Angola, where he unexpectedly died around the new year of 1644. This happened before Marggrafe had been able to finish the text of his book Progymnastica Mathematica Americana.2 In this work – evidently inspired by Tycho Brahe's Astronomiæ Instauratæ Progymnasmata (partly printed 1598, finished by Johannes Kepler in 1602) – Marggrafe had hoped to present the results of his astronomical survey of the southern hemisphere.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
In 1979, the historian of astronomy John North published a detailed account of Marggrafe's astronomical activities.3 North was able to do so, thanks to the fact that a large portion of Marggrafe's astronomical legacy has been preserved, partially in Leiden and partially in Paris.4 In his article, North assumed that the design of Marggrafe's Brazilian observatory had been particularly inspired by the descriptions of Tycho Brahe's observatory 'Uraniborg' as published in his Astronomiae Instauratae.5 However, in this paper we will demonstrate that Marggrafe used the astronomical observatory of Leiden University as benchmark for his Brazilian observatory. Marggrafe had trained in practical astronomy at Leiden Observatory in the first 10 months of 1637. By comparing Marggrafe's description of the Recife observatory and the way he performed his observations there, we can show that, in Brazil, Marggrafe fairly accurately imitated the scheme of Leiden Observatory, including its observational apparatus and practices. In this paper we will restrict ourselves to a discussion of both the observatories and their instruments. A more detailed discussion of Marggrafe's observations and related practices, executed both in Leiden as well as Brazil will be presented in the near future in a extensively documented book, which also will include integral transcriptions of Marggrafe's observations.
Fig. 1 - The Recife Observatory (marked C). Detail of a view on Mauritiopolis by Frans Post, published in Caspar Barlaeus, Rerum per Octennium in Brasilia (Amsterdam 1647).
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Georg Marggrafe: a short biographical note Marggrafe was born on 20 September 1610 (old style, i.e. according to the Julian calendar) in the German town of Liebstadt, in the Meissen region of Saxony. His father was a local schoolmaster, who taught Georg Greek, Latin, music and drawing. In May 1627, the young boy matriculated as a student at Wittenberg University. Probably because of the raging Thirty Years War, Marggrafe soon started to drift throughout Germany, entering Strasbourg University in November 1627 and Basel University in April 1628.6 According to Georg's biography, published by his younger brother Christiaan, Marggrafe further visited Ingolstadt, Altdorf, Erfurt, Wittenberg (again), Leipzig, Greifswald, Rostock and Stettin, sailing from there through Denmark to Leiden.7 Georg enrolled at Leiden University in September 1636.8 Here he stayed until his leave for Brazil in the spring of 1638. In the ten years of his education Marggrafe studied botany, alchemy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and some foreign languages. In Strasbourg he was a pupil of the astronomer Jakob Bartsch (the assistant and son-in-law of Johannes Kepler).9 During his return to Wittenberg, in 1634, Marggrafe obtained a degree in Paracelcian medicine and alchemy from the famous alchemist Daniel Sennert, after which Marggrafe called himself a 'philo-chymiater';10 in Rostock he followed lectures from the botanist Simon Pauli;11 in Stettin, he was tutored by Lorenz Eichstädt, rector of the Marienstift Gymnasium, but better known as a calculator of planetary ephemerides.12 Finally, in Leiden Marggrafe matriculated officially as a student of medicine, but in reality he foremost studied botany and practical astronomy. At that time, the observatory of Leiden University was the only operational astronomical observatory in Europe with equipment modelled after the dissolved Danish and Czech observatories of the late Tycho Brahe. Leiden therefore possessed a large Tychonic quadrant, built and used by two former apprentices of Tycho.13 This fact was probably one of the reasons why Marggrafe had chosen to come to Leiden. According to his brother's biography, Marggrafe was “passing over the nights in the turret of the academy and spending the day in the botanical garden and fields”, whilst being instructed by Jacob Gool (Golius) in mathematics and astronomy and by Adolph Vorst (Vorstius) in botany14. Given Marggrafe's later Brazilian career as a 'cartographer', he probably also frequented occasionally the so-called Duytsche Mathematique. This was the vernacular branch of Leiden University, where surveyors and military engineers were trained, and where a successful surveying instrument, the 'Hollandsche cirkel' (Dutch circle), was promoted.15 It is known that other Leiden students followed the same dual path of instruction.16 In the summer of 1637, Marggrafe must have succeeded in making the necessary contacts that enabled him to travel to South America. According to Marggrafe's younger brother, this had been his aim right from the start:
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He burnt with a great desire of contemplating the southern stars. […] He knew […] that there was in America a harvest of no small praise: therefore he turned over every stone, he grabbed at every opportunity that could lead him to America.17
Early 1638 Marggrafe arrived in Brazil, not as a servant of the Dutch West Indian Company, but as the personal 'domestique' (servant) of Willem Pies, the newly appointed medical doctor of the governor of colonial Dutch Brazil, count Johan Maurits van Nassau.18 Shortly after his arrival in Recife, Marggrafe set up a business in pharmaceuticals, and he also assisted Pies in medical affairs. However, before his leave to Brazil, Marggrafe had obtained a personal letter of recommendation to count Nassau, written by the Leiden merchant-scholar Johannes de Laet, one of the founders of the West Indian Company.19 According to a later notary statement by Abraham de Vries, one of Nassau's Brazilian officials, De Laet had advised the count to employ Marggrafe as a mathematician.20 With this recommendation in his pocket, Marggrafe grabbed his chances. Still on his way to Recife, he already wrote the governor to offer him his service. In order to arouse the count's attention, he included in this letter some drawings he had made on his journey to Brazil.21 This indeed had the required effect. Johan Maurits almost immediately allowed Marggrafe to erect an astronomical observatory on top of his house. Some time later he also ordered the Dutch council in Recife to appoint Marggrafe as the Company's official mathematician.22 Soon Marggrafe's prestige had been sufficiently increased to be included in the rank of people who were allowed to dine at the count's table.23 Years later, in a letter to the trustees of Leiden University, count Nassau indeed referred to him as “my Mathematician, named Marggravius, who died in Angola”.24 In a contemporary list of Maurits's crew, Marggrafe is listed as the den caertemaecker (the cartographer).25 This was also the assignment Marggrafe received in August 1643, when the board of the Dutch West Indian Company unexpectedly ordered him to chart the recently conquered coast of Luanda in Angola (Fig. 2).26 Nevertheless, Marggrafe did more than to chart maps. During his cartographic expeditions he noticed intensively the richness and variety of the Brazilian nature. By making notes and drawings, as well as by collecting all kinds of natural history specimens, he contributed substantially to the knowledge of Brazil's botany and zoology. Marggrafe's splendid, life-like drawings of natural history objects were among the first to be published in accounts of colonial Dutch Brazil (Fig. 3). One of Marggrafe's herbaria is still preserved in Copenhagen (Denmark),27 and some of his coloured drawings of Brazilian animals have been rediscovered in the Jagiellon Library in Cracow (Poland).28
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Fig. 2 - Map of Paraiba in Dutch Brazil, surveyed by Marggrafe, and posthumously printed by Blaeu in Amsterdam, with additional scenes from Brazillian life, probably derived from drawings by Frans Post (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague).
Fig. 3 - Marggrafe's watercolor drawing of a Tamandua (or anteater) and the way this animal is depicted in the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.
Marggrafe's scientific legacy
After his death, Marggrafe's belongings were sent to the Netherlands where, according to the commands of the former Brazilian governor count Johan Maurits van Nassau, his botanical and zoological papers were put into
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the hands of the Leiden scholar Johannes de Laet. However, Marggrafe's astronomical papers were given to Jacob Gool, the Leiden professor who had supervised Marggrafe's training in practical astronomy during his sojourn in Leiden.29 Both scholars received the explicit instruction to publish Marggrafe's findings. De Laet did edit Marggrafe's notes on the natural history of Brazil, but the astronomical part of Golius' editorial process remained unfinished. In 1648, De Laet published the magnificent Historia Naturalis Brasiliae containing Marggrafe's notes on the natural history of Brazil, accompanied by notes by his former master Willem Pies (also known in Latin as 'Piso'). In an editorial note, De Laet remarked that Marggrafe also had planned to compose a book on astronomy, to be entitled Progymnastica Mathematica Americana.30 Between Marggrafe's working papers De Laet had found the outline of this ambitious project. The scheme of the proposed book was divided into three parts. In a first chapter on 'Astronomy and Optics', Marggrafe intended to present observations of the southern stars (between the tropic of Cancer and the southern celestial pole), as well as findings relating to the planets. His main ambition was to propose a new theory for the inner planets (Mercury and Venus) based on his own observations. Further he intended to expand the current theories on astronomical refraction and the solar parallax. The chapter would be finished by a new determination of the obliquity of the ecliptic; some observation of sunspots and – if observed – other celestial rarities, such as comets, supernovae, among others). A second chapter on 'Geography and Geodesy' would follow, presenting theories on the determination of the terrestrial longitude and the size of the Earth based on the author's own observations, complemented with a discussion of errors made by ancient and other geographers. Finally, the book would contain a series of astronomical tables, based on all his observations, called the Tabulae Mauritii Astronomicae, honouring the governor of Dutch Brazil, count Johan Maurits van Nassau. Although this astronomical project was orphaned by Marggrafe's sudden death, early in 1644, his astronomical observations were comprehensive enough to be edited into a publication. Golius indeed worked on this task. Georg's younger brother Christiaan Marggrafe for instance wrote in 1652 to the Danzig astronomer Johannes Hevelius: Now at last I have seen the astronomical observations of my brother Georg. They concern a new theory of the planets, especially Mercury, who in the place where he lived, might be better seen than with us. They will be published shortly by the honorable Golius, together with other astronomical observations transmitted from Arabia.31
Golius himself testified in a lawsuit filed in 1655 by Christiaan Marggrafe about Georg's legacy that he indeed possessed Marggrafe's astronomical
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papers, in order to publish them in due time.32 A letter written by Marggrafe's former superior Willem Pies indicates that Marggrafe's former roommate, the mathematician and astronomer Samuel Kechel, had worked on a – now lost – planisphere of the southern stars, based on Marggrafe's observations.33 This work undoubtedly had been done at Golius' request, who always allowed Kechel free access to the Leiden Observatory for making astronomical observations.34 However, for reasons that remain unknown, the already edited manuscript of Margrafe's astronomical notes was still unpublished in 1667, when Golius suddenly died, to be followed by Kechel's death early in 1668. Melchisédech Thévenot from Paris, who happened to be in the Netherlands at the time, acquired the edited manuscript.35 Through this route a copy of the manuscript has been preserved at the Observatoire de Paris.36 This manuscript, combined with some of Marggrafe's working papers preserved in the Leiden Regional Archive (Erfgoed Leiden e.o.), are the main sources to examine his work on the astronomy of the Southern hemisphere.37 The Recife Astronomical Observatory Marggrafe's project was ambitious enough to require the construction of a cutting edge permanent observatory that became the first one of modern conception in the New World, already endowed with a 'Galilean' or 'Dutch' telescope. The observatory was built on the roof of Nassau's first residence, a large Portuguese house in the fluvial island of Antônio Vaz that pre-existed the count's arrival. The building is depicted in a naïve style watercolor by Zacharias Wagener (Fig. 4), a member of the count's court. This watercolor constitutes an additional precious source of information.38
Fig. 4 - Marggrafe's astronomical observatory, a platform with a hexagonal turret, built on the roof of Nassau's first residence in Recife. Drawing by Zacharias Wagener (1614-1668) in his contemporary Thierbuch (Staatliche Kunst Sammlungen, Dresden).
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It is our hypothesis that in Brazil, Marggrafe used the Observatory of Leiden University as a benchmark. In Recife, he copied to a large degree the site, instruments, and methods that he had become familiar with when he was trained in observational astronomy at Leiden Observatory. To demonstrate this, we will compare the setting and apparatus used by Marggrafe in Brazil with those he used in Leiden. The location of Marggrafe's Observatory The precise location of the observatory in Recife was determined by Menezes,39 through the comparison of maps and images from different time periods. The very location is the corner of the streets 'Primeiro de Março' and 'Imperador D. Pedro I' in the Santo Antonio quarter (Fig. 5a & 5b). This corner came into being during the implementation of the urbanization plan designed by count Nassau's surveyors. Today, this corner is the last physical remnant of the period, since all original buildings from the Dutch epoch were demolished and replaced. Since the Dutch period, the Capibaribe river bank has withdrawn considerably, with the result that Nassau's first house, which – as can be seen in the Wagener's watercolor – was originally on the bank of river, is situated today more than a block away from the river.
Fig. 5 - Left (a): Marggrafe's observatory (red circle) in today's Recife at the corner of the street 'Primeiro de Março' (almost vertical) with the street 'Imperador D. Pedro I' (almost horizontal). North is to the right. Right (b): The location of Marggrafe's observatory in November 2011.
The interior of the Recife and Leiden observatories The base of the Recife observatory was a platform that could be reached comfortably from the interior of the house climbing up a ladder of 43 stairs, starting at the first floor of the two-story residence. We have made a threedimensional virtual reconstitution of this observatory, as well as of the main instruments (Fig. 6).
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Fig. 6 - Virtual reconstruction of the Recife Observatory, by the authors (obtained with free software Google SketchUp, 2011).
The platform was square with sides of about 20 Rhijnland feet (≈6.3 m), surrounded by a balustrade.40 According to one of the drawings Marggrafe has left us, the Recife platform had a square extension on the southern side, possibly referring to a staircase (Fig. 7).
Fig. 7 - Marggrafe's (undated) drawing of his Recife Observatory (Erfgoed Leiden e.o.).
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Centered in the platform a hexagonal two story observatory was built, two sides of the hexagon facing roughly towards cardinal directions. The chime of a bell of an iron clock below the platform, inside the roof, announced the hours for the population and Marggrafe often refers to it in his observations. At the Leiden Observatory the platform had a rectangular shape. This was a consequence of the configuration of the roof it was constructed on (Fig. 8). It measured 18 by 13 Dutch Rhijnland feet (≈ 5.7 by 4.1 m) and was also surrounded by a balustrade.41 In both observatories a polygonal turret stood in the middle of the theatre. In the centre of both turrets a solid vertical pole was erected, around which a wooden quadrant could revolve. In Recife the turret was hexagonal, and the vertical walls of this hexagonal room had glass windows. These windows were not used during the astronomical observations (then the hatches were opened), but these windows were useful to monitor ships approaching Recife. That the observatory also was used in this way is demonstrated by Wagener, who in his drawing depicted someone in the window at the right of his watercolour, watching with a small telescope (Fig. 4). The Recife tower was topped with a copper wind vane bearing the insignia of count Nassau.
Fig. 8 - Leiden Observatory constructed in 1633-1634 on the attic of the Academy Building at the Leiden Rapenburg: details from (left) a view on Leiden, dated 1669, and (right) the frontispiece of Paulus Herman, Horti academici Lugduno-Batavi catalogus (Leiden 1687), drawn in 1686 from the adjoining hortus botanicus by Willem van Mieris.
In both observatories, the lower chamber (zolderin Dutch) of the turret was used for the housing of a few globes.42 According to the Paris manuscript, Marggrafe brought to Brazil two pairs of celestial and terrestrial globes of different sizes. The celestial globes represented the stars according to Johann Bayer's Uranometria (1603). This room on the lower floor was also used as a dark room for optical experiments and observation of the Sun (Fig. 9).
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Fig. 9 - A view of a three-dimensional reconstitution of the dark room.
On the vertex of the walls to east and west there was a hole that allowed the entry of the solar rays for observation near sunrise or sunset. The Paris Manuscript describes a sturdy wooden mounting holding the tubus (telescope) that could project the solar disk with the sunspots on a screen. From his Leiden period several original observations of sunspots made by Marggrafe in such a way have been preserved. Probably in this room Marggrafe also stored his smaller equipments, such as his level, rulers, squares, night lamps, sandglasses and some books (all cited in the Paris Manuscript), as well as a portable 52 cm radius sextant with a Polish hammer that he used on expeditions.43 Here stood also a bench with a slate. The quadrant The main purpose of astronomical observations in the seventeenth century was to check the accuracy of the ephemerides. (An ephemeris is a table of values that gives the positions of astronomical objects in the heavens at a given time). For this purpose a precision measuring device was needed, such as a large quadrant. The Leiden quadrant, made of wood with brass fittings with a radius of six Rhijnland feet and eight inches (˜ 2.1 m), is still extant (Fig. 10a). Its limb, or graduated scale, is divided in degrees, subdivided in intervals of ten arc minutes. To allow further accuracy the scale has transversals (Fig. 10c), following the measuring instruments used and described by Tycho Brahe, in his Astronomiæ instauratæ Mechanica (1598).44 In Brazil, Marggrafe also used this arrangement for a similar quadrant (Fig. 10b & 10d).
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Fig. 10 - Top left (a): Snel's quadrant built by Willem Jansz Blaeu c. 1625, used by Georg Marggrafe in 1637 (the long telescope tube was added in 1669) (Museum Boerhaave, Leiden). Top right (b):Marggrafe's quadrant made in Brazil (Erfgoed Leiden e.o.). Bottom left (c): Transversals on the limb of the Leiden quadrant. Bottom right (d): Marggrafe's design for transversals on the Brazil quadrant (Erfgoed Leiden e.o.)
This 5 feet quadrant (˜ 1.57 m) was built in Brazil under Marggrafe's supervision. Except for the metal parts, the bulk was made of hardwood designated pao sancto (holy stick) by the Portuguese. Both in Leiden and Recife the quadrant could revolve in all directions around a sturdy vertical wooden pole, to which it was attached by its center of gravity. In Brazil, a large azimuthal circle of ten Rhijnland feet diameter (˜ 3.1 m) was fitted at the base of the quadrant, supported by 12 pillars, with a gnomon indicating the azimuth (Fig. 11). This is in accordance to Brahe's original description of the instrument, but in Leiden the horizon itself was used as an azimuthal circle.45 The quadrant had a Pinacidium Tychonicum (a Tychonic sight), which cleverly exploits the differential method for minimizing parallax errors of ordinary sights. Presumably, the original sight of the Leiden quadrant was also of this sort, but the view finder on the Leiden quadrant was replaced in 1669 by a telescope tube.46 In both observatories the quadrant room also housed a stepladder used in the observations. Probably there was also a desk with a night lamp, pen, ink and papers and a celestial globe.
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Fig. 11 - Left: a view from the three-dimensional reconstitution of the 5-feet quadrant room. Right: a quadrant similar as the Leiden copy depicted in Hedraeus, Nova et accurata […] quadrantis astronomici azimuthalis (Leiden 1643).47
The sextants In Recife Marggrafe also constructed a large wooden sextant (Fig. 12), with a radius of five Rhijnland feet (˜ 1.6 m), with sights as on the quadrant. It was stored under the steps leading to the upper observatory. A mount for this large sextant, with a ball joint, also five Rhijnland feet high (1.6 m), stood outside on the 'theatre'. According to the Paris Manuscript, Marggrafe had another, smaller sextant in Brazil made with a radius of 20 Rhijnland inches (˜ 52 cm), probably for geodetic work and astronomical fieldwork. A drawing in Marggrafe's Leiden manuscripts suggests that this was a sextant of a design invented by the Dutch scholar Adriaen Metius.
Fig. 12 - Left: Marggrafe's drawing of the large sextant he had made in Brazil (Erfgoed Leiden e.o.). Right: A sextant simultaneously used by two observers at Tycho Brahe's 'Stjärneborg' observatory [detail from Brahe, Astronomiæ instauratæ Mechanica (1598)].
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Clock, clepsydra and pendulum Time accuracy was very difficult to achieve in Marggrafe's time. The invention of the pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens was still several decades in the future. To measure time intervals Marggrafe used two timepieces, both in Recife and in Leiden. First there was the clepsydra, a device that measures time by the regulated flow of liquid from one vessel into another. The amount of liquid transferred is then a measure for the time elapsed. In Brazil he possessed two clepsydrae (one was probably a sand glass) and in Leiden he used at least one. Marggrafe also used the pendulum (perpendiculum mobilis), counting the oscillations (pulsus) of a swinging cord. According to the Paris Manuscript, Marggrafe brought to Brazil a pendulum made of a turned metal cylinder of 41¾ ounces (˜ 1.8 kg), suspended by a cord with a length of 29 Rhijnland inches (˜ 76 cm). Details of the Leiden pendulum are not known. The telescope In Marggrafe's days the telescope was still a novelty, almost more an object of curiosity than an instrument of research. Moreover, telescopes still lacked a well-defined function in an observatory, whereas the roles of quadrants and sextants in checking the theory of astronomical calculations were well established.48 At that time, only the Dutch (or Galilean) and Kepler configurations were known. The first configuration had the disadvantage of a rather low magnification. Magnifications of more than about 20 times restricted the field of view so much that the instrument became virtually useless, whereas the Kepler telescope suffered from a serious spherical and chromatical aberration, making the images almost useless for astronomical observers.49 Marggrafe used a tubus a small refracting telescope with an upright image for several observations. In Brazil, Marggrafe used a telescope of seven Rhijnland feet (2.2 m). In Leiden he seems to have had a smaller one at his disposal. He observed the phases of the inner planets Mercury and Venus; saw all four satellites of Jupiter; recorded conjunctions and occultations; and in Leiden he even projected solar images in order to monitor sunspots and their rotation in successive days. To allow for comfortable observations of celestial objects, in Brazil Marggrafe installed a pedestal to which the tubus opticus could be coupled. The Paris Manuscript mentions a hollow wooden base, 63 cm high, in which a stick with a length of 1.6 m could be fastened, adjustable to a proper height by means of a screw. A similar pedestal, adjustable in height, was still in use at Leiden observatory when Von Uffenbach visited it in 1711.50 Concluding remarks Thanks to the patronage of the governor of Dutch colonial Brazil, Johan Maurits, count of Nassau, the German scholar Georg Marggrafe was able to found in 1638 the first European-style astronomical observatory at the South
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American continent. Marggrafe's main ambition with this observatory was to compose a book entitled Progymnastica Mathematica Americana, intended to be the austral counterpart to Tycho Brahe's AstronomiĂŚ InstauratĂŚ Progymnasmata (1598-1602). However, Marggrafe's death, early in 1644, caused a sudden end to this ambition. Given that Marggrafe's astronomical observations were never published, over time his astronomical achievements were largely forgotten. However, thanks to preserved manuscripts of Marggrafe's observations, scattered over different locations, we were able to make a detailed survey of his astronomical achievements. Our investigation of Marggrafe's astronomical legacy, raised in Leiden in 1637 and in Brazil in the years 1638-1643, reveals that, in Recife, he imitated for a large part the site of Leiden Observatory, as well as its equipment. This Dutch institution had been founded in 1634, only a few years before Marggrafe's arrival in Holland. At that time, Leiden Observatory was the only operational astronomical observatory in Europe with equipment modelled after the dissolved Danish and Czech observatories of the late Tycho Brahe. The Marggrafe's case is one of the earliest examples of transfer of instruments, knowledge and practices between Europe and the Americas. In Brazil, Marggraf not only carefully copied the Leiden quadrant and sextant, but he also introduced into the procedures of an observatory new instruments such as the telescope, which at the time had not a well defined role as a scientific instrument. His papers however demonstrate his skilled usage of this optical device in observing various celestial phenomena. He even designed a pedestal tray with a type of altazimuthal mounting. A discussion of Marggrafe's observations is beyond the scope of this paper and will be presented and analysed in the near future. In sum, we can establish that the Marggrafe episode constitutes a remarkable landmark for the history of astronomy in Brazil and the New World, in a hectic interregnum of the history of astronomy between Kepler and Newton. Unfortunately, largely because of the fall of Dutch Brazil in 1654, the episode remained an isolated and rather short event, with no follow-up in Brazilian science and scholarship. Only much later, in the early nineteenth century, science by European standards emerged, first in the Portuguese colony and after the Brazilian independence, as a national enterprise. Acknowledgements This study has been supported by the Huygens Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Notes 1
Over the years the spelling of Marggrafe's name has been extremely polymorphic. We follow the Latinized form of his name Georgius Marggrafe, in accordance with his autographic signature, as can be found on a book in the University Library of Bonn (sign. O4'236/1). Marggrafe used this spelling also on his printed alchemical thesis, defended in 1634 at Wittenberg University. By lack of an earlier signature, P.J. Whitehead has guessed that the spelling of his name would have been 'Marcgraf'.
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See: P. J. Whitehead, 'The Biography of Georg Marcgraf (1610-1643/1644) by his brother Christian, translated by James Petiver', Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History (1979), 9 (3), 301-314. 2 J. de Laet, 'Benevolos Lectores' to 'Georgi Marcgravi de Liebstad, Historiae Rerum Naturalium Brasiliae, libri octo', Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, Amsterdam/Leiden, 1648, 2. 3 J. D. North, 'Georg Markgraf, an astronomer in the New World', in Johan Maurits Van Nassau-Siegen 1604-1679: a humanist prince in Europe and Brazil. Essays on the occasion of the tercentenary of his death (ed. E. van den Boogaart), Johan Maurits van Nassau Stichting, The Hague, 1979, 394-423; reprinted with a new addendum in: J. D. North, The universal frame: historical essays in astronomy, natural philosophy and scientific method, Ronceverte, London, 1989, 215-234. 4 Erfgoed Leiden e.o., bibliotheek no. P. 7000; Observatoire de Paris, MS A.B.4.5. See also North, op. cit., and note 14. 5 North, op. cit., 227. 6 Meijer has found Marggrafe's entries in the matriculation registers of the universities of (1) Wittenberg (May 1627), (2) Strasbourg (November 1627) and (3) Basle (April 1628). See Th.J. Meijer, 'De omstreden nalatenschap van een avontuurlijk geleerde', Leids Jaarboekje (1972), 63-76, especially p. 75. 7 Christiaan Marggrafe, 'Vita Georgii Marggravii', in: Christiaan Marggrafe, Prodromus medicinae practicae dogmaticae & verè rationalis [second edition], Leiden, 1685. This biography was written by Georg's younger brother, the chemist and medical doctor Christiaan Marggrafe. An English translation by the apothecary James Petiver (1663-1718) was published in 1979 by P. J. Whitehead, op. cit. Other biographical details are summarized in R. P. Brienen, 'Georg Marcgraf (1610-c.1644): A German Cartographer, Astronomer, and Naturalist-Illustrator in Colonial Dutch Brazil', Itinerario.Bulletin of the Leyden Centre for the History of European Expansion(2001),25, 85-122. 8 W. N. du Rieu, Album Studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae 1575-1875, M. Nijhoff, Leiden, 1875, 280. 9 Jakob Bartsch (c. 1600-1633) studied astronomy and medicine in Strasbourg. In 1624, he published several celestial maps, entitled Usus astronomicus planisphaerii stellati, which included several new constellations introduced around 1613 by Petrus Plancius. Bartsch had married Kepler's daughter Susanna. After Kepler's death in 1630, Bartsch edited his posthumous work Somnium. 10 G. Marggrafe, Theses Hasce De Caussa Continente, Wittenberg, 1634. Marggrafe used the title 'philo-chymiater' signing a laudatory poem in Lorenz Eichstädt's Ephemerides novarum et motuum coelestium of 1634. According to J. Ramminger, the phrase can be translated as 'friend of the alchemical way of healing', see Neulateinische Wortliste, www.neulatein.de, accessed: 28 August 2013. 11 Simon Pauli (1603-1680) studied medicine in Rostock, Leiden (1623) and Paris. In 1634, he became professor in medicine and botany at Rostock University. In 1635, he married Elisabeth Fabricius, daughter of the physician and astronomer Jacob Fabricius, who between 1592 and 1596 had served Tycho Brahe as a famulus [servant, assistant]. In 1639, Pauli became professor for anatomy, surgery and botany in Copenhagen. See J. R. Christianson, On Tycho's Island. Tycho Brahe and his assistents 1570-1601, Cambridge University Press, 2000, particularly pp. 276277. 12 Lorenz Eichstädt (1596-1660) lived in Stettin until 1645, when he was appointed
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
professor of mathematics and astronomy at Dantzig University (today Gdañsk, Poland). 13 The Leiden quadrant had been ordered in the mid-1620s by Willebrord Snel (or Snellius), professor of mathematics at Leiden University. The instrument was constructed by Willem Jansz Blaeu. Both men had been apprentices to Tycho Brahe. See Christianson, op. cit., 254-256; 358-361. 14 See Marggrave, 'Vita Georgii Marggravii', op. cit.; Whitehead,op. cit., 308. Jacob Golius (1596-1667) was a Dutch Orientalist and mathematician. He founded Leiden Observatory in 1634; Adolph Vorst (1597-1663) was professor in medicine and botany since 1624. 15 P.J. van Winter, Hoger beroepsonderwijs avant la lettre. Bemoeiingen met de vorming van landmeters en ingenieurs bij de Nederlandse universiteiten van de 17e en 18e eeuw, Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij, Amsterdam, 1988. 16 H. J. Witkam, 'Jean Gillot, een Leids ingenieur', Leids Jaarboekje(1967), 59, 29-54 and idem, Leids Jaarboekje(1969), 61, 39-70, p. 39. Gillot matriculated at Leiden University in 1630. 17 Marggrave, op. cit. and Whitehead, op. cit., 308. 18 Letter of Willem Piso (Amsterdam) to the Curators of Leiden University, February 1655, cited in Meijer, op. cit. 68. In the letter, Willem Pies asserts that in the first two years in Brazil, Marggrafe served as his domestique). 19 All Marggrafe-De Laet correspondence has been lost. One letter, dated 6 February 1640 currently also missing is cited in B. J. Stokvis, Les Médicins Hollandais du 17me siècle, Amsterdam, 1883, 28. See also W. J. C. Rammelman Elsevier, Inventaris van het Archief van de Gemeente Leiden, vol. 2, Leiden, [1865], 23. 20 Statement by Abraham de Vries before notary Martin Beeckman in The Hague, 1 June 1655, University Library Leiden, ASF 290. 21 Letter from Marggrafe (St. Salvador in Bahia) to Johan Maurits van Nassau (Recife), 15 May 1638 (currently missing), cited in Stokvis, op. cit., 26. See also Elsevier, op. cit.. 22 According to De Vries (n. 20), Marggrave had been granted a fee of 750 Dutch guilders for this job, to be paid after his return to Amsterdam. Regrettably, this Brazilian appointment was not passed on to the Amsterdam office of the West Indian Company. Because Marggrafe had been short of money in Recife, he had borrowed some funds from a certain Mr. Zetsky, the steward of Johan Maurits, giving his salary as mathematician as security. This appeared to be a major problem after Zetsky's return in 1647, when the WIC refused to redeem this pledge, saying that Marggrafe had not left for Brazil in this capacity. 23 'Lijste van de domesticquen aant hoff van Sijn Extie. Johan Maurits, Grave van Nassou etc., Gouverneur capitein ende admirael Generael van Brasil op den 1 April anno 1643, genietende devrije taeffel', De Navorscher (1898), 48, 557-558. 24 Johan Maurits van Nassau to the curators of Leiden University, 6 February 1655, printed in P. C. Molhuysen, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Leidsche Universiteit, vol. 3, Drabbe, Leiden, 1918, 107. See also Meijer,op. cit., 66-67. 25 'Lijste van de domesticquen aant hoff van Sijn Extie. Johan Maurits, Grave van Nassou etc., Gouverneur capitein ende admirael Generael van Brasil op den 1 April anno 1643, genietende devrije taeffel', De Navorscher (1898), 48, 557-558. Whitehead suggests that Marggrafe obtained his position as the count's cartographer in 1641, after the leave to Europe of the count's earlier cartographer Cornelis
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Bastiaensz Goliath. See P. J. Whitehead, 'The Marcgraf Map of Brazil', The Map Collector (1987), 40, 17-20, especially p. 17. See also K. Zandvliet, Mapping for Money. Maps, plans and topographic paintings and their rol in Dutch overseas expansion during the 16th and 17th centuries, Batavian Lion International, Amsterdam, 1998, especially pp. 204-206. 26 Letter to the Directors of the Dutch West Indian Company at the Coast of Southern Africa, 14 August 1643, cited in: Brienen, op. cit., p. 120, note 128. On Georg's cartographical activities in Brazil, see also V. Hantsch, 'Georg Marggraf', Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Koniglich Sächsischen Geselschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-historische Klasse (1896), 48, 199-227. 27 For Marggrafe's herbarium, see B. MacBryde, 'Rediscovery of G. Marcgrave's Brazilian Collections (1638-1644)', Taxon (1970),19, 349. See also D. de AndradeLima, A. F. Maule, T. M. Pedersen and K. Rahn, 'Marcgrave's Brazilian Herbarium, collected 1638-44', Bot. Tidsskr. (1977), 71 (3/4), 121-160; P. Wagner, 'Das MarkgrafHerbarium', in Sein Feld war die Welt: Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen (16041679). Von Siegen über die Niederlande und Brasilien nach Brandenburg (ed. Gerhard Brunn and Cornelius Neutsch), Waxmann, Münster, 2008, 233-245. 28 R. P. Brienen, 'From Brazil to Europe: the zoological drawings of Albert Eckhout and Georg Marcgraf', Intersections: yearbook for early modern studies (2007),7, 273-314. 29 Meijer, op. cit., 70-71. Georg's brother, Christiaan Marggrave, never saw the astronomical documents, as he testified in 1685: “His other writings, astronomical, optical, geographical etc where they are concealed, and in whose hands they are, perhaps may be discovered”. Cf. Marggrave, op. cit.; Whitehead, 1979, op. cit., 309. A fragment of what has been claimed to be Marggrafe's travel journal to Ceará, dated 1639, was recently discovered and published in E. van den Boogaart and R.P. Brienen, Information from Ceará from Georg Marcgraf (June-August 1639), Editora Index, Rio de Janeiro, 2004. 30 De Laet, op. cit.. 31 Letter of Christiaan Marggrafe (Leiden) to Johannes Hevelius (Dantzig), 20 July 1652, Observatoire de Paris, Hevelius Correspondence, vol. 3, no. 355. 32 Testimony by Jacob Gool, written down in a judicial document (dingboek), dated 19 June 1655, Leiden University Library, ASF 290, 15-27. 33 Letter of Willem Piso (Amsterdam) to the curators of Leiden University, 12 May 1655, Leiden University Library, ASF 290, 15-27. 34 Several observations by Samuel Kechel are recorded in A.-G. Pingré, Annales Célestes du dix-septième siècle (ed. G. Bigourdan), Gauthier-Villars, Paris 1901. 35 In 1668, directly after Thévenot had acquired the Marggrafe manuscript, he informed Halley about some Brazilian observations. Halley passed this information to the English astronomer John Flamsteed. In 1694, Thévenot's Latin Manuscript 'Observationes Astronomicae à Marggravio in Brasilia factae cum earum usu' was auctioned and bought by the French astronomer Philippe de La Hire (1640-1718). See Bibliotheca Thevenotiana, Paris, 1694, 210 and North, op. cit.,note 17. 36 J.J. Le François de Lalande, Astronomie, vol. 1, Desaint & Saillant, Paris, 1764, 537; J.J. Le François de Lalande, Astronomie, 2nd ed., vol. 2, Veuve Desaint, Paris, 1771, 160; J.J. Le François de Lalande, Histoire de l'Academie Royale des Sciences Année 1766, Paris, 1769, 450. 37 Observatoire de Paris, MS A.B.4.5; Erfgoed Leiden e.o., P. 7000. The Paris
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Manuscript consist of a set of 114 A4 format sheets. The first 10 pages describe the Observatory and its instruments. The following pages describe the observations in chronological order. 38 North, op. cit., suggested that Marggrafe's observatory had been (re-)located to the Vrijburg palace, built in the years 1641-1642 for Count Johan Maurits at the edge of Antônio Vaz island. However, as Jorge Polman pointed out in 1984, the description of Marggrafe's observatory in the Paris Manuscript fits better with Wagener's drawing of Nassau's first residence than with the contemporary drawings of the Vrijburg palace. See J. Polman, 'First observatory in the Southern Hemisphere', Sky and Telescope (1984), 68 (5), 388. Our analyses of Marggrafe's observations also have led to the conclusion that North's hypothesis is mistaken. 39 J. L. M. Menezes, Atlas Arqueológico do Recife, Módulo 7, Presença Holandesa, unpublished, Recife, 1998 (copy kindly provided by the author). 40 The 'Rhijnland foot' was the common standard for measuring length in the Dutch Republic. One Rhijnland foot (containing 12 duim or inches) had a length of 31.4 cm. 41 Specifications for the contractor of the platform, dated December 1632, Univ. Library Leiden, AC I, inv. 22, fol. 91-95. The original contract is in AC I, 43-3. 42 In Leiden, this lower room (a “solderken om te stellen de globen”) was made upon Gool's request, “opdat de voorsz. Gool sal mogen ghebruiken de twee grote glooben die nu op de publique bibliotheque staen” [so that chairman Gool will be able to use the two large globes that are now in the public library], Resolution 9 August 1633, Univ. Library Leiden, AC I, inv. 22. 43 The handle of the Polish hammer was pointed to be stuck into the ground. The hammer had two orthogonal cubes to attach the sextant to measure, by turn, the azimuth or the altitude. 44 For more details on the still existing Blaeu-quadrant see N.D. Haasbroek, Gemma Frisius, Tycho Brahe and Snellius and their Triangulations, Rijkscommissie voor Geodesie, Delft, 1968, 22-23 and H.J. Zuidervaart, Telescopes from Leiden Observatory and other collections, 1656-1859. A Descriptive Catalogue, Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, 2007, 24. 45 How the horizon itself could be used as an azimuthal circle using the Snel quadrant, is explained by the Leiden professor of astronomy, Johan Lulofs, in his Inleiding tot eene natuur- en wiskundige beschouwing des aardkloots, Jan en Hermanus Verbeek en Amelis Jan van Hoorn, Leiden, 1750, 476-480. Lulofs fixed the quadrant at night in a certain position, and measured at daylight the angle between the meridian and the point at the horizon towards which the quadrant was aiming. 46 About the Pinacidium Tychonicum, Brahe's clever sighting device, see H. C. King, History of the telescope, Sky Publishing Corporation, London, 1955, 22. See also S. Straker, 'Kepler, Tycho, and the 'Optical Part of Astronomy': the Genesis of Kepler's Theory of Pinhole Images', Archive for History of Exact Sciences (1981),24 (4), 267293. 47 Bengt Hedraeus (1608-1659) from Uppsala (Sweden) matriculated at Leiden University in October 1641 as a student of 'practical mathematics'. He used the Leiden quadrant in 1642 and 1643. His experiences were published in Benedictus Hedraeus, Nova et accurata astrolabii geometrici structura […] quadrantis astronomici azimuthalis […] claris & perspicuis exemplis illustrato, W. C. Boxii, Leiden, 1643.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
48
Zuidervaart, op. cit., 11. A.van Helden, 'Gassendi and the telescope: toward a research community', Quadricentenaire de la naissance de Pierre Gassendi, 1592-1992, vol. 2, Societé scientifique et littéraire des Alpes de Haute-Provence, Digne les Bains, 1994, 329339, p. 330. 50 Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland [1711] und Engelland, vol. 3, Joh. Ft. Gaum, Ulm und Memmingen, 1754, 434. See also Zuidervaart, op. cit., 14, Fig. 2. 49
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The use of useless instruments: The gnomonic inventions by V. Estancel (S. J.) in transit through the Portuguese empire (1650-1680) Samuel Gessner Introduction Valentim Estancel (1621-1705) spent many years teaching in Jesuit institutions in the Portuguese empire. He grew up in Moravia and after a short sojourn in Rome, the Jesuit wished to go overseas and was sent to Portugal. Estancel's interests included natural philosophy and astronomy. He corresponded with Athanasius Kircher (ca. 1602-1680). His comet observations circulated among the learned. He also published at least twice on gnomonic instruments: in his Orbis Alfonsinus (ca. 1658) and Tiphys Lusitanus (after 1663). Many historians of science may be perplexed by an impression of the practical 'uselessness' of the instruments described in these treatises. While they may appear useless in a certain sense, this essay aims at showing that they should be understood as very useful when related precisely to their context of publication. In fact, the treatises were dedicated to the princes Afonso (1643-1683) and Pedro (1648-1706) of Portugal, respectively. It is not coincidental that Estancel's instruments were geared to problems in navigation typical of a world-spanning empire, such as the Portuguese one. The problems included finding simultaneous local times for towns located at different longitudes, determining a place's latitude by observing the Sun's extrameridian altitudes, observing the earth's magnetism and local magnetic declination, among others. In this essay, a new reading of Estancel's instrument writings is proposed where I put forward a historiographical model that
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
straddles the multiple 'dimensions of use' of instruments in seventeenthcentury Europe. I will argue that accounting for the particularities of the Jesuit's instruments in a historically meaningful way requires considering the 'multiple dimensions' involved in their production and use (ranging from the operational, empirical and representational to the experimental, symbolic and economic dimension). A model for historically plausible explanation Many scientific instruments, either in collections or merely in textual descriptions, 'reassuringly' lend themselves to illustrate an accepted narrative of the history of science. Some, however, are rather odd objects. They are inconvenient because they do not seem to fit well in the given narrative.1 They may even appear scientifically irrelevant altogether.2 Nevertheless, they are out there, some have survived in instrument collections, sometimes even with associated documents that explicitly claim their usefulness. Historiography needs to take them into account. They may compel us to widen our understanding of the processes that drove the sciences in the past. This pertains also to the type of instruments described in the works of the Jesuit Valentim Estancel (or Valentin Stansel). They challenge a narrative of the history of science as a linear and purely progressive process. The historiography about Estancel already is quite rich.3 It is well established that he spent many years teaching in Jesuit institutions in his native Moravia and later in the Portuguese provinces. Having first studied and taught in the cities of Olomouc and Prague, and after a sojourn in Rome (1655), the Jesuit came to work at the colleges of Elvas (1657-1658), Lisbon (1658-1660), and then overseas in Salvador de Bahia (after 1663) and Olinda in Pernambuco (1689). In seventeenth century Brazil he was remarkable for his scientific pursuits.4 Estancel's interests were broad and included natural philosophy and astronomy. As mentioned, he corresponded with Kircher and one of his comet observations was cited by Isaac Newton (1642-1727) on the very last pages of his Principia (1687).5 He produced at least two treatises on gnomonic instruments. While historians usually acknowledge Estancel's contributions to comet observation, his astrological interpretation of the comets and his publications on gnomonic topics, timekeeping, latitude and longitude measurements have been met with scepticism. For instance, Costa Canas, a historian of navigation, called some of Estancel's gnomonic inventions simply 'useless'.6 Ziller Camenietzki, an authority on Estancel, interpreted a contemporaneous poem by Greg贸rio de Matos (ca. 1636-1695) as ridiculing the Jesuit for dedicating a new kind of 'astrolabe' to Prince Pedro of Portugal.7 Is this an indicator that the usefulness of Estancel's instrument was being questioned by his contemporaries?
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The use of useless instruments Samuel Gessner
One could claim that neither Estancel nor anyone else would consciously spend a lot of time and work on a useless instrument. Therefore, either the Jesuit deceived himself on this matter, or he had a different view of what is 'useful'. The point in this essay is to question our understanding of usefulness or uselessness of instruments and to consider the various motivations that underlie the features of a given instrument. To do so, I propose a simple model to dissect the notion of 'use' into multiple dimensions. The model is inspired by Charette's discussion of five dimensions of use of astronomical instruments: i) operational, ii) empirical, iii) representational, iv) didactic, and v) symbolic.8 I suggest adding another two dimensions of use: vi) experimental and vii) economic. And more dimensions may be helpful; the model is not closed in this sense. It should be noted that the seven dimensions are not mutually 'orthogonal'.9 They are not comparable (they include cognitive uses, hands-on uses and social uses) and all uses are not always within the scope of one single instrument. With some instruments certain dimensions of use may appear more developed than others and the emphasis can also change over time. Moreover, the dimensions may represent 'potential' uses that are not necessarily realized in a given instrument's life. A brief description of the proposed dimensions is presented in Table 1. Table 1 - Summary of the multiple dimensions of use of mathematical instruments.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
It should be kept in mind that this model of various 'use dimensions' does not propose a classification of scientific instruments. It points to simultaneous 'domains' an instrument can be involved in during its life cycle. The model seeks to disentangle these 'domains' for the purposes of analysis, while acknowledging they are usually inseparable. This essay discusses the application of the 'model' to Estancel's gnomonic instruments in order to sustain the argument that while his inventions may have been useless in the sense that they would not supersede any existing instruments, they were perfectly useful in several simultaneous other ways. This also means that the motivation for Estancel's choices in developing his inventions should become more intelligible. Estancel's gnomic inventions: Instruments in books For the purposes of this essay two of Estancel's numerous works are relevant as they present instruments and procedures: Orbe Affonsino, printed
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10
11
in Portuguese in 1658, also existing in Latin as a manuscript, and Tiphys Lusitano, of which a sole manuscript version is known, probably written in Bahia and dated after 1670.12 Some of the instruments described are special kinds of sundials: one is a double sided instrument mainly for timekeeping (Orbe Affonsino) and two instruments are intended for finding local latitude using the Sun's 'extra-meridian' position (Tiphys Lusitano). As far as we know, none of the instruments exists today, although the author mentions that he had manufactured one of them for himself. Hence, the only available sources to study the instruments are Estancel's own descriptions and images, plus four poems by friends that refer to the principal instrument in the Tiphys.13
Fig. 1 - Wood cut showing the front side, from Orbe Affonsino, 1658 (BNP, Lisbon, S.A. 2892 P., courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal).
Orbe Affonsino The book's title Orbe Affonsino, which may be rendered as 'the Alfonsine world sphere', is the designation of a flat double-sided instrument (hitherto 'the Orbis'). In addition to the textual description three wood-cut images help understand its configuration and operation. Both sides are equipped with a rotating circular plate within the rim of the mater (no indication of the material).
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
On the front plate a vertical sundial is inscribed, intended to be aligned in the plane of the meridian (Fig. 1). A suspension ring passing through a rotating eyelet allows for vertical alignment. Estancel reminds the reader that the curves are hyperbolic as they are produced by the intersections with the dial plane of cones that are described by the Sun's rays once every 24 hours. The equator is to be adjusted to the geographic latitude; a pointer indicates its value on the scale 90º-0º-90º on the rim. The gnomon – orthogonal to the instrument/meridian plane – can be folded for transport, as the author suggests. The backside of the instrument (Fig. 2) lists names of cities, regions and islands arranged in circle so that their positions indicate their relative geographic longitudes. The rim is divided into 24 hours and further subdivided into quarter hours, so that differences of local time can be reckoned easily. This side also has a rotating alidade.
Fig. 2 - Wood cut showing the reserve of the instrument, from Orbe Affonsino, 1658 (BNP, Lisbon, S.A. 2892 P., courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal).
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The use of useless instruments Samuel Gessner
Table 2 - Transcription of the toponyms inscribed on the reverse of the instrument, from Orbe Affonsino, 1658 (BNP, Lisbon, S.A. 2892 P., courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal).
Instruments for the first praxe: Meia Laranja, Dado escavado In the Tiphys Lusitano, Estancel shows three methods (called 'praxes') to determine the observer's latitude by the 'extra-meridian' measurement of the Sun's height. For the first method he describes the construction and use of two (equivalent) instruments, one spherical and the other cylindrical. First, a hollow hemisphere containing markings corresponding to the zodiac is mounted on a pivot, so that the plane of the equator can be adjusted to the appropriate position. Estancel asserts:
Fig. 3 - First instrument of the Tiphys Lusitano, (BN Portugal, ms. Cod. 2264, courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal).
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
The instrument that will allow us to take the altitudes with all accuracy and certainty will be (as I have said in the preface of this treatise) the half of a ball or sphere of any material, fairly smooth and solid so that it does neither bend nor open under the effect or force of heat. I have made it of Jenipapo [wood of the Jenipapeiro tree], which is the most appropriate wood for this purpose.14
A 'pearl' is fixed at the precise centre of the circular opening by means of a tight thread. This pearl casts its shadow on the scale inside the hemisphere. On the outside, a degree scale indicates the angle of the instrument's inclination. The base of the mounting includes a magnetic compass surrounded by a theoric of the Sun (i.e. a calendar along the zodiac scale), between three baroque-style columns. Estancel acknowledges the difficulty of manufacturing such a concave hemisphere with precision and he proposes a cylindrical version of the same instrument as an alternative (Fig. 4). Here – as with the hemisphere – the cylinder can be pivoted. The angle of its inclination is read from a scale on one of the lateral faces, where an index maintains its vertical position as the semi-cylinder is manually adjusted to the desired position.
Fig. 4 - Alternative version of the instrument in the Tiphys Lusitano (BN Portugal, ms. Cod. 2264, courtesy Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal).
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The use of useless instruments Samuel Gessner
The three instruments are not surprising or particularly innovative in the sense that the gnomonics, i.e. the theoretical knowledge for explaining their working principles, was traditional at least since the Middle Ages. Simple instruments such as the astronomical ring, for example, served the same functions and were widely known. Although both books, Orbe Affonsino and Tiphys Lusitano, contain a few explicit design instructions for an imaginary instrument maker, one may wonder how easily they could be manufactured. So what is the point? Why did Estancel bother to write about, and possibly make, such instruments? What was his motivation? Were his efforts useless? To examine these questions, I come back to the model of the various dimensions of use of an instrument. Testing the model: The use of useless instruments The various dimensions of use will now be considered and briefly discussed, for each dimension first in the case of Orbis Alfonsinus and then that of the two instruments described in the Tiphys Lusitano. Operational use Estancel lists seven operations for the Orbis – telling the time at any latitude, fixing the direction of south, calculating the hour of sunrise, among others – while the two instruments of the Tiphys serve the determination of latitude at any hour of the day. All in all, from this operational point of view, the three instruments are similar to other universal sundials. Also, in the case of the Orbis, some contemporaries pointed out that exactly this type of universal dial had already been described: Mario Bettini (1641) and Jean Voel (1608) had published designs of these dials and were both cited by Estancel.15 In the case of the instruments in the Tiphys, to operate one would need to know in advance the magnetic declination of the location, in other words they are not that 'universal' as Estancel suggested. Actually Estancel does include declination tables in the treatise, but these typically include values at locations for which latitude is already known. There are also other shortcomings in Estancel's design.16 As far as we know, Estancel's instruments and procedures were not implemented in navigation or elsewhere. One may even doubt that they were ever actually built. Only Estancel's 'paper version' exists today. In short, the instruments do have an operational dimension, but the problems they are designed to solve can be treated by other procedures and by already existing instruments. Estancel's instruments are not superior to these existing instruments and would not make them obsolete by any means. Empirical use The three of Estancel's instruments yield measures of the position of the Sun (altitude and azimuth). The instruments in the Tiphys can, in certain cases,
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be used to measure the local magnetic declination. Such measurement of physical observables is what I called 'empirical use': here an instrument is used to produce data about the natural world. Instruments using shadows, common at that period, are of limited precision. Moreover, the scales on Estancel's instruments are rudimentary. The vertical suspension of the Orbis is unstable, while the instruments in the Tiphys lack a device for the initial levelling. The empirical dimension of use of these three instruments is ridden with problems. In a word, measuring anything with them would prove quite impracticable. Representational use The Orbis, as any sundial, constitutes a 'reification' of the age-old doctrine of the Sphere, including the doctrine's geometric idealization and approximation of the phenomena. It represents the conic sections produced by the Sun's rays as the Sun traces its daily course during a year's cycle. Implicitly, it contains a value for the obliquity (here 23ยบ 30'). Hence one may consider the Orbis to represent a theoretical model. Moreover, its reverse is inscribed with geographical information: the approximate position in relative longitude of 27 locations around the globe. On the other hand, the instruments in the Tiphys can be taken as small-scale models of two heavenly orbs: that of the Sun and that of the fixed stars (including the zodiac). Estancel's instruments, as smallscale models, have a representational dimension. They do not present, however, improvements when compared with already available instruments, for instance armillary spheres or globes. From this perspective, they appear to be rather useless, or rather superfluous. Didactic use Estancel apparently wrote the Orbe Affonsino after meeting with prince Afonso (later king Afonso VI of Portugal) when he arrived in Portugal from Rome. It is a pocket-sized slender book. He dedicated it to the prince, who was then about 15 years old, which would seem the appropriate age to learn the principles of Sacrobosco's Sphere. Maybe it accompanied a carefully made version of the instrument. The simple dial would be an adequate device to impress these principles on the prince's mind. In the book, Estancel mentions that, at court in Lisbon, he had talked about mathematics with the Count of Odemira, Francisco de Faro (ca. 1575-1661), and that the count explained his ideas on the problem of longitude determination. Faro was then a very old man, but he was overseeing the education of the royal princes Afonso and Pedro. It is plausible to think that Faro invited Estancel to come up with a 'hands-on' item to spur Afonso's interest in cosmography.
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Experimental use There is a way of using instruments not for producing data about the natural world (the above-mentioned 'empirical' use) but for playing, trying out new things and furthering creative reflection: this is what I call 'experimental' use. To a certain degree Estancel's instruments are delightful and entertaining. In the Orbis, it is nice to see how the author combines in one instrument two ideas treated separately elsewhere. Similarly, the instruments in the Tiphys promise to substitute a simple manipulation for a series of calculations in spherical trigonometry. One could perhaps attribute to them the status of 'thought experiments': Estancel imagines what it would take for a single gnomonic device to solve the key navigational problems. In the Tiphys then he would describe this experimental undertaking without anticipating how far his ideas and instruments would lead him. Estancel would not decide about whether these are practical or not before bringing his description to an end and experimenting with the instruments. Symbolic use The symbolic dimension of the three instruments is mentioned by Estancel himself in the dedicatory prefaces. Moreover, the dedicatees' roles in the political contexts are expressed by the titles, the design and the themes of the instruments. When prince Afonso received the Orbis he was preparing to become the ruler over a world-spanning monarchy. The chosen designation, Orbis Alfonsinus, underlines the royally centred perspective: beholding a whole world in one glance. About twelve years later, the Tiphys Lusitano was dedicated to his brother, prince Pedro, who had in the meantime dethroned Afonso and driven from power his universally hated favourite, the 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor, LuĂs de Vasconcelos e Sousa (1636-1720). All in all, the years of Afonso VI's and Pedro II's rules were years of power consolidation: Portugal won its independence back from Spain, and the Dutch were finally driven out of Brazil. Thus the title Tiphys Lusitano can probably be seen not only as an allusion to the mythological helmsman of the Argonauts, but also as an echo to the Tiphys Batavus sive histiodromice de navium cursibus, et re navali (1624), the title of the theoretical treatise on navigation by Willebrord Snell (15801626). It was published at about the time the Dutch West India Company established a colony in north-eastern Brazil that would last until shortly before Estancel arrived to that region in 1654. The appearance of a comet in December 1659 had been interpreted as an excellent omen for the young Afonso and for Portugal.17 Estancel's gnomonic instruments symbolise Portuguese sovereignty in dominions that reach around the globe. From this point of view, Orbe Affonsino succeeds to encapsulate a view of space and time in all provinces under Portuguese rule. The list of place names on the
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instrument pre-emptively includes even unknown and legendary places, such as the Land of Quivira, abundant with riches, a clear statement that they were within the reach of Alfonsine authority. As the king's eyes rested on the instrument, he could imagine his subjects across the world: now it is time to get up in Goa, now the workers on the bulwark of fort São João on the Azores would lay down their tools and have supper, now the vice-roy would attend mass in Brazil, and so on. The dial is universal but its use to determine, for example, the hour of sunrise or sunset is nevertheless restricted to certain latitudes, at least for the longer days of the year. The actual design of the dial's lines at the front and on the upper side restricts the use of the instrument to locations between 40º North and South (Fig. 1). This was quite sufficient, as the Portuguese dominions lay within these limits.18 Similarly, the two instruments in the Tiphys offer a real-time micro-image of the great cosmic machine and its events, in harmony with the monarchy's order and prosperity. The fact that Estancel recommends Jenipapo wood – from a Brazilian tree – for their manufacture is symbolically relevant, too. Moreover, their main function – determining latitude at any time of the day – corresponds to the needs of a seaborne empire, as prince Pedro would be well aware of. Economic use Finally, there is the economic dimension of use, which in Estancel's case means the economy of patronage. In seventeenth-century culture, social existence and status depended on the attention received from a source of authority, power and social order. For centuries dedications to princes of scholarly endeavours were common. Clavius dedicated his Gnomonices libri (1581) to Stefan Batory, king of Poland (1533-1586); Voel dedicated his De horologiis sciothericis (1607/1608) to the count of Roussillon, Juste-Louis de Tournon (died 1643); and Bettini dedicated his Apiaria (1641, 1642) to Matthia Galasso (1584-1649), who had ascended to the rank of an imperial count to emperor Ferdinand II. Estancel in turn dedicated his first printed work – a Jesuit thesis presented by Christoph Ferdinand Turek, c. 1652 – to the Archduke Leopold VI of Austria (1640-1705) who was then 12 years old.19 In Estancel's case, as with so many other European scholars of his period, instruments, books and the symbolic value of ideas are exchanged for protection, hoped-for entitlements and rewards in some form or another. It is in this sense that one may speak of an 'economic' dimension of use of these instruments. In this perspective, gnomonics as a field of knowledge appears as a good choice, too. Being a conservative doctrine, it is simple enough to serve as common 'language' for Estancel to address scientific and technical questions with the princes. Choosing content to make himself understood is a question of
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rhetoric and this rhetorical element is considerably important in the present case. This makes it all the more understandable why Estancel's instruments should be looked at as inventiones in the rhetorical sense rather than as proposals for scientific innovation. In rhetoric, inventio consists in finding appropriate topoi and combining them in ingenious ways. It seems that Estancel succeeds in both. Concluding remarks: The common language of gnomonics To explore the historical perception of usefulness or uselessness of instruments we followed a simple model of multidimensional use. As discussed above, Estancel's gnomonic inventions did not supersede pre-existing instruments as far as their operational, empirical, representational, and even didactic use dimensions are concerned. In several respects they may be considered useless. Nevertheless, they appear to be quite efficient from the perspective of other dimensions, namely in their experimental, symbolic and economic use. This becomes particularly apparent when we take into account the context for which the instruments were conceived, with Estancel as a Jesuit scholar appealing for patronage and evolving within the world-spanning dominions of the Portuguese monarchy. This model of multiple 'use dimensions' remains open for further development. The necessity of adjustments will become apparent when it is applied to a variety of further historical instruments from different periods. Its increasing refinement may transform it into a useful tool for the historian to construct historically plausible explanations of many of the variegated features of scientific instruments. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Salomé Mota for once remarking to me that an essay on the multiple dimensions of use of instruments would be helpful, to António Canas for having provided me copies of all his papers on Estancel and to Henrique Leitão for his suggested literature on the topic. I thank António Sánchez for the assistance with the identification of the Orbis' toponyms. I am also grateful to David Felismino and Marta C. Lourenço for reading earlier versions of the manuscript and making many suggestions for improvement. A special thank goes to Michael Korey for his careful revision and inspiring remarks. All remaining obscurity and mistakes are my responsibility. This research was part of the post-doctoral research project O papel dos instrumentos matemáticos: Cultura matemática nos tratados e nas mãos do prático [The role of mathematics instruments: Mathematical culture in treatises and in the hands of practitioners] (SFRH/BPD/35072/2007) funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Lisbon). Dissemination of research
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results has also been funded by the project 'On the instruments' trail: Exploring royal cabinets of physics in Portugal' (PTDC/HIS-HCT/098970/2008). Notes 1
The point has recently been very well explained by Jim Bennett. Referring to sixteenthcentury mathematical instruments he observes that they “are clearly challenging in their technical content but seem obsessed with the wrong kinds of questions”. J. Bennett, 'Early Modern Mathematical Instruments', Isis (2011), 102, 697-705, p. 698. 2 J.V. Field once seemed to suggest that the majority of preserved instruments were not involved with scientific research and therefore not relevant for the history of scientific discoveries. When conceiving of the history of science in a broader sense, however, all instruments can be made part of that history. J.V. Field, 'What is scientific about a scientific instrument?', Nuncius (1988), 3, 3-26. 3 E.g. U. Baldini, 'The teaching of mathematics in the Jesuit Colleges of Portugal from 1640 to Pombal', in The practice of mathematics in Portugal (ed. L. Saraiva & H. Leitão), Acta Universitatis Conimbricensis, Gráfica de Coimbra, Coimbra, 2004, 293-465; C. Ziller Camenietzki, 'The celestial pilgrimages of Valentin Stansel (1621-1705), Jesuit Astronomer and Missionary in Brazil', in The new science and Jesuit Science: Seventeenth Century Perspectives (ed. M. Feingold), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2003, 249-70; J. Casanovas and Ph. C. Keenan, 'The observations of comets by Valentine Stansel, a seventeenth-century missionary in Brazil', Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (1993), 62, 319-330; E. Rodrigues-Moura, 'Engenho poético para cantar um artifício engenhoso. O astrolábio de Valetim Estancel nos versos de Botelho de Oliveira e Gregório de Matos', Navegações (2011), 4 (2), 151-166; A. Costa Canas, 'Tiphys Lusitano do Padre Valentim Estancel', Boletim da SPM (2009), 61, 4779; A. Costa Canas, 'Tiphys Lusitano do Padre Valentim Estancel', Anais do Clube Militar Naval (2008), 138, 203-234. 4 C. Ziller Camenietzki, 'Baroque science between the old world and the new: Father Kircher and his fellow Jesuit, Valentin Stansel (1621-1705)', in Athanasius Kircher: the last man who knew everything (ed. P. Findlen), Routledge, New York, 2004, 311-328. 5 I. Newton, Philiosophia naturalis principia mathematica, J. Streater, London, 1687, 507. 6 A. Costa Canas, 'Instrumentos inúteis (séc. XVII)', unpublished paper delivered at Instrumentos e a sua relação com a cultura matemática coeva, da Antiguidade até aos primórdios da Idade Moderna, Jornada de Estudo, CIUHCT, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, 4 July 2008. See also A. Costa Canas, 'Latitude por extrameridianas', in V Encontro Luso-Brasileiro de História da Matemática (ed. L. Saraiva), Câmara Municipal de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, 2011, 215-235. 7 C. Ziller Camenietzki, 'O cometa, o pregador e o cientista Antonio Vieira e Valentin Stansel observam o céu da Bahia no século XVII' [Anais do V Seminário Nacional de História da Ciência e da Tecnologia, Ouro Preto], Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de História da Ciência (1995), 14, 37-52, p. 44, note 22. 8 See F. Charette, 'The Locales of Islamic Astronomical Instrumentation', History of Science [Special issue: artisans and instruments, 13001800] (2006), 4 (144, part 2), 123-138. Another important essay addressing similar questions is: J. Bennett, 'Knowing and doing in the sixteenth century: what were instruments for?', The British Journal for the History of Science (2003), 46 (2), 129-150. 9 'Not mutually orthogonal', an expression borrowed from linear algebra, is used here as
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a metaphor to mean that the dimensions may be interdependent. Orbe Affonsino, Ou Horoscopio Vniuersal. No qual Pelo extremo da sombra inuersa se conhece, Que Hora seja em qualquer lugar de todo o Mundo. O Circulo Meridional. O Oriente, & Poente do Sol. A quantidade dos Dias. A Altura do Polo, & Equador, ou Linha. Offerecido Ao Serenissimo Senhor, & Amplissimo Monarcha D. Affonso VI. Rey de Portugal / Pelo P.M. Valentim Estancel da Companhia de IESV, Iuliomontano, Lente que foi das Mathematicas em as Vniuersidades de Praga, Olmuz, & agora o he em Eluas, Impressão da Universidade, Évora, 1658. 11 Orbis Alfonsinus siue Horoscopium Sciothericum universale, in quo Per umbrae versae extremos apices, & mobilis orbitae circumlationem Quota ubiuis Terrarum sit Hora Linea Meridiana. Aequatoris, et Poli altitudo, Ortis, et occasus Solis, ejusdemq[ue] parallelus diurnus, Diei, et Noctis quantitas & [caetera]m facili planaq[ue] methodo inuestigantur. / Auctore P. Valentino Estansel Soc[ietatis] JESU JulioMontano Olim In Vniuersitatibus Pragensi, et Julio Montia mathematum Professore. [ca. 1658], [27f.], ms. BN Portugal Cod. 2136. 12 Tiphys Lusitano ou Regimento Nautico Novo o qual ensina a tomar alturas, descubrir os meridianos e demarcar as variações da agulha a qualquer hora do dia ou da noite com um discurso pratico sobre a navegação de leste a oeste / composto pello padre Valentim Estancel da Companhia de Iesu lente que foi das mathematicas em varias universidades e ultimamente no real Collegio de Santo Antão em Lisboa. Ms. BN Portugal, Cod. 2264. Dated after 1670 by Costa Canas, 2008, op. cit., on the basis of internal evidence. Moreover, Estancel promises the publication of a Gnomonica universal in three books. The work has probably never been finished. 13 The authors of these poems are: Manoel Botelho de Oliveira, André Rodriguez de Figueiredo S.J., Franciscus Carandinus (Francisco de Carandá) S.J. 14 Tiphys Lusitano, Parte III, Capítulo I: “O instrumento, pois, que nos há de servir para tomar as Alturas com toda exatidão e certeza, vem a ser (como tenho dito no Proêmio deste Tratado) uma meia Bola ou Esfera de qualquer matéria que seja, bem lisa e firme que não empene ou não abra com a violência ou força do calor. Eu a tenho feito de Jenipapo, que é madeira mais acomodada para este negócio.” 15 The construction of the meridian sundial of the type given on the Orbe Affonsinus is described e.g. in Jean Voellus' (Voél) S.J. (1541-1610), De horologiis sciothericis libri tres, Cl. Michel, Th. Soubron, Tournon, 1608, book I, chapter 6 (pp. 115-122), who in turn refers to Clavius' eight books on Gnomonics (1581). Luís Serrão Pimentel (1613-1679), in a letter to Cristóvão Soares de Abreu (?) criticizes Estancel's work as “Nothing else than P. Mario Betino, Appiarios, with serious errors of which I corrected a few.” See Sousa Viterbo (1922), Diccionario Historico e Documental dos Architectos, Engenheiros e Constructores Portuguezes, vol. 3, 403 and L. de Albuquerque, 'A Aula de Esfera do Colégio de Santo Antão no século XVII', Estudos de História, Coimbra (1974), 2, 127-200, p. 152. The reference is to Mario Bettini (1582-1657) and his Apiaria Universae Philosophiae mathematicae in quibus paradoxa et nova pleraque machinamenta ad usus eximios traducta ..., Giov. Bat. Ferroni, Bologna, 1641, 1642. In truth, Estancel's instruments are not original; there is nothing fundamentally new in them. Also the concave spherical and cylindrical dials were described in Voel[lus], including the idea to mount them on a pivot to adjust to various latitudes (Voél 1608, 325). 16 The instruments of the Tiphys present several problems/incoherencies: zodiac signs are N-S reversed on the spherical dial; for the hours of sunset and sunrise in the longer days of the year, the Sun's shadow falls beyond the dial surface, etc. 10
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17
Estancel's comet observation and favorable prognostication is mentioned by A. Pais Ferraz, Discurso astrologico das influencias da mayor conjunçam de Jupiter, & Marte, que succederà neste anno de 1660. a 8. de Agosto : observada, e calculada pera o Meridiano desta Corte, cabeça de Portugal : nelle se trata da exaltaçam de Portugal, dos principios de seu imperio; & de suas felicidades : offerecido ao muito alto, e poderoso monarcha de Portugal D. Affonso VI. N.S. / por Antonio Paes Ferraz Theologo, Philosopho, & Astrologo, natural da mesma Corte, Domingos Carneiro, Lisbon, 1661 [BN Portugal Shelfmark RES. 1659//7 V.]. 18 Not quite enough: northern Portugal reaches up to just over 42º N. 19 Dioptra geodetica, typis Caesaro-Academica, Prag, 1654 (thesis: praesidet Stansel, Resp. Turek, Christoph Ferdinand).
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How telescopes came to New England, 1620-1740 Sara J. Schechner The invention of the telescope in Holland in1608 and the rapid diffusion of low-power examples throughout Europe were contemporaneous with the first successful permanent settlements by the Dutch and English in North America. This might lead us to conclude that the telescope made an early appearance on American shores as ships carried colonists and supplies across the Atlantic, but we would be mistaken. Although there is evidence of the military use of a spyglass on a Portuguese ship off Brazil in 1614, a Dutch ship off Peru in 1615, and by the English governor of Bermuda in 1620, it was rare for there to be a telescope on a ship or across the Atlantic before the midseventeenth century.1 Not until 1655 did the Dutch East India Company (VOC) require the Dutch invention to be a standard piece of equipment on its ships. And even then, the rule may have been little enforced, since the VOC's accountants did not record large-scale purchases of telescopes for its navigators until 1721.2 We also find that seaman's manuals did not routinely mention telescopes until many years after that. As for telescopes of greater power and designed for astronomical use, these long tubes were even rarer in the colonies than little spyglasses. So when did telescopes arrive in North America? What types were they? Who owned them? How were they used? Were there local artisans who could make and repair them? This brief chapter, which is part of a longer study, will focus on a hundred-and-twenty-year period in New England beginning with the plantation established at Plymouth in 1620 and covering the first hundred years of Harvard College, the oldest institution of higher learning in North America. It
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will also refer to the instruments in the way that astronomers of that period did – i.e., in terms of tube length rather than aperture. Telescopes “in a remote Wildernesse” The first known telescope in America for astronomical use belonged to John Winthrop, Jr. (1606-1676), the eldest son of the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and himself the governor of the adjacent colony of Connecticut in 1657 and from 1659 until his death in 1676. Winthrop's serious pursuits in chemistry, botany, experimental philosophy, and astronomy led to his being the first North American Fellow of the Royal Society.3 Writing from Hartford, Connecticut, to the English educational reformer, Samuel Hartlib (ca. 1600-1662) in London, in the years 1659 to 1661, Winthrop remarked that he owned a ten-foot telescope – a serious optical instrument in his day.4 The occasion was a renewal of friendship with Hartlib, whom he had met in London some 20 years earlier. While most of Winthrop's questions concerned alchemy and medicine, he closed his first letter with queries on astronomy: What more perfection [has been] added to the Telescopium since Drebles [Cornelius Drebbel] and Galileus and what new descoveries in the celestiall bodies; whether any new about the motum perpetuum. I am full of more quæries but I pray excuse me thus farr, for we are here as men dead to the world in this wildernesse.5
Hartlib generously sent Winthrop a large box of books and papers, including some extracts on telescopes. “Concerning advancement of opticall learning,” he told Winthrop to take special notice of Johannes Hevelius's Selenographia (a “heavenly work […] the like hath never been extant being a thick book in folio”) and Christiaan Huygens's Systema Saturnium.6 Winthrop thanked Hartlib by sending barrels of cranberries and Indian corn, and hoped to learn more of the “fabrique of that new Telescopium in holland" used by Huygens to see Saturn's ring. “My Telescop: of about 10 foot doth shew little of Saturne.” Would Hartlib send him copies of the astronomical texts mentioned?7 Hartlib was at his service, sending the Huygens in late summer 1661 as a gift from Lord Brereton. The Hevelius was no longer to be had, but Hartlib offered to write the author in Danzig to see if he might have a spare.8 How Winthrop acquired his ten-foot refractor, we do not know. He may have purchased it in 1641-1643 on his last trip to London, or may have ordered it later from America and had it shipped. In 1661, Winthrop sailed to London a second time. His goal was to obtain a royal charter for Connecticut. He returned in 1663 not only with this prize but
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9
also a new telescope – a “3 foote & halfe wth a concave ey-glasse.” Winthrop lost little time after his return in making use of the instrument. In January 1665 he sent a letter from Hartford via Barbados to London to Sir Robert Moray, President of the Royal Society, cautiously informing him that he may have discovered a fifth satellite of Jupiter.10 We now know that Winthrop had mistaken a fixed star for this moon (which would not be discovered until 1892 when E. E. Barnard observed it with the Lick telescope).11 More to the point than his error, this episode demonstrates his enthusiasm for astronomical research and serious scientific goals. Winthrop was not just some gentleman stargazer. He tried to stay current and do his part, even in the development of instruments. In 1668, Winthrop informed Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, that the Philosophical Transactions had inspired him to make a new and improved telescope of eight to ten feet: In them I find yt many great, & ingenious persons, in divers parts of Europe are Indeavouring to bring their Telescopes to greater perfection, and have made some in London of extraordinary extent, and one in Poland expected to be made of double that length: that favour of this intelligence, doth now occasion me to lett you know, that I have beene and am studiously endeavouring to add something towards the further improvement of such instruments for more perspicuous discerning of remote objects.12
The problem for Winthrop, “an exile in a remote Wilderness,” was the want of good materials and skilled labor, particularly in securing good, figured optics to try the experiment: [I am] much discouraged in respect of fitting both the obiect & eye glasses to be such as wilbe necessary, there being much difficulty to have them made to that perfection, wch is requisite in that way intended, especially here: though for that experiment a tube of 8 or 10 foote may I suppose be long ynough in wch if any thing be attained there shalbe a further account of it:13
“I must crave excuse,” Winthrop begged, “if I am too suddaine to expresse my endeavours, and studies, before the effects of them can be demonstrated: we have not every weeke a post hence for correspondence.”14 Nothing further is known about the project, but it probably did not succeed. Basic materials were scarce in the colonies; there were no lens grinders, no glass houses, no instrument makers; and the governor was also becoming elderly.
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Telescopes at Harvard College In early 1672, Winthrop gave his three-and-a-half-foot telescope to Harvard College for use by its younger observers, encouraging them to look at “those satellites about Jupiter at any tyme by the telescope… and the moone or any of those things to their satisfaction.”15 Three of the college tutors acknowledged the gift: Cambridge, Febr: 2, 1671 [old style] Right Worshipfull, Wee cannot but thankfully acknowledge, that great and undeserved Love and Respect, manifested towards us; in that Large and Learned letter sent unto us, by Mr. Martin; (wherein your worship has been pleased to prescribe many usefull Directions, to instruct us in our fitting the Telescope for use, according to the Rules of Art.) As alsoe, in sending therewith severall Instrumentes, whereby wee might be enabled to reduce the former precepts into practice.The eye-glasse sent by Mr. Greene wee have received in safety: wee have not as yet had an opportunity of doeing any thing considerable with it (the two Last nights being Cloudy;) but wee hope (God willing) to employ it shortly in the service of Urania. Wee have likewise (Honoured Sir) Received the two Drawers, enclosed in a round case of wood for their safer carriage: wee find upon Tryall, that the outwardmost Drawer is fitted exactly for the Tube, soe that both will be of use unto us. Wee readily graunt that our Addition to the Tube wherewith it was lengthened, may (and shall) be taken away as uselesse; seing that the Drawers will (if need be) adde greater length thereunto. The box committed to the trust of Mr. Martin, was carefully delivered unto us: Inclosed wherein, wee Received not only a paire of cutting Compasses; but alsoe the modell of a supporter, which your worship was pleased (propriâ manu) to frame for our Instruction. Honoured Sir, wee have received all the forenamed particulars, as a sure witnesse of your unfeigned Love to Learning; and a clear Demonstration of your hearty desire, eminently to promote the same in this schoole of the prophetes. Our Reverend president (who has been sickly of late) [Charles Chauncy] does presente his service to your worship; and Renders you many thankes, for that extraordinary care and Respect, manifested in this case. Were wee capable of performing any considerable service for your worship, and thereby of manifesting our sincere Gratitude (Gratias agendo; as the Latines phrase it:) wee should acknowledge it as a greate Kindnesse, if you would be pleased to employ us therein.
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Honoured Sir, Craving your pardon for our present boldnesse, and for our giving your worship the former Trouble: wee take leave humbly to present our service, and unfeigned Respects; and are, Right Worshipfull, Your much obliged servantes, Alex: Nowell. Joseph Browne. John Richardson.16
The thank-you letter is instructive in showing the extant of the gift and how information and apparatus were exchanged. The gift included the telescope, eyepiece, two additional draw tubes, and directions and tools for mounting the instrument. The shipping from Hartford to Cambridge – a hundred miles – was not trivial in 1672. Parts arrived at different times and by different agents. The eyepiece came separate from the tube assembly, which itself came in two shipments. It appears that the Harvard tutors had extended the main tube to match the focal length of the objective, but realized this was unnecessary once the draw tubes arrived in a protective, wood barrel. The overall impression we get of the provincial letter writers is that they had never used a telescope before and were so grateful for the opportunity that they thanked their benefactor every other sentence. Harvard College had been founded in 1636, and astronomy had been part of the curriculum from its inception. Nevertheless, Governor Winthrop's gift was Harvard's first telescope (in fact, its first recorded piece of any scientific apparatus), and it was the college's pride and delight. The little telescope received a lot of use by the college president, tutors, and students.17 Within a few years, the almanacs that issued from the college's printing press included observations made with the refractor and essays on the history of telescopes.18 Increase Mather (A.B. 1656, fellow from 1674 and future Harvard President, 1685-1701) was among the residents of Boston who rode into Cambridge especially to observe with the refractor. His observations of the comet of 1682 with the telescope were noted in his Kometographia (1683).19 The college instrument was used not just for enrichment, but also for research. Observations of the comet of 1680 by Thomas Brattle (1658-1713, A.B. 1676) – likely made with the telescope – earned a spot in Newton's Principia.20 By the end of the seventeenth century, Harvard had another telescope—a “4 ½ foot Telescope, with all four Glasses in it” used by Brattle to observe a lunar eclipse in 1700.21 In contrast to Winthrop's telescope, which was Galilean in design, this was a terrestrial telescope of the form devised by Anton Maria Schyrle de Rheita and Johann Wiesel around 1645. It had four convex lenses – the objective lens, the ocular lens, a field lens, and an erector lens. It may have been the case that the field lens and erector lens were in a
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'converter tube' that could be removed at will to make an astronomical telescope of Keplerian configuration, because Brattle also reported using a four-and-a-half-foot, two-lens telescope to observe a solar eclipse in 1703. I observ'd…with a Telescope of one joynt, 4 foot and a half in length, and [it] had only 2 Glasses, so that it inverted the object; and I had a red Glass which suited it, so that I could screw it in just before the Eye-Glass, and was not fain to hold it in my hand, […] which was a great convenience.22
Other telescopes followed: an eight-foot refractor in 1712, and a twentyfour-foot in 1722.23 The latter was a gift of Thomas Hollis, a wealthy London merchant, who in 1727 endowed a professorship at Harvard of mathematics and natural philosophy, which was accompanied by a magnificent apparatus. From surviving inventories of the Hollis apparatus made in 1730 and 1738, we learn of an additional “small Telescope or rather perspective with a Concave Eye glass,” whose ocular lens was loose by 1738.24 This spyglass was Galilean in optical design and would have produced an upright image. In all likelihood, it was a teaching tool for optics as much as astronomy. For astronomical research and more in-depth training, the chamber windows and roofs of Harvard buildings served as observatories, and the go-to instruments were the longer, refracting telescopes and an astronomical quadrant of two-foot radius with telescopic sights (formerly used by Dr. Halley at St. Helena and acquired by Harvard College in 1689).25 In the eighteenth century, telescopes were also in the hands of private individuals associated with Harvard College. Edward Holyoke (1689-1769), a Harvard graduate and tutor, devoted compiler of ephemerides, and later the ninth college president, owned a tiny Gregorian telescope made in England about 1720 (Fig. 1).26 John Winthrop (1714-1779), the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard College (and the great great nephew of the aforementioned Governor John Winthrop, Jr.) also owned a small, personal, reflecting telescope.27 It too was English made (Fig. 2). These telescopes were distinguished from the college's own instruments in three significant ways. They had short brass tubes rather than long pasteboard drawtubes covered in vellum or leather. They were more portable, being able to sit on a table or be screwed to a post or tree trunk rather than hung by ropes from a mast or mounted to a large stand.They were also of the new reflecting design, which used metal mirrors rather than glass lenses to magnify images without the nuisance of chromatic aberration. The college did not acquire any reflecting telescopes of its own until John Vassall and Admiral Sir Peter Warren donated fine and handsome reflectors in 1747 and 1749 or 1750. Until then, the college
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made do with the older refractors, “fixing Cross hairs in a Sell [cell] in the 8 footTelescope”and getting “A New hook for the Pully of the Telescope, A New Tube for the long Telescope” in 1740-1741.28
Fig. 1 - Gregorian reflecting telescope, English, circa 1720, owned by Edward Holyoke, author of eight almanacs between 1708 and 1716, and President of Harvard College, 1737-1769. Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, 5002.
Fig. 2 - Gregorian reflecting telescope, English, circa 1735, owned by astronomer, John Winthrop, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, Harvard College. Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, 0054.
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As the eighteenth century wore on, public enthusiasm for astronomy can be gauged by short notices placed in the Boston newspapers, the sale of almanacs, and public lectures given by Professor John Winthrop.29 Nonetheless, there were no shops selling locally-made telescopes or any other optical instruments. One had to place a special order in London and have the telescope shipped or buy it off someone else who had imported it previously. Likewise, if any lens or mirror needed repair or replacement, one had to have the instrument serviced by workmen in London. The same was true for brass fittings, except for the brief period when John Dabney, who had trained in London with Jonathan Sisson, set up a shop in Boston (1739-1743).30 The apparatus at Harvard and the associated archival records – bills of sale and lading, correspondence with instrument makers and benefactors, college records, and lecture notes – confirm this dependence on London and the provincial nature of Boston.31 It was not until the second quarter of the nineteenth century that locally made telescopes started to be available in New England. Notes 1
E. Sluiter, 'The First Known Telescopes Carried to America, Asia and the Arctic, 1614-39,' Journal for the History of Astronomy (1997), 28, 141-145. 2 H. J. Zuidervaart, 'The “Invisible Technician” Made Visible: Telescope Making in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth-Century Dutch Republic,' in From Earth-Bound to Satellite: Telescopes, Skills and Networks (ed. A. D. Morrison-Low, S. Dupré, S. Johnston and G. Strano), Scientific Instruments and Collections, 2, Brill, Leiden, 2012, 41-102, see 98-101. 3 R. P. Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1970, 117-139. 4 John Winthrop, Jr., Hartford to Samuel Hartlib, 25 October 1660, in George H. Turnbull, ed., 'Some Correspondence of John Winthrop, Jr., and Samuel Hartlib,' Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series (Oct., 1957 - Dec., 1960), 72, 58-62. The correspondence is discussed in R. S. Wilkinson, 'John Winthrop, Jr., and America's First Telescopes,' The New England Quarterly (Dec. 1962) 35 (4), 520-523. 5 John Winthrop, Jr. to Samuel Hartlib, 16 December 1659, in Turnbull, 'Some Correspondence,' 36-40, quotation, 40. 6 Samuel Hartlib to John Winthrop, Jr., 16 March 1660 N.S., in Turnbull, 'Some Correspondence,' 40-49, see 47. The receipt of the items and a list is given in Winthrop's reply to Hartlib, 25 August 1660, in Turnbull, 49-58. 7 John Winthrop, Jr. to Samuel Hartlib, 25 October 1660 and 7 January 1660/61, in Turnbull, 'Some Correspondence,' 58-67. 8 Samuel Hartlib to John Winthrop, Jr., 3 September 1661 and William Brereton to John Winthrop, Jr., 2 October 1661, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1878), 16, 212-215. 9 John Winthrop, Jr. to Sir Robert Moray, President of the Royal Society, 27 January 1664/5, Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1878), 16, 220-222,
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see 221. 10 Ibid.. 11 John W. Streeter, 'John Winthrop, Junior, and the Fifth Satellite of Jupiter,' Isis (1948), 39, 159-163. 12 John Winthrop, Jr. to Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society, 12 November 1668, Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg (ed. and trans. by A. Rupert Hall & M. B. Hall), 13 vols, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1965-1986, 5, 150-157, see 156. Note the transcription of this letter is incomplete and missing this section in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1878) 16, 234239. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid. 15 John Winthrop, Jr., Hartford. Letter, presumably to Wait Winthrop, 29 April 1672, Winthrop MSS, 5:70, Massachusetts Historical Society; S. E. Morison, 'The Harvard School of Astronomy in the Seventeenth Century,' The New England Quarterly (1934) 7, 3-24. 16 Alexander Nowell, Joseph Browne, and John Richardson, tutors of Harvard College to Governor John Winthrop, Jr., Cambridge, 2 February 1671/2, Massachusetts Historical Society, Winthrop Autographs, a.149; transcribed by S. E. Morison, 'Harvard School of Astronomy,' 17-18; Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, second series (1887-1889), 4, 265-266. 17 S. Schechner Genuth, 'From Heaven's Alarm to Public Appeal: Comets and the Rise of Astronomy at Harvard,' pp. 28-54, in Science at Harvard University: Historical Perspectives (ed. C. A. Elliott and M. W. Rossiter), Lehigh University Press, Bethlehem, 1992; Associated University Presses, London, 1992, esp. 28-31. 18 Thomas Brattle (A.B. 1676), 'Observations of a Comet seen this last Winter 1680, and how it appeared at Boston in N.E.' in John Foster (A.B. 1667), An Almanack of Coelestial Motions…for…1681, Boston, 1681; Cotton Mather (A.B. 1678), 'A Description of Last Year's Comet,' The Boston Ephemeris…for… MDCLXXXIII, Boston, 1683; Nathaniel Mather (A.B. 1685), 'Discoveries that have been made in the Heavens with, and since the invention of the Telescope,' The Boston Ephemeris…for…MDCLXXXV, Boston, 1685; Henry Newman (A.B. 1687), 'Of Telescopes,' News from the Stars: An Almanack…for…1691, Boston, 1691. 19 Increase Mather, MS diary, 1680-1684, 87, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA; Increase Mather, Kometographia, Boston, 1683, 129. 20 Schechner Genuth, 1992, op. cit., 31.Cf. R. Kennedy, 'Thomas Brattle and the Scientific Provincialism of New England, 1680-1713,' The New England Quarterly (Dec., 1990), 63 (4), 584-600. 21 T. Brattle, 'An Account of some Eclipses of the Sun and Moon, observed by Mr. Tho. Brattle, at Cambridge, about four miles from Boston in New-England,' Philosophical Transactions, (1704-1705) 24, 1630-1637, see '[Observations] of a Lunar Eclipse, that happen'd Feb. the 11th, 1700, in the evening,' pp. 1633-1634. 22 Brattle, 1703-1704, op. cit., see 'The Observation of the Eclipse of the Sun…November 1703,' pp. 1634-1635. 23 Ibid.; Thomas Robie (A.B. 1708), 'Part of a Letter from Mr. Thomas Robie, Physician in New-England, to the Reverend Mr. Derham, F. R. S. Concerning the Effects of Inoculation; The Eclipse of the Sun in November 1722; And the Venom of Spiders,' Philosophical Transactions, (1724-1725) 33, 67-70; and I. Bernard Cohen,
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Some Early Tools of American Science, Harvard University Press, Cambridge,1950, 28, 30. 24 Cohen, 1950, op. cit., 138. 25 Robie, 1724-1725, op. cit., 69; Brattle, 1703-1704, op.cit., Cohen, 1950, op. cit., 28. 26 Now preserved in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University (hereafter CHSI): an English reflecting telescope, circa 1715-1720 (CHSI 5002) owned by Edward Holyoke. 27 Now preserved in CHSI, John Winthrop's personal English reflecting telescope, circa 1735 (CHSI 0054). 28 'Hollis Book', Records relating to the philosophical apparatus of the Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, 47-48, Harvard University Archives, UAI 15.960; Cohen, 1950, op. cit., 39-40. 29 Schechner Genuth, 1992, op. cit. 30 For Dabney's advertisements, see The Boston Gazette, 16-23 July 1739, issue 1017, p. [3], and The Boston Evening-Post, 13 August 1739, issue 209, p. [2]. Record of Dabney servicing Harvard instruments is found in the Hollis Book, 47-48. 31 David. P. Wheatland, The Apparatus of Science at Harvard, 1765-1800, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, Cambridge, 1968; Cohen, 1950, op. cit.
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Heaving a little ballast: Seaborne astronomy in the late-eighteenth century Richard Dunn Introduction The expeditionary activity pursued by seafaring nations in the lateeighteenth century was one of the means by which European instruments were brought to and deployed in the Americas and the seas around them, as observers and their instruments travelled there by ship to undertake investigations and collect data. One of these observers was William Gooch (1770-1792), who was appointed by the British Board of Longitude to make 'Nautical, Astronomical and Trigonometrical Observations' on George Vancouver's expedition to the Pacific (1791-1795).1 Gooch sailed on the Daedalus via Cape Horn, intending to join the expedition on the Northwest Coast of America. Tragically, he was murdered at Waimea on the island of Oahu (in the Hawaiian group) before he could meet up with Vancouver, but his journal and frequent letters home to his parents give a wonderful insight into the daily life of an “astronomer in embryo� learning about the practicalities of observing on a ship and in the field.2 Drawing on Gooch's writings, then, this chapter looks at the process of appointment, the movement, storage and deployment of instruments on a ship and the practicalities of observing at sea and at landfalls including Rio de Janeiro. Becoming an expeditionary astronomer In 1791 William Gooch had just graduated from the University of Cambridge as Second Wrangler in the mathematics tripos and was on the
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lookout for some way of making a living. One opportunity that presented itself was to become astronomer on a Royal Navy expedition led by Captain George Vancouver to chart the Northwest Coast of America and search for an entrance to the long sought Northwest Passage.3 The appointment was being offered by the British Board of Longitude and carried an annual salary of £400. Securing the position meant, first and foremost, gaining the approval of the Astronomer Royal, Nevyl Maskelyne, an influential voice on the Board of Longitude. To do this, Gooch spent many days at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in April 1791, where Maskelyne vetted him, checking his ability to perform astronomical calculations and work with the appropriate instruments. As William wrote to his mother on 29 April, Maskelyne, attended closely to every thing I undertook for Practice; and observ'd the accuracy of my observations by seeing what they were & calculating what they should be & then seeing how near they agreed; - I confess I'm rather glad of this than not, as he always seems perfectly satisfied. Another thing that makes me the more contented with myself is that having computed the rate of going of the clock in the Observatory from my own observations, I have always detected how much it has gain'd or lost in 24 hours to less than the fiftieth part of a second. - Or, more properly speaking it agrees thus nearly with what is deduc'd from his observations; - which I think is a pretty clear proof that neither of us were much out of the way. - 'Tis reckon'd one of the best Clocks in the world; it very rarely gets or loses so much as a second in a day; not often ½ a second.4
The clock was the observatory's main timekeeper, a regulator by George Graham (Figure 1), which had been purchased for £39 in 1750 for use alongside an 8½-foot transit instrument by John Bird.5
Fig.1 - Longcase regulator by George Graham, London, about 1750 (Royal Museums Greenwich, museum no. ZBA0709) – the clock against which Maskelyne tested William Gooch's skills (photo © Royal Museums Greenwich, London [Repro ID: L5616]).
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Gooch impressed Maskelyne sufficiently in these exercises to gain his wholehearted support. Leaving nothing to chance, however, he also had friends lobby on his behalf: “Jones of Trin[ity College, Cambridge”, he noted, had written to “several private Gentlemen (I don't know who nor how many) who are nearly connected with the Members of the Board of Longitude”.6 This and Maskelyne's favour were sufficient to secure his appointment at a Board meeting on 11 June, even in the face of initial opposition from Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society and almost as influential as Maskelyne in the Board's decision-making.7 Thereafter, Gooch was very much under the Astronomer Royal's wing, with Maskelyne offering help with his financial affairs (which the Astronomer Royal would also help to sort out after Gooch's death) and other advice on being an expeditionary astronomer. Maskelyne recommended, for instance, that the young astronomer learn Spanish. This had an obvious practical aspect, given that Gooch would call at Spanish-speaking ports around the Americas. It could also keep Gooch entertained when not engaged in his formal duties: I'm now reading Spanish (agreeable to Dr. Maskelynes Wish) with Mr. Isola who is himself an Italian, but is reckon'd an excellent Spanish Master as well as an Italian Master; - (There isn't a Spaniard in Camb[ridge]). I'm about to begin Don Quixote in the original. While on Ship Board I shall want some study for amusement and that I may have a variety, I'll take Latin, Greek, French, Spanish & Italian Books, that I may be improving myself in the Classical way or getting a knowledge of the most useful modern Languages according as I find myself o'the Mind.8
To help with his studies, Gooch took Don Quixote in four languages: Spanish, French, Italian and English. In total, Gooch listed almost 100 books in his cabin on the Daedalus. Over thirty were works in other languages, dictionaries or religious and medical texts, while 66 volumes (23 of them on loan from the Board of Longitude) were connected with his astronomical work. Providing himself with the right clothing was also vital, as Gooch was quick to point out to his seemingly protective mother: Perhaps it's you who are not yet aware of what cloathing [sic.] will be requisite for me. - I must have some thin cotton jackets & trowsers to wear with nothing else when in the Torrid Zone & thick worstad [sic.] Stockings, thick Breeches lin'd with Flannel, Waistcoats of the same kind, & a heavy Great Coat to wear over that I have got when at Cape Horn & in High Latitudes. - I think the major Part of my shirts should be checks or blue strip'd. – I shall want no finery to go among the American savages in & we are not going to any civiliz'd Nation, at least, not to stay.9
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Gooch received additional advice from William Wales (c.1734–1798) who had been astronomer on James Cook's second circumnavigation of 177275.10 This seems to have encompassed a range of matters: Mr. Wales pays me very particular attention indeed. - and having instructed me with respect to Cloathing,- He will go very shortly to Deptford with me & see to my furniture.- I first mention'd taking some Baubles with me for the Savages, as what I suppos'd a trivial Concern; but he made it a very material one, and said that there was little doubt of my doubling my salary by exchanging them for Furs which could sell for a great Price to the Chinese.- He particularly mention'd large Sheath-Knives, small Axes, Copper Vessels (Pots, Sauspans Kettles &c.) Spike-Nails &c.11
There was said to be considerable profit in transporting furs from North America to Asia: “an Ax of 2 shillings will purchase a Sea Otters skin that I can sell in China for two or three hundred Dollars”, Gooch claimed, although such profits were probably overstated by the 1790s.12 As well as supplementing his income in this way (as the rest of the crew would be doing), Wales explained some of the reasons for having money on hand throughout the voyage: You must take 50 or 60 £ with you on board, to defray Expenses at European Ports which will be very considerable. but such expenses as are incurr'd by your Instruments (hiring Ground to fix them on &c) you will be repaid by the Board when you come back so you must keep a regular Billl of them ...13
Becoming an expeditionary astronomer, then, required a certain amount of personal positioning and then a greet deal of practical preparation. The same was true of the transport and deployment of instruments. Astronomy at sea As the Board of Longitude's astronomer to the Vancouver expedition, Gooch was given responsibility for a long list of instruments for the observations he was to make. 'Perhaps you'll like to know what Instruments I'm to take abroad', he wrote to his parents, 'most of them the same that went with Capn. Cook': 1. An Astronomical Clock14 2. A Journeyman Clock 3. An Alarm Clock [4]. A Good Watch wth Second Hand [5]. An Achromatic Telescope of 46 Ins. Focus wth a divided Object-Glass Micrometer.
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6. A Reflecting Telescope 7. A Vertical Circle with an Azimuth-circle for taking altitudes and azimuths. 8. A Transit Instrument of 4 Feet with a Level & upright wooden Posts 9. A Marine dipping Needle 10. A small Pocket compass 11. A Set of Magnetic Bars to change the Poles of the dipping Needle 12. A Burton's Theodolite with Stand. 13. A Hadley's Sextant by Dollond 14. Another by Troughton 15. Two large Thermometers 16. Two Thermometers with wooden Scales, by Ramsden 17. A Portable Barometer by Burton 18. A Bason to hold Quicksilver with Glass Roof 19. Quicksilver in a Bottle 20. A Night Telescope 21. A Steel Gunter Chain 22. A Knight Azimuth Compass 23. A Portable Tent Observatory. 15 besides Books
This was very much the standard list for this kind of expedition and was defined by Maskelyne (as Astronomer Royal and a Commissioner of Longitude) for a broad range of observations.16 These included determinations of latitude and longitude (by watch and lunar distance), magnetic variation and dip, air temperature, positions of headlands, islands and harbours, and the heights and times of tides (see Appendix 1).17 Additions or variations to these instrument lists only occurred as new types were developed and tested. In this case, for instance, Gooch had written on the day he was appointed by the Board of Longitude, that “Mr. Ramsden (the first Mathematical Instrument maker in the World) is now in this apartment & Dr. Joseph [Banks] has just been here too to talk very knowingly about an Instrument which I am to take”.18 This was an altazimuth instrument, the “Vertical Circle with an Azimuth-circle for taking altitudes and azimuths” noted above and described in the official list as a “Universal Theodolite” (see Appendix 2).19 Although Gooch didn't record it in his letter to his parents, he was also supplied with quite an early example of a station pointer (Figure 2). This appears in the official list (Appendix 2) as “An Instrument to lay a place down in a Chart from the two observed angles between 3 given places, by Troughton”, with a later note that it was “called a station pointer”. The instrument's name was only slowly becoming known, it seems.20
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Fig. 2 - Station pointer, by Troughton, London, about 1820 (Royal Museums Greenwich, museum no. NAV0627). This example is dated to the early nineteenth century, but may be the form the instrument had in the years soon after its introduction in the 1780s (photo © Royal Museums Greenwich, London [Repro ID: A1756]).
As the Board of Longitude's astronomer, therefore, Gooch was responsible for a substantial amount of equipment, all of which had to be safely stowed on board the Daedalus. The larger instruments for use on land (see below) were packed into boxes in the hold. Smaller items were near to hand for use at sea. Many of these were to be found in Gooch's “very spacious” cabin, which he shared with Lieutenant Hergest and Captain New.21 Helpfully, he sent his parents an inventory detailing how his belongings were arranged, including a number of instruments: Upper Drawer in Bed Room. A Roof Machine Quicksilver Three Coulour'd Wedges Two thermometers A set of Magnetic Bars Two spare centers and punches for dipping needle Three Steel Writing Pens & one steel ruling Pen An Artificial Horizon & Spirit Level Middle Drawer in Bed Room A case of drawing Instruments Upper Shelf in the Closet Medicine Chest Third Shelf in the Closet Gunters scale A Pocket Compass.
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Fourth Shelf on the closet A Gunters chain Shelf over the Drawers in the Bed Room A Station Pointer A circular protractor22
The list does not, however, identify everything Gooch had to hand. A sextant was certainly in daily use (see below) and timekeepers were to be a central part of his life, with the Board of Longitude's instructions (Appendix 1) requiring him to make daily observations of latitudes and longitudes, the latter by lunar distances and by timekeeper, as well as regularly checking the rates of the timekeepers. The Board of Longitude had already issued Vancouver with Kendall's 23 third timekeeper for the Discovery and Arnold number 82 for the Chatham, but sent additional timepieces with Gooch: There will be three Watches (at about 40 Guineas each) provided by the Board of Longitude, so that tis needless for me to purchase one with a second hand.- However as these are fix'd in wooden Boxes, & I should like to have one in my Pocket, I should wish to keep that I've got.24
These were Arnold number 14, which had an experimental platina balance for temperature compensation, Arnold number 176, commissioned specially for the expedition, and a watch by Earnshaw, all of which Gooch stowed in his cabin.25 The Earnshaw, however, fell victim to an unexpected hazard and did not even leave British waters. On 31 July, William wrote that, a cat got upon a shelf in my closet where one of the Time pieces was laid and put it down upon the Floor, the Watch is so damag'd that it wont go. This watch was made by Earnshaw, and tho' it was but of 40 Guineas purchase it went better than Arnolds Box Time Keeper of 80 ÂŁ. But the other Time Keeper of arnolds (which is 120 ÂŁ purchase) goes inimitably. The rate at Greenwich was losing 1/5 of a second per Day. - My Closet Door & Cabin Window were left open, but my Cabin Door was shut; In my absence the Cat got in at the Window, and tho' the Watch was plac'd in a square wooden Box at least 6 or 8 inches sidways [sic.] of the Closet Door, the Cat moved it out Box & all, She is a young Cat & perhaps its beating attracted her Notice.26
A week later, he noted that, I've just sent Mr. Pitts [Gooch's servant] to Dr. Maskelyne with it [the watch], with orders not to ride on the Box or jump from the Coach so as to impair it more by any sudden
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shake. - I wrote to Dr. M[askelyne] about it from Deal, and have recd. an answer from him, in which he exprest himself concern'd at the accident having happen'd but have order'd me another Watch in stead of it.27
Earnshaw himself came a few days later with a replacement (number 1514 – “of 15 Guineas purchase more than the other”), arriving ahead of Pitts, who was delayed and nearly missed the ship's departure.28 It wasn't only the timekeepers that proved vulnerable. On 17 November, Gooch wrote to Maskelyne from Rio de Janeiro about damage to the observing instruments: We arrived here on the 27th Oct & Found the Pit with prospects for Botany Bay Just before we arriv'd at St Jago on Sept 14th I found the Micrometer screw on the Troughtons Sextant immoveable & about 10 days before we arrived here I found one Corner of the Brass frame of [the] Dollond Sextant eaten thro with Rust & the Horizon Glass loose. Luckily one of Ramsdens Principal workmen was on board the Pitt as a convict he was brought on board the Daedalus & repaired both in my presence the shaft of the micrometer screw had eaten itself into the Socket for want of a Composition of wax & Tallow being sooner applied & the Edges of the broken frame of the horizon glass were quite Black so that it must have been almost apeices [sic.] for a long time.29
As Gooch acknowledged, he had been fortunate to find someone to make the repairs on this occasion, when the fragility of precision instruments in the inhospitable environment of a ship had been made all too clear. This was important, since the same instruments were central to his duties at sea, notably for position-fixing and checking the timekeepers.30 Hoping to reassure his parents that he could cope with the routine this involved and the resulting exposure to the elements, Gooch had noted early in the voyage that, Tis necessary to practice making observat.ns a little as well as knowing the theory. My Mother perhaps will be unhappy at my being upon Deck in the Evening in all Climates, but this Evening Business will never engage me above two or at most three or four minutes at a time. I shall be employ'd every noon (when the Sun shines) for about 10 minutes & only on clear evenings & that at any time that suits my Convenience best after the Moon rises & while tis starlight, so that I may either take an observation in the Evening or be up in the Morning just a little before day light. So I shan't have any broken rest.31
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But there were problems, notably the perennial one of finding one's sealegs. Like many before him, it took young William some time to adjust to the rhythms of the Daedalus. A letter from Deal, still in English waters, revealed his distress: The Tide running one way and a brisk wind blowing the other, the motion of the ship was very much increas'd, and so was my sickness, so that in the course of the Morning I was five or six times oblig'd to heave a little ballast overboard; before the ship brought to, I found my sickness much abated, but I found my strength so much exhausted that I was glad to get to Bed; I did so & Lt. Hergest (with the same kindness he has always shewn me) attended me himself as a nurse; He brought me some mull'd wine & a biscuit, & wound up my Time Keepers for me in my Presence.
Winding the timekeepers was another task Gooch could not afford to let slip, whatever his condition, but Hergest had already become sufficiently trusted that the next day Gooch, “told him that if it was agreeable to him to stay on board till 11 o'clock & then wind the Watches up (for I wish them never to be 32 wound up above an hour from noon) I w.d stay on shore”. One can almost sense his relief at a few hours on dry land. Once Gooch gained his sea-legs, he was able to settle into the observing routine, to which his journal regularly refers. On 20 December 1791, he noted, We are now in Latitude 48º South & Longitude 61º West and our distance from England, (I've been computing it) is now about 7832 English Miles. – I am now going to observe the Longitude by the Watches, and then drink Tea.33
But the observations were just the start of the process, since they also had to be reduced to plot the ship's position. Some of the drudgery of these calculations comes through in Gooch's expression for this work, “fagging”. Indeed, it was a task that could take over. On 2 September 1791, William apologized for a delay in finishing a letter home: being directed by my Instructions to send to England an account of the Result of my Observations by every safe conveyance, and having at first being so ill as not to be able to observe at all, and even when I did begin, too fatigued to compute them at the Time I have been fully employ'd in computing them in order to send to Dr Maskelyne34
Likewise, his journal noted the following February, that, I have been very full-handed in bringing up my Reckoning, which I have let run for some days. – As true as I'm an
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Astronomer tis just 2 O'Clock!!! – Well, I must go to Bed. – Tis now 8 in the Morning in England; – I am now going to 35 Bed, and you are about rising.
Gooch was able, however, to train up some of the crew to help with this laborious work, something his formal instructions from the Board of Longitude required, as had the instructions to previous voyage astronomers.36 As he told his parents, I shall soon make Mr. Pitts and Captn. News Son ready computers and shall employ them both about the same thing as that if one makes a mistake in the work the other will detect it. – This employment for them will be an advantage both to them and to me, Mr. Pitts will certainly be a very good Observer with a little Practice. But I never yet put young New to the Trial, however he's a ready Lad at 37 figures.
Other instrument-based tasks were more mundane than the astronomical work, but were equally essential. When they arrived at the Marquesas Islands in March 1792, Gooch helped Lieutenant Hergest investigate what they hoped was the harbour of Madre de Dios with a lead and line to ensure that the Daedalus could safely enter. They were using Cook's published voyage account as a guide, but the description had initially left them doubtful as to whether they were in the right place.38 The long periods at sea seem, however, to have taken their toll. One can, for example, sense Gooch's exasperation at anything that prolonged the time spent away from land. On 20 April 1792, he complained at one of these delays, we might have been at Owyhee [Hawaii] 2 or 3 days ago. – But what was most surprising, he had no reason for steering as he did, but to find Islands !!! – Just as if we might not run out of the way of some, as into the way of others, since in either case, we where [sic.] going in a Track which was never gone before.39
Any such discoveries could create work, since another shipboard duty was to carry out surveys if new places were discovered: No sooner had we left the Marquesas, than we fell in with four new Islands, never before seen by Europeans, ever since which time I have been employed in Surveying them, settling their Latitude, and Longitude, and laying them down on a Chart. – This Business I have now completed, but it has prevented my getting forward a packet for D.r Maskelyne40
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In retrospect, one of the tragedies of Gooch's short life is that this was not a new discovery – the islands had already been identified and named Washington Islands by an American, Joseph Ingraham.41 Survey work was another core task for Gooch, and included not only mapping new discoveries but also checking and improving geographical data for known places. Indeed, Gooch had initially thought that one of his main tasks would be 'to assign the Bounds of the English territories in South America'.42 Gooch deployed the azimuth compass, sextant, station pointer and other instruments in the surveying work, notably for running surveys to create charts at reasonable speed. He would also seek to determine (or make more accurate) the geographical positions of key locations, such as harbours. This meant determining latitudes from the Sun and longitudes by timekeeper, lunar distances or the observation of other astronomical events. On 20 February 1792, for instance, he wrote that an eclipse of the Sun the following Thursday would help him “determine the Longitude of Port Madre de Deos, in St. Christiana, one of the Marquesas, where we shall anchor in less than a fortnight”.43 For the most accurate of these determinations, however, it was necessary to make observations on dry land. From ship to shore In contrast to the instructions to the astronomers on the Cook voyages, the Board of Longitude's instructions to Gooch drew a distinction between those made at sea and on land, where much greater accuracy was possible through the use of larger, fixed instruments.44 Land-based observations were, however, subject to the discipline of the ship and thus to the officers' priorities and instructions. Gooch learned this early in the voyage, noting on one occasion that, “I intend taking proper instruments on shore to measure the perpendicular height of the Pike of Teneriffe if I can persuade Hergest to stay long enough”. On that occasion he did make it ashore, but soon realized that he had forgotten “till I tried that the Suns meridian altitude being above 60° cannot be taken at land with a Hadleys Sextant”.45 The best opportunities for extended series of observations came when the ship stayed in one place for repairs and re-provisioning, as the Daedalus did in Rio de Janeiro, a common stopping place for vessels heading towards Cape Horn and into the Pacific. The Daedalus's sojourn in Rio allowed Gooch to set up a temporary observatory for the astronomical regulator, larger telescopes and other instruments. The tent observatory was almost identical to those used on Cook's second and third voyages (Figure 3), which had been designed by William Bayly.46 Gooch's, which cost £20 from Nathan Smith at his Patent Floor Cloth Manufactory in Knightsbridge, London, was “10 Feet Diameter, made in 12 Frames, with a Moveable Roof on Kirbs, made up in 3 thickness's, Door & proper fastnings fixd on a Bottom folding Kerb, & pack'd up in Cases”.47
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Fig. 3 - John Webber, 'Resolution and Discovery in Ship Cove, Nootka Sound' (detail), drawing, 1778 (Royal Museums Greenwich, museum no. PAJ2959). Gooch took the same design of tent as those used on Cook's third voyage, shown here (photo © Royal Museums Greenwich, London [Repro ID: A8588]).
By 6 November 1791, Gooch had successfully set up the tent observatory on an island in the harbour at Rio and was paying a local widow two shillings a day to rent the ground there (a cost he would be able pass on to the Board of Longitude).48 Unfortunately, the Brazilian climate was not well suited for astronomical observations. On 15 November, a strong gale made it unsafe to loosen the observatory's roof, “as it was likely the wind would have carried it away”.49 By this time Gooch had set up Ramsden's universal theodolite as his official instructions directed (see Appendix 1), but seems to have had some difficulty in its deployment, not helped by the poor observing conditions.50 By the end of the stay, his initial optimism had turned to disappointment: The Observatory & Instruments were taken down yesterday & carried into a house on the Island where the Observatory was put up. & this morning they were brought on Board. - It is rather a discouraging thing to me (at first setting out) to meet with such unfavourable weather. The Observatory was up 10 days before I could do any thing the weather being constantly cloudy.51
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Six months later, the effects of the observing problems were still plaguing him: I was much concern'd at finding after I left Rio Janeiro that I had us'd a false meridian Mark however I corrected it afterwards and (of course) all the Observations tho' with a good deal of trouble as I hadn't been able to get equal altitudes of a star on account of intervening clouds.52
Nonetheless, Gooch had made a number of observations of transits of the Sun, Moon and fixed stars, and comparisons of the timekeepers with the astronomical regulator, and recordings of magnetic dip and tides.53 Other quotidian issues arose in Rio. Having set up his observatory near a well-populated area, Gooch found that he could not simply devote himself to nights of solitary and productive observing, since the observatory became something of a visitor attraction. This happened almost immediately and was a mixed blessing: The Sunday after the Observatory was put up, and the Instruments fixt in it, several Gentlemen of Rio-Janeiro with some Ladies, came over to see the Observatory … One of the Gentlemen spoke a little Latin, and English both, so that by one means or other, we could understand a great many things, - but somehow, he strangely mistook me in one thing. – I ask'd him to propose to the Ladies, their looking at a distant Object through a Telescope. – He look'd me very hard in the face, and ask'd me with surprise, what it was I said. – I repeated the same thing. – When he sternly replied no: - adding that the Ladies present, were people of Rank and Credit, - and that he was amaz'd at my Proposal. – I saw immediately, he had misunderstood me, and could not help laughing, at so strange a mistake; - however, I soon explain'd myself, and then he laugh'd as well as I, shook me by the Hand, and apologiz'd for his Misconstruction of my Words, - but what that Miscronstruction literally was, I never knew; - however the purport of it is easily perceiv'd from his answer.54
That misunderstanding was settled, but the regular attentions of others only added to the fatigue created by the nocturnal demands of astronomy. On 10 December Gooch wrote that, I had been up all night in the Observatory, and was oblig'd to leave my visitors to go a few minutes in the afternoon to the Observatory to take some Altitudes of the Sun; - after that, when I had sat with them some time, I grew very sleepy on a sudden, so much so, that I was oblig'd to tell Dobson, to explain to them, that I had sat up all night, and was retir'd to lay down to sleep for half an hour; - but when
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they were about to wake me as I order'd, my Visitors desir'd I might not be awake, as they were sure (they said) I wanted rest, - so I wasn't present when they went away. – But when I awoke some time afterward, I turn'd out to undress, and told Pitts to set the Alarum, to the time of the Moons passing the Meridian, - When the Alarum ran down I look'd out and saw 'twas cloudy, so I went to Bed again and slep't 'till nine in the Morning.55
This neatly encapsulated the problems encountered in Brazil: poor weather and constant interruptions. The latter could be most vexing, particularly from less welcome and overly boisterous visitors.56 Once in the field, it seems that Gooch found that the life of an expeditionary astronomer could be far from straightforward. Conclusion Following the deaths of William Gooch and Lieutenant Hergest, the Daedalus did finally join Vancouver's vessels on the Northwest Coast of America, where the Board of Longitude's instruments were transferred to Captain Vancouver. Gooch's and Hergest's personal belongings were sold by auction at Nootka Sound, in accordance with the usual naval custom following the death of a crew member. Among the items sold, Hergest's “fine sextant” fetched 14 guineas, while Gooch's watch sold “amazingly cheap at 23 S[hillings]”. “Such a thing might have been better sent home”, noted Nevil Maskelyne, who spent several months carefully sorting out the late astronomer's financial affairs for Gooch's father.57 Maskelyne calculated the legacy of William Gooch's working life at just over £522. But the value to the historian today lies in what the letters and journal of this “astronomer in embryo” tell us about the practicalities of seaborne astronomy: the general preparations needed before a voyage; the care and deployment of instruments; the “fagging” work to make use of the observations; and the very difficulty of making accurate and useful observations, whether from a ship or from a temporary observatory far away from home yet overrun with curious visitors.58 Notes 1
Board of Longitude, Instructions to William Gooch, 11 June 1791, Cambridge University Library (hereafter CUL), Ms. RGO 14/9, 61v. See also Appendix 1. 2 Gooch's letters and extracts from his journal are preserved in a bound volume, 'Letters Memoranda and Journal containing the History of Mr Wm. Gooch, Astronomer of the Daedalus Transport', CUL Ms. Mm.6.48; quote from 200r. Two volumes of Gooch's observations from the voyage survive in the Board of Longitude archive, CUL Ms. RGO 14/62 and RGO 14/63. 3 G. Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, Printed for G.G.
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and J. Robinson and J. Edwards, London, 1798; G. Williams, Arctic Labyrinth. The Quest for the Northwest Passage, Penguin, London, 2010, 154-166. 4 W. Gooch, Letter to mother, 29 April 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 31v-32r. 5 D. Howse, Greenwich Observatory, Vol. 3 The Buildings and Instruments, Taylor & Francis, London, 1975, 129-130. The Graham regulator was the Observatory's main transit clock until 1821. The transit telescope survives at the Royal Observatory (Royal Museums Greenwich, museum no. AST0980). 6 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 12 March 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 25r. 7 G. Dening, The Death of William Gooch. A History's Anthropology, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1995, 113-120; D. Mackay, In the Wake of Cook. Exploration, Science & Empire, 1780-1801, Croom Helm, London, 1985, 99. For Banks, see J. Gascoigne, Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, the British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998. For Banks's opposition to Gooch's appointment, see CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 24r. 8 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, undated (1791), CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 20r-v 9 W. Gooch, Letter to mother, 29 April 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 32r-v. 10 E.I. Carlyle, 'Wales, William (bap. 1734, d. 1798)', rev. Derek Howse, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28457, accessed: 23 August 2012. 11 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 7 June 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 34r-v. 12 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 17 June 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 40v; on the fur trade, see Mackay, op. cit. (7), 57-82, esp. 76. 13 Ibid., 40r; see also N. Maskelyne, Letter to W. Gooch senior, 11 July 1793, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 94v. 14 The regulator was by Thomas Earnshaw and is now in the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney (registration no. 94/15/1). 15 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, undated (1791), CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 18v-19r. 16 For a comparison with the equipment on Cook's voyages, see D. Howse, 'The principal scientific instruments taken on Captain Cook's voyages of exploration, 1768-80', Mariner's Mirror, (1979), 65, 119-135. 17 For the instructions to the astronomers on Cook's third voyage, for example, see J.C. Beaglehole, The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery. III: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, 1776-1780, Boydell, Woodbridge, 1999, Part II,1500-1503. 18 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 11 June 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 37r. 19 A. McConnell, Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800): London's Leading Scientific Instrument Maker, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007, 147. 20 S. Fisher, 'The origins of the station pointer', International Hydrographic Review (1991), 68, 119-126. 21 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 17 June 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 41r. 22 Extracted from W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 31 July 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 55r56v. 23 Derek Howse, 'Captain Cook's Marine Timekeepers. Part I The Kendall Watches', Antiquarian Horology (1969), 6, 190-205, at 200-201; Kendall's third timekeeper (known as K3) survives at Royal Museums Greenwich (museum no. ZAA0111). 24 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, undated (1791), CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 47v.
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25
A. David, 'Vancouver's Survey Methods and Surveys', in From Maps to Metaphors. The Pacific World of George Vancouver (ed. R. Fisher and H. Johnston), UBC Press, Vancouver, 1993, 51-69, at 55-56; A.C. Davies, 'Vancouver's chronometers', in From Maps to Metaphors, 70-84, at 72-77; D. Radage, 'Arnold Expedition Chronometer No 176', Antiquarian Horology (2010), 32, 255-262; A.C. Davies, 'Arnold's Chronometer No. 176 and Vancouver's Expedition, 1791-95', Antiquarian Horology, (2010), 32, 532-540. Arnold 176 is now in the Vancouver Maritime Museum. 26 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 31 July 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 56v. 27 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 7 August 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 61v. 28 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 13 August 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 64r-v. Earnshaw 1514 performed well at first, but it stopped working while under Vancouver's care; see Davies, op. cit. (25), 76. 29 W. Gooch, Abstract of a letter to Nevil Maskelyne, 17 November 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 196. The Pitt was transporting convicts to Australia. See also S. Schaffer, 'Easily Cracked: Scientific Instruments in States of Disrepair', Isis (2011), 102, 706717, at 710-711. 30 See, for example, W. Gooch, 'Rule to find the Longitude of the Ship by the Watches', CUL RGO 14/63, 353r-v. 31 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, undated (1791) CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 22v-23r. 32 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 23 July 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 51r-v. 33 W. Gooch, Journal extracts, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 161r-v. 34 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 29 August and 5 September 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 70v. 35 Gooch, op. cit. (33), 178r. 36 Board of Longitude, op. cit. (1), 62v; Beaglehole, op. cit. (17), 1501. 37 Gooch, op. cit. (34), 71r. 38 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 20 April 1792, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 88r-v; Gooch, op. cit. (33), 181v; James Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole, and Round the World, Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London, 1777, 307-308. 39 Gooch, op. cit. (33), 188r. 40 Ibid., 189v-190r. 41 Vancouver, op. cit. (3), Vol. 2, 95 and Plate II; J. Ingraham, 'An Account of a recent discovery of seven Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, by Joseph Ingraham', in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society: For the year 1793 Vol. II, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1793, 20-24; Dening, op. cit. (7), 134-135. 42 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, undated (1791), CUL, Ms. Mm.6.48, 22r-v. 43 Gooch, op. cit. (33), 178v. 44 Board of Longitude, op. cit. (1), 61v-63v; compare Beaglehole, op. cit. (17). 45 Gooch, op. cit. (34), 71r, 73r-v. 46 W. Orchiston, Nautical Astronomy in New Zealand. The Cook Voyages, Carter Observatory Board, Wellington, 1998, 59-60. 47 Nathan Smith, Bill to the Board of Longitude, 29 June 1791, CUL RGO 14/16, 387; see also A.C. Davies, 'Horology and Navigation. The Chronometers on Vancouver's Expedition, 1791-95', Antiquarian Horology (1994), 21, 244-255, at 252. 48 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 9 October 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 79v. 49 W. Gooch, 'Astronomical Observations made at Rio Janeiro', November 1791, CUL Ms. RGO 14/62, 66r.
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50
Ibid., 66v-68v, 195v. W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 24 November 1791, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 82r. 52 W. Gooch, Letter to parents, 2 May 1792, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 91r. 53 Gooch, op. cit. (49), 65r-70v. 54 Gooch, op. cit. (33), 142r-v. 55 Ibid., 146v-147r. 56 Ibid., 148v-149v. 57 N. Maskelyne, Letters to William Gooch senior, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 112r, 114v, 118r, 120v-121r. 58 C. Nicholl, letter to Dawson Turner, 22 February 1835, CUL Ms. Mm.6.48, 200r; Dening, op. cit. (7), 72-73. 51
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Appendix 1 The Board of Longitude's instructions to William Gooch (Cambridge University Library RGO 14/9, 61v-63v) Whereas you have agreed (on certain Terms) to go on board his Majesty's Store-Ship the Daedalus, now fitting out for a Voyage to the North West Coast of America, and to make Nautical, Astronomical and Trigonometrical Observations there for fixing the Latitude and Longitude of various points of the Coast and Country, and to ascertain their relative position with respect to one another, and also to make Nautical and Astronomical Observations during the Voyage out and home, all tending to the improvement of Geography and Navigation; You are hereby required and directed to embark on board the said ship, the Board of Admiralty having given the necessary orders for your reception, and to proceed in her on the above-mentioned Voyage accordingly, and whereas upon your arrival on the North West Coast of America, you may expect to find Capt. Vancouver of his Majesty's Ship the Discovery, who sailed some months past for that Station: you are upon joining him to quit the Daedalus and go on board the Discovery (Capt. Vancouver having Orders to receive you) and you are then to pursue the Operations necessary for Surveying the said Coast and Country; going occasionally on Shore, when ever it shall appear conducive to the better carrying on the said Survey. And whereas We have ordered you to be supplied with the several Instruments, Books, Maps, Charts, and other things specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed, which the Astronomer Royal will cause to be delivered to You; You are to receive and take into your Charge and Custody the said Instruments, Books, Maps, Charts, &c. (giving the Astronomer Royal a receipt for the same) and to make use of them for the several purposes to which they are respectively adapted; taking all possible care of them during the Voyage and Survey, and these being finished, returning them to us or our Secretary in the best condition you may be able. And in the performance of the above-mentioned Service you are punctually and faithfully to observe and execute the following Instructions. I. Observations to be made on Ship-board 1st You are every day, if the Weather will admit, to observe Meridian Altitudes of the Sun for finding the Latitude, and also other Altitudes of the Sun, both in the morning and afternoon, at a distance from Noon, with the time between measured by a Watch, and the Sun's bearing by the Azimuth Compass at the 1st Observation, in order to determine both the apparent time of the day and Latitude,
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in case the Sun should be clouded at Noon: You are moreover to observe distances of the Moon from the Sun and fixt Stars with the Hadley's Sextant, from which you are to compute the Longitude by the Nautical Almanac. 2d You are to wind up the Watches every day, as soon after the time of Noon as you can conveniently, and compare them together, and set down the respective times and you are to note also the times of the Watches when the Sun's Morning and Afternoon Altitudes, or distances of the Moon from the Sun and fixt Stars are observed and to compute the Longitude resulting from the comparison of the Watches with the apparent time of the day inferred from the Morning and Afternoon Altitudes of the Sun. 3d You are to observe or assist at the Observations of the variation of the Compass, and to observe the inclination of the magnetic dipping Needle from time to time. 4th You are to note the height of one or more Thermometers placed in the Air and in the Shade early in the Morning and about the hottest time of the day, and to observe also the height of the Thermometer within the Vessel, near the Watches, and make remarks on the Southern lights, when you are far to the South, if any should appear. 5th You are to keep a Ship's journal, with the Log worked according to the plain dead reckoning (Lee-way and variation only allowed) noting therein the length of the Logline and time of running out of the Sand-glasses from time to time; and you are to insert therein also another account corrected by the last Celestial Observations, and a third deduced from the Watches. 6th You are to teach such of the Officers on board the Ship as may desire it the use of the Hadley's Sextant in taking the Moon's distance from the Sun and fixt Stars, and the method of computing the Longitude from those observations. 7th You are to settle the position of Head-lands, Islands and Harbors in Latitude and Longitude by the Celestial Observations, and also set down what Longitude the Watches give. II. Observations to be made on Shore. 1st Where-ever you land, if time permits, you are to set up the Tent Observatory and Astronomical Clock, either setting the Pendulum to the same length as it was at Greenwich before the Voyage, or noting the difference by the revolutions of the Screw and divisions of the Nut at bottom; and take equal Altitudes of the Sun and fixt Stars with the universal Theodolite, or with the Hadley's Sextant by reflexion from the surface of quick-silver in a Bason, according to circumstances, for determining the state of
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going of the Clock, and for finding the time of Noon, and fixing a Meridian for the Transit Instrument, which is after that to be made use of. 2d You are to wind up the Watches every day as soon after the time of Noon as you can conveniently; and to compare them together and with the Astronomical Clock at the time, and also about the times of equal Altitudes, if any were taken. 3d You are to observe Meridian Altitudes of the Sun, and also of fixt Stars, some to the North and some to the South, for finding the Latitude, with the universal Theodolite, or with the Hadley's Sextant by reflexion from the Bason of quick-silver, according to circumstances. 4th You are to observe Transits of the Moon and proper fixt Stars over the Meridian with the Transit Instrument; and to make Observations of the Eclipses of Jupiter's first Satellite, and Occultations of the fixt Stars by the Moon; and to take distances of the Moon from the Sun and fixt Stars with the Hadley's Sextant; from all which you are to compute the Longitude of the place, by the Nautical Almanac. 5th You are to observe the height of the Tides, and the times of high and low Water, particularly at the full, change, and quarters of the Moon; and note whether there be any difference, and what, between the Night, and Day-tides. 6th You are to observe the variation of the Compass and inclination of the Dipping Needle. 7th You are to note the height of one or more Thermometers placed in the shade early in the Morning and about the hottest time of the day. General Direction. You are to take particular care that all your Nautical and Astronomical Observations, and Trigonometrical Operations, whether made on Ship-Board, or on Shore, be kept in a clear distinct and regular manner in the Book or Books prepared for the purpose; and that they be written therein with all their circumstances immediately after they are made, or as soon after as they can be conveniently transcribed therein from the loose papers or memorandum books in which they may have been first entered; which book or books are to be always open for the inspection and use of the Commander and Master of the Vessel; and you are to send to us by every safe conveyance, which may offer, the results of your several observations, and also the principal Observations themselves. For your care pains and expences during the time you shall be employed in the above-service, you will be allowed a Salary after the rate of ÂŁ400 per Annum to commence from this day. Given under our hands the 11th of June 1791.
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Appendix 2 Schedule of Mathematical, Optical and Astronomical Instruments, put into the hands of Mr. William Gooch, going as Astronomer to the North West Coast of America. (Cambridge University Library RGO 14/13, 155r-v) An Astronomical Clock, by Earnshaw.
} } with their
common stand A Journey-man Clock ………………… } An Alarum Clock. Two Time-keepers by Arnold. A good Pocket Watch with a second hand, by Earnshaw . An Achromatic Telescope of 46 inch Focus, with a divided Object-glass micrometer and Stand; by Dollond. A reflecting Telescope, by Burton. Three Setts of coloured Wedges to darken the sun, by Nairne. A Universal Theodolite, or Altitude and Azimuth Instrument, by Ramsden. A Transit Instrument, by Troughton. A Theodolite, by Burton. A steel Gunter's Chain, for Surveying. Four Thermometers. A new Hadley's Sextant, with a Stand for use at Land,by Troughton. A Hadley's Sextant, by Dollond, new divided, by Troughton. A night Telescope, by Dollond. A 4 feet hand Perspective, by Dollond. A Knight's Azimuth Compass, by Adams. A small Pocket Compass,…… } A Sett of Magnetic Steel bars, }by Nairne A Marine dipping Needle,…… } A stand for the dipping Needle. A Bason to hold Quicksilver, with glass roofs, by Dollond. A Quantity of quicksilver, in a Bottle. A reflecting level of black Glass, truly flat, adjusted by a Glass level ground flat beneath, by Troughton. Two ten feet rods of Deal, made of the true standard length. A five feet Brass Standard; these three to examine & correct the Gunter's Chain. A beam Compass scale of equal parts, by Troughton. A circular Protractor, by Troughton. A board to draw on. An Instrument ['called a station-pointer' inserted in later hand] to lay a place down in a Chart from the two observed
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Angles between 3 given places, by Troughton. [Inserted in a later hand:] A Hadley's quadrant, with two moveable clamps, for surveying in a boat or vessel in motion. Books and Charts The Nautical Almanacs of 1769 & 1774. The Nautical Almanacs of 1791, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; two setts. Tables requisite to be used with the Nautical Almanac; 3 setts. General Tables of Refraction and Parallax. Taylor's Sexagesimal Tables. Mayer's Tables & Charts, Mason's Lunar tables, in one. Hutton's Mathematical Tables. Folio distances of the Moon from the Sun and Stars. Robertson's Navigation. Wild's Surveying. Dalrymple's Surveying. Mackenzie's Marine Surveying. Astronomical Observations to Cook's Voyage, by W. Wales 1777. Original Astronomical Observations in a Voyage &c. by W. Bayly, 1782. Astronomical Observations made in Voyages, by Byron, Wallis &c. by W. Wales, 1788. A Variation Chart of 1756 by Mountain and Dodson. Celestial Atlas by Mr. Bode of Berlin. July 2nd 1791 Received of the Revd. Dr.Maskelyne the above-mentioned instruments, Books, Charts &c. which I promise to return to the secretary of the Board of Longitude on my return from my present voyage, Danger of the Sea and other unavoidable accidents excepted. William Gooch.
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Instruments in transit: The Santo Ildefonso Treaty and the Brazilian border demarcations Isabel Malaquias Introduction In 1494, a virtual line was created to divide the Portuguese and the Spanish dominions. The line was established 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. The east side of the lands would belong to Portugal and the west side to Spain it was the Tordesillas Treaty. In the two and a half centuries that mediated this treaty and the period addressed by this chapter, considerable activity occurred both in the Portuguese and Spanish America. Its scientific components were more or less explicit and many works were published. They were mainly concerned with animals, plants, and minerals as well as with the inhabitants, their culture and social organization. A few observations of physical and astronomical nature also took place before the mid-eighteenth century.1 In 1715, another treaty, bearing the name of Utrecht, was signed between Portugal and Spain. It confirmed the Portuguese possession of the Colony of Sacramento, so often attacked by Spanish settlers from Buenos Aires, located on the opposite bank of Rio da Prata. The treaty that gave Brazil the approximate shape it currently possesses was the Treaty of Madrid, signed in 1750. It confirmed the uti possidetis, the principle recognizing each country's right to the lands occupied. However, discord and confrontations regarding the Colony of Sacramento did not end, and during the following years Santa Catarina island in Brazil's southern frontier was attacked. A Spanish fleet imprisoned the Portuguese garrison and moved from there to Rio da Prata to occupy the Colony of Sacramento (1774).2 In 1777,
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the death of the Portuguese King Joseph I and the fall of his plenipotentiary minister Pombal enabled a favorable change in the Portuguese-Spanish relations, fostering the emerging of a peace agreement. José Moñino, Count of Florida blanca, credited by his Jesuit litigation management as one of the great figures of Carlos III reign, and Francisco Innocencio de Souza Coutinho, minister of the Portuguese Queen Maria I, were the main negotiators, concluding October 1st, 1777 a preliminary treaty of limits. This would serve as a basis for subsequent peace agreements, friendship, and a definitive boundaries and alliance treaty. The general lines of the Madrid Treaty were reestablished. In the treaty, which became known as Santo Ildefonso Treaty, the island of Santa Catarina was given back to Portugal; moreover, the borderline in the Peruvian Amazon and the territories between Paraguay and Brazil were also rectified in favor of Portugal. The Spaniards recovered the Colony of Sacramento and the Missions territories. Navigation became possible in Rio da Prata, Paraná and Paraguay without interference. The Brazilian frontiers were expanded to the west, forming the present shape of the country. The scope of Santo Ildefonso Treaty was not just concerned with Brazil, although the fundamental issue had been in fact the border in America. The Treaty also decided upon Portuguese claims on the Philippines and the Mariana Archipelago, in Asia, based on the Bull of Alexander VI and the boundary of the world that it had drawn. The Treaty included Africa too, and Portugal had to concede the islands of Ano Bom/Annobón and Fernando Pó/Fernando Poo to Spain, to facilitate ships' Far East route of the new Philippines Company, reestablished in 1785, and authorized Spanish exchange in the Portuguese ports of the coast of Guinea.3 The rigorous definition of borders was paramount and 'commissions’4 were created to determine with precision the limits referred in the Treaty articles, as well as the delineated path the commissions should follow from the extreme south to the north frontier. From the Portuguese side, and in the south frontier, the first commission should begin in Rio Grande de S. Pedro up to Paraná and the second from Paraná up to the mouth of the river Jaurú. In the north frontier, the third commission began in the mouth of the river Jaurú to the most western mouth of Japurá, while the fourth commission should follow from the mouth of Japurá to its end at the river Oyapoc.5 The Spanish and Portuguese commissions would both meet at the end, so the frontier was determined. From the Spanish side, the Court's instruction on assigning tasks, field area sand instruments was issued in June 1778, after which it was sent to the viceroys of Peru, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, as well as the governor of Caracas. Subsequently, the commissions were appointed, giving privilege to
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sailors, whose scientific preparation was the best and enabled them to work on land too. However, the departure of those selected to the new demarcations in South America was considerably delayed by the Spanish-English war. On November 14th, 1781 they left to Lisbon, but only on the following 23rd January could they sail off to Rio de Janeiro.6 In May 1782 they arrived in Montevideo and moved to Buenos Aires in February of the following year to start the arrangements. There, and for the first time, the expedition accurately calculated the latitude of Buenos Aires. The division of the demarcation was complex. The first two Spanish commissions aimed at fixing the dividing line from the Arroyo del Chuy to the fort of SantaTecla. From there they should separate. The first commission would continue its work until the confluence of Pepirí-Guazú and Uruguay, while the second would direct into the Missions, the Paraná and Iguazú. It also would go from San Antonio to Salto Grande in Paraná. The third commission should go north to reach Paraguay, while the fourth should continue up in Paraguay up to the Itenes or Guaporé. The fifth (organized in early 1784) should reach Santa Cruz de la Sierra.7 Demarcations needed to stop every winter so, in February 1786, they had not yet completed the survey of the area. At that occasion, the second commission separated in order to meet with the Portuguese commission in San Borja and recognize the Iguazú area. Several difficulties a rose and delayed the works that would terminate around mid-1801, in some cases without have been completely accomplished. The collections At that time, the scientific instruments were developing fast, both in terms of conception and production. Materials use and accuracy were improving. It was evident that the need for updated instruments was in the rulers' and practitioners' minds. London was at the time the leading centre, where workshops were flourishing and names such as Jeremiah Sisson, George Adams, Peter and John Dollond, Francis Watkins, Nairne & Blunt, and Jesse Ramsden were among the most famous. As in previous expeditions, namely those originated by the Treaty of Madrid (1750), instruments were ordered abroad, but now several developments were achieved and there was need for accurate and modern instruments. The Portuguese Court, through its Foreign Office, commissioned a Portuguese instrument's expert in London João Jacinto de Magalhães (1722-1790), better known as J. H. de Magellan to choose and supervise the acquisition of the astronomical and physics instruments needed to perform those scientific operations. An institutional letter, dated April 28th, 1778, from the Portuguese Ambassador in London, Luís Pinto de Sousa8 to the Secretary of State Ayres de
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Sá e Mello reveals that he had already received the order from the Portuguese King concerning the acquisition of several instruments, whose list had also been received.9 This order considered that brevity in the acquisition of instruments was required. The ones that already existed in the market should be acquired for examination in Portugal. Simultaneously a decision should be taken as to which ones had to be constructed. In that letter, Luís Pinto de Sousa was also reminded by Ayres de Sá e Mello that Magellan was an expert on mathematical instruments and if nothing was known against him, he should be contacted so that the instruments could be chosen in a short time and with perfection. The list included one astronomical quadrant, one magnetic needle of appropriate size (to determine in land the declination from the meridian, by measuring the azimuthal angles of the Sun or stars), as well as two smaller pocket magnetic needles; a pocket watch, and a spring pendulum, an achromatic telescope and another smaller telescope, one octant or a complete circle, a mathematical set, two brass semicircles, a brass drawing compass, a parallel rule, and one thermometer. Luís Pinto de Souza replied shortly after and informed that contacts with Magellan had been established. At that time, Magellan was already a Fellow of the Royal Society and several other academies,10 namely the Royal Academy Matritense.11 Luís Pinto de Sousa assures the Secretary of State of Magellan's commitment in the supervision of the most perfect instruments' acquisition and/or production in the best and shortest time, but he also mentions that some would require detailed explanations to be produced/made. The Portuguese Court requested five collections of mathematical instruments. The instruments were sent to Lisbon soon after they were ready or acquired. In early June, Luís Pinto de Sousa informed that he already had one achromatic small telescope to observe solar eclipses, five ordinary (mathematical) sets, five pocket magnetic needles, and five thermometers that were to be shipped in the first vessel to Lisbon. All the rest was still being prepared, which meant that if more barometers were needed they could still be ordered.12 In July 1778, the Ambassador informed Lisbon that Magellan had received from Madrid an order for six similar collections of instruments. However, they had a few more pieces that had not been ordered by Portugal, and could also be useful for the surveyors.13 Fourteen months later, Magellan signed a receipt addressed to the Portuguese Ambassador, Luís Pinto de Sousa, declaring the amount received for payment of the five collections of instruments (production, packing and transportation included): £1,523.3s.6p.14 Apart from this receipt, a letter15 details the general map of costs and specifies the instruments or accessories, with different sub-totals signed by the different instrument-makers involved in the production as well as those involved in the transportation.
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The most important instruments were five quadrants: - 1 quadrant already made that was improved, readjusted and divided by Geo: Rigbright;16 - 2 new quadrants 'of the best construction' by Jeremiah Sisson;17 - 1 quadrant by Nairne without eyepiece proof to which was adapted one made by George Adams;18 - 1 quadrant by Adams 'more complete and perfect than the previous'. All quadrants were twelve inches radius and had supporting tables. Some more instruments or pieces of instruments were included in the five collections ordered. They were: - 5 azimuthal needles by Adams; - 5 pairs of magnetic bars with the apparatus to reinforce them; - 10 pocket magnetic needles each with a support in the shape of a walking stick. All these 20 instruments were bought from Adams. - 1 pocket watch by Thomas Grignion19, another by Cummings20, two by Vulliamy21, and another one by Alexander Hare22; - 1 second hand astronomical telescope of 3.5 feet focus, with a triple objective, and with celestial eyepieces; - 1 small telescope, of the same kind, with celestial eyepieces. Both telescopes were paid to Francis Watkins23; - 4 telescopes of 3.5 feet focus made by Dollond24; - 4 other similar and smaller telescopes; - 5 reflection circles for both sea and land use; - 5 semi circles with 9 inches diameter and 5 other with 4.5 inches. Peter and John Dollond received payment for a total of 5 telescopes (3.5 feet focus), 5 other smaller and similar ones, 5 reflection circles and 10 semi circles. - 1 half seconds pendulum clock by Thomas Grignion, without correction of heat and cold effects plus a second lenticular bob with rod, screws and regulators for heat and cold correction, together with a mahogany box, these last produced by Michael Ronger25; - 2 half seconds clocks by LĂŠpine26 with a heat/cold compensation made by Vulliamy; - 2 clocks by Magellan that can show either half seconds or seconds, made by Ranger27, both with a heat/cold correction and with pallets of sapphire/chalcedony [Magellan's perfection]; - 5 complete mathematical sets by Nairne28;
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- 5 thermometers with Reaumur and Fahrenheit graduations; - 3 travel barometers + 18 spare tubes + 3 flasks with copal varnish. These last 13 instruments were paid to Nairne and Blunt, together with the spare tubes. - 5 1/2 dozen flasks with paints, paintbrushes &ÂŞ for the geographical charts production; - 5 lanterns with semi-spherical glasses for light condensing to observing at night the quadrants divisions. Material paid to Michael Ronger. Several books were sent with the instruments, namely copies of refraction and parallax Tables, Pierre LevĂŞque's Nonagesimal Tables, and Lalande's Ephemeris. The first collection of instruments was sent to Lisbon around middle February 1779 and the other collections followed soon after. Moreover, several copies of Magellan's descriptions and instructions for use of the instruments, namely the large ones, such as quadrants (settings, adjustments, and use), barometers, and reflection circles were packed free of charge, aiming at useful knowledge and easy manipulation of the instruments. In that way, practitioners working away from the London workshops would manage to overcome operational difficulties. As mentioned above, not only the Portuguese Court but also the Spanish Court commissioned Magellan to supervise their collections of instruments. So, he tried to serve both Courts in the best way and balanced instruments demanded for the 11 collections, parceling them in at least three boxes each. Spain ordered six collections of instruments that were accompanied with the same kind of useful descriptions. Magellan sent his writings on the description and use of instruments to the Court of Portugal and to the Court of Spain, not producing repetitive works, since deadlines were short and there was no need for duplicating such an effort. However, and at first, Magellan intended to write a more in-depth text on all the instruments but facing some eye problems he delayed that procedure. Magellan wrote in French and for that he apologized to the Portuguese Ambassador, explaining he anticipated difficulties in translating several technical expressions to Portuguese.29 A Spanish translation of Magellan's treatise on the reflection circle is known.30 In the following years other instruments were bought or repaired in London related to the Santo Ildefonso demarcations project both for Portugal and Spain.31
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On the track of the instruments The identification of existing instruments from these collections in Portugal, Brazil and Spain is not an easy task. Missing links prevent definitive conclusions. The search has been going on for quite some time32 and the results are discussed below. The travel barometer was at the time a recent one. Several were ordered for the South American enterprise and among them some with Magellan's modifications. Very few resisted until now, although the collections included several spare tubes. Probably some stayed in Brazil or returned back to Portugal and Spain. In some cases, we know this did happen, although the instruments do not exist anymore or at least complete, as in the Spanish case.33 In Portugal there are two barometers by Magellan, although they probably never travelled to Brazil and therefore were not used in the Santo Ildefonso demarcations.34 In some other cases, instruments were found that could have been used in this particular enterprise, but archival sources that could document this hypothesis remain to be found. This is the case of a Dollond's reflection circle that entered the Geographic Cadastral Institute (Lisbon) in the nineteenth century and a small George Adams' quadrant belonging to the collection of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra. In favour of this hypothesis is the 12 inches radius matching the specifications for the Brazilian demarcations. Moreover, Miguel Ciera had been an astronomer in the Brazilian demarcations following the 1750's Treaty of Madrid and he returned to Portugal to teach at the University in Coimbra. Magellan sent him some instruments, although their description is not specified in existing archival documentation. The passage instrument specified in the collections, made by Dollond with a 3.5 feet focus, should have been similar to the one still existing in the Coimbra Observatory with the same focal distance (Fig. 1). The latter is mentioned in a letter to Magellan by JosĂŠ Monteiro da Rocha, the director of the Observatory. The letter indicates that this instrument was due to be ordered in 1775, but the necessary sum for its acquisition was only raised on 1781.35 Recently, while preparing the commented edition of Magellan's correspondence,36 I had the opportunity to check an electronic version of the original manuscript. It is very difficult to read, however I could confirm that there was an error in the year: it is 1787, not 1781.37
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Fig. 1 - Passage instrument by Dollond at the Coimbra Astronomical Observatory, Inv. No. AST.I.013 (Photo I. Malaquias, courtesy Science Museum of the University of Coimbra].
Different watches and astronomical pendulum clocks were acquired, namely two from Vulliamy. Would one of them be the one mentioned to exist in 1803 at the Navy Observatory in Lisbon, under the care of the Astronomy and Navigation professor Francisco António Ciera, son of Miguel Ciera mentioned above?38 In the case of the Magellan's improved pendulum clock, very few survived in Portugal. One belonged to the Geophysical Institute Infante D. Luís (University of Lisbon) and is today at the National Museum of Natural History and Science (Inv. No. UL4170). However, the Geophysical Institute was created in the 1850s, thus the clock is likely to have come from another institution.39 Even if not the one from the demarcations collection, it should be similar. Two other pendulum clocks belong to the collections of the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra.40 A semi-seconds pendulum clock by Magellan also survived. It is known to have belonged to Filipe Folque (1800-1874), who made astronomical observations in 1837 at the Observatory of St. George's Castle, in Lisbon (Fig. 2).41 This observatory no longer exists and today, the clock is at the Direcção Geral do Território.
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Fig. 2 - Semi-seconds pendulum clock by Magellan, Inv. No.0166 (photo courtesy Direcção Geral do Território, Lisbon).42
Other instruments or parts of instruments from the Portuguese and Spanish demarcations were tracked, even though research is still ongoing. A 10 inches diameter circular protractor by Adams43 is mentioned, similar to one existing today at the Portuguese Direcção Geral do Território (Lisbon),the heir of the Comissão para os Trabalhos de Triangulação Geral do Reino (Kingdom General Triangulation Commission) (1788-1795). A surveyor's table by Cole44 with a complementary scale, a declination compass, and a Dollond telescope are also part of the Direcção Geral do Território current collections. Moreover, a few mathematical instruments sets still exist, as well as special measurement compasses, like scale and elliptical compasses. Have these belonged to the demarcation collections or were they just instruments ordered to Magellan45 for other purposes, namely the 1788 Portuguese triangulation, following the ParisGreenwich triangulation?46 Finally, an instrument that should definitely have belonged to the demarcations activities is the Sisson quadrant from the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST), in Rio de Janeiro (still existing at MAST) (Fig. 3), with a twin at the San Fernando Observatory (Cadiz, Spain). The Dollond telescope, also in Cadiz, is likely to have participated in the demarcations programme (Fig. 4-5).47 Almost all other similar instruments in Spanish collections were used in other commissions, for instance the 1791 Malaspina expedition,48 and are presently damaged or lost.49
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Fig. 3 - Sisson quadrant, Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST), Rio de Janeiro, Inv. No.1993/111 (Photo by Jaime Acioli, MAST).
Fig. 4 - Sisson quadrant, Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada, San Fernando (Cadiz), Inv. No. ROA: 0023/I].50
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Fig. 5 - Dollond telescope belonging to the second collection ordered to Magellan by the Spanish court, Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada, San Fernando (Cadiz), Inv. No. ROA:0031/I].51
Concluding remarks The Santo Ildefonso Treaty, signed between the Courts of Spain and Portugal, represented a large investment in mathematical and physics instruments. These were modern and of the best manufacturing, aimed at carrying out the frontier demarcations in Brazil. The commissions lasted for several years, given the vastness of the territory. Collections of instruments were acquired by the two Iberian courts and were completed in a relatively short time. Jo達o Jacinto de Magalh達es, Magellan, was in charge of selecting, buying and/or ordering the production in London of all the necessary instruments. Wellknown British instrument makers and their craftsmen were involved in their production. The surviving material of these collections is not easily identifiable, since some instruments may have been damaged during the demarcation expeditions or even used afterwards in other missions. In Portugal, I have not found a convincing documented record of movements and transfers of instruments, contrary to the Spanish case. I believe that hypotheses discussed in this chapter suggesting that some still exist in dispersed institutions or are similar to some existent, have great plausibility, although more accurate sources are still being searched. According to the Spanish documentation, Iberian commissioners headed from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1783.
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The expeditions lasted until 1787, at least. This time span, combined with the number of people involved from two countries, and the vastness of the territory covered, does not help in the discussion of the use of instruments and their ultimate fate. Emerging from this foggy perception, we find the Sisson quadrant belonging to the MAST in Rio de Janeiro, together with a similar one and a Dollond telescope, both in San Fernando (Cadiz). Acknowledgements The author is grateful to multiple colleagues who provided assistance in different stages of the research in recent years, namely Dolores Higueras from the Library of Museo Naval (Madrid); to Claudino Romeiro from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra; Paula Camacho and Paulo Estrela from Direcção Geral do Território (Lisbon); Francisco José González González, Technical Director of the Biblioteca y Archivo Histórico, Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (San Fernando); Nacho DíazDelgado Peñas from the Biblioteca-Archivo de la Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (Madrid); also to Ângela Espinha for her careful revision and to António Moreira for his invaluable comments. Finally I acknowledge the financial support by CIDTFF and EU FEDER Funds through the Operational Programme 'Thematic Factors of Competitiveness' (COMPETE) and national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), project PEstC/CED/UI0194/2011. Notes 1
M. F. Thomaz and I. Malaquias, 'Aspectos científicos das expedições de demarcação de limites na América Meridional/ Scientific aspects of the demarcation expeditions in South America', in Actas do 1º Congresso Luso-Brasileiro de História da Ciência e da Técnica (Universidade de Évora e Universidade de Aveiro) (ed. Comissão Organizadora/Centro de Estudos de História e Filosofia da Ciência da Universidade de Évora), Universidade de Évora, 2001, 201-213. 2 O. G. Regueiro, 'América en la política de Estado de Carlos III', Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Los Complementarios/2 (1988), 157, 25-52. 3 M. L. Giraldo, “Ciencia para la frontera: las expediciones españolas de limites, 1751-1804”, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, Los Complementarios/2 (1988), 157, 157-173. 4 Around half a dozen men that went in group to perform surveys and set the boundaries in the lands. 5 Thomaz and Malaquias, op. cit., 205-206. 6 Giraldo, op. cit., 164. 7 Ibidem, 164. 8 Letter from Luís Pinto de Souza to Ayres de Sá e Mello, 28 April 1778, Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto (BPMP), Ms. 311, No. 243. 9 Letter from Ayres de Sá e Mello to Luís Pinto de Souza, 4 April 1778, Arquivos Nacionais Torre do Tombo, Lisboa, Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Book 125.
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10
See I. Malaquias 'Aspects of the scientific network and communication of John Hyacinth de Magellan in Britain, Flanders and France', Ambix (2008), 55 (3), 255273, including references; I. Malaquias, 'Between astronomy and instrumentation João Jacinto de Magalhães (1722-1790), a remarkable case', L. Saraiva (ed.) Astronomy Proceedings 2009 (in press) of the International Conference on the History of Astronomy, Portugal, pp.265-277. 11 Recently I discovered that Magellan's reference as a member of Real Academia Matritense corresponds in fact to the Real Academia Médica Matritense. 12 Letter from Luis Pinto de Sousa Coutinho to Ayres de Sá e Mello, 1778.06.08, BPMP, Copy book, Ms.311, Nº. 252. 13 Letter from Luis Pinto de Sousa Coutinho to Ayres de Sá e Mello, 14 July 1778, BPMP, Ms. 311, No. 261. 14 Receipt from Magellan to Luis Pinto de Sousa Coutinho, 2 July 1779 (a), BPMP, Ms. 311, No. 252. 15 Letter from Magellan to Luis Pinto de Sousa Coutinho, 2 July 1779 (b), BPMP, Ms. 313, No. 328 annex. 16 George Ribright (c.1730-1782). 17 Jeremiah Sisson (1720-c.1784). 18 George Adams, Jr. (1750-1795). 19 Thomas Grignion (1713-1784). 20 Alexander Cumming (1732-1814). 21 Benjamin Vulliamy (fl. 1775-1820). 22 This London watchmaker Alexander Hare is not completely identified yet. Gloria Clifton does not mention it in G. Clifton and G. L'E. Turner, Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851, The National Maritime Museum, London, 1995. Eva Taylor only mentions Edward Hare (fl. 1766-1781) as a land-surveyor, probably belonging to the family of the mentioned Alexander, see E. G. R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England 1714-1840, Cambridge University Press, 1966. 23 Francis Watkins (1723-1784). 24 Peter Dollond (1731-1820) and his brother John (1746-1804). 25 It is probably Michael Ranger (fl. 1774-1820). 26 Jean Antoine Lépine (1720-1814). 27 See note 25. 28 Edward Nairne (1726-1806) and his former apprentice Thomas Blunt had a partnership in 1774-1793. 29 J. H. de Magellan, Description des Instrumens d'Astronomie & de Physique, faits à Londres, par Ordre de la Cour de Portugal en 1778, Londres, 1779. 30 Descripcion de los Instrumentos Circulares de reflexion, nueuamente Inbentados para observar en la mar com mas exactitud las distancias angulares entre el Sol, y la Luna, y las Estrellas, Por J. H. de Magellan, Gentil hombre Portuges, membro dela Rl. Sociedad de Londres, dela Academia Imperial de Ciencias de Petersbourg, de la Rl. de Madrid, y de Paris: en Cassa de A. de Noley librero. Año de 1779. en Londres. 31 I. M. C. de O. Malaquias, A obra de João Jacinto de Magalhães no contexto da ciência do séc. XVIII, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aveiro, 1994. 32 Malaquias,1994, op. cit. 33 Inventario general de los instrumentos pertenecientes al Observatorio Rl de Marina
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de Cadiz, sacado del original que ha sido formado en esta Cadiz 11 de Febrero de 1789. Library of the Royal Navy Observatory in San Fernando, Malaspina Collection, Ms. 146, Library of the Museo Naval, Madrid. 34 These two barometers belong to the eighteenth century Physics Cabinet of the University of Coimbra, today at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, Inv. No. FIS.0170 and FIS.0873. See http://museudaciencia.inwebonline.net/ficha.aspx?id=150&src=fisica&tab=ciencia, and http://museudaciencia.inwebonline.net/ficha.aspx?id=1184&src=fisica&tab=ciencia, accessed: 2 September 2013. A picture of one of these barometers (FIS. 0170) was included in L. A. Veiga, D. R. Martins, J. B. P. Amorim, A-C Bernes, R. Halleux, D. Lalevitch, P. Lefebvre, I. M. Malaquias, A. E. Reis, M. A. Rodrigues, M. Serres, M. F. Thomaz and G. Vanpoele, Les Méchanismes du Génie:Instruments Scientifiques du XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles [EUROPALIA 91, éditeur responsable Robert De Smet], Charleroi, Belgium, 1991, 199. 35 J. de Carvalho, 'Correspondência científica dirigida a João Jacinto de Magalhães', Revista da Faculdade de Ciências [University of Coimbra] (1951), XX, 93-283, p. 144-149: letter addressed by José Monteiro da Rocha to Magellan, dated 26 March 1781. 36 The publication of the commented transcriptions of all surviving letters to and by Magellan is a project held together with Rod Home and Manuel Thomaz (forthcoming). 37 This finding has changed the date 1781 for the instruments mentioned in this letter, assumed in 1991 when preparing the catalogue for EUROPALIA 91 (see note 34). 38 A. E. dos Reis, Observatório Real de Marinha, Edição CTT, 2009, p. 51. 39 I. Malaquias, E. V. Gomes and D. Martins, 'The genesis of geomagnetic observatories in Portugal', Earth Sciences History (2005), 24 (1), 113-126. 40 The provenance is the Astronomical Observatory and the Physics Cabinet of the University of Coimbra (AST.I.013; MFUC: 845). An image of the one from the Physics Cabinet was included in EUROPALIA 91 Les Mécanismes du Génie, on p.179. 41 Base Bibliográfica do Museu da Direcção Geral do Território, Lisboa, no author provided. 42 Photo from: http://www.igeo.pt/MuseuVirtual/instrumentos11_rslt.asp?dir=outros_3&cota=0166M1; accessed 4 April 2013, © Instituto Geográfico Português. 43 That was used on a base shaped as a walking stick. 44 Probably Benjamin Cole (Junior) (1727-1813) who worked with his father Benjamin Cole (Senior) (1695-1755); he made a map of 20 miles round Cambridge in 1709. See Taylor, op. cit.. 45 Malaquias, 1994, op.cit. 46 In 1788, the preliminary geodetic operations that would serve as a basis to the Kingdom of Portugal General Triangulation were initiated, under the leadership of Luís Pinto de Sousa. By then, Sousa was not in London but in Lisbon, serving as Minister to the Foreign Office and War. Works were directed by Francisco António Ciera, professor at the Royal Navy Academy in Lisbon. 47 I. Malaquias, 'João Jacinto de Magalhães e a definição das fronteiras brasileiras', Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de História da Ciência (2004), 1 (2), 94-102; Thomaz and Malaquias, 2001, op. cit.
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48
I. M. Malaquias and M. F. Thomaz, 'Scientific communication in the XVIIIth century: The case of John Hyacinth de Magellan', Physis, Vol. XXXI (1994, Nuova Serie), Fasc. 3, pp. 817-834. 49 Francisco J. GonzĂĄlez, Instrumentos cientĂficos del Observatorio de San Fernando en los siglos XVIII, XIX y XX, Ministerio de Defensa, Madrid, 1995, 1-286. 50 Photo from http://www.armada.mde.es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ArmadaEspannola/ ciencia_observatorio/ prefLang_es/12_Exposiciones_Virtuales-03_catalogo_anteojos; accessed 4 April 2013. 51 Photo from http://www.armada.mde.es/ArmadaPortal/page/Portal/ArmadaEspannola/ciencia_obs ervatorio/prefLang_es/12_Exposiciones_Virtuales--03_catalogo_anteojos; accessed 4 April 2013.
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Talk, tariffs and trade: Restricting the global circulation of scientific instruments in Britain after the First World War Richard L. Kremer Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, wars (especially when they go badly) have often prompted nations to worry about the strength of their scientific and industrial infrastructure vis-Ă -vis other nations. Not surprisingly therefore did Britain during the Great War begin to worry about its dependency on German industry, a process of national self-analysis that historians have thoroughly explored.1 These studies, however, have not considered the role of Britain's scientific instruments industry in that period of national anxiety. This paper will thus investigate not the global circulation of scientific instruments but rather fears of global trade and talk about ways to reduce that trade. It will follow British scientists, instrument makers, politicians and journalists who talked about tariffs, instruments and free trade in response to the turmoil of the First World War, talk that would lead to Britain's first protective tariff for scientific instruments, the 'Safeguarding of Industries Act' of 1921. As we shall see, two central ideas emerged in this talk, viz., that 'key' scientific instruments are crucial for a nation's security and that nations must thus be able to produce such instruments domestically. For perhaps the first time in European political economy, scientific instrument making featured in national discussions of autarky. Our analysis falls into four sections. First, we will examine initial British talk, during the First World War, about protectionism. Then we will review public conversation, immediately after the war, on the state of the British scientific
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instruments industry, talk that eventually yielded several parliamentary bills. A third section will follow Stanley Baldwin's successful effort to secure parliamentary approval of the Safeguarding of Industries Act in August of 1921. Finally in an epilogue we will briefly consider three episodes (1922, 1925 and 1935) in the life of this protectionist bill. Protectionism, we will conclude, would in the 1920s become a fixed feature of the global trade in scientific instruments. More studies will be required, however, to understand how these tariff regimes affected scientific instrument manufacture and their consumers during the inter- war years. Initial steps toward protectionism As is well known, over the course of the nineteenth century many European nations had moved toward free trade. But in the 1880s for a variety of reasons, Germany, France, Italy and Scandinavia began introducing tariffs, especially on agricultural commodities. The United States had greatly increased tariffs during its Civil War and had kept them high. Only Britain in this period had consistently pursued free trade, except for a few war-related episodes; historians generally date the rise of a British “regime of protection and preferences” to its Import Duties Act of 1932.2 In 1915, Britain imposed the 33 percent ad valorum “McKenna duties” on imported luxury goods (including gramophones, clocks, watches, cinematographic film and automobiles), seeking to save foreign exchange and shipping space.3 In 1916 at the Paris Economic Conference, the Allied nations recommended an “absolute embargo” on goods imported from “enemy” countries and that steps be taken, after the war, “to render the Allied countries independent of enemy countries in raw materials and manufactured articles essential to the normal development of their economic activities.”4 As British industry increasingly faced shortages during the course of the war, Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, longtime Scottish member of the House of Lords and former secretary of the Board of Trade, chaired a government commission to review the problem. Finding that certain commodities “essential to national safety […] were supplied before the war entirely or mainly from present enemy sources,” the Balfour Commission in March of 1917 defined a set of “key or pivotal” industries and urged that a “special industries board” be established to watch over their development. “When necessary,” this board should frame “detailed schemes for the promotion and assistance of industries concerned with the production of commodities of […] special character” such as synthetic dyes, tungsten, magnetos, optical and chemical glass, hosiery needles, thorium nitrate, barites, limit and screw gauges, and drugs. By means of financial grants, licenses or protective tariffs such key industries, “essential to national safety,” were to be encouraged.5 Near the nadir of Britain's experience in the Great War, Lord
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Balfour, a longtime champion of free trade, introduced the notion of “key industries,” an idea that would bear protective fruit several years later. Another impetus for trade protection came from the wartime debacle of Britain's optical glass industry. Already by 1900, British imports of scientific instruments with optical glass had exceeded their exports by £200,000 annually. At the outbreak of the war, Britain was importing fully 60% of its optical glass from Zeiss in Jena and another 30% from the French firm Parra-Mantois (although these figures would be hotly debated after the war). Rhetoric of crisis filled the London newspapers in 1915 as the Ministry of Munitions commandeered all unsold optical instruments then in commercial or private hands and formed a new Optical Munitions and Glassware Department. As described by historians Roy and Kay MacLeod, this body moved quickly to bolster British glassmaking during the war.6 In 1916, a group of manufacturers established the British Optical Instrument Makers Association (BOIMA) to organize, promote and protect their longer-term trade interests.7 In 1919, the Association prepared a 300-page Dictionary of British scientific instruments, listing and handsomely illustrating hundreds of instruments manufactured by its the 28 member firms (including R. & J. Beck, Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co., C. F. Casella, Sir Howard Grubb & Sons, Adam Hilger Ltd, Messrs Negretti & Zambra, W.G. Pye & Co., Stanley & Co, Troughton & Simms Ltd, truly the elite among early twentiethcentury British instrument makers). The Dictionary includes all manner of scientific instruments (galvanometers, calorimeters, balances, recording barometers, microtomes, etc.), not just optical items or those with components of optical glass. And its preface from the crisis talk that enthusiastically heralds the recent triumphs of the optical industry in language that seems quite removed from crisis talk that had filled London's newspapers during the war. The advent of the war […] found the optical industry of Great Britain in such a healthy state of activity that within a short space of time it increased to the necessary extent to equip a new army of five million men, and supplied many million pounds' worth per annum of the highest grade scientific instruments; and it may be safely asserted that in no direction has the creation of the Army been hindered by the lack of the best optical instruments […]. The British Optical Industry succeeded in meeting the increased requirements of the War to an extent that was not considered possible, and to-day with greatly enlarged factories, equipped with mechanical machinery of the most suitable and modern description, with supplies of optical glass constantly increasing in quality and variety, and aided by a Research Association adequately financed, it is in a position to give its supporters a service in brains and goods that has never before been available.8
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The Research Association, mentioned in the Dictionary, had come into existence in 1918, at the prompting of the British Government's Department for Scientific and Industrial Research, the body that had supervised war work at the National Physical Laboratory and had coordinated private firms working on war-related projects. Conrad Beck, of the London optical firm R. & J. Beck and first president of the BOIMA, also played a key role in launching this association. By 1919, more than 20 instrument-making firms had joined the British Scientific Instrument Research Association (BSIRA), including most of those firms active in BOIMA. With government funding (the initial grant was for £36,000), BSIRA equipped its own laboratory, hired a director and six researchers, “all university graduates experienced in research,” and began studying “the questions of pure and applied science arising out of the urgent needs of the scientific instrument industry.” BSIRA also sought to aid industry in presenting its views to government bodies and to enhance communication between the users and manufacturers of scientific instruments. “The aim of a research association,” Nature readers were told in 1921, “must be to improve British industry and enable it to compete more successfully in both home and foreign markets by the utilization of the most advanced scientific knowledge and methods.” All BSIRA research reports, emphasized a later Nature article, were issued only “to members, to whom, of course, they are confidential. This is necessary to protect the participating firms against both foreign competitors and those British firms, fortunately few, which have elected to remain outside.” Thus by the end of the war, two new trade associations had emerged to serve British instrument makers in their competition for markets.9 Legislating protection for British instrument makers At the opening the new parliamentary session in February 1919, Lloyd George's peacetime cabinet announced its agenda. Concerning trade, they promised to bring before Parliament a measure “for the prevention of unfair competition by the sale of imported goods below their selling price in their country of origin.”10 It would require three tries over more than two years, however, before the Government would deliver on this promise. Throughout the legislative process, scientific instruments and their British makers and users would play a crucial, if not always central, role in what would become a national conversation on 'free trade' and 'national security.' On 19 November 1919, Sir Auckland Geddes, Conservative MP, President of the Board of Trade, former Professor of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and at McGill University, and former wartime advisor to Lloyd George's government on military procurement and recruitment, presented a protectionist trade bill to Commons. Broadly aimed at re-establishing overseas trade and restarting British industries after the war,
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Geddes's 'Imports and Exports Regulation Bill' included anti-dumping measures, prohibition of certain exports including foodstuffs and gasoline, and, most importantly for our purposes, a provision to “safeguard key industries” by prohibiting the importation of fifteen classes of goods deemed to be of strategic value for Britain. Consumers desiring to import these goods could apply to a tobe-created 'Trade Regulation Committee' for a license to be granted upon payment of fees (the word tariff does not appear in Geddes's bill). The language of the bill offered no criteria for defining key industries, broadly granting the new committee authority to formulate such lists. The initial classes of prohibited goods include synthetic drugs and dyes; analytical reagents; optical glass including lenses, prisms and “like optical devices”; scientific glassware; laboratory porcelain; “scientific and optical instruments”; magnetos and permanent steel magnets; hosiery latch needles; and “gauges” (including micrometers and other precision-measuring devices). And for good measure, the bill prohibited the importation of hops for four years, to assist “the industry of hop-growing in the UK to recover from the injury which it has suffered during the present war.” What doomed Geddes's bill, however, was its stipulation that the regulatory committee include10 MPs from Commons and no experts from outside government. The new Trade Regulation Committee, its critics immediately pointed out, would be awash in politics.11 The Times headline writer described this proposal as a “bureaucratic measure” covering a broad swatch of industries. Yet the Times also noted that the “list of goods coming under the heading of key industries is much shorter than that put forward as necessary by manufacturers' associations.” An unsigned Nature editorial on 4 December also worried about bureaucratic control, which is “wholly opposed to the genius of the English people.” On the other hand, given recent experience during the war, government protection of key industries is “necessary to our national welfare.” It would be “an irreparable disaster,” concluded Nature, were Commons to reject this bill.12 Commons did not reject Geddes's bill. After observing the blistering attacks it received from all sides, the Government decided to withdraw the bill before it was read to Commons. Action then shifted to the House of Lords where on 17 March 1920 Lord Balfour (of the 1917 Commission) introduced a somewhat different 'Protection of Special Industries Bill'. It too combined antidumping measures with protection for the same 'key' industries of Geddes's bill. But Balfour's advisory council overseeing the key industries would consist of experts appointed by Government to advise the Board of Trade as to “promotion and assistance of special industries.” In his speech to the Lords, Balfour defined as special those “industries on which other and larger branches of industrial production of substantial national importance are dependent, and which are not of sufficient importance to assure their development with State assistance and oversight.” The Lords' debates
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focused mostly on free trade and howling complaints about the anti-dumping provisions of Balfour's bill. Only twice did scientific or optical instruments receive mention. One opponent quoted the Astronomer Royal, Frank Watson Dyson: “We cannot afford to have the scientific progress of this country hampered by prohibiting us from going to the source of the very best glass that we want for our use.” Another free trader argued: Surely it is infinitely more to the advantage of this country that the great volume of our trade should have the chance of improvement, owing to scientific people being able to get the best scientific instruments at a cheap price, than that the manufacturers of these instruments should gain financially. The gain in the direction of improving many methods of manufacture [via high-quality, imported scientific instruments] would be enormously greater than the financial gain to be obtained by the protection of one small industry.
Even Government spokesmen refused to endorse Balfour's bill with enthusiasm. On 22 April at its second reading, the bill was destroyed as the Lords by a vote of 23 to 22 registered their refusal “to proceed further with a Bill the result of which will be to legalise profiteering and to increase the cost of living.”13 These initial attempts at trade protection for 'key industries' launched a public conversation on the topic that extended through 1920. A few scientists immediately opposed protection for British scientific instrument makers. Several days after Geddes had appeared before Commons, Arthur Pillians Laurie, professor of chemistry at the Royal Academy of Arts and long-time principal of Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh, wrote the Times to complain that many urgently needed dyes cannot be made in Britain. In addition, the prohibition of fine chemicals, optical and scientific instruments, and chemical glassware is striking a serious blow at all scientific teaching and research. Not only are the [British] prices disgracefully high, and in many cases the quality scandalously bad, but the two or three firms to whom this valuable monopoly has been granted cannot, or do not, choose to supply the demand. While schools and colleges are clamouring for material, they talk of delivering in six months, and the Board of Trade prohibits importation 14 from France.
Within days, Oswald S. Hickson, solicitor for the BOIMA, responded in the Times, arguing that the optical instrument manufacturers had not requested the total prohibition of imports in their memorandum to the Board of Trade of September, 1918. Rather, these industries desire “time to re-erect and
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reorganize the plant […] which was turned to war purposes immediately on the outbreak of the war, to the serious detriment of both the home and export trades […]. The optical trade is actively reconstructing, and will be able to supply the requirements of the country as soon as any other trade.”15 Hickson suggested that BOIMA wanted tariff protection, not prohibition of imports. Nature, in 1920, also urged support for protection. In April after Lord Balfour introduced his bill in Lords, an unsigned editorial (Richard Gregory was editor) claimed that “Germany had by divers arts and cunning contrivance sought to hamper and restrain the development of our industries.” During the war, the “special industries,” now in need of protection, had proved essential to “our national existence […]. Never again must we be dependent on outside sources for our medicaments and dyes, certain metals, magnetos, glassware, and optical instruments […]. We have regained in a measure the control of raw materials, and for their profitable use science must co-operate with industry, and both must be the objects of the fostering care of the State.”16 British instrument makers and scientists continued debating protection in the pages of Nature. Leading critic of the idea was W.M. Bayliss, professor of general physiology at University College London. Disparaging British-made instruments as too costly and inferior in quality, Bayliss worried that state protection would remove any inducement for British makers to improve quality. “If the foreign goods are superior they should be freely imported, and the British makers subventioned until they can produce equally good material.” Or British “scientific workers” should be given special permits allowing them to import whatever apparatus they need, leaving industrial, military or non-professional users to pay the protective tariff. Or in his most self-interested rhetoric, Bayliss asserted that “the most effective way in which Government intervention can assist British makers of scientific apparatus is to increase the grants to universities and to research in general. It is impossible for individual workers to purchase expensive British instruments out of their own incomes […] it is an unjustifiable and foolish restriction to prevent their obtaining from abroad apparatus.” J.W. Ogilvy, London trade representative for the German optical firm E. Leitz who during the war had organized British microscopists to contribute their expertise to public health, also called for government subvention rather than protective tariffs. “Why should users of scientific apparatus,” he wrote, “be expected to bear the hardships in regard to poorer quality and higher prices?” Just having returned from a six-week trip to Germany to purchase optical apparatus, Ogilvy reported that wages in the German optical industry had risen, that German makers could not import raw materials due to the low value of their currency, and that he had had to pay “English prices in English money.” British optical manufacturers require no safeguarding, concluded Ogilvy, surely a self-interested position. University of
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Glasgow zoologist J.S. Dunkerly agreed that German instruments cost English prices and added that they far exceed the English versions in quality.17 British instrument makers rushed to defend their industry. Conrad Beck assured Bayliss that BOIMA preferred import prohibition with licenses granted in cases where British quality remained inferior. But protection was also needed, for several reasons. Noting that the German mark had fallen to onetenth its prewar value against the pound sterling, Beck asked how British makers could compete against German makers. And “it must be evident [no evidence is provided] that science cannot develop properly in any country that cannot produce at least the majority of its own scientific instruments.” Bellingham and Stanley, London makers of optical instruments, argued that their instruments, as tested by the National Physical Laboratory, were six times more accurate than comparable German devices, and that if British makers were not encouraged, then foreign makers might establish monopolies that eventually would force ever higher prices. Douglas H. Baird, chairman of the British Chemical Ware Manufacturers' Association, emphasized that some of their members need only short-term protection until they can improve quality and best the foreign competition. The London microscope maker and retailer, W. Watson and Sons Ltd, described an offer they had received from a leading German maker for 12,000 prism binoculars at a price “far below the cost at which similar binoculars can be made in this country […]. This, surely, is a case of 'dumping'.” And the president of the British Society of Glass Technology lauded the progress his industry had achieved since the war. In 1914, “men of science were absolutely dependent on supplies of German glass.” Realizing the danger, British glassmakers stepped into the breech, built new plant, trained new workers, and now the latest technical comparisons “prove quite conclusively that, in spite of the short time that the industry has been established, British laboratory glass is the finest in the world.”18 As this public conversation continued through 1920, Conservative MPs in Commons kept asking Government when it would reintroduce the protective trade legislation long promised in the Coalition agenda.19 Finally in December, Robert S. Horne, who had replaced Geddes in March as president of the Board of Trade, drafted a new 'Safeguarding of Industries Bill'. Much simpler than the Geddes or Balfour versions (although it still contained anti-dumping measures), Horne's proposal did not create any new committees with power to regulate British trade. Rather, it simply imposed a 33% ad valorum duty on a scheduled list of “special” industries (not otherwise defined in the draft bill) for five years. No licensing or exemptions were offered since, as Horne noted in a memorandum to the Cabinet, consumers always complain about “delays and inequities” in such processes and any licensing committee could be influenced politically. Horne's list of scheduled goods largely tracks Geddes's, but does not
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include synthetic dyestuffs (the commodity that had drawn loud complaints from MPs defending British textile manufacturers) and adds vacuum tubes and valves (Fig. 1). After several false starts, the Government had shown itself committed to the idea of safeguarding key industries.
Fig. 1 - Horne's draft 'Safeguarding of Industries Bill', December 1920, p.11. National Archives, Kew, BT CAB 24/117/74.
Baldwin's Orphan Bill of 1921 In April of 1921, Horne was replaced as president of the Board of Trade by another Conservative MP, the industrialist and future prime minister Stanley Baldwin. Baldwin would make Government's third try for a key industries trade bill, remarking when he introduced the proposal to the Ways and Means Committee in Commons that it “is not my own child, but one which I found fatherless upon the steps of the Board of Trade…. No ties of sympathy or of blood therefore bind us […].”20 Yet Baldwin had been a moderate tariff reformer since the beginning of his political career and in 1923 as Prime Minister he would call for an early election, seeking a mandate to introduce further protective tariffs.21 Indeed, Lloyd George undoubtedly chose Baldwin, known for his “great knowledge, great skill in debate and perfect […] tact,” to shepherd the government's long promised trade bill through Parliament.22
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Between the introduction and final approval on 19 August 1921 of Baldwin's bill, Commons would devote 13 and Lords 5 full days to its debate. Most of the parliamentary rhetoric swirled around the anti-dumping measures and the political economy of free trade for a “small island nation that could not feed its people without trade.” We need not follow these colorful, highly entertaining debates about Adam Smith and Riccardo, John Stuart Mill and Shakespeare, Australian cricket and German industrial might, or whether Britain's optical glass industry had or had not met the nation's military needs during the war. Our interest, rather, concerns Parliament's perception of the role of scientific instruments and their manufacture in Britain's post-war economy. We will review five themes in the debate.
Fig. 2 - Baldwin's “Safeguarding of Industries Bill (Bill 125),” from House of Commons sessional papers, Bills, (1920), vol. 5, p.236.
First, although generally similar to Horne's earlier draft bill, Baldwin's schedule of listed goods under the 'key' industries drops gas mantles and thorium (a raw material for the mantles) and designates in much more detail the
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classes of scientific apparatus to be covered (Fig. 2). Microscopes, theodolites, sextants and spectroscopes are listed, as are galvanometers, electroscopes, barometers, precision balances, thermometers, beakers, burettes and combustion boats. But the blanket definitions remain – “other optical instruments,” “other laboratory porcelain,” “other scientific instruments” – and give the schedule, to be defined by the Board of Trade, considerable flexibility. Indeed, the question of how to define 'key' industries repeatedly exercised the MPs. The language of the bill itself offered no criteria apart from the list. In his opening speech, Baldwin admitted that, at first glance, the key industries might appear to be “the catalogue of a marine store dealer”; yet in the scheduled items “you have the main things that go to make the scientific foundation of British industry. These things are important in peace; in war they are vital.”23 Conservative cabinet member, Viscount William Wellesley Peel, who would introduce the bill in Lords, offered a different metaphor. Key industries “unlock the door to the larger industries – key industries as opposed to great basic industries like coal, and as opposed to great staple industries like textiles.” Key industries, for Peel, are small in scale, financially precarious due to their elaborate processes of manufacture, and require highly skilled workmen and technical assistants as well as “constant research in order to keep them abreast of the great march of scientific knowledge.”24 Yet, grumbled the critics, all industries depend crucially on other industries; surely many more industries are essential for national defense (food and coal were most often mentioned); and how can raw materials (synthetic chemicals or metallic tungsten) and finished scientific instruments be assumed to play similar roles in British industry? One MP wondered whether Baldwin's list was comprised merely of those items Britain found itself lacking during the war. Parliament, while debating Baldwin's bill, did not develop a new or conceptually coherent account of the role of science in national industrial development. H.H. Asquith, former prime minister and a leading Liberal opponent of the bill in Commons, called the list a “pettifogging hugger-mugger affair” with “indefinite possibilities of lobbying, wire-pulling, intriguing and, in the long run, of public corruption.”25 A second theme in the parliamentary debates focused on the condition of British glass-making, an industry that, to many, seemed precariously undeveloped (so much for BOIMA's enthusiastic rhetoric noted above). MPs frequently reminded each other that at the outbreak of the war either 90 (or 67) percent of the optical glass required for British scientific (microscopes), military (periscopes) and domestic purposes (opera glasses) came from German makers. Chance Brothers, in Smethwick near Birmingham (they had produced glass for the 1851 Crystal Palace), was essentially the only British optical glassmaker through the 1920s. Scarcely more British firms produced chemical glass. Of all the 'key' industries in Baldwin's bill, only the optical glass-makers
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had publicly argued, in 1919, that they did not need protection (see above). Yet the MPs frequently asserted that British optical glass after the war remained inferior in quality, insufficiently available, and expensive compared to German glass. Comparisons of British and German chemical glass by the National Physics Laboratory and the Society of Glass Technology were fastidiously dissected in the parliamentary debates.26 And several free-trade members who much earlier had studied in Jena, longtime center of the German optical glass industry, told heroic tales of German glass makers developing without state protection by dint of their private research laboratories (the free traders did not mention that those researchers had been trained in state-supported universities) and company incentives to reward employee innovation.27 Embracing a rhetoric of autarky that stretched back at least to the eighteenth century, the defenders of Baldwin's bill asserted that any great nation must produce its own optical glass. Such nations, in times of war, do not rely on others for their weapons, ammunition, and optical glass; and great nations, in times of peace, do not rely on others for the optical glass that is the “very foundation of scientific instruments”, the “foundation of all research in our universities, colleges and hospitals.”28 Optical glass, it would seem, had become the new gold in a science-based industrial society. Third, hand wringing about the poor quality of British scientific instruments, more generally, appeared on both sides of the debate. A businessman and robust free trader (Alexander Lyle-Samuel) described the shortcomings of British electrical instruments: The finest electrical measuring instrument in use is known as the Weston electrical instrument, which is the product of 30 years of research by Dr. Weston of America. It is an article of the greatest importance. During the [wartime] regime of import restrictions the Department gave directions for some tons of this instrument to be imported, because we needed them for our best work. Several British firms are trying to make a rival article, but they are still very far from succeeding. It [the Weston meter] costs considerably more to buy here than the British article. The selling house on this side now declares that its repairs laboratories will have to shut up and the instrument will be most difficult to obtain in the future. This will penalise our indus[t]ries, because they are dependent a good deal upon this particular electrical instrument.
A Lancaster industrialist (Austin Hopkinson) told a funny, presumably ironic, fable about the superiority of German theodolites over British varieties. Einstein's recently confirmed General Theory of Relativity could not have arisen “had it not been for experimental work done by means of theodolites by the great German mathematician whose name was Gauss.” With instruments
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of German make, Gauss more than eighty years before Einstein had precisely measured the angles of a large (geodetic) triangle, finding them not equal to two right angles and proposing “a new system of geometry based upon what are commonly known as Gauss Co-ordinates.” In this system, reality can have any number of dimensions, there can be “no absolute truth” since beings cannot agree in which dimension they live, and indeed even Legislatures could be led into error “if there is not this free and easy trade in theodolites.” Gaining steam, Hopkinson extended his fable even further. As every Free Trader knows, were Britain to impose a 33 percent duty on imported theodolites, the English versions would be at least 33 percent less precise than the German instruments. “Imagine the English philosopher, mathematician or physicist endeavoring to repeat these great experiments” of Gauss, measuring angles between towers on the House of Commons and mountain peaks in the North. If each of the English-made theodolites were to err by up to 33 percent, our philosopher would find that a plane triangle makes three and one-half right angles, a result that would be “perfectly terrible” for British industry and education. “The whole of the works of Euclid would have had to be collected and burnt by the public hangman. Everything that we have done would have to be undone […]. For those reasons […] I do hope that […] [we] will allow theodolites to enter free into this country.” Needless to say, not all of Hopkinson's colleagues found his fable funny (although most historians of relativity theory certainly will). But no one challenged his claim about the superiority of German theodolites.29 A fourth theme was that Baldwin's proposed duty on scientific instruments would hurt British science and medicine more than it would help British instrument makers. Where is the economic evidence, these critics asked, to show that a 33 percent duty would be sufficient to enable the 'key' industries to flourish? Other MPs gushed with anecdotal evidence about poor medical students (especially in Scotland and Ireland where poorer boys entered medicine than in England) who would not be able to purchase personal microscopes for work at home. Likewise, the many “individual researchers” in British science who are not wealthy and purchase their own apparatus would be penalized by the higher prices stimulated by Baldwin's tariff. We need “free trade in ideas and instruments,” intoned one MP, for science to progress.30 The Free Traders were convinced that British scientists stood on their side. Liberal William Wedgwood Benn, not naming his sources, announced that: … the whole field of science is against interference with their instruments and their laboratory apparatus …. I do not think it would be possible to find one person who is really interested in scientific advance who would not wish to see a perfectly free choice in everything he uses in his work….
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This bill will hamper research in every possible line. We are taxing scientific books, we are taxing the spectacles of the people who read them, we are taxing the lamp and the light by which they read, and we are taxing the scientific instruments with which they work.31
Only one MP struck back at the scientist lobby, labeling as “sheer nonsense” the claim that safeguarding key industries would “hinder the advance of scientific knowledge in this country. They can use microscopes and other scientific instruments but it does not follow from that they are in any way qualified to judge in regard to the economic questions involved in this proposal.”32 Fifth, at several points in the debate MPs suggested amending Baldwin's bill to exempt educational institutions and scientific researchers from the duty on imported instruments. Both German and American trade policies, they emphasized, traditionally had included such exemptions (both Commons and Lords voted to reject such exemptions).33 Other MPs urged that government subsidies be provided to those groups of instruments purchasers to cover the cost increases of the safeguarding duties. Baldwin and Peel, however, firmly rejected these amendments. They argued that defining “scientific” as opposed to “industrial” use of scientific instruments would be a bureaucratic nightmare and (somewhat contradictorily) that such exemptions would gut the bill “because the bulk of these instruments are imported, I understand, for scientific work.”34 In this telling remark, Peel admitted that although the purpose of the government's bill was to strengthen British industry in its scientific foundations, it would be the university scientists who would bear the brunt of the added cost of either protected British instruments of lesser quality or even more expensive foreign instruments of greater quality. Britain's “scientific” community of instrument users were being asked to subsidize the potential improvement of Britain's scientific instrument making industry. After the months of debate, Commons on 12 August 1921 finally voted by 176 to 54 to approve Baldwin's bill, largely in its original form. Most of the Lords who spoke out opposed the bill, but apparently a silent majority favored the measure for Peel was able to persuade his House to approve Baldwin's bill. On 19 August 1921, that bill became an Act of Parliament, launching for the first time in British history a policy of protection for that nation's scientific instrument makers. During the parliamentary maneuvering of 1921, British scientists occasionally entered the public debate. Even before Baldwin's bill was introduced, a Nature editorial unequivocally asserted that “adequate measures must be taken to foster these key industries, regardless of whether a general economic principle [i.e., free trade], sound in ideal circumstances as a general
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proposition, is violated.” The editorial built its case around the optical glass industry. Reasoning autarkically, the writer suggested that manufacturing optical instruments essential for British industry (the microscope and polarimeter were cited as examples) requires making optical glass. “Owing mainly to our national neglect of scientific workers,” national supremacy in glass-making already in the 1830s had passed to Germany, where “large State subsidies were made continuously to the industry down to the declaration of war in 1914.” During the war, massive government intervention plus heroic enterprise by the manufacturers had enabled the British optical instruments industry to catch up with the Germans. But now preservation of these gains is vital; were the nation's optical industry to dwindle, British scientific users would be “at the mercy of foreign manufacturers,” forced to pay an “exorbitant price” for imported instruments, and handicapped “as compared with scientific workers in foreign countries possessing a flourishing scientific instrument industry.” To solve the problem, Nature threw its support behind the BOIMA's call for a seven-year prohibition of the import of all optical glass and scientific instruments, except under licenses that would be granted only for goods not being made in Britain in the required quantity or quality.35 Protective tariffs have an “emasculating effect,” the editorial concluded without elaboration, and should be avoided. The Nature editorial wanted the best of all possible worlds, in which British instrument users could obtain whatever instruments they wanted and British instrument makers would face no foreign competition. A more contradictory argument can hardly be imagined. After the introduction of Baldwin's bill, Nature's editors quickly engaged the parliamentary debate, now taking the side of the scientific user rather than the instrument maker. Many scientists, Nature reported, have called for “a system of subsidies to enable [British] prices to be low enough to compete with foreign goods.” Nature, however, urged that “recognized scientific institutions” simply be excluded from the duties implemented in Baldwin's bill. If British scientists are to contribute to the “advancement of scientific discovery,” they need to keep abreast of scientific work in other nations. “Restriction of research [presumably by Baldwin's 33 percent ad valorum duty] is likely to do more harm than the more or less ineffective artificial protection of a few industries would do good.”36 After passage of Baldwin's bill, scientists' public protests became even more strident. In a letter appearing in Nature under the headline “Is Scientific Inquiry a Criminal Occupation?” Henry E. Armstrong, perhaps the most widely respected British chemist of the 1920s, called the safeguarding tariff a “fine” on scientific workers. “No more iniquitous measure was ever passed into law,” he grumbled, urging British scientists to “boycott all apparatus and materials of English manufacture” unless Baldwin's bill was annulled. The secretary of the
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British Chemical Trade Association warned readers that the list of 6000 dutiable chemicals in the Act will result in customers paying higher prices, especially for the 2000 reagents on the list not currently being manufactured in Britain. At the University of Cambridge, medical professors Sir Clifford Allbutt and Sir G. Sims Woodhead, with Nobel laureate Ernest Rutherford, signed a statement protesting the Act. The National Union of Scientific Workers, the trade union representing laboratory and technical workers in British universities founded in 1918, also publicly called for the repeal of the Act. Self interest, as well as an ideology of free trade, we unsurprisingly conclude, dominated the rhetorical responses to Baldwin's bill.37 Epilogue: Impacts of the Safeguarding of Industries Act of 1921 I cannot here investigate the fate of the British Safeguarding of Industries Act of 1921, renewed by Parliament in 1926 for ten years and in 1936 for a further ten years. Indeed, the Safeguarding Act would remain in force until 1958, when its “key industries” were merged into a more general Import Duties Act. Although envisioned by its creators as a short-term, emergency measure to boost British instrument making after the war, the Safeguarding Act would enjoy a lifetime of nearly forty years. This epilogue confines its analysis of the Act's impact to three episodes, a complaint in 1922 by British optical glass makers against German “dumping” and the Board of Trade's reviews of the Act in 1926 and 1935. These episodes illustrate how protection increasingly became part of the landscape of British instrument making after 1921. Episode 1 Part II of the Safeguarding Act, not discussed above, created a process for British makers to bring formal complaints to the Board of Trade if they felt foreign imports were being offered at prices below the cost of foreign production or kept artificially low due to under-valued foreign currencies. In 1922, the trade associations of the British Optical Instrument Manufacturers, British Photographic Manufacturers, Spectacle Manufacturers and the Drawing Instrument Manufacturers brought such a complaint against importers of German optical goods. Nor surprisingly, Conrad Beck spearheaded the effort by the makers. Opposing the complaint were a coalition of export merchants for German optical companies led by J. W. Ogilvy, London representative for E. Leitz of Wetzlar, one of the world's leading makers of microscopes by the 1920s, and by one user of optical instruments, Professor William A. Bone, FRS and head of the department of chemical technology at Imperial College in South Kensington.38 The Board of Trade's Committee of Enquiry held four days of hearings, collecting hundreds of pages of testimony from both sides on the British
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demand for optical instruments, labor and production costs including handmade versus mass production, employment figures, quality and retail price. In the end, the Committee decided against the plaintiffs, concluding that German prices (with the 33 percent duty) “compare fairly” with English prices except for the case of drawing instruments, which might deserve increased tariff protection. Beck lost this first battle; but the British optical makers had demonstrated how the Safeguarding Act could provide a new weapon in their competition against imports.39 Bone, speaking for the scientific consumers, made a forceful case for free trade in his support of the winning side: Scientific workers here are really in competition with scientific workers in other countries. If we are restricted in any way in the use of apparatus, then … we have handicap imposed upon us. For the future of scientific research in England I think it would be very prejudicial to us if the present almost intolerable burden that is put upon us by these duties were increased…. Zeiss will sell his microscopes in other countries. The American worker will welcome them and will have an instrument at his disposal which is better than the instruments which the English workers will have to use.40
Episode 2 In 1926, the Board of Trade reviewed the Safeguarding Act, a preliminary step that would lead Stanley Baldwin's Conservative government to persuade Parliament to renew (and broaden) the measure for another ten years. Members of the Board of Trade's review committee included Robert Burton Chadwick, shipping magnate, MP, and parliamentary secretary for the Board; Arthur Colefax, a chemist and conservative politician who had chaired the scientific department of the Ministry of Munitions during the war; Richard T. Glazebrook, former director of the National Physical Laboratory and former president of the Optical Society; and William J. Pope, FRS, professor of chemistry at Cambridge and arguably Britain's leading organic chemist in the 1920s. Scientists dominated the committee whose task was to assess whether the safeguarded industries had since 1921 developed sufficiently to now “stand alone” without tariff protection. To answer this question, the committee took evidence from the manufacturers in question and from the government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Its conclusion, unlike those of the 1922 Committee of Enquiry, clearly favored the instrument making industry. British optical glass making, the committee reported, remains endangered. Although production had expanded, domestic sales had not increased since 1921 and exports had declined to nearly nothing. With its larger domestic market for optical elements, German makers can undersell British makers in German markets and would undersell them in the British market were
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it not for the 33 percent duty. Depreciation of the French franc enabled French glass makers to undersell British makers even with the import duty. On the other hand, the range of British-made scientific instruments had increased under the 1921 Act, especially for electrical meters. Yet electrical instruments of the highest quality, used to determine standards, still were being imported from the USA as the domestic demand was too small to induce British makers to compete. Only for mathematical drawing instruments, concluded the committee, had a large domestic demand enabled British makers to drop their prices while increasing quality. More generally, the 1921 Act “appears to have turned the scale in favour of the British instrument [only] when the price of the foreign article together with the duty has been only slightly below the British price.” Removing the duty, therefore, would be “disastrous” especially for the “infant British industry” of optical glass. Indeed, the committee went even further, recommending that duty on imported optical instruments be raised to 50 41 percent ad valorem. Professor Bone's rhetoric of free trade in scientific instruments does not appear in this report. Episode 3 The Board of Trade's 1935 review committee also recommended extending the Act for another ten years, arguing that the “protection afforded to [the key industries] has encouraged research and fostered development to an extent that would not otherwise have been possible.” Output from the key industries had multiplied several fold, despite increased foreign competition; duties led to price reductions which stimulated demand and in some cases enhanced export trade. Members of the British Scientific Instrument Research Association are contributing £1500, the government £7000, annually to improving British instruments. Nonetheless, “we have come to the conclusion that it is undesirable, particularly in the present time when defence considerations are so predominant, to disturb that sense of security and confidence which has grown up under the Safeguarding of Industries Act.”42 Interestingly for our purposes, the 1935 committee, unlike the 1926 committee, reviewed some trade figures during its investigation. Drawn from the Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom, these data are constrained by the categories and methods of Statistical Office of the Customs and Excise Department who published the compendia. The review committee considered three categories of apparatus: scientific glassware (“chemical, medical, surgical, bacteriological, including glass syringes”), optical instruments and appliances (“lenses, prisms, optically worked, mounted or unmounted, including those imported with complete telescopes; bodies for telescopes, microscopes and other instruments holding lenses”), and scientific
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electrical instruments (“not including commercial ammeters and voltmeters or house service meters�).43 These trade data do not provide information on the size of the domestic British market; they do not allow us to compare British scientific makers' production for internal consumption and for export. Nonetheless, the 1935 committee's data for 1923-34 (I have extended their tables back to 1921, using the Annual Statements) do reinforce some tentative conclusions about early impacts of the Safeguarding of Industries Act on the global circulation of scientific apparatus through the United Kingdom.44 First, British trade, overall, remained essentially flat until the beginning of the Great Depression in 1931 (Fig. 3).45 Its balance of trade was always negative, with exports totaling never more than about 80 percent of total imports. Second, imports of scientific glassware and optical instruments declined slightly between 1921 and 1934; imports of electrical instruments, however, increased significantly (see Figs. 4-6). Although many factors undoubtedly affected these shifts in imports, it seems apparent that the Safeguarding Act did not dramatically reduce British purchases of foreignmade instruments. And these data suggest that British users secured their imported scientific glassware overwhelmingly from Germany, their optical instruments from France, and their electrical instruments from the USA. Interestingly in the 1920s, a significant fraction of the imported optical instruments came from Canada.
Fig. 3 - British foreign trade, 1921-34, from Annual Statements.
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Fig. 4 - British imports of “scientific glassware,” 1921-34, from Annual Statements and National Archives, Kew, BT 55/42.
Fig. 5 - British imports of “optical instruments and appliances,” 1921-34, from Annual Statements and National Archives, Kew, BT 55/42.
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Fig. 6 - British imports of “scientific electrical instruments,” 1921-34, from Annual Statements and National Archives, Kew, BT 55/42.
Third, although not considered by the 1935 committee, in Fig. 7 we compare British exports of scientific apparatus, manufactured in Britain, with its imports.46 For optical instruments, this balance remained negative; for scientific glassware, the balance was positive for the years 1924 to 1928 and again in 1932. For electrical instruments, significantly more apparatus (measured by value) were shipped out of Britain than into the nation through 1928; but after that date, British exports dropped precipitously. Perhaps we should not be surprised that Conrad Beck and the optical glass makers led the charge for protectionism in the 1920s and not the electrical manufacturers. Finally, we present in Fig. 8 figures showing the total duty collected for four “key industries” covered by the Safeguarding of Industries Act.47 Consumers of imported scientific glassware and instruments generally paid less than £50,000 pounds duty per year; consumers of imported optical instruments and synthetic chemicals paid considerably more duty. Before the collapse of the world economy in 1930, the Safeguarding Act was costing British consumers considerably more than half a million pounds sterling per year; by the mid 1930s, Safeguarding duties had again reached that level.
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Fig. 7 - British balance of trade in scientific instruments, 1921-34, from Annual Statements.
Fig. 8 - Duty collected under Safeguarding of Industries, 1921-34, from Annual Statements.
In 1922, the United States would introduce its own protective tariffs on scientific instruments; other instrument-making nations would rapidly follow suit. Did this wave of protectionism significantly restrict the global circulation of
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scientific material? Did it significantly impact the practice of science in these nations? More research will be required to answer such questions. But this study of the British case suggests that, regardless of the econometric impacts, talk of tariffs did, in the 1920s, increasingly become part of the British scientific landscape. By including the infrastructure of science among the 'key' industries, the Safeguarding of Industries Act of 1921 made scientific instruments notably more important for British politicians and government officials and made trade policy notably more important for British instrument makers and the scientific consumers of that apparatus. Acknowledgments For their stimulating questions I thank participants at the XXXI Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission; and for their suggestions and criticisms of earlier drafts of this paper I warmly thank Paolo Brenni, Randall Brooks, Gloria Clifton, David Pantalony and Sara Schechner. Notes 1 I. Varcoe, 'Scientists, government and organised research in Great Britain, 1914-16: The early history of the DSIR', Minerva (1970), 8, 192-216; D.S.L. Cardwell, The organisation of science in England, rev. ed., Heinemann, London, 1972, 187-227. 2 Standard sources include P. Bairoch, 'European trade policy, 1815-1914', in The Cambridge economic history of Europe, vol. viii: The industrial economics (ed. Peter Mathias and Sidney Pollard), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989, 1-160; S. Pollard, The development of the British economy, 1914-1990, 4th ed., Edward Arnold, London, 1992, 92-96; T. Rooth, British protectionism and the international economy: Overseas commercial policy in the 1930s, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992. 3 Intended as a temporary measure, these duties were not repealed until 1956. 4 'An economic pact: Paris Conference decisions', London Times, June 21, 1916, 9. 5 Committee on Commercial and Industrial Policy [Balfour Committee], Interim report on certain essential industries, HMSO, London, 1918, 11, 2. 6 See R. Macleod and K. Macleod, 'War and economic development: Government and the optical industry in Britain, 1914-18', in War and economic development: Essays in memory of David Joslin (ed. J.M. Winter), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1975, 165-203; Mari E.W. Williams, The precision makers: A history of the instruments industry in Britain and France, 1870-1939, Routledge, London, 1994, 85-96. 7 BOIMA required an entrance fee of ÂŁ10 and annual dues of ÂŁ5; any individual or firm involved in the optical business for at least three years could join, subject to approval by two-thirds of the existing members. See Williams, Precision makers, 86. 8 A dictionary of British scientific instruments issued by the British Optical Instrument Manufacturers' Association, Constable and Company, London, 1921, 3, v. For an exceedingly negative review of the errors and botched illustrations in this volume, see J.S.G. Thomas, 'Reviews: A dictionary of British scientific instruments', Journal of the Optical Society of America (1921), 40, 375.
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9
'Scientific and industrial research', Nature (1918), 102, 128; J.W. Williamson, 'British Scientific Instrument Research Association', Nature (1920), 106, 346-48; 'British Scientific Instrument Research Association', Nature (1921), 108, 385; 'Science and the instrument industry', Nature (1925), 115, 209-11. Cf. Scientific Instrument Research Association, Fifty years of instrument research: SIRA, 1918-1968,Curlew Press, London, 1968. Initial research by the BSIRA considered polishing powders for lens-making, cement for lenses and prisms, liquids for level bubbles, and the production of colorless glass. 10 Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 112 (1919), cols. 50-51. 11 'Anti-dumping proposals', London Times, November 21, 1919, 13; Imports and exports regulation, a bill to constitute a Trade Regulation Committee [Bill 211], HMSO, London, 1919. 12 'Anti-dumping proposals', p. 13; The nature of key industries', Nature (1919), 104, 349-50. 13 Parliamentary Debates, Lords, 39 (1920), cols. 965, 536, 944, 947, 973-74. 14 A.P. Laurie, 'The anti-dumping bill', London Times, November 24, 1919,10. “The whole of science is being penalized in order that a stream of gold shall be poured into the pockets of two or three firms by the Government,� wrote Laurie after Balfour's bill had appeared, in ibid., March 25, 1920, 12. 15 Oswald S. Hickson, 'Anti-dumping bill', London Times, November 29, 1919, 8. I have not been able to find the BOIMA memorandum of September 1918. 16 'The anti-dumping bill', Nature (1920), 105, 125-26. 17 W.M. Bayliss, 'Scientific apparatus from abroad', Nature (1920), 105, 293-94; idem, 'British and foreign scientific apparatus', Nature (1920), 105, 641-42; J.W. Ogilvy and J.S. Dunkerly, 'British and foreign scientific apparatus', Nature (1920), 105, 424-25. A decade earlier, Ogilvy had provoked a heated discussion in Nature with his claim that German-made microscopes were superior to English models. See 'Microscope stands', Nature (1911), 88, 245-47; J.W. Ogilvy, 'Microscope stands', Nature (1912), 88, 481-82. 18 C. Beck, 'Scientific apparatus and laboratory fittings', Nature (1920), 105, 355-56; D. H. Baird, 'British and foreign scientific apparatus', Nature (1920), 105, 309-91; F.W. Watson Baker, 'British and foreign scientific apparatus', Nature (1920), 105, 518; S.N. Jenkinson, 'British laboratory and scientific glassware', Nature (1920), 106, 281. 19 George Terrell, MP and president of the National Union of Manufacturers, was perhaps most persistent in making this request. Cf. Parliamentary debates, Commons, 120 (1919), cols. 171, 870; 121 (1919), cols.124, 389-91; 127 (1920), cols. 851, 1365-66. 20 Parliamentary debates, Commons, 141 (1921), col. 1548. 21 The 1923 election, however, went poorly for the Conservatives and Baldwin was soon forced to resign as Prime Minister. 22 Austen Chamberlain to Lloyd George, quoted in P. Williamson, Stanley Baldwin: Conservative leadership and national values, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, 24. 23 Parliamentary debates, Commons, 141 (1921), col. 1552. 24 Parliamentary debates, Lords, 46 (1921), cols. 601-2. 25 'Mr. Asquith on key industries bill', London Times, June 22, 1921,6. 26 Jenkinson, 'Glassware', p. 281; J. Petavel, 'A comparison of British and German volumetric glassware', Nature (1921), 107, 297-98.
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27
Parliamentary debates, Commons, 142 (1921), col. 2292. Ibid.,cols. 2292, 2300; 146 (1921), cols. 525-26. 29 Ibid., 144 (1921), cols. 2335-39; 146 (1921), cols. 919-22. Cf. E. Matsumoto, 'Edward Weston made his mark on the history of instrumentation', IEEE Instrumentation & measurement magazine (June 2003), 46, 46-50; Ernst Breitenberger, 'Gauss's geodesy and the axiom of parallels', Archive for history of exact sciences 31 (1984), 273-89. 30 Parliamentary debates, Lords, 46 (1921), cols. 647, 933; Parliamentary debates, Commons, 141 (1921), col. 1616; 142 (1921), cols. 2295-96. 31 Ibid., 146 (1921), cols. 516-17. 32 Ibid., 144 (1921), col. 2296. 33 This claim is true for American trade policies before 1920, as has been shown by L.F. Drummeter, 'Philosophical instruments free of duty', Rittenhouse (1989), 3, 11319. I have found no general study of German trade policies concerning scientific instruments. 34 Parliamentary debates, Commons, 146 (1921), cols. 515-20; Parliamentary debates, Lords, 46 (1921), col. 936. 35 'The promotion of our optical industries', Nature (1921), 106, 749-51. 36 'The safeguarding of research', Nature (1921), 107, 481-82. 37 H. E. Armstrong, 'Is scientific inquiry a criminal occupation?', Nature (1921), 108, 241; L. Bairstow and A.G. Church, 'Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921', Nature (1921), 108,271; O.F.C. Bromfield, 'Safeguarding of industries, To the editor of the Times', London Times, 3 October 1921, 6. Cf. A.G. Church, 'Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921', Nature (1922), 109, 583. 38 National Archives, Kew, BT 13/112/2, 13/110/6, and 55/79. 39 I have not found any examples, before 1935, of non-optical scientific instrument makers bringing similar dumping complaints to the Board of Trade; other “key industries� protected by the 1921 Act did regularly did so. See National Archives, Kew, BT 13/110. 40 Bone testimony, undated [June 1922], Committee on Optical Elements and Optical and other Scientific Instruments, Summary of Evidence Taken, p. 74, National Archives, Kew, BT 55/79. 41 Board of Trade, Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921, Part I: Report of a Committee appointed by the Board of Trade [Cmd. 2631], London, 1926, 20, 46. 42 Board of Trade, Report of a committee appointed by the Board of Trade [Cmd. 5157], HMSO, London, 1936, 8, 10. For additional details, see National Archives, Kew, BT 55/42, folder 55/43. 43 These categories remained unchanged in the Annual Statements of the Trade of the United Kingdom from 1921-1934. 44 Williams, Precision makers, examines many structural features of British and French scientific instrument manufacture, but mentions trade protectionism only briefly (pp. 157-8). 45 The Annual Statements provide trade figures in current (not inflated) British pounds. After several years of deflation following 1918, the value of the British pound remained essentially stable from 1923 through the mid-1930s. 46 For the years 1929-30, the Annual Statements idiosyncratically combine figures for electrical instruments, giving totals some tens of times greater than those for the years 1928 and 1931 (these same erroneous values appear in the manuscript Board 28
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of Trade summaries mentioned above in n. 41). I have thus dropped the 1929-30 data for electrical instruments from Fig. 7. 47 The Annual Statements define optical instruments as “optical glass and optical elements, whether finished or not; microscopes, field and opera glasses, theodolites, sextants, spectroscopes and other optical instruments”; scientific glassware as “beakers, flasks, burettes, measuring cylinders, thermometers, tubing and other scientific glassware and lamp-blown ware, evaporating dishes, crucibles, combustion boats and other laboratory porcelain”; scientific instruments as “galvanometers, pyrometers, electroscopes, barometers, analytical and other precision balances and other scientific instruments, gauges and measuring instruments of precision of the types used in engineering machine shops and viewing rooms, whether for use in such shops or rooms or not.” Recall that in 1926 the ad valorum duty was raised from 33 to 50 percent.
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The development of the Laussedat phototheodolite and its use on the Brazil-Argentina Border Bruno Capilé and Moema de Rezende Vergara Introduction Our first contact with Laussedat's phototheodolite occurred during a study of the scientific instruments used in the demarcation of the BrazilArgentina border between 1900 and 1905. Today, many are part of the collection of the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST), a collection that once belonged to the Astronomical Observatory (Observatório Astronômico), Rio de Janeiro, currently the National Observatory (Observatório Nacional). Laussedat's instrument measured angles through a structure resembling a theodolite. This was attached to a photographic camera that recorded topographical images for later analysis in the comfort of an office. Scientific instruments convey a sense of confidence that serves both the user and those who will utilize the results provided by such objects. This confidence comes from the 'feeling' of objectivity that surrounds their use in scientific activities. Daston and Galison1 state that the term objectivity “can be applied to everything, from empirical reliability to procedural correctness to emotional detachment”,2 although it cannot suppress all aspects of the subjectivity of the individual. According to these two authors, modern technology was the founding force of science. Thus, the intricate interaction between technical aspects of scientific instruments and epistemic aspects of
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technological systems must be understood. Concepts are therefore constructed within instruments. We should also consider that “instruments are just objects conceived and validated by scientists, and their status varies according to the contexts where they operate�.3 The importance of research on scientific instruments is not limited to the objects themselves; this research also involves studying objects' meanings and representations, as well as understanding the historical moment of their development along with the technical-scientific knowledge available at the time and the social and technological needs that provided the necessary investment. In other words, social forces and the immanent development of science and practical technical knowledge influence the focus of scientific interest.4
Fig. 1 - Laussedat's phototheodolite (MAST collection 1994/0179).
Regarding the phototheodolite, catalogue No. 1994/0179 in the MAST collection, we can trace its trajectory from its creation in France to its acquisition in Brazil and to its final use on the Argentinean border. When treating a scientific instrument as a historical object, it is important to structure the questions driving the research. To the barely known instrument, we may ask how it was improved. What were the topographical needs and difficulties propitiating its invention? How did technical and scientific knowledge assist in the development process? What are the reasons for its obsolescence? How present are the same scientific practices in other topographical surveys methods? What was the result of its use for our knowledge of the Brazilian territory?
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It appears that the presence of the phototheodolite was important for the demarcation of the Iguaçu Falls region, where topography, weather conditions, and a number of raging rivers made access difficult and the use of conventional topography methods, such as sextants and theodolites, impractical. The new instrument was scarcely known to the members of the expedition only one of them manipulated it. How did the scientists contact him? Were there any technical contributions from Brazilians, or did we simply import methods developed by Europeans? Such questions help us understand the social circumstances surrounding the instrument, rather than the object itself. Many other instruments were used in the topographical survey conducted by the Commission for the Demarcation of Limits between Brazil and Argentina (Comissão Demarcadora de Limites entre Brasil e Argentina). In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the use of cartographic techniques increased globally, most likely because of the imperialistic expansions of Europe and the United States. Such increase can be observed in the growing investments in topographical surveys, which generated maps with improved precision on scales varying from 1:10,000 to 1:250,000.5 In Brazil, an increase in cartographic initiatives also began in the 1870s, when different commissions collected information on cartography, topography, geology, and railway construction, culminating in 1876 with the design of a national map, the General Chart of the Empire (Carta Geral do Império, 1:3,710,220). As the Empire consolidated the conquest of territories and frontiers, it became necessary to create a complete map that could structure aspects of space and territory and, through cartography, define the position of the country as a wealthy and civilized nation. It is important to clarify that national maps establish a country's borders and provide knowledge of its geography, in addition to being used as tools for maintaining a government's power over its borders, trade, internal administration, population control, and military forces through a social, ideological, and rhetorical discourse. In this sense, the map is a social non-neutral construction and its study allows an interpretation that should consider power relations, priorities, preferences, and cultural practices of its agents.6 Demarcation activities, territorial knowledge, and the accompanying scientific practices have been the subject of a research project at MAST, 'Territory: Space, science and identity in Brazil, 1870-1930' (Território: espaço,
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ciência e identidade no Brasil, 1870-1930). The research focused on the importance of astronomy and geodesy in the construction of the Brazilian territorial map. In this chapter, we note that scientific instruments allow us to interpret the relationship between material culture and scientific practice throughout history. We also note the role of such objects in the development of technical progress. In deepening the study of an instrument, we will analyse its historical setting and context, the techno-scientific issues pervading its evolution and use, and the mediating relationship it had between the scientist who used it and the necessary scientific practices. From France to the World: The development of the phototheodolite The development of scientific instruments tends to dialogue with the technical tradition on which the instruments are based, such as mathematics, geometry, and optics. The phototheodolite is an illustrative case study on the continuity in the evolution of scientific instruments. When we consider the technical progress in a scientific area such as topography, which includes instrumental innovations that often replace previously used models, we notice that many features of the excluded objects are retained in the next generation. Their evolution develops from a complex set of various interactions, such as needs and expectations, possibilities and technical limitations, and even commercial demand and idiosyncrasies of makers or clients.7 The technical knowledge to perform topographical surveys using images based on perspective drawings for the purposes of map making arose in the mid-nineteenth century. The method of drawing in perspective was initially suggested in 1759 by the Swiss astronomer and mathematician J. H. Lamberts (1728-1777) and effectively used and improved by the French hydrographer Charles Beautemps-Beaupré (1766-1854) in a series of handmade sketches for the mapping of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos Island) between 1791 and 1793.8 According to U.S. Army Lieut. Henry Reed, Assistant Professor of Drawing, Beautemps-Beaupré's method (...) was simply to make drawings or careful sketches of the subject from any two stations, of which the distance apart was determined; then, by measuring with a sextant or other means, at each station, the angle included by a visual ray to any point and the right line joining the stations, data were afforded for orienting the sketches on the plot; and a simple geometrical construction, the reverse problem of perspective drawing, then sufficed to locate the details in plan. The accuracy of the result evidently depended upon skill in sketching.9
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Despite Beautemps-Beaupré's efforts to disseminate this method of drawing for topographical surveys, his main problem was the difficulty in drawing landscapes with geometrical accuracy. Prior to associating photographic images with topographical work, Laussedat, the creator of the phototheodolite, sought to develop handmade drawings for topographical surveys using a camera lucida, which superposed on a sheet of paper the image of the landscape to be drawn. With this aid, the artist could draw with precision the perspective that could be later calculated. In addition to requiring draftsmen and time, this process also depended on dry and sunny weather conditions. The idea of using photography in scientific activities was proposed in different times and different techniques.10 When explaining the details of the daguerreotype process to the French Parliament in 1839, the French astronomer François Arago (1786-1853) stated that photography could accelerate topographic work. Although some topographers questioned the practical value and the accuracy of photography, others gave in to the novelty, seeking further knowledge on optics, photochemistry, descriptive geometry, perspective and cartography.11 One of the first efforts to associate photography and topography was led by the French officer Aimé Laussedat in the 1850s. As Paris did not have any elevated places from which a perspective could be obtained for good mapping, Laussedat began his topographical surveys by tying a camera to a kite. This method did not work, and he followed with photographs made from the roofs of high buildings and church towers in Paris (1861) and Grenoble (1864). Laussedat's experiments with aerial photographs was continued by the photographer Gaspar Félix Tournachon, also known as Nadar, although it appears that Nadar developed the idea without prior knowledge of Laussedat's attempts.12 The first prototype of the phototheodolite appeared in the late 1850s, as Laussedat continued experimenting with ground photographs. The camera obscura was built from the model created by French inventor Joseph Niepce, but it also included topographical devices for measuring angles. In time, newer models appeared with new lenses and the use of gelatino-bromide dry-plates. Pleased with results obtained by his instrument, Laussedat announced his accomplishment and sent it to be tested, examined, and approved by the French Academy of Sciences in 1859. His satisfaction led him to display the instrument at the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1867, along with maps of Paris (scale 1:6666).13 The topographer John Flemer wrote in his An Elementary Treatise on Phototopographic Methods and Instruments that
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Col. Laussedat's work in this field has been so complete that the guiding principles which he first laid down and were subsequently elaborated by numerous practical applications are still in use, and his interest in this work continues unabated to this day. From 1851 to 1871 Col. Laussedat and his associates were frequently called away from the pursuance of phototopographic surveys, having other duties assigned them, and we find that Laussedat's surveying methods did not become generally known in France, and it was left to scientists and engineers of other countries (Germany and Austria) to popularize this surveying method and extend its application to various branches of the sciences.14
Throughout the nineteenth century, the technique was continuously improved in Europe mainly in Germany and Italy, although it was also used in Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, and Spain, especially in topographical surveys of areas with rugged mountains. Apparently, the only extensive mapping using photographs was performed in Canada by Edouard Deville in 1895.15 As a result of the different sketching techniques used, the method had various names, such as iconometry, phototopography, and metrophotography. However, the prevailing term was to become photogrammetry, proposed by the German Albrecht Meydenbauer, who supposedly developed the technique in the 1860s independently from Laussedat's research. Despite the confidence of some in photography, photogrammetry followed the improvement of topographical surveys through the knowledge of geometry and instrumental innovations. The technique followed the same principle of the plane-table method, which involved the determination of points through the intersection of lines of direction traced from known stations. Instead of sketching topographical features, the phototheodolite allowed greater speed in determining a larger number of points that controlled changes on the ground's horizontal and vertical features. Such points, in this case, were shown graphically on the map through iconometric transfer of the landscape's photographic perspectives. The main control for a phototopographic survey was, of course, of trigonometric origin, and the coordinates of the triangulation points had to be calculated with a degree of precision proportional to the degree of precision obtained through field observations.16 In fact, however, there was no consensus about how practical the method was. An article published in North America included a comment by Edouard Deville, then Surveyor General of Dominion Lands in Canada, about some features of the technique. The lenses had to have correction for astigmatism and had to be rectilinear; the photographic plates were special and
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specifically adjusted. Deville, who had been a student of Laussedat, said that the technique appeared to be, theoretically, “the easiest thing in the world”, but pointed out recurring errors resulting from the precarious knowledge of descriptive geometry and perspective and from the lack of photographic technique.17 In Photographic Surveying, Deville confirmed that Laussedat believed that phototopography could be useful in the survey of large areas. However, considering that local weather determined fieldwork, comparison with the plane-table-stadia survey could lead one to think that such advantages would not be as good at smaller scales. In other words, “the advantage of the photographic method is that plotting being performed in the office, the field expenditure of the topographer and the cost of his party during construction of the map, are dispensed with”,18 even though the process of creating maps from photographs was time-consuming, toilsome, and tended to be used mainly when access to the land was difficult. According to Peter Collier, “for the photogrammetric approach to become more cost effective, a method of automating the plotting was needed. Work on developing such a method was being actively pursued in a number of countries at the turn of the century”.19 The arrival and use of the Photothodolite at the BrazilianArgentinean border The border between Brazil and Argentina has been the subject of debate since colonial times when several treaties were signed after years of disagreements between Portugal and Spain. The issue involved completing the demarcation from two major rivers, the Uruguay and the Iguassu, and a connection via two smaller rivers, the Pepiri-Guassu and the Santo Antonio. The main problem had surfaced when Spanish explorers named two other rivers with these same names, thus reinterpreting a territory of over 30,000 km2 as Spanish, and later Argentinean, territory. After demarcation was performed by two different commissions, topographical arguments could no longer be used to resolve the matter. A solution required diplomatic measures involving arbitration by U.S. President Grover Cleveland in 1895, who favoured awarding the disputed territory to Brazil. The Commission for the Demarcation of Limits between Brazil and Argentina was then assembled (1900-1905). It was directed by General Dionisio Cerqueira,20 who had participated in a previous expedition to the same area, known as the Comissão das Missões (18861892). Although the previous expedition had proposed the use of photogrammetry to answer questions about the disputed territory, the proposal was jeopardized because of suspicions of espionage and plans of an
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Argentinean invasion. Moreover, distrust in the method of determining longitude through chronometers did not inspire confidence in the commissioners, who eventually chose the triangulation method to determine the position of the disputed rivers. The Baron of Capanema, chief of the previous commission, claimed that he might use the photogrammetric theodolite to solve questions for accuracy reasons. However, few records exist regarding this use of the instrument; few records also exist regarding an article by German inventor and photographer Franz Stolze on determining latitude and longitude without the use of a chronometer, but with simple photogrammetric observation. This article had been sent by the Legation of Berlin to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.21 At the end of 1900, the Cerqueira expedition (1900-1905) began work on territorial demarcation after the 1895 arbitration and after discussing the general instructions for astronomical and topographical activities. The expedition was tied directly to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with support from the Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Transportation, and Public Works, especially the Astronomical Observatory of Rio de Janeiro, at the time an institution under this Ministry. From the general instructions, the two countries agreed to delimitate borders, survey the rivers, establish milestones, and produce maps that included these details. The bi-national expedition would have one group of professionals from each nation consisting of two commissioners (plus one helper each), one secretary and one assistant, one physician, and one escort of 20 officers and its commander, as well as masons for building landmarks and artists for drawing maps. Like all fieldwork, planning stage should have considered transportation logistics, personnel, food, instrumentation, and routes, as well as the technical issues of demarcation. Knowledge about the environment was paramount because previous demarcation commissions throughout the eighteenth century had been seriously injured by indigenous attacks, rain, and mist. In this sense, the participation of Dionisio Cerqueira as first commissioner was crucial, as he had worked in the demarcation of the area years before. During commission activities, Cerqueira had a prominent role. Not only had he worked on a previous demarcation, but he had also assisted in preparing the report that was submitted to the Cleveland arbitration in 1895. Cerqueira had received from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs several documents required for the report and he was subsequently able to prepare the team and make requests for scientific instruments such as sextants, theodolites, chronometers, barometers, among others. The phototheodolite was not in the initial list of instruments requested for the demarcation. Among so many problems and details about work at the border, the topographical survey of the Iguaรงu Falls area had apparently been
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left out. Given the difficult access, the previous commissioner (1886-1892), the Baron of Capanema, suggested using the phototheodolite for the aforementioned area. However, the instrument had only been acquired from the Parisian workshop of E. Ducretet and L. Lejeune four years after the end of that expedition, in 1894. Although Dionisio Cerqueira had worked with Capanema on the previous commission and was director of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he admitted in correspondence that he was unaware of the location and operational conditions of the phototheodolite. This fact was responsible for requesting the instrument only in 1903, three years after the beginning of the fieldwork.22 Thus, in March 1903, Cerqueira requested a phototheodolite with 12 dozen photographic plates from the Astronomical Observatory, through Captain Alípio Gama. The instrument arrived in mid-April and was shortly sent to the Falls area, where part of the commission was preparing large stakes, solidly stuck with the numbers of their respective surveying stations, to serve as reference points when performing the photogrammetric survey of the location.23 Photogrammetric work was performed by 2nd commissioner Henrique Morize, astronomer of the Astronomical Observatory. Initially, this job was held by Gabriel Botafogo, Major of the Engineering Corps, who was responsible for the solicitation and listing of most of the scientific instruments used, and who had provided practical topographical training to the subordinate staff before the expedition began. However, Botafogo filed for dismissal and left the commission in September 1901. The first individual nominated to take the position was not Morize, but rather the engineer Herminio Alves. However, due to lack of funds, the expedition kept the position open for the next few months.24 It is unclear how the change in nominating Henrique Morize as second commissioner occurred; it is likely that Captain Alípio Gama proposed his name, as he had previously worked with Morize on the Commission of Exploration of the Brazilian Central Plateau (1892-1893) and on the Study Committee for the New Federal Capital (1894-1895), also in the Brazilian Central Plateau. These expeditions scouted and surveyed the location of the new Brazilian capital (Brasília) by making astronomical, topographic, and weather observations, as well as research studies on the fauna, flora, soil, and water resources.25 Morize not only acted as an astronomer along with Alípio Gama, but he also documented the activities with photographs and conducted the survey of the Pirineus massif (state of Goiás) using the "photogrammetric process with a Colonel Laussedat phototheodolite.”26 Morize was named 2nd commissioner of the Cerqueira commission on 15 March 1902, and came to perform astronomical work at the border in May that same year. A telegram from Cerqueira to the Ministry requesting a phototheodolite is dated 10 March. For the purposes of this paper, it is not important whether Morize himself ordered
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the phototheodolite or whether Cerqueira invited the astronomer to use such a photogrammetric device; what is noteworthy is that due to his professional experience in astronomy, topography, and photography, Henrique Morize was the right person for surveying the region of the Iguaรงu Falls.
Fig. 2 - Photogrammetric image of Iguaรงu Falls from the Commission Atlas of 1905 (Itamaraty Historical Archive).
The use of such an instrument was motivated by the great difficulty in performing topographical work at the rugged terrain of the Iguaรงu base level, combined with the high volume of flowing water and the risk of flooding. According to a letter from Cerqueira to the Baron of Rio Branco, who was also Minister of Foreign Affairs: "This fall is filled with numerous unreachable points and, to perform its topographical survey, I ask Your Honor to send that instrument which is currently in the Astronomical Observatory".27 It also seems that the Argentinean government had great expectations for the demarcation of this location, as Cerqueira perceived through Argentinean newspapers and through conversations with the Argentinean first commissioner. Nonetheless, the survey performed on this stretch of the border presented "excellent conditions for such purpose, as the river is extremely low and allows access to the crest of the falls (...)".28 Interestingly, no citation of data surveyed through photogrammetry by Morize appears in any letters, telegrams, reports, or diaries of the Commission of Border Demarcation currently at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs historical archives.29 Although artists had fallen ill during a great deal of the expedition, it is unclear whether the use of the perspective drawing method was included in the plan. An idea of the type of photogrammetric observation is offered by two texts by Morize: Use of photography in surveying (Emprego da photographia nos
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levantamentos topographicos), published in 1895, and Note on the determination of the focal length to use in photogrammetric surveying (Nota sobre a determinação da distância focal a utilizar nos levantamentos photogrammetricos), published in 1916. The former is a short text advocating the use of photography in topography. It gives us a clear idea of Morize's knowledge about work performed abroad. In the technical description, Morize delves deeply into the use of a panoramic camera in conjunction with a compass within photogrammetry.
Fig. 3 - Photogrammetric plane-projection from Morize's essay of 1916.
The latter text is more complete. It presents deeper insights and practical aspects of the technique, particularly the importance of understanding the focal length of the main lens, which is set by the maker. Such data, if accompanied by angular measurements obtained from the phototheodolite, would enable the estimation of the main distance from the images to the photographic plates. Figure 3 shows how knowledge of the main distance from the 1st plate (OA), the 2nd plate (OB), and the angular measurements between them (V, v and v') can design measures to understand the image of the object MN, of difficult access. Thus, many objects plotted in this manner can produce a topographical drawing of the area. Morize cites some different processes to determine the main distance, present in John Flemer's work (1906) and compared with the process followed by Deville in which it (...) leads to an equation identical to what we have established, but with the disadvantage of only being applicable to plates specially designed to this end, i.e., into
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which crosshairs or other objects of note have been included, with known horizontal angles, which considerably restricts its use.31
It is possible to see from the citation above that Morize pledged in the mathematical aspects of photogrammetry. Even though Morize had collaborated with the preparation and dissemination of a simpler way of obtaining photogrammetric data, his efforts appear to have gone unnoticed in Brazil and abroad. Even without a precise understanding of how it was performed, his efforts resulted in the 1905 map Iguassú Cataracts or Salto Santa Maria (Cataractas do Iguassú ou Salto Santa Maria, scale 1:5,000), which features more than 60 photogrammetric points differentiated with red ink. Although 12 dozen photographic plates had been requested, the map presents vegetative and topographical details in watercolour, framed by 16 photos of the site produced by the phototheodolite. From the 56 maps elaborated by Brazilian and Argentinean commissioners, only this map and corresponding draft were created through the use of photogrammetry. Scientific heritage and the current exhibit at MAST A constant tension between the old and the new often makes us forget our past and our heritage. This tension seems to be more aggravating in scientific areas of knowledge where scientists do not have a concern for the preservation of what we call historical heritage. However, this historical legacy has been preserved in books in libraries, manuscripts in archives, and objects in museums. Research into our historical heritage, as well as into innovative display and communication methods to broad audiences is crucial to its preservation and to our knowledge about the past.32 As said before, the Laussedat phototheodolite is presently in the MAST collection and it has been displayed as part of the temporary exhibition 'Photography: Science and Art' (Fotografia: ciência e arte) since October 2012. This is a reconfiguration of another exhibition organized in 2009 aimed at presenting the use of photography in scientific research, particularly in Astronomy. The instrument is one of the exhibition highlights, displayed as having been used "(...) by the astronomer Henrique Morize during work for the Commission of Border Demarcation between Brazil and Argentina".33 The exhibition is an invitation to reflect upon the role of photography in scientific research, which ultimately influences us in our own reflections about the phototheodolite as a museum object. Alberti provides us with a way of thinking about objects and their history while considering aspects from acquisition to exhibit arrangement through different contexts and changes of value. Although we intended to gaze from the point of view of the object, we are in fact gazing at people, practices and
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34
institutions. Therefore, it is worthwhile to continue the historical sketch of the phototheodolite, from its development to acquisition and eventual museum registry, beginning with its first design by Ducretet. In particular, it is important to examine if the phototheodolite imported by the Casa Lombaerts in 1894 maintained the original characteristics of Laussedat's proposal. The Parisian workshop owned by Eugene Ducretet was established in 1864; initially, it had a few employees. It manufactured a variety of physics apparatuses directed towards research, education and demonstration. Their specialty was scientific instruments for electricity studies, including famous objects invented by Nicola Tesla, and a potent electric power generator used for X-ray apparatuses. The company remained small, with few workers, but it made great contributions to the field of instrumentation, as the case of one of the first phototheodolites illustrates. Between 1892 and 1896, Ducretet initiated a partnership with his son-in-law Leon Lejeune, resulting in the modification of the company name to E. Ducretet et L. Lejeune, which is visible on the phototheodolite.35 In the 1893 catalogue (the only catalogue published during the partnership), the phototheodolite model was numbered 02081 and it cost 1050 francs. The camera obscura for 18 cm x 24 cm photographic plates was entirely made of rigid and light-weight metal, causing its main focal length from the lens to be fixed. The instrument was composed of a horizontal and a vertical circle for angular calculations, an analytical refracting telescope with stadia mark (equivalent to a 1-meter object at a 100-meter distance), an air bubble level, a magnetic tube to observe magnetic declinations, and a Zeiss wideangle lens corrected for optical distortions (anastigmatic), coupled into a structure for vertical movement. This entire system was sealed in two walnut wooden boxes. The purchased instrument by Brazil was the largest and most expensive available, but the workshop also provided other models costing 875 francs (for 13 cm x 18 cm plates) and 850 francs (for 6.5 cm x 9 cm plates). Another option was to acquire a theodolite along with a photogrammeter, thereby separating the phototheodolite functions.36 After its use on the Brazilian Central Plateau and the border with Argentina, the instrument became obsolete in the light of photogrammetric innovations developed by the Brazilian Army and other armies worldwide, especially photogrammetry performed by airplanes.37 Most likely, its fate became being discarded, forgotten, or becoming a museum piece. Incorporation into a museum collection has been the most significant moment in the life of several objects.38 In the case of scientific museums such as MAST, Francesco Panese comments that (...) in scientific museums, obsolete scientific objects are reinvested in new meanings, that is, as witness of a scientific heritage and/or of a historical, social, and cultural understanding of knowledge production.39
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According to Dominique Pestre, the validation of scientific instruments varies across the contexts in which they are put to work.40 In the case of this phototheodolite, the promise was to seek swift cartographic production through photogrammetry, which required the efforts of different actors and their institutions. At first, the instrument was tested for its effectiveness and scientific reliability, confirming its recognition by scientists and technicians. Later, the phototheodolite achieved greater acceptance, as when it was used to map mountainous areas in Canada and in some European countries. In spite of the occasional criticism, the instrument was used satisfactorily. When new technologies surfaced, such as increased stability in balloon flights and later in aircrafts, the phototheodolite headed towards obsolescence. Lastly, it became a visible object of interest to scientific heritage, gaining new meanings for the historical understanding of science and society. By studying the trajectory of the phototheodolite, we are not only expanding our knowledge about the MAST collection, but we are also contributing to the understanding of scientific practice in Brazil. It is important to note that when shedding light upon this object, we can more clearly define the actors, institutions, practices, and this circuit of knowledge in its entirety. For us, reflecting upon the relation of science and territorial conformation is essential to demonstrating how science is a fundamental part of Brazilian history. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq) for an Institutional Training Program (Programa de Capacitação Institucional - PCI) grant awarded to co-author Bruno Capilé. Pleasant conversations in our research group have encouraged and fostered the development of ideas, especially by Bianca Mandarino. We also thank Leda Beck e Meggie Fornazari for the translation work. Lastly, we express appreciation for contributions from our colleagues at the XXXI Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission held in 2012 at MAST, particularly those from Maria Estela Jardim and Paolo Brenni. Notes 1
L. Daston and P. Galison, 'The Image of Objectivity', Representations (1992), 40, 81-128. 2 Daston and Galison, op. cit., 82. 3 D. Pestre, 'Por Uma Nova História Social e Cultural das Ciências: Novas Definições, Novos Objetos, Novas Abordagens', Cadernos IG/UNICAMP (1996), 6, 3-56, p. 26. 4 R. Merton, The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1973. 5 P. Collier, 'The Impact on Topographic Mapping of Developments in Land and Air
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Survey: 1900-1939', Cartography and Geographic Information Science (2002), 29, 155-174. 6 B. Capilé and M. Vergara. 'Circunstâncias da Cartografia no Brasil oitocentista e a necessidade de uma Carta Geral do Império', Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (2012), 5, 37-49. 7 J. Turner, 'Interpreting the History of Scientific Instruments', in Making Instruments Count: Essays on Historical Scientific Instruments Presented to Gerard L'Estrange Turner (eds. R. Anderson, J. Bennett and J. Ryan), Variorum, Hampshire, 1993. 8 J. Flemer, An Elementary Treatise on Phototopographic methods and instruments including a concise review of executed Phototopographic Surveys and of publications on this subject, Chapman & Hall, London, 1906. 9 H. Reed, Photography Applied to Surveying, John Willey & Sons, New York, 1888, 1. 10 See Jardim & Peres in this volume. 11 Reed, op. cit.; Flemer, op. cit.; Collier, op. cit. 12 Ibid. See also A. Biswas and M. Biswas, Laussedat, Aimé. Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902500.html, accessed: 10 January 2013; J. Wilford, The Mapmakers, Vintage Books, New York, 2000. 13 Flemer, op. cit.; Biswas and Biswas, op. cit.. 14 Flemer, op. cit., 7. 15 Collier, op. cit.. 16 Flemer, op. Cit.. 17 H. Williams, 'Science of Iconometry', The Omaha Daily Bee (7 November 1897), 13. 18 E. Deville, Photographic Surveying: Including the Elements of Descriptive Geometry and Perspective, Government Printing Bureau, Ottawa, 1895, vi. 19 Collier, op. cit., 157. 20 Cerqueira not only organized and performed several of the astronomical observations used by the Commission, but he also chaired the Brazilian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, War, and Industry, Transportation, and Public Works. Additionally, he participated in the discussions that led to the establishment of the border through arbitration by U.S. President Grover Cleveland in 1895. 21 Baron of Capanema. Ofícios recebidos do Chefe da Comissão Brasileira de Limites (1886-1892). Historical Archive of Itamaraty, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Box 429, Pack 1, 1887. 22 D. Cerqueira, 'Livro de registro das correspondências recebidas do Ministério das Relações Exteriores', Historical Archive of Itamaraty, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Box 439, Book 2, 1905. 23 D. Cerqueira, 'Diário da Comissão de Limites', Historical Archive of Itamaraty, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Box 437, Book 2, 1905. 24 Cerqueira, 'Livro de registro das correspondências recebidas do Ministério das Relações Exteriores', idem. 25 L. Cruls (org.), Relatório parcial apresentado ao Exm. Sr. Dr. Antônio Olyntho dos Santos Pires, C. Schmidt, Rio de Janeiro,1896. 26 H. Morize, 'Relatório dos trabalhos realisados de Agosto de 1894 a Dezembro de 1895' in Relatório parcial apresentado ao Exm. Sr. Dr. Antônio Olyntho dos Santos
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Pires (org. L. Cruls), C. Schmidt, Rio de Janeiro,1896, A2. 27 Cerqueira, 'Livro de registro das correspondências recebidas do Ministério das Relações Exteriores', idem. 28 Ibidem. 29 Also known as the Itamaraty Historical Archives (Rio de Janeiro). 30 H. Morize, 'Emprego da photographia nos levantamentos topographicos', Revista do Observatório (1891), 6, 52-54. 31 H. Morize, 'Nota sobre a determinação da distância focal a utilizar nos levantamentos photogrammetricos', History of Science Archive of MAST, HM.T.3.002, 6 October 1916, 15. 32 P. Tucci, 'The Role of University Museums and Collections in disseminating scientific culture' Museologia (2002), 2, 17-22. 33 Exposições, http://www.mast.br/abertura_da_exposicao_fotografia_ciencia_e_arte.html, accessed: 17 January 2013. 34 S. Alberti, 'Objects and the Museum', Isis (2005), 96, 559-571. 35 P. Brenni, '19th Century French Scientific Instrument Makers. VIII: Eugène Ducretet (1844-1915)', Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society (1995), 46, 12-14. 36 E. Ducretet and L. Lejeune, 'Catalogue des Instruments de Précision', Paris, 1893. 37 Collier, op. cit.; P. Tavares and P. Fagundes, Fotogrametria, Ed. Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 1990. 38 Alberti, op. cit. 39 F. Panese, 'O significado de expor objetos científicos em museus', in Museus de Ciência e Tecnologia: Interpretações e ações dirigidas ao público (org. M. Valente), MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2007, 31-40, p. 31. 40 Pestre, op. cit.
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The trajectory of chromatography in Brazil: The case of the gas chromatograph ValĂŠria L. de Freitas and Marcio F. Rangel They are no longer the stone, or the stars twinkling in the heavens in their raw state of natural things, not even the other living beings, including those similar, but the devices made technically that cause admiration to swell up and lead to the general reflections intended to explain to man his own reality.1
Introduction Research into objects of science and technology (S&T)2 gained momentum in the late 1970s3 due to a variety of reasons, including a growing awareness – nostalgic, to some extent – to the importance and vulnerability of material culture, which could easily be discarded or destroyed as a result of the advances of modernity. Simultaneously, museums of science reinforced their collection policies and practices in order to catalogue and preserve as many objects for historical documentation and science diffusion as possible. Research and documentation of these museum collections is essential to knowledge, to the preservation and dissemination of S&T objects, as well as the preservation of scientific memory, although those actions were not viewed with enthusiasm by some scientific institutions. In addition, research into historical S&T objects faces multiple challenges, as associated information is often rare and incomplete. Furthermore, there is often a lack of technical knowledge about musealised objects making it hard to understand their use within the scientific production context.
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Perhaps part of the problem derives from the lack of a clear understanding of what can be considered an object of S&T, since the very definition of science and technology is not yet resolved. Another relevant point is related to what may be considered an object. Discussing the meaning of objects, A. Moles explains that, The object is the materialisation of a large number of actions made by mankind and by society and it is framed both by the messages that the social environment sends to individuals and, reciprocally, by messages that Homo faber directs to the global society.4
Thus, every objects/artefact would be a messenger and a historical container. According to Susan Pearce,5 objects incorporate unique information about human nature that can be studied because they are systemic and coherent representations of society through time. Therefore, objects used in scientific practice or studies are kept as witnesses in museums and assume the status of document. The MAST IEN Collection The 'IEN Collection' consists of 304 S&T objects from the Institute of Nuclear Engineering (IEN), Rio de Janeiro.6 They were donated to the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST) in 2003. Their provenance was the IEN Reactor Department, Physical Department, Chemistry Department, among others, and they encompass scales, voltmeters, lenses, pH-meters, and cameras from the 1970s and 1980s. A few objects from the 1960s can also be found. The group reflected what was state of the art in Brazil in terms of scientific instruments for the production of short-lived radioisotopes, nuclear data and the development and manufacture of instrumentation in the nuclear field. Many of the objects used in the IEN facilities were of foreign provenance, yet some had technologies developed in Brazil or imported components.8 In our preliminary collection research, three instruments developed in Brazil drew our attention: a gas chromatograph model 37D,9 a linear temperature programmer model 23, and a pressure regulator made in the late 1970s and early 1980s by C.G. Scientific Instruments Limited. This company was created and directed by RĂŞmolo Ciola (1923-2010) and Ivo Gregori10 between 1961 and 1997. Later, we would also include in the study a power source manufactured in IEN's workshops to replace the chromatograph's original batteries, which discharged too rapidly.
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Fig. 1 - Gas chromatograph with pressure regulator (photo MAST archives).
Fig. 2 - Linear temperature programmer (photo MAST archives).
Fig. 3 - Power source manufactured in IEN workshops (photo MAST archives).
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The process of musealization of IEN objects began in 2002, although the donation only took place in 2003. It can be interpreted as an effort by the Department of Museology from MAST (Coordenação de Museologia) for institutional consolidation as a result of internal and external crises that occurred during the second government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (19992002), which could have led to the closure of the institution. The incorporation of the IEN Collection can also be explained through an expansion of MAST identity and collection scope, until then restricted to objects from the National Observatory (Observatório Nacional, ON).11 The first step was a temporary exhibition developed in partnership between MAST and the IEN, 'Nuclear Engineering Institute: IEN 40 years (1962-2002)'. A year later, another temporary exhibition, 'Historical Background of Nuclear Engineering in Brazil (1950-1980)' provided contacts with other institutes of recent S&T in Brazil; eventually some would donate objects to the MAST e.g. the Centre of Mineral Technology (Centro de Tecnologia Mineral, CETEM), the Brazilian Centre for Physics Research (Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, CBPF), the Electronuclear/Nuclear Industries (Eletro Nuclear, Industrias Nucleares, INB Caetité) and the Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research (Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares, IPEN). Early stages of chromatography in Brazil Brazilian industrialization is still a matter of debate among the social sciences. For many specialists, industrialization began in the nineteenth century as a result of the agricultural exporting coffee industry. Other authors indicate the 1930s as the time when nationalism12 would influence Brazilian technical and industrial development, for instance with the birth of the oil industry, the creation of the National Petroleum Council in 1938 and also Petrobras in 1953. According to Mendonça,13 the 1930s produced great accumulation of capital, since Brazil became a nucleus of industrial production. Moreover, Brazil stimulated a new vision of economic participation of the State in view of the need to bridge the gap to the major powers. The government of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1944) implemented a wide range of measures that would pave the way for the development of new industries in steel, metallurgy, petrochemical and cement, perceived as means to legitimize the State. However, in the official discourse, reasons provided for the development of industry were the solution of Brazil's social problems thus enabling identification between different social groups and the State. Mendonça reminds us that the accelerated industrialization observed during this period was also “the result of the scarcity of international resources” after the 1929 crisis.14 One of the first steps for the expansion of the petrochemical industry in Brazil was the construction of the first oil refinery, Presidente Bernardes
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Refinery in Cubatão, under the responsibility of the National Petroleum Council (NPC). The refinery would be an anchor for the essential implementation of other petrochemical industries for the production of oil-derived products. The project would be initiated in 1949 and completed in 1955. In 1954, the country's first private refinery, Refinery Union S/A, would be born in São Paulo. It was created by the entrepreneur Alberto Soares Sampaio and became the first plant of the petrochemical complex Grand ABC Centre. In 1966, the plant integrated the Centre of Raw Materials Petrochemical (Petrochemical Union) in Capuava, São Paulo.15 This infrastructure will provide the industrial scenario for the development of chromatography. In Latin America, chromatography begins in the 1950s with the pioneering work of Rêmolo Ciola, who greatly contributed to the development of gas chromatography (GC) and catalysis, important for the analysis of organic compounds in the petrochemical industry. Rêmolo Ciola was born in the province of Trento, Italy, on 17 June 1923. He arrived in Brazil as a child. Later, he would become a Brazilian citizen, benefitting from immigration laws during the Vargas government. In 1948, Ciola graduated in chemistry at the University of São Paulo (USP). In 1958, he obtained a Masters from Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, supervised by Robert L. Burwell. In 1961, he completed his Ph.D. at the USP, supervised by Heinrich Rheinboldt. Ciola developed the first prototype of a chromatographic column between 1951 and 1958 while he was an assistant professor of chemistry at the Institute of Aeronautical Technology (ITA) in São José dos Campos, near São Paulo.16 In the words of Ivo Gregori, Ciola's nephew, the column was an instrument “with platinum wire drawn like the diameter of a human hair, properly wrapped and mounted on a block of steel”.17 Ciola would describe the episode in 2002:18 How to build a chromatograph at that time without material resources and without consultants? Strange questions arise!!! Which column? What is even a column? The fractional distillation and hence what!!! Which stationary phase? What is even SP [stationary phase]? What does it do? And for the mobile phase, which gases do we have? Thermal conductivity of gases. Does this exist? The lamp said yes!19
The adventure that led to the construction of the first chromatographic column in Brazil still had had to face challenges such as “how to control the pressure of the carrier gas”? The answer would be “a gas canister, a mercury column and a magnetic valve”.20 The detector would have a much more artisanal aspect; the best known 'recipe' was to use a 0.05 mm diameter platinum wire, but this could not be found in Brazil. The solution was to conduct
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a thorough search until Ciola discovered that a “Mr. Manuel, on the first floor of Martinelli [Martinelli is a building in São Paulo] could undertake a “trefila” that could reach this value [0.5 mm diameter]”. How could one make trefila this thin without mechanical assistance? The attempt seemed impossible for the owner of the company, but after a while, Ciola said, “we got 5 feet of wire at 0.05 mm! He [Mr. Manuel] had fun for a few hours, and did not charge!”21 The first chromatograph column would consist of a glass tube 5 cm in diameter, inclined at about 45° and connected to the boiling solvent at one end and to a condenser at the other. This column was sealed with cork. Stationary phase was provided by silicone over celite 545. The solvent was acetate or another product. The column temperature was constant and the connections were of spherical joints. The detector was a 20 cm straight wire inside a steel tube. Power was provided by a battery plane. The zero adjustment was done with a potentiometer from a radio of an old plane with twenty laps and exposed.22
The entrepreneurial dimension of Ciola's personality was evident even before his doctorate. In 1951, he had become professor at ITA and scientific director of the Centre for Research and Exploration of the Refinery Union S/A.23 In 1958, working in the Refinery Union, Ciola developed a chromatograph project with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) heated to 300°C. He used the same 0.05 mm platinum wire that he had used in the 1954 experiment. Shortly after, Rêmolo would continue his work with “smaller chromatographs with thermostats for columns [packaged] up to 10 meters, temperature programming systems with pipes and a variable aperture job integrator ball and disc”.24 During his period at the Refinery Union S/A, Ciola also developed other types of chromatographs, for example a gas chromatograph to be combined with catalytic reactors. Know-how acquired in the production of this column and also other chromatographs for Refinery Union and Rhodia, enabled Ciola, together with Ivo Gregori, to create the company Instrumentos Científicos C. G. Ltda. in 1961 (C stands for Ciola and G for Gregori). Ciola was the chemist and inventor and Gregori played the role of electronics and mechanic expert. According to Gregori, the company aimed at building gas chromatographs for universities and chemical laboratories. In his words, “gas cromatographs were needed in every chemical laboratory, reducing time involved in chemical analysis and providing greater accuracy, reliability and comfort in the results”.25 Initially, the company was located in Ciola's own garage in São José dos Campos and management was shared between both partners. Ciola provided training courses and Gregori installed the chromatography equipment in laboratories.
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The company encountered difficulties in the early years, particularly the lack of special parts for the manufacture of instruments. Gregori states that “In practice, we had to develop everything. Everything that was specific and used to manufacture the chromatograph valves, keepers, chromatographic columns, etc.”.26 Their catalogue from the 1980s indicates: C. G. Ltda., a totally Brazilian organization, using only Brazilian technical knowledge and developed by their scientists, engineers and technicians, present their new chromatographs models that are characterized by being: fully Brazilian; robust [...].27
Gregori's comment, combined with the catalogue paragraph, brings to evidence and partly explains the nationalist character that the company would acquire during the Brazilian Military Regime (1964-1985). It also demonstrates the importance of the discourse, mainstream in that period, that combined technical knowledge and the greatness of the country. In 1962 and 1963, Ciola's chromatography innovations caught the attention of many academics and laboratory directors. Increase in demand for instruments from Rhodia, the University of São Paulo, the Refinery Union and other university laboratories, resulted in the need to increase production and move to larger facilities. The move occurred in 1964 and it was complemented with the recruitment of another mechanic for the construction of the instruments, under Gregori's supervision. A remarkable and interesting design characteristic of instruments made by C. G. Ltda. was colour. Each series of instruments was painted in a different vivid colour blue, grey, orange to enable distinction from competitive products. Orange was used in instruments manufactured in the 1970s. The MAST gas chromatograph is beige, a colour typical of the early 1980s, when it began to have some sort of standardized instruments in general. Competition by foreign manufacturers was a challenge throughout the company's existence, but it became particularly acute in its later years. Radler28 and Souza29 explain that, with time, chromatographs from C.G. Ltda failed to meet standards of internal demand because, although robust, they could not perform finer analyses and were gradually replaced by foreign brands. Solutions to 'outmanoeuvre' competition included the assembly in Brazil of imported products and the adaptation of imported equipment into some form of national instrument manufacturing. According to Bravo,30 in the late 1970s and the 1980s, C. G. Ltda. mounted many chromatographers from parts provided by other manufacturers or incorporated imported equipment into their models to make them more flexible and reliable. Even in the latter case, imported equipment had to be evaluated by a state technical committee, which
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approved import or not. Many technicians attribute this technological gap, among other things to the industrial protectionism that settled in the country during the military dictatorship of 1964-1985. In regards to science and technology, protectionism culminated in the first National Computing Policy (Law 7232), approved by National Congress on 29 October 1984. It established a period of eight years to stimulate industry development in informatics by creating a market reserve for national companies. Through this policy, both the government and the private sector would invest in human resources training leading to technology transfer in microelectronics, hardware construction, basic software development and support, among others. The policy also encompassed scientific instruments with electronic components, such as chromatographs and integrators/registers. Most technicians seem to agree that although the purpose was to promote the development of domestic technologies, the law made it unviable to develop and exchange technologies fundamental to science. Moreover, the law provided countless ways to circumvent it, encouraging piracy of computer products. Radler explains:31 The attempt to protect the market for scientific equipment and computers was a mistake in my view. It delayed the development of informatics, which was essential to the country's own development of Gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS). Chromatographs made under market protection brought no effective contribution to local production and the only manufacturer at the time with great merit of having been a pioneer in Brazil [RĂŞmolo Ciola, USP and CG Scientific Instruments] did not have time to catch up technologically. So with the fall of market protection, resistance stopped and Brazilian manufacturing closed.
Since the 1970s, C. G. Ltda. tried to overcome the crisis by manufacturing other models of chromatographs and associated instruments, such as liquid and liquid-gas chromatographs, thus generating an expansion and diversification of its product line. During this decade, the company manufactured over 1,000 gas chromatographs for major Brazilian chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries, some still operating today. It was at this time that the Department of Physics of IEN responsible for the production of radioisotopes and headed at the time by Arthur Gerbasi acquired the model that is now in the MAST collection. The business had its climax in the early 1980s, with a second facilities expansion, giving the company an increased scale, a diversification of its products line and increasing productivity. C. G. Ltda. reached its production peak in 1982.32 In the remaining years of the 1980s, problems with foreign competition
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mentioned before, divergences between partners and the successive economic crises that occurred in Brazil in the 1980s, destabilized the Ciola and Gregori partnership. Moreover, the neoliberal government of President Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992) opened the market for imported products and competition became unsustainable. C.G. Ltda was discontinued in 1997. After that, former C.G. Ltda employees founded the Analytical Company, also based in São Paulo. It currently sells and provides technical assistance in the area of chemistry and chromatography analysis. In 1999, Rêmolo Ciola would create CROMACOM, a company that would continue to fabricate chromatographs and provide technical assistance until his death on 29 July 2010. Ivo Gregori also established a chemicals company targeting the pharmaceutical industry, CGS Analytical Instrumentation Ltda, still operating today. Concluding remarks In this study, our goal was to analyse the importance of research on musealized objects of S&T, reinforcing their role as sources for knowledge in the social practices of science. S&T objects can be viewed as documents and, as such, they are important vehicles for the dissemination of scientific knowledge on practices and science itself. In recent years, study of S&T objects has been increasing thanks to the theoretical framework offered by material culture studies. These methodological tools have resulted into new perspectives and insights into the biography of scientific instruments and also into the social context of material and scientific knowledge production. In Brazil, the appreciation and preservation of objects of C & T received greater interest from the 2000s onwards. Awareness and mobilization began in some scientific circles for the preservation of professional memory. Aiming to meet these new demands, the MAST and Nuclear Engineering Institute (IEN) began a partnership in 2002, which would generate a donation of more than 300 objects. As a result, new contacts were made and different research and collections documentation projects at national level emerged. The study of the IEN collection led us to identify a group of objects – one, in particular – that stood out because of their domestic manufacture and contemporary nature. The search for information resulted in new perspectives on its creator, scientist Rêmolo Ciola and the history of chromatography in Brazil. Research developed by Ciola in the 1950s and the development of the first chromatographic column in Latin America would stand out as pioneering33 and innovative. These characteristics are related to the need for equipment with advanced technology, something the country has not had due to outdate
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technology in relation to developed countries. Born as an 'improvisation', Brazilian chromatography would quickly become associated with the development of the petrochemical industry. The first chromatograph developed by Rêmolo Ciola in 1954 at the laboratories of ITA would encapsulate the close relationship between the oil industry and chromatography in Brazil, later stimulating the establishment of the first manufacturing company of chromatographs of the country, the Instrumentos Científicos C.G Ltda. in 1961. The company, established by Ciola and his nephew Ivo Gregori faced challenges because it lacked raw materials. At first, staff did practically everything from the marketing of the new technique to the manufacture and product installation. The company had a nationalist character. The work of Ciola pioneered the dissemination of chromatography in Brazil and in Latin America and it was also responsible for the training of many technicians. Even under the military regime's protectionism, C. G Ltda. suffered from competition from foreign products, which technicians gradually tended to prefer. This created numerous problems that were bypassed by adapting C. G Ltda. the new demands of the domestic market until the early 1980s, when the company reached its peak. However, the National Policy on Informatics, designed to protect and encourage national production and innovation, resulted in major challenges, as it did not favour efficient exchanges of technology necessary for this kind of development. In this work we have tried to encourage museum professionals to reflect on the musealization of science and technology objects in the contemporary world, as well as draw attention to the value of preserving and studying these collections as a source for understanding the processes involving scientific practices and their historical contexts. Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for funding this research. Notes 1 A. V. Pinto, The Concept of Technology, 2 vols., Contratempo, Rio de Janeiro, 2008, p. 224. 2 In this text, we will use the term S&T objects as synonym for 'scientific instruments', although conceptually they are not. The concept of 'S&T objects' is broader, as it comprehends demonstration objects, reference objects, machines, utensils and scientific instruments. 3 P. Brenni, 'Trinta anos de atividades: instrumentos científicos de interesse histórico', in A. M. Ribeiro, Caminhos para as estrelas: reflexões sobre um museu, MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2007, p. 162. 4 A. A. Moles. A Teoria dos Objetos, Tempo Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, 1981, p. 11. 5 In this paper, we also use the term 'object' as a synonym for 'artifact', although there
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are conceptual differences. Susan Pearce defines artifact as man-made objects. Objects are made in relation to man and in theory should answer questions such as: why, how, when, where, and by whom? S. M. Pearce. Pensando sobre o objeto. In M. Granato, C. P. Santos, M.L. N. Loureiro. (Org.). Museus Instituições de Pesquisa, MAST, Rio de Janeiro, MAST, 2005, p. 14. 6 The IEN is an institute of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. It was created in 1962 by a group of technical experts as a research unit of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy (CNEN) and initially it was to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). However, it would only operate until 1963. 7 A radioactive isotope is characterized by having an unstable atomic nucleus that sends energy when it is transformed into a more stable isotope. The energy can be liberated in alpha, beta or gamma radiation and is detected by a Geiger counter or a photographic film. 8 Interview with Luiz Bravo, 16 November 2010. Bravo is a chemist with training in instrumental analysis. He worked for the Scientific Instruments C. G. Ltda. in the 1980s and 1990s. 9 According to the catalogue, the gas chromatograph model, 37-S is "a precision instrument for research of analytical processes, chemical research, industrial analyzes routine" (CG Scientific Instruments Ltd., 1987, p.1). It was widely used in the chemical and petrochemical industries, e.g. solvents, essential oils and perfumes. Depending on research results, it could be used in association with different instruments. 10 Ivo Gregori was Rêmolo Ciola's nephew and he graduated in Electronic Engineering at the Institute of Aeronautical Technology (ITA) in São José dos Campos in 1960. 11 Initiatives developed by the Department of Museology (MAST) include projects submitted to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the Ministry of Science and Technology for the promotion of scientific memory. Most projects aimed at raising awareness towards the importance of preserving collections of historical objects of Science and Technology, especially those under threat in scientific laboratories. 12 S. R. Mendonça, Estado e Economia no Brasil: opção de desenvolvimento, Grall, Rio de Janeiro, 1987, p. 40. 13 Idem. 14 Ibid.. 15 E. M. Torres, 'A evolução da indústria petroquímica brasileira', Química Nova (1997), 20, 49-50. 16 L. Bravo, S. Pisani, 'Rêmolo Ciola, uma mente inventiva, um verdadeiro pioneiro', in Simpósio do SIMCRO, Campos do Jordão, Brasil, 2010, p. 2. 17 Idem. 18 Ibid.. 19 Rêmolo Ciola apud . Bravo, Pisani, 2010, p. 1. 20 L. Bravo, S. Pisani, op. cit., 2010, p. 2. 21 Idem. 22 Rêmolo Ciola apud. Bravo, Pisani, 2010, p. 2. 23 Idem.
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24
Ibid.. F. M. Lanรงas, 'Development of chromatography in Latin American', Journal of Chromatography Library (2001), 64, 659-664, p. 666. 26 Interview by email, 16 May 2010. 27 Scientific Instruments CG Ltda., catalogue CG - Series 30: 2. 28 F. Radler Neto is a professor, director of the Institute of Chemistry (IQ) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He started his work with the Chromatography Molecular Organic Geochemistry. In 1982, he participated in the creation of the Laboratory Preparation and Chromatography Columns ((LPCC) that allowed in the 1980s the transfer to Brazil of newly implanted High Resolution Gas Chromatography (HRGC). 29 A. S. F.de Souza is an employee of IEN. He worked in the Division of Physics in the early 1980s and he used the chromatograph. He is currently a doctoral student in Chemistry (Federal University Fluminense, UFF). Interview, 14 September 2011 to Valeria Leite de Freitas. 30 Interview with Luis Bravo, 16 November 2010. 31 Interview by email, 25 August 2011. 32 Interview by email, 16 May 2010. 33 F. M. Lanรงas, op. cit., p. 666. 25
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Introduction During the late nineteenth century, immigration to Brazil increased, especially amongst those who came to work in the coffee plantations of São Paulo State. Many ships came from Europe to the Santos harbor, in the São Paulo coast, with European passengers willing to find work and a place to live in Brazil. Resulting population growth demanded attention to public health, particularly diseases such as malaria, yellow fever and bubonic fever. Some cases of the latter were identified in the end of the nineteenth century in the city of Santos, pushing the São Paulo State Government to create public health structures. The recent Brazilian Republican system1 gave more autonomy to the States. São Paulo would produce its own vaccines and serum without the help from the federal government or foreign countries. The Instituto Serumtherapico in Butantan was officially created in February 19012 by the São Paulo Government. It was installed in a farm purposefully acquired, at the time far from the city center. A similar initiative was taken by the Federal Government through the creation of the Instituto Manguinhos (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz- Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro, then Brazil's capital.3 In 1901, Butantan began producing anti-plague sera and anti-venoms for the treatment of poisonous snakebites. Vital Brazil (1865-1950), the first Butantan director, had a special interest in poisonous animals that provoked accidents in humans, as well as possible treatments for their venoms.
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Nowadays, the Instituto Butantan is an important research center in immunology, toxinology, genetics and other fields of the biomedical sciences; it also produces immunoglobulins and vaccines (biological products) for public health. Moreover, it offers cultural and educational activities. Three museums have opened in different periods and offer exhibitions and other cultural and educational activities to broader audiences: the Biology Museum, the History Museum and the Microbiology Museum. The History Museum was created in 1981 to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Instituto Butantan. It aimed at preserving and disseminating Butantan's history in the context of the history of the biological sciences and health. The long-term exhibition presents scientific instruments from different periods of the twentieth century, laboratory and office furniture, equipment and other artefacts related to Butantan activities. Among the collection of scientific instruments, an electron microscope Siemens UM1000 initially with apparent scarce information is particularly interesting. In this paper recent research results about this microscope will be presented, combined with a discussion of the many questions that remain unanswered. Brazilian science institutions Important Brazilian research centers created in the nineteenth century, such as the Museu Nacional (1818), the Museu Paranaense Emílio Goeldi (1866) and the Museu Paulista (1895) had many Europeans in their management and staff. For example, Swiss zoologist Emilio Goeldi (18591917) directed the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi between 1894 and 1907. The German zoologist Hermann von Ihering (1850-1930) was the director of Museu Paulista from 1895 to 1916.4 Adolfo Lutz (1855-1940), a Brazilian who had studied Medicine in Switzerland was the health coordinator in São Paulo when the Instituto Butantan was created. The first director of the Instituto Manguinhos was Oswaldo Cruz (1872-1917), who had returned to Brazil after an internship at the Institute Pasteur, in France. Brazilian health research institutions such as Instituto Butantan and Instituto Manguinhos were founded in the beginning of the twentieth century. In terms of research development, Brazilian universities were decades behind these institutes. The deliberate strategy regarding foreign countries aimed at improving the quality of science and health research, namely to bring specialists from Europe and North America to train Brazilian researchers, recruit them to Brazilian institutions or send Brazilians to study and have practical experiences abroad. In the professional lives of most well-known Brazilian scientists of the twentieth century there is always a common event: they had part of their university formation and/or practical experience in a foreign university or
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5
research institution. It is not surprising to learn that until the second half of that century, there were no post-graduation courses in Brazil.6 According to Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos, a distinguished researcher in nuclear physics, fellowships before the creation of the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq)7 were provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the British Council.8 Shozo Motoyama emphasizes the importance of training in international research centers to the development of nuclear physics in Brazil: As it is possible to see, the FFCLUSP [Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of São Paulo] substantially contributed to elevate Brazilian Physics into an international level. Among the factors responsible (…) it should be mentioned the facility that their members had to internship in the most well-known centers of the world.9
The Rockefeller Foundation played an important role in the development of academic science in Brazil, especially in health related areas. For example, the Foundation provided the Faculty of Medicine in São Paulo a considerable sum – c. one million dollars between 1916 and 1931 – in order to transform it in a model medicine school for Latin America.10 In the post Second World War years, the United States of America intensified efforts to have their influence over South American countries in a wide diversity of areas, from culture to education, science and industry. Financial support for scientific instruments, fellowships and travel grants were strategic to the scientific model to be adopted in Brazil. Newly born electron microscopy was one of the fields supported by the Rockefeller Foundation in Brazil and in other countries.11 The electron microscope Electron microscopy was first described in Germany in the 1930s. The development of the electron microscope was applied with biological aims and the preparation of biological tissues (cutting and fixation). In 1940, the first images of bacteriophages were made by Helmut Ruska (1908-1973), with a 10,000 x amplified image. Helmut was the brother of Ernst Ruska, who developed the first electron microscope with the support of Siemens and later, in 1986, won the Nobel Prize in Physics. By February 1945, more than 30 electron microscopes had been built in Berlin and were delivered. Thus, independent representatives of various medical and biological disciplines could now also form their own opinions about the future prospects of electron microscopy. The choice of specimens was still limited though, since sufficiently thin sections were not yet available.12
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Production at industrial scale was achieved after the Second World War. In addition, better ultramicrotomes and fixation techniques enabled the development of virology and cellular biology. The possibility to visualize cell organelles and viruses impacted biological knowledge and allowed great developments in the comprehension of cell structures, diseases caused by microorganisms and other biomedicine fields. In North America, the electron microscope (EM) was first developed in the late 1930s at Washington State University (United States of America) and the University of Toronto (Canada). The Washington microscope was completed in 1936. It was constructed by Paul Anderson and Kenneth Fitzsimmons but resolution did not exceed that of the light microscope. The Toronto microscope was initially developed by Cecil E. Hall,13 followed by James Hillier and Albert Prebus in 1938, coordinated by E.F. Burton. Hillier and Prebus were succeeded by William Ladd and John H.L. Watson, who in 1939 refined the EM to a resolution matching the performance of German electron microscopes.14 In 1940, Hillier was hired by Alexander Zworykin (a pioneer in the development of television) and he designed highly successful electron microscopes for RCA (Radio Corporation of America).15 Electron microscopy in Brazil The first electron microscopes to be used in Brazil were by RCA and they were acquired in 1947. Two of them went to São Paulo: one at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo and the other at the School of Medicine of the Fundação Andrea e Virginia Matarazzo. Other RCA electron microscopes were installed at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz and the Police Laboratory, both in Rio de Janeiro. Still in 1947, a course on Electron Microscopy was offered by the Police Lab and the National University (Universidade do Brasil).16 Carlos Chagas Filho (1910-2000), a Brazilian physician who coordinated the biological area of CNPq and the Laboratory of Biophysics at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), stated that there were a few RCA electron microscopes in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the 1940s, but their performance was not satisfactory: they were obsolete and operating in constant voltage.17 In 1951, the Biophysics Institute of the National University bought a Philips EM-100 with the intervention of Carlos Chagas Filho and the support of CNPq. In order to operate this microscope, in 1949 Hertha Meyer stayed for 10 months in Canada and USA. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, she visited laboratories and received training in microscopes and tissue culture. The first electron microscope of Instituto Butantan The electron microscope on display at the History Museum of the Instituto Butantan was acquired in 1952 by its director Aristides Vallejo-Freire with the support of CNPq. It was the first Siemens electron microscope to arrive
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18
in Brazil and it was located at the Virus and Virology Section. Carlos Chagas Filho described: Later, when I was in the Council [CNPq], an electron microscope was bought for the Escola PolitĂŠcnica of SĂŁo Paulo and it was operated for technological issues. Then there was a request for a microscope for Butantan. Some of the Council members thought that it would be a duplication and it was quite difficult for me to buy this microscope to Butantan where it served very well in the virus department.19
Fig. 1 - The Siemens UM 1000 electron microscope at the History Museum of Instituto Butantan (Photo by Camilla Carvalho).
CNPq provided training courses on the operation of electron microscopes to Brazilian scientists. In 1952, there was a seminar in Rio de Janeiro about new technologies in biology research and one of the main themes was electron microscopy. Cecil Hall, president of the North American Society of Microscopy and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Albert Frey-Wyssling, from the Zurich Institute of Technology, gave lectures on electron microscopy to Brazilian scientists.20
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Helmut Ruska in São Paulo In 1953, Helmut Ruska came to the Instituto Butantan to train EM operators and researchers. As said above, he was the brother of Ernst Ruska, the designer of the first Siemens electron microscope; his biomedical knowledge was important to the development of the electron microscope in Germany. In 1939, the Archiv für die gesamte Virusforschung (now Archives of Virology), the first international journal of virology, was founded. In the opening volume (completed in 1940), there was an article on the significance of 'ultramicroscopy' in the evaluation of the nature of viruses by a young trainee in internal medicine, Helmut Ruska (1908-73). The paper was written with his brother, Ernst Ruska (1906-88), and his brother-in-law Bodo von Borries (1905-56). Ernst Ruska received the Nobel Prize in 1986 for “his fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope”, 13 years after Helmut's death. Helmut Ruska is little known now, yet he played an integral and important part during the early development of electron microscopy. Through his interest in the specimen preparation and application of the electron microscope to problems in bioscience, he became a major driving force in the development of this new instrument into 21 a tool that became essential to the biomedical sciences.
From 1952 to 1958, Helmut Ruska headed the Department of Micromorphology of New York State Department of Health in Albany. It was while there that he came to Brazil for three months to give training to Brazilian researchers at the Instituto Butantan. Course about electron microscopy. Professor Dr. Helmut Ruska, with the support of Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas [CNPq], was hired to stay at the Instituto Butantan for three months to give an intensive and specialized course on Electron Microscopy and to train staff both in the operation of the electron microscope and in the techniques of ultrathin sections of biological tissues. Professors and researchers from the main scientific institutions of São Paulo attended the course.22
Helmut Ruska published papers in collaboration with Brazilian scientists. For example, in 1955, he published an article about chloroplasts structures with researchers from the University of São Paulo Mercedes Rachid Edwards, Leopoldo Magno Coutinho and George Alfred Edwards having provided as affiliation both the New York State Health Department and the Seção de Virus [Virology Section], Instituto Butantan, São Paulo.23 In 1956, Ruska published with George Edwards (University of São Paulo), Pérsio Souza Santos and
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Aristides Vallejo-Freire (Instituto Butantan) an article about comparative cytophysiology using a “Siemens 100b, electron microscope at original magnificence of 970 to 10,000 at 60 to 80 kv”.24 The use of electron microscope in Butantan research Some Brazilian scientists went to North American institutions to learn how to use electron microscopes with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. That was the case of engineer Pérsio de Souza Santos and his wife Helena Lopes Souza Santos who went to the United States in 1954.25 Both attended courses at the University of Pittsburgh and obtained Master degrees in Biophysics in 1956 under the supervision of Max A. Lauffer.26 Among the main activities, the mission of Dr. Pérsio de Souza Santos to the United States should be mentioned. There, thanks to a fellowship given by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas [CNPq], he is doing a specialization in Physical Chemistry applied to virus studies with prof. Max Lauffer at the University of Pittsburgh. In the beginning of the year, for three months, Prof. Helmut Ruska stayed [at the Butantan] with the support of the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas to give an intensive and specialized course on Electron Microscopy and to train technical staff to use the microscope and to prepare ultrathin tissue sections. This course was attended by our own staff [Instituto Butantan] […] and by professors and researchers from the main scientific institutions of this State [São Paulo] and the Federal Capital [Rio de Janeiro].27
Pérsio de Souza Santos worked at the Instituto Butantan and published papers as a single author and in collaboration with other Butantan researchers. He then went to the University of São Paulo and developed studies on the microscopy of materials (ceramics) at the Polytechnic School. The Siemens UM1000 was installed in the Virus Section of Instituto Butantan and its use seems to have been significant. The Butantan 1953 annual report states that: “3,480 micrographs, c. 10,000 copies and 300 enlargements for publication were obtained”.28 A considerable number of papers were published by researchers from Butantan and from other research institutions using the Siemens microscope (model Um1000).29 In the Memórias do Instituto Butantan (1954), Pérsio Souza Santos, Aristides Vallejo-Freire (both from the Virus Section of Instituto Butantan), Alphonse Hoge (Ophiology Section of Instituto Butantan), George Edwards, Helena Souza Santos and Paulo Sawaya (all from the University of São Paulo) published a study about reptilian striated muscles based on observations “with the RCA, type EMU, and
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the Siemens, type UM 100b, electron microscopes at initial magnifications of 1300, 3300, and 6200 X at 40-60 KV”.30 Eight images from the study were published and one is depicted in Figure 2.
Fig. 2 - Electron micrograph of isolated fibril, in full contraction, from external oblique muscle of caiman (original 1954 caption).
Another scientist connected to the Instituto Butantan's first electron microscope was Juan José Angulo. Angulo was a Cuban researcher with previous experience with the electron microscope at the Department of Experimental Pathology of the University of Havana.31 At the Instituto Butantan, he worked in the Virology Section as a technician and later as a physician. Articles published by Juan José Angulo as an Instituto Butantan researcher were related to virology but not necessarily to electron microscopy.32 In 1954, he was transferred to the Instituto Adolfo Lutz33 where he developed research on smallpox and coordinated the Pathology Department. In 1961, Instituto Butantan bought its second electron microscope, a Siemens Elmiskop I. In the early 1980s a third one was acquired, a Zeiss EM 109 for the Genetics Department. The Siemens UM1000 continued in use until 1984, when it integrated the historical collection. As said before, it is now part of the exhibition of the History Museum of the Instituto. Final remarks The Butantan first electron microscope is a transmission electron microscope (TEM) made mostly of metal. Similarly to other TEM it was operated with a vacuum pump that controlled and conducted the electron beam through the column. The sample was inserted in the chamber located at the upper part of the column (number 1, Fig. 1) just below the electron gun and the
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condenser lens. The image produced by the electron beam passing though the electromagnetic lenses could be seem at the fluorescent screen at point 2 (Fig. 1) of the column. It was also possible to take photographs with the camera in the lower part of the column (number 3, Fig. 1). The operator, seated on a small bench, controlled the voltage, the column position and the lenses conditions using the buttons of the command panel. The Siemens UM 1000 was very similar to the Siemens Elmiskop 1 in appearance, but the latter had two condensers. Research on the Siemens electron microscope of the History Museum is only just beginning. There are several unanswered questions about its role and importance to the Butantan research and the development of virology and cellular biology in general. Moreover, the roles of the researchers through time also need to be studied in greater depth. However, in this brief research it was possible to confirm the importance of relations between Brazilian scientists and North American and European scientific institutions, mainly promoted by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq). An intense exchange is documented in collaborative research work and papers, in travel grants received by Brazilians to study and work in the USA and in grants provided to foreigners to teach and train Brazilian scientists. However, the intensity of the exchanges is not exclusive to the biomedical sciences and the influence of USA's science in Brazil extends to other fields. The electron microscope is a scientific instrument that allows scientists to visualize biological structures previously described by indirect studies and to penetrate in multiple new elements of the microscopic world. Testimonies about the first instruments that came to Brazil indicate that some of them were already outdated models, and the lack of trained personnel was evident. These aspects are also worth exploring in further research as they seem to be a recurring problem in Brazilian science. Acknowledgements I am grateful to Fan Hui Wen for the encouragement and for reading an earlier version of the manuscript. I am also grateful to Carlos Jared for his introductory lessons on electron microscopy and to Renato Mortara for reading and providing fruitful suggestions. Notes 1
Brazil became a republic in 1889. Decreto N. 878-A, de 23.02.1901, http://www.al.sp.gov.br/repositorio/legislacao/decreto/1901/decreto%20n.878A,%20de%2023.02.1901.htm, accessed: 13 February 2013. 3 J. L. Benchimol and L.A. Teixeira, Cobras, lagartos & outros bichos: uma hist贸ria comparada dos institutos Oswaldo Cruz e Butantan, Editora da UFRJ, Rio de 2
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Janeiro, 1993, 13-14. 4 M. M. Lopes, O Brasil Descobre a Pesquisa Cientifica: Os Museus e as Ciências Naturais no Século XIX, Hucitec, São Paulo, 1997. 5 E. Candotti (coord.), Cientistas do Brasil: Depoimentos, Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, São Paulo, 1998. See also M. G. M. C. Marinho, 'A Universidade de São Paulo e a Fundação Rockefeller. Elementos para análise da constituição de políticas de ciência e tecnologia no Brasil (1948-1968)', Revista Congreso Universidad (2012), 1 (1), 3. 6 C. M. dos Santos, 'Tradição e Contradição da Pós-Graduação no Brasil', Educação & Sociedade (2003), 24 (83), 627-641. 7 CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas) is the main research-funding agency in Brazil. It was created in 1951. Initially, CNPq had a focus on atomic energy but quickly expanded to other scientific and technological areas. See S. Motoyama (org.), 50 Anos do CNPq contados pelos seus presidentes, FAPESP, São Paulo, 2002. 8 Candotti, op. cit., 520-1. 9 M. G. Ferri and S. Motoyama (coord.), História das Ciências no Brasil. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 1979, 77. 10 Marinho, op. cit., 7. 11 The support of the Rockefeller Foundation encompassed America and Europe, which can be confirmed in its annual reports. 12 Ruska, E., 'Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1986', Bioscience Reports (1987), 7 (8), 619. 13 In 1939, Cecil Edwin Hall left Toronto University to work for Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. There, he constructed an electron microscope. After two years, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and obtained a PhD degree. See Watson, H.L., The electron microscope: A personal recollection, http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/physics-at-uoft/history/the-electronmicroscope/the-electron-microscope-a-personal-recollection, accessed 4 May 2013. 14 A Brief History of the Microscopy Society of America, http://www.microscopy.org/about/history.cfm, accessed: 4 May 2013. 15 James Hillier, 1915-2006, Contributions to Electron Microscopy, http://www.microscopy.org/images/posters/Hillier.pdf, accessed: 5 May 2013. 16 W. de Souza (org.), A Microscopia Eletrônica no Brasil, Sociedade Brasileira de Microscopia Eletrônica, 1987. 17 C. Chagas Filho, Interview, 1976/1977, Rio de Janeiro, CPDOC, 2010, 58. See http://www.fgv.br/cpdoc/historal/arq/Entrevista441.pdf, accessed: 29 August 2013. 18 'A microscopia eletrônica no Instituto Butantan', Informativo do Instituto Butantan (1984), 6 [September/October], 3. 19 Filho, op. cit., 59. 20 'Novas técnicas de pesquisa em biologia', A Noite, 1 September 1952, 17. 21 D. H. Kruger, P. Schneck and H. R. Gelderblom, 'Helmut Ruska and the visualization of viruses', The Lancet (2000), 355, 1713. 22 Relatório do Instituto Butantan [Instituto Butantan Annual Report], 1954, 158-9. 23 M. R. Edwards, L. M. Coutinho, G. A. Edwards and H. Ruska, 'Estrutura dos cloroplastos', Ciência e Cultura (1995), 7 (2), 89-96. 24 G. A. Edwards, H. Ruska, P. S. Santos and A. Vallejo-Freire, 'Comparative
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cytophysiology of striated muscle with special reference to the role of endoplasmic reticulum', Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology (1956), 2 (4, supplem.), 144. 25 The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1954, 255-256. Persio de Souza Santos was appointed for a fellowship by the Secretary of Health of São Paulo State; Helena Lopes Souza Santos was appointed by the University of São Paulo, where she worked. Back in 1950, the Rockefeller Foundation gave a travel grant for “living expenses for Miss Helena Brandão Lopes, assistant in the Department of Electron Microscopy, while training at the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge” (The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report, 1950,186) and in 1952, “the electron microscopy department in the Polytechnic School, under the direction of Helena B. Lopes” received grants for research materials (The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1952, 198). 26 H. L. S. Santos, http://lattes.cnpq.br/6804505037001421 and P. S. Santos, http://lattes.cnpq.br/3460110249827104, both accessed: 17 February 2013. 27 'Introdução', Relatório do Instituto Butantan, 1954, 7. 28 A. Vallejo-Freire, 'Relatório do Laboratório de Virus', Relatório do Instituto Butantan, 1953, 2. 29 A. R. Hoge and P. S. Santos, 'Submicroscopic structure of 'stratum corneum' of snakes', Science (1953), 118, 410-411; P. S. Santos, 'Method of recovery of metallic grids for electron microscopy', Nature (1955), 175, 351-2. 30 G. A. Edwards, P. S. Santos, H. S. Santos, A. R. Hoge, P. Sawaya and A. VallejoFreire, 'Electron Microscope studies of reptilian striated muscles', Memórias do Instituto Butantan (1954), 26, 177-190. 31 J. J. Angulo and J. H. L. Watson, 'An electron microscope study of isolated nuclei of liver cells from Laboratory laboratory animals', Science (1950), 111, 670-3; J. H. L. Watson, J. J. Angulo, F. León-Blanco, G. Varela and C. C. Wedderburn, 'Electron microscopic observations of flagellation in some species of the genus Treponema schaudinn', Journal of Bacteriology (1951), 61 (4), 455-461. 32 J. J. Angulo, 'Data on the mouse spinning test', Archives of Virology (1953), 5 (3), 213-216; J. J. Angulo, 'Attempts to isolate a virus from pemphigus foliaceus cases', A.M.A. Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology (1954), 69 (4), 472-474. 33 Diário Oficial do Estado de São Paulo, Executivo, 19 January 1954, 4.
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Introduction In this chapter I address the mobility of physics instruments between the United States and Mexico. In particular, I explore how it contributed to create links between scientific communities in both countries that are better understood in the context of good neighbour practices. I focus on three different historical moments, which were intertwined with changes in the understanding of scientific cooperation. First, I analyse scientific expeditions leaded by Arthur Compton in the 1930s for measuring cosmic rays and their role in the establishment of international collaborations and research programs in physics in Mexican institutions. Second, I review the intervention of foundations such as the Rockefeller and the Guggenheim in the encouragement and diversification of experimental research activities until the mid-1940s at the first physics institute in Mexico. Finally, I discuss the acquisition and arrival in Mexico in 1951 of a particle accelerator manufactured by a US company. In all these cases, scientific instruments were central actors moving between the US and Mexico and playing a relevant role in the making of the physics community in Mexico, its professionalization and institutionalization, as well as the consolidation of physics research in the first half of the twentieth century.
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Cosmic ray instruments and the establishment of physics research in Mexico The international research front on cosmic rays stopped by Mexico in 1932 when US physicist Arthur Compton coordinated a survey for measuring the intensity of cosmic radiation at different geographical latitudes. Compton's expedition in Mexican land was the beginning of collaborative connections between US physicists and a community of Mexican engineers who became deeply interested in cosmic ray research. Their rising interest in that field of research was such that it became a discursive and material ally for the creation of the first physics research institute in Mexico in 1938. Cosmic rays not only provided them with a specific research topic in physics, but it also allowed them to access scientific instruments for their research, as well as professional and scientific training for Mexican students. Particularly, the construction of a counter for detecting cosmic rays at azimuthal angles through a cooperation agreement signed in 1937 by the University of Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico (UNAM) allowed the Mexican scientific community to initiate research in the area of cosmic rays.1 In the early 1930s, the composition and origin of cosmic rays were subject to discussion among nuclear physicists. Early on, cosmic ray measurements had been mainly performed at different altitudes in the Northern Hemisphere (US and Europe). Hence, it was considered relevant to develop expeditions in the Southern Hemisphere.2 In 1932, Compton organized eight groups of experimentalists to carry out the Cosmic Ray Survey, funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW).3 Each expedition would travel to different sites around the world: Switzerland and Norway (Spitzbergen) in Northern Europe; Canada, United States (Alaska, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, and Boston), Mexico, Panama, and Peru in the American continent; and Australia, India, Ceylon, Malaya, Java, New Zealand, Ladakh and South Africa, then European colonies in the Southern Hemisphere.4 Compton was in charge of taking measurements in Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Panama, Peru, Mexico, northern Canada, Michigan and Illinois. Using a cosmic ray meter designed, tested and standardized by Compton's group,5 each experimentalist-traveller collected measurements of cosmic ray intensity. It was a coordinated and centralized survey whose main purpose was to detect an association between the intensity of cosmic rays and terrestrial latitude. This was called the latitude effect and it had consequences for understanding the origin and composition of cosmic rays. In May 1932, Compton announced preliminary results that confirmed the existence of the latitude effect in a letter to the editor of the Physical Review. He wrote: 'This letter is the first report of an extensive program involving similar
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measurements by many physicists in widely distributed parts of the world'.6 In the following months Compton would complete the planned measurements in Peru, Panama, and Mexico. In a way that reminds us of the patterns of eighteenth-century scientific expeditions,7 Compton contacted a native from Mexico to arrange his trip there. In fact, Manuel Sandoval Vallarta was not simply a local contact, but an active mediator with exceptional qualities.8 Sandoval Vallarta came from an elite Mexican family. He had grown up and studied in Mexico before his family sent to him to Boston, where he started his preparation as electrical engineer at MIT. By the time of the cosmic ray survey, Sandoval Vallarta worked as a professor at MIT, where he had developed a prestigious career as a theoretical physics.9 Compton and Sandoval Vallarta were both part of the American physicist community and thus were connected. When Compton asked for advice, Sandoval Vallarta recommended places in Mexico to take cosmic ray measurements and he personally made local arrangements for the expedition.10 Moreover, he travelled with Compton and his wife and assistant, Betty,11 and he was the link between Compton, the Mexican authorities and the local community of engineers interested in Compton's research. While at MIT, Sandoval Vallarta had maintained contact with Mexican intellectual and scientific community, particularly professors at the UNAM. He was especially close to Ricardo Monges L贸pez and Sotero Prieto, both civil engineers by profession but respectively a geophysicist and a mathematician by practice, who promoted the creation of institutional spaces for training and research in mathematics and physics at the Mexican University.12
Fig. 1 - Arthur Compton and Manuel Sandoval Vallarta.13
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Moreover, after their encounter in Mexico Compton and Sandoval Vallarta began a work collaboration. While Compton continued his travel, Sandoval Vallarta returned to MIT and started working on the explanation of the interaction between charged particles and the magnetic terrestrial field - a study that would eventually be used as a theoretical demonstration of the results of 14 Compton's cosmic ray survey. At MIT, Sandoval Vallarta and his colleague 15 George Lemaître worked together on the so-called Lemaître-Vallarta theory. For Sandoval Vallarta, this work was a turn in his research and stood out as his major contribution in the field of physics. For Lemaître, this theoretical explanation fruitfully incorporated his cosmological hypothesis of the primitive atom. For Compton, a theoretical proof of the latitude effect strengthened his 16 results and research program in cosmic rays. Thus, this was a profitable collaboration for the main actors involved. Additional expeditions for measuring cosmic ray intensity were organized after 1932. This time the purpose was to find out if there was an EastWest asymmetry in the intensity of cosmic radiation (azimuthal effect), as predicted by Lemaître-Vallarta's theory. If cosmic rays came mostly from the West, then it would be possible to sustain that they were constituted principally by positively charged particles. In 1933, Luis Alvarez and Thomas Johnson 17 went to Mexico city to take new measurements. Johnson returned in 1934 to 18 prove the accuracy of his instruments. Once again, Sandoval Vallarta and 19 Ricardo Monges López were involved in the logistic arrangements and sometimes attended the experiments with other Mexican engineers. Since the task of measuring the East-West effect required different instruments, Johnson proposed new designs of experimental and instrumental settings. He built a cosmic ray coincidence counter that consisted mainly of Geiger-Müller counters. This kind of design allowed adjusting the counter at different directions, as required for the detection of the azimuthal effect. In order to register the azimuthal direction when an event was detected, a camera was used to take pictures of the experimental arrangement. This was a different use of images from the case of the cosmic ray meter, where images themselves constituted evidence of the events. According to Peter Galison, the cosmic ray meter belongs to the image tradition, whereas the cosmic ray coincidence 20 counter is inscribed in the logic one. In all cases, when the expeditions arrived in Mexico either Sandoval Vallarta or local engineers were involved not only in their travel and stay 21 arrangements but also as technical assistants. It is important to note there were no professional physicists at the time in Mexico, but physics was practiced by an important community of engineers. Basically, the community of civil engineers encouraged the creation of schools and research institutes in mathematics and physics at UNAM. Ricardo Monges López, an important civil
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engineer who was close to Sandoval Vallarta, participated in the internal transformation of the University in the 1930s and he championed the creation of 22 its institute of physics and mathematics, as well as the faculty of sciences. Simultaneously, Sandoval Vallarta was trying to create a group in cosmic ray research involving Mexican engineers. For this purpose, he encouraged and intervened in the award of fellowships offered by the Guggenheim 23 Foundation to Mexican engineers. Alfredo Baños (1935) and Carlos Graef (1937) were the first Mexican engineers who received Guggenheim fellowships to conduct their PhDs in theoretical physics at MIT. Under the supervision of Sandoval Vallarta they became physicists specialized in theoretical research on cosmic rays. The plan was that Baños and Graef would lead physics research when they would return to Mexico. Ricardo Monges López justified his request for the creation of an institute of physics and mathematics at UNAM by arguing that Alfredo Baños was finishing his PhD in physics and he could be in 24 charge of this scientific institution once he returned to Mexico. In addition to these training programs for Mexican specialists in cosmic ray research, there were plans to acquire instruments for measuring cosmic rays and install them permanently in Mexico. In 1937, a cooperation agreement was signed between MIT, the University of Chicago and UNAM's National 25 School of Physical Sciences and Mathematics. This agreement was promoted by Compton, Sandoval Vallarta and Monges López. MIT and Chicago were in charge of supplying the instruments, while UNAM would provide a building and people for taking measurements. Instruments included Geiger Müller counters, which would serve to build a cosmic ray counter similar to the one designed by Johnson. This cosmic ray counter was eventually designed and assembled by a Mexican engineer, Manuel Perrusquía Camacho, with the assistance of Fernando Alba Andrade, then a physics student at UNAM. It was installed at the premises of the National School of Physics and Mathematics, created in 1936, at the Palacio de Minería, where the UNAM's National School of Engineering was located. It would be subsequently used for measuring the azimuthal effect 26 of cosmic rays. Also in 1937 a cosmic ray meter was installed permanently in Mexico and local scientists and technicians were in charge of its operation. Compton had planned to establish a cosmic ray station in Mexico since 1934, when he 27 consulted with Sandoval Vallarta on where it could be located. The appropriate instrument for such station was the cosmic ray meter, as it would enable latitude effect measurements to continue. In 1937, the cosmic ray station at Teoloyucan was launched. Compton brought its instruments to 28 Mexico and supervised their installation. At that time, Compton was also promoting the installation of a cosmic ray meter at the Magnetic Observatory in Huancayo, Peru, as an attempt to develop a network of cosmic ray stations in 29 Latin America.
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In early 1938, the UNAM Physics Institute was inaugurated and Alfredo 30 Baños became its first director. Its main department was the Cosmic Ray one, which included theoretical and experimental research, both in relation to the work of Sandoval Vallarta. Baños continued the theoretical work initiated at MIT and he encouraged the construction of the cosmic ray coincidence counter started by the 1937 MIT-Chicago-UNAM cooperation agreement, which was 31 installed at the Palacio de Minería. Through the study of cosmic rays, people, instruments, and practices circulated in a round trip journey between North and South. The program was definitely relevant for the understanding of cosmic rays in the US and close to Arthur Compton's ambitions. Likewise, the cosmic ray research encountered a fertile terrain in the Mexican civil engineering community since it became a vehicle to materialize its effort to create academic institutions specialized in physics and mathematics. Mexican engineers became increasingly involved in cosmic ray research. Some attended the observations made by Compton, Johnson and Alvarez and became familiar with the experiments and instruments. The cosmic ray experiments developed by Compton's team were based on two different types of instruments: the cosmic ray meter and the cosmic ray coincidence counter. The Physics Institute was developed around the latter and theoretical studies on cosmic rays. This association was possible partly due to the theoretical training of Mexican engineers and partly to experience acquired during the cosmic ray expeditions to Mexico. The use of cosmic ray instruments and the theoretical work on cosmic rays became justifications for creating the first Mexican research institute of physics. Hence, at the beginning of the 1940s there were two different experimental locations for measuring cosmic rays in Mexico, one at the Palacio de Minería in Mexico City and the other in Teoloyucan in the State of Mexico. They were different because of their instruments and experimental practices. Whereas Teoloyucan had a cosmic ray meter for measuring cosmic ray intensity, the Station at the Palacio de Minería had a cosmic ray coincidence counter for measuring variations for azimuthal angles. Lab equipment, US foundations and Good Neighbour Policy As mentioned earlier, Mexican engineers were awarded fellowships by the Guggenheim Foundation for studying physics in US universities. Alfredo Baños and Carlos Graef were the first to receive these fellowships and used them to pursue PhDs in theoretical physics at MIT, where Manuel Sandoval Vallarta could host, train, and supervise them. After their return, Baños and Graef became key figures in the development of physics research at UNAM. Baños was the first director of the Physics Institute between 1938 and 1943; subsequently Graef occupied the same position for a long period, 1945 to 1957.
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To a certain extent, their training in the US contributed to increase their local prestige and allowed them to get positions of power for the establishment of physics in Mexico. During the period in which Baños directed the Physics Institute, cosmic ray research remained at the centre of the Institute plans. At the same time, Baños tried to improve the material resources of the Institute through funding 32 provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1940, the Foundation had added to its financial programs funds for acquiring laboratory equipment in order to strengthen scientific institutions abroad. The Foundation offered to buy 33 scientific equipment in the US and send it to selected foreign institutions. This new program was announced by Harry Miller Jr., assistant director of the Division of Natural Sciences at a meeting with all the directors of research 34 institutes at UNAM. Baños took the opportunity and in 1941 he applied for funds to equip a laboratory of precision electrical measurements, conceived as a central standards bureau for the service of the scientific research institutes at 35 the University and the entire country. His request was approved by the 36 Rockefeller Foundation Associate Director, Frank Blair Hanson. In 1942, the 37 instruments arrived in Mexico, one year after the agreement was signed. The same year, the arrival in Mexico of the Spanish physicist Blas Cabrera as a result of the fascist dictatorship in Spain, promised new possibilities for physics research in Mexico. In 1932, Cabrera had secured funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to create the National Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Spain, so he knew how to handle this type of plans and funding applications. He achieved an agreement with the Foundation in May 1942 for the purchase of instruments for mechanics and glass blowing 38 workshops. However, this time the Foundation offered the grant with the condition that Cabrera would be hired as head of research, that he would have 39 two technical assistants and a site for installing workshops. A serious problem that limited the growth of the Physics Institute was the lack of an independent and appropriate building for physics research. Although Baños had received the Rockefeller's donations to equip laboratories and workshops, he did not succeed in finding adequate premises for their installation. The University authorities had too many problems to solve, apparently of higher priority than the needs of the Physics Institute. Baños then considered an alliance with the Secretariat of National Defense of Mexico. He presented a building project to the Secretariat, which could encompass the entire Physics Institute and a military firearm school belonging to the Mexican army. Apparently, he managed to pass this proposal and started to organize the transfer of the instruments sent by the Rockefeller Foundation. He announced his plan to the Rockefeller authorities, asking also for a donation of books for the new library; he proposed to name it 'Rockefeller Library' as recognition of all the 40 donations received.
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However, Ba単os' plan did not materialize. Moreover, during that period he suffered political attacks from the Mexican science community that further complicated his work. He was accused of plagiarism in relation to a book that he 41 used in a course on atomic physics. Although he denied this charge and was supported by the American author and publisher of the book in question, the 42 situation led to a climate of suspicion. The plagiarism accusation may have been prompted by opposition within the Physics Institute to the potential agreement with the Mexican Secretariat of Defense. In any case, the result was 43 that Ba単os resigned from his University positions in 1943. The instruments donated by the Rockefeller remained in their boxes, and the Institute remained in the same inadequate premises. No data exist on the subsequent fate of the instruments, although it seems that a proper space for their installation was not found. Furthermore, no staff was available to operate them. Blas Cabrera initially replaced Ba単os in the direction of the laboratory of precision electrical measurements, but he died unexpectedly in 1945. Hence, with the resignation of Ba単os, the Physics Institute entered a phase of stagnation due to the lack of both appropriate buildings and staff. The Rockefeller Foundation had a profound influence in twentiethcentury-Mexico science. It deployed a network of support programs in different areas; especially important were the programs for the training of physicians, 44 disease eradication and agriculture technical assistance. These programs stand out as powerful and controlled initiatives in terms of their scope and objectives, the social and political structures they involved, and their impact on local practices. Specialists in the study of the influence of the Rockefeller Foundation in Latin America agree that the philanthropic interest of the Foundation went hand in hand with both US expansionist interests and the 45 commercial interests of the Rockefeller family. Together with large-scale programs in agriculture and medicine, the Foundation supported other projects more limited in scope, but no less important. This support favoured the constitution of an inter-American network of institutions and researchers, which 46 was a seed for subsequent co-construction of US scientific hegemony. By 1941, the Good Neighbour Policy promoted by the US government towards Latin American countries materialized as a state structure with the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. Headed by Nelson Rockefeller, it brought the experience of the Foundation Rockefeller in the establishment of intellectual and cultural networks abroad. In addition, science began to have a special priority in inter-American policy. In this respect, Clark A. Miller argues that the US experience in Latin America shaped an understanding of the potentialities of associating science and technology as a way to achieve progress and social welfare, which became the central 47 argument in post-war scientific internationalism.
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A group of US scientists was specially implicated in the establishment of scientific institutions in Latin America. Arthur Compton, Harlow Shapley, and George David Birkhoff were particularly visible. As seen earlier, Compton built and brought together a network of cosmic ray stations in Latin America, as well 48 as promoting research on that topic. Shapley did something similar in the case 49 of astronomical observatories. In 1942, Birkhoff went on a tour around Latin American countries where he presented his theory of gravitation and other 50 topics of his specialty. In a way, these scientists contributed to, and profited from, an inter-American framework of good neighbour practices aimed to extend collaborative scientific networks in Latin America. Sandoval Vallarta was also involved in these initiatives. Not only was he often consulted regarding the selection of Latin American Guggenheim fellowships, but he also participated actively in organizations for the promotion of Latin American scientific networks. In 1941 and 1942, he directed the recently created Committee on Inter-American Scientific Publications, an organization that was funded by the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. This Committee would collect scientific publications produced by scientists in Latin American countries and translate them into English in order to place them in US 51 scientific journals. This was one among several activities “in the interests of promoting both the international spirit of science and inter-American 52 cooperation�. This particular initiative appears as a remarkable mechanism to drive fluxes of knowledge from South to North. In 1942, as president of the Committee on Inter-American Scientific Publications, Sandoval Vallarta initiated in Mexico a tour through Latin America, similar to Birkhoff's, with a grant from the Office of the Coordinator of InterAmerican Affairs. He intended to organize the Inter-American Academy of 53 Science. However, support for this project was suspended in mid-1942 and he was unable to get additional funds. Sandoval Vallarta pointed out the importance of his Latin-American tour for the promotion of US strategic 54 alliances. This episode is representative of a turn in priorities for US institutions because of the mobilizations induced by the declaration of war. New urgencies emerged for the US government, scientific institutions, and scientists. In this context, MIT urged Sandoval Vallarta to return and resume his 55 teaching duties. Instead, Sandoval Vallarta resigned from MIT after the Mexican government offered him the direction of an especially tailored national institution for the encouragement of science, the Commission for the Promotion 56 and Coordination of Scientific Research. At this crossroad, his career was confronted to a national and professional choice which not only determined on what side of the US-Mexico border he would henceforth work, but also the type of scientist he would be remembered for. Since then, Sandoval Vallarta was permanently established in Mexico and began to occupy national positions in the coordination and promotion of scientific research.
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After Ba単os' resignation, Sandoval Vallarta directed for two years the Physics Institute, but his leadership did not manage to change the state of affairs in relation to its research development. In 1945, Carlos Graef was appointed as the new director of the Institute and from that time, in addition to cosmic ray research, he prompted theoretical studies on Birkhoff's gravitation, in which the Institute staff worked until the end of the forties. A Van de Graaff accelerator on the move: US-Mexican scientific relations, post-war scientific internationalism, and Mexican nuclearization 1950 was a crucial year for physics research in Mexico. This was the year of the launch of construction UNAM's new campus. Located in the Southern part of Mexico City, the University City was an ambitious governmental project whose alleged purpose was the encouragement of the entire higher education structure in Mexico; all faculties and institutes would benefit from it. The project was especially important for the Faculty of Sciences and the Institute of Physics. In addition to benefitting from appropriate premises, the plan included the acquisition of a particle accelerator. How and why did substantial differences appear in relation to the previous situation for physics research and scientific education? Physics research was in the public eye since the detonation of atomic 57 bombs by the US five years earlier. As a result, Mexican physicists consolidated their relations with the government, as it occurred almost in every country. They were called to represent the country in recently founded international agencies and organizations, especially when the topic under discussion was science or nuclear energy. The Mexican government realized that if the country wanted to compete for better social and economical conditions, it was its duty to invest in scientific education and research; an idea promoted by industrialized countries in international forums. The project of the new campus for UNAM and the acquisition of a Van de Graaff accelerator were seen as initiatives closely connected to that imperative. The positioning of Mexican scientists in strategic institutions and governmental departments, combined with their connections with US science, were central factors in the choice of a Van de Graaff accelerator. Manuel Sandoval Vallarta and Nabor Carrillo were involved in diplomatic tasks since 1946 regarding the atomic test in the Atoll of Bikini, the United Nations 58 Commission for Atomic Energy and the first meeting of UNESCO. At that time, Carrillo was Coordinator of Scientific Research at UNAM and Sandoval Vallarta was president and representative of physics research at the Commission for the Promotion and Coordination of Scientific Research, founded in 1942. Their experience and opinions on development and management of scientific
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research were considered trustworthy by Mexican authorities. Carrillo belonged to the group of Mexican civil engineers awarded with Guggenheim fellowships, along with BaĂąos and Graef. He had worked with Arthur Casagrande at Harvard University, where he specialized in soil mechanics and got a PhD in Science. Remarkably, soil mechanics was part of physics research in Mexico, even if this might not be usual in other national contexts. Furthermore, Casagrande had donated to UNAM a complete laboratory for research in soil mechanics, which was associated to the Physics Institute from 1939 to 1943. As seen before, civil engineers and the small community of physicists were closely related in Mexico during the first half of the twentieth century. Carrillo maintained collaboration with Casagrande after his return to Mexico and their relationship played a relevant role in the acquisition of 59 the particle accelerator. 60 According to mainstream Mexican historiography, Mexican scientists became interested in the Van de Graaff accelerator after Carrillo visited the High Voltage Engineering Corporation (HVEC) when he was lecturing on soil mechanics at Harvard on Casagrande's invitation. The HVEC was a company founded by Robert Van de Graaff, John D. Trump, and Dennis Robinson in 61 1946; it commercialized Van de Graaff accelerators. Denis Robinson, director of the company and brother-in-law of Casagrande, showed Carrillo the accelerators that were being built and commercialized. In addition, at MIT, William Buechner explained him the possibilities of research opened by this 62 type of accelerator. Buechner was head of the MIT High Voltage Laboratory and one of the closest collaborators of Robert Van de Graaff. Sandoval Vallarta was also familiar with Van de Graaff accelerators. When he worked at MIT he visited the Round Hill locations to observe the developments that Robert Van de Graaff was performing on his famous and 63 huge accelerator. Van de Graaff and Sandoval Vallarta were both professors at MIT's Department of Physics. Furthermore, William Buechner was married to Sandoval Vallarta's secretary when the latter was the president of the Committee on Inter-American Scientific Publications. Carrillo, Sandoval Vallarta, Carlos Graef, then director of the Institute of Physics, and Alberto Barajas, director of the Faculty of Sciences, led the application for the purchase of a Van de Graaff accelerator. Carlos Lazo, chief manager of the project of the University City, backed them and conducted the negotiation to get funds. They got the support from the president of Mexico, Miguel AlemĂĄn, and the Van de Graaff accelerator thus acquired a dimension of 64 national politics. Carlos Lazo became an active promoter of nuclear energy as a potential resource for solving social problems and for the production and distribution of
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electrical energy. He incorporated these ideas in his discourses about the University City Project. In connection to the acquisition of the Van de Graaff accelerator he said: “our wish was to establish a symbol of modernity in this new university; we wanted this idea of nuclear power handled by the Mexican student not for political or military goals but for human purposes, that is with the aim of developing all our natural resources, also to shape the thought of our 65 philosophers, economists, and technicians”. Certainly, the Van de Graaff accelerator gave another image and meaning to the University City. In the context of national political discourse, both the University City and the Van de Graaff accelerator were material evidence of the progress and modernization of 66 Mexico. First, modernization as avant-garde: the architectural design, the use of certain building materials, and the incorporation of artwork. Modernization also because the campus would concentrate colleges and institutes with a novel spatial conception that would allegedly impact on the production of knowledge. Finally, modernization because right at this centre would emerge a nuclear research program for the service of the country. Hence, the press announced that “Mexico is now definitively incorporated into the atomic age by integrating an active research program in nuclear physics at the laboratories of the new University City”. Carlos Graef, then director of the Physics Institute, repeatedly said that the instrument would benefit research into agricultural production because it could be possible to 68 irradiate seeds and achieve better crops. Furthermore, he argued, it could be possible to obtain new materials that would benefit the national industry and the 69 implementation of therapies against cancer. Likewise, the potential benefits for the entire country were linked to the discourse of peaceful uses of nuclear energy: “the University of Mexico will launch in our country the exciting atomic age, promise of a more comfortable, hygienic and affluent future when, as 70 Mexico is going to do, the energy of atoms is exploited for peaceful purposes”. All the propaganda obviously exaggerated the real functions and research possibilities of the Van de Graaff accelerator. Nonetheless, it highlights the construction of a public image around this instrument based on its association with nuclear energy. In a sense, nuclear energy represented a promising future for developing countries. Scientists, governments, and the general public learned to desire nuclear energy as a tool for reaching better 71 social conditions. Mexico was becoming a nuclear country with the acquisition 72 of the Van de Graaff. Using a term proposed by Gabrielle Hecht, the Van de Graaff represented a form of nuclearization of Mexico.
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73
Fig. 2 -. The Van De Graaff accelerator.
At the new University City, José Chávez Morado, a prominent Mexican painter, represented the Van de Graaff accelerator in a mural entitled 'Science and work/Builders'. Chávez Morado was in charge of the murals that would decorate the walls of the Faculty of Sciences. In the University City project artists and architects tried to put in practice principles of the so-called movement of Plastic Integration. This movement aimed at producing artworks with architectural features. Nowadays, no visitor of Mexico City can miss a visit to the murals of the University City. Famous Mexican muralists participated in the project, such as Juan O'Gorman, Francisco Eppens, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The aforementioned mural by Chávez Morado includes a sequence of images depicting stages and social roles involved in the construction of the University City. At the left end, there are farmers leaving their land to allow for the construction of the new campus. Immediately, there are workers digging and carrying a wheelbarrow. Next, there are a group of engineers and architects studying building maps. Right after, the directors of the project are supervising the state of the construction. Finally, there is a group of Mexican scientists (Carlos Graef, Alberto Barajas, Nabor Carrillo and Alberto Sandoval, director of the Chemistry Institute) in front of the Van de Graaff accelerator, as if they were manipulating it. This mural remains a testimony of this close and powerful association between the Van de Graaff accelerator and the University City Project. The University City also preserves the building that was constructed in the early 1950s following special requirements to install the Van de Graaff
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accelerator. Architectural plans for designing an appropriate building for the instrument began immediately after the purchase contract was signed in August 1950. Although the design was commissioned to a group of Mexican architects and engineers, the final proposal had to be sent to the High Voltage 75 Engineering Corporation for approval. The Van de Graaff Laboratory, as the building would be called, was constructed quickly in comparison to the rest of the University City, as it had to be finished by the time the instrument arrived in 76 mid-1951.
77
Fig. 3 - In front, the Van De Graaff Laboratory.
Now the University had a particle accelerator and its dedicated building. A next crucial step was to conceive a research plan and also a group of nuclear physics experimentalists. The physical characteristics of the Van de Graaff accelerator and the technical requirements for its installation and operation partly favoured its acquisition and use in Mexico, over other possible choices in the nuclear physics instrumental arsenal. In 1952, there were 87 HVEC 78 accelerators distributed around the world. One of them was the Mexican. Its design was very different from that of the accelerator built in Round Hill by Robert Van de Graaff in 1933. It was relatively small - thus transportable - and had a high-pressured tank containing the accelerator system (a rubber band followed by a device for concentrating electrical charges, a terminal ion source and the accelerator tube surrounded by equipotential rings to stabilize the voltage). It was able to attain 2 MeV in the acceleration of positive particles. The installation and operation of the Van de Graaff accelerator in Mexico was also supported by William Buechner's offer to host and advice a group of Mexican
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specialists at MIT. Thus, training and technical knowledge developed by the MIT group on this kind of instrument was available to Mexican physicists. Two members of the Mexican team, Fernando Alba Andrade and Eduardo DĂaz Lozada, were commissioned to train at MIT. Both had a major in engineering and Alba Andrade was also a physicist. They travelled to MIT with grants from the Mexican National Institute for Scientific Research (directed by Sandoval Vallarta). Buechner hosted them at MIT's High Voltage Laboratory, where they were trained for three months in order to be able to supervise the installation of 80 the Van de Graaff in Mexico.
81
Fig. 4 - The Van De Graaff accelerator located in the first floor of the Laboratory, 1952
The full installation and calibration of the Van de Graaff took at least two years, although modifications were constant until it was finally substantially transformed into a different type of instrument in 1963, an electron accelerator. The process involved the adaptation of the instrument to local conditions, in addition to the design and construction of complementary instruments. Thus, the installation of the Van de Graaff spurred the production of additional scientific instruments in Mexico. To this purpose, the development of technical workshops was essential, and Mexican practitioners developed a genuine experience and tradition in this field. In 1951, the Mexican Scientific Congress met to celebrate the 400-year anniversary of the foundation of UNAM. It was a huge scientific meeting, bringing together, among others, US scientists who in different ways had been involved in the shaping of good neighbour practices in science between the US and Mexico: Harlow Shapley, George Garret Birkhoff, and Arthur Casagrande,
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as well as their Mexican counterparts: Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (by then established in Mexico), Alfredo Baños (then in the US), Carlos Graef, and 82 Nabor Carrillo. The scenario could not be better, as the Congress was held at the new University City, where the recently arrived Van de Graaff accelerator was located. Concluding remarks The acquisition of the Van de Graaff accelerator in 1950 is a major episode in the contemporary history of science in Mexico, helping our understanding of the complexities of the process of institutionalization and professionalization of the physical sciences in national and international perspective. It is a crossroad where several elements converge: the international relations between Mexican and US scientists, the national project of the University City, the involvement of Mexico as a nuclear state and the emergence of a specialized research group in experimental nuclear physics in Mexico. Analysis presented in this chapter shows the diversity of actors (including scientific instruments, persons, and institutions) and processes, involved in the circulation of scientific knowledge and practices. This phenomenon implied a tremendous mobilization of material, social, and political resources. I have demonstrated the interest of focusing on scientific instruments in the study of the practice of science and how their analysis can bring new insights and broader implications, ranging from international politics to local public opinion, national identity and the configuration of professional communities. Resorting to the idea of 'good neighbor' practices in science is a way to put inter-American scientific relations both as part and as a consequence of the implementation of political plans whose ultimate aim was to strengthen regional and international alliances. In this process, actors from North and South were actively involved, even when their particular objectives and rewards were different and asymmetrical. Nonetheless, the mobilization of people, practices, and instruments was deployed in one direction and the other. Acknowledgments This paper was possible thanks to research funded by a CONACyT postgraduate fellowship and a travel grant from the Scientific Instrument Commission which allowed me to attend its XXXI Symposium in Rio de Janeiro. I am especially grateful to Gisela Mateos, Susana Biro, Edna Suárez, and Valeria Sánchez Michel for fruitful discussions at different stages of my research. I wish to thank the members of the seminar program 'Instrument Histories: Collections and Knowledge in Movement' for interesting reflections
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on the history of scientific instruments. Last but not least, feedback provided by the audience at the Rio conference was essential to improve this work. I am also grateful to Josep Simon for his comments on this paper. All translations from Spanish into English were made by the author. Notes 1
For a detailed analysis of Compton's Cosmic Ray Survey and its implication for professionalizing and institutionalizing physics in Mexico, see G. Mateos and A. Minor García, 'La red internacional de rayos cósmicos, Manuel Sandoval Vallarta y la física en México', Revista Mexicana de Física E (2013), 59, 148-155. 2 For a discussion about cosmic rays in the 1930s, see D. C. Cassidy, 'Cosmic Ray Showers, High Energy Physics, and Quantum Field Theories: Programmatic Interactions in the 1930s', Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (1981), 12, 139; M. De Maria and A. Russo, 'Cosmic Ray Romancing: The Discovery of the Latitude Effect and the Compton-Millikan Controversy', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (1989), 19, 211-266; M. De Maria, M. G. Ianniello and A. Russo, 'The Discovery of Cosmic Rays: Rivalries and Controversies between Europe and United States', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (1991), 22, 165-192. 3 The Cosmic Ray Survey was similar to another CIW's research program deployed in the early twentieth century for mapping terrestrial magnetism. See Mateos and Minor, op. cit. (2013), 59, 148-155; G. A. Good. 'Geophysical travelers: the magneticians of the Carnegie Institution of Washington', Geological Society, London, Special Publications (2007), 287, 395-408. 4 A. H. Compton, 'A Geographical Study of Cosmic Rays', The Physical Review (1933), 42, 387-403. 5 A. H. Compton and J. J. Hopfield, 'An Improved Cosmic Ray Meter', Review of Scientific Instruments (1933), 4, 491-195. 6 A. H. Compton, 'Variation of the Cosmic Rays with Latitude', Letters to the Editor Physical Review (1932), 41, 111-113. 7 Cultural encounters driven by expeditions resulting in new hybrid knowledge and where local actors took part as active mediators or 'go-betweens' are analyzed, for example, in S. Schaffer, L. Roberts, K. Raj, and J. Delbourgo (eds), The Brokered World: Go-betweens and Global Intelligence 1770-1820, Sagamore Beach, Science History Publications USA, 2009; M. Nieto, Remedios para el Imperio, Historia Natural y la Apropiación del Nuevo Mundo, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, Bogotá, 2000; J. Pimentel, Viajeros Científicos. Tres Grandes Expediciones al Nuevo Mundo: Jorge Juan, Mutis, Malaspina, Nivola, Madrid, 2001; N. Safier, Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science and South America, University of Chicago Press, 2008. 8 Sandoval Vallarta was able to mediate between different cultural worlds. In addition to Spanish (his mother tongue), he was fluent in English, French, and German. He also moved between several academic disciplines and traditions. At MIT, first he got a major in electrical engineering and later a PhD in theoretical physics. In addition, his doctoral thesis was an attempt to link classical mechanics with quantum theory. 9 Sandoval Vallarta belonged to a generation of physicists who were involved in the encouragement of physics research in US institutions. See S. S. Schweber, 'The empiricist temper regnant: Theoretical Physics in the United States 1920-1950', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (1986), 17, 55-98.
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10
Telegram from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to Arthur Compton, 15 March 1932, Archivo Histórico Científico Manuel Sandoval Vallarta (AHCMSV), Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie: Científica, Box 30, File 9. 11 Interview with Betty Compton by Charles Weiner, http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4560_2.html#11, accessed: January 15, 2013. 12 M. de la P. R. Lara, 'De la física de carácter ingenieril a la creación de la primera profesión de física en México', Revista Mexicana de Física E (2005), 51, 137-164, and 'Los ingenieros promotores de la física académica en México (1910-1935), Revista Mexicana de Investigación Educativa (2007), 12, 1241-1265; R. Domínguez Martínez, Historia de la ingeniería civil en México 1900-1940, PhD thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2010. 13 AHC-MSV, Sección Fototeca, Subsección Congresos y Conferencias, Serie Internacionales, Subserie Fotografías, Álbum 1, Expediente 1, Unidad 3. 14 Letter from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to Nathan Rosen, 17 November 1932, AHCMSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 23, File 3. 15 George Lemaître was a Belgian scientist and Catholic priest, affiliated to the University of Louvain. He obtained a PhD in Physics at the MIT in 1927; Sandoval Vallarta was part of the committee of referees that evaluated his dissertation. Their article on latitude effect was their first collaborative work: G. Lemaître and M. Sandoval Vallarta, 'On Compton's Latitude Effect of Cosmic Radiation', The Physical Review (1933), 43, 87-91. 16 Lemaître and Vallarta stated that their theory constituted an explanation of the results obtained by Compton's team's expeditions. Also, the article by Compton in which he announced results of the Cosmic Ray Survey explained the agreement between his experimental data and calculations and Lemaître and Vallarta's theory. 17 A. H. Compton, 'The Significance of Recent Measurements of Cosmic Rays', Science (1933), 77, 480-482. Luis Álvarez worked with Compton at the University of Chicago, where he developed improvements to the design of cosmic ray counters. Johnson took measurements of cosmic radiation intensity with cosmic rays counters of his own design; some were important for measurements in balloons. 18 T. H. Johnson, 'Progress of the Directional Survey of Cosmic-Ray Intensities and Its Application to the Analysis of the Primary Cosmic Radiation', The Physical Review (1933), 48, 287-299. 19 Letter from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to the Mexican director of the customs service, 24 August 1934, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 21, File 15. 20 P. Galison, Image and Logic. A Material Culture of Microphysics, University of Chicago Press, 1997. 21 Mexican collaborators were acknowledged in the papers presenting the expedition results. See e.g. T. H. Johnson, 'Coincidence counter studies of the corpuscular component of the cosmic radiation', The Physical Review (1934), 45, 569-585. Information about activities undertaken by Mexican engineers concerning the cosmic rays expeditions are mentioned in the 'Official report of activities of the UNAM School of Physical Sciences and Mathematics', 2 July 1937, Archivo Histórico de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (AH-UNAM), Fondo Universidad Nacional, Ramo Rectoría, Box 39, File 455. 22 Letter from Agustin Aragon Leiva to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, May 1934, AHUNAM, Fondo Memoria Universitaria, Sección Consejo Universitario; Informe del Consejo Universitario, 16 December 1933, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subsección
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Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 23, File 3; Letter from Alfredo Baños to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, 22 March 1938, AHCMSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 26, File 24. 23 Letter from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to Ricardo Moges López, 25 February 1941, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Box 15, File 12. 24 Formal request to the Rector of UNAM, 1 December 1937, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Ramo Rectoría, Box 39, File 458. 25 Letter from Ricardo Monges López to Luis Chico Goerne, 2 July 1937, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Ramo Rectoría, Box 39, File 455. The National School of Physical Sciences and Mathematics was officially created in 1936; in 1938, it was transformed in the Faculty of Sciences. 26 Letter from Alfredo Baños to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, 22 March 1938, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 26, File 24. 27 Rough draft of a letter from Sandoval Vallarta to Arthur Compton, 30 October 1935, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subseccción Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 21, File 6. 28 Letter from Ricardo Monges López to Luis Chico Goerne, 2 July 1937, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Ramo Rectoría, Box 39, File 455. 29 A. Giesecke and M. Casaverde, 'Historia del observatorio magnético de Huancayo', Revista Geofísica (1998), 49, 7-45; J. Ishitsuka and H. Trigoso, 'Cosmic Rays in Peru', unpublished paper given at the Third School on Cosmic Rays and Astrophysics, Arequipa, Perú, 25 August to 5 September, 2008. 30 'Informe que rinde el rector de la UNAM al H. Consejo Universitario sobre las actividades desarrolladas por la Universidad hasta el 1o. de febrero de 1939', 1939, AH-UNAM, Fondo Memoria Universitaria, sección Rectoría. 31 'Programa de labores del Instituto de Física para el año 1939', 23 January 1939, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, sección Rectoría, serie 1/073 proyectos, Box 43, File 413. 32 The Rockefeller Foundation was very active in Latin America, see for instance Almeida's chapter in this volume. 33 Formal letter to the sub-secretary of the Mexican Secretariat of Finance, Sr. Lic. Ramón Beteta, 30 August 1941, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-61 Facultad de Ciencias, Box 67, File 673. 34 'Informe de la Rectoría', 1942, AH-UNAM, Fondo Memoria Universitaria, sección Rectoría. 35 Letter from Alfredo Baños to Rodulfo Brito Foucher, 3 August 1942, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 36 Letter from Dr. Fran Blair Hanson to Mario de la Cueva, 12 September 1941, AHUNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-61 Facultad de Ciencias, Box 67, File 673. 37 Letter from Alfredo Baños to Rodulfo Brito Foucher, 24 August 1942, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-61 Facultad de Ciencias, Box 67, File 673. 38 Letter from Alfredo Baños, director of the Physics Institute, to Mario de la Cueva, rector of the UNAM, 9 May 1942, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 39 Letter from Alfredo Baños, director of the Physics Institute, to Mario de la Cueva,
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rector of the UNAM, 11 May 1942, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 40 Letter from Alfredo Baños to Harry Miller, Assistant Director of the Division of Natural Sciences of the Rockefeller Foundation, 3 December 1942, AH-UNAM, FUN, sección Rectoría, serie 1/100 Asuntos Generales, Subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 41 Letter from Eduardo Vázquez Zarco, member of the Mexican Society of Physical Sciences, to Alfonso Noriega, vice-rector of the UNAM, 13 March 1943, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos generales, Subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 42 Letter from Rodald P. Hobbs, editor of Henry Semat, to Rodulfo Brito Foucher, rector of the UNAM, 30 March 1943, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/100 Asuntos generales, Subserie 1/100-93 Instituto de Física, Box 76, File 863. 43 Letter from Alfredo Baños to Alfonso Noriega, vice-rector of the UNAM, 11 March 1943, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 01/01/24, Box 19, File 230. 44 A. Szymanski, 'Las Fundaciones Internacionales y América Latina', Revista Mexicana de Sociología (1973), 35, 801-817; D. Fitzgerald, 'Exporting American Agriculture: The Rockefeller Foundation in México: 1943- 53', Social Studies of Science (1986), 16, 457-483; A. Solórzano, 'Sawing the Seeds of New-Imperialism: The Rockefeller Foundation's yellow Fever Campaign in México', The International Journal of Health Services (1992), 22, 529-554; A. Solórzano, 'La Influencia de la Fundación Rockefeller en la conformación de la profesión médica mexicana, 19211949', Revista Mexicana de Sociología (1996), 58, 173-203; M. Cueto, Cold war, deadly fevers. Malaria erradication in Mexico 1955-1975, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2007. 45 See previous note and M. Cueto (ed.), Missionaries of Science: The Rockefeller Foundation and Latin America, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1994. 46 This association is explored in a recent book, although not exclusively for the case of Latin America: J. Krige and Helke Rausch (eds.), American Foundations and the Coproduction of World Order in the Twentieth Century, Vandehoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co, Göttingen, 2012. 47 C. A. Miller, 'An Effective Instrument of Peace': Scientific Cooperation as an Instrument of U. S. Foreign Policy, 1938-1950' in Global Power Knowledge. Science and Technology in International Affairs (eds. John Krige and Kai-Henrik Barth), Osiris (2006), 21, 133-160. 48 I. Silva and O. Freire, 'Arthur Compton's Journey to South America: Diplomacy and Cosmic Ray Scientific Research on the Eve of the II World War', Eos Transactions American Geophysical Society, Meet. Am. Supp. (2010), 91, Abstract U21B-01 49 Jorge Bartolucci has studied the involvement of Shapley in the creation of the Astronomical Observatory of Tonantzintla, Mexico. See J. E. Bartolucci Incico, La modernización de la ciencia en México. El caso de los astrónomos, CESU, Plaza y Valdés, Mexico City, 2000. 50 E. L. Ortiz, 'La Política Interamericana de Roosevelt: George D. Birkhoff y la Inclusión de América Latina en las Redes Matemáticas Internacionales', Saber y Tiempo (2003), 15, 53-112. 51 Letter from Christine Buechner, secretary of the Committee on Inter-American Scientific Puclications, to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, 12 March 1942, AHC-MSV,
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Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 24, File 2. H. Shapley, 'The Committee on Inter-American Scientific Publication', Science (1949), 109, 603-605. 53 Letter from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to Dr. Henry Allen Moe, 25 April 1942, AHCMSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 24, File 2. 54 Letter from Dr. Henry Allen Moe to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, 28 April 1942, Idem. 55 Letter from John C. Slater to Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, 20 November 1942, Idem. 56 Telegram from Manuel Sandoval Vallarta to John C. Slater, Chief of the MIT Department of Physics, 22 December 1942, AHC-MSV, Sección Personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Serie Científica, Box 24, File 2. 57 R. Cabral, 'The Mexican Reactions to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Tragedies of 1945', Quipu (1987), 4, 81-118. 58 Official letter from the Mexican government to Nabor Carrillo, 27 May 1946, AHUNAM, Fondo Nabor Carrillo, Sección Formación Académica, Subsección Nombramientos y Títulos, Box 1, File 5; R. Heliodoro Valle, 'Diálogo con Manuel Sandoval Vallarta', Revista de la Universidad de México (1950), IV (43), 8. 59 Biographical account of Nabor Carrillo, AH-UNAM, Fondo Universidad Nacional, Sección Rectoría, Serie 1/102 Datos Biográficos, Box 5, File 87. 60 M. de la P. R. Lara, 'Particle Accelerators in Mexico', Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences (2006), 36, 297-309; R. Domínguez Martínez, 'Los Orígenes de la Física Nuclear en México', Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia Tecnología y Sociedad (2012), 7, 95-112. 61 For a general revision of the development of Van de Graaff accelerators see P. Brenni, “The Van de Graaff Generator. An Electrostatic Machine for the 20th Century”, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society (1999), 63, 6-13. 62 This account was widespread among Mexican scientists who were involved in the acquisition of the accelerator. Moreover, it was disseminated in the Mexican press through articles and interviews. See e.g. C. Graef Fernández, 'En el campo de la investigación: campeones de la ciencia', Revista de la Semana, (15 September, 1951), 86. 63 Personal letter, 13 November 1933, AHC-MSV, Sección personal, Subsección Correspondencia, Box 21, File 5. 64 In 1952, Miguel Alemán included the acquisition of the Van de Graaff in his annual report to the Mexican House of Representatives. See Los presidentes de México ante la Nación: Informes, Manifiestos y Documentos de 1821 a 1966, Vol. 4, Cámara de Diputados, México, 1966. 65 'La Ciudad Universitaria de México', October 1950, AH-UNAM, Fondo Memoria Universitaria, Sección Publicaciones Periódicas, Subsección Revista de la Universidad de México, Rollo 8, Volumen IV, Número 46, p. 16. 66 G. Mateos, A. Minor and V. Sánchez Michel, 'Una Modernidad Anunciada: Historia del Van de Graaff de Ciudad Universitaria”, Historia Mexicana (2012), 245, 415-442. 67 'Experiencias Atómicas'. Mañana, (21 June 1952), 13. 68 J. Avendaño Iniestrillas, 'Idea Universitaria Semillas Atómicas desde la Ciudad U', El Universal, (8 July 1952), 10. 69 'Experiencias Atómicas', Mañana, (21 June 1952), 13. 70 J. Avendaño Iniestrillas, 'México y la Fuerza Atómica', El Universal, (17 July 1952), 4. 71 J. Krige, 'Techno-Utopian Dreams, Techno-Political Realities: The Education of Desire for the Peaceful Atom', in Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility, 52
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(ed. M. Gordin, H. Tilley and G. Prakash), Princeton University Press, 2010, 151-175. G. Hecht, 'Nuclear Ontologies', Constellations (2006), 13, 320-331; G. Hecht, 'The Power of Nuclear Things', Technology and Culture (2010), 51, 1-30. 73 Photo CU-3496, AH-UNAM, Colección Universidad, Sección Construcción de Ciudad Universitaria. 74 M. K. Coffey, How a Revolutionary Art Became Official Culture; Murals, Museums and the Mexican State, Duke University Press, 2012; E. X. de Anda, Historia de la Arquitectura Mexicana, Gustavo Gili, México, 1995. 75 Letter from D. A. Ross, Installation Engineer of the High Voltage Engineering Corporation, to Carlos Lazo, 25 October 1950, Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), Archivo Carlos Lazo, Box 79, File Energía Nuclear 12/146. 76 “We are worried about the deadline of the export-permit of the American Government, and we are trying very hard to have the housing ready as soon as possible”, 2 April 1951, Idem. 77 Photo CU-3492, AH-UNAM, Colección Universidad, Sección Construcción de Ciudad Universitaria. 78 'Van de Graaff Accelerators HVEC', 12 August 1951, AGN, Archivo Carlos Lazo, Box 79, File Energía Nuclear 12/146. 79 Idem, ibidem, 23 August 1950. 80 C. Graef, 'Notas', Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Física (1951), I, 36-37. 81 Photo CU-3497, AH-UNAM, Colección Universidad, Sección Construcción de Ciudad Universitaria. 82 'Asistentes al IV Centenario de la Universidad de México', Revista de la Universidad de México, (1951), V (58), 9-10. 72
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Scientific heritage in Brazil: Surveying collections and groups of artefacts from the 'exact' sciences and engineering Marcus Granato, Marta C. Lourenço, Elias da Silva Maia, Fernanda Pires dos Santos, Gloria Gelmini de Castro and Mariana S. Damasceno Introduction A country's cultural heritage includes all the assets of cultural value and significance – aesthetic, artistic, scientific, architectural, historical, etc. – to its society. It encompasses multiple material and immaterial productions of mankind and its social and natural environments whose preservation for future generations is considered relevant. Scheiner, reflecting on new forms of communication and the virtual world, considers heritage “no longer as a set of values attributed to geographical space and manmade products, but as plural values to which new significations are being attributed.”1 Material objects and values discussed in this chapter, namely science and technology (S&T) heritage, are consistent with these new meanings and new types of heritage.2 The Project 'Promotion of Brazilian Scientific and Technological (S&T) Heritage',3 led by the Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST), a science and technology museum in Rio de Janeiro will be presented. The Project studies objects produced and/or used for scientific research and technology development; in other words, objects that were used in Brazil's research and innovation laboratories and contributed to national scientific and technological development. These artefacts can mostly be found in research centres, universities and technical schools, and normally their value and significance is not recognised. Some of these artefacts can also be found in
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museums, where they are preserved and made accessible for the future. Lourenço and Wilson enumerate some items that may be included in this category of cultural heritage: It includes human-made buildings and landscapes of historical significance, such as astronomical and geophysical observatories, meteorological stations, laboratories, and botanical gardens. But it also includes herbaria, fossils, bones, eggs, pollens, wax and teaching models, minerals, rocks, meteorites, scientific instruments of all types, soil samples, animals, plants and seed, tissue and DNA banks, among many others.4
The scope of the heritage of science and technology is clearly immense, but the above-mentioned Project covers only part – the materiality of the socalled 'exact' sciences and engineering.5 As so little was known when the project started, a national survey was the first step to identify institutions with objects worth preserving, as well as their estimated number and conservation state. The findings surprised us. Most of the older S&T objects, particularly those made before the twentieth century had been lost or were already in museums. However, many more recent objects of considerable value and significance were simply abandoned and forgotten, especially in universities and research institutes. The Project also analysed and compared current legislation protecting the heritage of S&T in Brazil and other countries (Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, France, England, Portugal, Spain, China).6 It has unveiled legal frameworks that could be adopted in parallel with existing Brazilian legislation. Finally, two groups of S&T objects7 were selected for in-depth study into their collective biographies:8 one from the Valongo Astronomical Observatory (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) and another from ColÊgio Pedro II secondary school (Rio de Janeiro).9 This chapter is focussed on the national survey of groups of S&T objects, particularly its results and certain aspects of the field visits. Development of the survey Surveys are essential tools for future preservation planning, policies, management and research. Their aim is to identify relevant clusters that are dispersed and characterize them according to a variety of parameters (e.g. number of objects, institutional status, location, conservation and security state, relevance, and use).10
Cultural assets can only be preserved if their existence and location are known, thus surveys constitute the first stage in assuring their preservation.
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Scientific heritage in Brazil Marcus Granato, Marta C. Lourenço, Elias da S. Maia, Fernanda P. dos Santos, Gloria G.de Castro and Mariana S. Damasceno
Although surveys of S&T heritage had been done elsewhere, particularly in universities, when the project 'Promotion of Brazilian Scientific and Technological Heritage' was initiated they were virtually unheard of in Brazil. Our national survey is inspired in the Portuguese survey, which is being led by the National Museum of Natural History and Science (University of Lisbon).11 Although the Portuguese survey has a broader disciplinary scope, the objectives and methodologies followed in Brazil are the same as in Portugal. The first systematic national surveys of university heritage were done in the 1990s in the Netherlands, UK and Australia.12 Other countries have followed and today knowledge about university heritage in general, and European university heritage in particular, is quite extensive and encompasses a broader disciplinary scope than discussed here, namely art, natural history, health and medicine.13 Specifically in terms of the preservation of science and technology heritage, some recent initiatives are worth mentioning. The online platform, Plateforme OCIM Universités, provides data on France's university archives.14 France has also two national programmes for the preservation of scientific heritage: a survey of recent scientific heritage (post-WW II), coordinated by the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Paris),15 and a survey of secondary school scientific heritage,16 coordinated by the Association de Sauvegarde et d'Étude des Instruments Scientifiques et Techniques de l'Enseignement.17 In Brazil, two universities of the state of São Paulo – the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and the University of the State of São Paulo (UNESP) – have initiated in 2014 a survey of scientific collections in secondary schools. Given that methods used in São Paulo will be the same, their data will complement data from the 'Promotion of Brazilian (S&T) Heritage' coordinated by the MAST. Germany developed a national survey of university heritage, coordinated by the Helmholtz Zentrum für Kulturtechnik of Humboldt University in Berlin. It was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).18 In 2004, when the survey began, many German universities were unable even to provide a list of their collections. The survey took several years, but it resulted in the identification and documentation of 819 collections in German universities and 3,000 more that have been lost.19 In 2011, the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) declared that scientific collections were part of Germany's research infrastructure and that their preservation was a fundamental responsibility of their parent institutions. 20 One of the Council's recommendations was the creation of a centralised unit to coordinate and advise on preservation, as well as distribute project-oriented funds. In 2012, this recommendation was put into practice and the coordination centre began its operations with funding from the Ministry of Education and Research, opening new horizons for German scientific heritage.21
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In 2013, the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon led a national consortium aimed at creating a research infrastructure of scientific collections for Portugal. The consortium is called PRISC (Portuguese Research Infrastructure of Scientific Collections).22 In 2014, the Portuguese governmental agency for research (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, FCT), recommended PRISC for inclusion in the Portuguese Roadmap of Strategic Research Infrastructures. The project 'Promotion of Brazilian S&T Heritage' is similar in nature to the ones described in other countries. Initially, it was funded by the national research funding agency, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), and the corresponding agency for the state of Rio de Janeiro, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa (FAPERJ). However, funding has so far been minimal considering the task involved, and even after co-funding from the MAST clearly more funding needs to be raised before the whole country is covered by the Project. It should be underlined that while universities have coordinated similar initiatives in other countries, in Brazil a larger spectrum of institutions had to be included in the project. Furthermore, the task in Brazil is literally continental in proportions and the challenges are enormous. Even so, first results presented here are encouraging and should stimulate continued efforts for the preservation of these groups of objects of cultural significance. The Project website describes the scope of the activities, institutions participating in the collaborative network, a bibliography, a leaflet providing basic guidelines for preservation, as well as a list of registered institutions per state.23 In 2014, the project plans to provide open source software enabling institutions with S&T heritage to upload data directly on the platform, thereby expanding access to their objects. Methodology Methodological decisions and scope definitions had to be made in the initial stages of the Project. It was decided that the S&T heritage under study would include all objects related to the so-called 'exact' sciences, earth sciences and engineering made before 1960. Reasons behind this decision were twofold: i) time frame: more recent objects are likely to be in use; ii) disciplinary scope: areas of choice coincide with the disciplinary scope of the coordinating museum, MAST; this meant available expertise as well as potential enlargement of the MAST collections. After scope parameters were defined, the project team discussed the categories of information to be collected and registered. Analysis of scientific heritage surveys conducted in Europe was made. The registration form used in Portugal was selected as the model to be adapted to the Brazilian reality and universe of study. The final registration form for the Brazilian S&T heritage survey is transcribed in the annex.
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The project team made direct contacts with institutions likely to have S&T heritage. These contacts were aimed at raising awareness towards the importance of their heritage and encouraging them to make lists of objects for future protection and recognition. The survey involved a combination of emails, phone calls and field visits. Four types of institutions were covered by the survey: i) higher education establishments, ii) scientific and/or technological research institutes, iii) museums and iv) secondary schools. Although some were surveyed, secondary schools were put aside for a second stage because of their sheer number. Later, military institutions were also added to the survey institutional scope. The fine selection of the institutions was done according to the criteria and sources described below. Institutional Scope of the Project: Criteria and sources A) Higher Education Establishments The main source was the online database of Brazilian higher education institutions and courses at e-MEC.24 It was chosen because it is the only database maintained by the government.25 For the purposes of the survey, only public, tuition-free establishments run by the federal government and state governments were selected. Having identified the federal and state-run higher education establishments, the team selected departments and courses related to the 'exact' sciences, earth sciences and engineering, according to the CAPES classification. CAPES is the government agency responsible for higher education; it organises areas of knowledge into three hierarchic levels, eight broad areas, 76 specific areas and 340 sub-areas of knowledge. Table 1 depicts the areas covered in the survey as classified by CAPES. Table 1 - Broad and specific areas of knowledge covered by the project survey (Source: Tabela de Ă reas de Conhecimento, CAPES).26 Broad Area (level 1) Exact and Earth Sciences
Engineering I
Engineering II
Engineering III
Engineering IV
Specific Area (level 2) Mathematics Physics Chemistry Geosciences Civil Engineering Sanitary Engineering Transport Engineering Mining Engineering Materials and Metallurgical Engineering Chemical Engineering Nuclear Engineering Mechanical Engineering Production Engineering Ocean and Naval Engineering Aerospace Engineering Electrical Engineering
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B) Museums For the selection of museums covered by the project 'Promotion of Brazilian S&T Heritage', the National Museum Registry was the main source. This database aims at mapping Brazil's museological diversity; it was created in 2006 by the Brazilian Museum Institute (Instituto Brasileiro de Museus, IBRAM). The Brazilian Museum Handbook (Guia dos Museus Brasileiros) was also used.27 Museums indicated as having collections of science, technology and history were selected. C) Research Institutions The main source for selecting research institutions was the PROSSIGA Programme. Created by the Brazilian Institute for Information on Science and Technology (Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia, IBICT), the main purpose of PROSSIGA is to organise and publish information useful to the management of science, technology and innovation. Its website contains data about scientific and technological institutions and their subordinate entities, mostly higher education, research and technology establishments. In 2002 alone, 5,416 new records were added to the PROSSIGA Network database, bringing the total of institutions to 24,280.28 For the Promotion Brazilian S&T Heritage Project, institutions from the selected areas of knowledge were included in the survey. Apart from these sources, online local and state governments' portals and web search engines were also used. Collecting data associated with groups of S&T objects After identifying institutions likely to have S&T objects of cultural significance, they were organised geographically and typologically. Initial contact was typically made by email, followed by phone. When an institution indicated it had instruments of interest to the Project, an attempt was made to register the group by phone or email using the pro-forma registration form (Table 2 and Annex). In most cases this proved unproductive, and field visits had to be made. For a broader geographical coverage, partnerships were established with Museology Departments at the Federal Universities of Pernambuco, Bahia, Pelotas, Brasilia and Ouro Preto. They were provided with the methodology, registration form and detailed instructions for surveying their respective states, namely Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul, Goiás/Federal District, and Minas Gerais. Surveys done by these teams did not always yield consistent results and had to be followed up by complementary surveys made by the MAST team.
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Table 2 - Registration form for S&T objects. Fields on the registration form
Identification
Location and responsibility for care
Context, significance and use
Organisation
Content - Name: current name of the set or collection of objects - Size: estimated number of objects - Number: registration number of the collection (project serial number) - Host institution; department / area / institute, etc. with direct responsibility for collection; location; website - Director or responsible staff, contact details, institutional and legal status - Descriptive and historical notes - Importance - Recent or regular uses of the collection - Inventory - Documentation - Conservation state
The form also included a field for observations, another for bibliography, name and contact of the person who completed the form, and date. General results of the surveys Between 2010 and 2013, a total of 1,486 institutions likely to have S&T heritage were identified. This was the survey's universe of study (Table 3). Table 3 - Number and percentage of institutions surveyed per type. Type of Institution Higher Education Establishments Museums Scientific and/or Technological Research Institutes Secondary Schools
Number 834 470 161 21
Percentage 56.1 31.6 10.9 1.4
So far,29 of the 1,486 institutions contacted 1,012 (68%) were found to have no S&T objects and were therefore excluded. Contacts for the remaining 137 (9%) proved fruitless (Fig. 1). 337 (23%) have been identified as having relevant groups of S&T objects: 160 higher education establishments (48%), 139 museums (41%), 27 science and technology institutions (8%) and 11 secondary schools (3%). These figures mean that the project team managed to contact 91% of the institutions selected, which clearly demonstrates their efforts and dedication in obtaining results. The contacts resulted in the identification of over 30,000 S&T objects of significance (Fig. 2).30
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Fig. 1 - Institutions with S&T objects. Failed contact means no follow up could be made or the respondents provided no useful information.
Fig. 2 - Distribution of S&T objects per type of institution (total: 32,958).
The majority of objects were in museums (45%), which is a guarantee of minimum standards of preservation and significance. Next came higher education establishments, with 42% of the objects, followed by secondary schools (7%) and research institutions (6%). Data were corroborated in field
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visits, confirming that research institutions tend to renew equipment and infrastructure faster and more often, resulting in swift disposals and fewer pre1960 objects of interest to the Project. Although universities have fewer objects on average, these are at greater risk given the lack of preservation policies. Numbers regarding secondary schools are merely indicative. As mentioned earlier, the survey did not systematically include secondary schools therefore many more remain to be identified and evaluated. However, if the average number of objects per institution is considered, the importance of secondary schools as guardians of S&T heritage becomes clear: 71 objects on average per scientific and/or technological research institute, 86 per higher education establishment, 106 per museum, and 198 per secondary school. In other words, more than 2,000 artefacts were found in only 11 secondary schools. In terms of regional distribution, more S&T objects were found in the Southeast (50%), followed by the Northeast (21%), South (13%), North (8%) and Central-West (8%) (Fig. 3). These results come as no surprise and reflect Brazilian demographics: the Southeast region has more population, more institutions and the oldest teaching and research institutions. Percentages for other regions reflect a more recent occupation and development.
Fig. 3 - Regional distribution of institutions surveyed and map of Brazilian regions.
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In terms of conservation state, 69% of the groups of artefacts were classified as Good or Reasonable (Fig. 4). It should be stressed that these numbers provide a mere first approach. Credibility of conservation state evaluations varies according to whether they were made in situ by the project team or by local staff, likely to lack expertise.31 Lack of credible evaluation explains why 74 groups of objects were classified as 'not defined'.
Fig. 4 - Conservation state of the groups of S&T objects.
Unsurprisingly, the North is the region where objects' conservation state is poorer. The climate in Northern Brazil is aggressive, with constant high values of relative humidity throughout the year. The Northeast has a remarkably high number of objects in a reasonable conservation state, followed by the South. There were more cases in the Southeast and Central-West where conservation state could not be assessed. Assessing the importance32 of groups of S&T objects under survey is a key objective of the project. Importance and significance are paramount factors in future public policies for S&T heritage in Brazil. Five categories of importance and significance of the groups of objects were established: international, national, regional, local and institutional. The 'institutional' category is related with the institution where the group of objects was identified and the 'local' category is related with the city where the institution is located. Attribution of cultural significance is subjective and complex by definition. Moreover, it changes as a result of time, associated documentation, the person or community attributing value and also further studies. Literature does not abound, except in terms of replacement value.33 In S&T objects historical dimension is paramount. Artefacts related to the development of science and technology are important, particularly those manufactured in Brazil
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as a result of Brazilian research and innovation; so are those manufactured abroad yet used in key scientific events in Brazil. Significance for the history of science and technology is complemented with the significance for the history of the institutions involved; this can be further segmented depending on national or international importance of the institutions where the objects were generated and used. Another factor is the rarity of the artefact. Most equipment and instrument prototypes are rare, as they are made early in the product development process. The survey suggests an institutional bias in value attributions that deserves further research. Higher education establishments tended to rank object importance and local relevance in terms of teaching and research work. In scientific and/or technological research institutes, importance tended to be more associated with the institution's research position in Brazil. In museums, importance was often linked to people connected to the object or to local history. Even with five distinct levels of importance, the attribution of value was very complex (Fig. 5). In many cases, staff responsible for a given group of S&T objects was asked to comment on importance – e.g. 'why is this group of instruments special?' Their answers were often inconclusive because many were unable to recognise value in the artefacts. The idea that 'old' equipment and instruments could have cultural value is often strange to people working in R&D. Field visits by team members to some institutions had a positive effect in raising local awareness. Recent research suggests that laboratory technicians, when aware, can become considerably engaged in the preservation of S&T heritage.34
Fig. 5 - Importance attributed to the groups of S&T objects (evaluators: project team and local/institutional staff).
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The research team was unable to attribute importance to 35% of the groups, a high figure even considering the intrinsic difficulties discussed above. Only 3% of the groups of objects were considered of international importance, which is likely to be under-estimated. Local evaluators – i.e. staff responsible for the artefacts – are more likely to attribute institutional significance to the groups of objects (34%), which could be explained by familiarity with their use. Qualitative data: Preliminary discussion Quantitative data are often insufficient to provide a larger picture and qualitative analysis resulting from field visits is presented and discussed below. Research institutes and universities are very similar in the way they deal with S&T heritage. The former have greater institutional control over their administrative processes and decisions about the fate of artefacts are made by a larger group of employees than in higher education institutions. In universities, preservation is more likely to fall under the decision, responsibility and individual efforts of professors, lecturers or technicians who establish a relationship with objects (often emotional and memorial) or recognise their historical value. They are usually long-term employees and remember using the objects when they were students or in their early careers. On the other hand, many institutions have no idea of what they have. During visits, a professor or researcher often demonstrated surprise for a particular object forgotten in a drawer or a laboratory cabinet ('I have not seen this for many years!'). The team was also often told that there were more instruments than could be seen during a single visit. Many universities have rooms they call 'museums', although these are typically well below minimum museum standards. Local staff is often aware of their expertise limitations. Some said a proposal had been made to formalise the 'museum' and hire museum professionals. In some field visits, the project team was told that designating a particular space a 'museum' was crucial for minimal internal recognition and even for a small subsistence budget. When there is a 'museum' or 'memorial centre', these are usually proactive in searching for scattered and obsolete items across the institution. In most cases, however, a specific department or unit handles obsolete and redundant materials, usually through disposal or temporary storage in large warehouses. It is ironic that in Brazil – and in other countries too, for example Portugal – this unit is called the 'Heritage Department' (Setor/Unidade de Patrimônio). This terminology adds an extra layer of complexity to the perception of 'heritage' by the institution. Usually, objects in storages of unwanted 'heritage' are listed but external access is difficult. A few cases of destruction of historical objects as a result of fires have been reported. The team also found historical objects that were never operated
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or used because of lack of a proper infrastructure. Documentation exists but is often dispersed. Information was often found on the objects' boxes and manuals. Notes and other documents were often stored in the institutions' 'heritage' departments. In short, not only were the objects diverse and complex, but also their circumstances, status and relations they establish with local staff were intricate – from strong ownership bonds to complete disinterest and willingness to get rid of them. Where objects had been preserved, two typical situations had occurred: either they had been selected by local professionals, mostly due to operational state and previous use by professors and lecturers in the department's activities; or the objects were saved by sheer arbitrary luck, after having been abandoned in laboratory furniture, offices or storages. In either way, selection was not guided by deliberate 'cultural' reasons or done by cultural heritage professionals. Another interesting point is the lack of standardised terminology to classify and characterise groups of S&T objects. The term 'collection' is often used. However, this is misleading because the groups of objects have not been submitted to the organisation and documentation stages inherent to collection formation. Thus, a working classification for groups and collections of objects outside museums is proposed (Table 4). This classification aligns the groups and collections with Brazilian legislation.35 Table 4 - Proposed classification for groups and collections of scientific and technological artefacts outside museums.
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Concluding remarks Surveys conducted under the 'Promotion of Brazilian Scientific and Technological (S&T) Heritage' Project have indicated that c. 20% of 1,486 institutions (337) still have S&T objects that may be considered Brazilian S&T heritage; most are Higher Education Establishments (48%), followed by Museums (41%), Scientific and/or Technological Research Institutes (8%) and Secondary Schools (3%). A universe of c. 30,000 objects were identified in the surveys, with the majority (69%) in good or reasonable conservation state. Most are preserved in Museums (45%), although a similar number is preserved in Higher Education Establishments (43%), the latter at greater vulnerability and risk of loss. On the other hand, it should be stressed that bearing the designation 'museum' does not necessarily mean bearing minimum museum standards, criteria and legal requirements.38 This happens for a multiplicity of reasons, including lack of adequate human and financial resources, lack of adequate space, low position in the parent institutions' priorities, and lack of awareness and recognition towards museum- and heritage-oriented work, particularly not trashing items that could be of cultural significance. Designations such as memorials, exhibitions or open collections would be more appropriate. However, particularly in the case of universities, the use of the term 'museum' is paramount for institutional recognition and the very survival of the S&T heritage. The Project results are important for the preservation of science and technology heritage because they represent the first initiative at national scale to map and document the status of these objects and, more generally, scientific and technological heritage in Brazil. This information is particularly important because many of these objects could be discarded at any moment due to quick obsolescence and competition for space and resources in their parent institutions. Emergency is thus one of the reasons why they must be surveyed and documented;39 another reason is that knowledge gained from the Project can stimulate and support the development of institutional and national policies for the preservation of S&T heritage. Exchanges made during the Project, particularly in field visits, clearly indicated growing local awareness towards S&T heritage from those responsible for its care on a daily basis. As the Project progressed, objects were gradually seen in a different light. Local debates about heritage preservation are probably the most significant 'side-effect' of the Project as they are likely to have positive results in the mid- to long-term. For this reason, the Project developed actions directly aimed at supporting the daily work of professionals, as well as increasing recognition from the institutions' administrations.40
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Other initiatives have included the dissemination of the groups and collections of S&T objects in publications, national and international conferences and exhibitions. The development of open access software enabling free registration of the groups and collections is also being contemplated; this would enable wider public access through the internet. In terms of research, the Project opens multiple possibilities in a wide range of disciplines, from Museology to Conservation and from the History of Science and Technology to Cultural Heritage Studies, among others. Topics of special interest to the Project team include further analyses resulting from data treatment and sample enlargement, innovative survey methodologies and terminology/conceptual clarification. Moreover, further theoretical stratification of the categories presented in Table 3, particularly in terms of conservation state, would enable the classification of many groups of S&T objects whose current status is 'not defined'. The Project team is also contemplating further research into the significance, importance and value of these groups of S&T objects – local, institutional, national and international. Attribution of significance is complex in terms of single objects, let alone groups of objects. Multiple aspects need to be analysed. What significance is attributed to groups of S&T objects by different professionals – e.g. scientists, technicians, conservators, museums/heritage professionals? In what ways does it vary? What criteria do each professional community privilege? In what ways do these criteria relate to museum and heritage standards and practice? Comparison with surveys done in other countries is particularly relevant in this respect. Undoubtedly, a lot remains to be done. However, knowledge about the heritage of S&T, in its multiple levels – object, group, collection, museum – and its multiple relations with institutions, people, and national and international networks is crucial for our understanding of past, present and future science and technology. At political and institutional level, this knowledge is also essential to stimulate recognition, policies and funding mechanisms enabling long-term and sustainable preservation of S&T heritage. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa no Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) for their support for this research. Notes 1
T. C. M. Scheiner, 'Políticas e diretrizes da Museologia e do patrimônio na atualidade', in Museus, Ciência e Tecnologia (Orgs. J. N. Bittencourt, M. Granato, S. F. Benchetrit), Museu Histórico Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, 2007, 31-48, p. 36.
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2
“We consider S&T heritage to be scientific and technological knowledge and all the objects (including documents), archaeological collections, ethnographic collections and specimens from biological collections that bear witness to scientific processes and technology development. The buildings constructed with the function of meeting the needs of these processes and developments are also part of this broad scope.” See M. Granato, 'Panorama sobre o patrimônio de Ciência e Tecnologia no Brasil: Objetos de C&T', in Cultura Material e Patrimônio de Ciência e Tecnologia (orgs. M. Granato and M. F. Rangel), MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, 78-102, p. 79. 3 Available at: http://www.mast.br/projetovalorizacao/index.html, accessed: 2 February 2014. 4 M. Lourenço and L. Wilson, 'Scientific heritage: Reflections on its nature and new approaches to preservation, study and access', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (2013), 44 (4), 744-753, p. 745. 5 Objects more readily identified as being science and technology heritage are scientific instruments, because they were used in science and applied technology laboratories. However, scientific instrument is a complex term and only applies to a specific historical period (nineteenth and early twentieth century). It is difficult to use the term 'scientific instruments' when we are talking about 'Big Science', for example. The term 'science and technology objects' is broader in scope, encompassing the variety of artefacts included in this study (M. Granato, C. P. Santos, J. L. Furtado and L. P. G. Neves, 'Objetos de ciência e tecnologia como fontes documentais para a história das ciências: resultados parciais', in Anais do VIII Encontro Nacional de Pesquisa em Ciência da Informação, ANCIB, Brasília, 2007, 1-16.) 6 For results, see: M. Granato and P. Louvain, 'Legislação de Proteção ao Patrimônio Cultural de Ciência e Tecnologia: análise e proposições', in Seminário de Pesquisa em Museologia dos Países de Língua Portuguesa e Espanhola (IV SIAM). Museologia, Patrimônio, Interculturalidade: museus inclusivos, desenvolvimento e diálogo intercultural. Textos selecionados (Eds. M. Granato and T. C. M. Scheiner), v.2, 1st edn, MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2013, p. 234-249, http://www.youblisher.com/p/771560-Livro-IV-SIAM-2012/, accessed: 2 February 2014; P. Louvain and M. Granato, 'Legislação brasileira de proteção ao patrimônio cultural de ciência e tecnologia: análise e aplicação no ensino e pesquisa', in Anais do II Seminário Gestão do Patrimônio Cultural de Ciência e Tecnologia, Editora Universitária da UFPE, Recife, 2013, 138-165. 7 For the purposes of this text, a 'group of S&T objects' is defined as an accumulation of S&T objects that may have cultural value, individually or as a (future) collection. This general term encompasses groups of objects that may or may not be organised and that may or may not be accessible (see Table 4). 8 The use of a collective prosopography, or collective biography, to study S&T objects was proposed by Jim Bennett (J. A. Bennett, 'Museums and the history of science', ISIS (2005), 96, 602-608), among others. 9 For results, see: M. A. C. Oliveira and M. Granato, 'The historical instruments from Valongo Observatory, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro', University Museums and Collections Journal (2012), 5, 53-64, http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/2012/oliveira53/PDF/oliveira.pdf, accessed: 2 February 2014; M. A. C. Oliveira and M. Granato, 'A Trajetória da Formação da Coleção de Objetos de Ciência & Tecnologia do Observatório do Valongo', in Anais do XII ENANCIB, UNB, Brasília, 2011, 2753-2767; M. Granato, E. S. Maia, F. P. Santos, P. Louvain, L. B. Santos and E. H. Rosemberg, 'Valorização do Patrimônio Científico e Tecnológico Brasileiro: resultados de
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pesquisa', in Anais do XIII Encontro Nacional de Pesquisa em Ciência da Informação. UFSC, Florianópolis, 2013, 1-20. See also Granato and Santos, this volume. 10 Lourenço and Wilson, op. cit., p. 746. 11 The Portuguese survey of S&T heritage is being coordinated by Marta C. Lourenço. See M. C. Lourenço, 'Preserving and studying scientific heritage at the University of Lisbon: Recent developments and perspectives', in Revista electrónica de Fuentes y Archivos (Buenos Aires), forthcoming. The collaboration between MAST and the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC), University of Lisbon started in 2000, and it has generated other joint projects (e.g. Thesaurus of Scientific Archives in Portuguese). See M. Granato, M. C. Lourenço, C. P. Santos, Z. F. Brasil, M. L. N. M. Loureiro and R. F. Souza, 'Thesaurus de Acervos Científicos como Instrumento de Preservação do patrimônio Científico: um projeto de cooperação luso-brasileira', in Atas do IV Encontro de Museus de Países e Comunidades de Língua Portuguesa, Comissão Nacional Portuguesa do ICOM, Lisbon, 2013, 93102.) and reference works on Brazilian and Portuguese scientific collections in Coleções científicas luso-brasileiras: patrimônio a ser descoberto (Eds. M. Granato and M. C. Lourenço), 1st edn, MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2010, http://www.mast.br/livros/colecoes_cientificas_luso_brasileiras_patrimonio_a_ser_de scoberto.pdf, accessed: 2 February 2014. 12 Idem. 13 S. Soubiran, M. C. Lourenço, R. Wittje, S. Talas and T. Bremer, 'Initiatives européennes et patrimoine universitaire', La Lettre de l'OCIM (2009), 123, 5-14. 14 Developed under the Office de Coopération et Information Muséales (OCIM). Available at http://www.ocim.fr/, accessed: 10 February 2014. 15 C. Ballé, C. Cuenca and D. Thoulouze (Eds.), Patrimoine scientifique et technique. Un projet contemporain, La Documentation Française, Paris, 2010. 16 Available at: http://www.aseiste.org/, accessed: 6 February 2014. 17 F. Gires and P. Lauginie, 'Preserving the scientific and technical Heritage of Education: the ASEIST', Museologia e Patrimônio (2013), 6 (1), 161-178. http://revistamuseologiaepatrimonio.mast.br/index.php/ppgpmus/article/view/285/224 , accessed: 10 October 2013. 18 O. Zauzig, 'The Documentation of University Collections in Germany', eRittenhouse (2013), 24, 1-7. p. 2, http://www.erittenhouse.org/artitcles/current-issue-vol-242/university-collections-in-germany/, accessed: 2 February 2014. 19 Zauzig, op. cit., p. 3. 20 Scientific Collections as Research Infrastructure, German Council for the Sciences and Humanities, http://www.wissenschaftsrat.de/download/archiv/10464-1111_engl.pdf, accessed: 2 February 2014. 21 Zauzig, op. cit., p. 5. 22 PRISC is led by National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC), at the University of Lisbon, and involves a consortium between the universities of Lisbon (MUHNAC), Porto (Museu de Ciência, Museu de História Natural), Coimbra (Museu da Ciência, Jardim Botânico) and the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (IICT) in which several other entities, including research units, museums and local governments, also participate. PRISC's aims at providing organisational, conservation, accessibility, exhibition, consultancy and training services for scientific collections from every area, including the humanities, to the scientific community.
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23
See http://www.mast.br/projetovalorizacao/index.html, accessed 12 April 2014. Available at http://emec.mec.gov.br/, accessed 15 February 2014. The database was created by the Ministry of Education by Directive 40, 12 December 2007. 25 Portaria Normativa Nº 40, 12 December 2007, http://meclegis.mec.gov.br/documento/view/id/17/, accessed: 2 February 2014. 26 CAPES. Tabela de Áreas de Conhecimento. Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, 2012. Available at: http://www.capes.gov.br/images/stories/download/avaliacao/TabelaAreasConhecimen to_072012.pdf, accessed: 10 March 2014. 27 Guia dos Museus Brasileiros, Instituto Brasileiro de Museus, Brasília, 2011, http://www.museus.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gmb_norte.pdf, accessed: 2 February 2014. This publication lists physical and virtual museums, as well as museums being created or at initial stages of development. 28 Brasil, MCT, Relatório de Atividades - Exercício 2002, http://prossiga.ibict.br/documentos/RelProg/005.pdf, accessed: 2 February 2014. 29 The numbers provided are not definitive because research is still ongoing and new groups of S&T objects may still be identified. 30 It should be noted that all flasks, parcels and bottles of chemicals were removed from this total number. In many chemistry laboratories and even in some museums visited, such as the Museu da Química Professor Athos da Silveira Ramos (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), the number of old chemicals was staggering (c. 5,000 in this Museum alone). If they were included, numbers would be considerably distorted. Health and security issues associated with these objects and with S&T heritage in general are outside the scope of this text. 31 The evaluations made by the institutions that harbour the sets of objects of their state of conservation were what prompted the detailed explanation of how such assessments should be made and what criteria should be used; even so, the findings may be inaccurate. 32 The word 'importance' is intended to mean the value attributed to an object or set of objects by third parties that highlight them and could have a decisive influence on whether or not they are classified as S&T heritage. 33 See e.g. S. W. G. de Clercq, 'The Dutch Approach, or how to achieve a second life for abandoned geological collections', Museologia (2003), 3, 27-36; M. A. Meadow, 'Relocation and revaluation in university collections, or, rubbish theory revisited', UMACJ (2010), 3, 3-9, http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/2010/meadow3/PDF/meadow.pdf, accessed: 19 April 2014. 34 E.g. L. Wilson, 'A typology of dispersed collections: Collaborating with scientists and technicians', in Shaping European university heritage: Past and possible futures (Eds. L. Maison, S. Talas and R. Wittje), Transactions of The Royal Norwegian Society and Akademika Publishing, Trondheim, 2013, 137-152. 35 For a classification aligning groups and collections of S&T objects outside museums with the Portuguese legislation, see Lourenço, op. cit. (forthcoming). 36 Law Nº 11.904, 14 January 2009 (Statute of Brazilian Museums), http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2007-2010/2009/Lei/L11904.htm, accessed: 2 February 2014. 37 Item II, article 2, Decree-Law 8124, 17 October 2013, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2011-2014/2013/Decreto/D8124.htm, accessed: 2 February 2014. 24
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38
The museum definition in article 1 of the Brazilian Museums Statute (2009) defines activities that are not carried out in many of the museums registered under the Project survey: 'For the effects of this law, museums shall be understood as nonprofit institutions that conserve, investigate, communicate, interpret and exhibit, for the purposes of preservation, study, research, education, contemplation and tourism, groups and collections of historical, artistic, scientific, technical or other cultural value which are open to the public and at the service of society and its development.� 39 During field visits made by the project team to universities and research institutes, it was common to find objects in the final stages of administrative disposal. It was also common to hear that large quantities of historical scientific apparatus had been recently disposed of, especially after Reuni funding, which enabled many academic centres and institutes to update their laboratories. 40 A leaflet with preservation guidelines aimed at staff responsible for objects of S&T was prepared under the Project. See http://www.mast.br/pdf/cartilha_de_orientacoes_gerais_para_preservacao_do_patrim onio_cultural_de_ciencia_e_tecnologia_v2.pdf, accessed: 10 March 2014.
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ANNEX PRO-FORMA REGISTRATION FORM FOR COLLECTIONS AND GROUPSOF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OBJECTS (BRAZILIAN SURVEY)
Details of the collection:
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The Scientific Heritage of Education
The physics teaching instruments at Colégio Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro: Study and preliminary results Marcus Granato and Liliane Bispo dos Santos Introduction The focus of this chapter is a set of teaching instruments presently at the physics laboratory of Colégio Pedro II, a secondary school in Rio de Janeiro. It is based on a study of the documentation about the collection as part of a broader research project into the heritage of science and technology in Brazil being conducted by the Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST).1 Our interpretation of cultural heritage follows Gonçalves (2007), who defines the term as assets to which value has been attributed. In the author's words: […] 'cultural heritage' is not merely a collection of material objects and structures existing in themselves, but it is in fact discursively constituted. Objects we identify and preserve as the 'cultural heritage' of a nation or any social group do not exist as such until we classify them thus in our discourse.2
According to Lourenço,3 education and research institutions are not sufficiently aware towards the preservation of their cultural objects, and Colégio Pedro II is no exception. The author lists a number of challenges faced by scientific heritage and focuses her discourse on its potential as a source for research for the history of science. This also applies to the set of instruments at Colégio Pedro II.
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4
Paolo Brenni expounds a similar problem for scientific instruments: they are little studied, there is scant documentation about them, and the conservation of objects in educational institutions is not valued as it is in museums. But he stresses that awareness of the value of this heritage has risen in recent decades: The situation started to change towards the end of the 1970s even if it is hard to set a precise date. A generalized nostalgia for the past (absurdly idealized), which seemed to be vanishing fast and whose testaments seemed also to be disappearing quickly, helped spur the reaction. [) This general atmosphere of revival was also propitious for the rediscovery of scientific collections.5
The collection of teaching instruments at the physics laboratory of Colégio Pedro II can be seen as heritage because it has historical, educational and cultural importance. A key factor in this attribution of value is the fact that the instruments belong to the first secondary school under the Brazilian Imperial Government, a school that remained a model for education in Brazil. In this respect, the materiality associated with teaching practices at this institution can be seen as a documental source and a legacy, including for the values attributed by the institution's pupils and teachers and by historians of education. The prospect of preserving the instruments indicates a broader social appropriation of this heritage, enabling other sectors of society to attribute other values and expand on the communication potential of the set of objects. In this chapter, after a brief presentation of the school and its historical importance to secondary education in Brazil, the methodology of the study will be presented, followed by an overview of the collection's origins and development. Brief History of Colégio Pedro II Colégio Pedro II was the first official secondary school in Brazil. Its roots are tied up with the Seminário São Joaquim, an orphanage founded in the second half of the eighteenth century, itself a descendent of the Colégio dos Órfãos de São Pedro. The latter was created on 8 June 1739 by Antônio de Guadalupe, Bishop of Rio de Janeiro, with the aim of giving orphans and poor children from the city a brighter future.6 About the education at this Colégio, Gabaglia writes: “Classes or lessons were given in Latin: grammar, music and liturgical chant, and probably practical lessons in certain arts or crafts”. He adds, “Colégio de S. Pedro had paying pupils; but nothing is known about them”. The Colégio was located in a building behind São Pedro church (former Rua São Pedro), in the vicinity of present day Avenida Presidente Vargas, near Rua Miguel Couto, in the centre of Rio de Janeiro.
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As student demand increased, the Colégio dos Órfãos de São Pedro began to run out of space. Moreover, the area surrounding the school was noisy and distracted the pupils from their studies. In 1758, some land on Rua do Valongo (today Rua Camerino),8 was donated to the school by Manoel de Campos Dias. There, the school's successive principals, Fr. Jacintho Pereira da Costa and Fr. Antônio Lopes Xavier, built premises that were better suited to the school's needs. The school was transferred in 1766, still under the leadership of Antônio Lopes Xavier. In 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese royal family in Brazil, the school, now designated Seminário de São Joaquim, underwent major changes. On 5 January 1818 it was closed by a royal decree issued by the prince regent, João VI. According to Dória,9 the decree ordered the school's premises to be vacated to provide room for a battalion of royal troops. Boys with ministry vocation were sent to the Seminário de São José, while the others were sent to the barracks' workshops. When the São Joaquim seminary was transformed into military barracks, several changes occurred. One was the deterioration in public health conditions in the vicinity as several lethal diseases and epidemics struck the area. Both Dória10 and Gabaglia11 note that people believed this to be a “divine punishment” for the shutdown of the seminary. In 1821, João VI returned to Portugal, leaving his son Pedro as regent prince. Perceiving the people's desire to have the seminary building returned to its original function, Pedro issued a decree on 19 May 1821 which annulled the decree passed down by his father to shut down the school.12 Unfortunately, even after resuming operations, the school's situation was not greatly improved. Only in 1831, when the Minister and Secretary for the Business of the Empire, José Lino Coutinho, passed a decree on 12 December 1831 authorizing a reform of Seminário de São Joaquim did things begin to change. Among other things, the decree stated that the seminary was the responsibility of the Imperial Government and that pupils would learn to read, write and have lessons in drawing in the first three years. Once literate, they could have lessons in mathematics and go to the workshops, where they would be trained as “turners, engravers, lithographers, printers, or any other craft suited to our needs and the country's state of civilization [...]”. In the last year, students had lessons with the National Guard to learn how to handle weapons and do some military exercises.13 These changes were not enough to raise the level of education at the school, which underwent another reform in 1837. On 2 December 1837, via the acting regent of the imperial government, Pedro Araújo Lima, and the Minister of Justice and acting Minister of the Empire, Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcellos, another decree was issued, changing the school's name from Seminário de
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São Joaquim to Colégio Pedro II, the first secondary school under the Imperial Government. The date of the decree and the name of the 'new' institution were a tribute to the young prince and future emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, who turned 12 that day. Colégio Pedro II was instituted to be Brazil's first secondary education establishment and to serve as a model for the schools in Rio and across the country. It had a teaching staff of renowned intellectuals, and prospective pupils had to undergo admission tests. Its curriculum was designed around the principles of classical and humanistic education, as set forth in the document by which the school was established, part of which is transcribed below: The acting Regent, in the Name of the Emperor Pedro the second, Decrees: Art.1 Seminario de S. Joaquim shall be converted into a School of Secondary Education. Art. 2 This School shall be called – Collegio de Pedro II. Art. 3 At this School Latin, Greek, French and English languages; Rhetoric, and the elementary principles of Geography, History, Philosophy, Zoology, Mineralogy, Botany, Chemistry, Physics, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry and Astronomy shall be taught.14
As a model school, its premises should be appropriate to learning and comfortably accommodate the pupils. Bernardo de Vasconcellos therefore set about improving the building of the former seminary, for which he hired a wellknown architect, Granjean de Montigny. Colégio Pedro II was inaugurated on 25 March 1838, and on 2 May the lessons began.15 The school had a specially selected curriculum and over the years it acquired, by purchase and donation, several artefacts to complement the students' and teachers' work – especially senior teachers writing theses and compendiums for use in the school. Through this process, collections of books were formed and a library was organised. Moreover, collections of objects for practical lessons and experiments supporting the teaching of physics, chemistry, mineralogy, natural history, geography and geodesy were also organised. Initially, the school accepted boarders and day pupils, but from 1858 onwards the boarding school moved to a different location in Rio, leaving the centre campus just for day students. Today it is known as the centre unit of Colégio Pedro II. Over the years, the school has undergone a series of changes, but even today it is considered a benchmark for secondary education in the country. There are now six Pedro II schools: the original one in the centre of Rio, and the ones in the districts of São Cristóvão, Tijuca, Humaitá, Engenho Novo and
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Realengo. More recently, schools have been also established in the neighbouring municipalities of Niterói and Duque de Caxias.
Fig. 1 - Main façade of Colégio Pedro II (Centre), Rio (author unknown).
15
The school in the centre of Rio was the first to be built and it still has the original physics, chemistry, natural history and geography cabinets and laboratories. At the moment, the chemistry and geography laboratories are temporarily closed. For its historical, educational and artistic importance, the building was listed by the national heritage protection agency, IPHAN, on 19 May 1983 (list of historical heritage – registration no. 489; list of artistic heritage – registration no. 550). Methodology For the purpose of studying the collection of scientific teaching instruments from the physics laboratory at the centre unit of Colégio Pedro II, our methodology involved the identification and analysis of primary and secondary sources dating to 1838, when the school admitted its first pupils; data compiled was projected into a chronological table. Documents attesting early acquisitions of scientific instruments for practical physics lessons at the school were gathered. However, the majority of the documentation (correspondence) was related to acquisitions for the boarding school (transferred in 1858 to the Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro), not to the centre unit. This means that historical sets of objects may still exist in other Pedro II schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The work has so far been conducted at the National Archives (Arquivo Nacional) and the Colégio Pedro II Documentation and Memory Centre (Núcleo de Documentação e Memória do Colégio Pedro II, NUDOM-CPII).
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Documentation assembled enabled us to outline a sequence of events concerning the formation of the collection of teaching objects in the physics laboratory. This outline is presented and analysed below. Acquisitions of Instruments In previous research, Ferreira et al. reported that, […] the first references mentioning the physics and chemistry laboratory at Colégio Pedro II are from a report presented by the school principal, Carlos de Laet,17 as late as 1919, which states that “a sum of 12:500$000 was allocated for the physics and chemistry cabinet of the boarding school for its reorganization (...). An equal sum was likewise allocated for the physics and chemistry cabinet of the day school (...).18
However, our study indicates that the physics laboratory started to be equipped in the nineteenth century, in compliance with the school's bylaws (decree, 31 January 1838). Article 151, chapter 24, determined the creation of a physics laboratory for complementary studies: “There will also be a Cabinet of Physics, a Chemistry laboratory, and a rudimentary collection of the products of the three kingdoms, vegetal, mineral and animal”.19 Initially, the school made several requests for loans of objects for the physics and natural science lessons to the National Museum.20 The first request dates from 1839. The museum replies approving the loan and sending a list of objects that could be sent to the school. The person at the museum responsible for loans answers the letter from the school's vice-principal, Bernardo Pereira de Vasconcelos: […] amongst the machines and instruments that constitute the Laboratory at the Museum, without diminishing this Establishment the following may be loaned: one Nicholson scale, two areometers, two thermometers, one hygrometer, one electrometer, one flask of Acid, and one electrical discharger, one natural magnet, one reflection furnace, two evaporation furnaces, some Hessian crucibles, two porcelain capsules, an iron furnace for a water bath or sand furnace, long-handled spoons [*], stands, tongs, and iron spatulas, one sieve, one porcelain mortar and another made of glass, glass retorts, bulb flasks, flasks with two and three callos for Wolf's apparatus [*], ordinary glassware, bocaes [nozzles?] [*], matrasses, funnels, straight, long test tubes [*] and tubes with rubber ends such as required to assemble a small Laboratory, for such objects exist in duplicates and great numbers at the Museum laboratory. From the animal kingdom, some birds
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from Europe, and from the area surrounding Rio de Janeiro, very few quadrupeds and reptiles, from the vegetable and mineral kingdoms some dried plants, a good part of the mineralogy Collection that belonged to the late José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, whose specimens should also exist in the old collection but unclassified, with the few labels that accompany them written in poor script and in different languages, patience, work and time are required to distinguish them.21
The laboratory contains today objects of the types described in this 1839 letter: one areometer, 12 thermometers, one hygrometer, two electrometers and six funnels. However, further material culture research needs to be made before confirming these are the same objects that came from the National Museum. The first purchase of objects documented in the archives dates from 1843: a purchase order for an electrical machine and a receipt of payment dated 20 November 1843. The passages below transcribe the body of the purchase order and receipt: I have the honour of notifying you, as representative of the teacher of natural sciences and physics at this School, of the convenience of purchasing an electrical machine, which perchance is for sale in this court, for the modest price of one hundred and thirty thousand reis; and convinced of the advantageous nature of this expense, I humbly beg your authorization, should it please you to do so. May God protect you, Collegio de Pedro II, on 11 November 1843. José Antonio da Silva Maya, Esq. Minister and Secretary of State for the Business of the Empire. Collegio D. Pedro according to Henry Schmidt owes one Electrical machine for the negotiated price of 120,000 reis. Rio de Janeiro 20 November 1843 Henry Schmidt I have received from Manoel Joaquim Henrique de Paiva Esq., Treasurer of Collegio de Pedro II, the aforementioned sum of one hundred and twenty thousand Reis. Rio de Janeiro 1 December 1843 Henry Schmidt.22
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Later correspondence between ColĂŠgio Pedro II and the National Museum, from April 1849, includes a new request for loans from the museum. Again, the answer was positive: On the matter of the enclosed Letter, which I return signed by Joaquim Caetano da Silva, I have the honour of informing you that there is no inconvenience whatsoever in lending for use at the Physics and Chemistry lessons at Collegio de Pedro II, some instruments, glassware, and substances, whose absence will not be felt at this Establishment, provided the esteemed Principal of the same School formulates the requests and transmits the receipt.23
By this time, most of the teachers from the department of 'Physical and Natural Sciences' at the ColĂŠgio were actively engaged in assembling the collection of scientific teaching instruments. Moreover, artefacts and instruments seem to have been used, because we have identified two requests for equipment maintenance as early as 1852: one for the repair of the electrical machine and another for the repair of some objects used in natural history lessons; the former was sent to the Navy Arsenal and the latter to the National Museum. In 1858, the school in the centre of Rio ceased to accept boarders as the new boarding school was established in Tijuca. This resulted in the transfer of some scientific objects and books to the new school. A list is included in the correspondence between the schools' principals. The scientific instruments from the physics laboratory mentioned in the list are transcribed below: 1 model winch 1 device for bending glass 1 ditto for curving 1 device for electrical light 1 pneumatic machine 1 small galvanometer 1 device for the forces of different vapours. 1 Mariotte tube 1 graduated cylinder 1 [double] cone and inclined plane 1 hygrometer 1 polyprism 1 equipment for static electricity 12 elements of Bunsen cell.24
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In 1859, the school also requests scientific instruments from France: I request that you kindly take the necessary measures for the receipt from France at the earliest possible date of a Coulombe [sic] electroscope, a recipient for the apparatus for demonstrating the strengths of different vapours and a glass disc for the electrical machine measuring one hundred and two centimetres by eight millimetres of thickness whose central orifice should measure four centimetres plus two millimetres in diameter, as well as a copy of the latest edition of Geografia Universal by Malte Brun, to which I referred to in my letters dated 18 and 25 June last year.25
More letters regarding further loans from the National Museum to the day school of boxes of physics instruments are dated 13 April and 8 May of the same year. The instruments have entered the school. However, the correspondence does not enumerate the instruments. In this period, the development of the collections was intense, as confirmed by records of donations of collections of books, mineralogy collections and other items for natural history teaching; no records of donations of physics instruments were found. In 1872, the Colégio Pedro II purchased scientific instruments for the physics laboratory of the boarding school. A document dated 16 September 1872 is the first encountered so far confirming the purchase of 35 objects for physics teaching. The instruments are described in the receipt provided by the supplier, Armazem e Officinas de Optica e Instrumentos Scientíficos José Maria dos Reis. Three more sets of documents from 1872, 1878 and 1881 record instruments' purchases and conservation for the physics laboratory of the boarding school. Meanwhile, at the physics laboratory of the day school no records have yet been uncovered concerning the purchase of any instruments other than the electrical machine. Despite the seemingly lack of documental evidence, it appears that the laboratory was already minimally equipped for practical physics lessons. The documents found on the first stage of development of the physics laboratory at the Colégio Pedro II day school in the centre of Rio (in the 1800s) confirm the purchase of one object (the electrical machine) and requests for loans of multiple objects from the National Museum. No correspondence has been found concerning the return of the loaned instruments back to the
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museum. Admittedly, part of the school's historical archive has been lost over the years. Nevertheless, it can be concluded from the available sources that the school's physics laboratory was initially equipped almost exclusively with objects on loan from the National Museum. As far as instrument maintenance and conservation, sources suggest this has occurred since 1852. A letter from 1875 requests the presence of the person responsible for conservation in the day school's teaching laboratories: Day School of the Imperial College of Pedro II, on 30th March 1875 – My Dear Sir – I invite you to pay regular attendance at the cabinets of Physics and Chemistry and of Natural History at this School in order to render the care needed for the apparatus and other objects belonging to the above said cabinets.27
In a letter dated 18 September 1879, the Minister of State for the Business of the Empire is notified about a candidate for the position of natural science laboratory assistant. The letter explicitly mentions that the candidate would also be responsible for taking care of the other laboratories and their equipment, and that the post was on a par with that of a teaching assistant for these subjects. By analysing the discourse in the many exchanges of correspondence, the importance of the employee responsible for taking care of objects in the laboratories becomes clear. In the twentieth century, records have been found dated 1929 about major renovations of the Colégio Pedro II premises in the centre of Rio. These have resulted, among other changes, in the transfer of the physics laboratory to the area of the former natural history laboratory (Fig. 2-3). Transformations were made to better adapt the space to the requirements of the practical physics lessons. The physics laboratory has remained in this space ever since. In parallel with the renovation of the building, the gabinet of teaching instruments was also expanded. A contract28 with John Jürgens & Companhia was made also in 1929 for the purchase of a large quantity of equipment. The contract contains a long list of scientific equipment acquired from German manufacturers. A total of 367 instruments are mentioned, 264 by Max Kohl and 103 by E. Leybold. In images depicting the physics laboratory in 1929 (Fig. 2-3), this equipment can be seen. In Fig. 2: Mitscherlich polarimeter, spectroscope, polarimeter, bulbs interconnected with a tube, hydrostatic balance, Plateau's apparatus, pendulum clock, Maxwell pendulum, bent cone [given name]; in Fig. 3: U-shaped tube [given name], postal scales, Hartl's apparatus, model of
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spherical lenses, Haldat's apparatus, pneumatic pump, bench for optics, projector, ruler with pulley [given name]. Many of these instruments are still in the collection today.
Fig. 2 - Physics laboratory in 1929 (author unknown, NUDOM-CPII archives).
Fig. 3 - Physics laboratory in 1929 (author unknown, NUDOM-CPII archives).
An inventory from 1931 was also found. It lists c. 1,500 objects from the physics laboratory; another inventory from 1962 lists c. 2,050 objects. These sources provide an approximate idea of the real number of objects, as no detailed quantities are given for some items, e.g. 'accessories' and 'sets'. Both inventories were found in the physics laboratory. The names given to some
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objects are similar, as are locations inside the laboratory, but objects cannot be assumed to be the same. It is clear, however, that the number and type of objects increased as the school invested more heavily in this kind of education for its pupils. Today, the laboratory has a collection of 971 instruments, smaller than in the past. This could mean that some instruments were disposed of due to wear and tear, or were transferred or lost. The quality of the artefacts attests the importance the institution attributed to practical experimentation as an educational method, confirmed by the presence of instruments by globally renowned makers. These include Max Kohl, E. Leybold's Nachfolger A.G., Phywe and Carl Zeiss (Germany); Les Fils & Emile Deyrolle and Jules Duboscq (France); and E. Edelmann & Company and Thomas A. Edison (USA). There are also pieces made in Brazil by O. Meister, Otto OB Bender, General Eletric do Brasil S.A., Norfol, Casa Lohner and Lutz Ferrando & Ltda. The last two, apart from being instrument makers, were also shops that supplied the school. It has not yet been possible to confirm whether any instruments from the nineteenth century remain today in the physics laboratory. The material culture analysis and interpretation of the objects – the next stage of this research – may be able to confirm data obtained through documental and iconographical sources. It is important to stress that documental sources are proving fundamental for reconstituting the formation and trajectory of this collection of teaching instruments. In the twenty-first century, the physics instruments in the laboratory have been very little used. Lack of use, combined with the absence of conservation and the action of time, has resulted in the poor conservation state of a significant number of objects. Recognising the importance of this collection, the MAST has been working in partnership with Colégio Pedro II over the last six years. The partnership involves research, conservation, documentation, and a variety of museological actions such as registration, cleaning and basic organization of the objects in the laboratory, as well as the first photographic records. As already mentioned, so far 971 objects have been counted, representing a very rich historical and cultural archive for the study and communication of physics teaching collections. Fig. 4 depicts three objects from the collection. Alongside these objects, the laboratory also has books, catalogues and papers by instrument makers containing descriptions and uses of objects, as well as notes by teachers on physics experiments. The whole set, including objects themselves, is a very important source for the continuation of this research.
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b
c
Fig. 4 - Model lightning conductor; b) Acrobat; c) Tone variator (photos by M. Magaldi, MAST archives).
Concluding Remarks The preservation of sets of instruments in Brazilian secondary schools is still incipient and initiatives are still scarce. In the case of ColÊgio Pedro II, what particularly stands out is the importance of continuing the studies and actions already underway because of the school's national standing as a benchmark of quality – a reputation that remains to this day. Additionally, these studies contribute to the recognition of the instruments as cultural heritage. Research undertaken thus far is insufficient to confirm the existence of objects from the nineteenth century in the physics laboratory, but it does identify objects from the early 1900s. As the research progresses, it is hoped that this question will be resolved. Even so, it has been possible to ascertain that the teaching instruments from the laboratory of the school in the centre of Rio in the nineteenth century were provided by the National Museum on loan and apparently never returned. Fig. 5 shows some of the instruments in the physics laboratory today.
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Fig. 5 - Instruments in the physics laboratory of Colégio Pedro II (centre of Rio) today (2010, MAST Archives).
In this context, the key elements of the study of scientific instruments are the identification and analysis of primary and secondary sources and their organization, as these are essential for understanding collections formation and development. The cross-examination of objects themselves and their documental sources is paramount for a better understanding of their formation and importance, as in Colégio Pedro II, to the teaching of physics. Results presented here are preliminary, considering the breadth of information intended to be revealed as research progresses. Furthermore, alongside scientific articles for the academic community, there are plans to divulge this heritage in other ways, for example in exhibitions or via the internet, making it known to wider and more diverse audiences. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa, State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), for indispensable funding for this research. Notes 1
See Granato et al., this volume. J. R. S. Gonçalves, Antropologia dos objetos: coleções, museus e patrimônio, Coleção Museu, Memória e Cidadania, Rio de Janeiro, IPHAN, 2007, p.142. 3 M. C. Lourenço, 'O patrimônio da Ciência: importância para a pesquisa', Revista 2
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The physics teaching instruments at Colégio Pedro II Marcus Granato and Liliane Bispo dos Santos
Museologia e Patrimônio (2009), II, 1, 47-53, see http://revistamuseologiaepatrimonio.mast.br/index.php/ppgpmus/article/viewFile/45/2 5, accessed: 20 February 2013. 4 P. Brenni, 'Trinta anos de atividades: instrumentos científicos de interesse histórico', in Caminho para as estrelas: reflexões em um museu (Coord. A. M. R Andrade), MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2007, 162-179. 5 Idem, p. 169. 6 E. Dória, Memória histórica do Colégio Pedro Segundo: 1837-1937, Comissão de Atualização da Memória Histórica do Colégio Pedro II, Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais, Brasília, 1997. 7 E. B. R. Gabaglia, Primeiro Anuário Colégio Pedro II: 1914. Reedição comemorativa 170 anos da Fundação do Colégio Pedro II, Unigraf, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, p. 17. 8 Idem. 9 Dória, op. cit. 10 Idem. 11 Gabaglia, op. cit. 12 Idem, p. 28. 13 Idem, p. 34. 14 Decree creating the Colégio Pedro II, 1837, Núcleo de Documentação e Memória do Colégio Pedro II (NUDOM-CPII), Rio de Janeiro. 15 Letter No. 11 (23 March 1838) and Letter No. 38 (30 April 1838), Received Correspondence, NUDOM-CPII, Rio de Janeiro. 16 Dória, op. cit. 17 See C. Laet, Report of the Academic Year of 1919 [Relatório concernente ao ano letivo de 1919: apresentado ao Exmo. Sr. Ministro da Justiça e Negócios Interiores pelo Dr. Carlos de Laet], Colégio Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro, 1920. Carlos Maximiniano Pimenta de Laet was principal of Colégio Pedro II (day and boarding schools) from 14 February 1917 to 1925. 18 M. A. Ferreira, M. Granato, Z. F. Brasil, A. Calvão, 'O Conjunto de Objetos de Ensino do Laboratório de Física do Colégio Pedro II', in Coleções Científicas LusoBrasileiras: patrimônio a ser descoberto (Orgs. M. Granato and M. C. Lourenço), MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, 123-144. 19 Regulation No. 8, 31 January 1838, contains the bylaws of Colégio Pedro II from 1838, p.122, NUDOM-CPII, Rio de Janeiro. 20 The National Museum had been created in 1808, in Rio. It held the most important natural history collection in Brazil. See http://www.museunacional.ufrj.br/, accessed 30 March 2014. 21 IE4 27, No. 798, 1839.803, 1846-1849, Education/Secondary Education Series, National Archives of Rio de Janeiro. Objects, whose identification was not completely possible, for readability or other reasons, are marked [*] in the transcription. 22 IE4 29, No. 800, 1841-1843, Education/Secondary Education Series, National Archives of Rio de Janeiro. 23 IE4 32, No. 803, 1846-1849, Education/Secondary Education Series, National Archives of Rio de Janeiro. 24 Correspondence of the Boarding School, Book 1, 1858-1883, NUDOM- CPII, Rio de Janeiro.
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25
Day School of the Imperial College of Pedro II on 16 April 1859. Sergio Teixeira de Macedo, Esq. Minister and Secretary of State for the Business of the Empire. Dr. Manoel Pacheco da Silva. IE4 35, nº 805, 1853-1857, Series Education/Secondary Education, National Archives, Rio de Janeiro 26 Documents indicating acquisition and maintenance of instruments from the physics laboratory of the boarding school: i) invoice receipt with list, 16 September 1872, IE4 61, nº 805, 1872-1873; ii) instrument maintenance bill by Viuva Reis e Pazos, 23 February 1878, IE4 67, nº 836, 1878; iii) acquisition receipt and conservation bills by Armazem e Oficina de óptica e instrumentos cientificos José Hermida Pazos, 21 June 1881, IE4 70, nº 839, 1881; and iv) acquisition receipt and conservation bills by Armazem e Oficina de óptica e instrumentos cientificos José Hermida Pazos, 16 November 1881, IE4 70, nº 839, 1881. All from the Education/Secondary Education Series, National Archives of Rio de Janeiro. 27 Letter from João Baptista de Noronha Feital to Fr. Jose Joaquim da Fonseca Lima, Principal, 1875, Correspondence of the Boarding School, Book 1, 1858-1883, NUDOM- CPII, Rio de Janeiro. 28 Contracts signed with John Jurgens & Cia, 1929, NUDOM-CPII, Rio de Janeiro.
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Tools for teaching Physics and Chemistry in secondary schools: The case of the Colégio Culto à Ciência, Brazil, 1899-1902 Reginaldo Alberto Meloni Introduction In the second half of the nineteenth century, the region of Campinas in the state of São Paulo had become one of the largest and most prosperous agriculture regions in Brazil. Large coffee plantations had already been transferred from the Paraíba Valley to Campinas due to the exhaustion of soil resources. Moreover, in Campinas both environmental conditions for coffee production and geographical conditions for trade and transport were better than in Paraíba. These conditions promoted the ascent of a wealthy social group, which had its feet in Brazil but eyes aiming at Europe and the United States. For many, the dream was to develop in Campinas a culturally civilized and economically liberal society. Words such as 'civilization' and 'progress' became frequent in speeches and exotic ideas, such as positivism, evolutionism and liberalism, stimulated change in the anxious minds. Conviction in the efficiency of liberalism inspired individual initiative and claims for social change, which began to materialise in the 1870s. Among them, perhaps the most significant due to their long-term impact were educational institutions that promoted innovative ideas both in terms of methods and contents. The Colégio Florence, the Colégio Internacional and the Colégio Culto à Ciência were examples of such institutions.1 The latter will be the object of this chapter, today designated State School Culto à Ciência (Escola Estadual Culto à Ciência, E. E. Culto à
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Ciência). Its origins and history will be briefly presented, followed by a discussion of a comparative study aimed at identifying and classifying its historical objects of chemistry and physics between 1899 and 1902. The Colégio Culto à Ciência Presently, the school's collection encompasses 209 historical objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.2 Between 1899 and 1902, the period under study, 103 objects were identified, studied and classified. In the following section, I will present and discuss this study and how it contributed to the preservation of the School's historical collections, particularly its scientific instruments. The Colégio Culto à Ciência was founded in 1873 by a group of “farmers, tradesmen, military and intellectuals”, who claimed to be “positivists, freemasons and republicans”.3 It operated under the administration of this group until 1892, when it was forced to close due to a combination of financial constraints and an epidemic of yellow fever in Campinas. In 1896, the school reopened as a public school and changed the name to Gymnasio de Campinas. From this point on, efforts were concentrated on making the Gymnasio de Campinas equivalent to the Gymnasio Nacional in Rio de Janeiro (formerly designated Colégio Pedro II) as equivalence would enable its students to pursuit higher education studies without further exams.4 The equivalence process required the adoption by the Gymnasio of syllabuses defined by the Gymnasio Nacional. It also required adaptation of the teaching infrastructure, particularly laboratories and cabinets.5 In the case of Chemistry, for example, lessons should be “accompanied by practical work and systematic analytic essays through wet methods and pyrognostics”.6 During the 'equivalence' period, the discipline of Physics and Chemistry was integrated in the Gymnasio's curriculum; a dedicated building was also constructed, followed by the acquisition of the necessary equipment. Initial steps seem to have been taken by director Henrique Barcellos. In 1898, he acquired furniture for the first Physics Cabinet, Chemistry Laboratory and Natural History Museum;7 he also initiated the construction of a new building for the Chemistry Laboratory.8 The process took some years to complete. In 1901, a government tax officer confirmed that “the special Chemistry and Physics, Natural History and Anthropology classes were already prepared”9 and, in 1902, that “the Physics Cabinet and Chemistry Laboratory were installed in a new building annex to the Gymnasio”.10 Collections for Natural History teaching came from multiple institutions. Specimens came from the Ipiranga Museum (Museu do Ipiranga) in São Paulo and the School of Mines (Escola de Minas) in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. Letters asking for specimens were sent to the Botanical Garden (Horto-botânico) and
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the Geographical and Geological Commission (Comissão Geográfica e Geológica) of the São Paulo state. The State Pharmaceutical Laboratory (Laboratório Pharmaceutico do Estado) was also asked for chemicals. It remains unknown how many of these requests had positive replies. The Gymnasio archives register donations of anatomy objects from the Group of Schools Jorge Tibiriça (Grupo Escolar Jorge Tibiriça),11 materials from the Escola Normal da Capital and, in May 1902, a collection of minerals from the School of Mines of Ouro Preto.12 The Gymnasio had a close relation with the Agriculture Institute of Campinas (Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, IAC). The IAC, founded in 1887 and directed by an Austrian chemist named Franz W. Dafert (1863-1933), was located near the school (until recently). In the late nineteenth century, the IAC had considerable research outcomes and a modern infrastructure, both in terms of facilities – laboratories and experimental fields – and in terms of qualified technicians. The Gymnasio asked the IAC for a balance, hollow tubes (presumably in glass), distilled water and other materials.13 The school also had public funds allocated by the state government. In April 1898, the first science teacher José Pinto de Moura prepared a budget for natural sciences teaching materials, most likely following a request from the school's board. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century many objects were acquired by the Gymnasio to support the teaching of Chemistry, Physics and Natural History. These objects were listed in inventories produced by Eugenio Bulcão, the laboratory's coordinator. In 1899 and 1902,14 127 samples of chemical products and laboratory equipment were listed in large quantities, including 32 balloons, 22 funnels, 18 cylinders, 12 china capsules, 10 tweezers from Mahr, 9 glass crystallizers and 500 test tubes. The 1899 inventory listed 57 physics items and 46 chemistry items; in 1902, these corresponded to 185 and 102, respectively. Considering that in 1903 the school had 17 students enrolled in Chemistry and Physics, it seemed well equipped for daily teaching needs. Presently, the school's collection encompasses 209 historical objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Between 1899 and 1902, the period under study, 103 objects were identified, studied and classified. In the following section, I will present and discuss this study, particularly its contribution to the preservation of the school's collection of scientific instruments. Objects for science teaching No longer used for teaching, scientific instruments were left forgotten in the school's laboratories for many years. Some were incomplete. In many cases, merely fragments survived. Physics instruments were unorganised, covered with dust and little associated information (including makers'
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inscriptions), if any. Several had conservation problems, such as active oxidation and pests. The Chemistry collection of historical equipment was smaller. It comprised many glass and small items, which facilitated loss, damaged and probably theft. The first objective was to perform emergency conservation and documentation actions. Objects were cleaned, labelled and photographed. In the laboratory, they were physically separated from instruments of everyday use. Then, the instrument identification and cataloguing task was initiated. It aimed at collecting, for each object, the following data: name, theme/area, acquisition date and maker (or supplier). Methods used were mostly comparative. Apart from the objects themselves, the following sources were used: trade catalogues, collection catalogues from museums, teaching manuals and textbooks, and the school's archive, particularly the above mentioned 1899 and 1902 inventories. Although the study leaves many questions unanswered, it was possible to document a significant number of instruments. The following online databases were consulted: the Virtual Museum of the Portuguese Ministry of Education15 and the French ASEISTE's (Association de Sauvegarde et d'Étude des Instruments Scientifiques et Techniques de l'Enseignment).16 Collections of scientific instruments visited included: in Portugal, the National Museum of Natural History and Science (University of Lisbon),17 the Maynense Museum (Academy of Sciences of Lisbon), the secondary schools Gil Vicente and Passos Manuel (Lisbon), and the Science Museum (University of Coimbra); in Spain, the Museu Pedagóxico de Galícia (MUPEGA); in France, Deyrolle, the Musée National de l'Éducation, and its Centre de Ressources et de Recherche (Mont Saint Aignan, Rouen); in Germany, the Deutsches Museum; in Argentina, the Colégio Nacional de Montserrat, the Biblioteca Mayor of Córdoba University, and the Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales; finally, in Chile, the Museo de la Educación Gabriela Mistral. Although all institutions offered contributions to the Brazilian case, it is worth highlighting the easy access and insights gained at the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon. Their rich archival sources, representative collection and standard cataloguing procedures were very useful for this study. It was possible to examine a vast number of instruments from the late 1880s to the early twentieth-century, as well as a comprehensive collection of trade catalogues from France and Germany. After gathering the information abroad, a comparison with the school's inventories was made. Their examination revealed that many entries were
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written casually, without great concern for rigor or precision – for example 'apparatus from bottom to top' (aparelho de baixo para cima). This suggests inventories were made for internal control and use, and were most likely located in the laboratories near the objects. Collection description and object identification As mentioned earlier, the number of historical scientific instruments currently at the E.E. Culto à Ciência is 209. The historical inventories from the school's archives date from 1899 to 1970. Examination of these enabled the following preliminary identification and classification: 122 were identified as Physics instruments (apparelhos de physica) and 70 as Chemistry instruments and equipment (apparelhos de chimica) (Table 1); 17 could not be identified, let alone classified.18 Table 1 - Preliminary classification of instruments found in the E. E. Colégio Culto à Ciência today after cross-examination with the school's historical inventories, the first from 1899 and the last from 1970. The French original classification was maintained. Themes/Areas Pesanteur Hydrostatique et propriétés des gaz Chaleur Electricité statique Magnétisme et Électricité dynamique Acoustique Optique Total
Quantities 8 17 12 17 47 7 14 122
Next, this group was further examined enabling the identification of 103 objects existing today that were mentioned in the 1899 and 1902 inventories: 77 from physics and 26 from chemistry. Examination was done through maker's inscriptions, similarity and plausibility. Needless to say that correspondence between a catalogue entry and a real object is considerably difficult to establish with certainty, however the preliminary 'working' correspondence achieved allowed progress in historical analysis and collection preservation. It should be mentioned that no other documentation has been found so far in the school's archives (invoices, old numbers, receipts, etc.).19 Many physics instruments bear the inscription 'Les Fils d'Emile Deyrolle' and their identification was based on their 1898 catalogue.20 Moreover, a total of 89 physics instruments coincide in the schools historical inventories and in the Deyrolle 1898 catalogue.21 Although it was a common instrument maker in primary, secondary and higher education worldwide at the time, the school's archives offer no indication for the preference.
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Many objects existing today only occur in the 1899 and 1902 inventories and not after; therefore, it is plausible to admit they were acquired before 1902. This is the case, for example, of the Kipp's apparatuses – also designated Kipp's generator – among several others, both from chemistry and physics. Other examples are the projection galvanometer (Fig. 1), the electrolysis Utube (Fig. 2) and the Kinnersley's thermometer (Fig. 3).
Fig. 1 - Projection galvanometer, E.E. Culto à Ciência collection (photo: R. A. Meloni).
Fig. 2 - Electrolysis U-tube, E.E. Culto à Ciência collection (photo: R. A. Meloni).
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Fig. 3 - Kinnersley's thermometer, E.E. Culto à Ciência collection (photo: R. A. Meloni).
As is often the case with chemistry equipment, the number of objects with makers' inscriptions in the E. E. Culto à Ciência collection is scarce. Although further research needs to be made, the majority was probably not from Deyrolle. In 1914, Deyrolle offered five types of Cabinets de Chimie,22 with different prices and number of objects (e.g. Cabinet 3 had c. 140 objects). The school's 1899 inventory lists 46 chemistry objects and the 1902 inventory lists 46 chemistry objects. Of these, only 10 entries coincide in the Deyrolle catalogue.23 Moreover, the school's inventories list equipment that was not commercialised by the French maker, namely the stove, the boiler, GayLussac's alcoholmeter, the automatic pipette, metal burette, Mohr's burette, the instrument to “determine the carbon dioxide gas according to Vanderberghe”,24 idem according to Liebig, a Berzelius's gasometer, a spectroscope and the “precision scales for chemical analyses, sensitivity 10 mg”.25 Some objects from the chemistry collection bear the inscription of the maker E. Adnet, Paris. This is the case of the chamber depicted in Fig. 4, as well as several utensils such as beakers and china capsules. Entries in the historical inventories also refer to Kipp's apparatus, Will and Warrentrap tubes, equipment for the study of heat exchange in chemical reactions, e.g.
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thermometers, one thermametrograph of Kappeller [(sic), original reads thermametrographo de Kappeler] and Hehner colorimeters (colorímetros de Hehner). These cannot be found in the collection today.
Fig. 4 - Chamber by Adnet, E. E. Culto à Ciência collection (photo: R. A. Meloni).
Many of the materials and equipment found in the school's inventories could also be found in catalogues of German makers. Two catalogues in particular were examined: Cornelius Heinz (Aachen, 1907)26 and Dr. Robert Muencke (Berlin, 1910).27 The results are presented in Table 2. Table 2 - Cross-examination of two German makers' trade catalogues and the E. E. Culto à Ciência historical inventories.
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Other designations appear to be associated with entries in the school's inventories, such as “caldeira de Soxhlet, estufa de Rüdoff, estufa de Liebig, discadores de Fresenius, suporte para buretas segundo Allihn.”28 Finally, the inventories list a certain type of automatic pipette, which is associated with the name Dafert in Dr. Muencke's catalogue. Further research is required, but the coincidence with the name of the Austrian chemist Franz Dafert, founder of the Agriculture Institute of Campinas (Instituto Agronômico de Campinas, IAC) in the late nineteenth century cannot pass unnoticed. Concluding remarks The preliminary study of the scientific instruments' collection of the E. E. Culto à Ciência in Campinas, São Paulo, provided interesting insights into the cabinets of Physics and Chemistry in Brazilian secondary schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, particularly as a result of the efforts to meet the requirements of the Gimnasio Nacional. Many schools created laboratories and acquired a considerable number of scientific instruments, materials and equipment to achieve equivalence to the Gimnasio in Rio and grant their students direct access to higher education. As a consequence of this encouragement, the E.E. Culto à Ciência adapted their facilities, organised museums, laboratories and dedicated rooms for the teaching of science and imported equipment, mainly from Europe. Using the physics and chemistry instruments surviving today as a point of departure, a comparative study was done for the period 1899 to 1902, through historical sources (school's inventories, trade catalogues) and reference collections in several institutions in South America and Europe. The study suggests that the school was well equipped for teaching chemistry and physics and their facilities comprised a comprehensive number of objects that could support coverage of the syllabuses requirements. The study also suggests that many of the instruments acquired no longer exist. This is likely to result from loss, damage, obsolescence, and removal of associated contents from the syllabuses, among other reasons. Many questions remain unanswered, however, and require further research into the pedagogical practices: were the instruments really used by students or were they merely operated by teachers in demonstrations? In which contexts of experimental teaching were they used? Did they suffer local adaptation, e.g. cannibalisation, local innovation? In terms of cultural heritage of science and technology in Brazil, the study also contributed to providing contemporary meaning to these objects, a task that continues today.
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Acknowledgements The author is grateful to the E.E. Culto à Ciência for access to their collections and archives; to the National Museum of Natural History and Science (University of Lisbon) for access to its trade catalogue collection and support in the identification and classification of instruments; to MAST, Rio de Janeiro for conservation procedures; and finally, to FAPESP for financial support. Notes 1
M. L. S. Hilsdorf, História da Educação Brasileira: leituras, Thomson Learning Edições, São Paulo, 2006. 2 See an overview of the cultural heritage of the E. E. Culto à Ciência in a video by the Secretary of Education, State of São Paulo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZWhfu9mM0o, accessed 7 July 2014. 3 C. S. V. Moraes, O Ideário Republicano e a Educação, Mercado de Letras, Campinas, 2006, p.15. 4 See Granato and Santos, Zancul and Barreto, and also Braghini, in this volume. 5 Brazil, Decree No. 3890, 1 January, 1901. Code of the Institutos Officiaes de Ensino Superior e Secundário. 6 A. Vechia and K. M. Lorenz, Programa de Ensino da escola secundária brasileira – 1850/1951, author's edition, Curitiba, 1998, p. 177. 7 Correspondence to the Internal Affairs Secretary, No.7. Archives of the E.E. Culto à Ciência. 8 Idem, No. 39. 9 Brazil. Report of the Government tax officer Antonio Alvares Lobo, 15 February 1901. 10 Idem, 8 October 1902. 11 Correspondence to the Internal Affairs Secretary, No. 24. Archives of the E.E. Culto à Ciência. 12 Correspondence 1898-1903. Archives of the E.E. Culto à Ciência. 13 Idem. 14 List of the Chemical Apparatuses and Products existing in the “Laboratory” (from 1899 onwards). Archives of the E.E. Culto à Ciência. 15 Museu Virtual do Ministério da Educação de Portugal; its website seems to have been meanwhile discontinued. 16 See http://www.aseiste.org/, accessed: 7 July 2014. 17 Then designated Museum of Science of the University of Lisbon. I am especially grateful to Dr. Marta Lourenço, chief curator and deputy director of the Museum. 18 List of the Chemical Apparatuses and Products existing in the “Laboratory” (from 1899 onwards). Archives of the E.E. Culto à Ciência. 19 This research is still ongoing, with the support of Dr. Marcus Granato, from the MAST in Rio de Janeiro and FAPESP. 20 Catalogue de Physique, Les Fils D'Émille Deyrolle, février 1898. Archives of the
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National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. 21 Idem. 22 Catalogue Méthodique. Matériel de Laboratoire, Les Fils d'Émile Deyrolle, 1914. Archives of Maison Deyrolle. 23 Coincidence is in type and not literal. For example, the school's inventories say “Pipettes with marks 1cc, 2cc, 5cc, 10cc, 20cc, 25cc, 50cc, 1000cc (one of each)” whereas Deyrolle's catalogue merely refers to “2 Pipettes”. 24 The designations of Chemistry objects have been transcribed exactly as they are found in the inventories. 25 Deyrolle's catalogue offered one Roberval's scales, with inferior sensitivity. 26 Cornelius Heins, Preis-Verzeichnis. Cornelius Heins Fabrik und Lager, Aachen, 1907. Archives of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. 27 Dr. Rob. Muencke, Haupt-Preisliste N°63, Über Allgemeine chemische Laboratoriums. Apparate und Gerätschaften von Dr. Rob. Muencke, Berlin, 1910. Archives of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. 28 Designations were kept in Portuguese as doubts remain regarding the transcription.
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Scientific instruments for physics teaching in Brazilian secondary schools, 1931-1961 Maria Cristina de Senzi Zancul and Elton de Oliveira Barreto Introduction A considerable amount of research has been undertaken into science education and science teaching, yielding important results, especially in terms of alternative conceptions, curriculum, the role of language, teacher training, science, technology, society and environment; the history of science in science education, among others. In the case of Brazil, studies by R. Nardi and M. Almeida and D. Delizoicov Neto are worth mentioning in this respect.1 However, the past sheds light into the present and research into past practices is a field still largely undervalued. Some of the current research addresses historical collections of instruments found in schools aiming at understanding how they were used in teaching across the different sciences.2 Some researchers have used the term 'scientific instruments' to refer to these objects,3 although the name might be better suited for objects used in scientific and applied technology laboratories.4 A number of Brazilian schools still have old experimental equipment that is no longer used for teaching. There is limited research into the practices and uses of these materials. In this chapter, we use a collection of old scientific instruments from the Escola Estadual Bento de Abreu (EEBA), in Araraquara, S達o Paulo state, Brazil as a point of departure to understand certain aspects of the history of physics education in Brazil.
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EEBA is one of the most prestigious public schools in Araraquara. It dates back to the early twentieth century. In 1932, the state government turned it into an official secondary school, and it started functioning as such in 1934. In 1959, it moved to its current premises. In 2006, during a visit, we found a considerable number of objects in the School's physics laboratory, including a set of old, dust-encrusted instruments stored in a completely chaotic fashion. This collection ofc. 200 objects has meanwhile been cleaned, identified and documented.5 Provenance of many instruments was identified through makers' inscriptions and signatures. Most instruments were made in Europe, especially by Fils D'Émile Deyrolle and Max Kohl Chemnitz. A few objects bear inscriptions by Koehler & Volckmar, MARS, as well as Brazilian maker Franz Sturm (São Paulo). Some instruments have no inscriptions. No documents have been found in the School's archives concerning the acquisition of the instruments. Moreover, although some instruments display material marks of intense use, we have not found documents recording their uses either. The use of objects as research sources poses challenges.6 As Ulpiano Meneses explains, intrinsic characteristics of objects only cover their physical and chemical properties, such as geometric form, colour, texture and weight; everything else depends on the cultural context in which they are immersed.7 Given our original purpose to understand how the EEBA collection was formed and used, eventually offering clues to similar collections in Brazilian secondary schools, and in the absence of significant archival records, we adopted an indirect approach. We assumed evidence of use can be indirectly found in other sources, therefore we studied Brazilian education legislation and analysed textbooks from 1931 to 1961.The starting point was the Francisco Campos education reform in 1931, which heralded an expansion of secondary education in Brazil and an increased emphasis on science in the curriculum. According to Dallabrida, the Francisco Campos Reform, “officially established the modernization of Brazilian secondary education at a nationwide level”.8 The author considers this reform as “a significant milestone” in the history of secondary education, “for it breaks with long-established structures for this level of education”. Moreover, the 1930s saw the first wave of secondary school expansion in the state of São Paulo, and the EEBA was one of 27 secondary schools created before 1940.9 The period closes in 1961 with the publication of another important legislation, the first'Law of Directives and Basis for Brazilian Education'. Physics in the secondary school curriculum in the light of national legislation, 1931-1961 In a previous study, we have analysed and discussed how science was reflected in the Brazilian secondary school curriculum from its introduction in
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10
the nineteenth century to the end of the 1950s. In this text, we focus on the teaching of physics between 1931 and 1961, contextualizing it in the broader picture of science teaching. In the 30-year period in question, two secondary education reforms were introduced, in 1931 and 1942; these will be examined separately below. 1931 to 1942 The Francisco Campos Reform was introduced in 1931. It effectively divided secondary education into two stages: the first stage provided general basic education, it was mandatory for higher education studies (five years); the second stage was required for certain higher education courses (two years). The latter was further subdivided according to the degree of preparation required for the faculties of medicine, law and engineering. Science was taught in every year throughout the first stage. In the first two years, the discipline was called 'physical and natural sciences'. In the following three years physics, chemistry and natural history had independent courses. In June 1931, the official curriculum for the first stage was published, defining objectives per discipline and providing methodological guidelines for teaching. For the general course 'physical and natural sciences' (first two years), general concepts of physics, chemistry and natural history were required; these were to be detailed in the following three years in their specific areas. Laboratory use was recommended and reference to experiments was made, including demonstrations by the teacher and practical work by pupils. Moreover, it was expected that physics taught in the third, fourth and fifth years of the first stage would meet the dual goal of offering the pupils scientific knowledge of physical phenomena and an introduction to experimental methods. To meet these goals, teaching of physics should, wherever possible, abide by the “precepts of experimental investigation, whether as an inductive process of discovery of the laws or as a resource adequate to qualitative study of phenomena”. Teachers should make “numerous and varied” demonstrations that should be “at the same time simple and convincing” and later complemented by a detailed discussion of results. For teaching to be “truly profitable and fruitful”, pupils should participate, helping the teacher in the demonstrations and discussing the observations made.11 Basic equipment was needed to implement the proposed curriculum. According to the text, the equipment did not have to be acquired in great numbers, be complex or expensive; it could be improvised using readily available materials. Descriptions of experimental apparatuses provided by teachers to pupils should be limited to essential features and manufacture details should be
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identified through direct observation. Teachers were also advised to complement demonstrations with instruments with diagrams that gave an immediate understanding of the whole mechanism of the demonstration. Pupils should learn how to draw such diagrams and write down the details of the experiments that were not described in their textbooks.12 In experiments performed by the teacher or the pupils, preference should be given to “investigations of general laws and phenomena properties rather than the determination of physical constants”. The legislative text explains that “investigations of general laws and phenomena properties” consisted on basic knowledge and it would therefore be more educational and stimulate “critical awareness”, as well as demanding “greater reflexive analysis”. As for the determination of physical constants, the text explained that these were restricted to concrete cases and corresponded just to “the monotonous repetition of certain techniques with no appeal”.13 Depending on the laboratory equipment available, teachers would organize a brief plan of practical activities for the pupils, individually and in groups. Physics was also taught through the provision of a given number of problems involving topics covered in demonstrations. Teachers should use a wide range of approaches for the resolution of these problems. In the third year, physics teaching was initiated with a general introduction. In the following two years, focus shifted to a given number of principles to be studied in greater depth. These last two years aimed at providing a gradual transition “from concrete facts to theoretical concepts, as the connection between experimental demonstrations and abstract ideas becomes more easily accessible to pupils”.14 In April 1932, the National Department of Education issued a directive approving the standards and criteria for the official recognition of secondary education establishments. The directive offered explicit guidelines about science laboratories and a list of materials needed. Physics laboratories should be equipped with a workbench, a sink with a tap, gas supply, an electricity generator and an epidiascope. They should also have a variety of objects supporting observations, demonstrations and practical activities, such as scales, batteries, galvanometer, barometer, mirrors, gyroscope, and a pneumatic machine, among many others from different areas of physics.15 The EEBA collection includes many instruments listed in the directive. As mentioned above, physics was also included in the second stage of secondary education, a supplementary stage that followed the basic five-year initial stage. In this two-year course, prospective students of medicine, dentistry, pharmacology, engineering and architecture were expected to do four hours a week of physics per year. The curriculum for this second stage was published in March 1936. Students were given the choice between two different
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curricula: one for higher education studies in medicine, pharmacology and dentistry, and another for studies in engineering and architecture. Both curricula included the course syllabi and guidelines on the how to make measurements and observations, use and handle instruments, make experimental studies, draw graphics and apply techniques. 1942 to 1961 In April 1942, the Organic Law on Secondary Education (decree 4244) was passed. It stated that secondary education's prime purpose was “the development of the adolescent person”.16 This reform maintained secondary education divided into two stages, but these would be structured differently and receive new names: the first stage (ginasial) would last four years, while the second (colegial), lasting three years, would consist of two alternative courses of study: classical and scientific. The decree further explained that the first stage (ginasial) had two advantages: it would make the initial phase of secondary education more accessible to the population and it would encourage closer connections with the second stage in all courses (secondary education courses in the fields of industry, farming, business and trade, and for primary school teachers).17 The initial four years encompassed only one scientific discipline, called 'natural sciences'. This was taught in the third and fourth years. In the second stage (both classical and scientific courses), physics, chemistry and biology were given as autonomous disciplines. Physics was taught throughout the three years of the scientific course, but students opting for the classical course would only do physics in the second and third years. A section of the decree – “Explanation of the Reasons for the Organic Law”– included guidelines for science teaching (“The study of science”). It states the need for pupils to actively participate in their science lessons, explaining that “pupils must discuss and verify, they must see and do”.18 Physics curricula for the classical and scientific courses were published in March 1943. Their content was broad and they covered different areas, but no instructions were given on teaching methods. In 1946, the new Brazilian constitution determined that the Union would be responsible for establishing guidelines, principle sand minimum prerequisites for national education. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education formed a committee of educators charged with proposing a reform project for Brazilian education.19 This reform would only materialise 15 years later. On 16 August 1949, the “Instructions for the Execution of the Organic Law” (directive 375) were issued, setting forth requirements for the accreditation or recognition of secondary schools (both stages), science classrooms (for the first stage of secondary education) and physics, chemistry
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and natural history laboratories (for the second stage). These requirements are an important source of information, as they reveal intentions and expectations behind science teaching. The directive required science classrooms to be adequately equipped for practical activities, with materials for demonstration purposes, experiments and also reagents. A higher score would be given to demonstration materials, of which 87 items were listed, including equipment, models and several types of instruments. Experimental utensils included supports, screens, glassware, spatulas and other items.20 The physics and chemistry laboratories to be used in the second stage of secondary education should, wherever possible, occupy two rooms: one for demonstrations and another for practical work. The demonstration room should be spacious enough to accommodate all the students, it should have a demonstration table, a blackboard and a periodic table; seats arranged in tiers should be available whenever possible, as well as good lighting. The laboratory per se should also be spacious, well-lit, well-ventilated and have workbenches with sinks, gas and electricity supply, a fume hood and cupboards to store the equipment. The score received by each demonstration room and laboratory depended on how well-equipped they were and what teaching material they contained. It would also depend on construction quality, conservation state and the quantity of materials. Top score for demonstration materials (350) was slightly higher than the top score for practical experiment material (300).21 The list of materials included a variety of reagents and equipment for demonstrations and practical work for both physics and chemistry. Demonstration materials included numerous instruments – many still exist today in the EEBA collection – such as the Leyden jar, the galvanometer, the Barlow's wheel, and the induction coil, among others. Materials for practical lessons included glassware, scales, supports, Bunsen burners and voltmeters. In February 1951, a committee was formed to review the secondary education curriculum. Subcommittees were created for the different disciplines, each integrating a professor from the Faculdade Nacional de Filosofia (National Faculty of Philosophy), a teacher from Colégio Pedro II, a professor from Instituto de Educação do Distrito Federal (Federal District Institute of Education), and a teacher from the Private Teachers' Union; these were appointed by their respective institutions, as determined in directive 456.22 In May 1951, the Ministry of Education decided (directive 614), among other matters, that Colégio Pedro II would be the reference and model for secondary education in the country. In other words, syllabi created by the Colégio Pedro II for their disciplines would be adopted by all secondary schools in Brazil (Art. 3º).23
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On 2 October 1951, directive 966 approved the syllabi to be used at all Brazilian secondary education establishments. These would be phased in as of the following year, being introduced in the first years of the respective stages of secondary education.24 At a press conference, the Ministry of Education clarified that the new plans were guidelines, meaning they were the “'minimum syllabus' required for the efficient development of school work at secondary level, clearly respecting the modern methodological norms that inform the education system of our country”.25 Directive 966 introduced further changes to syllabi of several disciplines, including physics and chemistry. Regarding physics, the directive explained that new disposition of contents were more in line with the aims of secondary education, as in the previous syllabi disposition had been more suited to higher education. Moreover, the new syllabi were also coordinated with other disciplines, which had not been the case before.26 Nonetheless, closer inspection of the physics curriculum reveals that it is organized in much the same way as its predecessor. Article 7 of the same directive established that state governments could propose syllabi and have them adopted in state secondary schools, after approval by the Ministry of Education. However, article 8 gave secondary schools the right to opt between the Colégio Pedro II syllabus and the state syllabus.27 In article 9, the directive determined the minimum number of hours per week for each discipline, which could not exceed 28 hours in the initial four years (first stage) and 30 hours in the three-year classical and scientific courses. In physics, the number of hours in the second stage was slightly different from the previous curriculum: two hours per week in the classical course (second and third years) and three hours per week in the scientific course (first, second and third years).28 The physics programme for the scientific course covered a wide variety of topics, which were specified for each year. It was recommended that, “whenever the possibility arises for the presence of pupils in the physics classroom in extracurricular hours”, they should be provided with equipment and the opportunity to do different activities, which were listed per year. These practical activities involve the use of measuring instruments, barometers, thermometers, microscopes, compasses and other equipment.29 On 14 December 1951, the development plans for the minimum syllabi of the different disciplines in secondary education, prepared by Colégio Pedro II, were published and approved, along with the corresponding methodological guidelines (directive 1045). These included physics courses for both classical and scientific options.
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Methodology guidelines for the physics courses recommended to observe that “the study of the physical sciences is based on experimental methods” and, given its fundamental role, experimentation should be “practised whenever relevant to the subject matter”.30 Thus, laboratories did not have to be equipped with high-precision instruments; rather, it was considered enough for them to have “basic equipment for producing phenomena and instruments capable of making appropriate measurements, and the materials must be kept in establishments offering the second stage of secondary education”.31 Guidelines added that some materials may be constructed by the teachers or pupils. Legislation clearly granted an important role to instruments in the laboratories of secondary schools. Instructions also recommended that experiments should be preceded by a brief description of the equipment to be used. Moreover, they recommended “that the experimental method is complemented by practical activities”, therefore it was necessary that pupils were engaged in practical physics activities at least one hour per week, depending on laboratory conditions. In such practical work, the priority was for pupils to develop “investigations of the laws and general properties of phenomena, rather than the determination of physical constants”, which should be covered in the third year of the scientific course, “taking into account the requirements of university entrance exams”.32 In February 1952, a new directive on the delivery of secondary education was published (92). This directive introduced changes in the number of physics lessons for students of the classical course without Greek.33 Regarding physics teaching, the 1951 curricula would remain valid until 1961, when the law on principles and guidelines were passed, given that several 1950s textbooks were published in accordance. Course textbooks published between 1931 and 1961 Apart from the legislation, we have also examined the forewords and contents of textbooks published between 1931 and 1961, as well as a random selection of experiments that used instruments. Following the same chronological approach, the textbooks' analysis is presented separately for the two time periods covered by different legislation. 1931 to 1942 In this period, published books under analysis were aimed at the third year of the first stage of secondary school. As mentioned earlier, this was the first year with physics as an autonomous course in the national curriculum under the Francisco Campos reform. In the initial two years of secondary school, pupils had the discipline 'physical and natural sciences'; physics, chemistry and natural history were only taught separately in the following three years.
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The books under examination were: i) Física: Iniciação ao estudo dos fenômenos físicos (de acordo com o programa oficial) [Physics: Introduction to the study of physical phenomena (in accordance with the oficial curriculum] by Francisco Venâncio Filho, 1935 (3ª série. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional); ii) Curso de Física – 3ª série. Iniciação no estudo dos fenômenos físicos [Physics Course – 3rd series. Introduction to the study of physical phenomena], by Aníbal Freitas, 1936 (4a ed. São Paulo, Comp. Melhoramentos de São Paulo); and iii) Física para a 3ª série do curso secundário [Physics for the 3rd series of secondary course], by Urbano Pereira, 1942 (São Paulo: Livraria Acadêmica, Saraiva & Cia Editores). Forewords and contents of all three books confirm accordance with the official curriculum proposed in the Francisco Campos reform. Although the books reveal considerable convergence with the legislation, they are not uncritical of the national curriculum. For instance, in the foreword of Física: Iniciação ao estudo dos fenômenos físicos, 3ª série (1935), written in 1933 by Venâncio Filho, he states that the book follows the dictates of the official curriculum, although not literally: “some topics of the physics curriculum are more reduced in the third year than in the first and second years, which could have serious consequences”.34 He also noted that some fundamental notions are not treated, thereby failing to give a “general appreciation of the discipline” as proposed in the legislation. Aiming at offering a general overview of physics to third-year students and also “to whomever wishes to have a brief overview”,35 the foreword addresses practical work, stating that experiments too hard to understand without actually being done had been removed from the book. Moreover, it indicates that the minimum required to fully understand the topic had been included at the end of each chapter. According to the author, this minimum should be explained by the teacher in class and repeated by pupils if possible. Towards the end of the book there is a section entitled 'Laboratories'.36 Near the beginning, it states that “the constitution of an experimental scientific laboratory is often difficult”, followed by remarks about equipment costs and the risk of spending a disproportionate amount of money when compared to actual use. Venâncio Filho also expresses the importance of reducing costs by using common materials that can be easily acquired. He goes on criticising the official guidelines, as he writes: Official requirements, instead of enumerating equipment that is often decorative, mere luxury ornaments in cupboards that are more or less closed and for display to important visitors, should specify which experiments should be done and clearly explained to pupils.37
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Venâncio Filho added a minimum basis for equipment acquisition and provided a list divided into two groups: 1) general measuring equipment and 2) miscellaneous equipment and apparatuses. The former included scales, graduated flasks, dynamometers, thermometers, tuning forks, a voltmeter and ammeter, a galvanoscope, measuring sticks and tape measures. The miscellaneous equipment and apparatuses included glass ware, wires made from different metals, mirrors, a kaleidoscope, lenses, prisms, a magnifying glass and microscope, magnets, a Ruhmkorff coil, a bell, a voltmeter, light bulbs and fuses, and batteries, among others. Most of the instruments listed can be found in the collection of Escola Bento de Abreu at Araraquara. Venâncio Filho's textbook contains images of different instruments with descriptions and operational instructions. It seems reasonable to suppose that if recommendations were followed, the instruments would have been used in physics lessons. However, in the light of the above-cited paragraph, doubts remain about their possible mere decorative function. Given the goals for physics teaching in the curriculum established in the 1931 legislation – i.e. to transmit knowledge of physical phenomena and initiate the pupils in the practice of experimental methods – it is questionable whether the experiments suggested in the three books under analysis could meet such goals. In other words, could the pupils comprehend the concepts and, after reproducing the experiments or following the teachers in their demonstrations, would they be acquiring “practice” in the experimental method? The information at our disposal is insufficient to answer such question. However, the comparison between the legislation and the textbooks enables a clear conclusion about the period in question. The Francisco Campos education reform explicitly expressed that science teaching should go beyond the mere explanation of concepts. Examination of both the official programmes and the equipment specifications lists for science laboratories confirms an educational project that sought to value learning through experimentation in physics and chemistry.38 1942 to 1961 In this period, five textbooks were analysed. The first batch comprehended three books published between 1943 and 1960 and aimed at the three different years of the second stage of secondary education. They were written by the same author, Francisco Alcântara Gomes Filho: i) Física para o primeiro ano do curso colegial [Physics for the first year of colegial education], undated, with a 1953 foreword (22nd ed. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional); ii) Física para o segundo ano do curso colegial [Physics for the second year of colegial education], 1957 (11th ed. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional); and iii) Física para o terceiro ano do curso colegial [Physics
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for the third year of colegial education], undated (15th ed. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional). Although the third volume is undated, its cover is the same as the two others and its physics programme refers to the same period as the two others. In other words, it is highly likely that the three books were published around the same date. In the book for the first year, a statement printed on the back cover reads: “In accordance with the latest programmes of study, as determined in directive 966 of 2 October 1951; authorized use by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Registered with the National Committee of Teaching Books (No. 2824)”. A similar statement appears in the book for the second year: “In accordance with the latest programmes of study, as set forth in 966 of 2 October 1951, and 1045 of 14 December 1951; authorized use by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Registration No. 1281” and in the book for the third year: “In accordance with current recommendations and authorized use by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Registered with the National Committee of Teaching Books (No. 1162)”.The books also contain information about the author, Francisco Alcântara Gomes Filho. He was a medical doctor licensed to teach physics. He taught at Colégio Pedro II and he was a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Science and Letters of the State University of Guanabara (Rio de Janeiro), Faculty of Medical Science, and the School of Medicine and Surgery. The second batch of analysed books during the period 1942-1961 aimed at students in the second stage of secondary education. They were also by the same author, Aníbal Freitas: iv) Física – 1º livro – ciclo colegial [Physics – First Book – ciclo colegial], 1960 (16th ed. São Paulo: Melhoramentos); and v) Física – 3º livro – ciclo colegial [Physics – Third Book – ciclo colegial], 1960 (11th ed. São Paulo: Melhoramentos). Both contain the statement, “Authorised use by the Ministry of Education and Culture”, the former with registration No. 641 and the latter with registration No. 850. Both also contain the following text on the back cover: “In accordance with official programmes of study”. The three books by Francisco de Alcântara Gomes Filho (first, second and third years of the second stage of secondary education) are faithful to the syllabus determined by directive 966 of 2 October 1951. In the foreword to the first volume, dated January 1953, the author introduces the new series of physics books for the second stage of secondary education, observing that it is in accordance with the new programmes prepared by the Colégio Pedro II. Descriptions of different equipment are distributed throughout the book, such as scales, barometers, aerometers, Atwood's machine, and descriptions of given experiments, such as the Magdeburg hemispheres experiment and the experimental verification of the laws of centrifugal force. The two books by Aníbal de Freitas (1960) contain the official programmes for the years in question, as well as 'Methodological Instructions
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for the Study of Physics' for both scientific and classical courses (Directive 966 of 2 October 1951 and Directive 1045 of 14 December 1951). The books do not include forewords and contents are organized according to the programmes. Like the book by Francisco de Alcântara Gomes Filho, both books by Aníbal de Freitas contain drawings of equipment, including barometers, aerometers and scales, as well as descriptions of demonstrations with given instruments, such as Haldat's apparatus, Newton tube, Barlow wheel, among others. Figures 1 and 2 reproduce descriptions of instruments, as well as details about their use. Many of the objects depicted in both books can be found at the EEBA collection (Fig. 3-4).
Fig. 1 - Magnifying glass, illustration from Aníbal de Freitas' textbook, 1960 (p. 108).
Fig. 2 - Magnifying glass, illustration from Aníbal de Freitas' textbook, 1960 (p. 108).
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Fig. 3. Magnifying glass, EEBA collection, unknown maker (Photo: M. C. Zancul).
Fig. 4. Barlow's wheel, EEBA collection, Meister Irmãos, Rio de Janeiro (Photo: M. C. Zancul).
As mentioned earlier, prerequisites for accreditation or recognition of schools providing the first and second stages of secondary education (“Instructions for the Execution of the Organic Law”, Decree 375 of 16 August 1949) establish criteria for the physical space and materials needed and provide a list of materials and instruments that should be acquired by secondary schools. The 1951 programme makes reference to the use of laboratories by the pupils.
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Are legislative requirements and recommendations in textbooks a justification for the purchase and use of equipment by schools? In principle the answer would be yes. However, different types of sources need to be consulted in order to confirm use (e.g. students' notebooks, teachers' manuscripts, among others). Final considerations about instruments as sources for the history of physics teaching The organization, conservation and study of the old scientific instruments from the physics laboratory of Escola Bento de Abreu de Araraquara has prompted a good deal of reflection about the potential of such artefacts as sources for research into the history of science teaching. In terms of their material dimension, the EBAA instruments stand out for their high manufacture quality, their formal harmony and their robust materials. As previously noted, few objects bear provenance or makers' inscriptions, and no indication was found in the School's archives of how the instruments came to be there. We also observed that although some instruments show signs of use, there are no records to suggest how they may have been employed in the classroom. Given that the objects offered little information, we turned to other sources to build up an understanding of their meanings and potential uses in teaching activities. Our examination of legal recommendations and analyses of textbooks yielded important information for understanding the context of physics teaching in the period under study. If we take into account the recommendations of the official curricula, the methodological guidelines contained in the legislation, and the activities presented in textbooks, we may suppose that instruments were indeed used in certain activities. The EEBA collection also includes a few heavy pieces, such as a model of the solar system and a pneumatic motor. These are hard to move and would have been used in demonstrations, possibly handled by teachers. There are also objects that require a certain amount of time to be assembled or need extra resources, such as a water supply, an electricity supply, a dark room, etc. At the other end of the scale are the small, easy-to-use instruments that could have been handled directly by pupils in experiments, activities and exercises, following the methodological instructions provided in legislation and the suggestions in some of the analysed textbooks. These include the different scales and most of the measuring instruments in the collection. Official proposals and textbooks indicate that some of the instruments, such as the Newton tube, vacuum jar and electrostatic generators, were designed to demonstrate certain laws and phenomena; others would have served to explain how a particular equipment operated, such as the models of
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the steam engine and the telegraph. Certain instruments, like scales, compasses, thermometers, barometers and hygrometers, were and still are used in teaching laboratories in different contexts. There are similarities between the EEBA collection and collections of scientific instruments in secondary schools from other countries and also some instruments in research laboratories. Comparisons between the different cases has enabled us to identify these artefacts and compensate, to a certain extent, for the absence of written documents about use, as Bross has highlighted.39 The importance of exchanges between teams involved in the preservation and research of scientific instruments and specialists in science teaching, historians of education and other researchers has also been highlighted.40 Moreover, it is also important to investigate connections between laboratory instruments and the science being produced in order to examine concepts such as didactic transposition. The production of science and its transmission in schools are two distinct processes and it is essential to question the meaning of industrial production of teaching replicas and models; in other words, it is necessary to problematize the conditions under which school scientific instruments were produced and how they circulated. Another point worth considering is the biography of objects,41 insofar as their trajectories can help us understand the relationships between instruments and the systems of social values and significations. Furthermore, such trajectories may also helps us understand what is considered valid and legitimate and also what is put aside and ultimately forgotten at a given time, as they mirror the transformations of science and education. Also, as many instruments were produced by leading makers in countries such as Germany and France, it is important to consider any economic factors that may have interfered in their production and circulation.42 In terms of the history of physics teaching, we have noticed that the proposals for instrument use revealed different conceptions about experimentation in different times. An analysis of the current physics curricula reveals the content is the same, to a great extent. Even so, some scientific instruments continue to be represented in textbooks while others are not. Could this be explained by the use of new models or new technologies in physics teaching, or is it due to the conceptions underlying more recent teaching proposals? This question requires further in-depth studies. To conclude, we would note that despite the factors that hinder the use of historical instruments as sources for research, their study can help elucidate important aspects of the history of science and physics teaching, broadening the potential for historical comprehension of the school education project in Brazil. We believe that studying historical scientific instruments, in conjunction with other sources such as school curricula and syllabi, textbooks, has the
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potential to reveal significant aspects of science teaching in the past, yielding historical knowledge we believe can help us devise effective strategies for physics teaching in the present and future. Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for financial support from the Pró Reitoria de Pesquisada Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and the Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da UNESP (FUNDUNESP). We also thank Rosa Fátima de Souza for her comments. Notes 1
R. Nardi and M. J. P. M.Almeida, 'Educación en Ciencias: lo que caracteriza el área de enseñanza de las Ciencias en Brasil según investigadores brasileños', Revista Electrónica de Investigación en Educación en Ciencias, (2008) 3 (1), 24-34; D. Delizoicov Neto, 'Pesquisa em ensino de ciências como ciências humanas aplicadas', Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física (2004), 21 (2), 145-175. 2
See e.g. I. Malaquias, Instrumentos científicos antigos no ensino e divulgação da física. 2004. http://baudafisica.web.ua.pt/principal.aspx, accessed: 30 July 2012; H. Chamoux, Inventaire des instruments scientifiques anciens dans lês établissements publics. http://www.inrp.fr/she/instruments/index.htm, accessed: 21 September 2012; M. C. S. Zancul, 'A coleção de instrumentos antigos do laboratório de Física da Escola Estadual Bento de Abreu de Araraquara SP', Revista Ensaio: Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências (2009), 11 (1), 71-84. 3 J. R. Bertomeu Sánchez, M. Cuenca Lorente, A. García Belmar and J. Simon Castel, 'Los instrumentos científicos de los centros de enseñanza secundaria en España: historia, estado actual y futuro del patrimonio científico educativo', in Coleções científicas luso-brasileiras: patrimônio a ser descoberto (M. Granato and M. Lourenço), MAST, Rio de Janeiro, 2010, 15-46. 4
M. Granato and M. Lourenço, Reflexões sobre o Patrimônio Cultural da Ciência e Tecnologia. Revista Memória em Rede (2011),2 (4), 85-104. 5
The collection was organized with the financial support of the São Paulo research funding agency (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, FAPESP) (process no. 2007/07198-0), complemented by undergraduate grants from the PróReitoria de Extensão da UNESP (PROEX). 6
M. C. S. Zancul and R. F. Souza, 'Instrumentos antigos como fontes para a história do ensino de ciências e de física na educação secundária' Educação: Teoria e Prática (2012), 22 (40), 81-99. 7 U. T. B. Meneses, 'Memória e cultura material: documentos pessoais no espaço público', Revista Estudos Históricos (1998),11 (21), 89-103. 8
N. Dallabrida, 'A reforma Francisco Campos e a modernização nacionalizada do ensino secundário', Educação: Teoria e Prática (2009) 32 (2), 185-91. 9
Similarly to all other secondary schools in Brazil at the time, and although it was managed by the state, the EEBA had to comply with federal education regulations and
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prepare annual reports. However, São Paulo state had its own regulations for secondary education, which were in compliance with federal legislation, but further specified requirements for issues such as the administration of schools, teaching hiring, the code of discipline for students, and the functioning of schools' governing bodies. EEBA undoubtedly aligned its curriculum, laboratories and other aspects with the federal rules and regulations for secondary education. 10
M. C. S. Zancul and R. F. Souza, op. Cit..
11 J. C. Bicudo, O ensino secundário no Brasil e sua atual legislação (de 1931 a 1941 inclusive). Ed. José Magalhães, São Paulo 1942, 167. 12
Ibid..
13
Ibid., 168.
14
Ibid., 169.
15
Ibid..
16
Brasil. Ministério da Educação e Saúde. Ensino Secundário no Brasil (organização, legislação vigente, programas). INEP, Rio de Janeiro, 1952, 23. 17
Ibid..
18
Ibid., 27.
19
O. O. Romanelli, História da educação no Brasil: 1930-1973. Vozes, Petrópolis, 1983.
20
Brasil, op cit..
21
Ibid..
22
Ibid..
23
Ibid..
24
Ibid.; V. L. Nóbrega,Enciclopédia da legislação de ensino, [s.n.], Rio de Janeiro, 1951, v.1. 25
Brasil, op. cit., 515.
26
Ibid..
27
Ibid..
28
Ibid..
29
Ibid., 546.
30
Ibid., 596.
31
Ibid., 596.
32
Ibid., 597.
33
The number of lessons remained unchanged in the classical course with Greek and in the scientific course. 34 Física: Iniciação ao estudo dos fenômenos físicos (de acordo com o programa oficial) [Physics: Introduction to the study of physical phenomena (in accordance with the oficial curriculum] by Francisco Venâncio Filho, 1935 (3ª série. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, p. 16.
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35
Idem., p. 16.
36
Ibid., pp. 213-4.
37
F. Venâncio Filho, Física: Iniciação ao estudo dos fenômenos físicos (de acordo com o programa oficial). 3ª série, Companhia Editora Nacional, São Paulo, 1935, 213. 38
Directive dated 15 April 1932, approving the norm sand criteria from the National Department of Education for the classification of secondary education establishments with a view to their recognition. See also M. C. S. Zancul, op. Cit.. 39
A. M. M. Bross, Recuperação da memória do ensino experimental de Física na escola secundária brasileira: produção, utilização, evolução e preservação dos equipamentos. Unpublished Masters dissertation, USP Instituto de Física, Faculdade de Educação, São Paulo, 1990. 40
M. C. S. Zancul and R. F. Souza, op. cit..
41
M. Rede, 'História a partir das coisas: tendências recentes nos estudos de cultura material'. Anais do Museu Paulista (1996),4, 265-282. 42
M. C. S. Zancul and R. F. Souza, op. cit..
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The collection of scientific instruments of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano Museum, São Paulo: Origins, context and significance Katya M. Z. Braghini
Introduction The museu escolar, or 'school museum', has multiple definitions and is still largely understudied in Brazil. It was an institution created for pedagogical purposes in the nineteenth century, at a time when great museums were expanding, in Brazil and worldwide. Studies about the school museum have focused primarily on its pedagogical use in the past and present, as well as on the preservation of collections. My interest in this chapter is to explore the reasons and practices that led to the constitution of the school museum of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano, in São Paulo, until the 1930s. It is not my aim to discuss the multilayered concept of school museum as it means different things in different contexts: 'collections' of didactic wall charts, cabinets with objects acquired from manufacturers of scientific instruments; a composite of materials organized by teachers and students; instruments aimed at the science subjects stored in bookcases and shelves. Instead, I will focus on the instruments that exist today at the Colégio Marista, aiming at understanding their origins in the context of a Catholic secondary school in the city of São Paulo. The collection's organization process, including inventory, is at an early stage. There is no proper list. Moreover, no documentation has yet been found to support purchases of materials. For this reason, this study has opted to
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discuss the need for the acquisition of scientific instruments within the context of the establishment of a Catholic school facing Brazilian educational demands at that time. By historical scientific instruments, one should understand the artifacts used in cabinets and laboratories for the teaching of the Natural Sciences. Emphasis is given to the acquisition of Physics and Chemistry apparatuses. In the nineteenth century, school museums were places for storing reality in schools; their main objective was to enable experimentation with natural phenomena, through the use of both simple and sophisticated instruments. These instruments marked a turning point in the pedagogy of science, materially speaking, and were therefore representations of progress, disseminators of new traditions, and symbols of modernity.1 The world of objects also invaded the public education system in Brazil, which was entranced by the 'pedagogy of the senses'. The entry of instruments into nineteenth-century educational scene was accompanied by multiple references to modernizing education projects. The creation of the science cabinet at the Colégio Arquidiocesano (São Paulo) cannot be seen in isolation; it was part of a broader social movement that saw investment in the acquisition of all sorts of materials as a means to activate a specific educational model. Therefore, scientific instruments in schools are not mere values in themselves. They are coveted objects, wrapped inside a pedagogical movement that was object-oriented and dedicated special appreciation to instruments as representations of the modern world. Scientific instruments could highlight a theory; they were presented as audience entertainment; they had the power to disseminate scientific knowledge to a wide audience, in this case the school community. According to a preliminary survey, there are 800 objects today at the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano Museum in São Paulo. They were acquired between the second half of the nineteenth century and the 1980s and were used for the teaching of physics and chemistry (anatomy, hydrostatics, pneumatics, heat, optics, electricity, magnetism and acoustics). Among them, several precision instruments can be found. Most of the collection was acquired before the 1930s. There is also a collection of anatomy models, mounted animals, minerals, archaeological artifacts, among others, for the teaching of natural history, Most of these materials are well-preserved.2 The School Museum of Colégio Marista does not yet have an inventory or updated catalogue. Observing makers' inscriptions on the objects on display, one can see the following foreign manufacturers: Maison Deyrolle, Les Fils d'Emile Deyrolle, Ducretet, Machlet, Rodriguet & Massiot, Max Kohl, Winkel Zeiss, Carl Zeiss, Welch Scientific Company, Hartmann and Brown, WM Welch Scientific Company, among others. Brazilian makers, such as Otto Bender,
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Franz Sturn Cia Ltda, Techné São Paulo, Meister Irmãos etc., are also represented. Today the School Museum is part of the Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação (Research and Documentation Center), a department that also includes the School Archive and Library. The aim of this department is to preserve items no longer in use and provide complementary documentation so that they can be tools for educational, research and cultural activities; moreover, the Centro also ensures the preservation and safety of all the items. Friar Germano D'Annecy and the constitution of a Science cabinet In its early stages, the cabinet of Physics of the Colégio Arquidiocesano is linked to the creation of the São Paulo Episcopal Seminary of São Paulo (1856) by D. Antônio Joaquim de Melo, the city bishop, through the mediation of Pope Pius IX. This clearly indicates the Roman hierarchy's interest in the international expansion of Catholicism and consolidation of missionary work of congregations and religious orders through education. Aid also came from the Brazilian Crown, aiming at the support of an ecclesiastic body that would defend the political order, the association between State and Church and the consolidation of Brazilian clergy, under the guidance of the Pope, as true bearers of Christian faith.3 On November 4, 1856, the Episcopal Seminary of São Paulo opened its doors for the training of future priests. Two years later, due to the lack of secondary schools in the city of São Paulo, a Minor Seminary was opened. This was dedicated to secondary education in a boarding-school regime and aimed at forming a civilized male elite.4 Since 1843, the Colégio D. Pedro II, in Rio de Janeiro, had been the only Brazilian secondary school entitled to send graduates directly to higher education.5 The Colégio D. Pedro II was a reference school and the measure of the 'quality of education'.6 All Brazilian secondary schools aspiring to the right to send their students directly to higher education had to undergo an equivalence (evaluation) process with the Rio school. 'Nonequivalent school' students, as was the case of students of Colégio Diocesano de São Paulo (its previous name), were required to take preparatory exams. In other words, secondary schools aiming at integrating the small list of Brazilian elite schools had to follow the educational standards set by the Emperor's school in Rio. In the late nineteenth century, this was a goal pursued by the Colégio Diocesano. One of the requirements for equivalence was the purchase of scientific instruments similar to the ones used in Rio. Capuchin friars from the province of Haute-Savoie in France were recruited, by order of Pope Pius IX, to run the Seminary. Friar Affonso Rumilly, Order Advisor, accompanied by Friars Eugênio and Generoso, Friar Firmino Centelhas from Spain, and Friar Germano d'Annecy, agreed to run the school in São Paulo.
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Friar Germano (birth name Claude Charles Marion) was responsible for the establishment of a Science Cabinet in the school. Born in the city of Annecy, he arrived in São Paulo in 1858 as tutor of Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, Botany and Mineralogy. He became prominent in the country on account of his astronomical studies made with a telescope installed on the balcony of the Seminary. He would send daily weather reports to the newspaper A Província de São Paulo. In addition, he would publish observations of eclipses and transit of planets. He even calculated and controlled the assembly of sundials in São Paulo and in the city of Franca.
Fig. 1 - Plaque celebrating Friar Germano D'Annecy [1917, São Paulo] (Echos do Colégio Marista Arquidiocesan, Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial).
As an astronomer, Germano was a friend of Emmanuel Liais', Director of the Imperial Observatory in Rio de Janeiro, and also of Emperor Pedro II, who offered him a stopwatch and a telescope. He was invited to become Deputy Director of the Observatory, a position he refused due to his poor health.8 In the 1870s, he made several outdoor experiments with electrical lighting, managing to illuminate the surroundings of the Seminary in celebration of the arrival of soldiers from the War of Paraguay, and Rua Direita in the city of Campinas, in celebration of the arrival of the Companhia Paulista Railroad.9 He was not alone in these historical deeds around the city. In 1893, Father Landell de Moura broadcasted musical sounds from Avenida Paulista to Alto de Santana, a distance of eight kilometers through wireless telephony.10 Friar Germano remained as a science tutor at the Seminary until 1878, when the Capuchins were removed from the management of the institution; this removal was not peaceful and raised controversy.11 Two representatives of the
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Order – one from the Chambery and another from Rome – went to São Paulo. The Superior Provincial of the Chambery, in response to the events involving the removal of the Order from the institution, made a report that included an inventory of the furniture, library, the Cabinet of Physics and all materials needed for students' teaching and care.12 Although away from the school, Friar Germano was still living in São Paulo and he continued interested in 'his' old Cabinet of Physics. At a teachers' meeting on April 7, 1888, João Alves Guimarães, Monsignor of Pindamonhangaba and Dean of the Seminary, read a letter from Germano proposing “the sale of his Physics and Chemistry instruments for two contos de réis”, the Brazilian currency at the time. He also volunteered to reassemble the cabinet at the Seminary.13 Friar Germano's letter shows that, after his withdrawal from the school, he took with him the scientific instruments that he used;14 he was prepared to return them and return to the Seminary for the reorganization of the Cabinet. In notes made during the inventory, a short comment states that the cabinet was in “a more or less regular state”.15 However, when the new Dean, João Soares do Amaral, inventoried the equipment of the school (17 rooms in total), no scientific instrument is mentioned. The development of cabinets with scientific instruments in secondary education in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (1838-1900) Throughout the nineteenth century, so-called 'bookish' education, based on memorization of knowledge, drew different types of criticism.16 By the end of the century, this criticism had become consensual and global. Multiple voices called for a new type of education anchored in knowledge acquired through life experience and direct contact of students with objects and 'reality'. These pedagogical proposals assumed that education should go from intuition to concept and were disseminated around the world under the name of Intuitive Method.17 The educator should consider intuition as a trigger to the acquisition of knowledge and provide students with activities based on direct observation and the use of the senses. These activities, linked to successive degrees of complexity, would allow them to reach abstract notions that comprise concepts.18 During the nineteenth century, secondary education targeted primarily the training of the elite and traditionally organized itself around Classical Studies/Humanities, with an axis on Rhetoric.19 However, this preference was balanced with scientific ideals, namely the proposal of the so-called 'Scientific Humanities' and the refusal of Rhetorical Verbalism.20 During this period, in France, secondary education was understood as an “epistemological” continuity of initial scientific studies in elementary school.
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The ideal design of science teaching was based on the idea that students would be “observers”, then “experimenters”, and finally, theorists, which naturally would be reserved to the senior secondary school classes. The top goal of science education would be to form the “very spirit of Science”.21 French pedagogical literature circulated widely in Brazil during the nineteenth century and many French authors were translated into Portuguese partly due to the deliberate advertising strategy of French publishers and partly to the internationalization of pedagogical ideas around the Intuitive Method. The presence, in the years 1856-1900, of French textbooks publishers, such as Hachette, Delalain, Garnier, Delagrave, Belin, Armand Colin, A. Durand, H. Plon, Didier, Guillard, Aillaud & Cie., among others, was significant.22 In the case of Colégio D. Pedro II, the presence of French textbooks in its curriculum was remarkable, particularly after the reforms of 1855 and 1857. From 1856 onwards, the Colégio Pedro II predominantly required books written by French authors and organized Science and Mathematics teaching according to the 1852 Plan d'Etudes et Programmes d'Enseignement des Lycées Impériaux. During the 1870s and 1880s, the school curriculum remained relatively stable, deviating little from the curricular model of 1856. Among the books used at the time, authors such as Felix Hement, Gabriel Delafosse, and Edmond Jean-Joseph Langlebert could be found, the latter being part of the Noveau manuel des aspirants au baccalauréat ès sciences. The Chemistry program sought to follow the Manuel du Baccalauréat en Sciences by Langlebert. The Colégio always required that these textbooks be the latest editions used at the schools in Paris.23 In order to develop this new scientific spirit, pedagogical materials, such as laboratories, museums, Deyrolle frames, prints, frames of Natural History, human skeletons, compasses, microscopes, anatomical parts, Physics maps, etc., were purchased.24 To accommodate the materials and the new scientific spirit, specially designed spaces were planned in schools for various activities. New methodologies and teaching practices were prescribed. In the case of scientific studies, special environments were necessary to house laboratories and instruments, as well as school museums with scientific collections. Therefore, the expansion of scientific apparatus of the Colégio Arquidiocesano is not an isolated case. It is immersed in a political, educational and cultural movement that gave science teaching a new level of importance. It is a historical movement of significant magnitude, a global movement of knowledge and material circulation that went through the great universal exhibitions, such as the pedagogical exhibitions. It included the display of scientific instruments in specialized stores as well as the publication of trade catalogues, which had refined business strategies so that their illustrations were literally copied into Brazilian textbooks.
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In Brazil, the First Pedagogical Exhibition took place in Rio de Janeiro from July 29 to September 30, 1883. This event was part of the universal exhibition movement that celebrated human genius through industrial production.25 It was organized in 13 rooms, where pedagogical products, including scientific instruments, were presented. Among the exhibitors were Brazilian schools, foreign representatives and distributors of a broad diversity of school materials, including Object Lessons (Lições de Coisas) as an official teaching procedure for use in Brazilian schools.26 After the Exhibition, many of the objects were incorporated in the National School Museum, opened on December 2, 1883, in Rio de Janeiro. The third hall of the Museum displayed instruments for the study of Physics, Chemistry, the metric system and intuitive education, as well as mechanical calculators, minerals etc.27 Other public and private educational institutions also purchased instruments at the Exhibition. They did it for two main reasons. First, schools were seeking progressive change in the curriculum, which valued techno-scientific knowledge. Secondly, they were trying to follow standards set by Colégio D. Pedro II and the ambitioned 'equivalence'; this was the case of the Colégio Marista. Science curriculum in private and public secondary education was further consolidated again in 1887, when the contents of Physics, Chemistry and Natural History were introduced in preparatory examinations for medical schools, forcing schools to adapt their curricula.28 This, in turn, promoted the acquisition of scientific instruments (Table 1).29 Table 1 - Exam content of Colégio Pedro II Secondary School - First Level (1890).
30
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Further modifications in the scientific curricula occurred through the Provisional Programs of Colégio D. Pedro II in 1898. Subjects would be then designated 'chairs'.31 For the study of Physics, an increasing number of scientific instruments was listed: precision equipment for the measurement of matter and motion; dynamometers; simple and compound machines for the study of the laws of motion; scales; aerometers, balloons and airships; pneumatic machines, siphons, pumps; various thermometers; flat and spherical mirrors; simple and compound microscopes, spotting scopes; magic lanterns; devices for measuring the number of vibrations, resonators.32 The table of contents of the Colégio D. Pedro II shows the content required to all secondary schools for 'equivalence', as well as instruments to be acquired. The Colégio Marista follows this broader national pattern, coupled with a number of aspects specific to the state of São Paulo. In the province of São Paulo, the Republican State was a powerful stakeholder in matters of public education organization, legislation and planning.33 Efforts by São Paulo Republicans can be seen in the organization of all levels and types of public education, e.g. normal schools, kindergarten, primary schools, secondary schools and colleges such as the Polytechnic School. Intellectuals from São Paulo, such as Caetano de Campos, John Kopke, Augusto Freire da Silva, Américo Brasiliense and Rangel Pestana, played key roles in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century public instruction reform.34
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The idea of disseminating secular education under the specific direction of the Republican Party of São Paulo resulted in several private secondary schools in São Paulo, including the American School, the Colégio Morton, the Colégio Brasileiro, the Emulação, the Glória, the Ateneu Paulistano, and the Liceu Paulistano. Outside the capital, the Culto à Ciência (Campinas), the Novo Mundo (Itu), and the Colégio Internacional (Campinas) also opened. The national law 88 of September 8, 1892, designated three official schools in the state of São Paulo. One was in São Paulo city and would serve as reference for the state secondary education, based on the Colégio D. Pedro II: on November 16, 1894, the Primeiro Ginásio da Capital (First Secondary School of the capital of São Paulo) was inaugurated. Its initial professors were selected through public calls and Edmundo Xavier became the Head Professor 35 of the 11th Chair of Physics and Chemistry. On April 6, 1896, the School acquired equivalence to Colégio D. Pedro II, and Science classes were clustered between the 4th and the 6th years, with 10 Physics and Chemistry lessons, and 9 Natural History lessons. Teaching Physics and Chemistry would be based on “repeated experiments in cabinets and laboratories, accompanied by the exhibition and methodical explanation of their theories”.36 Each school in São Paulo would be provided with “a Physics cabinet, a Chemistry laboratory, Natural History collections, a library and all necessary materials”.37 In 1903, the Physics cabinet of the Primeiro Ginásio da Capital had the following instruments: Roberval scales, dynamometers, Maezel metronome, apparatus for the centrifugal force, Callander apparatus, hydrostatic scale, Nicholson apparatus, Fahrenheit aerometer, baroscope, Boyle-Berton apparatus, Haldat apparatus, Plateau apparatus, Pellat hydrostatic dynamometer, hydraulic clamp, hydraulic press for demonstration, hydrostatic bellows of Pascal, Guy-Lussac barometer, Fortin barometer, hemispheres of Magdebourg, Hero's fountain, tantalum vase, Bianchi pneumatic machine, Edison phonograph, a pair of Bell telephones, Franklin thermometer, Rumford thermoscope, Melloni apparatus (simplified), Dalton apparatus, Bichat apparatus, Tyndall apparatus, Ritchie apparatus, Boutigny apparatus, d'Ampère apparatus, telescope of Galileo, scales, spectroscope of Plateau, mirrors, prisms, microscopes, among others.38 The preference for demonstration is clear. Names of unknown devices or devices registered inaccurately have been found in the inventory. This probably indicates that the person responsible for the inventory did not necessarily know the objects. It is possible to notice that some of them were labeled with fictitious names, or nicknames', or even by descriptions merely based on form.39 This early movement of purchasing instruments can be observed in two other secondary schools in the State of São Paulo: the Colégio Culto à Ciência (1874), in Campinas, and the Araraquara College (1914).40 Both started their
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Physics cabinets in the early twentieth century. The Colégio Culto à Ciência, a private school, received special funding from the State Government for the organization of the Physics cabinet and Chemistry laboratory.41 In the early 1899, School Board members and the Department of the Interior approved the release of funding for the installation of pipelines and the purchase of materials and furnishings for the teaching of Physics, Chemistry and Zoology.42 In that initial purchase, 80 instruments were ordered: 77 for Physics and 3 for Chemistry.43 These early acquisitions, as well as the instruments displayed at the Pedagogical Museum, show the exploding interest in science teaching in Brazilian secondary schools. The collection at the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano does not differ, in essence, from those in other secondary schools in São Paulo. Some evidence suggests that, initially, purchasing scientific instruments was one way to stand out against the competition. At the same time, given the interest in standardization according to the norms set by the National Secondary School Department, the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano progressively organized itself in order to achieve the desired equivalence at national level. Acquisition and development of scientific instruments at the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano (1908-1932) The Congregation's interest in acquiring objects for teaching had already been mentioned in the Guide d'Écoles, a Marist Brothers' seminal document on education. Published in 1853 by the Congregation's teaching patron, Father Marcelino Champagnat, the document was a treatise on theoretical education with the characteristics of a teaching manual, aimed at systematic standardization of the diverse educational institutions maintained by the group. Inspired by Rousseau, the guide is also influenced by Conduite des Écoles by John the Baptist de La Salle.44 One of its educational assumptions is the commitment to sensation stimulation through an education of the senses. The rationale was that the best education happened through the child's direct contact with objects or printed representations, rather than studying abstract concepts. In other words, the handling of a foldable meter or a tape measure was essential for the understanding of the metric system, instead of its indirect notion.45 'Object Lessons' and the development of sensory faculties receive a special chapter in the Guide. It encouraged the creation of a school museum so that the teacher had objects and images at hand. Teachers should make use of the Intuitive Method, whose pedagogical substance depended directly on objects and experiments for the acquisition of “basic notions of Science” and the “rudimentary knowledge of Physics and Natural Sciences”.46
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Although instruments played a prominent role in intuitive education and at the core of Object Lessons, which was embraced by the Marist School guidelines, the presence of Science in the curriculum was not without controversy, particularly in relation to God as creator of the natural world. Upon request of the Bishop of São Paulo, Duarte Leopoldo e Silva, the Marist Brothers received the school in 1908, with 196 students.47 A group composed of 16 missionaries arrived in the city, including Brothers Andrônico, João Alexandre, Afonso Estevão, Amâncio Maria and Esdras Maria.48 When the Marist Brothers took control, the Colégio had already been standardized according to the Colégio D. Pedro II norms. Science cabinets had already been created and science teaching occurred from the fourth year onwards.49 The school had “an indoor garden with the statue of the founding Bishop and a sundial, and Physics, Chemistry and Natural History cabinets”.50
Fig. 2 - Cabinet of Physics of the Colégio Diocesano de São Paulo, 1906 (Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial).
In the 1900 application for the equivalence, Father João Batista Vanesse, then director of the physics cabinet, listed the following instruments received by the Marist Brothers: 2 dynamometers; 2 analytical scales; 1 hydraulic pump; 1 hydrostatic balance; 1 Ludion; 1 Morin machine; 1 Haldat
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apparatus; 1 Masson apparatus ; 1 Nicholson aerometer; 1 Regnault apparatus; 1 Fahrenheit aerometer; 1 spectroscope; 1 microscope; 2 pneumatic machines “complete with all parts”; 1 Carré machine; 2 Ramsdon electric machines; 1 Latimer Clark machine; 1 Ruhmkorff induction coil; 1 Gramme machine “of 6 amperes and 50 volts”; 1 Plateau machine; 1 Bell telephone; 1 microphone”; 1 telegraph; 1 “apparatus for voltaic arc”; “electromotor” “vacuum tube”; “water hammer”; “communicating vessels”; “collection of various aerometers Gay-Lussac”; “ring Gravezande”; “Casella House - London barometers”; “Mariotte tube and parts”; “various monometers”; “Berthollet balloon model”; “intermittent fountain”; “Heron's fountain”; “Tantalum siphons and vessels”; “capillary tubes”; phonograph; tuning forks; “prisms, reflectors, lenses, camera obscura for demonstrations”; “a magic lantern”; “magnets, needles and electroscopes”; “electroscope with condenser of Volta”; “capacitors and drivers”; “Leyden bottles”, “Bunsen, Leclanché and Grenet cells; voltmeters.51 In 1906, the Physics cabinet and the School Museum had various glass flasks, chemicals, a vacuum pump, a Winchester machine, a Whimshurst machine, Heron's fountain and multiple Maison Deyrolle's anatomical models.52 Between 1925 and 1930, the school hosted inspectors and examination boards from the National Department of Education in order to request “preliminary verifications” for definite equivalence.53 One of the school's first steps was to develop a new building, complying entirely with the legal requirements, including Science labs, and a Chemistry amphitheater.54 Twentyseven years after the Marist Brothers assumed control of the school, there were new and ample facilities, as well as Physics, Chemistry and Natural History laboratories, combined with a substantial increase in the number of instruments, with “abundant material”. 55 The amphitheater-shaped Demonstration Room measured 90.50m² and its central table was purchased in Germany.56 The report seeking 'permanent equivalence', submitted to the National Department of Education, presented the following teaching materials for Science classes: a) for Physics: Mechanics (10), Centrifugal Force (3), Gravity Action (16), Measuring Instruments (8), Hydrostatics (14), Density (12), Pneumatics (35), Heat (11), Density of gases and vapors (7), Humidity (4), Calorimetry (6), Acoustics (14), Optics (61), Electricity (30), Dynamic Electricity (25), Magnetism (8), Resistance (45), totaling 309 pieces; b) for the Chemistry laboratory, 144 instruments and 100 test tubes (chemicals not included); c) for Natural History: Anthropology (32), Botany (86), didactic wall charts (174), two collections from the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, a glass-contained herbarium with 90 Brazilian species harvested in the “school forest”, minerals (66) and a number of items (55) related to the Ministry of Agriculture.57
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There were also 45 artifacts in the Science Room, including scales, pressure gauges, thermometers, barometers, radiometers, voltmeters, ammeters, mirrors, among others. For microscopic studies there were simple microscope magnifiers, microscopes, microscopes of “strong magnification, with several eyepieces and objectives”, “staining materials”, “several hundreds of slides for practical studies in accordance with the program issued by the National Department of Education”.58 The school collection had multiple objects purchased from Les fils d'Émile Deyrolle, all related to Physics, Chemistry and Natural History and acquired between 1896 and 1932.59 The Federal Inspector recorded his “remarkable impression” after visiting the school in 1932. He pointed out that its Principal had conformed to all policies and regulations issued by the Ministry of Education and Public Health. For all the experimental studies in Physics and Natural Sciences, “a table was installed with everything needed: running water, faucets, sinks, gas, power sockets and direct current generator.”60 The Chemistry laboratory, which was distant from the classrooms, was assembled “so students could virtually study and make the most out of Chemistry classes”. In the laboratory there were tables and three sinks equipped with taps with running water, electricity, and gas outlets.61 There is evidence of the enthusiasm of students for scientific knowledge, although in the official discourse the idea of the 'truth' about natural phenomena was only in the hands of God. Newton's gravity theory, Pascal's Hydrostatics, the Principle of Archimedes, the expansion coefficient of the bodies, Lavoisier and Laplace, Franklin on static electricity, Galvani and Volta, Lagrange in Dynamics, Acoustics, Dalton, Proust, Berzelius, Berthollet, were among the topics discussed and cheerfully announced during the graduation ceremony of 1911.62 On the occasion of the announcement of the purchase of a European spectrometer for the Physics cabinet, the school displayed enthusiasm and satisfaction.63 Therefore, it is possible to think that, in the routine of school days, interest in scientific studies was stronger than discussions about faith and religion. The 1929, admission exams at the Colégio Arquidiocesano demonstrate the full development of Physics and Natural Sciences in the school. The contents included the following: understanding and using scientific instruments, idea of gravity and free fall of bodies, the physical states of bodies, the idea of forces, balance, work, living force, simple machines, inertia; scales, communicating vessels, floating; atmosphere, atmospheric pressure, barometers, pumps, balloons and airships; sound, spreading waves; light and how it propagates, transparent, opaque and translucent bodies, shadows, pictures, mirrors and prisms; heat and how it propagates, change of body states, body dilation, thermometers; magnetism, magnets, compasses; good
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and poor conductors; sparks, lightning, electric current, electric light; simple and compound bodies, mixing and combination; combustion, carbon and its presence in organic components; water, its composition, filtration, distillation; air and its elements; carbon, carbonic anhydride, carbon oxide; metals, iron, gold, major deposits in Brazil; the human species, parts of the human body; skeleton, main bones and muscle systems; nutrition, life appliances; sense organs, nervous system; vertebrates, how the main types are divided.64 The consolidation of science in the Colégio Marista curriculum is also demonstrated by the publication of Science textbooks. Publishing was decided at a teachers' meeting and implemented by the Maristas' own textbook publishing company, Frére Théophile Durand (FTD), which had been in operation since 1902. Eduardo Branly's textbook analysis, published by FTD in 1917, indicates as major concerns for Physics teaching the understanding of the scientific method, the observation of Physics phenomena, and the operation of instruments and machines. Content produced by the Marist Brothers themselves, often translations of school books commonly used in France and Brazil, may have encouraged acquisitions of objects for science cabinets, as it would have been inconsistent not to do so.65
Fig. 3 - Cabinet of Physics of the Colégio Arquidiocesano de São Paulo: new school located in Vila Mariana, 1932 (Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial).
The final report of the “process of permanent equivalence” (1932) pointed out that the school had achieved the grade 'Excellent', with the assessment of 95.7 and 96.1 (out of 100) for its special rooms, including Science cabinets and laboratories.66 The Colégio Arquidiocesano had finally managed to acquire its
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definite equivalence to the Colégio D. Pedro II, a measure of quality teaching. The school collection closely mirrored collections in other schools, specifically the Primeiro Gymnasio da Capital, the most important secondary school in São Paulo. The inspectors' admiration for the presentation of Science demonstrates that in 24 years the collection of scientific instruments of the school had grown considerably. This can be noticed by the expansion of teaching spaces, laboratories and scientific cabinets. Concluding Remarks The interest in final equivalence was also linked to the position of Catholic schools before the Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil (1889). In the Republican period, the secularization of education was promoted; religious education was removed from the curricula of public schools. However, the participation of the Church in education did not decrease. Catholic schools proliferated in the South and Southeast regions, with emphasis on replacing traditional Brazilian training with a distinctly European educational orientation. Pedagogical proposals from different religious congregations, such as the Dominicans (1882), Salesians (1883), Augustinians (1889), Carlists (1895), Vincentians (1896), Carmelites (1899), Salvatorian (1900), spread across the country. During this period the Church sought to organize and publicly defend a network of Catholic educational institutions. It defended its schools against the commercial, competitive values, which surrounded the private school and its secular-liberal, Protestant-focused education.68 In this environment, secondary schools advertised their services, publicizing the existence of Physics and Chemistry cabinets in city newspapers.69 Schools like the Colégio Marista were not thinking of the purchase of scientific instruments for the sake of education alone. They also hoped to demonstrate how instruments materialized seriousness and rigor, when compared with competitors. Acquiring scientific instruments was a way for an institution to embrace modernity and to enhance its competitive advantage in the game of secondary schools that had opened during this period.70 In the early twentieth century, and within the Paulista School, scientific instruments continued to appear in a wide range of school materials acquired for all purposes, such as the teaching of young children, teaching of reading, desks, etc. This was due to the Intuitive Method, also known as 'Object Lessons', which became the official pedagogical method of the state. This method stood out as a sign of modernity, as a representation of industry and science. The acquisition of instruments became essential for schools, especially for secondary schools and those focused on teacher training. Even the physical space in the school began to undergo a transformation due to the changes of pedagogical models, and the need to store the increasing amount of materials in the school.
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In this context, it was essential for a school to achieve permanent equivalence, an educational qualification of national recognition in a period of acceleration of secular education in Brazil. This equivalence would, however, transform the school. It was not simply a matter of seeking the right to equivalence in the preparatory exams. It was also a matter of monitoring the internal educational standards. Equivalence forced the Colégio Arquidiocesano to make curricular concessions and to acquire a significant list of laboratory equipment. The second reason was linked to the creation of the institution. Gradually, different spaces for the teaching of science accumulate, where the teachers' interests, the wish to present an exemplary school before the eyes of the public, and the image of Catholic education concerned with science, as secular education expanded in Brazil, are combined. Acknowledgments The author is grateful to Ricardo Pedro and Raquel Piñas from the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano's Memorial Archive in São Paulo; also to Rafael Vinicius and Valéria dos Santos, both from the Colégio Marista Glória, for the affectionate welcome. Notes 1
Scientific instruments as vehicles for different traditions in science education, for example illustrative of canons or establishing new pedagogical practices, have been discussed by renowned researchers, such as P. Heering, 'Tools for investigation, tools for instruction: potential transformations of instruments in the transfer from research to teaching', in Learning by Doing, Experiments and instruments in the History of Science teaching (ed. P. Heering and R. Wittje), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2011, 15-30; R. Kremer, 'Reforming American Physics Pedagogy in the 1880s: Introducing 'Learning by doing' via Student Laboratory Exercises', in Learning by Doing, Experiments and instruments in the History of Science teaching (ed. P. Heering and R. Wittje), Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 2011, 243-280. Bernal Martinez also discusses the role of scientific instruments in shaping educational models, between “academic exhibition” and knowledge from students' direct experience; see J. Bernal Martinez, Renovación pedagógica y enseñanza de las Ciencias, Medio siglo de propuestas y experiências escolares (1882-1936), Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2001. 2 In addition, there are more than 200 objects from the collection of scientific instruments of the Colégio Marista in Santos, which was discontinued. These are awaiting restoration. 3 P. Martins, O Seminário Episcopal de São Paulo e o paradigma conservador do século XIX. PhD thesis in Religious Sciences, PUC-SP, 2000, 190. 4 The Colégio Arquidiocesano in São Paulo had been formerly known as Minor Seminary and Colégio Diocesano. In 1908, it became Colégio Arquidiocesano. 5 See chapters by Granato and Santos, Zancul and Barreto, and Meloni, this volume. 6 The name of Colégio D. Pedro II has also changed several times. In the text, the
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designations Colégio D. Pedro II (Imperial period) and National School (Ginásio Nacional) (early Republican period) have been adopted. See Granato and Santos, this volume, and A. Medeiros Gasparello, Construtores de identidades. Os compêndios de História do Brasil do Colégio D. Pedro II (1838-1920). PhD in Education, PUC-SP, 2002. 7 P. dos Santos, Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico da USP: Memória sobre a sua formação e evolução, Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2005, 1920. 8 P. dos Santos, Idem, 22-23. 9 Ibid. 10 A. Costa and L. Schwartz, Virando Séculos (1890-1914), Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, 2000, 34. 11 Martins, op. cit., 209. 12 Letter sent to Bishop D. Lino. Chambery by Provincial Superior of Chambery, Enêyese. S. Lambriese Graneler, 27 January, 1880. Archive of São Paulo Metropolitan Curia, 'Interesting documents (1851-1939)', bookcase 15, drawer 80, No. 74, 15. 13 Teachers' meeting minutes, Minor Seminary. Archive of São Paulo Metropolitan Curia, Book No. 03 59.01.003. 14 According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo (11 April 1895, p. 2), scientific instruments taken by Friar Germano to the city of Franca had a tragic ending: they were stolen from his home and never found again. The event would have caused much consternation to the churchman, as one of the stolen objects was the compass offered by the Emperor Pedro II. 15 Memo book (1889-1898). Archive of São Paulo Metropolitan Curia. 16 A. Chervel and M. M. Compère, 'Les humanités dans l'histoire de l'enseignement français', Histoire de l'Éducation (1997), 6, 5-38. 17 B. Belhoste, 'Les caractères généraux de l'enseignement secondaire scientifique de latin de l'Ancien Régime à la Première Guerre Mondiale', Histoire de L'Education (1989), 41, 3-45. 18 B. Bontempi Jr., 'Do vazio à forma escolar moderna: a história da educação como um fardo na Cidade de São Paulo', in História da Cidade de São Paulo. A cidade no Império. 1823-1889. (ed. P. Porta), Paz e Terra, São Paulo, 2004, 509. 19 A. Chervel and M.M. Compère, op. cit. 20 B. Belhoste, 'Réformer ou conserver? La place des sciences dans les transformations de l'enseignement secondaire en France (1900-1970)', in Les sciences au lycée. Un siècle de reformes des mathématiques et de la physique en France et à l'étranger (ed. B. Belhoste, H. Gispert and N. Hulin), Vuibert/INRP, Paris, 1996, 27-38. 21 P. Kahn, La leçons de Choses: naissance de l'enseignement des sciences à l'école primaire, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, Villeneuve d'Ascq (Nord), 2002, 248. 22 M. Bastos, 'Manuais escolares franceses no Imperial Colégio de Pedro II (18561892)', História da Educação (2008), 26, 39-58. 23 K. Lorentz, A influência francesa no ensino de ciências e matemática na escola secundária brasileira no século XIX, http://www.sbhe.org.br/novo/congressos/cbhe2/pdfs/Tema3/0306.pdf, accessed: 27 July 2014. 24 R. Souza, 'História da cultura material escolar: um balanço inicial', in Culturas
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escolares, saberes e práticas educativas: itinerários históricos (ed. M. Bencosta), Editora Cortez, São Paulo, 2007, 175-176. 25 Incidentally, Carlos Leôncio de Carvalho was the Public Education reformer (1879) and also one of the organizers of the event. 26 D. Vidal, 'Museus Pedagógicos e Escolares: inovação pedagógica e cultura material escolar no Império Brasileiro', IX Congresso Iberoamericano de História da Educação, Rio de Janeiro, 2009, 2. 27 J. Franco, Catálogo da Biblioteca do Museu Escolar Nacional, Typ. de G. Leuzinger e Filho, Rio de Janeiro,1885, 1-318. 28 Lorentz, op. cit., 59-60. 29 In addition, it is important to highlight that the same directive established the rules for Science teaching in the Primary Higher Education (11-13 years old). The document mentions a range of instruments that should be part of the Physics and Natural History cabinets and Chemistry Laboratories. One can find for the teaching of Physics, for example: the first notions of Physics: weight, levers, scales, fluid equilibrium, communicating vessels, siphon. Atmospheric pressure. Elementary notions, accompanied by simple experiments, heat, light, electricity and magnetism (class 1); Development of elementary notions of Physics: knowledge and use of aerometers, barometers, pressure gauges, hygrometers and thermometers. Weather observation trials with existing instruments at school, and with the aid of reduction tables. Mirrors. Lenses. Prisms. Batteries. Electric light. Telegraph. Telephone. Magnets, Compass (class 2). Decree No. 981, 8 November, 1890. 30 Decree No. 981, 8 November, 1890. 31 For example, the Chair of Botany and Zoology was the 8th (4th year); the Chair of Physics and Chemistry was the 5th (5th year). 32 Regulation No. 2857, 30 March, 1898. 33 Monarchy was abolished in Brazil on 15 November 1889. It then became a republican federation of states. 34 M. Cabral, A invenção do aluno: A implantação do Primeiro Gymnasio da Capital, em São Paulo (1894-1917). Master's degree in Education, PUC-SP, 2002, 13-16. 35 The title of “Bachelor in Sciences and Modern Languages” was granted to all those who completed the course at the school. This title allowed students to register in any higher education institutions, independently from having taken preparatory exams and, after 1896, the year in which the State School got its equivalence to the National School, this title was recognized in all higher institutions in the country. Cabral, op. cit., 47. 36 Regulation of the Gymnasios, 1895, Articles 9, 10, 13. 37 Idem. 38 Inventory of instruments of the Physics cabinet at the Gymnasio do Estado, Inventory Book. Archive of the State School of São Paulo. 39 Inaccuracy in inventories was also noticed by R. Meloni, Saberes em Ciências Naturais: o ensino de Física e Química at the Colégio Culto à Ciência, Campinas – 1873/1910, PhD in Education, Unicamp, 2010, 121, 30-32. 40 The Araraquara College was later known by the designation Escola Mackenzie de Araraquara and, after its municipalization, by the name of Ginásio Municipal Mackenzie de Araraquara. Nowadays, the school is called Escola Bento de Abreu. Among the instruments currently kept in school, it was possible to identify purchases made from Les Fils d'Émille Deyrolle, Max Kohl, Koehler and Volckmar, Franz Sturm
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(São Paulo) and Meister Brothers (Rio de Janeiro). See M. Zancul, The old instruments from the Physics Laboratory of the Bento de Abreu de Araraquara state school, in Coleções Científicas Luso-Brasileiras: Patrimônio a ser descoberto (ed. M. Granato e M. C. Lourenço), Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences, Rio de Janeiro, 2010, 147 and 151. See also Zancul and Barreto, this volume. 41 R. Meloni, op. cit., 30-32. See also Meloni's chapter in this volume. 42 These instruments were imported by Charles Levy & Cia and Levy Freire & Cia between 1899 and 1902, according to an inventory by Eugênio Bulcão, the school assistant. See R. Meloni, 'A experiência de constituição de uma fonte documental a partir dos instrumentos de ensino de química e física do Colégio Culto à Ciência de Campinas/SP', Revista Brasileira de História da Educação (2011), 50, 43-65. 43 R. Meloni, idem, 55. 44 M. Alves, 'Missão Educativa Marista', in Congresso Marista de Educação, Mexico City, 1999, 2. 45 Frère Maristes, Guide des Écoles, Société de Saint Jean L´Évangéliste, Paris, 1932, 37. 46 Idem, 243. 47 The Marist Brothers, also known as Little Brothers of Mary, were founded in the late seventeeth century by Marcelinho Champagnat. They initiated their work in Brazil in 1897, after arriving from Lacabane and Varennes (France). They established themselves in Congonhas do Campo (Minas Gerais). See Martins, op. cit., 193. 48 Brother Adorátor, Vinte anos de Brasil, (tr. Ir. Balestro), Edição do Autor, Curitiba, 2005, 121-125. 49 Decree No. 981, 8 November, 1890 and Decree No. 3730, 4 August, 1900. 50 Annales de la Maison Archidiocésaine, São Paulo, 1908-1916, 11. 51 Equivalence application of Ginásio Nacional (Colégio D. Pedro II) – Colégio Diocesano in São Paulo. IE4 Education Series – 134, 3791/311, National Archive, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 52 Information from the Science cabinet, 1906. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano Memorial in São Paulo. 53 Done in 15 June 1931 to the Minister of Health and Education. 54 Sedrez, A. J., A presença dos Irmãos Maristas em São Paulo: educação evangelizadora? Um estudo de caso: Colégio Nossa Senhora da Glória, Colégio Arquidiocesano de São Paulo, Masters in Religion, PUC-SP, Annex 9, 1998, 234235. 55 Report submitted to the National Department of Education for the revision of the “classification certificate” for the “permanent” equivalence, vol. 1, 1933, 66, 61-84. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 56 First schools were located in Luz, a neighbourhood in São Paulo. After the construction of a new building, the Colégio Arquidiocesano was transferred to Vila Mariana. 57 Report submitted to the National Department of Education for the revision of the “classification certificate” for the “permanent” equivalence, vol. 1, 1933, 66, 61-84. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 58 Report submitted to the National Department of Education for the revision of the “classification certificate” for the “permanent” equivalence, vol. 1, 1933, 77. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial.
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59
The period during which the Parisian maker used that particular designation. In 1932, the Science tutors at the school were: Brother Amâncio, Brother Andronico, Florentino Godinhoto (Physics), José Elias de Moraes and Brother Amâncio (Chemistry), Brother Firmino, José Ribeiro do Vale, José Elias de Moraes (Natural History). 60 Glossary for the classification certificate – Final Equivalence Process, 1932, 61. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 51 Idem. 62 Discourse of Bento Prado de Almeida Ferraz, Bachelor of Sciences and Modern Languages. Echos Magazine of the Colégio Arquidiocesano, 1911, 41-42. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 63 Echos Magazine of the Colégio Arquidiocesano, 1912, 35. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 64 The suggested textbook for the admission exam was Noções de Ciências Físicas e Naturais, Editora FTD. 65 E. Branly, Coleção FTD. Curso de Física, 1917. Former student at the Regular Higher Education School of Paris, aggregate of the University of Paris, DSc and member of the Paris Science Academy. 66 Permanent equivalence process, Classification Certificate, Ministry of Education and Health. Archive of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo Memorial. 67 P. Leonardi, 'Congregações católicas docentes no estado de São Paulo e a educação feminina – segunda metade do século XIX', VI Congresso Luso Brasileiro de História da Educação, Uberlândia, 2010, 1259-1260. 68 P. Assis, A educação dos sentidos na concepção das Escolas Maristas em São Paulo no início do século xx (1908-1931): o uso do Guide des Écoles, V Congresso Brasileiro de História da Educação, 2011, 4-5. 69 E.g. the Ginásio Oswaldo Cruz (O Estado de S. Paulo, 4 July 1918, p. 11), the Colégio Mercúrio (O Estado de S. Paulo, 8 January 1920, p. 10), the Ginásio Diocesano São José (O Estado de S. Paulo, 7 January 1925, p. 10), the Curso Dr. Souza Diniz (O Estado de S. Paulo, 1 December 1932, p. 10). 70 A. Kulesza, 'O processo de equiparação ao Ginásio Nacional na Primeira República: o caso do Colégio Diocesano da Paraíba', Revista Brasileira de História da Educação (2011), 87, 81-104.
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The Use of Scientific Instruments for Teaching, Research and Innovation
Photographing microscopic preparations in the nineteenth century: Techniques and instrumentation Maria Estela Jardim and Marília Peres
Introduction Although it had been invented in the late sixteenth century – between 1590 and 1606 – in the early nineteenth century the microscope was hardly used in the laboratory by scientists. However, in the middle of the century it had emerged as an important tool, playing a key role in the development of scientific research and teaching, mainly in medical and biological studies. The first book illustrated with microscopic images, Micrographia, had been published by Robert Hooke (1635-1703) in 1665. It depicted magnificent engravings accomplished by drawing these microscopic preparations.1 But drawing was expensive, slow and prone to some subjectivity. The invention of photography enabled the association of the microscope with the photographic camera and the field of photomicrography became one of the first applications of photography to science. When the French physicist and astronomer François Arago (1786-1853) publicly presented the invention of Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1883) and Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851) to the Académie des Sciences in Paris on 19th August 1839, he specifically mentioned the scientific applications of photography, linking the new technique to the telescope and the microscope,2 two optical instruments that would come to play a central role in scientific advancements throughout the century. Later in that year, Charles Chevalier (1804-1859), a well known Parisian instrument maker stated: “A new era is open to this curious instrument the solar microscope (…)
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already Mr Talbot has shown the association between this instrument and the new discovery”.3 William Fox Talbot (1800-1877), inventor of the calotype, was taking photomicrographs as early as 1837,4 using the solar microscope to overcome difficulties presented by the low sensitivity of the photographic process. In 1839, Talbot included calotype photomicrographs of an insect's wing in an exhibition of 'photogenic drawings' at the Royal Institution in London.5 Even after the invention of photography and although some advantages were attributed to the new medium, such as the accuracy of detail and objectivity, debates went on over the next decades about the empiric truth of scientific photography and its limitations.6 In photomicrography, the debate was even more pertinent as its accuracy depended strongly on the performance of an instrument whose use required considerable skills. Moreover, a 'perfect' preparation was needed, as every imperfection would be amplified in the photograph. Another criticism was that the technique could only record one plane and one field at a time; in many instances, drawing was preferred as it also allowed for the addition of colour. From the 1870s onwards, the development of bacteriology and histology turned photomicrography into a central technique for the illustration and dissemination of medical microscopic preparations. Understanding the evolution of photomicrography throughout the nineteenth century requires insight into the improvements on the optical and illuminating systems of the microscope, as well as its adaptation to the camera. The development of photographic techniques, often by professional and amateur photographers in collaboration with scientists, was also an important factor. After early experiences with the daguerreotype and the calotype, photographic plates became more practical and sensitive. From the glass plate with albumen or collodion emulsions to the dry-plate (gelatin silver bromide emulsion), invented in 1871 by a keen microscopist, the English medical doctor Richard Maddox (1816-1902), the photographic technique became easier to handle. Early photomicrography The first photomicrographs using the daguerreotype technique were obtained by Alfred Donné (1801-1878) in 1839. Donné, who received training as a lawyer, graduated in 1831 as a medical doctor at the age of 30.7 He practiced medicine at the Hôpital de la Charité in Paris, where he organized a free course on microscopy aimed at French and foreign medical students. For his demonstrations, solar microscopes were used to project microscopic preparations.9 On 17th February 1840, J. P. Biot (1774-1862) presented his photomicrographs to the Académie des Sciences on his behalf.
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The photomicrographs were taken with a solar microscope equipped with limelight as artificial light, the 'microscope daguerreotype' built by the instrument maker Soleil.10 The following week, Donné himself showed the Académie some daguerreotypes of microscopic preparations, namely bone and dental tissue and objects of natural history.11 However, Donné's gas microscope was unsatisfactory for low-contrast specimens, such as body fluids.12 In 1844, Donné published his Cours de Microscopie,13 based on his free course. One of his assistants was the physicist Léon Foucault14 (1819-1868), an expert on photographic techniques. The following year, Donné and Foucault added a supplemental Atlas15 containing 86 engravings made by French engraver Oudet from daguerreotypes of microscopic preparations taken by Foucault.16 The daguerreotype plate was first polished with pumice and lavender oil and then sensitized with a solution of silver iodine and bromine; exposure time to sunlight was 4-20s. A short focus solar microscope (with a heliostat) was placed vertically with a horizontal camera and, between them, a right-angled prism. For this Atlas, which was the first medical publication illustrated with engravings from photographs, Donné claimed also pedagogic motives: “these plates will especially aid the teaching of microscopy”.17 In the introduction, Donné also stated the advantages and “rigorous fidelity of photomicrography to the original subject”: “the plates show exactly the microscopic appearance and the truth of the details”.18 The Atlas contained photomicrographs – and one drawing executed with the camera lucida19 – of blood globules, mucus, several crystals, magnified 70 to 400 times. It also included a photomicrograph of a protozoan discovered by Donné in 1836, the Trichomonas vaginalis.20 Later, Foucault modified the optic system by adapting an electric arc to the microscope; he designated the instrument, 'photoélectrique'. This instrument was eventually manufactured by Charles Chevalier and presented with demonstrations by Donné and Foucault to the Société d'Encouragement in Paris (12th March 1845)21 (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 - The microscope 'photo-électrique', used for projection and photomicrography (Donné and Foucault, 1845) (left) and a photomicrograph from the Atlas, cristaux de la salive by Léon Foucault, 1844 (right) (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
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The light from the arc was focused through a hole and into the microscope stage by a parabolic condenser mirror, which could be manipulated to allow the illumination of different surfaces from the object. A system of achromatic lenses projected magnified images of the specimens into a screen 3 m away. A container with a saturated solution of alum was put in front of the mirror to act as a heat filter. Current was provided by 60-element Bunsen batteries and controlled by dipping platinum blades in a beaker with an acid solution. There was some criticism to Donné's method as his instrument was considered complex, difficult to manipulate and expensive.22 Two notable physicians collaborated with Donné: neurologist Augustus Waller (1816-1870), who described changes in nerves after section, known as the 'Wallerian degeneration', and pathologist John Bennett (1812-1875), a professor at Edinburgh University, who published numerous medical publications calling the attention of the scientific community to the importance of the microscope for teaching and research in medicine.23 Others, in various countries – A. Berres in Vienna, C. L. Chevalier in France, J. B. Dancer, R. Hodgson in England obtained early photomicrographs but with scarce scientific purpose.24 The collodion years: 1850-1870 During the period 1845-early 1850s, technical improvements on photomicrography make little progress and a certain stagnation of the application of photography to microscopy can be observed. This was also due partly to the inability of the system to reproduce daguerreotypes directly and partly to the belief that drawing was a more appropriate medium for illustrating microscopic preparations. In 1851, Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857) and Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) developed a new photographic process: the wet-collodion on glass. It enabled positive images to be obtained directly on glass or by transference of negatives to another support, usually albumen paper. This represented a great improvement on daguerreotype and calotype techniques, with a better definition and shorter exposure time. On 27th October 1852, Joseph Delves (c.1793-1857) presented to the Microscopical Society in London a paper entitled “On the application of photography to the representation of microscopic objects”. It described entomological positive albumen photomicrographs taken from collodion negatives prepared by Delves and Samuel Highley (1825-1900), a microscopist and editor of scientific journals. They were published the following year in the Transactions of the Microscopical Society25 and were probably the first photomicrographs published in a scientific journal.26 Delves used a camera he himself built, attached to the eye-piece of the microscope. Later, in the Quarterly Journal of the Microscopical Science, Highley described an improvement on Delves's camera.27 In 1853, French chemist and amateur photographer Henri-Victor Regnault (1810-1878) presented to the Académie des Sciences in Paris, on behalf of Auguste Bertsch (1813-1871),28 several photomicrographs on positive
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albumen paper, representing diatoms, crystals and insects magnified 50 to 200 times. In a letter sent to Henri Milne-Edwards29 (1800-1885), a zoologist from the Muséum Nationale d' Histoire Naturelle (Paris), who was interested in the study of animal tissues, Bertsch explained that he had constructed a “microscope héliographique”, in other words, a solar microscope with a “perfect achromatization”, using a new collodion formula. This improvement, he claimed, allowed him to photograph microscopic specimens in less than one tenth of a second. At the Second Annual Exhibition of the Société Française de Photographie (1857), Bertsch (who was a member) showed photographs of microscopic preparations obtained with the “collodion instantanée”.30 Between 1866 and 1867, Bertsch, probably the most prolific of early photomicrographers, developed his own instrument and added a wavelength selector.31 He practiced small-format thus the wet collodion plate had to be enlarged. Bertsch's technique was further developed by Albert Moitessier32 (18331889), a professor at the Medical School of Montpellier, with great success. He eventually published a technical book with precise and complete instructions on photomicrography.33 The manual was illustrated with woodcuts and three photographic plates – one of them with six mounted albumen photomicrographs of insects, blood globules, diatoms and crystals – obtained with Nachet's objectives.34 According to Belin,35 Moitessier profited from the work of Félix Dujardin36 (1802-1860), who had invented a condenser built by Georges Oberhäuser in 1843. This condenser enabled the image of the light source and that of the microscopic object to be obtained on the same plane.37 Instruments devised by Moitessier (Fig. 2) could be classified in two main categories: 1) small-format: a small camera was mounted directly on the microscope replacing the ocular.38 In this case, photographic images had the same diameter of the ocular and thus the photographic plate had to be enlarged; 2) direct amplification format, either in horizontal or vertical setup: the camera would also replace the ocular, but it had long bellows that could be more or less extended determining the enlargement. An intermediary arrangement with the camera in a horizontal position and a vertical microscope was also proposed; this implied the use of a reflection prism.
Fig. 2 - Moitessier's instruments: vertical setup (left) and small-format photomicrograph showing the optic bench components (Moitessier, 1866).39
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Both formats had an optic bench composed of a silvered mirror, a diaphragm, convergent lenses, a Dujardin condenser and a container with a solution of copper (II) sulfate to absorb heat and select the most actinic rays40 (Fig. 2). However, in his experiments Moitessier found that it was best to eliminate the condenser for small magnifications. Alphonse-Louis Donnadieu (1840-1911), a physician who collaborated with Moitessier, obtained photographs of infusoria in 1867. His thesis had been supervised by Moitessier, who was acknowledged as the source of inspiration for the development of his own vertical camera arrangement,41 the physiographe universel. The physiographe was built in 1884 by J. B. Carpentier and it was used both for photomacrography and photomicrography.42 Inspired by the work of French instrument maker Jules Duboscq (1817-1886), Moitessier also built the first practical instrument for stereoscopic photomicrography.43 Moitessier's manual on photomicrography became very popular. It was translated into German by the anatomist and professor at the Konigsberg University Berthold Benecke (1843-1886).44 Benecke added to the manual a plate with examples of his own photomicrographs, such as tissue cuts and diatoms, as well as several full-labelled woodcuts illustrating his own instruments. He also mentioned the work of another important German histologist, Joseph von Gerlach (1820-1896), who had published in 1863 what is considered to be the first manual on photomicrography in German.45 Gerlach's vertical photomicrograph, with an Oberhäuser microscope, was a very simple instrument not suitable for high magnification work;46 he is also credited with the introduction of staining methods in histology; the most important is the 'Gerlach's stain', a solution of ammonia carmine and gelatin.47 In the same year, a medical doctor from Boston, John Dean (1831-1888), wrote a monograph on the histology of the brainstem, illustrated with sixteen plates (reproductions in photolithography of his photomicrographs and drawings). Dean, a pioneer of microscopic studies of the nervous system in America, specifically mentions Gerlach's stain but decided to use a different staining technique. He employed a Smith and Beck microscope with an adapted camera in a vertical setup, using sunlight to obtain his photomicrographs.48 Dean's neurological studies coincide with the presentation of photomicrographs of the nervous system by Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne, known as Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875), to the Académie des Sciences et de Medicine in France. His comparative studies on the morphology and structure of pathological and normal microscopic tissues of the nervous system were illustrated by a new photomechanical reproduction technique, “l'autographie sur métal ou sur pierre”.49 During the 1860s, the most important
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histologists were in Germany, but French physician Charles Robin (1825-1885) initiated a course on histology at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris.50 In 1862 and in 1877, Robin published a manual on the microscope, including a chapter on photomicrography illustrated with photomicrographs reproduced by heliogravure.51 In 1856 Carlos May Figueira (1829-1913) went to Paris to study histology with Robin. Figueira, a physician and professor at the Medical School in Lisbon (Escola Médico-cirúrgica de Lisboa), was a pioneer on the use of photomicrography in teaching and research in Portugal. In 1857, he photographed for the first time a microscopic preparation of a section of a liver from a deceased patient with yellow fever.52 In 1862 and 1863, he gave a 12lecture practical course at the Medical School, for which he installed 15 microscopes for the students. His final lesson was dedicated to photography with the solar microscope (a Lerebours microscope in a vertical setup and a direct amplification arrangement). In his syllabus he wrote: In the 4th and last part of the course the final lesson will be dedicated to photography with the solar microscope. I showed several photographs representing objects of botany, zoology, anatomy and pathology. I obtained one of these photographs in the presence of a numerous audience. On this occasion, I used the solar microscope to show more than eighty preparations of different animal tissues, parasites, bile crystals, vegetable tissues, blood circulation, insects, crystallizations of different salts, etc.53
At the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris, among other French fine photomicrographs (from Duboscq, Bertsch, Neyt), were those of Peter Lackerbauer. Lackerbauer (1823-1872) was an illustrator and photographer who produced photomicrographs for the illustrations of Louis Pasteur's The silkworm disease54 (1870). Already on 26th July 1869, Pasteur had deposited at the Académie des Sciences a sealed packet containing photomicrographs of microbes obtained by Lackerbauer using the wet collodion process, some years before Robert Koch published (1877) his first photomicrographs of bacteria.55 There was some controversy regarding the use of the appropriate artificial light for photomicrography. In 1870 two papers by Joseph Woodward (1833-1884) described experiments on the use of artificial light in photomicrography. Woodward was a surgeon, a military at the US Army and a prominent member of the American Pathological Society. At the end of the Civil War, he was put in charge of the Army Medical Museum, founded in 1862 in Washington. He is best known for his photomicrographs of diatoms but his
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contributions to the application of photomicrography to histology are also important; he introduced the use of aniline as a method to investigate the 57 histology of the human intestine.56 In the first of Woodward's papers, he presents his experiments – “most fortunately crowned with success” – concerning the photomicrography of normal and pathological tissues using both magnesium and electric lights. Electric light was provided by a Duboscq's lamp and a battery of 50 Grove's elements. As Woodward states, electric light “proved to be of immense advantage in the reproduction of the feeble microscopic images of highly magnified objects”. These qualities were also shared by magnesium light provided by a two-ribbon lamp of the American Magnesium Company, but “only for objects of less than a thousand diameters and most suitable for photographs of soft tissues”. In the second paper,58 Woodward describes the use of limelight; he discovered that exposure time was not that different from the one he had obtained with other artificial illuminants. He also tested the comparative actinic power of electric, magnesium and limelight lights. Woodward corresponded with the English physician Richard L. Maddox (1816-1902), who had experienced with the magnesium lamp. Maddox's procedures and equipment diagrams were published in the 3rd (1865) and 4th (1867) editions of an important book59 on microscopy written by Lionel Beale (1828-1906). The mounted albumen frontispiece pasted to the book, depicting photomicrographs of insects, diatoms, among others, was also by Maddox. Beale and Maddox are important in the history of microscopy and photomicrography but for different reasons. Beale was a professor of physiology at King's College, London, where he gave a series of lectures in 1856-7.60 In 1857, he published the first edition of the manual based on his teaching of microscopy and histology. Beale's friend, Maddox, wrote the chapter on photography with the microscope, which appeared for the first time in the 3rd edition (1865). Beale published more than a hundred papers using his microscopic skills to study the anatomy of organs and tissues.61 During this period, photomicrographs, in the form of prints (usually made of albumen paper), ensured the circulation of scientific microscopic preparations. Many of these were published, either as pasted-in albumens or as photomechanical prints (collotypes or woodburytypes). Dry-plates and improvements in the micrographic technique and instruments: 1870-1900s Several attempts had been made to improve the wet collodion photographic process but without practical results. Although it was a successful photographic process, it still lacked practicability and speed. On 8th September 1871, Maddox presented to the British Journal of Photography (BJP) his
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discovery of the gelatin silver bromide emulsion. This new photographic emulsion was a major technical breakthrough as it turned instantaneous photography into a reality. In 1879, the editor of BJP wrote that the year [1871] would “be looked back to in the future as one of the most noteworthy epochs in the history of photography”62: Maddox was awarded several medals and numerous diplomas in many countries in recognition of his invention. As far as photomicrography was concerned, another important technical innovation was the microscopic illumination system. Despite some progress, results were still poor, especially in the case of photomicrographs of transparent objects, like bacteria in fluids. During the 1870s German physicist Ernst Abbe (1840-1905) developed the concept of numerical aperture. He concluded that the use of immersion lenses63 resulted in a much larger aperture. Based on his theory, Abbe developed oil immersion objectives, also known as homogeneous immersion lenses, and published his results in 1879.64 The Carl Zeiss Company in Jena, where Abbe did his research, built the lenses. Abbe's other important contribution to microscopy was the development of a new condenser to provide effective illumination of the microscope field.65 It became known as the 'Abbe condenser'. In the early 1870s, although the microscope was used in medical research and diagnosis, photomicrography was not yet widely adopted by physicians. The discovery of certain microorganisms responsible for infectious diseases such as cholera, tuberculosis and typhoid fever led to a growing awareness of the role of microscopy and photomicrography in medicine. In the 1860s, the antiseptic procedures of Joseph Lister (1827-1912) and Louis Pasteur's work in microbiology had been fundamental to the development of these fields. The experimental work of German pathologist Edward Klebs (1834-1913) on the parasitic origin of infectious diseases and his discovery of the diphtheria bacterium were also primordial. In the last 30 years of the nineteenth century, the role of bacteria in disease was studied in increasing detail. Robert Koch (1843-1910), the founder of modern bacteriology, demonstrated that a specific organism caused a specific disease. Koch made major contributions to medical microbiology and microscopic pathology. Among other important studies, he determined the life cycle of the anthrax bacillus and discovered the tubercle bacillus. Koch found that Abbe's condenser was valuable for the examination of stained microscopic preparations, especially for diseased tissues: “Only with the aid of the Abbe condenser have I been able to see bacteria in blood of septicemic animals”. 66 He was the first physician to use oil immersion lenses, which he got from Zeiss, and to illustrate a scientific paper on bacteriology with photomicrographs. In this work, published in 1877, he described procedures for preparing, staining and photographing bacteria. Photographs illustrating the paper were taken from
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bacterial preparations of the anthrax bacillus made from blood, cultivations or infusions.67 Koch's efforts to perfect photomicrography of bacteria included the use of aniline dyes and the adoption of coloured filters. As he stated: “I have in fact succeeded, by the use of eosin-collodion and by shutting off portions of the spectrum by coloured glasses, in obtaining photographs of bacteria which had been stained with blue and red aniline dyes”.68 Initially, Koch used a vertical setup photomicrograph instrument with a Seibert and Krafft (S&K) microscope. Later, he adopted a more stable horizontal instrument from the same maker, recommended by Gustav Fritsch (1838-1927). Fritsch was a professor of physiology at the University of Berlin.69 He participated in the 11th exhibition of the Société Française de Photographie (1876) with photomicrographs of the brain of fishes reproduced as positive carbon prints which he obtained using S&K objectives.70 This instrument was to be further improved years later by Zeiss. Koch advocated the use of photomicrography for the illustration of histological and bacteriological publications. He also claimed that photomicrography was more valuable than actual microscopic preparation.71 However, his book on the etiology of traumatic infective diseases (1880) was illustrated with coloured drawings reproduced by lithography as he found that “the long exposure required and the unavoidable vibrations of the apparatus made the picture with no sufficient sharpness to be a substitute for drawing”.72 Zeiss optical workshops, under Abbe's supervision, produced highquality crown and flint glass which, combined with a fluorite lens and special eye-pieces, corrected the chromatic aberration of the objective for three colours and the spherical aberration for two. These lenses were called apochromatic. They also permitted an increase in magnification, making them especially valuable for photomicrography. As the arc light is rich in actinic rays it was generally suitable to work with apochromatic lenses and coloured screens. One of the drawbacks of photographic emulsions of this period, and even more so for photographing stained microscopic preparations, was that they were only sensitive to the blue-violet end of the spectrum and not to longer wavelengths (green and red). In 1873, Hermann Wilhelm Vogel (1834-1898), a professor of photochemistry at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin, developed a process called 'optical sensitizing'. Vogel sensitized the plate to longer wavelengths by adding certain aniline-based dyes to the emulsion. The sensitized plate was called an orthochromatic plate and it was sensitive to green, but not to red and orange light. Although Vogel worked first with collodion plates, optical sensitizing was applied in the 1880s to gelatin dry plates. Joseph Eder (1855-1904), an Austrian scientific photographer, perfected the orthochromatic gelatin emulsion, eventually leading in the early twentieth century to a panchromatic plate that was still monochrome, yet balanced all colour tones successfully.
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In a public conference given in 1892, on the subject of medical photography, at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (Paris), Albert Londe (1858-1917) mentioned the difficulties associated with photomicrography and photographic emulsions: “Employing certain methods of coloration and more perfect microtomes, lights of special colour and orthochromatic plates, one can obtain excellent results”.73 It was usually recommended that these photographic plates should be used with apochromatic lenses. The first book solely dedicated to the photography of bacteria was written by Crookshank in 1887.74 Edgar March Crookshank (1858-1928) was a professor of bacteriology at King's College, London, where he founded a bacteriological laboratory for human and veterinary pathology. He had studied with Lister and Koch. His book contains 86 high-quality photomicrographs reproduced in autotype by the Autotype Company; he stated, “it is hoped to be useful as supplementary illustration to my manual of Bacteriology”.75 In the introduction he provided an historical account of photomicrography focusing on the attempts to photograph bacteria and describing Koch's method. He discussed the methods of staining with several dyes (fuchsine, methyl violet, among others), types of instruments and photographic manipulations. The instrument he used was of his own design manufactured by Swift & Son, London. It had a stand by Zeiss with a wide stage, which had the advantage of stability for plate-cultivations; it also had a long focus camera. A five-foot baseboard carried the equipment, including a limelight lantern for artificial illumination which Crookshank thought was the best for taking direct photographs and for enlarging them (Fig. 3). The whole board could be turned vertically placing the stage horizontally, allowing him to photograph organisms in liquids.76
Fig. 3 - Reversible photomicrograph instrument (horizontal setup) (Crookshank, 1887).
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According to Crookshank, vertical arrangement made the instrument more prone to vibrations and affected fine adjustments. Homogeneous objectives by Powell and Leland and by Zeiss (apochromatic lenses, already invented, were not used), an Abbe condenser or an achromatic condenser with a high angular aperture and a half-plate orthochromatic dry plate were employed in his work; exposure time would be 2-3 seconds. Crookshank stressed the superiority of photography over drawings in research and teaching, arguing that drawings were rarely “true to nature”.76 However, not every physician would agree. Emanuel Edward Klein (1844-1925), one of the founders of modern histology and the author of an atlas of histology, criticized its use for the illustration of medical textbooks.78 In spite of criticism, several photographic medical atlases were published in the nineteenth century. Some publications, particularly in histology, continued to be illustrated with coloured drawings.79 According to Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison,80 atlases were the “bibles of observational sciences” and in the 1880s-1890s the circulation of photomicrographs of bacteria occurred through medical atlases and other scientific books. One of the most important was the bacteriological Atlas published in 1898 by Charles Slater (1857-1940), a lecturer in bacteriology at the St. Jorge's Hospital Medical School (London), and physician Edmund J. Spitta (1853-1921).81 The Atlas was illustrated with 111 photographs of preparations of microorganisms and cultures reproduced by the half-tone process, a continuous tone photomechanical printing process developed in the 1880s. A brief description of the photographic methods and instruments was included: the objectives used on a Zeiss No 1A stand82 were apochromatic lenses manufactured by Powell and Leland, especially made by Zeiss for the photography of bacteria. Artificial illumination was provided by a limelight mixed jet by Beard. Coloured screens were employed to secure contrast. The negatives were taken with orthochromatic plates. The authors reminded that Koch had “insisted on the value of a photographic record as a convincing proof of the reality and accuracy of descriptions”. In 1900, physician Étienne Rabaud (1868-1956) published an Atlas of histology for pedagogical purposes with the collaboration of Fernand Monpillard (1865-1937), a professional photographer. The Atlas has 50 plates, including some photomicrographs in monochromatic colour (roses, blues, violets),83 reproduced by a photomechanical colour printing process developed by Monpillard. In the late nineteenth century, Monpillard had established a laboratory for photomicrography in Paris, near the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, where he collaborated with biologists, mineralogists and physicians. He published his first manual on photomicrography, La Microphotographie (1899), based on a technical course he gave at the Société Française de
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Photographie. In this manual Monpillard recommends the use of coloured screens, apochromatic lenses and magnesium light provided by a special instrument designed by Émile Roux (1853-1933) in 1888 and built by Pellin. 84 He also stresses the need for orthochromatic plates, as they “will determine the implementation of photomicrography in research laboratories”.85 Monpillard did also extensive research on photographic emulsions, including orthochromatism and colour photography. J. Choquet, who advocated the use of photomicrography as it “aids the understanding of scientific research,”86 published in 1897 a manual exclusively dedicated to the photomicrography of histological and bacteriological preparations. For him, instruments for photomicrography built by Reichert (Vienna), Leitz (Wetzlar) or Zeiss (Jena), do not compare with the one developed by the Parisian firm Prazmowski, which “is the best instrument in the market for precision work”.87 He acknowledges, however, that instruments from Zeiss and Reichert were cheaper and simpler to operate. Choquet also describes how ordinary photographic plates can be transformed into orthochromatic plates by plunging them into a solution of cyanine or erythrosine with a composition provided by Monpillard; the plates had to be dried afterwards and kept in the dark.88 Further developments of photomicrography in Portugal In spite of the pioneering work of May Figueira, photomicrography would be implemented in Portuguese medical schools and institutions only at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1891, Luis da Câmara Pestana (1863-1899) went to Paris to study Pasteur's techniques in microbiology at the Institute Pasteur. Câmara Pestana was a strong advocate of Pasteur's ideas and his role was fundamental in the implementation of microbiology and histology in Portugal. He graduated in medicine with the thesis 'The microbe of the carcinoma',89 for which he had obtained photomicrographs that he chose not to include,90 probably due to the high cost of printing photographs. The following year, Câmara Pestana lectured a practical course on microbiology, including pathology, History of Medicine and microscopy at the Medical School in Lisbon. Câmara Pestana dies prematurely from the 'Porto plague' (1899), after having inoculated himself with the bacillus in search for a vaccine. In his honour, the Bacteriological Institute (Real Instituto Bacteriológico) founded in Lisbon in 1902, carries his name. The Institute, equipped with photographic laboratories, played an important role in Public Health and Hygiene. Bacteriologist Aníbal de Bettencourt (1868-1930), collaborator of Câmara Pestana, becomes director of the Institute. Bettencourt was the scientific mentor of a new generation of remarkable Portuguese physicians, such as Carlos França (1877-1926), Mark Athias (1875-1946), Celestino da Costa (1884-1956), Pulido Valente (1884-
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91
1963), Nicolau Bettencourt (1872-1941), among others. Aníbal Bettencourt practiced photomicrography using orthochromatic plates and probably a Zeiss instrument like the one represented in Fig. 4.
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Fig. 4 - Carl Zeiss photomicrograph instrument (Duchesne, 1893) and photomicrograph by Aníbal Bettencourt reproduced by collotype (J. Guimarães, 1904).
Roderick Zeiss, Carl Zeiss's son, conceived this instrument depicted in the 1891 Zeiss catalogue. The table with the microscope also contains the optic bench. After the image was centred, the apparatus illumination was regulated (before taking a photograph). Once all was done, part A (containing the camera with long bellows) was approached from part B and the photograph was taken. An electric arc lamp provided artificial illumination.93 It is possible to find several photomechanical reproductions of photomicrographs obtained by Bettencourt at the Bacteriological Institute's iconographic collection, in medical theses presented to the Medical Schools of Lisbon and Porto94 (Escolas MédicoCirúrgicas), in scientific reports and even biological publications. The collotype of a photomicrograph of a parasite, obtained by Bettencourt, was included in a monograph published in 190495 (Fig. 4). In 1902, Bettencourt presented a scientific report on his 1901 mission to Angola to study the sleep-sickening disease, a contagious disease caused by the protozoa of the genus Trypanosome and transmitted by the tsetse fly. In the report, six plates and a total of 30 photomicrographs of the parasite are reproduced in collotype. In another report on the epidemic meningitis written by Carlos França of the Royal Bacteriological Institute, several photomicrographs and photographs obtained by Bettencourt, are depicted as illustrations.96 Concluding remarks This paper has attempted to give an overview of nineteenth century photomicrographic techniques and related instruments. Among its various uses, photomicrography held an important place in medical and biological
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studies. As an iconographic method, it was fundamental in research and teaching. Its development, circulation and consolidation depended on the quality of the objectives and the optical equipment, adequate illumination and innovations in the photographic process. Scientists were among the first to use and develop methods and techniques for photomicrography. Professional and amateur photographers also collaborated and worked side by side with scientists, a frequent situation in the 1800s; they also used to exhibit photomicrographs at international exhibitions and photographic meetings. Some of them (e.g. Bertsch, Delves, Monpillard) wrote manuals and published articles in scientific journals and photographic periodicals. Insects, diatoms and crystals were among the earliest photographed microscopic objects. In the 1880s photomicrography became increasingly routine in medical research and practice for illustration and teaching purposes in the fields of microbiology, histology and bacteriology. The availability of less expensive instruments and the implementation of photographic laboratories in hospitals and medical institutions contributed to the expansion of photomicrography. In the late nineteenth century, the introduction of better colour-sensitive photographic emulsions (orthochromatic and panchromatic), combined with apochromatic photographic lenses and light filters, became more relevant than other technical developments and was crucial for photographing histological preparations. The development of photomechanical processes (halftone and autotype processes) made photomicrographs a tool more broadly accepted as illustrations in scientific publications. Photomicrography was also often used as a vehicle of popular scientific images through public projections and exhibitions. Acknowledgments Research for this paper is framed by the project 'Scientific photography: Study of instrumentation and physical-chemical processes in the nineteenth and early twentieth century' (PTDC/HIS: HCT/102497/2008), financed by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Lisbon. We are especially grateful to Carole Troufléau-Sandrin, for her invaluable assistance as a consultant to the project. We also acknowledge the support of the following institutions: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Société Française de Photographie and the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon. Notes 1
R. Hooke, Micrographia or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses, Martin & J. Allestry, London, 1665. 2 F. Arago, Le daguerreotype, Rumeur des Ages, La Rochelle, 1991 (orig. 1839), pp. 45-51.
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3
M. B. Belin, L'évolution de la technique photomicrographique, Hermann & C. éditeurs, Paris, 1938. 4 L. Schaaf, 'Invention and discovery: first images' in Beauty of another order. Photography in Science (ed. Ann Thomas), 26-75, Yale University Press, 1998, p. 38. 5 J. Darius, Beyond Vision, Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 12. 6 J. Tucker, Nature exposed, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2005, p. 6-8. 7 C. Fieschi, 'L'illustration photographique des thèses de sciences en France (18801909)', Bibliothèque de l'école des Chartes (2000), 158, 223-245, p. 238. 8 In 1831, Donné presented to the Faculty of Medicine in Paris a thesis on the subject of microscopic preparations of blood globules and other mucus: A. Donné, Recherches physiologiques et chimico-microscopiques sur les globules du sang, du pus, du mucus et sur ceux des humeurs d'œil. Thèse présentée et soutenue à la Faculté de Médicine de Paris le 17 Janvier 1831, pour obtenir le grade de Docteur en médicine, Paris, 1831. 9 A. Thorburn, 'Alfred François Donné, 1801-1878, discoverer of Trichomonas vaginalis and of leukemia', British Journal of Venereal Diseases (1974), 50, 377-380, p. 378. 10 A. Donné, 'Emploi de la lumière artificielle pour la formation d'images photographiques', Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. (1840), 10, 288-289. 11 A. Donné, 'Images photogéniques d'objects microscopiques', Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. (1840), 10, 339. 12 W. Tobin, 'Alfred Donné and Léon Foucault: the first applications of electricity and photography to medical illustration', Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine (2008), 29, 6-14, p. 7. 13 A. Donné, Cours de microscopie, J. B. Baillière, Paris, 1844. In this manual he described leukemia (p. 135), linking this disease with abnormal blood pathology. 14 Renowned for his pendulum experience demonstrating the Earth's rotation. 15 A. Donné and L. Foucault, Cours de Microscopie. Anatomie microscopique et physiologique des fluides de l'économie. Atlas exécuté d'après nature au microscope daguerréotype, J. B. Baillière, Paris, 1845. 16 In 1839, Donné had invented a technique to reproduce photographic plates by etching them with an acid, for use as a printing plate (this process was later perfected by Fizeau). For this invention he was awarded a silver medal by the Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie Nationale (see W. Stapp, 'Early attempts to improve the Daguerreotypes', Image (1976), 19, 7-12, p 9). However, for the Atlas daguerreotypes were reproduced by the chalcographic technique and then engraved, as Donné wanted to preserve the original plates. 17 Donné and Foucault, op. cit., 9-10. 18 Ibid., 5-6. 19 Ibid., planche IX, fig. 35. 20 Ibid., planche IX, fig. 33. 21 A. Donné and L. Foucault, 'Description du microscope photo-électrique de MM. Donné et Léon Foucault', Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'industrie nationale (1845), 44, 578-586. 22 R. Van Giesen, 'The application of photography to medical science, including a
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direct process to photograph the microscopic field', The New York Journal of Medicine (1860), 8, 17-30, p. 30. 23 J.- G. Barbara, 'Relations médicine - sciences dans l'individualisation des maladies nerveuses à la Salpetrière à la fin du XIXe siècle', Revue d'histoire des sciences (2010), 63, 369-407, p. 380. 24 Darius, op. cit., 12 25 J. Delves, 'On the application of photography to the representation of microscopic objects', Transactions of the Microscopical Society of London (1853), 1, 57-58, pl. VII. 26 B. Bracegirdle, A history of photography with the light microscope, Quekett Microscopical Club, Grimsby, 2010, 32-36. 27 S. Highley, 'On the practical application of photography to the illustration of works on microscopy, natural history and anatomy', Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science (1853), 1, 178-194. 28 A. Bertsch, 'Images photographiques d'objects vues au microscope', Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. (1853), 36, 1092. 29 C. Troufléau, Entre savoir et plaisir de l'œil. Une contribution à l'histoire de l'image photomicrographique au XIXème siècle (1839-1916), 1998, Mémoire de DEA, Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, 86. 30 Catalogue des expositions organisées par la Société Française de Photographie 1857-1876, Éditions Jean-Michel Place, Paris, 1985, 4. 31 L. Figuier, Les Merveilles de la Science, Jouvet et C., Paris, 1888. 32 In the 1860s, Moitessier invented the 'porcelain paper', a photographic paper with albumen and lime. This originated the 'Aristotype papers', a collodion chloride printing-out paper. A. Cartier-Bresson, Le vocabulaire technique de la photographie, Marval, Paris, 2007, 86. 33 A. Moitessier, La photographie appliquée aux recherches micrographiques, J. B. Baillière, Paris, 1866. 34 In 1863, the French instrument maker Nachet published a catalogue for micrographic work, presenting a photographic microscope: Catalogue descriptif des instruments de micrographie fabriqués par Nachet et Fils, Nachet, Paris, 1863, 21. Before 1880, few commercial instruments for photomicrography were available. 35 Belin, op. cit., 34-43. 36 Dujardin was a biologist who researched protozoans using the microscope for his studies of animal life. In 1842, he wrote a book on microscopy, Nouveau manuel complet de l'observateur au microscope – an atlas with engravings of drawings from microscopic preparations and instruments, including the camera lucida (by Amici and Wollaston), microscopes and his condenser. 37 H. Van Heurck, Le microscope, sa construction, son maniement et son application aux études d'anatomie végétale, J. B. Baillière, Paris, 1869, 37-38. 38 According to Moitessier, the ocular increased magnification but its use lowered the image's definition. 39 Moitessier, op. cit., 69, 127. 40 At the end of the nineteenth century, coloured glasses were used instead of coloured solutions. 41 C. Natlacen, A.-L. Donnadieu's : La photographie des objets immergés,
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Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2009, 15. 42 A.-L. Donnadieu, Notice sur l'emploi du physiographe universel, Donnadieu, Paris, 1883. 43 In 1857, Jules Duboscq presented stereoscopic photomicrographs taken with electric (arc) light to the Société Française de Photographie. These photomicrographs were used for projections at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. Bulletin de la Société Française de Photographie, Séance du 20 Février (1857), 6366. 44 B. Benecke, Die photographie als Hilfsmittel mikroskopischer Forschung, Friedrich Vieweg and Sohn, Braunschweig, 1868. 45 J. Von Gerlach, Die photographie als Hilfsmittel mikroskopischer Forschung, Leipzig Engelmann, Leipzig, 1863. 46 N. Overney and G. Overney, Microscopy-UK (2011), http://www.microscopyuk.org.uk, accessed: 7 February 2013. 47 F. Stahnisch, 'Joseph von Gerlach (1820-1926) und die fruhen anatomischen Mikrophotographen', Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (2005), 28, 135-150. 48 J. Dean, 'The gray substance of the medulla oblongata and trapezium', Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, (1870), 16, 1-71. 49 C. Mathon (dir.), Duchenne de Boulogne, la mécanique des passions (1999), École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, 23. 50 C. Robin, Programme du cours d'histologie professé à la faculté de médicine de Paris, pendant les années 1862-3 et 1863-64, J.-Baillière et Fils, Paris, 1864. 51 C. Robin, Traité du microscope et des injections, Librairie J.- Baillière et Fils, Paris, 1877. 52 C. Pimentel, A documentação pela imagem em medicina, história da sua utilização em Lisboa, Universitária Editora, Lisboa, 1996. 53 C. Figueira, 'Programma do curso de microscopia práctica professado na Escola Médico-cirúrgica de Lisboa, no anno lectivo de 1862 para 1863', O Instituto: jornal scientifico e litterario (1863), XII, 8-9. 54 L. Pasteur, Études sur la maladie des vers à soie, moyen pratique assuré de combattre et d'en prévenir le retour, Gauthiers-Villars, Paris, 1870. 55 R. Moreau, 'Le dernier pli cacheté de Louis Pasteur à l'Académie des Sciences, La vie des Sciences', Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris (1989), 6 (5), 403-434. 56 J. S. Billings, 'Memoir of Joseph Janvier Woodward 1833-1884, read before the National Academy', National Academy of Sciences, April, 1885, see http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/woodwardjoseph-j.pdf, accessed: 1 September 2013. 57 J. Woodward, 'On the magnesium and electric lights as applied to photomicrography', American Journal of Science and Arts (1870), L [second series], 294303. 58 J. J. Woodward, 'On the oxy-calcium light as applied to photo-micrography',The American J. of Science and Arts, second series, (1870), L, 366-369. 59 L. Beale, How to work with the microscope, Harrison, London, 1867. 60 P. Bracegirdle, The establishment of histology in the curriculum of the London
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Medical Schools: 1826-1886, PhD thesis, University College of London, 1996, 249. 61 Bracegirdle, op. cit., 251-252. 62 B. Newhall, The history of photography, Bulfinch Press, New York, 1982, 124. 63 The principle of immersion had already been discovered by Giovanni Amici, who was the first to use a water immersion lens in 1847. See Giovanni Battista Amici, http://gbamici.sns.it/eng/strumenti/microscopio_acromatico.htm, accessed: 20 February 2013. 64 E. Abbe, 'On Stephenson's system of homogeneous immersion for microscope objectives', Transactions of the Royal Microscopic Society (1879), 2, 256-265. 65 T. Brock, Robert Koch: a life in medicine and bacteriology, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1988, 65-69. 66 Brock, op. cit., 76. 67 E. Crookshank, Photography of bacteria, H. K. Lewis, London, 1887, 4-5. 68 R. Koch, Investigations into the etiology of traumatic infective diseases, The New Sydenham Society, London, 1880. Later, Koch recommended that the preparation of bacteria should be stained brown or yellow. Several researchers (e.g. Sternberg, Hauser) succeeded in photographing bacteria with this type of dyes. Hauser employed Gerlach's instrument with gelatin dry plates; cited in Crookshank, op. cit., 12-14. 69 Overney and Overney, op.cit. 70 Catalogue des expositions organisées par la Société Française de Photographie 1857-1876, Éditions Jean-Michel Place, Paris, 1985, 13. Moitessier, Aimé Girard, Jules Luys and Jules Girard, all proeminent nineteenth-century photomicrographers, participated in this exhibition. 71 Brock, op. cit., 77. 72 Koch, op. cit., x. 73 A. Londe, 'La photographie médicale: conférence du Janvier 1892', Conférences publiques sur la photographie théorique et technique, 1891-1900, Jean-Michel Place (reimp.), 8ème Conférence, Paris, 1987, 1-36. 74 Crookshank, op. cit., 5. 75 Ibid., VIII. The Manual of Bacteriology had been published in 1886. 76 This type of reversible instrument, with an arc light, was also made by Zeiss; it was included in their 1888 catalogue: Special -catalog ûber apparate fûr mikrophotographie, Carl Zeiss, Jena, 1888. 77 Crookshank, op. cit., 8. 78 Ibid., 9. 79 Such is the case of an important manual containing only coloured drawings published by an eminent histologist, Mathias Duval (1844-1907). In 1885, Duval had replaced Charles Robin at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris: M. Duval, Précis de technique microscopique et histologique, Libraire J.- Baillière et Fils, Paris, 1878. 80 L. J. Daston and P. Galison, Objectivity, Zone Books, New York, 2010. 81 C. Slater and E. J. Spitta, An atlas of bacteriology, Scientific Press, London,1898 82 Catalogue: Microscopes and microscopic accessories, Carl Zeiss, Jena, 1902, 51. 83 E. Rabaud and F. Monpillard, Atlas d'histologie normale, Carré et Naud, Paris, 1900.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
84
F. Monpillard, La Microphotographie, Gauthiers Villards, Paris, 1899. Monpillard, op. cit., 6. 86 J. Choquet, La Photomicrographie histologique et bactériologique, Charles Mendel Éd., Paris, 1897. 87 Choquet, op. cit., 24-27 88 Ibid., 96-97. 89 L. C. Pestana, O micróbio do carcinoma [open lecture delivered to the Medical and Surgical School of Lisbon], Typographia de Eduardo Roza, Lisboa, 1889. 90 Pimentel, op. cit. 91 L. Figueira, 'Nota sobre o estudo da investigação bacteriológica no Instituto Bacteriológico Câmara Pestana', in Congresso do Mundo Português, Comissão Executivo dos Centenários, XIII, Lisboa, 1940, 281-294. 92 Léon Duchesne, 'La Microphotographie: conférence du Mars 1892', Conférences publiques sur la photographie organisées en 1891-1892, Gauthier-Villars et Fils, Paris, 1892, 32. 93 Catalogue: microscopes and microscopic accessories, Carl Zeiss, Jena, 1891. 94 A research study on nineteenth century Portuguese medical theses illustrated with photomicrographs was done by M. E. Jardim and I. M. Peres, 'Fotomicrografia: a memória científica do invisível', in Catálogo Exposição “A Imagem na Ciência e na Arte”, Fim de Século (forthcoming). 95 J. Guimarães, 'Monographia das Orobanchaceas portuguesas', Broteria - Revista de Sciencias Naturaes (1904), III, 5-241, plate V. 96 C. França, Meningite cérebro - espinhal epidémica: Relatório. Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa, 1903. 85
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil: Building bridges and roads in Minas Gerais, 1835-1889 Télio Cravo
Introduction This chapter surveys the scientific instruments used by the engineers of the province of Minas Gerais, Brazil, during the construction of bridges and roads in the nineteenth century. It is considered that engineers were influenced by the set of instruments available at the Division of Public Works of Minas Gerais. Research presented here demonstrates that the history of instruments should not be reduced to the history of their measuring activities. Results achieved from the analysis of the process of bridge and road construction based on archival records of the database of bridges and roads of Minas Gerais confirm that purchase and use of scientific instruments created a network between engineers, state officials and scientific instrument workshops.1 In this context, the surveys of scientific instruments illuminates historical analysis in four distinct dimensions: 1) the commercial relationship established between the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments (Armazém e Oficinas de Ópticas e Instrumentos Científicos) in Rio de Janeiro and the engineers in Minas Gerais; 2) products bought and repaired in the commercial establishment; 3) the ways engineers travelled and the social division of labour around daily tasks of carrying, assembling, dismantling and maintaining the scientific instruments; 4) the books bought in three bookstores in Rio de Janeiro.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
Therefore, the chapter is divided into three sections. The first section aims to analyse the management structure of the province of Minas Gerais with regard to the presence of engineers and designers under the Division of Public Works. The administration of the province of Minas Gerais held inventories of the conditions of use of scientific instruments under its custody. The second section discusses the use, purchase, and repair of various scientific instruments. In this section, the link between the General Directorate of Public Works and the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments is discussed. Furthermore, the activities performed by engineers during the opening of roads in the province of Minas Gerais are analyzed.2 The last section of the chapter presents the books and manuals purchased by the province of Minas Gerais. For this purpose, the role of the book dealer and the importance of the printed word in the diffusion process of science is emphasized. Apart from their role in the formation of Minas Gerais' road infrastructure, it is argued that the engineers of the province were key players in the circulation of scientific knowledge in the nineteenth century, in the sense indicated by Gavroglu: Circulation of knowledge has been taken as a kind of mediating process, from the local to the global, or from a multiple, varied, and contingent knowledge to universal knowledge. The circulation of ideas and practices, depending first and foremost on people, is a fundamental component in the consolidation of scientific and technological cultures.3
Data used for historical analysis of science and engineering activities in the province of Minas Gerais come mostly from a database developed at the Center for Research in Economic and Demographic History of Minas Gerais (NEPHED), Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The database, initiated by Marcelo Magalh達es Godoy (UFMG) in 2004, aims at understanding the dynamics of transport in nineteenth century Minas Gerais. Its use for the history of science and technology in this chapter underlines the versatility, interdisciplinary use and importance of systematic compilations of data contained in historical documental sources Building in Minas Gerais: Engineering, engineers and instruments in Brazil in the nineteenth century In Brazil, engineering courses had a close relationship with military education. The institutionalization of engineering was done through the establishment of the Royal Military Academy in 1810, the emergence of the Imperial Military Academy, the merger of the Royal Military Academy with the Academy of Marine Guards in 1832, the foundation of the Central School, separating military and civil engineering in 1858, the subsequent
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transformation of the Central School into the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro in 1874,4 and, finally, in 1876, the foundation of the School of Mines in Ouro Preto.5 The second half of the nineteenth century was marked by a growing diversity in engineering. The gradual separation between mechanical engineering and civil engineering is indicative of that diversity, as is the emergence of electrical engineering and chemical engineering, and the accentuated presence of engineers in administrative functions.6 The chronology of the formalization of engineering in Brazil, the initial close relation with military engineering, and the political and economic changes during the first half of the nineteenth century, partly justifies Brazil's dependence on foreign engineers, aggravated by its territorial extension and provincial peculiarities. The need to import skilled labour is especially evident in the decades between 1830 and 1860. In this period, the province of Minas Gerais in conjunction with military and foreigner engineers prevails.7 In the 1870s, the polytechnic educational model became institutionalized in Brazil through the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro (EPRJ) (1874) and the School of Mines of Ouro Preto (EMOP) (1876).8 From 1874 to 1889, engineers who graduated from the EPRJ and the EMOP were integrated in the technical and administrative staff of the province of Minas Gerais.9 Four former EPRJ students and five from the EMOP were identified for the period of this research, totalling nine engineers participating in the construction, maintenance, and repair of roads and bridges in the province of Minas Gerais.10 These engineers rose to high jobs in the state administration, particularly in the area of public works. This fact reveals the weak economic dynamism of the private sectors, which were unable to absorb engineering graduates.11 During the Imperial period, a significant heterogeneity of engineers with different backgrounds and training served at the administrative province of Minas Gerais concerning public works.12 It should be noted that research presented here covers the period 1835 to 1889. The final date represents the end of the Empire and the advent of the Republic. The initial date 1835 is justified by the appearance and definition of technical and administrative functions of the Roads General Inspectorate within the organizational structure of the province of Minas Gerais, as well as the promulgation of the guidelines of the regional road plan of 1835. Barbosa, in an extensive analysis of provincial legislation, identifies two periods in the formation of the Secretary of Public Works in Minas Gerais. The first period covers the years from 1835 to 1857, when the Secretary enacts the first laws aimed at regulating public works. In the second period, from 1857 to 1889, relative stability prevails in the legal functioning of the organizational structure of the province, as well as the predominance and rise of engineers to leadership positions regarding to public works.13
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Table 1 provides a brief overview of the evolution of the Minas Gerais officials who were assigned the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges. It can be argued that, besides the constant presence of the professional title of 'engineer', they were also active in the bureaucracy of the province as individuals who exercised the role of designers. The introduction of the role of designer dates from 1857 legislation and it remained in all subsequent laws.14 Table 1 - Synoptic board of the division of activities related to public works in the province of Minas Gerais (1835-1889). General Inspection of Roads (*) 1835 One Roads General Inspector Three Engineers Road Police (Inspectors and delegates)
1857
General Direction of Public Works 1866
General Direction of Public Works 1873
General Direction of Public Works 1876
General Direction of Public Works 1879
One General Inspector
One General Director
One Engineer General Director
One General Director
One General Director
One General Director
One Chief Engineer
One Engineer 1° Assistant
Six District Engineers
Six District Engineers
Eight District Engineers
Five Engineers
One Engineer 2° Assistant
One Designer
One Designer
One Designer
One Designer
Seven Chief District Engineers
Bureau of Public Works
One General Inspector Assistant Engineers, Assistants and Designers
General Direction of Public Works 1883
Four Engineer's Assistant One Designer Source: Book of Mineira Law: 1835, 1857, 1866, 1873, 1876, 1879, 1883. (*) In 1839, the position of General Inspector of the roads was abolished and their functions passed to the provincial president. At the same time as this change the organizational structure of the Province was suppressed. In 1840, the office of inspector general was rebuilt and, shortly thereafter, in 1842, the office was again extinguished. Lidiany Silva Barbosa, Tropas e ferrovias em uma província nãoexportadora: Estado, elites regionais e as contradições da política dos transportes no início da modernização – Minas Gerais, 1835-1889, PhD, Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2011, 37-65.
This legislation is a clear indication of the changing nature of the provincial body. In a period of 54 years, several laws were passed in Minas Gerais changing the operations of the Secretary of Public Works. This prolixity in norms and legislation resulted in institutional and bureaucratic instability with direct impact in working practices and routines. In an organisation, hierarchy and command protocols provide significant evidence of the articulation between the knowledge of engineering and its practice, considering that one of the functions of knowledge is to produce a hierarchy.15 The year 1866 is emblematic of the concern of the General Directorate of Public Works in inventorying scientific instruments and tools in their possession. In subsequent years, the Board of Public Works organised the list into 'good use' and 'unusable'. With the purpose of mapping the technical work of engineers, the 1867 inventory showed a total of 117 scientific instruments, of which 95 were classified as 'in good use' and the remaining 25 instruments classified as 'unusable' (Table 2).
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16
Table 2 - List of instruments belonging to the Department of Public Works (1867).
Table 2 - List of instruments belonging to the archive of the Department of Public Works (1867) Instruments
Good use
Unusable
Total
Instruments for measuring time
6
1
7
Instruments for astronomical use
4
5
9
Instruments for measuring distance
7
6
13
Instruments of reflection
11
2
13
Theodolites
6
3
9
Compasses
7
2
9
Goniometer and brackets
4
1
5
Instruments of leveling
5
Rules for leveling
9
Meteorological instruments
10
Graphics instruments
23
Total
92
5 9 5
15
25
117
23
Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
The Board suggested the following questions: Which activities of the Office of Public Works required various scientific instruments? Who were the individuals who used them? Where did the province buy the instruments? Who had the instruments repaired? What is their importance in the context of engineering practice? Regarding the activities of the Office of Public Works, the 1867 inventory confirms the remarkable concentration of projects related to road infrastructure (roads and bridges) (Table 3).17 Table 3 - Projects under the possession of the Office of Public Works (1867).18 N°
%
Bridges Plant
160
48.9
Roads Plant
75
23.0
Geographical and topographical Plant
39
12.0
Buildings Plant
36
11.0
Hydraulic Works Plant
17
5.1
Total
327
100.0
Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
A significant number of projects related to bridges can be seen, reaching 48.9% (or 160 projects) of the 327 total projects of the Division of Public Works. The table illustrates activities developed by engineers and the concentration of jobs in certain areas, including on site data collection, development of activities in the office, and use of scientific instruments. Based on the total percentage of bridges (160 projects) and roads (75 projects), it can be concluded that
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approximately 72% of the technical work of the Bureau was aimed at the transportation industry. The remaining data divide almost equally between geographical and topographical projects (39 projects, 11.9%) and buildings (36 projects, 11.0%). Hydraulic projects were the least significant in that year (17 projects, 5.1%). In 1867, a qualitative and detailed list of instruments was also made. The list ranked each instrument according to its function: 1) instruments for measuring time; 2) instruments for astronomical use; 3) instruments for measuring distance; 4) instruments for measuring angles; 5) instruments of reflection; 6) instruments for levelling; and 7) meteorological instruments (Table 4). Table 4 - Inventory of scientific instruments in the custody of the General Directorate of Public Works (1867).20 Instruments for measuring time Vissiere chronometer in a wooden box for nautical use
Instruments for astronomical use
Instruments to measure distance
Instruments of reflection
Meridian Lunette (some Rochon Micrometer Circular reflector (in damage) optical two boxes)
Instruments for measuring angles Large Secretan theodolite with standard two boxes
Levels
Meteorological instruments
Gay-Lussac Barometer Two levels of Burel (with the broken tube) with without tige two leather holsters
John Poole Silver chronometer
Astronomical Lunette with an objective of 90 meters
Lugeol Micrometer optical
Circular border reflector
Small Secretan theodolite, standard
Standard Lenoir Level
Gay-Lussac Barometer (without tube)
Roskel Silver Chronometer
Astronomical Lunette with an objective of 60 meters
Iron tape measure with length in feet
Circular border reflector
Circle repeater Secretan, nonstandard, in two boxes
Non-standard Lenoir Level
Fortin Barometer (unusable)
Secretan Theodolite, standard
Complete English Gravat Level standard
Fortin Barometer, complete in two leather cases
Casella Theodolite, standard
Complete English Gravat Level. Standard. With mirror.
Fortin Barometer, complete in two leather cases
Seconds counter (disconcerted) without case Electric Counter (two pieces)
Brass tape measure a Faucoult Telescope hundred feet long (in Wooden quadrant (large mirror damaged) two parts)
Comet searcher
Brass tape measure, Metal Jones sextant fifty feet long
Prism of passage
A bundle of pieces of tape brass measure
Secretan Sextant (missing key and box cover)
Casella Theodolite, standard
Standard Gravat English Level without mirror
Bourdon Aneroid barometer
Large spyglass with objective of 102 meters range
15 foot ribbon tape measure in box
Complete Secretan Sextant
English Theodolite standard
Simple Level
Bourdon Aneroid barometer (small)
Secreten Spyglass Ribbon tape measure range for room with unusable objective of 76 meters
Sextant pocket without glass
12 inch Level with Theodolite, no defect compass and glass. Breguet Barometer (pocket) L. Casella
Ribbon tape measure divided in meters and feet (damaged)
Casella Theodolite, standard
Leveling Scale with Breguet Aneroid barometer, divisions in feet in case
{Dollond} range spyglass with lens of 68 Ribbon tape measure meters (tube slightly (damaged) damaged)
Portable L. Casella Theodolite 3 inches
Leveling Scale with Aneroid barometer in case divisions in feet
Empty measuring tape box
Portable L. Casella Theodolite 3 inches
Leveling Scale with divisions in feet
Cail Cia Thermometer
Large Odometer (slightly damaged)
Portable L.Casella Theodolite 4inches
Leveling Scale with divisions in feet
Cail Cia Thermometer (damaged)
Large Compass for nautical use
Scale of leveling with the English division
Thermometer calibrated in crystal
Damaged Compass
Scale of leveling with metric division
Thermometer calibrated in crystal
Lugeol Lunette micrometric
Secretan Compass, in Scale of leveling Daniel Hygrometer (broken) square wooden box, with metric division in a wooden box and case. Standard Compass of Secretan, Scale of leveling Breguet Aneroid barometer without case. Standard with metric division Tranche-montagne Compass. Standard
324
Scale of leveling Breguet Aneroid barometer with metric division
Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil TĂŠlio Cravo
Several makers can be observed, e.g. Casella, Lenoir, Breguet, John Poole, Fortin, among others.19 The list also indicated the variety and use of different measurement units, including inches, feet and yards. The poor conditions of the instruments are also mentioned, suggesting their constant use. Based on the above data, we can say that instruments represented an important dimension of work done by provincial engineers, especially for roadwork (bridges and roads). Furthermore, the inventory details the wear and tear of several instruments. In the next section, attention will be paid to instrument repairs and their return to good use.21 It will be demonstrated that, from the mid-1860s until the 1880s, the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments and the Office of Public Works had created scientific and commercial ties to the Directorate General of Public Works, which was responsible for selling and repairing scientific instruments. The use of scientific instruments by engineers in Minas Gerais: Some examples The relationship between the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments in Rio de Janeiro and the province of Minas Gerais covers the period between 1860 and 1880 and it involves the acquisition and repair of scientific instruments. Between 1837 and 1873, the Warehouse and Workshop was under the direction of its founder, JosĂŠ Maria dos Reis.22 After Reis' death in August 1875, the Warehouse became the property of Jose Hermida Pazos. They were both active in the manufacture, trade and repair of scientific instruments. They were also frequent participants in several national and international exhibitions during the nineteenth century.23 The manufacture, import and trade of instruments provided the Warehouse with a considerable customer network comprising public and educational institutions in Brazil. Costumers included the Imperial House, the Arsenal of War and Navy, the Military School, the School of Medicine, the Ministry of Public Works of Rio de Janeiro, the Railroad Dom Pedro II, and the Division of Public Works of Pernambuco: Among the objects available for sale, the imported ones stood out: glasses, needles in various sizes for different ships, containers for chemical mixtures, hourglasses, anemometers, measuring instruments for physical experiments, barometers, bariscĂłpios, compasses, tape measures, scales with English and Brazilian measurements, surveyor brackets, artificial magnets, converging and diverging lenses, lenses for clockmakers, botanists, and opticians, gauges, micrometres, microscopes, solar levels, telescopes for celestial and terrestrial observations, theodolites, thermometers, and more.24
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The Warehouse imported the instruments, but they also established and maintained contact with the scientists who used them. It also manufactured optical and nautical instruments.25 As a result of a relationship with French scientist Emmanuel Liais, director of the Imperial Observatory of Rio de Janeiro from 1870-1884, José Maria dos Reis built an Azimuthal (1873) and an AltAzimuth (1880).26 It should be noted that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 'scientific instruments' were called mathematical, optical, and philosophical instruments. According to Taub, “the designation 'optical instrument', used by spectacle makers, could describe the lens, mirror or prism, while 'philosophical instrument' referred to objects used in experimental physics and philosophy.”27 However, throughout the nineteenth century, the use of the term 'scientific instrument' became widespread: During the course of the nineteenth century the terms 'natural philosophy' and philosophical instruments gradually fell from use, while 'science' and 'scientific instruments' became increasingly common. (…) Those men interested in professionalizing science tended to define scientific instruments as tools of engineering. Those who stressed the connections between theory and practice tended to apply the mantle of scientific instruments thus included a wide range of educational and practical apparatus.28
As far as we know, the relationship of José Maria dos Reis and Jose Hermida Pazos with Minas Gerais is characterized solely by sale and repair activities of scientific instruments. In August 1866, José Maria dos Reis sent a catalogue to the Board of Public Works of Minas Gerais, in which he presented the instruments and their values, as shown below:29 […] Enclosed I refer Your Excellency to the catalogue mentioned; therein you will find most of our established products, but there are many other modern instruments that are not found in this catalogue. Let me draw Your Excellency's attention to the explanations of Rochon and Lugeol telescopes with micrometers that measure distance. Below are listed the prices of the instruments that Your Excellency asked for. I have taken the liberty to mention some instruments I find convenient, particularly the Breguet metallic barometers that have been well accepted by the public works and Court of Pernambuco, as well as by His Excellency Baron Prados. I believe the pocket sextant or azimuth compass and portable prism will meet the needs of the pocket compasses and prism, which
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
Your Excellency asked about: Instrument
Price (réis)
A Fortin barometer with thermometer. Without base
110$000
A Fortin barometer with thermometer and { }
130$000
A Fortin barometer with thermometer and { }
130$000
A metal Bourdon barometer. Large wooden box
70$000
A metal Bourdon barometer. Small metal box
60$000
A metal Breguet barometer. Small metal box
50$000
A metal cylindrical pocket compass
5$ a 16$
A sextant and pocket scale with lens. Without glass
50$000
A sextant and pocket scale with lens. With glass
100$000
In July 1866, Minas Gerais had bought two scientific instruments from the Warehouse: a Fortin barometer (400$000 réis) and a Casella theodolite (110$000 réis). This acquisition resulted from a direct request by provincial engineer Julio Augusto Horta Barbosa. In May 1866, he needed the instruments to open a new road from Livramento to Rio Grande and requested their acquisition. The lack of instruments led to the work delays, as Julio Augusto Barbosa noted in a letter to chief engineer Henrique Gerber. Only in June 1866 did the engineer come from Ouro Preto to Livramento to begin his work. Julio Augusto Horta Barbosa had been instructed to employ four to six employees during the opening of the road. However, in August 1866, Julio Augusto Horta Barbosa claimed that six workers were insufficient and he asked this number to be increased to 12. Besides the instruments purchased by the province, Barbosa took to the field the instruments depicted in Table 5. Table 5 - Instruments ordered.30
Year
Engineer
Instruments Ordered
Reason for Request
Casella theodolite 1866
Julio Augusto Horta Barbosa
A tape measure
Opening road Livramento to a navigable point of the Rio Grande
A Rochan “occulo” A Fortin barometer with competent thermometers Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
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The application procedure for scientific instruments by engineers to the provincial Office of Public Works was a practice embedded in bureaucratic routine. The appointment of an engineer to study the opening of a road revealed the hierarchy of command, the establishment of deadlines, instruments' requests, as well as the broader interests and investments of the government in improving the road infrastructure of Minas Gerais. In March 1866, the project chief engineer appointed Carlos Peixoto de Mello for preliminary studies for opening a road from Serro to the Port of Souza, establishing a deadline of 170 days for the submission of projects and general survey of the final report. In order to start work in April, Carlos Peixoto de Mello departed from Ouro Preto carrying a measuring tape, a Secretan compass, a barometer, an English theodolite level ruler and three meters of paper. However, he resigned from the post of engineer in the province of Minas Gerais while the road project from Serro was still in full swing.31 The General Directorate of Public Works appointed engineer Francisco de Paula Aroeira to continue the work.32 Scientific instruments ordered and used by Aroeira in 1867 can be seen in Table 6. 3
Table 6 - Instruments ordered by Aroeira (1867). 3 Year
Engineer
Instruments Ordered
Reason for Request
Circle of Reflection border Artificial horizon with competent mercury bottle cock Chronometer 1867
Francisco Eduardo de Paula Aroeira
Pocket Breguet barometer Lugeol Lunette micrometric
Opening the road Serro to the Port of Souza
British patent compass Centigrade thermometer Case of drawing instruments Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
Francisco de Paula Aroeira did the drawings and field research during the months of October, November, and December, most likely assisted by free labour workers. When work was completed, Aroeira paid each one of them individually. Records of these payments confirm three to four individuals under Aroeira's orders, the number of working days per month, and the daily amount paid to these camaradas [comrades] (Table 7). The camaradas were responsible for carrying the instruments, storing them in their boxes, saddling the instruments to animals for transport, leading the animals and preventing them from moving too quickly and damaging the
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
instruments. They were also in charge of preventing falls and protecting the instruments from heat or rain.35 Together, the engineer and his camaradas carried out the survey of a 70-km area from the city of Serro to São Miguel and established the route of a road to a waterway point in the province of Espírito Santo.38 Table 7 - Workers employed in the study of opening the road Serro to the Port of Souza 4 (1867).3 Month
October
Name
Number of days of work
Value of work
Total
João Antonio da Silva
25
1$000
25$000
João Nepomuceno João Rodrigues da Silva Bonifacio Antonio Pereira
15
1$000
15$000
15
1$000
15$000
2
1$000
2$000
Total
November
57$000
João Antonio da Silva
30
1$000
30$000
João Nepomuceno João Rodrigues da Silva Bonifacio Antonio Pereira
30
1$000
30$000
30
1$000
30$000
30
1$000
30$000
Total
December
João Nepomuceno João Rodrigues da Silva Bonifacio Antonio Pereira Total
120$000 8
1$000
8$000
8
1$000
8$000
8
1$000
8$000 24$000
Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
Between the 1830s and the year 1872 the region of Mata, in the southeast of Minas Gerais, underwent a staggering population growth. In 1832, the population consisted of 51,119 individuals, divided into 29,882 free people and 21,237 slaves. In 1872, the total reached 282,452 individuals; 201,145 free people and 81,307 slaves. Population dynamics reflected the coffee boom and the effects of intense trade between Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. Given the economic dynamism and remarkable demographic expansion, in 1866 chief engineer Henrique Gerber appointed Martiniano da Fonseca Reyes Brandão and assistant engineer João Victor de Magalhães Gomes, to study the
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opening of a highway between Campelo and Ubá.39 Gerber set the following work goals: 1) Creating the letter of exploration in 40 days, 2) for every 10 miles of road, 50 days of alignment and preparation of plans and budgets were needed. Instruments identified as being used in the Campelo-Ubá road are indicated in Table 8. Table 8 - Instruments ordered in the Campelo-Ubá road. Year
Engineer
Instruments Ordered
Martiniano da Fonseca Reys Brandão
João Victor de Magalhães Gomes
Reason for Request
Compass Casella theodolite
1866
40
Opening Road Campelo to Ubá
Leveling ruler
Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
Four individuals were employed in the study: three slaves and one free labourer. The slaves were owned by Gauldino Augusto da Silva and were employed as servants for a daily rental amount of 1$000 réis. Henrique Spiers, a free individual who was employed as assistant (ajudante de corda) received 3$000 réis per day. The final report, plan, and longitudinal profile provided the necessary data for the construction budget of the Campelo to Ubá road. Technical studies reveal that the provincial administration was apprehensive about spending money on poorly designed roads.41 In July 1868, engineer Bruno Von Sperling also headed for the region of Mata. In the middle of the coffee boom there was need for effective communication routes for exporting coffee through the port of Rio de Janeiro. In view of the expansion of coffee plantations, Bruno Von Sperling requested several instruments in order to construct a road in the region of Mata (Table 9).42 Table 9 - Instruments ordered for the road in the region of Mata.41 Year
Engineer
Instruments Ordered
Reason for Request
Casella theodolite Tranche-Montage compass Pocket compass 1868
Bruno Von Sperling
Measuring tape Stopwatch
Opening the road Barra do Ouro Fino to Porto Novo do Cunha
Barometer Leveling ruler Mathematician kit Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
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In addition, Sperling carried with him a number of other instruments to aid in his work, including a painting case, eight sheets of drawing paper, 5 m of vellum, and four sets of Faber pencils. In 1869, Sperling stated that the extension of the railroad Dom Pedro II toward the new port of Cunha required a change in the route of the road.44 The opening of roads reveals the different interests of the government, as well as the dynamism of trade and the diversity of goods circulating in the province of Minas Gerais.45 The road from Serro to Port of Souza in the Rio Doce represented the desire for a route connecting the provinces of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. Such a road would enable a direct passage between the regions of Diamantina, Sertão do Rio Doce and Minas Novas with the Atlantic Ocean. Connecting these regions to a navigable point in the province of Espírito Santo would make travels to Rio de Janeiro or Bahia unnecessary, facilitating the export and import of certain products. Moreover, the Livramento road represented the interest in integrating fluvial and land transport in Minas Gerais. In 1867, a hydrographical study by engineer Gerber indicated that the Rio Grande had 168.9 km suitable for inland navigation within the province of Minas Gerais. The openings of both roads – Livramento to Rio Grande and Serro to Port of Souza – suffered delays caused by several reasons. The first reason was the lack of scientific instruments and their delayed arrival from Rio de Janeiro after purchase. The second reason was the sudden departure of Carlos Peixoto de Mello, requiring the appointment of another engineer to complete the works. Opening roads in unknown and rugged terrain demanded scientific instruments to be in good condition. An engineer needed competences and skills in areas as diverse as mechanics, civil architecture, hydraulics, mathematics, physics, and technical aspects of road construction, as noted by Baron Von Eschwege in his Odologia of construction engineers or guide to construction and maintenance of roads in Portugal and Brazil:46 A good road builder must have completed studies in mathematics to be able to design and survey/triangulate, and to calculate earthworks and embankments: he must have geognostic knowledge to understand the land on which to build, as well as the materials that should be used and the places from where the advantage is best, which makes it convenient for a better choice of the direction of roads: to judge by appearances the layers and probability of finding some other minerals more suitable for construction at varying depths: [the need to look at the water flow, its features, the influence of the inclination of layers and rocks, the arrangement of hills and valleys, must know to meet the physical influence of climate on the
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materials, and to make barometric measurements which would greatly shorten the work of the roads in the mountains: mechanics, machinery for application in the construction of bridges and pipelines: civil architecture, for the construction of bridges and buildings: hydraulics, for the construction of bridges, dykes: finally, they should know well the different methods of road construction, which vary according to the quality of the site and its setting in the plains, mountains, hills, ground, whether sandy or muddy. If the engineer ignores all these sciences, he will surely be unable to design or build a good road, and the Government will certainly make a great mistake (‌).47
Eschwege's work takes on a unique character in view of the absence of manuals written in English in the nineteenth century. According to Matos, during the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, only two works addressing road construction methods were published in Portuguese.48 He states, Apart from Jose Diogo Mascarenhas Neto who published Method to Build Roads in Portugal, in Porto in 1790, the only other mid-nineteenth book published on this subject was 'Odologia of construction engineers or guide to construction and maintenance of roads in Portugal and Brazil' by Baron Eschwege.49
Due to the intense use of certain instruments, in June 1872 the Directorate General of Public Works presented a report listing existing engineering instruments and highlighting the need for repairs in portable and precision instruments. It stressed that heavy instruments found little use due to transport challenges: Upon examination, by order of Your Lordship, of the procedures in engineering instruments located in the archive of the division of public works, it came to our knowledge that the state rarely provides instruments such as the meridian telescope, prism passages, and other various telescopes. Instruments such as large theodolites and 'repeater circles' present transportation difficulties due to excessive weight and bad construction and cannot be used in place of portable and precision instruments. Other instruments are eventually in such a state of disrepair that to fix them would cost more than to purchase new ones. In general, these instruments are useful for the service of the province, and they may need repairs or not. However, because of their specific purpose or because of their 50 weight, they cannot be employed in actual service.
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The instruments in need of repair were sent to Rio de Janeiro. In the years 1872 and 1873, José Maria dos Reis' Warehouse repaired the instruments listed in Table 10 from the province of Minas Gerais. Table 10 - Instruments Repairs: Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments (1872-1873).51 Year
Instrument/Repairs
Price (Réis)
One reflection square
2$000
One pocket compass
4$000
One compass with bezel and levels
6$000
One Pocket Breguet barometer
1872
1873
8$000
One Aneroid barometer
8$000
One armile’
10$000
One Burel level
10$000
One Bourdon barometer
10$000
One compass with levels
16$000
One compass with levels
18$000
One Woltman windlass
18$000
One octant
25$000
One Casella compass with ‘pinnule’
30$000
One Robert Roskel silver stopwatch
30$000
Two Elliot protractors
32$000
One Gay Lussac barometer
35$000
One Gay Lussac barometer
35$000
One Gay Lussac barometer
35$000
One L. Casella level
36$000
One Fortin barometer
40$000
One metal pantograph
40$000
One Lenoir level
40$000
One Fortin barometer
40$000
One metal sextant (Secretan)
45$000
One metal sextant (Jones)
48$000
One metal sextant (Secretan)
48$000
One Tranche-Montagne compass
50$000
One Foucault telescope
50$000
One L. Casella theodolite
54$000
One John Poole silver stopwatch
60$000
One Robert Roskel silver stopwatch
60$000
One theodolite transponder
80$000
One Vissière stopwatch
60$000
One compass
14$000
Total 1:097$000 Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
They include eight barometers, seven compasses, four timers, three levels, three sextants, two theodolites, two protractors, one square reflector,
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one annulet, one Woltman windlass, one pantograph, one telescope, and one octant. Receipts enable us to have a clear idea of the amount paid for each repair. In addition, the receipt sent to the province in 1873 shows the acquisition of one Babinet gauge and one Naudet hygrometer, both purchased for the price of 35$000 rĂŠis. In 1880, the Warehouse issued another receipt for the acquisition of scientific instruments in the amount of 200$000 rĂŠis by the province of Minas Gerais. However, this receipt did not discriminate the instruments. The use of instruments required skills and commitment from the engineers. On the one hand, use required integration of the knowledge of the disciplines of engineering with the interests of the province in building roads in Minas Gerais. One the other hand, it should be noted that the engineers not only asked for the acquisition of scientific instruments, but also for their repair. In the next section,books purchased by the General Directorate of Public Works between 1860 and 1880 will be analysed and discussed.
Fig. 1 - Receipt issued by the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments to the province of Minas Gerais (1873).52
Books, booksellers, and engineers: A library in the Office of Public Works The import and sale of books was one of the activities developed by the tradesmen of the city of Rio de Janeiro. This practice considerably contributed to the circulation of ideas in Brazil. The booksellers acted as intermediaries between publisher and editorial suppliers and the demand of readers.53 Several books and technical manuals purchased by the province of Minas Gerais confirm the demand for engineering-related literature.
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
Books were mainly purchased from three booksellers: Garnier, Catharinense, and Imperial, all based in Rio de Janeiro. Garnier and Imperial were both located on Ouvidor Street, a street in Rio that had several booksellers.54 Catharinense was located on Hospício Street, the same street as the Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments. Between the 1860s and 1880, the province of Minas Gerais acquired a total of 17 works: eight from Catharinense, six from Garnier and two from Imperial (Table 11). A considerable number of books were related to bridges, railways, stone cutting, carpentry, and plumbing. All books were written in French. Table 11 - Books purchased by the Board of Public Works of the Province of Minas Gerais.55 Year 1866
Author
Title Connaissance des temps 1867
Bookstore
Price (reis)
Imperial
16$000
Jerome de La lande
Table of Logarithms
Imperial
6$000
Louis Figuier
L'année scientifique et industrielle, 1856
Garnier
4$000
Louis Figuier
L' année scientifique et industrielle, 1870-71
Garnier
4$000
E. Sergent
Traité pratique et complet de tous les mesurages, métrages, jaugeages de tous les corps, appliqué aux arts, aux métiers, à l'industrie, aux constructions, aux travaux hydrauliques, etc.
Garnier
40$000
Marc Séguin
Des ponts en fil de fer
Catharinense
8$000
General Arthur Leçons de mécanique Jules Morin pratique: hydraulique
Catharinense
9$000
Jean Joseph Manuel des aspirants au grade d'ingénieur Nicolas Regnault des ponts et chaussées
Catharinense
12$000
Ernest Endrés
Manuel du conducteur des ponts et chaussées
Catharinense
12$000
Adhémar J.- A.
Traité des ponts biais en pierres et en bois
Catharinense
20$000
Armand-Rose Emy; LouisAuguste Barré
Traité de l´art de la charpenterie
Catharinense
20$000
Auguste Perdonnet
Traité élémentaire des chemins de fer
Catharinense
45$000
J.P.Douliot; J. Traité spécial de coupe Claudel; F.M des pierres Jay; L.A.Barre
Catharinense
45$000
1872
1873
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
1880
Alphonse Alexis Debauve
Ponts en Maçonnerie
Garnier
22$000
{Duffare}
Guide du constructeur
Garnier
7$000
Garnier
Unidentified price
Annales des ponts et chaussĂŠes Total
270$000 Source: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
These books and technical manuals represent experiences, information exchange, reproducibility and improvement, thus they provide an important view of modern science and technology. The circulation of technical knowledge depends on a number of resources, (manpower, materials, availability of funds, and people) along with forms of codified knowledge (treatises, manuals, books, trade literature, among others), and also important social agents (engineers, craftsmen, merchants, publishers, booksellers, politicians, and bidders).56 During the nineteenth century, publications codified expertise and facilitated the exchange of ideas and the dissemination of techniques within engineering: Finally, it must be stressed that techniques of production and their transmission were not only of interest to producers, but also to merchants, shopkeepers, artists, consumers, local authorities, princes, political writers, and others. Thus the actors involved in technical dissemination should not be limited to the technicians. For instance, merchants not only provided goods, materials, and information, but mercantile culture itself was crucial in gathering facts, making inquiries, and comparing qualities, devices, and uses.57
Other books were requested but actual purchase could not be confirmed. In the 1860s, for example, engineer Henrique Gerber requested the purchase of two books: the Nautical Almanach of 1866 and 1867.
Concluding remarks This analysis focused on the operations of the Directorate General of Public Works of Minas Gerais regarding the building of roads. A survey of books and scientific instruments acquired and used by engineers was the point of departure for the analysis. Results obtained can be discussed under multiple perspectives.
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil TĂŠlio Cravo
Fig. 2 - Receipt of Garnier depicting the purchase of books for the engineers of Minas Gerais (1873).
Fig. 3 - Receipt of Imperial bookstore (1866).59
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Minas Gerais reinforces its role as a key province in Brazil in terms of the articulation between economic development and technical engineering. The opening of good roads meant integrating markets, facilitating development and stimulating circulation. Therefore, engineering, technology, and the use of scientific instruments became a prerequisite for building bridges and roads in Minas Gerais. The study also confirms the relation between the use of scientific instruments and the identity and professional recognition of engineers, through the stratification of field work. The daily activities of the engineers involved the direct participation of free labourers and/or slaves. Moreover, this study also underlines the important role played by intermediaries in the world of science, the purchase and repair of instruments, and the diffusion of books and manuals of the nineteenth century. The Warehouse and Workshop of Optics and Scientific Instruments representatives and booksellers were fundamental to the achievement of scientific practice for engineers in Minas Gerais. It should be noted that all intermediaries were located in Rio de Janeiro and maintained scientific trade links with Minas Gerais during the 1860s and 1880s. The findings indicated that actions of the engineers were closely linked to the availability of certain instruments as well as the strong French influence under the scientific culture of engineers in Brazil. In conjunction, insights gained through the use of scientific instruments and the employment of engineers reveal the intention to ensure the projection of efficient roads and avoid the waste of public funds. Naturally, the engineers' activities were not limited to the use of scientific instruments, in a complex historical process that involved multiple actors (province, engineers, tradesmen, slaves and freemen). Finally, the results demonstrate the importance and diversity of information gathered in the database of bridge and road construction. The database constitutes an important research tool for systematic analysis of a broad diversity of issues related to road infrastructure and engineering during the nineteenth century. Data analysed in this study have showed important trends in the use of scientific instruments and scientific culture in nineteenthcentury engineering. Nevertheless, some issues remain to be clarified, namely the use of slaves in road and bridge construction. Were the engineers responsible for the slaves or did someone else direct their work? Did the presence of the scientific instruments affect the workload of the slaves? Were the engineers able to use the scientific instruments more effectively with the assistance of the slaves? What role did they play? These and many other questions remain open for further research using the database of bridge and road construction.
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
Acknowledgments I am grateful to Marcelo Magalhães Godoy and Gildo Magalhães dos Santos Filho for helpful comments. I also thank researchers from the Study Group of Technology, Science and Progress at the History Department of the University of São Paulo. The development of current research relies on the assistance of a scientific scholarship granted by CNPq, Brazil. Notes 1
The organization of processes of bridges and roads in a database is coordinated by lecturer Marcelo Magalhães Godoy in the Research Center in Economic History and Demographic linked to Center of Development and Regional Planning (Cedeplar)/Federal University of Minas Gerais Gerais (UFMG). 2 A. Carneiro and M. Klemun, 'Instruments of science - geology of instruments; introduction to seeing and measuring, constructing and judging: instruments in the history of the earth sciences', Centaurus (2011), 53 (2), 77-85. 3 K. Gavroglu, M. Patiniotis, F. Papanelopoulou, A. Simões, A. Carneiro, M. P. Diogo, J. R. B. Sanchéz, A. G. Belmar and A. Nieto-Galán, 'Science and technology in the European periphery: some historical reflections', History of science (2008), XLVI (46), 153-175, p. 161. 4 In 1858, the withdrawal of civil engineering from the Military Academy was an inflection point. According to José Murilo de Carvalho, the Academy embraced full courses of mathematical sciences, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, metallurgy and natural history (vegetable and animal): "The military education in the Empire was the best to keep the spirit of 'pombal' reform. In the tradition of the College of Nobles, the Royal Military Academy emphasized both the professional training and technical training. The creation decree itself already gave the Academy aims to educate officers but also capable engineers who could build roads, ports, bridges, etc. Even after the separation of civil engineering, the Military School retained traces of its civil and technical education, continuing to grant bachelor's degrees in mathematics and engineering. The officers were often treated as doctors: dr. General, dr. Captain, or simply 'your doctor', seeking a clear symbolic compensation for the inferior status of technical education and/or military, in relation to the legal training of politicians". José Murilo de Carvalho, A construção da ordem: a elite política imperial, Ed. Campus, Rio de Janeiro, 1980, 61-62. 5 P. Pereira, 'Engenharia militar', in História da Técnica e da Tecnologia no Brasil (ed. M. Vargas), Unesp, São Paulo, 1994, 168-171; P. C. S. Telles, História da Engenharia no Brasil, vol. 1, Clavero, Rio de Janeiro, 1994, 100-114; Escola Polytechnica do Rio de Janeiro, Jubileu da Escola Polytechnica do Rio de Janeiro, Typographia do Jornal do Commercio, Rio de Janeiro, 1926, 13. 6 A. Picon, 'Engineers and engineering history: problems and perspectives', History and Technology (2004), 4, 421-436, p. 427. 7 See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 8 Francisco J. C. Gárcia, 'La importancia de las redes infraestructuras y del industrialismo en el pensamiento politécnico', Revista Transportes, Servicios y Telecomunicaciones (2006), 11, 94-115.
339
9
Henri Gorceix founded the School of Mines in Ouro Preto in 1876. The school was introduced by Decree n. 8727. The railways course was introduced in 4 November 4, 1882. After Decree n. 9448 (27 June 1885), bridges, overpasses, and roads became ordinary matters of study. Together with railroads, they constituted the 2nd chair of the 3rd year of the Engineering course. The course was taught by French Arthur Tiré, who had a degree in Engineering from the Paris School of Mines: "Although the school was founded with the sole purpose of preparing mining engineers (...). Soon it was recognized, however, the need to minister to students knowledge of the main subjects of civil engineering given the little development of mineral extraction and metallurgy industries in the country, which hindered the placement of engineers graduated by the School". Escola de Minas, A Escola de Minas. Centenário da Independência, Ed. Mineira, Ouro Preto, 1922,122. 10 Engineers graduated from the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro. Occupying the post of engineer in the province of Minas Gerais were: Antonio Olyntho de Almeida Gomes, José Alvares de Araujo e Souza, Francisco Lemos e Alvaro Rolemberg Bhering. The graduates of the Ouro Preto School of Mines who held posts as provincial engineer were: Crispiniano Tavares, Joaquim Francisco de Paula, Teófilo Benedito Ottoni, Higino Soares de Oliveira Alvim, Ernesto Von Sperling. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 11 Escola de Minas, op. cit., 1922, 112-114; E. C. Coelho, As profissões imperiais: medicina, engenharia e advocacia no Rio de Janeiro (1822-1930), Record, São Paulo, 1999; J. M. de Carvalho, A Escola de Minas de Ouro Preto: o peso da glória, UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2002. 12 The following engineers worked in the province of Minas Gerais between the 1840s and 1880: Pedro Victor Renault, João José da Silva Theodoro, Julio Borell du Vernay, E. de La Martinière, Bruno Von Sperling, Francisco Eduardo de Paula Aroeira, Henrique Dumont, L. d'Ordan, Thomaz Martins, João Hitchens, Henrique Guilherme Fernando Halfeld, Henrique Gerber, Modesto de Faria Bello, Honório Henrique Soares do Couto, Martiniano da Fonseca Reys Brandão, Carlos Peixoto de Mello, Rodrigo Ribeiro, João Ramos de Queiroz, José Franklin Massena, João Victor de Magalhães Gomes, Candido Jose Coelho de Moura, Alberto Schirmer, Francisco de Souza Mello e Neto, Alípio Cavalcanti Pereira da Silva, José Alvares de Araujo e Souza, Antonio Olyntho de Almeida Gomes, Catão Gomes Jardim, Crispiniano Tavares, Hygino Soares de Oliveira Alvim, Joaquim Francisco de Paula, Francisco de Lemos, Teófilo Benedito Ottoni, Godofredo Silveira da Mota, Luiz Cesar do Amaral Gama, Julio Horta Barbosa, Ernesto Von Sperling, Alvaro Rolemberg Bhering. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 13 L. S. Barbosa, 'Os esforços político-administrativo do Governo Provincial para o provimento da infra-estrutura de transportes de Minas Gerais, 1835-1889', Anais do XV Seminário Sobre a Economia Mineira (2012), 15, 1-25, p.19-20. Also see L. S. Barbosa, Tropas e ferrovias em uma província não-exportadora: Estado, elites regionais e as contradições da política dos transportes no início da modernização Minas Gerais, 1835-1889, PhD thesis, Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2011. 14 Friedrich Wagner occupied the position of designer of the province of Minas Gerais
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
between 1838 and 1860. Later, between 1866 and 1868, João Raimundo Duarte worked as a designer in the province. In the 1870s until the year 1889 the designer Gabriel Carlos Alvares da Costa occupied the position. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 15 A. Picon, “Engineers and engineering history: problems and perspectives”, History and Technology (2004), 4, 425. 16 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 17 Some issues about bridge project and construction in Minas Gerais were addressed in T. A. Cravo, 'Engenharia, engenheiros e o universo da difusão de tecnologia no Brasil Imperial: patente, projeto e construção de uma ponte lattice em Minas Gerais', Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (2012), 5 (2), 354-368. 18 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 19 C. Blondel, 'Electrical instruments in nineteenth century France, between makers and users', History and Technology (1997), 3, 163-165. 20 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 21 L. Taub, 'Reengaging with instruments', Isis (2011), 102, 694-695. 22 A. P. Freitas Filho, 'José Maria dos Reis and Jose Hermida Pazos: manufacturers of scientific instruments in Brazil (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)', Revista de História Econômica e Economia Regional Aplicada (2011), 6 (10), 138-159. 23 Freitas Filho, op. cit., 144-149. 24 Idem, 142. 25 Ibidem, 143. 26 Today, they are in the collections of the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST), in Rio de Janeiro. See A. Heizer, “O tratado, o astrônomo e o instrumento,” Revista Brasileira de História da Ciência (2008), 1 (2), 167-177. 27 Taub, op. cit., 693. 28 D. J. Warner, 'What is a scientific instrument, when did it become one, and why?', The British Journal for the History of Science, (1990), 23 (1), 85-86. 29 Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 30 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 31 Carlos Peixoto de Mello served as engineer of the province only during the months of February and October 1866. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 32 Francisco de Paula Aroeira served for 23 years as an engineer in the province of Minas Gerais. Aroeira was hired by the province of Minas Gerais in April 1854 and abandoned in 1877. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes
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2-28, 32-57. 33 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 34 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 35 J. G. de Oliveira, Traçado das estradas de ferro no Brazil (2nd edition), Casa Vanorden, São Paulo, 1912, 119-134. This manual was intended to illustrate the proper way to use specific instruments. It had a clear intention to demonstrate the importance of good instrument practices among engineers and the social division of labor around daily tasks between engineers and camaradas. The first edition is dated 1886. 36 'Appensos n° 13', in Relatório que a Assembléa Legislativa Provincial de Minas Geraes apresentou na sessão ordinária de 1868, Typographia de J.F. de Paula Castro, Ouro Preto, 1868, 9. 37 M. M. S. Rodarte, O trabalho do fogo: domicílios ou famílias do passado Minas Gerais, 1830, Ed. UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2012. 38 M. M. S. Rodarte, op. cit., 88-104. Also see http://www.poplin.cedeplar.ufmg.br, accessed: 29 August 2013. 39 Henrique Gerber served as an engineer in the province of Minas Gerais between 1857 and 1867. Martiniano da Fonseca Reyes Brandão served as an engineer in Minas Gerais between February 1866 and July 1868. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. João Victor Magalhães Gomes (18401911) was appointed to the position of engineer in the province of Minas Gerais in 1865; he held the position until 1878. Later, he served as professor of drawing at the Ouro Preto School of Mines from 1885 to 1903. See Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. See also Escola de Minas, A Escola de Minas. Centenário da Independência, Ed. Mineira, Ouro Preto, 1922. 40 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 41 'Appensos n° 9', in Relatório que a Assembléa Legislativa Provincial de Minas Geraes apresentou na sessão ordinária de 1866, Typographia de J.F. de Paula Castro, Ouro Preto, 1866, 9. 42 Bruno Von Sperling was appointed engineer of the province of Minas Gerais in the mid-1860s and remained in office until 1887. 43 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 44 P. Blasenheim, 'As ferrovias de Minas Gerais no século dezenove', Locus (1996), 2 (2), 81-110. 45 C. A. Paiva and M. M. Godoy, ´Território de contrastes: economia e sociedade das Minas Gerais do século XIX', Anais do X Seminário sobre a Economia Mineira (2002), 10, 1-58. 46 Baron Von Eschwege remained in Brazil for 11 years. Between 1810 and 1821, he
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil Télio Cravo
moved through Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Goiás and Minas Gerais. He was involved in to mining and metallurgy projects, such as the installation of the Patriota factory in the District of Congonhas do Campo, the exploitation of a lead mine in the Hinterland of Abaeté and the mine of Passagem, located between Ouro Preto and Mariana. See D. C. Libby, 'Eschwege e os primeiros anos no Brasil', in Jornal do Brasil, 1811-1817: ou relatos diversos do Brasil (ed. W. L. Von Eschwege), Fundação João Pinheiro, Belo Horizonte, 2002, 19-23. 47 Baron Von Eschwege, Odologia dos engenheiros constructores ou guia para a construção e conservação das estradas em Portugal e no Brasil, Typographia da Sociedade Propagadora dos Conhecimentos Uteis, Lisboa, 1843, X. 48 A. T. de Matos, Transporte e comunicações em Portugal, Açores e Madeira (17501850), vol. 1, Ponta Delgada, Universidade dos Açores, 1980. 49 Matos, op. cit., 236. 50 Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 51 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 52 Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 53 R. Darnton, 'Intermediários esquecidos da literatura', in O beijo de Lamourette: mídia, cultura e revolução (ed. R. Darnton), Companhia das Letras, São Paulo, 2010, 150-167. 54 L. Hallewell, 'Baptiste Louis Garnier', in O livro no Brasil: sua história (ed. L. Hallewell), Universidade de São Paulo, 1985, 125-156. 55 Source for data presented in the table: Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 56 L. Hilaire-Pérez and C. Verna, 'Dissemination of technical knowledge in the middle ages and the early modern era: new approaches and methodological issues', Technology and Culture (2006), 47 (3), 536-565. 57 Hilaire-Pérez and Verna, op. cit., 540. 58 Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57. 59 Database of Process of Construction of Bridges and Roads in the Province of Minas Gerais, APM, Provincial Section, Public Works, 3/6, Boxes 2-28, 32-57.
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Health collections in museums: The case of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Pedro Paulo Soares and Inês Santos Nogueira
Introduction A microscope for students, sterilizers and autoclaves, plaster-of-paris sculptures of patients' goiters, dictaphones, lancets, modern vaccine guns, medals and medallions awarded by medical and scientific societies, precision scales, medical-surgical instruments and devices, equipment for manufacturing drugs and vaccines, a formicary, and more microscopes. What do all these objects have in common? What grants them unity and meaning? How did the museum collections at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) take shape over time? Can they be considered a representative corpus of the history of the biological sciences and medicine in Brazil, as well as part of the country's scientific and cultural heritage? Oswaldo Cruz Institute's Museums Creating a science museum at the former Federal Serum Therapy Institute (Instituto Soroterápico Federal) – renamed in 1908 as Oswaldo Cruz Institute – had been one of the goals of Oswaldo Cruz (1872-1917) ever since he became the head of this institution, dedicated to experimental medicine and public health in the early twentieth century. In 1918, when works were completed on the Moorish Pavilion (Fig. 1), many laboratories began using the facilities, which also included classrooms
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and rooms assigned to glassworks. Around the same time, photographic and cinematographic offices were installed, along with sterilizers and refrigerated chambers. A science museum launched its activities then as well, becoming a guardian of the Institute's first collections, encompassing samples of pathological anatomy, parasitology, mycology, and entomology that researchers had gathered during their work. The museum was designed to compile and maintain collections related to the Institute's ongoing activities – that is, microbiological and anatomopathological analyses that diagnosed diseases of interest to Brazil's public health services – and also to provide support for scientists from other research centers and to exchange collection specimens with them.
Fig. 1 - The Moorish Pavilion of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in the early twentieth century, located atop a hill and facing the sea. Downtown Rio de Janeiro can be seen in the background, to the right (photo J. Pinto, Department of Archives and Documentation/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz).
Following the death of Oswaldo Cruz in 1917, his workroom was kept untouched and opened for special visits as the Oswaldo Cruz Museum (Museu Oswaldo Cruz). Objects of his personal and professional use, together with documents, books, and photographs that his collaborators deemed “heirlooms of the immortal Brazilian bacteriologist,”1 formed the start of a historical collection, housed from that point on in a “devoutly preserved”2 place. The heromaking of Oswaldo Cruz and its corollary – the myth of the scientist and of Brazilian science – would find a sanctuary in this Museum.3 In terms of nature and roles, the differences between the two museums – the science museum and the Oswaldo Cruz Museum - would grow sharper throughout the decades. The former, dedicated to “safeguarding and exhibiting
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scientific collections related to botany, medical zoology, [and] - pathological anatomy,”4 continued its close relationship with the research, technical and scientific agendas of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and the General Directorship of Public Health (Diretoria Geral de Saúde Pública), while the latter, which had been founded with a memorial intention of preserving the history of the founding father and main figure in the life of the institution, gradually adopted a more public-oriented approach. In 1962, following creation of the Documentation Service (Serviço de Documentação) as part of the Institute's new Division of Teaching and Documentation (Divisão de Ensino e Documentação), the Oswaldo Cruz Museum was integrated in the library and linked to other ancillary activities, like those conducted at the photography laboratory and by scientific illustrators.5 After the creation in 1970 of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), and on the occasion of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Oswaldo Cruz in 1972, the Museum expanded its exhibition area. It was occupied three rooms in the Moorish Pavilion, dedicated to the memory of Oswaldo Cruz and the scientific work carried out at the Institute (Fig. 2). Around the same time, under the Presidency of Vinicius da Fonseca (1975-79) a project was initiated to revitalize the Institute, including the re-equipment of abandoned laboratories, constructing new facilities and refurbishing old ones. The same project increased work to preserve the historical heritage handed down to the new foundation and to share it with the public. In parallel, institutional general educational and science education initiatives paved the way for the emergence of other museums, such as the Marquês de Barbacena Educational Museum (Museu Didático Marquês de Barbacena) and the Oswaldo Cruz Institute Museum (Museu do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz), open from 1977 to 1979.6
Fig. 2 - Oswaldo Cruz Museum after reorganization on the 100th anniversary of Oswaldo Cruz, in 1972 (photo from the Dept. of Archives and Documentation/Casa de Oswaldo Cruz/ Fiocruz).
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When the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (COC) was created in 1986, the collections from these two museums were partially incorporated into the new museum, the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz Museum (Museu da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz), inaugurated the following year. After 10 years, the COC created the Museum of Life (Museu da Vida), which has a strong focus on science education. The museum collections had now a new life and programme. Museum of Life collections Fiocruz's museum collections cover science and technology (S&T), particularly in the field of health, along with medicine and its specialties, from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the present. Currently, the collection comprises c. 2,000 objects, with a predominance of laboratory equipment and equipment for manufacturing drugs and vaccines, medical and scientific instruments, laboratory and hospital furniture, glassware, chemical kits, antique medications, wearing apparel, coins, ceremonial and personal objects from the Institute's scientists, and a picture gallery. The majority of the objects have come from Fiocruz laboratories, departments, or units. Collecting the items is greatly due to recent efforts to increase awareness towards the preservation of Fiocruz scientific heritage among the community of researchers and technicians, resulting in a regular flow of donations to the Museum. New objects are also added to the collection through gifts from physicians and their families – for example, the important collection of obstetrics and gynaecological instruments donated by Sylvio Sertã, an eminent doctor from the state of Rio de Janeiro. Museum objects and collections as historical sources In conjunction with preservation and technical treatment activities, which have been ongoing ever since the 1910s, the Fiocruz's museum collection is recognised for its potential as a research resource and a source of information on the history of the institution and the health sciences. It is with this potential in mind that research at the Museum of Life's Museology Service (Serviço de Museologia) gives special emphasis to aspects of context and history, including manufacturers and commercial agents, material characteristics, manufacturing techniques, design, original functions, and uses. Furthermore, research also explores the values of the cultures that generated these objects, their significance at the time they were made and used, and their evaluation or comparison with other objects of the same class, combined with analysis of available documental sources. When S&T health objects in museum collections are approached from a historical perspective, the study of public health policies, biological research agendas, agendas for fighting disease, and the industrial production of immunobiologicals and pharmaceuticals come side by side with, and
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complements, research into instrument and equipment manufacturers, suppliers, and acquisition procedures. Likewise of research interest are the administrative and scientific lives of laboratories and departments where objects were generated, the applications and purposes of instruments, the work produced by researchers, and the careers of researchers, technicians and physicians. All things considered, a broad survey of primary and secondary sources is paramount, as well as the production of new sources, such as interviews and moving images recording interviews and laboratory practices. Reliance on these sources will provide a better understanding of the history of the institutional museums and continuous recognition of the heritage value of S&T health objects included in Fiocruz's museum collections. Moreover, better knowledge of these diverse sources will enable the identification of social networks and actors involved in the production, circulation, and use of these objects by tying them to the different phases of the institution's history, the history of medicine and by highlighting their origins and applications. At the same time, the production of documental records is relevant to the methodology used in collections historical research, because it helps fill in gaps in existing sources while contributing to the study of the history of S&T objects used by the institution and its museums. This is the goal of the Museology Service, with an oral history project and a moving images program, both initiated in 2012. Some interviews with librarians and museologists who have worked at the Institute's museums have already been conducted. Historical research of the collection has yielded a series of results: it has produced new knowledge about S&T health objects and the history of Fiocruz museums; it has also resulted in a refinement of collection preservation, documentation, and communication processes especially the inclusion of new fields of cataloguing; the design of information tools such as inventories, guides, and catalogues; and the development of temporary historical and scientific exhibitions and of 'biographies' of objects for online publication.7 Object biographies have shown that the majority of scientific instruments and equipment preserved in the collection were manufactured abroad, mostly in Germany, France, the United States and Japan. Origin varied according to the period during which these countries played a prevalent role in scientific, political, economic, and trade relations with Brazil. Given the exceptional nature of the instruments manufactured in Brazil, these artefacts are beneficial to the analysis of aspects of the history of the sciences and health in Brazil and reveal tensions between the so-called central and peripheral sciences, the trajectory of science authorities, and the circulation of S&T knowledge and objects. A fine example is the history of the viscerotome and viscerotomy, the former being an instrument used to puncture and extract fragments from the liver, and the latter a technique widely employed in autopsies during the years
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of struggle against yellow fever in Brazil. This history also encapsulates a dispute for authorship of the instrument between U.S. physicians from the Rockefeller Foundation and Brazilians from the Yellow Fever Service (Serviรงo da Febre Amarela). The 1928 and 1929 epidemic outbreaks of yellow fever in Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere in Brazil, combined with pathological diagnoses performed through microscopic examination of liver tissue from fatal victims (as exemplified by the rich material obtained during the outbreak in Rio), led epidemiologists to the firm certainty that the pathological condition of yellow fever patients' livers was unique and did not occur with any other acute infectious disease. This knowledge began to take shape in the 1900s, as a result of anatomical pathology of yellow fever studies from scientists at the Institute's school, especially through Henrique da Rocha Lima's work on hepatic lesions.8 In 1930, post-mortem examination of the liver tissue of yellow fever victims was introduced as a routine measure to identify cases of the disease in endemic areas. Prior to that, technicians had used scalpels and scissors to remove samples from corpses. The viscerotome was a steel instrument in the shape of a channel, with a movable blade with a cutting tip. It allowed for the quick removal of post mortem pathological liver samples. It made it possible to increase the number of liver tissue samples from patients who had died with distinct signs of the disease up to ten days prior to autopsy. The instrument made an efficacious contribution to the diagnosis and epidemiology of yellow fever (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3 - Viscerotome from the Museum of Life collection (Photo by Pedro Paulo Soares).
Viscerotomy required a simple puncture, averting any mutilation of the
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body. The new technique decreased public's rejection of public health measures, because it replaced more invasive procedures to the corpse. The health technician would introduce the instrument through the abdominal wall (in the region popularly called the mouth of the stomach) and direct it towards the liver, stopping at the organ. The movable blade was then pushed to the end of the device so that it cut the liver and deposited small tissue fragments in the channel. The instrument was extracted from the body in one movement and the collected material was transferred to a vial containing a formaldehyde solution. The vial was then sent for laboratory testing, accompanied by the viscerotomy form, filled out by the technician. It was a simple procedure that did not require any great skill on the part of the operator, and theoretically anyone could be qualified to perform a liver puncture with the instrument after a brief training (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 - Viscerotomy. Instructions for representatives of the Yellow Fever Service working at viscerotomy posts. (Manual de instruções, Brazilian Ministry of Health, Yellow Fever Service, 1937).
In December 1938, the physician Décio Parreiras, from Brazil's Yellow Fever Service, published an article in Folha Médica in which he claimed to have invented the instrument.9 The claim was promptly disputed by Fred L. Soper, responsible for the Rockefeller Foundation's yellow fever initiatives in Brazil. The Foundation had been combating yellow fever in association with the Brazilian government since the early 1920s. Soper insisted that credit for the invention of the new instrument should go to Elsmere R. Rickard, a Rockefeller Foundation physician stationed in Northeast Brazil. In 1930, Rickard, worried that technicians using scalpels and scissors might pick up an infection, began developing a new tool to extract samples. He showed his invention to his superiors at the Rockefeller Foundation and unsuccessfully tried to patent it.10 Almost at the same time that Rickard presented his instrument, Décio Parreiras and Werneck Genofre started producing a similar tool, which they named Parreiras Genofre Spindle (Fuso Parreiras Genofre). Produced by Casa Lutz Ferrando in Rio de Janeiro, the device was tested by the Yellow Fever Service/Rockefeller Foundation and judged inadequate. According to Soper, the instrument was relegated to the
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Service's museum as an example of a failed attempt. Rickard's viscerotome was adopted instead. It was produced at industrial-scale and employed in Brazil and other places where the U.S. agency worked. The late publication of Décio Parreiras article claiming authorship of the viscerotome, eight years after its large-scale use began, prompted a reaction by U.S. medical authorities, which was followed by Brazilian rebuttals thus sparking an interesting controversy. Concluding remarks Fiocruz's museum collections constitute an invaluable material witness to the trajectory of this Institute and of medicine in Brazil, and as such they hold great potential for historical research. Analyzing archives and other collections of the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, allow us to expand our knowledge about aspects of the history of health sciences and technology in Brazil. Current research brings new approaches and perspectives to the Institute's museum collections while simultaneously reaffirming the Museum of Life's role as a space for preserving, researching, and disseminating the Institute's tangible heritage in sciences and health. Presentation of the Institute's tangible health heritage in exhibitions is enriched by interdisciplinary reflections from the history of the sciences, museology, and cultural studies. Once on display, this heritage gains a sensorial dimension, which is vital to helping the wide variety of museum audiences to understand and fully grasp its meanings. Likewise, when these objects are displayed in exhibits that succeed in relating history and memory to people's day-to-day lives, it invites a subjective dimension of experience, at times marked by ambivalent reactions. Such reactions are natural in medical collections public displays given their 'visceral presence' and the role they play as an emotional intermediary. These aspects are worth taking into account when developing initiatives in preservation, general education and science education in museums. Notes 1
H. B. Aragão, 'Noticia histórica sobre a fundação do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz', Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (1950), 48, 1-50, pp. 48-49. 2 Aragão, op.cit., 49. 3 N. Britto, Oswaldo Cruz: a construção de um mito na ciência brasileira, 1st ed, Editora Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2006. 4 Decree No.17.512, 5 November 1926, providing new Rules for the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, DJ 19261105, Coleção Histórica e Administrativa da Fiocruz, Departamento de Arquivo e Documentação/COC/Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro. 5 Decree from the Council of Ministers 832, 3 April 1962, approving the Regiment of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Ministry of Health, DJ 19620403, Coleção Histórica e Administrativa da Fiocruz, Departamento de Arquivo e Documentação/COC/Fiocruz,
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Rio de Janeiro. 6 Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Recuperação 1975-1978, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 1979. 7 For recent results of historical research in the museum collection of the Fundação Oswaldo Cruz see: the Museu da Vida website, section Objeto em Foco, http://www.museudavida.fiocruz.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?UserActiveTemplate= mvida&sid=319, accessed: 29 August 2013; a chapter on museum heritage, for the book commemorating the 25th anniversary of Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (forthcoming); the exhibitions Vale Quanto Pesa (2009), Exposição Internacional de Higiene de Dresden (2011), Corpo, Saúde, Ciência: O Museu da Patologia do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (2013); and the introduction of information concerning manuscript references, bibliography and the history of objects in the collections database. 8 A. F. Cândido da Silva, A trajetória de Henrique da Rocha Lima e as relações BrasilAlemanha (1901-1956), PhD thesis, Casa de Oswaldo Cruz (PPGHCS/COC/Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, 2011. 9 D. Parreiras, A criação do serviço de viscerotomia para o diagnóstico da febre amarela e o primeiro viscerótomo: dupla reivindicação, Folha Médica (1938), 19, 406-07. 10 O. Franco, História da Febre Amarela no Brasil, Ministério da Saúde/Departamento Nacional de Endemias Rurais (DNER), Rio de Janeiro, 1969. 11 J. Benchimol (ed.), Febre amarela. A doença e a vacina, uma história inacabada, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, 2001, 125-143; letter from F.L. Soper to E. Campbell, 6 October 1967, The Fred L. Soper Papers, http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/VVBBJT, accessed: 29 August 2013; excerpts from the diary of F. L. Soper, 1939, The Fred L. Soper Papers, http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/ResourceMetadata/VVBBJV, accessed: 29 August 2013. 12 K. Arnold and T. Söderqvist, 'Medical Instruments in Museums. Immediate Impressions and Historical Meanings', Isis, (2011), 102, 724.
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Resumos
RESUMOS
Uses and circulation of historical scientific instruments Silvia F. de M. Figueirôa
Resumo Este artigo, originalmente apresentado como uma conferência, revê algumas importantes questões relacionadas aos instrumentos científicos. Apoia-se em bibliografia da História e da Filosofia da Ciência e da Tecnologia, focando preferencialmente a América Latina e o Brasil, em particular. O ponto de partida é a própria definição de 'instrumento científico'. A seguir, apresentam-se e discutem-se algumas categorizações e classificações dos usos e funções dos instrumentos científicos, propostas a partir de reflexões epistemológicas e históricas presentes em bibliografia relativamente vasta. Além de exemplos provenientes de ciências tradicionalmente associadas à instrumentação científica, como a Física e a Astronomia, o texto traz reflexões também sobre as Geociências.
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America's earliest (European-style) Astronomical Observatory, founded and used by Georg Marggrafe in Dutch colonial Brazil, 1638-1643 Oscar T. Matsuura and Huib J. Zuidervaart
Resumo Neste trabalho é apresentado um exemplo precoce de transferência, da Europa para o Brasil, de instrumentos científicos, assim como de conhecimentos sobre a sua construção e utilização. Com efeito, em 1638, no Brasil colonial holandês o sábio alemão Jorge Marcgrave (Georg Marggrafe) fundou um observatório astronômico sob o patrocínio do governador local, o conde João Maurício de Nassau. Uma comparação é feita entre esse observatório (e seus instrumentos) e o observatório da Universidade de Leiden, onde Marcgrave adquiriu proficiência na prática astronômica. Nossos estudos revelaram que o observatório do Recife basicamente replica o de Leiden. Neste trabalho nos limitamos à discussão da edificação e instrumentação de ambos os observatórios, pois um relato mais detalhado deste episódio, incluindo uma discussão sobre as observações astronômicas de Marcgrave, será apresentado num livro a ser publicado em futuro próximo.
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The use of useless instruments: The gnomonic inventions by V. Estancel (S. J.) in transit through the Portuguese empire (1650-1680) Samuel Gessner
Resumo Valentim Estancel (1621-1705) passou muitos anos a ensinar em instituições Jesuítas no império Português. Tendo começado a sua carreira em Olomouc na Morávia e em Praga, e depois de ter estado em Roma (1655), o Jesuíta trabalhou nos colégios de Elvas (1657-1658), Lisboa (1658-1660), Salvador da Bahia (depois de 1663) e Pernambuco (1689). Os interesses de Estancel eram vastos e incluíam filosofia natural e astronomia. Correspondia-se com Athanasius Kircher e as suas observações de cometas foram citadas por Newton em 1687. Por duas vezes, pelo menos, publicou sobre instrumentos gnomónicos: no Orbis Alfonsinus (ca. 1658) e em Tiphys Lusitanus (depois de 1663). Historiadores 'internalistas' poderiam ficar perplexos pela 'inutilidade' prática dos instrumentos descritos nestes tratados. No entanto, mesmo sendo inúteis num certo sentido, este ensaio procura mostrar que a sua utilidade pode ser entendida se os instrumentos forem relacionados com o contexto da sua génese e publicação. De facto, os tratados foram dedicados a príncipes do império Português: D. Afonso VI e D. Pedro II respetivamente. Não é de todo casual que os instrumentos de Estancel visam problemas que evocam um império estendido pelo globo e fundado na náutica tal como é o português: por exemplo, saber as horas simultaneamente em locais de longitudes diferentes,
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determinar a latitude usando alturas extrameridianas do sol, observar o magnetismo terrestre e a declinação magnética local, entre outros. Este ensaio propõe uma leitura nova sobre os escritos gnomónicos de Estancel experimentando um novo modelo historiográfico das múltiplas 'dimensões do uso' de instrumentos matemáticos no século XVII. Argumentar-se-á que, para dar sentido histórico as particularidades dos instrumentos de Estancel, é necessário ter em conta as múltiplas dimensões (da operacional, empírica e representativa à experimental, simbólica e económica) da sua produção e do seu uso.
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How telescopes came to New England, 1620-1740 Sara J. Schechner
Resumo Este capítulo trata da introdução e uso de telescópios na Nova Inglaterra entre o estabelecimento da primeira colónia de ingleses no século XVII (Plymouth Plantation) e o final do primeiro século de existência do Harvard College. Nessa altura, os telescópios eram bens raros e preciosos, importados e partilhados entre estudiosos. As notícias da Europa sobre melhorias do telescópio e as descobertas astronómicas eram difíceis de obter. O texto identifica – pela primeira vez – os telescópios que foram utilizados na Nova Inglaterra, analisando brevemente as razões económicas e sociais que os tornavam tão difíceis de operar.
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Heaving a little ballast: Seaborne astronomy in the late-eighteenth century Richard Dunn
Resumo A atividade expedicionária do final do século XVIII envolveu a movimentação de observadores e seus instrumentos por via marítima, a fim de realizar uma série de pesquisas em todo o mundo. Em 1791, um recém-graduado pela Universidade de Cambridge chamado William Gooch foi nomeado pelo Comitê Britânico da Longitude como astrônomo da expedição de George Vancouver ao Pacífico (1791-1795) e navegou no Daedalus via Brasil e Havaí. Gooch nunca se encontrou com Vancouver porque foi assassinado no Havaí, mas suas cartas freqüentes para casa oferecem um relato vívido de como era ser um astrônomo em uma expedição naval. Seu relato aborda o processo de sua nomeação, os aspectos práticos de se mover, armazenar e instalar instrumentos durante a jornada e o trabalho de observação realizado tanto a bordo como nas paradas intermediárias da jornada, incluindo o Rio de Janeiro.
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Instruments in transit: The Santo Ildefonso Treaty and the Brazilian border demarcations Isabel Malaquias
Resumo Desde meados do século XVIII, que as cortes ibéricas de Espanha e Portugal vinham a tentar o reajuste das fronteiras brasileiras, cuja primeira demarcação remontava ao Tratado de Tordesilhas, em 1454, quando os dois países procederam à divisão dos seus impérios de latitude mundial. Em Outubro de 1777, foi assinado o Tratado de Santo Ildefonso e acordaram-se novas operações para a definição das fronteiras o que veio dar a posse da Ilha de Santa Catarina,na fronteira sul do Brasil, a Portugal. No contexto de um período em que os instrumentos se foram desenvolvendo rapidamente, não só na sua concepção, mas também na sua produção, materiais e precisão, era evidente que a necessidade de instrumentos científicos atualizados estava na mente dos governantes e praticantes. A corte portuguesa através do seu Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros recomendou o contacto com um perito de instrumentos português, sediado em Londres–João Jacinto de Magalhães (mais conhecido pela forma anglicizada do seu nome, J.H. de Magellan,1722-1790) para escolher e superintender a aquisição dos instrumentos, matemáticos e físicos, necessários para a implementação dessas operações científicas. A corte espanhola concordou em que Magalhães fosse também o especialista responsável pela aquisição do equipamento espanhol. Foram produzidas 11 coleções que cruzaram o Atlântico para o referido projeto. Neste capítulo iremos incidir sobre as
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coleções que foram criadas e sobre os instrumentalistas envolvidos, destacando o programa científico por meio do qual vários instrumentos transitaram desde as oficinas londrinas para Lisboa, Madrid e depois para o Brasil, pondo em evidência alguns equipamentos que ainda hoje permanecem como testemunho desse período.
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Talk, tariffs and trade: Restricting the global circulation of scientific instruments in Britain after the First World War Richard L. Kremer
Resumo Este capítulo analisa a iniciativa da Grã-Bretanha em introduzir pela primeira vez, com sucesso, taxas protecionistas à importação de instrumentos científicos. Através da ampliação do conceito de 'indústrias-chave', introduzido durante a Guerra, para incluir a de instrumentos científicos e a de equipamento de vidro, os protecionistas almejavam estimular a produção interna, obrigando os cientistas britânicos a pagar um preço mais elevado por instrumentos importados. O capítulo segue os debates públicos e parlamentares sobre o assunto desde 1915, bem como a passagem, em Agosto de 1921, da Lei de Salvaguarda da Indústria [Safeguardingof Industries Act], detendo-se de forma mais breve sobre o impacto desta Lei durante os anos 1930. Estes debates revelam, talvez pela primeira vez na história da manufatura de instrumentos científicos, o argumento de que estes podem ser críticos para a segurança nacional e que, portanto, devem ser construídos localmente.
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SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Studies in transfer, use and preservation
The development of the Laussedat phototheodolite and its use on the Brazil-Argentina Border Bruno Capilé and Moema de Rezende Vergara
Resumo Desde tempos coloniais, a Bacia do Rio da Prata tem sido alvo de disputas, devido a sua posição estratégica de navegação fluvial para o interior do continente sul americano. Durante séculos as nações mais potentes desta região, Brasil e Argentina, têm competido pela hegemonia política e econômica. Após intensos episódios diplomáticos que chegaram a envolver o arbitramento do presidente norte-americano Grover Cleveland, a questão desta fronteira foi apaziguada pelos trabalhos da Comissão Demarcadora de Limites entre Brasil e Argentina (1900-1905). Conforme outras comissões demarcadoras, sua organização de âmbito militar foi estruturada de maneira que os integrantes e instrumentos pudessem atender às necessidades das atividades de delimitação que estavam intimamente ligadas aos conhecimentos científicos da astronomia e geodésia. Poucos anos depois das expedições brasileiras e argentinas iniciarem seus trabalhos, novas dificuldades foram suplantadas por uma nova abordagem instrumental, a fotogrametria. Dessa maneira, os obstáculos ambientais vivenciados pelos métodos convencionais de topografia foram solucionados pela utilização de um instrumento ainda não utilizado na história da fronteira brasileira, o Fototeodolito. Desenvolvido na França em meados do século XIX, este instrumento mesclava a técnica geodésica de cálculos angulares dos teodolitos, com a recém-desenvolvida técnica da fotografia. A escolha deste instrumento esteve vinculada com o convite do astrônomo do Observatório
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Astronômico do Rio de Janeiro, Henrique Morize, que dominava ambas as técnicas necessárias para o manuseio. Seus conhecimentos técnicos foram atestados nas diversas observações astronômicas e topográficas no Observatório e em campo, além da realização de fotografias em campo e a utilização do fototeodolito experimentalmente na expedição de localização da futura capital brasileira. Atualmente, o fototeodolito e outros instrumentos foram incorporados na coleção museológica do Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST). Considerando isso, o presente trabalho investigou o papel histórico do fototeodolito e seus diálogos entre a técnica, usuário e resultados obtidos a partir do uso deste instrumento.
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The trajectory of chromatography in Brazil: The case of the gas chromatograph Valéria L. de Freitas and Marcio F. Rangel
Resumo Tendo como referencial um objeto de C&T musealizado que compõe o acervo do Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins (MAST), analisaremos o desenvolvimento da cromatografia no Brasil. Este objeto é um cromatógrafo a gás, modelo 37 D, fabricado pela empresa Instrumentos Científicos C.G. Ltda., criada e dirigida por Rêmolo Ciola e Ivo Gregori entre os anos de 1961 e 1994. No ano de 2004, este e outros 303 objetos foram doados ao MAST pelo Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear (IEN). Rêmolo Ciola se destacou como um dos pioneiros na área da cromatografia na América Latina e também na criação de um cromatógrafo a gás de baixo custo. Seu primeiro invento foi contemporâneo da criação e fabricação de instrumentos similares nos Estados Unidos e Europa. Durante as primeiras décadas sob a direção de Ciola e Gregori, a empresa Instrumentos Científicos C. G. Ltda. recebeu um grande incentivo do Regime Militar brasileiro e beneficiou da Política Nacional de Informática (PNI - Lei 7.232 aprovada em 29 de outubro de 1984). Contudo, com o decorrer dos anos o protecionismo gerado por esta lei acabou se tornando um grande entrave na criação de novas tecnologias. Acreditamos que a partir do referido estudo poderemos compreender as tensões políticas, econômicas e científicas que acompanharam a construção da cromatografia no Brasil, bem como conhecer a trajetória biográfica do químico italiano naturalizado brasileiro, Rêmolo Ciola, e a história do desenvolvimento da indústria petrolífera no país.
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Instituto Butantan's first electron microscope Adriana Mortara Almeida
Resumo O microscópio eletrônico em exposição no Museu Histórico do Instituto Butantan foi adquirido em 1952, com apoio do Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas (CNPq), pelo então diretor Aristides Vallejo Freire. Foi o primeiro microscópio eletrônico Siemens a vir para o Brasil. No Brasil, os primeiros microscópios eletrônicos foram adquiridos em 1947 e eram produzidos pela RCA (Radio Corporation of America). Dois deles foram instalados em São Paulo: um na Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo e outro na Escola de Medicina da Fundação Andrea e Virginia Matarazzo. Outros RCA foram instalados no Instituto Oswaldo Cruz e na Polícia Técnica, ambos no Rio de Janeiro. O domínio das técnicas de utilização do equipamento foi obtido por meio de cursos realizados no Brasil, como o oferecido no Rio de Janeiro, em 1947, pela Polícia Técnica e pela Universidade do Brasil, ou nos Estados Unidos, com apoio do CNPq e da Fundação Rockfeller. Em 1952, um seminário no Rio de Janeiro, com participação de Cecil Hall, presidente da North American Society of Microscopy e pesquisador no Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), e Albert Frey-Wyssling, do Zurich Institute of Technology, deram palestras sobre microscopia eletrônica para cientistas brasileiros. Em 1953, Helmut Ruska, médico alemão e irmão de Ernst Ruska, que criou o primeiro microscópio eletrônico Siemens, então no Departamento de Micromorfologia da New York State Department of Health em Albany, veio ao Instituto Butantan auxiliar na formação daqueles que usariam o equipamento. Ele já havia desenvolvido
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inúmeras pesquisas com microscópios eletrônicos Siemens na Alemanha, a partir dos anos 1930. Também desenvolveu pesquisas em parceria com pesquisadores brasileiros sobre morfologia de tecidos de insetos, entre outros temas. Em 1954, o engenheiro Pérsio de Souza Santos fez curso na Universidade de Pittsburgh e posteriormente ajudou a orientar o uso do microscópio no Instituto Butantan. Transferiu-se depois para a Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, para trabalhar com microscopia de cerâmicas. No período pós-2ª Guerra, as empresas estrangeiras que fabricavam equipamentos científicos, como microscópios eletrônicos, atuavam de forma agressiva na divulgação, venda e formação para uso desses equipamentos, facilitando a vinda de pesquisadores e obtendo apoios de entidades norteamericanas para a formação de pesquisadores brasileiros, especialmente de instituições do campo da medicina e, em alguns casos, de engenharia e física. Em 1961, o Instituto Butantan comprou seu segundo microscópio eletrônico Siemens, modelo Elmiskop I. No início dos anos 1980, um terceiro microscópio eletrônico foi adquirido, um Zeiss EM 109 para a Seção de Genética. Os pesquisadores do Instituto Butantan e de outras instituições de pesquisa publicaram inúmeros artigos com base em imagens produzidas pelo Microscópio Siemens (modelo UM 1000) por cerca de 30 anos. Em 1984, esse microscópio passou a fazer parte do acervo histórico da instituição.
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Shaping 'good neighbor' practices in science: Mobility of physics instruments between the United States and Mexico, 1932-1951 Adriana Minor
Resumo Neste capítulo, analiza-se a mobilidade de instrumentos de física entre os Estados Unidos e o México no período de 1932 a 1951. Em particular, é revisitada a relação entre essa mobilidade e o estabelecimento de conexões entre as comunidades científicas dos dois países no contexto das práticas de boa vizinhança inter-americana. Também se situam as relações científicas inter-americanas como parte e consequência de planos políticos cuja finalidade consistía em promover alianças regionais e internacionais. Mesmo com objetivos e motivações distintas, atores de Norte e Sul se envolveram ativamente na articulação de uma dinâmica de movimentação de pessoas, práticas e instrumentos de física que funcionou tanto em uma direção como noutra. O capítulo se centra em três episódios históricos que se entrelaçam e envolvem variantes importantes para a compreensão da cooperação científica inter-americana. Em primeiro lugar, analisam-se as expedições científicas lideradas por Arthur Compton, nos anos 1930, para medir raios cósmicos, bem como a sua vinculação com o estabelecimento de programas de pesquisa em física em instituições mexicanas. O estudo dos raios cósmicos, que envolveu a circulação de pessoas, instrumentos e prácticas de Norte a Sul, foi tão importante para o programa de pesquisas de Compton, sobre a natureza e dinâmica dos raios cósmicos, como para o esforço coletivo de uma
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comunidade de engenheiros civis mexicanos no sentido de criar instituições acadêmicas de pesquisa em física. Em continuação, é abordada a intervenção de fundações como a Rockefeller e a Guggenheim no impulso e diversificação de atividades de pesquisa até meados dos anos 1940, no primeiro instituto de física no México. Particularmente, identificam-se alguns bolsistas da Guggenheim que foram atores fundamentais para a organização e direção da pesquisa científica no México. Além disso, detalham-se as doações realizadas pela Fundação Rockefeller para o fortalecimento da pesquisa experimental em física, através dos apoios que foram dados ao Instituto de Física entre 1941 e 1943. Por último argumenta-se que estas iniciativas formaram parte de uma política de colaboração científica interamericana coordenada como política de estado, através da Oficina de Assuntos Interamericanos. Estas dinâmicas se articularam através de agentes trasnacionais como Manuel Sandoval Vallarta e seus homólogos americanos. Finalmente, analiza-se a aquisição e instalação no México, em 1951, de um acelerador de partículas Van de Graaff, construído pela empresa americana High Voltage Engineering Corporation. Neste processo convergem elementos diversos, como as conexões entre cientistas mexicanos e americanos, o projeto da Cidade Universitária da Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, os projetos nacionais apoiados pelo governo mexicano em questões de pesquisa em energia nuclear e a emergência de um grupo de pesquisa especializado em física nuclear experimental no México. Em todos esses casos, os instrumentos científicos se constituem em atores centrais em movimento entre os Estados Unidos e o México, tendo tido um papel essencial na conformação de uma comunidade de físicos no México e na sua profissionalização e institucionalização. A análise apresentada nesse capítulo mostra a diversidade de atores (instrumentos científicos, pessoas e instituições) e os processos relacionados com a circulação do conhecimento científico e suas práticas. Este fenômeno implicou em grande mobilização de recursos materiais, sociais e políticos. A partir dessa análise, são identificadas as potencialidades de ter instrumentos científicos como ponto central nos estudos das práticas científicas e sua contribuição para novos enfoques que incluem a exploração de suas implicações nas políticas internacionais, o discurso público, a identidade nacional e a configuração de comunidades profissionais.
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Scientific heritage in Brazil: Surveying collections and groups of artefacts from the 'exact' sciences and engineering Marcus Granato; Marta C. Lourenço; Elias da Silva Maia; Fernanda Pires dos Santos; Gloria Gelmini de Castro and Mariana S. Damasceno
Resumo A maior parte dos bens que constituem o patrimônio cultural da ciência e tecnologia (C&T) está para ser descoberta. O conhecimento acumulado sobre o tema ainda é limitado e há um risco real de que os objetos de C&T já podem ter sido modernizados ou descartados. Nos últimos quatro anos, foi desenvolvido um projeto de pesquisa, incluindo várias iniciativas para preservar este tipo de patrimônio, por exemplo: um levantamento nacional para construir um panorama do estado atual desse patrimônio; estudos sobre a legislação de proteção ao patrimônio de alguns países, incluindo o Brasil; e dois estudos de caso de coleções de objetos de C&T (Observatório do Valongo e Colégio Pedro II, ambos no Rio de Janeiro). Este artigo apresenta uma visão geral dos resultados obtidos e em especial dos levantamentos de conjuntos de objetos de C&T realizados no Brasil. Foi utilizado um recorte em relação a áreas do conhecimento e período histórico, envolvendo aquelas relacionadas às ciências exatas, às diferentes especialidades de engenharia, bem como geografia, geologia e oceanografia, e que foram fabricados até 1960. Uma ficha de registro foi elaborada a partir da adaptação de um formulário usado em
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pesquisas similares em Portugal. Conjuntos de objetos foram identificados em museus, universidades e institutos de pesquisa. A partir dos resultados, pôdese observar que as coleções mais bem preservadas estão nos poucos museus dedicados à área, mas as universidades detêm a maior parte dos artefatos e a esmagadora maioria dos objetos foi produzida no século XX.
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The physics teaching instruments at Colégio Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro: Study and preliminary results Marcus Granato and Liliane Bispo dos Santos
Resumo As origens do Colégio Pedro II (CPII) remontam a 1837 e relacionam-se ao Seminário São Joaquim, criado em 1739. Constitui-se na primeira instituição de ensino secundário oficial do Brasil, tendo sido instalado nas dependências reformadas do antigo Seminário, localizadas na Rua Larga, atual Av. Marechal Floriano, no centro da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Seu nome é uma homenagem ao imperador Pedro II, na época com doze anos. Criado para ser modelo da instrução pública secundária do Município da Corte e demais províncias, o Colégio Pedro II possuía corpo docente de intelectuais de renome e seletividade do corpo discente marcada pelos exames de admissão e promocionais, com programas de ensino de base clássica e tradição humanística. O acervo do laboratório de física do CPII começou a ser formado ainda no século XIX (1838) e, a partir de 1843, são encontradas as primeiras confirmações de compras de instrumentos científicos. A primeira aquisição significativa do Colégio foi em 1872, com a compra de 35 objetos. Já no século XX, em 1929, foi localizado um contrato de compra e venda com afirma John Jügens para a compra de grande quantidade de instrumentos para o laboratório. Entre os fabricantes verifica-se a presença marcante de Max Kohl A.G., da cidade de Chemnitz, além de outros fabricantes alemães (E. Leybold's Nachfolger A.G, Phywe, Carl Zeiss, Ernest Leitz). Em menor escala, existem
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ainda objetos de origem francesa, italiana e americana. Os objetos permaneceram armazenados por décadas, sem maior uso por parte dos professores. A partir de 2009, em ação regular da equipe do MAST, foram higienizados, registrados, fotografados e minimamente organizados nos armários. Um total de 971 objetos foi inventariado nesse Laboratório. Esse conjunto, representativo dos procedimentos educativos em aulas experimentais de física, talvez seja o testemunho mais significativo e importante no país nessa área.
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Tools for teaching Physics and Chemistry in secondary schools: The case of the Colégio Culto à Ciência, Brazil, 1899-1902 Reginaldo Alberto Meloni
Resumo Em 1873, foi fundado na região de Campinas o Colégio Culto à Ciência. Esta instituição funcionou até 1892 sob administração de um grupo de maçons com ideias positivistas. Nesse ano, a escola fechou suas portas em função de problemas financeiros e da ocorrência de uma epidemia de febre amarela na região, mas em 1896 foi reaberta com o nome de Gymnasio de Campinas e transformada em escola pública. Nessa nova fase, foram realizadas ações no sentido de a equiparar ao Gymnasio Nacional (o antigo Colégio Pedro II, Rio de Janeiro), pois isso habilitaria os formandos a ingressar em qualquer escola de ensino superior do país sem a necessidade de realização de exames suplementares. O processo de equiparação exigia que os programas de ensino seguissem a orientação da congregação do Gymnasio Nacional, o que obrigava a organização de espaços para o ensino prático das ciências, tanto para a cadeira de Pysica/Chimica, como para a de História Natural. Nesse sentido foram construídos laboratórios para o ensino de Química, gabinetes para os trabalhos de Física e museus de História Natural, bem como adquiridos objetos de ensino específicos para cada área, ou por doações de outras instituições ou pela compra de coleções em fornecedores, geralmente europeus. Neste texto será apresentado o trabalho de identificação e classificação dos objetos do acervo dessa escola secundária adquiridos entre os anos finais do século XIX e o início do século XX. Embora se trate de um
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estudo de caso, essa investigação demonstra algo do que ocorreu no ensino secundário em todo o país, já que o que ocorreu nessa instituição escolar foi motivado pela política de equiparação existente nesse período. O trabalho iniciou-se com a separação dos materiais de interesse dos outros de uso cotidiano da escola. Em seguida os objetos foram limpos, fotografados, numerados, identificados e classificados. Até o momento foram catalogados 196 objetos, sendo 132 para o ensino de Física, 47 para o ensino de Química e 17 ainda não classificados. Dos objetos adquiridos até o ano de 1902, 77 são de Física e 26 de Química. Na coleção de Química a maioria tem a identificação do fornecedor Les Fils d'Émile Deyrolle (Paris, França), enquanto que nos objetos de Química, a maior parte não apresenta marcas que indiquem suas origens.
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Scientific instruments for physics teaching in Brazilian secondary schools, 1931-1961 Maria Cristina de Senzi Zancul and Elton de Oliveira Barreto
Resumo Neste texto, buscamos analisar aspectos da história do ensino de Física no Brasil, tomando como referência os instrumentos antigos que fazem parte de uma coleção que pertence à Escola Estadual Bento de Abreu (EEBA), localizada em Araraquara, interior do Estado de São Paulo. Na perspectiva de compensar a escassez de documentação escrita sobre o uso desses objetos e de encontrar pistas que possam explicar as razões para a constituição de um acervo como o que encontramos na EEBA, nos debruçamos sobre a legislação educacional vigente entre 1931 e 1961 e analisamos livros didáticos editados naquele período. O ponto inicial de nosso estudo é a Reforma Francisco Campos, ocorrida em 1931, responsável por uma ampliação do ensino secundário no Brasil e por um aumento das disciplinas científicas no currículo desse curso e a abordagem se estende até 1961, quando foi promulgada a primeira Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional. Na discussão, argumentamos que, apesar das dificuldades do uso dos instrumentos antigos como fonte de pesquisa, tais instrumentos desempenham um papel significativo para a compreensão de questões relevantes a respeito do ensino de Ciências e de Física na educação escolar. Acreditamos que o estudo dos instrumentos antigos em confronto com os programas de ensino, com os
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conteúdos curriculares, com os livros didáticos e com a ciência de referência pode revelar aspectos importantes sobre o ensino das disciplinas científicas no passado e que esse conhecimento histórico pode nos ajudar a pensar estratégias de ensino de Física para o presente e para o futuro.
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The collection of scientific instruments of the Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano Museum, São Paulo: Origins, context and significance Katya Mitsuko Zuquim Braghini
Resumo Apresenta-se neste capítulo o processo de aquisição de instrumentos científicos usados como material didático no Colégio Marista Arquidiocesano de São Paulo na passagem do século XIX para o século XX, momento de estruturação do ensino republicano laico no Brasil e período de predomínio das Lições de Coisas. Posiciona a história de um colégio católico diante da necessidade de aquisição de instrumentos, ditos 'modernos', no momento de constituição do ensino público, republicano e paulista. Constatou-se que os instrumentos científicos foram adquiridos para fazer frente à concorrência com outras escolas secundárias abertas no mesmo período. Além disso, legitimaram a posição do colégio frente às tensões postas pela modernidade pedagógica a partir do ensino de Ciência; já que as máquinas, modelos e instrumentos foram apresentados como materiais pedagógicos que, por excelência, davam uma qualidade educacional indiscutível à escola. Para este estudo, foram investigados os próprios instrumentos da coleção do Colégio; documentos educacionais diversificados encontrados em arquivos públicos da cidade de São Paulo (Centro de Referência em Educação 'Mário Covas', Arquivo do Estado de São Paulo, Arquivo do Ginásio do Estado na Escola São Paulo), iconografias e jornais de época, entre outros.
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Photographing microscopic preparations in the nineteenth century: Techniques and instrumentation Maria Estela Jardim and Isabel Marília Peres
Resumo A fotomicrografia foi uma das primeiras aplicações científicas da fotografia. A fim de entender a sua evolução histórica é primordial o estudo da evolução do microscópio e da sua adaptação à camara fotográfica. A primeira fotomicrografia (calótipo) foi obtida com um microscópio solar, em 1839, por Fox Talbot (1800-1877). Durante os anos 1839-1840, Alfred Donné (18011878) e Léon Foucault (1819-1868) obtiveram daguerréotipos de preparações microscópicas de cristais, glóbulos sanguíneos e outros fluidos humanos, utilizando o microscópio solar, equipado com luz oxídrica, substituindo mais tarde esta luz artificial pelo arco voltaico. Apesar do trabalho pioneiro de Talbot, Donné e outros, houve um progresso lento em fotomicrografia, não só devido à convicção de que o desenho era o meio mais apropriado para a ilustração das preparações microscópicas, como também à dificuldade na reprodução dos daguerreótipos. No entanto, na década seguinte e sobretudo com a utilização da nova técnica fotográfica a partir de 1851, o colódio húmido, foram inventados e aperfeiçoados vários instrumentos que combinavam o microscópio e a camara fotográfica. A partir de meados dos anos 1860, o desenvolvimento da técnica fotomicrográfica deveu-se, principalmente, ao aparecimento de novas lentes e sistemas de iluminação do microscópio, como as lentes homogéneas e o condensador de Abbe, e já nos anos 1870, à invenção, pelo microscopista Richard Maddox (1816-1902), de uma emulsão fotográfica mais sensível, o gelatino brometo de prata que permitia obter pela
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primeira vez instantâneos fotográficos. Na sequência dos trabalhos de Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) em França e de Robert Koch (1845-1910) na Alemanha, em microbiologia e bacteriologia, a fotomicrografia tornou-se, na década de 1880, uma ferramenta importante na investigação médica, ganhando maior relevo na bacteriologia, histologia e anatomia patológica. Até ao final do século, com a introdução de placas fotográficas ortocromáticas e pancromáticas, sensíveis a outras zonas do espectro para além da região azulvioleta, e de novas lentes apocromáticas, foi possível produzir imagens fotomicrográficas de qualidade, nomeadamente, de preparações histológicas. A disponibilidade de instrumentos menos dispendiosos e a implementação de laboratórios fotográficos em hospitais e instituições médicas contribuíram para uma maior utilização da fotomicrografia em medicina. O desenvolvimento de processos fotomecânicos (similigravura e autotipia), tornou a técnica fotomicrográfica uma ferramenta amplamente aceite na ilustração de manuais e artigos científicos. O médico Carlos May Figueira (1829-1913) foi o pioneiro da introdução da técnica fotomicrográfica em Portugal, tendo à semelhança de Donné implementado um curso de microscopia e fotomicrografia nos anos 1860 na Escola Médico-cirúrgica de Lisboa. Mas só nos finais de século, e sobretudo devido à ação do bacteriologista Aníbal de Bettencourt (1868-1930) do Instituto Bacteriológico Câmara Pestana, é implementada a técnica fotomicrográfica em hospitais e instituições médicas portuguesas.
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Scientific instruments, booksellers and engineers in Imperial Brazil: Building bridges and roads in Minas Gerais, 1835-1889 Télio Cravo Resumo Este artigo examina a construção de pontes e estradas no Brasil do século XIX, dando uma atenção especial à disponibilidade de instrumentos científicos. Os resultados mostram que a compra e uso de instrumentos científicos criou uma rede de relações entre engenheiros, funcionários públicos e uma oficina de instrumentos científicos. Para tanto, um conjunto de dados único da história da engenharia é usada: os processos de pontes e estradas coletados e codificados em um banco de dados que compreende o volume significativo de 22.000 documentos para o período de 1840-1889. A análise dos processos de pontes e estradas forneceu quatro resultados específicos: 1) a relação comercial estabelecida entre o Armazém e Oficinas de Ópticas e Instrumentos Científicos, situado no Rio de Janeiro, e os engenheiros da província de Minas Gerais; 2) identificar os instrumentos comprados e reparados no referido estabelecimento comercial; 3) a maneira pela qual os engenheiros viajaram e a divisão social do trabalho em torno das tarefas diárias de transporte, desmontagem e manutenção dos instrumentos científicos; 4) os livros adquiridos nas livrarias da cidade do Rio de Janeiro.
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Health collections in museums: The case of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Pedro Paulo Soares and Inês Santos Nogueira
Resumo As coleções museológicas da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, sob a guarda do Museu da Vida, da Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, expressam as transformações de práticas técnico-científicas da saúde do século XX. Este artigo relata a pesquisa histórica que tem por objeto esse acervo, com foco na produção de narrativas sobre a formação das coleções e os objetos que as compõem. Os estudos incluem aspectos de contexto, usos, características materiais e técnicas, desenhos e funções dos objetos, como também aborda seus fabricantes e agentes comerciais. Além de elucidar as práticas científicas da Fiocruz durante o século passado e colaborar para a compreensão do acervo museológico em questão, a pesquisa em curso contribui para o conhecimento dos campos do patrimônio cultural e da história das ciências no país e reafirma a vocação dos museus como lugar de pesquisa e divulgação científica.
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NOTES ON AUTHORS
ADRIANA MINOR is a physicist with a Masters degree in History and Philosophy of Science. She is a Ph.D. student at the Graduate Program in Philosophy of Science, UNAM, Mexico City. Her thesis is about the Mexican physicist Manuel Sandoval Vallarta, who was relevant to the establishment of inter-American scientific networks. Her main areas of interest are the social history of twentieth century physics, scientific instruments and international science networks. ADRIANA MORTARA ALMEIDA is a historian with Master (1995) and Ph.D. (2001) degrees in Communication and Arts from the University of São Paulo. She was a post-doctorate fellow in Museology at the University of Campinas, Brazil (2004). Since October 2010, she is the Director of the History Museum of Instituto Butantan. She develops research in the fields of Museum Education, Evaluation and History of Science. BRUNO CAPILÉ is a biologist with a Masters degree in History of Science from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Currently he has a PCI Fellowship at the History of Science Department of the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST). His main research topics are: History of Science, Environmental History, History of Cartography, its objects and instruments, such as maps, surveying instruments, among others. ELIAS DA SILVA MAIA is a historian with a Masters degree in History from the Fluminense Federal University (2011). He is a Ph.D. student at the History of Science Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He integrated the research team of the project 'Promotion of the Brazilian Scientific and Technological Heritage' at MAST. ELTON DE OLIVEIRA BARRETO graduated in Pedagogy and he is currently a Master student at the post-graduation course in School Education, College of Sciences and Letters of Araraquara, São Paulo State University (UNESP). His main research interests are the use of historical instruments in physics teaching and scientific instruments. FERNANDA PIRES SANTOS is a historian and a Master student at the Museology and Heritage Program of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO and MAST). She integrated the team that developed the project 'Promotion of the Brazilian Scientific and Technological Heritage' at MAST. HUIB J. ZUIDERVAART studied Physics, Astronomy and History of Science at the VU University in Amsterdam. He has a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Utrecht University. Currently he is working as historian of science at the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands, The Hague. His main field of research is the history of physics and astronomy in early modern Europe, with a focus on the history of scientific instruments and collections. He
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is also the editor-in-chief of the Belgian-Dutch journal for the history of science and universities Studium. GLÓRIA GELMINI DE CASTRO is a museology student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO). She integrated the team that developed the project 'Promotion of the Brazilian Scientific and Technological Heritage' at MAST. INÊS SANTOS NOGUEIRA is a historian with a Masters in Social Sciences from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. She is integrating the research team history at the Museum of Life / Oswaldo Cruz Foundation since 2010, conducting research on the historical heritage of science and technology in health, museum collections and their relationship with the institutional history and in the field of History of Science. ISABEL MALAQUIAS received her Ph.D. in Physics (History and Philosophy of Physics) with a thesis on 'The work of John Hyacinth de Magellan in the eighteenth century scientific context'. At present she is Associate Professor at University of Aveiro (Portugal), Physics Department, and belongs to the Research Centre “Didactics and Technology in Education of Trainers” (CIDTFF). Her research interests focus on eighteenth and nineteenth century history of the physical sciences, the history of instruments and institutions, and science education." KATYA MITSUKO ZUQUIM BRAGHINI is a historian with Master and Ph.D. degrees in Education from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo. She is currently a researcher at the Group of Studies and Research in the History of Education, School of Education of Minas Gerais Federal State University (UFMG). She is conducting a post-doctoral research at UFMF aiming to understand the didactic use of scientific instruments in the science rooms of Brazilian secondary schools during the transition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. LILIANE BISPO DOS SANTOS is a museologist (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State, 2009), with an undergraduate degree on Preservation of Scientific Heritage at the MAST (2012). She held a fellowship at the Museology Department of MAST until the end of 2013. Her main research interests are scientific heritage, documentation and the history of Pedro II Secondary School, in Rio de Janeiro. MARCIO RANGEL is a Museologist with a Masters degree in Social Memory from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) and a Ph.D. degree in History of Science from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ). He is a researcher at the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST) and a Professor of the School of Museology at UNIRIO. He also teaches at the
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Masters course in Museology and Heritage (UNIRIO and MAST). His main research interests are museology, with emphasis on historical and scientific collections, history of science, memory and heritage. MARCUS GRANATO is a metallurgical engineer with Master (1999) and D.Sc. (2003) degrees in Materials Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is currently Senior Technologist at the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST), where he has been the Head of the Museology Department since 2004. He is Professor of Conservation at the Post-Graduate Program on Museology and Heritage (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State and MAST). His main research interests lie in conservation of scientific instruments, science and technology heritage and history of collections. He is the leader of a Brazilian research group in cultural heritage preservation. MARIA CRISTINA DE SENZI ZANCUL has a Master's degree in Education from the Federal University of São Carlos – UFSCAR and a PhD degree in Education from the Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP. She is a Professor at the Department of Sciences of Education and of the Program of Post-graduation in School Education of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Her main research interests are in science education, physics teaching and environmental education. MARIA ESTELA JARDIM is Associate Professor (retired) from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon. She is currently a member of the Centre for the Philosophy of Science and associate member of the Molecular Sciences and Materials Research Centre, both from the University of Lisbon. She is currently doing research on the History of Scientific Photography and Chemistry of Photography in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. MARIANA S. DAMASCENO is a museology student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State (UNIRIO). She integrated the team that developed the project 'Promotion of the Brazilian Scientific and Technological Heritage' at MAST. MARÍLIA PERES is a chemistry teacher. Ph. D., Chemistry, University of Lisbon, 2013. She collaborated in research on the collection of chemistry and physics of the Museum of Science of the University of Lisbon during 2005 and 2006. She currently investigates on the History of Scientific Photography and Chemistry of photography in the 19th century-early 20th century. MARTA C. LOURENÇO is a researcher at the Museums of the University of Lisbon since 1998. Her PhD (CNAM, Paris) addressed the distinct nature and contemporary significance of university collections in Europe. Her research and teaching interests include university collections, the history of collections
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and scientific heritage. She is a research member of CIUHCT-UL, the Interuniversity Research Centre for the History of Science and Technology and associate researcher of the CDHT, Centre d'histoire des techniques et de l'environement, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers/EHESC, Paris. She is a member of the boards of Universeum, the Scientific Instrument Commission and the History of Physics Group of the European Physical Society. MOEMA DE REZENDE VERGARA is a researcher of the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences (MAST) and professor of the Post-graduate Program in History (Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro). She has experience in the History of Science, working mainly on the following topics: history of science in Brazil, museums, nineteenth century, gender studies and public understanding of science. OSCAR TOSHIAKI MATSUURA is B.A. in Philosophy, B.Sc. in Physics, M.Sc. in solar radioastronomy (Mackenzie University, São Paulo, 1972) and Ph.D. in cometary astrophysics (University of São Paulo, 1976). He is an Associate retired professor from the Department of Astronomy, Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences, University of São Paulo. He is currently collaborating with the Museum of Astronomy (MAST/MCTI) and the Postgraduate Program for the History of Sciences, Techniques and Epistemology (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). His main research area is Brazilian history of astronomy. PEDRO PAULO SOARES has a Master degree in Social History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Director of Museum of Life (2005-2009), since 2010 coordinates the research project 'The museum collection of health in Oswaldo Cruz Foundation: objects,uses, history', at the Museum of Life/Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro. His areas of interest includes the historic heritage of S&T in health, museum collections and their relationship to the fields of History of Sciences, the Brazilian illustrated press in the nineteenth century. REGINALDO ALBERTO MELONI, having graduated in Chemistry and Pedagogy, he completed a Masters in Social History and a Ph.D. in History of Education in the area of History, Philosophy and Education. He is a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP/Diadema Campus) and he develops research on the History of Chemistry Education in Brazil and the material culture of sciences education in secondary schools. RICHARD DUNN is Senior Curator and Head of Science and Technology at Royal Museums Greenwich. He is currently involved in a major research project on the history of the British Board of Longitude being run in collaboration with the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
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RICHARD L. KREMER teaches history of science at Dartmouth College (USA) and curates that institution's collection of historic scientific instruments. His research centers on the history of astronomy, especially the instruments and tables of the early modern period. He also studies nineteenth-century scientific instruments and their makers, as well as the development of electronic instrumentation in the early twentieth century. SAMUEL GESSNER, after a physics degree (Lausanne), embarked on history of science (post-graduate course and PhD at the University of Paris 7). He is currently a post-doc at the CIUHCT-UL/UNL (Lisbon). His main focus is mathematical culture in early modern Europe, and the role of mathematical instruments, as conceived of by theoreticians and practitioners, using textual documents as well as material culture. SARA J. SCHECHNER is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments at Harvard University and from 2003 to 2013, was the Secretary of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the IUHPS. Current research focuses on sundials and time finding instruments, telescopes and early American astronomy. SILVIA FIGUEIRÔA is a geologist from the University of São Paulo (1981), with a Master Degree (1987) and a Ph.D. (1992) in Social History from the University of São Paulo, both in the specialty of the History of Science. She received the Habilitation in 2001 at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), where she became full professor in 2006. Her postdoctoral studies were at the Centre Alexandre Koyré d'Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques (France, 2002). Since 1987, she teaches at the Institute of Geosciences, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), where she currently holds the position of Director (2009-2013). She has experience in history, with emphasis on the History of Science, as well as on the thematic of scientific archives, acting on the following topics: History of science and geosciences, with emphasis on Brazil; relationships between history of science and education; scientific documentation / technology. She is active in undergraduate and postgraduate levels supervising undergraduate, master, and Ph.D. students. TÉLIO A. CRAVO has a Bachelor's degree in History and currently he is a Masters student in Social History at the University of São Paulo (USP). His main research interests are on the History of Engineering, road infrastructure, Minas Gerais, science, scientific instruments and Empire of Brazil. The development of current research relies on a scientific scholarship granted by CNPq, Brazil. VALERIA LEITE DE FREITAS is a historian specialized in Preserving Collections of Science and Technology from MAST. She is currently a Masters student at the Graduate Program in Museology and Heritage (UNIRIO-MAST) and, since 2009, she has a fellowship (CNPq) developing research at MAST. Her main research interests are Museology and History of Science.
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